AN: Well, here's the thing. AE's been kicking my butt lately, and rather than grapple with it as I should, I decided to take up the 30 Days of Writing challenge on tumblr to get some more of the Kinematics universe out of my head. This is back to Maqui's POV, and pre-Kinematics, thus the development is slow and the attention tends to wander. I'll be writing one a day on tumblr all through August, and post here whenever I get five little scenes out of my head. What does that mean? No editing! I don't even give this a second glance, actually. These are just all disconnected little one-shot scenes. Ficlets, yeah?

Kinematics: Exordium

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1. Beginning

"Hey," Maqui remarked as Team NORA raced away, footfalls echoing the pounding of explosions and the wails of panicked people. He was out of breath and his arms hurt from carrying a gun, but that didn't distract his mind from the reunion with Snow.

Yuj made a distracted sound to acknowledge he had heard him, crouched behind a barricade as an army of small slimy creatures from Gran Pulse plopped onto the buildings before them, deposited there by the random transgates in the sky.

"Who was that?" Maqui asked, mostly to himself as he joined his friend behind the barricade and Gadot and Lebreau went charging into the situation, roaring out their combat cries as they tried to round up the people on that block toward somewhere safer.

"What, Snow?" Yuj leaned over the barricade to fire off a few shots, ducking back as the shriek of something inhuman echoed back. "Man, did you take a shot to the head? You know Snow, Maqui."

"No, I mean—" The blond teen winced at the explosion that rocked the entire street level. He should be focusing on the fight, but the need to know was like an itch and just as distracting. "I mean, that other kid. You know. I think that was the kid they pinned in Palumpolum, yeah?"

Yuj grunted as he reloaded the clip in his gun, his prized hair flying in all directions as he rolled his eyes at his friend. "Look, I'm sure meeting other l'Cie is interesting and all, but can we sort your priorities later? Right now, I'd say the most important thing is to not get killed." He snapped his fingers in front of the blond's face, making the teen flinch back slightly before Maqui glared back at him. "Second most important? Getting all the civvies out. Then we can go cyber-stalk this kid or something, okay? After we're all out scotch-free."

"I'm not like you." Maqui retorted, slapping his friend's hand away from his face and then picking up the gun he had accidentally dropped through that conversation. "Fine, whatever. I was just curious."

He looked like one of us,Maqui wanted to say but didn't. Not to mention, the young boy had a sweet smile.

We'll get through this if we all work together, huh?Yeah, that definitely sounded like an idea Team NORA would welcome. He nodded, and reloaded the clip of his gun, bracing himself before he popped up from behind the barricade the shoot at the monsters, waving to get the attention of the rest of his team.

He'd scratch that itch later.

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2. Outside

Gran Pulse, Maqui found out, was a place of beauty. It was like the difference between a customized bike and a soulless, optimal military grade vehicle. Compared to the lush greens and blues and… and everythings, Cocoon had been a soulless machine. For a place that they had all so feared before, Pulse felt like a veil had been lifted from his life and he was suddenly seeing colors and smelling scents and feeling the wind and warmth of the outside world.

"Shit." Gadot summed up, and Maqui could only nod numbly in agreement as he surveyed the blue skies and lush mountains.

There was a rumbling laughter from behind them as Snow walked past and slapped Gadot heartily on the shoulder. "You should see it when the sun's setting. With Cocoon in the backdrop, it's like a second sun in the sky."

It had taken Team NORA a good week to gather up all the supplies they could carry and scrounge up the excess fuel to carry everything of their home down to Pulse. It hadn't been an easy decision, but with the knowledge that Cocoon was now just a dying husk of a world, it had been Lebreau who had made the final decision, spouting something about them already knowing how to grow their own food anyway.

They hadn't used any of the military transports, since all of them had glared with varying degrees of hatred at both Snow and Serah, and while Snow claimed he didn't care what they thought about him… well, all of Team NORA had tensed whenever a hateful look was thrown in Serah's direction.

"Welcome to Gran Pulse," Snow said warmly, and Maqui dropped the boxes of luggage he had been carrying, eager to step into the soft soils and immerse himself in this new and amazing world. "Don't wander off too far, now. This place is still dangerous, and we've got to settle on a place to rebuild."

There was a shadow in the sky, and Maqui pulled in his goggles to block out the brightness of the sun, eyes wide behind the lens as he tracked the flight of a Wyvern high in the sky, the beast spinning and gliding through the winds gracefully as if showing off for the audience on the ground.

"Check that out!" Yuj's awed voice said beside him. "That's for real? I didn't think we had any more beasts outside the Sanctum containment facilities."

