mooglenet_backup | [Video/Action for Rabanastre-bound]

[This happened before so it's not a surprise to Penelo, but unfortunately it's still heartbreaking to see her home completely devoid of people. She's standing inside Migelo's Sundries, checking the stock like she did when she was still a young orphan under his wardship. Everything's in order. Only there are no people. No customers lifting goods, haggling over prices. No shopkeepers endorsing products or taking payment. No one. The streets outside the shop are the same and it's frightening. Never in her life has she seen her the bustling desert capital wholly empty.

At long last, she'll take a deep breath and turn on the phone, forcing herself to smile and find the best in the situation.]

I don't know how, but it's happening again. Never thought I'd see Rabanastre so quiet. It's almost like it's somewhere else entirely.

[What she's not saying is that it reminds her of Nabudis in an eerie way, only even then there were the shrieks and growls of monsters lingering in the Mist. Here, there's not even that.]

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It's funny really. Until I met Ashe, I never dreamed I'd ever see anything outside of the city. Now it's been three years since I've seen it at all.

[She gives Edward a reassuring smile then turns off to the gate leading into Lowtown. There are still signs of people living in the warehouses, though not as many as there once were. She points off to one of them.]

This is Lowtown. When the Empire came, they moved us down here. These used to be warehouses but then the people started to live in them. That's Old Dalan's place.

A lot of the kids were orphaned in the war and didn't have anywhere to go. We all stuck together and made it by okay.

[After walking and talking for a while, she picks out a collection of crates and little else blocking off a dark corner.]

That's where I stayed with Vaan and the others.

Edited 2011-01-25 22:36 (UTC)

[Edward was stunned to silence.]

You...lived there? But how? This place it's unfit for anyone to live there!

[That's when the realization of it all hit him. Penelo, the proud Dalmascan that she was, once lived literally in the sewers of Rabanstre. Lowtown was nothing more than a cluster of shanties formed to horde Dalmasca's poor and orphaned, while the Empire's elites ruled the streets above. Edward knew a little regarding the conflicts of Ivalice, but this was too sad.]

Vaan and you both endured so much, Penelo.

Well I told you I was tougher than I looked.

[Her way of putting a positive spin on things, perhaps, but then that's what kept her strong. Finding a way to be resilient. She turns to take the stairs back up to the East End, tired of the dark underbelly of the city.]

It's not so bad now. Ashe is the queen and Dalmasca's almost the way it was before the war. We all made it. Well, most of us.

War is awful though. I don't ever want to see another one.

[A smile returned to the prince's lips.]

That you have, my love. That you have...

[Sharing in her distaste for war, Edward is quick to speak.]

As long as we believe in the might of a pen over a sword, Dalmasca shall never see war again. The same goes for my Damcyan, Penelo.

I will not allow another war to ruin the beauty that is "peace" for a second time.

And I'll do whatever it takes to help.

[Penelo mirrors his smile and nods once.]

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