Between a Rock and a Hard...Ceiling? [Balth/Fran]

[Rikku]

It had been hours since Rikku had set out to find something...anything! But so far, she'd just come up empty handed. The girl clenched her fists as she started stomping through the deserted corridors of one of the castle's top floors in a fit of anger, kicking the first stone that she came across further down the hallway. This was all Brother's fault! If he hadn't damaged the Celsius in one of Shinra's crazy schemes so badly that even she had no idea how to fix it, then she'd have still had a place to live! No, it wasn't Brother's fault...the one who made them run off in the first place was Paine. It was her fault! Rikku had finally reached the stone from before and gave it another kick. Yuna had happily invited a newcomer that they knew almost nothing about into the group, and she just ditched them as soon as Shuyin was beaten. But why did she leave? Because she felt like a forth wheel now that Tidus was back...it was definitely his fault! If he'd never come back, then Yuna wouldn't have split up the Gullwings and-...wait! That was it...it wasn't Brother's fault. It wasn't Paine's fault. It wasn't even Tidus' fault...It was Yuna's fault!

She was the one that broke up the Gullwings....she was the one who scared off Paine. Everything. Was. All. Yuna's. Fault. Rikku growled and kicked the stone hard enough to deflect it off a nearby statue before leaning back against the other side of the corridor, slowly sliding down the wall until she reached the floor, drawing her legs up and wrapping her arms around the sides of her legs to keep them together, burying her head against her knees with a quiet sob, "Yunie...I miss you." It wasn't Brother's fault...or Paine's fault...or Tidus' fault...or even Yuna's fault. It was Rikku's fault. Her fault. The girl's uncharacteristic irritability had been caused by the circumstances of her arrival to this strange new place. At first she was excited at having a whole new world to explore, but she quickly came to resent it. Even though she'd been on her own for a full two months after the Gullwings broke up, she still knew that her friends were out there even if she hadn't seen them recently. But now? Now she had no idea if she'd ever see any of her friends ever again, and so she was just left alone with her insecurities. Did she even really want to go home? She couldn't be a Sphere Hunter there, the Gullwings had already traveled the entire planet many times over in search of treasure, and that was the only plan she had. 'Wander the world and search for treasure'. She'd avoided the topic of what she wanted to do with her life for so long, that by the time it became relevant she was no closer to answering the question than she'd been as a child. But really...what was left for her in Spira? Paine was doing her own thing, Yuna was living her life, and Brother had his own goals to pursue. Maybe...everyone really was just better off without her there.

Rikku's sulking was interrupted by a loud crack, although she had trouble locating the origin of the sound at first. It had come from the statue that she'd just recently bounced a rock off of; a small crack that hadn't been there before now clearly splitting the statue's base. It seemed like just a little, significant thing even as the crack slowly grew, the line running up the length of the statue and spindling out every couple of inches. It wasn't until the crack reached the ceiling and started expanding to cover the entirety of the ceiling did Rikku finally stand up...and dived to the side just as the ceiling collapsed on where she'd been sitting a split second before. She hesitated for only a moment before realizing that the crack was still spreading towards her and quickly pulled her feet up underneath her chest to dig the top of her boots against the ground, giving her just enough of a push to take off in a sprint. Although she'd had a bit of a head start, the collapsing ceiling was slowly starting to overtake the would-be treasure hunter, the thunder of the falling stone reverberating off the sides of the corridor, deafening her as adrenaline coursed through her veins. When she realized there was a path leading off to the right, she dropped into a crouch with her leg extended towards the direction she'd been traveling in, letting her slide to a stop before changing direction and streaming down the branching hallway. Sweat stung her eyes as the salty fluid covered her body even as she whipped her head back to see the wall of death will barreling towards her. It would overtake her any second now, leading her to crouch for a split second before leaping forward with all of her strength just as the ceiling above her came tumbling down...and then nothing.

Never fear, the girl hadn't been lucky enough to experience a quick, relatively painless death. Rather, Rikku now found herself plummeting through the air at an alarming pace. It took her but a moment to work out what had happened- she'd jumped through a hole in the castle wall without realizing it- not that she had much of a choice anyway, as it was either jump or be crushed. The treasure hunter adjusted herself so that her head was directed towards the earth with arms spread out to either side- enjoying the feeling of the wind whip past her body, even as she sped to her impending doom. But more than that, she was sort of glad that this had worked out as it did- it took her mind off her troubles, forcing her to focus purely on survival- which she would have to do again very soon, considering that this break was about to meet with a very sudden end if something wasn't done quickly. Her current outfit, the usual orange tanktop and olive green shorts, were bathed in a bright light as she activated her dress sphere. While the transformation was taking place, she finally opened her eyes to judge how long she had before ending up as a Rikku pancake and estimated the distance between her and the ground to be about 70 feet. It was then that her usual outfit faded away, replaced with fur clothing. Namely, fur gloves, fur boots, a fur headband with curved horns attached, and a fur bikini.