"We might not," Gadot answered from behind them. "That don't mean the military's going to be able to contain an entire new world of creatures. We might be seeing those pests on a regular basis now."

"Pests? How can you call those things pests? I mean, look at that! It's so—" Maqui's protest cut off as he watched the Wyvern suddenly swoop down, faster than he thought was possible, wings drawn back to shoot like a bullet out of the sky and and grab what looked like a baby behemoth between its claws before flying up again before the mother behemoth could retaliate, shrieking in victory as its claws pierced through the skin of its prey.

Dangerous, Maqui thought as he gaped at the scene.

"—Majestic!" Yuj finished the sentence for him, unfazed by that brutal scene what looked like a mere league away. "Holy shit, did you see the way that thing flew? We should use some designs with wings like that— now that's aerodynamic, right? Can you even imagine how fast our ships would be able to go?"

"Hey, hey." Snow protested. "Don't get too carried away now. Those things are dangerous. You just saw that in action— so think about what it might be like if it wanted you for lunch, okay? Keep away from those things."

"Snow!"

Maqui's attention was drawn away from tracking the flying creature to the approaching footfalls, and he tilted his head slightly so he could look through his goggles without really looking like he was looking, really. Tinted lenses were the best thing ever.

There was a young boy running toward them, small against the backdrop of the wilderness that was Pulse, and Maqui finally reached for his goggles to scoot them up his nose in order to look out from under them, squinting slightly at the pale and white-haired boy coming their way. Was he that l'Cie they had meet up in Eden? It looked like him, but…

The boy was rosy-cheeked and there was a faint smile that he looked like he was trying to push down as he stopped when he was just a few steps away from them, arms lifted to cross across his chest in a… wow, that manner was actually kind of familiar, where had he seen it before…?

"You're late."

Snow laughed, a hand scratching at the back of his head in a sheepish manner as he reached forward with his other arm to rest a hand on the boy's head. "Hey now, I did say it would take some time. And don't stand like that— you look like you've been spending far too much time with Sis."

The boy's posture relaxed, although he scowled slightly at the words, and Maqui moved to lift his goggles up higher so he didn't have to squint at the scene anymore.

"She wanted Serah back yesterday," the boy insisted, and Snow nodded placatingly.

"Don't doubt it. But we had things that couldn't be rushed, you know? And," with that last word, Snow pulled the short boy forward a bit to stand in front of him and placed both hands on his shoulders, the teen staring up at him questioningly as he was turned away to face the other direction. "Guys, I want you to meet Hope Estheim. Properly meet him this time now that the world isn't falling apart around us."

With his goggles out of the way again, Maqui blinked and grinned. It was that boy from back up on Eden! He was wearing different clothes and looked more sunburnt, but had the same white hair and startled expression that soon turned sheepish and shy when he realized there were people staring at him.

For some reason, it was like taking a breath of fresh air after hours in a damp room.

"Hope, meet Team NORA." Snow said, his voice softening to address the boy. "They're some of the very best people I know."

Unsurprisingly, it was Lebreau who approached first with a disarming smile, despite her quiet intake of Pulse before while the others had run around. But then, she had always been a sucker for cute kids.

"Hello, Hope." She said, voice level and sweet as it only was when she was immensely pleased with something. She leaned forward with her hand on his thighs to smile at him, looking extraordinarily pleased as the boy's eyes widened and his already flushed cheeks darkened just a little more. "It's nice to finally meet the person who's been keeping our idiot leader in line the last little while."

Gadot burst out laughing at the words as Snow whined in protest, but Hope just stared another moment before he broke into a small smile, still looking small and shy but ultimately more relieved. Lebreau took that as an invitation for her to extend a hand, beaming as he reached back to shake her hand.

"I'm Lebreau." She introduced herself. "That troll over there laughing is Gadot, and the ones behind me are Yuj and Maqui. I won't introduce the blond idiot, since you already know him."

"Hey!" Snow and Maqui both protested at the same time before the teen realized that she hadn't been talking about him. But it was too late as he managed to draw everyone's attention. Maqui blanched as he tried to come up with a reasonable excuse to counter the fact that he had thought Lebreau had been talking about him. "Well, you shouldn't, uh, insult Snow like that, you know. Yeah!"

And it was outside under the sun of Gran Pulse that Hope smiled at Maqui's antics for the first time.

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3. Accusation

"—n't want those damnable l'Cie anywhere near us!"

