Zutoto Zuto's Journal ((OOC Welcome!))

[shotgunbadger]

The journal is an unassuming pale tan leather book. No fancy gilded paper or even a bookmark in it, the only signs it's even anything more than a blank book are the words "The Journal of Zutoto Zuto" engraved on the front.

 

 

Entry 1

 

 

Wow, where to start? Well, I suppose at the beginning...

 

I'm Zutoto Zuto, a Lalafell Plainsfolk. I grew up in a small inn my family runs in the more rural part of La Noscea. Nothing major, but it's a nice little place to get a drink and a hot meal in safety, can't beat that.

 

Safe, secure...but boring...

 

Yea I guess that's what sent me off, huh?

 

Before all this I was just a cook, I'd spend my days in the kitchen working with mom and dad, out back fishing, or just...sitting around.

 

That's no life for a young woman right? I mean...I can't live like that forever. There's this whole huge world out there and I can't just stay in one little inn!

 

I'm not helpless or anything, I'm pretty good at magic, it's not like I'm some easy target!

 

So yea, today I just...left.

 

Yea that's it. Monsters didn't destroy the inn, bandits aren't holding my mom and dad hostage, I just...left.

 

I feel almost selfish, it seems half the people I run across have some sob story that inspired their lives but I'm just a bored inn girl who left her family high and dry but...I mean come on, there has to be more to life right?

 

((Just a little intro, more to come soon when I have her better fleshed out.))

[shotgunbadger]

Entry 2

 

 

So, here I am.

 

Limsa Lominsa, this great shining jewel on the coast. I can smell the sea air, I can see great ships in the sea...I can see the SEA! That vast empty blue expanse that holds entire other worlds! I'm surrounded by people of all walks of life...and I feel totally alone.

 

I don't know why, maybe it's shame. I just don't know what I'm supposed to do. For so long all I wanted was to get OUT I never imagined what I'd do when I'm actually OUT. So here I am, in an inn, again, this time bigger. Here I am, cooking, again, this time with much nicer ingredients. Here I am, fishing, again, this time with sea fish rather than lake.

 

So, what, I've left my family behind to just upgrade the class of people I cook for? Am I that selfish? 

 

My parents are good folk. Mom's been a cook all her life, learned from her mom and so on and so on. My dad sold his trade in the navy back in the day, retired to spend his twilight years fishing and getting fat. I got a few siblings back home still, I'm the oldest.

 

I miss them. All this time wanting a bigger life, all this time wanting to see the world, and now I'm not a day away and I miss them.

 

No, I'm not going to do that, I'm not going to sit here crying, I'm not going to just be some cook...

 

I'm going to be the greatest cook in the world! I'm going to catch the biggest fish, I'm going to cook the best meals, I'm going to nurture my magics! I'm going to be the greatest mage this world has seen, a mistress of the mysteries magical! After all this mooing about wanting to leave I'm not going to give up just because I'm a bit homesick!

 

I'm not stopping here, this is just a rest! I'm going to go all over, not just this land, but every land out there, I'm going to learn from everyone I meet, find their foods and fish and master them, and then bring them back to my family. I'm going to make our sleepy little inn the heartland of culinary culture! When I'm old and gray like dad all the hoity toity spice traders and gourmands of Limsa Lominsa are going to come to US if they want the finest!

 

The bottom of the page is dominated by one last sentence in elaborate cursive written in golden ink.

 

 

Zutoto Zuto: Mistress of the Arcane and Culinarian Supreme!

[VisualFish]

((You can do it, Zutoto!! Follow your dreams! I like that she starts with a simple life, and now she is working her way to better herself not just for herself but for her family.))

[shotgunbadger]

Entry 3

 

 

I felt it.

 

I know it's been a while, I'm sorry for not writing enough, but I felt it.

 

I was out on a boat, fishing away, having a grand old time, when one of the seamen saw my magic book. He was a Miqo'te, I think the sun tribe? I know it's a little bigoted but I kinda assumed those guys didn't have a lot of magic, they always struck me as the hunters rather than the scholars, you know? Still, it turns out he was a pretty accomplished mage.

 

We talked for a while, the fish weren't biting so I was feeling chatty. He said he had a lot of respect for the Arcanist guild but they missed a lot. He said we were all books and no emotion, and all the circles and formula in the world didn't mean anything if magic became just routine.

 

I actually liked that a lot, he was right, magic kinda needs a sense of wonder, of awe, even if it's something basic to you. Then he asked if I ever felt 'it'. To be honest I thought he was hitting on me for a bit and frowned, but he explained quick enough.

 

He said mages like him, guys who spend their whole loves toying with the Aether  when things get bad they can feel everything. For just a moment, they become merged with the Aether itself, or so it feels. For just a moment he says it feels like every bit of energy in the entire world is flowing through you, and you can call on it. He says he only felt it a few times, it's not something you can call on, just something that happens, and all the times he felt it was during moments he was sure he was going to die.

 

I was polite, but I kinda thought he was putting me on. You know, tease the bookworm with mumbo jumbo and all. Still, he painted a pretty picture.

 

Then it happened.

 

I was out in the wastes, there was this little grotto I wanted to fish in, I caught the most beautiful sunfish in there last time and wanted to get a whole bushel to fry up. So I'm there, line in the water, and right on the back of my head I feel hot air. I turn and see the biggest damn jackal I've ever seen. It's twice as big as the underfed runts around the area, with fangs like swords, seriously he looks like he could eat little me in one bite.

