"Wh-whaddya mean ya were rejected!?" Chachan yelped, slamming his gloved hands on top of the kotatsu and leaning so far forward his elder brother half-expected him to clamber onto it. "Y-ya didn't say nothin' wrong in th' interview! I was there!"
Gogonji remained unmoved by his brother's outburst, curling his more delicate fingers around the handle of his teacup and lifting it neatly off the saucer held in his other hand. He swirled the contents about idly, staring down at the emerald-green liquid within as the steam curled up to lick at the lenses of his glasses. The older Lalafell exhaled through his nose and then took a long sip of his tea, doing his best to ignore the worried pout his younger brother had going full force across the heated table.
"Of course... I didn't," Gogon agreed, setting both cup and saucer back down atop the kotatsu with minimal clatter. His lip curled up slightly in a sort of self-degrading sneer. "Still, I suppose... they don't see me... worth the risk. Their loss."
"R-risk?" the floofier-haired of the two echoed in confusion. "O-oh, th' whole Chem-Jar thing, right?"
"Khamja."
"'s what I said. A-anyroad, ya got abbey-solved'a all that, didn't ya?"
"Absolved," Gogonji corrected again flatly, seeming unfettered by his younger sibling's stumbling over the more complex Eorzean words. "And... to a degree, yes. The Flames... had been informed... of my plans. So An... moved to have... the record cleaned."
"An? Oh, Ms. Annunu? So she was that Chair-Blossom Social-light?" Gogonji wasn't entire sure if Chachanji wasn't doing this on purpose now. "S-still, that means... yer akay ta join, right?"
"Not according... to your... 'superiors,'" the older Dunesfolk stated without any measure of mirth in his words, his gaze turning to Ezra. The little Fairy was flitting about his younger brother's open hearth, tending to the stew-pot dangling over the hot coals. The boy had been keeping water and a variety of flowers in a covered dish above it, using the Doman-style cooking implement to provide fragrance rather than food. Gogonji had decided to use it for its intended purpose for once this sun. "However... as I said, it is... their loss."
Gogonji had initially held no interest in joining the Still Shore at all. Even before the incident at the Castrum, he had never been one to enjoy being beholden to someone else. It had only been after bells of begging and pleading by his younger kin that he even bothered to even approach the recruitment office, and the boy being behind him the whole way keeping him from simply walking away from the door once there. His reasons for his methods were his own, and he was not of a sort to share such things with the lecherous old Lalafell that served as the Sea's "quality control." It was for his brother sake that he remained as civil as he had, considering what he had to put up with.
"S-so, what're we gonna do now?"
"'We'?" Gogonji echoed, raising a brow even as he raised the teacup to his lips again.
"W-well, yeah, if'n Coralhaus won't take ya... th-then we hafta find somewhere else, right?" Chachanji stated, putting on a blatantly forced smile. Gogonji's eyes narrowed as he observed the younger Gegenji. It was fairly clear that the boy did not enjoy the idea of leaving these... people... for some reason or another. And yet, he did not want to abandon his older brother either - the conflict fairly visible in the violet eyes they shared and upon his freckled features. "I-I'm sure we can... f-find somewhere that'll take us both..."
"No." Gogonji set his teacup down firmly, snapping the boy's attention to it before up at his older brother's stern expression. "You... will remain here."
"B-but!" The boy leaned forward in protest, but his elder brother's hand found his fluffy mass of hair and rested itself upon it. It was a familiar, familial thing and quieted little Chachan quickly - as Gogonji knew it would. Some things never changed: the boy's chick-like eagerness to stay with him, and the little things that would calm him down.
"If they... cannot realize... the gold slipping through their fingers, then that... is on them," Gogonji explained, motioning to himself with his other hand before spreading it out to motion to the miniature smithy that was Chachanji's room. "You have... much established here; I would not... have you lose that." The image of the tall, purple-haired Lalafell with the misaligned chakra flitted through the older Gegenji's mind - the one similar to An, yet not quite the same. "Nor... those who you have... found here."
"B-but-but-but!" Chachan urged, his pleading little more than a soft whimper at this point under his brother's hand. "Wh-what 'bout you? I-I don't think they'll let ya stay in th' Medical Ward ferever!"
"Nor... do I plan to." Gogonji shook his head, removing his hand from atop his brother's fluffy mass of green and white hair and returning it to the handle of his teacup. "This is... your home, not mine. They made that... perfectly clear."
"S-so where will ya go?"
The elder of the two let out a dry, coughing sort of laugh, though one slightly more warm than the usual ones he plugged into conversation where he felt it fit. He raised the teacup to his lips, speaking just before taking another drought of its contents. "I have... managed... on my own... for nigh-on six cycles now. I... can manage."
"B-but yer not on yer own anymore, Go-nii!" the younger Gegenji insisted, the pout on his freckled face deepening with worry. "Y-ya could at least move back in wit Papa'n 'em."