Maqui shoved his way through the gathering crowd as he heard the raised voices, knowing at that moment that he really shouldn't have wandered off from their little group. Miss Lightning was going to be so mad—

True to his suspicions, Serah and Hope were at the center of the circle, the petite girl cowering back with an arm wrapped around Hope's shoulders. What surprised him, however, was the sight of Bartholomew Estheim standing before the duo, tall and unyielding as he faced a muscular wall of a man spewing insult after insult like spittle from his lips.

"It's their goddamned faults that we're on this forsaken planet to begin with! If you can't make it better, then you should at least have the decency of not showing your faces in polite society!"

There were murmurs of agreement from the surrounding crowd, ducked heads and whispered tones of approval. From the center, Serah gave the crowd a betrayed look, wide blue eyes and pale complexion making her look like an abandoned princess, unable to comprehend why her knights never came to her rescue.

Maqui squeezed his way through the last layer of people, ready to rush in and shout his indignities for how that man was treating Serah. Didn't he know that she hadn't meant for any of this to happen and that she was the kindest person on all of Cocoon, and now all of Gran Pulse? He'd grab a stool if he had to, he really would, just so he could stand at eye-level with that bigot and give him hell—

"I'd appreciate it if you would watch your language in front of my son and his friend."

Maqui froze, as did most of the crowd, in face of that calm and assertive tone. There was something about Mr. Estheim's voice that made people stop and pay attention, as if they had something they needed to hear. In this case, the tone was clearly disappointed.

"While I understand that your fear for a non-existent threat may be overriding your reasoning capabilities right now, I would still like for you to consider the fact that you are currently yelling at a young lady and a child. My child, in fact, and I don't appreciate you teaching him that such language and behavior is acceptable from adults."

The man took a step back, looking extremely confused to be reprimanded in front of a crowd. "If you're talking about those l'Cie—"

"Former." Bartholomew corrected without skipping a beat. "And involuntary. Surely you wouldn't have volunteered to be a Pulse l'Cie, would you?"

At those words, the rage came back to the man's eyes and he took a step forward again, looking ready to lay it in on the older man, except Bartholomew turned away from him deliberately and searched Maqui out easily.

"Maqui." Bartholomew called, indicating for the blond to step forward. "If you wouldn't mind, can you please take my son and Miss Farron back home? I'll be sure to mark this area off as… unwelcome."

That was what made him start to attention, easing his way through the crowd like a hot knife through butter as they parted before him. "Sure thing, boss— er, sir! Will do, and I'll make sure they're safe on the way home, too."

It looked like the right thing to say as Mr. Estheim gave him a grateful look. "I appreciate that. I'll be sure to follow along after I've settled a few matters here."

That left the blond NORA member to herd Serah and Hope through a crowd of distrustful, glaring civilians who didn't look the least bit intimidated as Maqui scowled and puffed up his chest to look more menacing. How Mr. Estheim did it, he had no idea, but damned if he wasn't going to do his best as well to keep trouble from brewing.

"C'mon," He said as he gently guided Serah by the elbow, and stole a glance at the silver-haired boy whose bangs had been hiding his expression all this time. From what Maqui could tell, both Serah and Hope were the victims here, and as a member of Team NORA (and therefore a hero!), Maqui was obligated to keep them safe from all harm, even if the harm came from ignorant civvies. "We'll get everything sorted out, okay?"

"Okay," Serah relented quietly, casting a glance at her younger companion. "Let's just deal with this tomorrow, okay, Hope?"

Slowly, very slowly, the younger boy nodded, and Maqui could almost feel his heart break for the kid, too young to be in a situation as unfair as this. He'd have to keep an eye on Hope in the future and look out for him, especially since Hope was younger than him and Team NORA had always spoiled Maqui a little for being the youngest. It was only fair to do so for Hope as well, right?

His mind on how he'd attempt to cheer up both Serah and Hope in the future while he herded them away from prying eyes, Maqui never noticed the clenched fists as Hope glared angrily at his feet, wisps of magic stirring up the dust of his steps.

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4. Prepared

No one had been prepared for the harsh lifestyle down in Gran Pulse. Gran, Maqui called it, because Snow had insisted that it was the proper name, even if other people ignored his worlds. To the average civilian, Pulse was still Pulse, and day to day living was exponentially harder than it had been back on Cocoon.

This would explain why so many people had chosen to remain on Cocoon, frightened to death of the world below, enough that they refused all contact with the people who had decided to start their lives over on the land under.

"I needed a change." Maqui overheard from one of Lebreau's customers, a pretty girl perhaps in her mid-twenties, eyes sad as she stirred at her drink. "Even if Pulse really was Hell… I couldn't stay up there. Everything just — reminded me."

