Proving Grounds/December 2019/Story

	Spoiler Alert! These tabs contain full Event cutscene scripts with major spoilers about the plot and characters. View these tabs at your own discretion.

Proving Grounds/December 2019 - Auld Lang Syne Day 1

???: Ngh! How could this happen?

Guardsman: Come back here, you soba noodle-noggined weirdo!

It's New Year's Day, and the town is bustling. On their way to complete a mission, the crew runs into a man being pursued.

Kumbhira: Sova? What in the skies is that on your head?

Sova: Ack, the Divine Boar!

Vyrn: You know this old kook, Kumboara?

Kumbhira: Yes. First things first, Sova. Come this way!

Sova: Phew... Thanks for saving me.

Sova: My name is Nude Ears Sova, a blade for hire.

Vyrn: Did you say, "New Deer's Ova"?

Kumbhira: Nude Ears Sova. He takes all sorts of jobs—this past New Year's Day, he helped out with security at the Boar Temple.

Sova: Hard to believe it's been a whole year since that gig...

Sova: It seems like only yesterday. When you get to be my age, a year goes by in a flash.

Sova: You all on a family trip? I was hoping for some New Year's family quality time too...

Lyria: No, we're an airship crew. We were asked to provide security for a concert.

Kumbhira: Can we circle back to why you were being chased, Sova? And to what you have on your head?

???: You there, Sobaman!

Proving Grounds/December 2019 - Auld Lang Syne Day 2

Friday: That piping hot soba on your head looks mouthwatering! What a bold look!

Friday: Today is FPF. How would you like to spend it in style—with me?

Sova: Just what are you babbling about? And who are you?

Sova: I know it's a holiday, but you sound like you've been partying a little too hard.

Kumbhira: Wait a minute... You're the woman Vajra warned me about! Just what are you planning?

Friday: Something fantastically radical, of course!

Friday: Today is FPF... the Final Premium Friday of the year! As if you didn't know!

Sova: I don't know.

Friday: Oh my Bahamut! Thousands of people are celebrating at this very moment with traditional freshly fried prawns, and you've been left out in the cold!

Friday: Well, don't you worry. Everyone can find happiness on FPF. And I'm just the person to show you how.

Friday: FRIED SHRIMP, to me!

Sova: Augh! An unidentifried flying object!

Friday: Heh. Allow me to identifry it! This is FRIED SHRIMP—here to make your spirits soar!

Friday: Come on! We're off to a place where you can truly shine! Give a man a fried prawn and he smiles for a day, but teach him the joy of Premium Friday and he smiles for life!

Sova: What?

Kumbhira: Oh no! She kidnapped Sova!

Lyria: Is... Is he going to be okay? Friday didn't seem like she wanted to hurt him or anything, but still...

Vyrn: That battered menace is heading straight for the concert venue we're supposed to be guarding!

The crew make tracks after FRIED SHRIMP, hoping they aren't too late to fulfill their duty as concert security.

Proving Grounds/December 2019 - Auld Lang Syne Day 3

Joyas: Gooong!

Audience: Yeeeaaahhh!

Singer: Shut yer gongholes! I'm tryin' to sing here!

(Captain) and the crew arrive and station themselves around the stage as security. The crowd is unusually rowdy.

Kumbhira: What's going on here? Why are there so many Joyas?

Vyrn: Dangit! Thanks to this bevy of bells, we lost FRIED SHRIMP's trail!

Lyria: It seems like they're doing some kind of Joya-costume contest. How is anyone supposed to hear the music with this much noise?

Kumbhira: Hey! I'm glad you're all having fun playing dress-up, but everything in moderation! You all need to quiet down now, or—

Joyas: Gooonnngg!

Kumbhira: Wow! I can feel that "gong" in my bones! They're so realistic!

Kumbhira: No, wait...

Kumbhira: This is no time to be impressed with their artistry!
If you bells won't listen to reason, then you need to be taught a lesson!

Proving Grounds/December 2019 - Auld Lang Syne Day 4

Aoidos: Thank you, my Dosse! Thank you to the world we're about to destroy! And to the year we leave behind!

Aoidos: Destruction and creation are visited upon us in equal measure... I want to be there with you when the ball drops! When we're all reborn!

Aoidos: That's right! There's no red, no white here... I will always be on Team Aoidos!

MC: That was Aoidos, for the White Team. Thank you very much. You can take a seat now. And for the Red Team...

Vyrn: The Joyas quieted down some, but where the heck did FRIED SHRIMP and Sobaman get to?

Kumbhira: It looked like it touched down around here, so maybe we can look for it while we're keeping an eye on the concert...

Producer: Wooow! If it isn't Bhirabi, the spirit of the year! This must be destiny!

Kumbhira: Bhira... who? Are you talking to me?

Producer: Our next crooner missed reveille and really left us up the creek without a paddle!

Producer: But you're used to performing ceremonies in front of an audience, so you'll make the perfect stand-in! Get out there! Let's go!

Kumbhira: Um... What?

Lyria: Sounds like the next performer slept in, so they're in a pickle.

Lyria: He wants you to take the singer's place...

Kumbhira: No, no. No way! I can't sing!

Vyrn: Besides, we're supposed to be running security! Kumbhira can't go on stage.

Producer: Non, non, non! Making sure the show can go on is part and parcel of security!

That's true!