"No." The word came sharp, like the lash of a whip, unbidden from the mustachioed Lalafell's lips over the rim of the teacup. The harshness sent the younger sibling stumbling back a bit on his own cushion, looking at the older in surprise and alarm. Gogonji closed his eyes to silently calm himself, and opened those violet orbs again after setting the piece of fine china back on its saucer; while he had meant his disinterest in such a plan, the tone in which it had been presented was unnecessary. "I will not... return to Father."
"But Go-nii..." came the immediate plea, as Gogonji knew it would. And he was ready with his counterpoint. Albeit worded much less harshly than the last.
"I have... a place," he explained, almost more as a teacher to a student than one sibling to another. "It requires... repairs... but I have lived... comfortably... in it for many a cycle. I will... return there." The elder Gegenji child saw his younger kin ready to argue further, and was quick to intercept it. "Not to mention... I am merely... a linkpearl away... no?"
Chachanji froze mid-argument at that point, finger curling before the hand and its twin returned themselves to his apron-covered lap.
"I-I 'spose that's true..." he admitted, though he still didn't sound too happy with that fact. "I-I can... come'n visit, right?"
"I would not... turn away... my own brother."
"'n-n I can bring me frands along too?" Chachanji pressed eagerly, starting to lean forward again. Gogonji could already see it in the boy's eyes - the teenager was likely imagining something like childish sleepovers or story-time sessions. The older Lalafell could easily see the little Dunesfolk laid out on the carpet of his shack with a whole retinue of little companions, all eager to hear him tell a story. It was equal parts degrading... and intriguing. After all, they would be seeking him out above all others for knowledge and entertainment.
"We... shall see," was Gogonji's settlement, turning his attentions back to the open hearth as Ezra chimed like Eorzea's friendliest kitchen timer. "Let us speak on it... later... after we have eaten."
"Akay!" the younger Gegenji answered with an contended nod, likely thinking this was all but settled. And, considering Gogonji's own thoughts on the matter, he wasn't entirely wrong. The latter watched with indifferent eyes as Chachanji hopped up to his feet. "I'mma go get some bowls from th' kitchen! I'll be right back!"
If Gogonji would have said anything in opposition, the boy wouldn't have heard it. He was out the door and down the hall in an instant, eager to share a meal with his elder brother. So instead, the older Dunesfolk simply returned his gaze to Ezra as she dutifully stirred at the pot, visions coming to mind of his little shack that sat nestled away in the endless white of Coerthas. It was a return to the colder climes, but its position couldn't be better. After all, not only was it nearer to the Library - should he not be of willingness to used the aetheryte within its depths - but it was also closer to the rest of Dravania as well.
The images in his mind shifted - to a different woman with an eyepatch than the young purple-haired companion of Chachanji's. A dark-haired Roegadyn woman he had met in Tailfeather on his return trip from the Library, glaring daggers into the crystal-clear waters of the river for some manner of inner clarity. For a fried chocobo wing and some bread, he had given her some his wisdom and knowledge instead. And, in the process, also started the first stages of what might prove to be a most interesting experiment. One that the unwitting subject rightfully felt she owed him for starting.
"Knowledge for knowledge" indeed.
In addition, it seemed the Serpent-Summoner and her companion were also seeking his subject. He had, in his inebriation during their conversations at the Bronze Lake springs, made mention of Tailfeather as where he had last seen her. Yet, had forgone clearly mentioning that she had left to seek chaotic locales as a point of meditation. If she remained in contact with him -and not so much with them - he could serve as quite the go-between for both parties. Proffering his knowledge for more knowledge in return, or more favors to be called upon at a later date.
Slowly but surely, Gogonji's web of contacts and information would begin to spin outward again. He had been long-stymied by the loss of his network as Khamja crumbled around him. He had put feelers out here and there as his condition allowed him, but had managed little. Now he was starting to move into a position where he could pursue this goal much more actively. To gather, control, and profit off of knowledge.
And all the while, the dour-faced Doman had another project that was already beginning to form in his mind well before his conversation with the one called War Siren. A proper stimulus had indeed been enough to rouse the Summoner fragment from its madness, even if the results had been questionable. Gogonji had been musing for a while on while one to seek next - and it seemed Nymeia herself had saw it fit to provide him the answer in the form of a very interesting book discovered in the depths of the Great Gubal Library.
A book that, quite literally, followed the Dunesfolk back out from that vast archive of knowledge, and set him on this next path. He had delved into the history of Nym, and even still sought more information on the mathemagical skills of the ancient Allagan. So, it only followed that the next fragment on the Lalafell's list be of another great aetheric power - one of the two that had ended with the world under malms of water. Through the journal that was supposedly penned by Shattoto herself - if the name on its weathered cover was to be believed - Gogonji would seek the might of the Mcachi.
And, while he was not wholly certain he could easily grasp such an alternate aetheric casting method from his own without the aid of his long-destroyed Rousers, Gogonji's conversation with the Hellsguard had brought to mind other ideas. Ideas that would benefit greatly from both the ancient Journal and what memories he could reclaim from the Mcachian fragment. It would be quite the experiment, one either on par or even far beyond the one he had set War Siren upon. The potential for new knowledge in the coming moons was staggering.
Gogonji could feel his mouth watering, and not just at the prospect of Ezra's stew.
~