paixaorpg | Meet the Parents... er... Parent. [active]

Entry tags:

Meet the Parents... er... Parent. [active]

Character(s): Braska and Tidus
Content: Tidus meets his girlfriend's father.
Setting: One of the Cafe Ersestats around the city
Time: Noon-ish, Week 12
Warnings: None.

Though he didn't show it, Braska was excited for this meeting, especially having heard so much about Tidus from Yuna and Jecht. He could see a little bit of the young man's father in him, though it was highly unlikely Tidus was acting as he normally might in their conversation with him. Braska hoped he wasn't putting the young blitzer off too much. He may have been a High Summoner on Spira, but here he was not. There was no reason for him to be treated with that sort of formality here--not that he would have liked it if he were elsewhere.

And even then, in this case the formality was far from needed. As he had told Tidus before, the boy had accomplished far more than he had. Tidus had Yuna's respect, and he most assuredly had Braska's.

Although... he supposed meeting the father of one you had eyes for tended to make any young man nervous. That he could not blame him for.

In any case, Braska hoped he was at the right cafe. Considering the number of them around the city, it was easy to get one mixed up with another. He decided to stand close to the entrance and wait for Tidus there.

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Indeed, the young jock was fairly nervous. He never met a girl's parent before, but if the stories his old jock-friends told him were true, girls' fathers were scary. Well, maybe that was only the case in dream Zanarkand. Maybe fathers were cool dudes in Spira, unlike his own old man. He still found it a bit difficult to believe that Jecht was here, too, but hopefully her could dodge any question about his father. He and Braska were friends, after all.

... come to think of it, he had no bloody idea how Braska looked.

Well, Spirans wore a very particular kind of clothing, right? Tidus vaguely remembered seeing Braska's image on record spheres in the past, but it was still vague to him. Oh, wait, there was a big hat. No way could he miss that.

Slowing down to a walk, Tidus sheepishly smiled as he rubbed the back of his head. "Um... Sir Braska?"

Braska looked up as he heard his name. "Ah, you must be Tidus," he said, recognizing him from his picture on the journals. He bowed politely, only hesitating at the beginning as he stopped himself from performing the full Yevon prayer. "Old habits die hard, I'm afraid," Braska apologized sheepishly.

But it was getting easier, and he almost always was able to catch himself before he finished now.

"I hope you didn't have too much trouble arriving here. I suppose I should have been more specific." He shook his head. "But shall we go inside?"

As long as you don't drink up a storm, you're all right in my book. Tidus kept to himself, as he nodded in response to Braska's inquiry and followed him into the cafe. He really wasn't sure what to say, really. What was kosher and what wasn't? Was he going to threaten to castrate him if Tidus hurt his little girl? It was always the quiet ones who were the scariest... though, Lulu applied make-up to accent that part of her nature.

"It wasn't a problem." He simply responded.

Tidus was being rather quiet, wasn't he? Had Braska done something wrong or was this just another byproduct of the boy's nervousness? He didn't mean to make him so uncomfortable. Was there a way of easing his fears?

"Meeting my wife's father was a frightening experience," Braska began conversationally, looking over with a sympathetic smile. "After all, not only was I in love with his little girl, but I was a Yevonite. Sadly, I... was not given the best of welcomes, and... Well, I suppose you know of that story, do you not?" Hopefully sharing his own experience would help.

"Oh, right, Yuna's mom... your wife, was an Al Bhed, wasn't she?" Tidus recalled. That must've been tough. "Funnily enough, the first friendly person I met in Spira was your niece, Rikku." he said. "The Al Bhed weren't a bad sort of people, so I can't imagine how it must have felt for them to be rejected by the rest of Spira like they were. I'm sure that your wife must have been very happy to have been loved by you." Tidus tried to smile.

But yeah, that old man Cid didn't have very many nice things to say about Yuna's father, did he? Tidus decided not to share that part of the story.

Braska shook his head. "No, they aren't," he agreed. "And it it sad that they were treated as they were for so long. But fear and misunderstanding can turn even the kindest of men to hatred, it seems. Even when two people are not so different. I think... the Al Bhed had every right to be angry." What the church had done to them was inexcusable. No matter their views on machina, they didn't deserve any of the pain that had been inflicted on them.

"It was a strange pairing to be sure. I doubt anyone expected it," he continued, deciding to switch to a more lighthearted topic. Or, attempting to, at least.

It was very much appreciated. Tidus wasn't a part of Spira anymore, and the thought of the land where he thought he was from... well, that didn't go over so well, either. He... didn't really have a home, did he? And the life he lived up to coming to Spira, was that all a lie? Did it really exist, or not? Okay, Tidus, now wasn't the time for an existential crisis. He put on a smile he beamed at Braska.