Choose: That's true!

Kumbhira: Are you snickering, (Captain)? Is this funny to you?

Producer: Great! Wonderful! If the captain says it's okay, then it's all official, right?

Kumbhira: Wait, no! I'm the one you're actually asking to sing, and I say no!

Kumbhira: I haven't practiced or anything! I'm not ready!

Producer: Your public awaits! It's showtime, Bhirabi!

Kumbhira: Gaaahhh!

Proving Grounds/December 2019 - Auld Lang Syne Day 5

Sova: Heh heh, how do you like this? I hear novelty headgear is all the rage with young people lately.

Sova: Coincidentally, your old dad used to be quite the crazy hat aficionado himself, when he was young.

Sova: Sova the Cowl, they used to call me. I was a bit of a celebrity back home. That's how I came to be Nude Ears, once I left the hats behind.

Sova: Anyway, I was thinking... It'd be nice to get in some quality time, with just the family... Don't you think?

Sova: Huh? Where'd you guys go?

Sova: Oops, spilled my broth. Looks like it soaked a piece of paper sitting here... Is this a letter? Let's see what it says...

Sova: No... I don't believe this!

Kumbhira: Urgh... I can't believe I just performed the Boar Dance in front of that many people...

Hamward: Squee-squee!

Kumbhira: You enjoyed that? Well... even if I was sort of cornered into it, I was just a last-minute replacement. Maybe it was sort of fun...

Friday: It's time, everyone! Next on stage is me, Friday!

Friday: I've invited some fabulous dancers to join me onstage tonight, to help crank up the excitement! Let's give them a big hand!

Sova: (How did it come to this?)

Sova: (I always tried to do right by my family... To be a good husband and father...)

Sova: (All I wanted was to celebrate New Year's with my family... It seems like such a far-off dream now...)

Sova: (Wait... Out there in the audience... Is that who I think it is?)

Sova: (I have to show them... That I'm the husband and father I should be!)

Friday: Thanks for coming out on FPF—this day that's so important to all of us! To show my appreciation, I promise you a show you'll never forget!

Friday: Now it's time to turn the dial up to eleven and burn hotter than a blazing bonfire! Can you feel it? Is the fire burning inside you?

Friday: Friday and the Premium Dancers present—Friday Night Fever! Hold onto your hats!

Vyrn: When did Friday get onstage!

Vyrn: And is she trying to burn the whole place down?

Kumbhira: Not you too, Sova! Come on, get over here! Friday and fire are a lethal combination!

Sova: No. I must dance. I must dance to win back my family!

Sova: It's my duty and my destiny!

Kumbhira: I've never seen him so fired up! I have no idea what's going on, but we have to stop them both!

Proving Grounds/December 2019 - Auld Lang Syne Day 6

Vyrn: Good grief... At least no one was hurt.

Sova: I thought I could salvage my relationship with my family... but all I did was make it worse.

Kumbhira: Are you going to be all right, Sova?

Sova: Can you tell me one thing?

Sova: You perform your duties alone at the end of the year. Aren't you lonely?

Kumbhira: Huh?

Sova: Or do all kids these days just hate their fathers? My daughter doesn't even want my clothes in the laundry with hers! Is that normal, I ask you!

Kumbhira: ...

Kumbhira: In a way, I'm lonely... But in other ways, I'm not.

Kumbhira: My younger siblings, and everyone back home, showed me how much they believed in me when they saw me off on my way to do my duty.

Sova: They believe in you, huh?

As Sova digests Kumbhira's words, two people come running toward them.

Sova's Wife: Darling! You danced beautifully up there, but should you really be doing that? What if you hurt your back?

Sova's Daughter: Gooonnnggg!

Sova: You... You're talking to me?

Sova: This letter said, "We're leaving for New Year's"! I thought you were leaving me!

Sova's Wife: Oh! Looks like something was spilled on it—the ink's run and erased half the words!

Sova's Wife: What I wrote was, "We're leaving to shop for New Year's dinner. Back in the evening." We had all sorts of provisions to lay in.

Sova's Wife: Plus there was Aoidos's concert, and this little dickens said she wanted to dress up.

Sova's Daughter: Gooonnnggg!

Sova's wife and daughter are laden down with groceries for their New Year's festivities, bright smiles on their faces.

Sova's Wife: How could we leave you alone on New Year's Eve? You can't ring in the new year without your family!

Sova: ...!

Sova: What a fool I've been. How could I doubt you like that?

Sova's Wife: Tee hee. You poor dear. You love us so much—I'm falling for you all over again.

Friday: What a touching display of familial love! Take these special fried prawns as an FPF blessing!

Friday wriggles in her bonds and manages to get a hand free. She tosses something into the air which splashes down in Sova's soba.

Savarin: That battered coating, light and fluffy as the wings of an angel, perched atop a cloud of noodles. A truly heavenly soba dish!

Kumbhira: Heavenly soba...

Vyrn: Hehe, sounds like you worked up an appetite onstage.

Kumbhira: What? No! That's not... It just looks so good...

Kumbhira: But, y'know... It'd be a waste not to eat it before it gets cold, right, guys? Right?

(Captain) and the others tuck into the serendipitously invented Heavenly Soba.

This moment's calm amid the New Year's rush soothes the busy skyfarers and warms their souls the same way the noodles warm their bellies.

Back to top

Characters