That was the general consensus of most of the people who ended up deciding to move to Pulse; not because they were adventurous of fearless, but because they couldn't stand to live within the ruins of Cocoon, couldn't stand to walk the same streets that could contain memories of so many they might have loved and lost.

People on Cocoon had always been ill-prepared to deal with loss. A death of a friend of family member was tragic with a grieving period of many, many years… but to lose so many people was something that hadn't happened in five hundred years. There was no way of documenting all the names of the deceased, not when so many people were still in states of shock or denial, unable to even speak the name of the ones they lost.

Gadot had steered him away when Maqui had lingered at the front of the bar, unable to tear himself away from the anonymous woman's story of love and loss, of her newborn children with her parents while she and her husband had been on their anniversary trip. Her husband had died keeping her safe, and her parents had lived in Bodhum.

"How could anyone Purge two infants?" She had pleaded with Lebreau with tears in her eyes, "They couldn't— they weren't old enough to run yet! How could they possibly be a threat to Cocoon?"

She hadn't been the only story to find themselves at the bar, either. From the moment construction on the bar and restaurant were done, floods of people came at all times of the day, each with their own story that they wanted to drown out.

Snow learned to stay away from the front entrance, his appearance only putting the customers on edge as they recognized him as one of the Pulse l'Cie.

"We're one of the lucky ones." Lebreau would tell him from time to time whenever Maqui felt frustrated with the new world and the lack of care he was used to. The sun hurt and the winds were harsh. The earth was unyielding and the weather unpredictable. It wasn't just the monsters that roamed the land, but the burning hot during the day and freezing cold at night; the howls when he was trying to sleep and the insects that swarmed around him while he worked. "We're all still together."

Serah had stayed with Lightning, only coming over once in awhile when there were less people about, and Snow was dividing up his time between Team NORA and his fiancee, mostly staying with Lightning as well. New Bodhum was on the shoreline and a simple town much smaller than the bustling city they had before, but it was one of the first areas for construction to finish on Gran Pulse. Maybe because there were less buildings, or maybe because they only needed a small area of land. Either way, not many wanted to stay in a town named after the Purged city.

Still, Maqui didn't understand how they were too lucky… not with Lebreau's tone speaking of far more than the fact that all of Team NORA were alive and well, not until Yuj harvested his first batch of vegetables from the miniature garden they had toiled over beside the shop. It had grown much faster than they were used to, the nutrients in Pulse's soils rich and abundant and urging plant-life from seemingly nothing.

Some of the villagers had stopped and stared when Yuj had been harvesting, and Maqui had originally thought it was because they weren't used to seeing the bright-haired boy dirty. What they didn't know was that Yuj had always liked to garden and grow his own food, rather than live on the processed foods provided by Carbuncle.

"We can do this," Yuj had confirmed that night when washing and preparing the vegetables, eyes bright with determination. "Grow our own food and hunt… it doesn't matter what Pulse throws at us. It's not a match for Team NORA."

It wasn't until little Dahj had squatted in the dirt and asked plaintively how they managed to get food to come out from the ground that Maqui realized that another reason they were so lucky was because they had known what to do. Yuj's eccentric habit of growing his own food, the former l'Cie knowing how to hunt, Lebreau's creative cooking methods that refused to follow Cocoon guidelines, Gadot's head for design and construction, and his own mechanic skills…

It was up to Team NORA (and perhaps the small handful of people who had taken up what had been considered eccentric hobbies just a few months ago) to teach the former Cocoon citizens how to survive without the help of fal'Cies.

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5. Tremble

It started not long at all after the move down to Pulse: doctors were overrun with patients all convinced of the fact that they were dying because they had voluntarily moved to Hell. What other reason could there be, after all, for the fatigue and coughing, the itching and rashes and fevers?

Maqui wasn't immune to that feeling either, nor were the rest of Team NORA, although they handled it exuberantly over the rest of the masses. Probably because Snow and the other former l'Cie had informed them of the onset of intense allergies or bacterial infections and other illnesses. Enough to make them miserable, yes, but not enough to kill them unless they persisted on working themselves to death or something of that kind.

"But how do you know?" Maqui had whined as loudly as his sore throat would allow him to under a pile of blankets as Snow came to check up on him. "You guys aren't sick at all… what if we are dying? Everyone's dying and you guys would be the only ones left on the planet alone!"

Maybe it hadn't been the kindest thing to say should he think back on that, but Snow only chuckled affectionately and ruffled his hair as Maqui whined and squirmed uncomfortably under the blankets.

"That won't happen, kiddo. You just work on getting better, okay?"

