Jump 308: Dissidia

Jump #308: Dissidia
>Seven of Cups (Temptation), reversed: Daydreams and fantasies brought into realistic focus. The contemplation of many options leading to a conclusive choice.
>Age: 15
>Location: O̶l̶d̶ ̶C̶h̶a̶o̶s̶ ̶S̶h̶r̶i̶n̶e̶
>Identity: Wanderer of Cycles
>Scenario: The Whole Shebang (+700)
Oh this is going to be a lot of work. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound.
>Recognition of Repetition (Free, Wanderer)
This is a bit beyond simply being genre savvy. Seeing the constant patterns makes things pretty obvious when you start looking beyond the surface.
>Crystals of Power (1500, Wanderer)
Ooh, experience. These basically feel like crystals from the original FFT, in a way. Just raw XP. Makes for a quick way to empower people without the loss of knowledge that any other mucking about with crystals brings, at least!
>Inspiring Bravery (1200, Wanderer)
This seems a bit beyond the simple game mechanic, but useful. Doubly so considering that one can impart this skill into others.
>Banish Trap (1000)
Well, of course everyone who confronts me should come to know that they stand no chance once backed into a corner. Although a jumper is a man, it does not mean they are also not a force of nature.
>The Enigma (800)
Suddenly no one is able to recognize anyone by appearance alone! Second best Stranger power ever.
>Mythril Coating (600)
>Chaosbringer (300)
Curiously, Chaosbringer elected to merge with the Sword of Darkness, and the mythril coating does nice things for my MP recovery on top of it. It looks more like a rapier, now, but I'm not going to argue with the results.
>Warrior Potential (0)
Might as well bring along my companions too.

I expected, based on things, that I'd end up having to find my way from the Chaos Shrine. And instead I woke outside a laboratory. Unexpected, admittedly, but not the first time something odd has happened. The revelation that the world I ended up in was a smaller part of another, in a sense, did make things a little bit more clear. The researcher, a man named Threnos, was very straight forward about the whole situation. It reminded me of having to deal with the nonsense of Gala and Arecia in fact - Cosmos and Chaos by any other name? - though I kept it to myself. Frankly, upsetting the apple cart in situations like these tends to be a thing I enjoy doing. No point starting unless I went all the way.

And so I set out to do precisely that. Being the person that I am at this point, the two manikins who were assigned to help me out in the task were given several power boosts from me directly, perhaps not to the same extent that Aeris got but they got apower-up due to taking my mark at the very least - and I saw to it that they got access to the magic system I've started weaving into every existence that I step foot in at this point. When they got to World B, one wanted to side with Cosmos, one with Chaos. My thoughts on the matter: why not side with both? There's outside interference stopping their showdown from coming to a conclusion, there's proof that there's a time loop of sorts, and though Chaos frowned more than a bit, I played it straight: they help us deal with the situation, and then they get to resolve their fight, with my support; Aemo and Morrow demonstrated rather significant talent with the magic I lent them, and social-fu was very useful toward getting a truce declared. Though I am quite literally only there in spirit while Aemo and Morrow worked my will physically. After all - why should I do anything for them when they haven't done anything for me? Though some fights were inevitable, neither side yet had a warrior fully vanquished, at least.

After that... well, tracking down Cid was not as difficult as I thought, and he was open to quite literally ANY alternative to what he was dealing with. Not a fan of the Great Will, it would seem. Throwing him in a Moogle body would have been such a waste though... I gave him a properly resilient upgraded-human body to transfer into, after granting Aemo warehouse access and explicit instructions on what to do. (Thank you, Lords of Light, for that nice little boost in the past. It keeps proving useful.)

The gateways were the next task, and the warriors... mostly... did as they were told, aligning the gates to the rift with little infighting. Kefka attempted, once that was done, to defect to Shinryu only for Sephiroth to run him through, the first actual casualty of the twelfth cycle. Can't say I disapproved of that, though. Of course endless hordes of manikins poured out and Shinryu flew around the battlefield spitting out bullshit, before electing to summon his own duplicate warriors for a series of mirror matches. (Cloud opened up the absurd melee by cleaving the duplicate-Kefka in half, because he just wanted to one-up Sephiroth.)