Once the Berserker Dress Sphere had been equipped, Rikku twisted around and spun once before digging the four sets of claws into the stone wall in front of her. The girl grunted from the exertion, although she managed to stop her descent a scant 25 feet above the stone platform below her- likely the ceiling to a lower floor of the castle. She breathed a sigh of relief before looking up...and saw a giant mass of stone hurtling towards her. It must have been shaken loose when the one floor had collapsed onto another....Rikku pulled back her right arm and gathered as much of her strength as she was able before pushing forward with the remaining three limbs, allowing her to spring toward the falling mass and slam her right fist into it's center...which accomplished an entire nothing! She'd expected the mass to at least crack, but now she just found herself falling along with the giant rock. Rikku did her best to hook her claws underneath it while pressing her feet against the stone wall, but this time she couldn't even slow her descent a little, even as she slammed into the stone 'ceiling' and was subsequently crushed by the giant boulder...

Amazingly, this failed to kill the treasure hunter as well, although she was knocked clean through the ceiling. That's not to say that she was uninjured, however. The girl let out a groan that sounded much like a death gurgle before rolling off her back and onto all fours, with the side of her face pressed against the cool stone floor and her rear stuck up in the air, rubbing the base of her spine with one gloved paw. "O-Ouchies...!"

[Fran]

There was no reason for the there to be a verbal explanation for why the duo of sky pirates even entered a place like this. For treasure, of course. This place seemed long abandoned and it belonged to the monsters now, but nothing that the duo of sky pirates couldn't handle. This time around, Fran came equipped with a bow, the said weapon and quiver behind her back.

Fran moved around cautiously. The stones were old and decaying and the viera seemed to know that the building may not hold up. As they searched and too were fruitless, A sound made Fran's ears perk up, despite them always being so as she looked around. The sound was small and may have missed Batlhier's ears, but soon the roar of the wall collapsing much further in the castle could be heard.

Fran seemed to know the exact location of the wall falling, slipping through another corridor, completely abandoning the direction they were going. Balthier trusted her sense of direction, yes? Luck would have had it that Fran stopped, just in time to see something...fall. It was a girl but her appearance was changing. She was wearing fairly revealing clothing, but now...

She had fur. Fran watched her in possible interest as she tried to deal with the large rock that had fallen with her to no avail, simply watching her get crushed under it. After the last time they helped someone, they got into quite a...situation. That may have been the reason for Fran's lack of response. Though the girl disappeared from view, the castle walls echoed her words.

She wasn't dead it seemed, despite the rock falling seemed like a decisive blow to her. Was it because of the costume change? Fran looked at Balthier, if he even followed her which she assumed she would. It was his call for what he wanted to do. They could reach the girl with ease, Fran even moreso, but she would not move unless Balthier did.

After all, he was the leading man.

[Balthier]

There was something about old crumbling buildings, something almost magical. They always seemed to open up their secret passages and treasure hordes for go-to adventurers like the man himself, Balthier. As such, it should be no surprise that the leading man and his right hand rabbit went straight for the biggest and most ominous looking ruin on the horizon. And one that looked like a large monster had previously lived in, even, which meant even more scavenged treasure. It was no royal heist, but he'd need more information before he could attempt to pull something of that scale on any of these new cities. Archades was a possibility, but he wasn't quite ready to be shot on site yet.

And so here they were, guns in hand ready to loot. And loot they did. Balthier had always had a knack for finding hidden passageways and stashes. Some had been looted, but he and Fran had already uncovered some valuable gems from these stores, one of which was a rather strange looking fusion of a gun and a sword. That would surely fetch a nice price with a weapons collector. They worked their way through the dungeon-like castle ruin for about half an hour when Fran picked up on something and motioned for him to follow. Moments after, the sound of something collapsing further in reached his ears. The leading man smirked.

"Sounds as though we aren't as alone as we believed. Why don't we have a look?" Balthier commented, knowing he didn't have to. Of course he was going to investigate. And so they did, to find a young woman who had apparently fallen through the ceiling. Balthier gave a whistle to grab her attention, gun slung over his shoulder as it usually was. "Try not to bring the ruins down, will you? You aren't going to get any treasure hunting done that way, now are you?" he said, rummaging around in his pockets for a potion. It wouldn't do to leave a fellow treasure hunter injured like that, now would it? No competition made things too easy. He fished out a flask of healing potion and tossed it to the girl. "Free of charge. I wouldn't expect another handout though. So tell me, what brings a woman dressed so strangely to the ruins of an old castle?"