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SOMEWHERE IN GYR ABANIA... There she was again... who was she? She seemed so familiar, yet he could not ever remember what she fully looked like or why she was there. Regardless, he thought he could trust her. He felt safe, couldn't help but smile when she spoke. Did he look up to her? He certainly felt admiration--felt like he had an older sister despite being the only child... Who was she? The Miqo'te smiled down at him, sympathetic, encouraging. "You almost had it that time, Ragnald. You're only stumbling over the lines the censors-" she took a moment to breathe out whatever emotion she was experiencing, pressing her lips together to maintain a mostly neutral, placid expression, "asked us to change from the original script, anyway. The ones everyone knows by heart from childhood. It's... a stumbling block, sure, but nothing we're not nimble enough to leap over, yeah? Only a few little hiccups beyond that. I know you're feeling frustrated. I know you want to be perfect right away, and I know it all seems impossible sometimes, with everything else going on in our lives. But... don't give up so easily! If you care about this, and I know you do, then keep working at it, keep practicing. I know, boring, right? 'Teacher, you give the worst advice, your boring suggestions ARE what's frustrating me,'" she teased playfully, laughing. "It's difficult to care about something so much, isn't it? It hurts sometimes." She hoped her student couldn't see the pain in her own eyes as she spoke, seeing in him a hundred other children for whom she cared. The pain of losing their bright imaginations to the harsh cruelties of the world was so great, she wondered what she wouldn't do to stop that from happening. Was there an upper limit on what she would sacrifice? "It would be easier not to think about it at all, but... that's part of what makes us people. Our dreams, our hopes. The fact that we struggle and fail and keep on trying. I think... as long as we can hold on to even an onze of that, half an onze! We can always find our way back." She held out her hand, smiling warmly. "So, what do you say? The scene takes place on a roof? I say, let's go to the roof! Let's make our hard work as un-boring as possible." He smiled, clapping his cheeks to hype himself up before reaching his hand forward for hers, ready to get up... Yet the hand that grabbed back was not hers, the sweet voice of his teacher replaced with a tyrannical one: This face he saw clearly. The instructor's knee drove into the youth's stomach. The kid doubled over, kneeling before the instructor. "PATHETIC! ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC! I KNOW THE STANDARDS FOR SAVAGES ARE ALREADY LOW, BUT THIS?" the instructor sent his rifle's butt toward the youth, driving him further down as the kid wheezed out and in, rolling over to his back as he shook in pain. "AGAIN!" the instructor demanded. "L-LEGIO!" the boy screamed, the vision of the kind Miqo'te disappearing ever so slowly... "AETERNA!" The instructor kicked the youth, forcing him to roll yet again, giving him no mercy nor respite. "LOUDER!" the imperial barked. "VICTRIX!" "LEGIO! AETERNA! VICTRIX!" Ragnald woke up. The war whistle sounded as the artillery firing began, his legion charging onto the frontlines toward the Ala Mhigans and the Eorzean Alliance. Ragnald was not far behind. He frothed at the mouth, cursing and screaming at the "savages" as the youth rebuilt as a machine of war went to battle. "LEGIO!" His right hand, covered in Magitek plates, crashed into an Ala Mhigan's jaw. A sickening crunch was heard. "AETERNA!" His knee crashed into an Immortal Flame's head, a rock behind it used it as an anvil, the knee as a hammer as the head was popped like a grape. "VICTRIX!" His hand left rocketed toward to another Ala Mhigan, repeatedly bashing into her skull as he could no longer recognize his own countrymen. Yet, he was crying, stuck in an eternal nightmare, begging for someone to wake him up.... SOMEWHERE IN ALA MHIGO... The Ala Mhigan officer nodded, stamping down the paperwork before looking up to Sgt. Baxter. "Operation is approved. If we rescue that boy, it's a great win for our morale, good insight into their indoctrination, and more information of those like him. We failed our children once. We shalt not do so again. "Send them in. "Rescue that boy. Bring. Him. Home." The second half of Alyona Amariyo's Spotlight, a retrieval mission for the Imperial conscript Ragnald, will take place on Wednesday, January 27th at 8:00 PM EST on the Balmung server, hosted by Khuron Khan!