Leaving aside the gritty details of the fight... it was apparently very cathartic for everyone to have the opportunity to face down themselves and/or their duplicate rivals and strike them down (at times with help FROM their actual rivals). Dealing with a Shinryu-possessed Chaos... well. Cid and Cosmos worked to weaken him, Aemo and Morrow engaged him and did their best to fight a delaying action until more of both sides' warriors started tagging in. In the end... well, it was a foregone conclusion. In the end, Chaos lived, and Cosmos and Cid stayed behind to help him recover.

Of course, while all of this was going on and I was there in spirit, I was definitely in the flesh in the other world. And it's a good thing that I can split my attention, all considered.

Dealing with Onrac was HILARIOUSLY easy... or at least seemed so at first. Crank up the Jumper Charisma to 11, leak in a bit of Eldritch Nightmare, meet with Onrac's leadership, and go, "Hey guys, I'm an entity from beyond the outer gates and screwing with the void will destroy your world, I keep seeing that happen and I've been trying to get it to STOP happening, but I don't want you to be screwed over completely so I tell you what. Stop spawning, close the vortexes, and here's some materia and a quick and easy way to make super soldiers that don't need external power." Also quietly pocket all their research while I can. Sure, it'll peeve some scientists, but since I'm actually incarnate here... I can send off clones of myself and perform mass-obliviations of the scientists that know anything so they'll never research this again. Heartless? Maybe. Necessary? You're god damned right.

Of course, some dumbass has to go 'no! we must use the super weapon!' and activate the void gate under Onrac's capitol, which is just flipping fantastic. Monsters pouring out? Don't care, alpha strike them and leave furrows in the pavement they walked on. Portal won't close? Don't care, I can stand here all day and enact wards to keep anything from passing while vaporizing anything within said ward every so often. More vortexes aside from the stable one keep appearing? Don't care, I'm the god damn Sylph of Space and I FIX IT. Only Cid could save us now, but he's gone, fled to the Wastes? Funny, I'm standing right next to him in the other world because I am effectively astral-projecting there.

"Hey, Cid? Idiots in the other world activated a giant portal under the castle in Onrac."
>"What."
"At about the same time that this one opened, actually."
>"WHAT."
"I kind of don't think it's a coincidence. I've been busy fixing shit over there actually."
>"ARE YOU INSANE."
"If you have to ask... anyway, can we talk coordinates?"
>"... sure. Why not. This day cannot get any weirder."

Oh, and here come the Summoners, destabilizing my work with keeping the gate from expanding and consuming more of the capitol than just thae castle. Trying to reason with that failed, so they each get a Stupefy to the face to knock them out for the duration, and are left for the soldiers to deal with. Stupid summoners.

Stupid Shinryu.

Wait why is Shinryu coming through the portal and breaking my wards.

STUPID SHINRYU.

It's probably not the thing to do, to hit the portal gun, tunnel to the other universe, and shove all the warriors from there over here. But I do it anyway, and Shinryu gets his ass kicked back into the portal. Again.

And then, FINALLY, both the goddamn portals close-

why is there a portal opening over the ocean

I am so fucking done with this shit.

I fly out to the ocean in time to watch Omega Weapon get smashed to bits and see Shinryu retreating into another goddamn portal, or rather, a whirlpool. Which I promptly follow him into, no longer taking any shit, just going full Final Form and stomping through because I have had ENOUGH of today.

Oh look it's a spiral shaped fortress, isn't that cute. Smashing the manikin army does nothing to improve my mood, but I most definitely do not care. Nor do I care when I jump down into the abyss, smashing into the bottom and cracking it. The army of manikin who are supposed to stop me are dealt with via fiendfyre rather effectively, and dealing with Shinryu... well, a challenge to one on one combat puts a smile on my face for the first time that day.

And because I like to think with portals, I open one in front of myself as soon as I accept and fucking vaporize him with Sajuuk II's alpha strike because the void dragon is not prepared to deal with shit on this scale.

It might have also carved something of a path out of the planet in a straight line, which I use to leave.

And then I spend the next nine and a half fucking years on VACATION. I have earned this. I am freaking DONE.