Hydaelyn Role-Players

-- Pippik Zippik, Lead Engineer of the XIVth Legion "Flying Popotoes" Airship Brigade.

"I've got to tell mother about this!"

Around Ishgard, at least, the Mostly-In-Hiding former members of the Flying Popoto Brigade were known for something which resembled "a great deal of unwarranted excitement," according to one guardsman, or "entirely unnecessary public recklessness," according to another. What was clear, regardless of how it was stated, was that the Lalafellin family (of sorts) were perhaps the most enthusiastic regarding just about anything. And none among them were more energetic than the pointy-eared, frizzy-haired, freckle-faced, Really-Rather-Odd-Looking Pippiko Ikkiko.

Through the snowy, spiraling streets of Ishgard went he, slipping and sliding every which way on his two small feet, yet not once toppling. Even in the short time the Flying Popotoes had been there, the townsfolk had learned that the rapid mechanical jingling of Pippiko's many satchels and pouches meant that it might be best to move to the sidelines, lest the boy somehow manage to fall and fling himself into an innocent. Caution, more often than not, did not appear to be on the young fellow's mind. But, seeing as he was coming from a family of flyers and engineers, perhaps that was not entirely his fault.

And so he went, his small stature slipping him between the legs of those that didn't quite move in time. The bags stitched to his clothing jingled and flopped about as he held his arms in front of him, clasped together tightly as Pippiko cupped something unseen with the fervor of an overjoyed child eight years younger than he.

Down from the market row he went, the frozen cobblestones of Ishgard's streets stopping him not for a second as his hair blew backward in a breeze of his own creation, drifting briefly into the billowing clothes of merchants and nobles as he sped his sprint. Ran as they flew, the Flying Popotoes did, or at least, so they said they did. With a hop, brief-stop, and quarter turn, Pippiko was soon heading down a backstreet to the Pillars, his short legs at odds with the speed with which they carried him. His brief stop, however, was just enough for the little Bit that followed him to catch up, its little wings flapping faster than those of a hummingbird in an attempt to match its master's speed. With a hop, Pippiko crouched, slipping deftly down one of Ishgard's frozen slopes, right beneath a moving Chocobo cart, much to the annoyance of its owner.

"Sorry! So sorry. Sorry!" He said over his shoulder to the angry driver and startled bird, hopping away from the slope at just the right time to keep his movements as quick as possible. Pippiko shot through the Aetheryte Plaza, the straightaway prompting a moment's distraction as he cracked open his cupped hands ever so slightly, bringing them closer to his face to peer inside. The soft glow of the item within washed softly over his face, prompting a childish grin from the Lalafell as he closed his hands once more, hopping as quickly as he could down the stairs into the Brume.

It was a snowless day, which meant Snowball Fights for the children iof Ishgard. Without a moment's notice, Pippiko soon found himself unintentionally assaulted by snowballs on all sides, which, despite being aimed from streetchild to streetchild, didn't quite care much if they happened to hit poor Pippiko, who himself did not have much of a choice but to run through the flurry. Weaving, ducking, and slipping through the flurry, pale comets firing every which way in front of the fellow in a dazzling display of childhood marksmanship; were he not on his mission of sorts, Pippiko likely would have joined them, as he usually did.

"Round and down, round and down!" He said to himself, reviewing the directions from the outside to the inside as he hopped, stopped, and turned again, immediately pattering off into the inner section of the Brume, but not before a dark, silver-haired Elezen he happened to know.

"Droopy!" He shouted, calling out the Duskwight's nickname as he waved briefly, before looking to his still-outstretched hand and carefully cupping it back around what he was carrying. The Duskwight looked up, his solemn-seeming face catching a glimpse of Pippiko, before he disappeared into the inner Brume. Quietly, the Elezen returned to his cup; there would be other times to talk.

And so, Round and Down the Flying Popoto went, rushing along the inner expanse of tunnels as he watched the left side for the right set of doors. Two doors down, he suddenly stopped, pulling his feet up until he was sliding on nothing but his heels, finally coming to a stop in front of a mechanically-augmented entryway of sorts. Carefully gripping the item he held in one hand, he lifted levers and undid latches with the other, before pushing his way into the much-warmer room within. "Popotoes!" He called out happily.

Although the room he had entered would be quite large if it were empty, perhaps one of the largest in the Brume, it was taken up by quite a large number of Lalafell, crowded around a tinkering table, and an even larger number of devices surrounding them. "Pippiko!" They all shouted with equal enthusiasm, looking up from their work with clinking tools and slightly-skewed goggles, all shining in the low lamplight.

Pippiko reached behind him to close the door, before flipping a switch to the side. The latches and levers, inside and out, flipped and slid themselves back into place in order as he walked towards the table. "I found the most wonderful thing today!" He stated, as the table of some thirty-odd Lalafell all crowded round to try and see. Slowly, the young Lalafell removed his hands, letting the small object onto the table gently before pulling his arms away. There, glowing so brightly that its red hue washed out all other light in the room, was a small black cube, red circuitry wrapping its exterior with a steady, calming pulse.

"It's Allagan!" Exclaimed one Lalafell as she excitedly reached for it, only to have her hand batted away by the other excited onlookers. "Where did you find this?" Asked another, flipping his goggles down over his aging, wrinkled face. The excited chatter of the rest of the room continued without pause.

"From the marketplace!" Pippiko said, bending down a bit to press an eye closer towards the object, "it was just a black thing when it was being sold, I don't even think the person selling it knew what it was! Until I managed to turn it on, that is! He wanted to charge me ten times what I paid for it after that, but I already bought it," he says proudly as the group try their best to take turns, passing it between them and yelling whenever any one person tried to hold onto it for too long. Then, the questions began.

"What does it do?"

"How did you activate it?"

"Were there more? Please tell us there were more!"

"Do you think it's safe to take it apart?"

Pippiko blinked, and began handing out "I dunno" to each of the airmen as they asked. However, as it was said among the Flying Popotoes, "Not Knowing is Cause to Find!" And with the excitement in the room, currently, it was more than clear that Pippiko would likely be spending a great deal of time finding the many answers to their many, many questions. On one hand, this realization caused him to consider what would have happened had he not bought the box at all. Though, on the other hand, since the great whale had eaten Lofthome, neither Pippiko nor any of the other Flying Popotoes had left the state of Ishgard.

Perhaps the answers he needed would bring him to lands beyond again. And, perhaps even more importantly, maybe those answers would give them the greatest, most wonderful chance to have a Lofthome of their very own, once again.