 

I panic, my book's in my bag against a rock, and I'm running as fast as my legs can take me, the dog on my ass snapping and barking the whole time. I got to the bag, just as he got to me. He tore my leg up bad as I was pulling the book out, gods I'm shocked he didn't just yank it off. I can't stand, I'm on my back flipping through my book for the summoning diagram when he lunges again, and I'm just sure this is the end. Zutoto Zuto, dead because a jackal ate her while she was fishing, isn't that the perfect end?

 

The I felt it. It was like I was flying, it was like the rock under me vanished and I was just floating in this blue void. There are lights all around me, stars they look like, popping up in clusters, every one making me feel like I'm getting pumped full of fresh energy. I look down at my book and it's open to a fire spell, super basic, I'm talking lighting a candle when I'm reading late basic. My hand moves to it and I feel it. I can feel the fire, it's like it's flowing through me.

 

It didn't burn, it just made me so warm, like a fresh mug of tea on a cold night. The weirdest thing, though, I can feel the jackal too. I feel his rage, his hunger, his hate. This thing is messed up, I don't know why but it sees everything around it like it's food. I feel my teeth ache from when he bit at rocks, my skin is sore where he has scars. I feel the fire, I feel the jackal, I feel the world.

 

And then I erupt. Every pore on my body feels like it's opening as the fire spews out, and I feel the Jackal's pain as it sears him. It hurts me like a backfire, I scream in agony as the beast skitters back. I feel his fear, this meal is too hard, this meal could kill him, I have to run. It takes every ounce of control in me to not flee like he is as I feel the void fading. The ground is hot under me, he must have been right in my face when I blasted him. My body isn't burned though, even though it feels like it should be.

 

That's it, that's what being connected to the Aether means. It's not wielding it like a weapon, it's becoming part of it. You feel the pain of everything else because Aether is in everything. Is this what the Primals feel? Is this why they're so brutal? Do they feel every time someone hurts around them?

 

 

It only lasted for a short time, not even a minute, though it felt like hours. I have no idea if I'll ever feel it again, but I'll treasure that memory forever, because it helped me understand the world greater.

 

 

The Arcanists are great, they'll always be my guild, but I need to leave. I'm going to Ul'Dah, to speak with the thaumaturge guild there, maybe they can grant me a different view.

 

 

Besides, I hear desert peppers are hotter than fire, I can't wait to add them to my stir fry!

[shotgunbadger]

Entry...what?

 

It's been so long, I'm sorry I haven't written. I've been...I don't even know if 'busy' is the word?

 

I guess I start at the beginning. I got shanghai'd by pirates! Oh don't worry, it's not as grim as it sounds, it's not like I was kept naked in some cage or whatever. I was...well...just kinda forcefully approached about a job opportunity? I served with a small crew, not like I was hooking up with a bunch of Leviathan worshipers.

 

Honestly truth be told they were a pretty nice group for pirates. Had a real clear code, ya know? No one got hurt as long as we got our loot, no attacking helpless ships, no hitting people just for fun, it was about gil, not blood. I started off as a swabby, cleaning up, working the kitchen, when they tasted my food I got promoted up to chef fast enough and...is it messed up that I was honored? I mean, pirates or not this WAS a group of men and women who near all agreed my food was good enough to headline their daily lives, that's a pretty big vote of praise isn't it?

 

Eventually I learned new things no, and not just how to marinade a steak in rum. I learned to fight. I won't go into the whole speech, ask literally any Marauder and they'll tell it to you, but the axe really is the perfect thing to have on a ship. I used one as it was to hack hunks of meat, to break boxes and barrels open, once I even used a hand axe to mash spices up. Point is, I was familiar with an axe long before we were boarded for the first time when I was on crew.

 

It was a brutal fight, really scary. Sea Serpents, they fight like demons, the exact opposite of how my crew worked. Plunder and loot was a secondary goal to mindless slaughter, we all knew we had to fight for our lives. I can't remember how it happened, how long it took, but one of them, this massive Sea Wolf, burst into the kitchen, his own axe bloody and...gods bigger than three of me...

 

I don't remember the actual fight, but according to the guys I lunged at him, yelling angrily, they never saw me that worked up even when I first got press ganged...I went right for his legs, height difference you know? No reason to be dumb, I went for the knees and...yea the ankles, and as silly as that sounds, my axe was sharp, and he didn't expect it. I brought him down like a damn tree...and I'm proud of it...

 

I don't enjoy killing, I don't enjoy fighting, but I learned to be damn good at it. It's not my favorite thing, I'd still rather sit on some dock, catch some fish, grill em, and take a nap, but now I can go hunt for myself without my magics.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm still damn good at magic, if anything that helped me learn my fighting. Those patterns I saw, those powers I tapped into, they only got stronger with my other training. If anything that was my biggest bit of education, I learned it's all linked, it's all part of me, everything is bound in the stars.

 

So yea, I drifted around for a good while with them, it was a fine time, I learned a lot, saw a lot, but eventually I had to come home. I wasn't done yet, I wasn't ready to be done. I asked the captain if, next time we dock at Limsa, I could stay behind. He was a little sad to see me go, mainly because of the food I think, but he let me. I'm not officially 'out' as it were, if push came to shove and I showed up at the ship one day they'd welcome me back, but they all understood I had to do some things on my own, on dry land.

 

So yea, now here I am, back on solid ground in more ways than one. They gave me a cool new hairstyle, nice and blue and green like the sea, and...well...a name that I've grown to like quite a lot...

 

 

Anklechopper Zutoto - The Battle Chef