He didn't remember much of the next few days, only that despite the burning heat of summer, he had been intensely cold no matter how he tried to stay warm. He remembered Snow had come and gone and that Gadot had gotten better extremely quickly as if just to prove to them that they could get better from the illnesses they had caught.

The next time was fully conscious, Maqui had been awakened by the sound of water being wrung out of a rag, and the feeling of fresh coolness over his brow. Funny, he hadn't even realized how uncomfortable and sweaty he had been until that moment. He opened his eyes blearily to the blurry image of the unpainted ceiling and tried to assess just how exhausted he was (so tired, in fact, that he couldn't seem to muster up enough snark and panic to think about how few people actually survived illnesses up on Cocoon), feeling it a chore just to twitch his fingers.

Was this how long term patients felt? It must be. He felt like all his muscles had gone and turned to mush.

"Maqui?" Pale hair fell into the edge of his vision, and the blond teen groaned before he tilted his head just slightly to lend his attention to whoever was in the room with him. Hope stood near the messy dresser, looking a little bit startled and tired, clothes rumpled and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows as he set down a pot of water.

"Mmmmggrrrrpppa?"

The younger boy looked confused for a moment before comprehension dawned despite the inaudible question.

"Snow's with Light and the others," He said, sitting down at on a wooden stool by the bed, brushing sweaty bangs away from his forehead. "Some… some people figured out a vaccine for the bug going around, and dad's trying to propose the idea of inoculating everyone against a variety of things."

Weird. That didn't explain why Snow and Lightning were gone, though.

"Gadot's with Lebreau right now." Hope continued to explain. "She was throwing up a lot last night, so… he's making sure that she's okay right now. Serah's getting supplies with Dahj and…" he trailed off, looking awkward and uncertain of himself. Sorry. I didn't think you'd wake so early."

Maqui tested out his mouth, feeling as if his tongue had been stuffed with cotton and then sewn shut again, the material having absorbed all the water in his mouth. That earlier noise was embarrassing, really, and he'd rather not make something like that again.

"…..Yuj?"

Hope gestured to the pot of water. "I just got back from his room, but… how are you feeling? You've been out of it for the past three days. A lot of people were really worried."

Maqui somehow doubted the 'lot' in the other boy's words, but then again, Hope could have a contrived definition of 'lot'.

"—'ick." Maqui intoned, and then winced slightly at his articulation. "Don't want — you to get sick. Too." That was better, but he still had to stop and ask. "Water?"

Hope got up shortly, muttering a quick 'hold up' before leaving the room and returning moments later with a large glass of water, the cold making the glass perspire and frost over, and a straw.

"Slow." The younger boy instructed as Maqui eager pushed himself into something more resembling a sitting position on tired and shaky arms before accepting the glass with Hope's help, the younger taking most of the weight of the glass and keeping it steady. "You guys haven't eaten or drank much in the past week. A few more days and Snow was going to put you on a saline drip."

Somehow, Maqui doubted that was true. Did Snow even know what a saline drip was? (Hell, he didn't, that was for sure.)

The cold water was a blessing on his throat and Maqui ignored Hope's advice as he tried to drink as fast as possible, barely keeping enough time to savor the cold fluid from the straw. It was a good thing the straw had been included, seeing as he nearly choked just from the small amount he had been able to ingest, coughing as other boy took the glass back in alarm.

"I did say slow," He admonished, putting the glass back on the dresser despite Maqui's whining. "If you drink too fast, you'll just throw it back up. What do you think happened to Lebreau?"

"I won't throw it up." Maqui denied, despite feeling the churning of his stomach already. "Man, Hope, you're such a nursemaid."

The younger teen didn't look offended, but rather amused just as Snow had looked. "Do you know you guys all have the same insults when you're sick? The same exact tone, too."

"Urg." Maqui responded, too tired to think up a comeback to that. "Stop making fun of me, I'm sick!"

Hope must have heard that before as well, though, as he laughed softly into his palm, and Maqui sulked at his own lack of originality.

"Sick or not," Hope said brightly. "You're all going to be fine. Turns out it was just the flu. Strong, huh? The doctors figured it out pretty quick. Apparently our normal flu got combined with some strange virus from Pulse and it made it ten times as strong… something like that. But it's still just the flu, and there won't be any casualties from it."

"I feel like a casualty already." Maqui grumbled, closing his eyes again in relief now that he knew for sure what it was he had rather than imagining various scenarios where people were dying in various, horrible ways.

He must have drifted off again at that point, because the next thing he knew, it was the middle of the night and Maqui woke shaking in the same manner he had been all through his illness. But this time, he could feel the blankets wrapped around him and despite the tremors, he didn't feel cold anymore.

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