"... so, you traveled with my old man, huh?" He didn't want to bring it up, but there weren't any other options at the time. And he knew Jecht was here in Paixao, too.

"That I did," Braska replied cheerfully. "It was a bit of a... rocky start I suppose you could say, but in the end, he turned out to be a good companion and an exceptional man. Your father is someone I would readily call a friend." He shook his head, chuckling. "He spoke of you often. I can imagine how much he must have missed you, being so far from home..."

It was difficult enough for him to be separated from Yuna for so long, but even then she had been in the same Spira he was. But Jecht had had all that time separating them as well.

"He certainly doesn't act like it." Tidus more or less pouted. His old man seemed to make a point of belittling him as much as possible, even when they were trapped in this weird world. You'd thinking dying would put some sense into him. But at the very least, Tidus now had the strength to beat him up should he really get him angry. Not that he'd tell that to Braska. Everybody seemed to love the old man except for him. That just pissed Tidus off even more.

Time to change the subject.

"So, how long you been here?"

Braska frowned briefly at Tidus's response. Didn't act like it? He wondered what the boy meant. From his point of view, it had always seemed like Jecht cared about his family greatly. He had always spoken of them at great length, and the spheres the man had gotten to record the pilgrimage for his family said even more. But Braska had not lived in Jecht's home and had not seen his interactions with his family. And considering how Jecht had acted during the early days of his pilgrimage...

Hm. Perhaps he would have to have a heart-to-heart with the man sometime.

Braska thought long and hard about Tidus's next question. It had been quite some time, hadn't it? And yet the time had gone by so fast. "Almost a year now, I would say," he finally decided.

"Huh..." Tidus ruminated. On second thought, that wasn't the best conversation topic, considering... Tidus had nothing to add onto that. "Auron's here, too, right? I'm surprised how many people from Spira are here... it's nice, in a way, but also a little weird at the same time. Like, why should we be so fortunate, right?"

He nodded. "It is rather strange, isn't it?" he agreed with a warm smile, "But I suppose I cannot complain. It is better to be among friends, isn't it?"

He looked upward, thinking to himself for a moment before continuing. "And it is a fascinating place. Never have I been able to meet as many different people as I have here. It's strange and different, but also exciting, wouldn't you agree? I hadn't even thought that other world could exist before now."

"Well, if Zanarkand was a dream, maybe Spira's a dream of another world or something, or maybe there just are other worlds in the sky of Spira as well. It's all a bit much to take in, really." Tidus sighed, taking a sip of his drink. "But hey, for me being here ain't so bad. I don't even exist back home."

Braska thought on that a moment. "I suppose..." It seemed quite fantastical, but, at the same time, it made some strange sort of sense, although not one he entirely understood. It was possible, since the dream Zanarkand had existed, but... it wasn't exactly something he wanted to think about for too long (when would their dream end?).

"How many worlds are out there, I wonder?" he mused, "There at least seems to be enough of them to fill a city such as this."

"It's probably best not to think about it." Tidus took another sip of his drink and set it down. "I'm not particularly the serious kind of guy anyway, and prefer to enjoy things as they come. Doesn't mean I don't get how serious the situation is, but this isn't like back on Spira where you go and beat up an immortal being and everything's hunky-dory. I don't even know if this world has an equivalent of Yu Yevon, or even if he beat them up we'll be able to get out of here."

Braska chuckled. "A fair point. If only it were that easy, hm?" But what if it was possible? Somewhere in here... And perhaps even if there wasn't just one enemy--if there were thirteen... It was possible. There was always a way, wasn't there? He could understand Tidus's hesitance about going home, he himself was a bit reluctant to return to his rest, but there were others who wanted to leave and he couldn't deny them that. And hadn't the gift he had been given now been more than enough? It was more than others had. Much more.

"Have you heard about the Organization yet?" he asked curiously.

Shaking his head, Tidus sighed. "I haven't had much of an opportunity to really get to know the place, with moving in and..." Wait, did Braska know that Tidus and Yuna were living near each other? He decided to skip that part for now. "... and all that, really. Getting situated here is fairly easy. And for Yuna... I can imagine that she'd want to go home, though it'd be hard to say goodbye to her if she'd be the one leaving me this time, instead of the other way around." Tidus felt incredibly selfish for what he had done to Yuna without consulting her, when they fought Sin.

"Hm... Perhaps it will not be that way?" Braska suggested. "After all, your situation is... different than ours. Coming here may have made it possible for you to go back." He paused, sighing softly. "Though I will admit it is more a hope than anything else. I know as much as any other about the fayth. But it is a hope I intend to believe in if it means my daughter's happiness--as well as your own life."

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Meet the Parents... er... Parent. [active]

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