#maybe i'll upload to ao3 later. I am not dealing and fighting with their formatting right now lol

[meximango]

Day 1 - envoy - G - Mogren + Altani

Summary: Mogren thinks about how Altani has to lie for them.

--

“I don’t want to do this, Mogren. What if they see right through me? How can I get out of this?”

“Well…” The moogle’s pom swayed to and fro as they thought of other options.

Swish.

Swish.

Swish.

“I'm sure you'll do great, but the obvious alternative, kupo, is that we tell them--”

--”No!” was the squawked out reply, quicker than a flap of Mogren’s wings. She offered no further verbal argument, but the glare told them they would do best not to contend with her. 

Sharp, forceful, final. 

Their friend would not allow even the idea to pass through  either of their lips. Their fluffy little body was fit to burst with the affection that swelled at that. So protective, even at such a young age!

They’d come up with the plan together after much brainstorming. Days on end, and this was it. Altani was going to fool her village into believing she could communicate with the dead, the next chosen medium after a dry spell of several generations since the last had passed.

All so Mogren could go on hanging out with Altani without rousing suspicion. Befriending a member of a beast tribe certainly wouldn't do, after all. Moogles weren't supposed to exist anymore, the thing of myth.

The villagers’ sharp hearing and superstitious nature had taken Altani’s half of their conversation out of context, and come to some very wrong conclusions, which, in the end, was all the best for Mogren. If the child were deemed the next inheritor of the gift of spirit-talking, then Mogren could be written off as a simple ghost. A far-past, distant relative that Altani had befriended when coming into her nascent powers. They could stay hidden, but still converse with their friend, the village none the wiser to the truth and accepting of Altani running off to play with the dead. 

It was a lot of pressure to put on a child who hadn’t even gone through puberty yet, though. A risk and a secret that would only collect weight as the winters pass. All of it for the sake of Mogren, for their continued friendship. Selfish, really. They’d been told to stay hidden from society, and they had! For the most part. One au ra child excluded, of course.  They had been the one to muck it up, helping the girl out after she'd saved their fuzzy butt from a gruesome fate by some wavekin. Should've left it at that, disappearing and letting the girl believe it was all her imagination, instead of luring Altani into friendship over the past few seasons, and then convincing her to keep up conversation even as they got too close to the village and they knew how risky it could be--

And now this kid was paying the price. 

She had never blamed them, not once. When the village rebutted every of her excuses and insisted on their own conclusions--a new priestess, such cause for celebration! Finally we may converse with our dead loved ones and receive the wisdom of generations past!--she had gone along with it rather than reveal the true identity of the person she’d been speaking to. The forbidden friendship.

Altani’s friendship had been delightful thus far, and Mogren could imagine it only strengthening over the years… They had big plans! To teach her some instruments, how to tell the best stories, how to hold her alcohol (a ways off from that one, but Mogren was patient)... if their current plan worked first.

They would do everything in their power to make sure Altani passed the trials her village elder put forth to determine if her powers were true. She was going to become a formidable medium, even if it involved weaving lies faster than a lominsan pirate could chug a pint of ale. 

“It’s the best chance we’ve got, kupo. I’ll help you cheat!” 

Altani sat back, letting out a loud sigh. “Never really done that before, y’know.” She liked to go through life with her own strength, her own skill. The idea of cheating at something to win made her feel icky. Not as icky as of the idea of Mogren getting caught, attacked, or at least banished from ever seeing her again, though. She couldn’t bear that!

So she’d surely get over cheating and lying, she had to. It would get easier with time.

“I’ll do the heavy lifting, you just have to memorize the answers.” A simple execution for sure.

Reconnaissance had revealed the tribe's elder had a scroll that was passed down from leader to leader for decades, revealing the process for appointing a new priestess. Among those notes were the guiding questions that would offer proof. Facts about the long deceased that nobody alive would remember anymore, but were recorded for the sake of this test. Answers Altani would know if she could actually communicate with the dead.

She laughed, perhaps the tiniest bit of manic energy tinging the edges. Maybe it really would be that simple. Remember what to say. Pretend, like it's a game, and not a job interview for life, one that would change her village's view of her forever and determine if she could keep her only friend or not.

“Right. It's just studying for a test. The final exam of ‘Envoy of the Dead: an Introduction’, and one I’ll pass with flying colors. No big deal!” The forced optimism was so strong it circled back to sounding panicked. Her grin looked scared rather than self assured, must be why Mogren flinched.

“We’ll have to work on that confidence of yours, kupo. But that's the spirit!” A lot of practice. That’s all it would take. No big deal indeed. Mogren would drill those answers into her until that scroll was memorized from beginning to end.

After everything, they’d get through it together, just one of many trials in their life. Something they could look back on and laugh about one day.