zerotohiro | I'll be the watcher of the eternal flame [Eachdraidh IC Contact]

[It's fine, he's used to leaving things out whether it's on purpose or not, too. It's nothing that he can't figure out on his own and ask for details later. As Xion keeps talking though he's lifting an eyebrow higher and higher.

So. Now there's mistaken identities thrown into the mix…along with Katsa, on top of Xion's memory problems and these mysterious magical keys and some dude named Riku. This whole story sounds kinda messed up and for a minute he doesn't say anything as he allows himself to think it through.]

So where's the guy now? And why would he think you were somebody else? Unless there's some girl in his timeline that's running around with a keyblade. [This makes absolutely no sense. And there's one really, really big thing that bothers him, something that suddenly just clicks in his head the more he thinks about the fact that Riku thought Xion was someone else, that Riku wrote a letter and that Katsa had to be the one to mention it to Riku.]

…he's Seelie, huh?

Yeah.

[The words come out with may be less concern than there should be, considering the circumstances, but not an absence of it either.]

About both.

[She takes a deep breath and looks away.]

He's still here, in Leathann. He asked me to meet the other Keyblade wielders from our worlds.

[And she's considering taking him up on that.]

Edited 2015-07-16 23:27 (UTC)

[He can already see what the problem is and what her concerns are, but that doesn't stop him from asking the vital question.]

Are you gonna go? Since you're already there and everything.

[There's a minute while Xion chews on her words.]

... I think so. It's just... Maybe one of them knows something. Maybe one of them knows who I was. There's so much about the worlds I know, about the Keyblade, about me that I just don't... that I don't understand.

[And this is one of the biggest leads she's had yet. Surely they have answers for at least some of that.]

Do you trust him? [Riku, he means. That's a very big important part of this and he can understand the want to find answers (especially answers that are necessary to function), but at the same time...] Knowing that he's Seelie, do you trust him to take you to the others and bring you back safely?

[There's something in his tone that indicates it's not entirely unheard of. But he wants her to think carefully.]

I think...

[This is a harder question than she expected it to be. It's also not the response she expected. It's a few moments before she really feels able to reply.]

I think so. I don't think... I don't think the court thing really matters to him.

[Yeah, sometimes Hiro does that. Gives unexpected responses, does unexpected things. It's a habit he should break sometime but probably won't anytime soon.]

What makes you think that? This is really important, Xion.

I know that.

[She's starting to get frustrated, but as much at her own inability to explain as anything. Because in the end... she can't really explain it. Not satisfactorily.]

I feel like... like I knew him maybe, before I lost my memory. [It's the only explanation that makes any sort of sense.] But... he doesn't know me, so how can that be?

[And just like that, a lot of the fight goes out of her. Maybe this is a bad idea after all.]

Edited 2015-07-23 22:06 (UTC)

[He recognizes that frustration, but he's not going to buy into it. Nobody lets him buy into it, and his own curiosity's getting the better of him, too.]

...Xion. What are you really, honestly asking me? [There's something else there. He doesn't know what, but he knows that if he pushes her to think about it she will be able to explain.] ...also you can know people but they don't know you. It's happened before. [Not...to that extreme, but still.]

Edited 2015-07-23 22:45 (UTC)

[Part of the problem is that Xion herself doesn't really know or understand what she's asking. Her emotions are a complete mess about this whole thing when you really get down to it, and it's tied up in a lot of things. And she can't even begin to sort them out, because how can you fix what you don't believe exists?

But... she'll try.]

I don't... [She swallows.] I guess... I want to know if it's wrong of me to want to do this. To want to meet them, to find out more.

[She takes a shaky breath.]

I know more now though, about the war, and the void, and our shards and... and I'm seeing people now, the messages they're sending to their family, how they all think about the Void and losing themselves or friends or family or their homes. And it's making everything worse.

[Her voice rises a little.]

I didn't even really know what I was doing back home. They told me what to do and I did it. But now...

I don't want to do this. I don't want to fight people, kill them and destroy their worlds. But I don't want ours to be destroyed either. And anyway, fighting's all I know how to do and it's what the monarchs say we're supposed to do.

[She doesn't think much of that idea. At all. Back home, she really believed that what Xemnas had her and Roxas doing was for the best. But after her talk with Lightning and Yuri, she isn't as sure she can believe that of the monarchs.]

Even if I don't trust Riku, I don't want to fight him.

[It makes a fair amount of sense, and though she can't see it there's a very light grin on his end of the line. He has a lot of those same thoughts, ideas of what to do and things to chase down…but he doesn't trust her enough to share them. He barely trusts himself to follow ideas down the rabbit hole and instead of agreeing with her on how this war is run, he sits back and keeps quiet to let her really sit with her words.

And then, eventually, he responds.]

If you're going to do this, just make sure you stay in neutral territory. Make sure people don't know you're associating with people from the other side. Some shardbearers won't hesitate to turn you in for treason, basically. More importantly? Make sure you want it bad enough that you understand the risks that you're taking by going after it. [It's a little too morbid to say "make sure you'd be willing to die for it", but…it's close enough.]

But is it wrong? [He shrugs, even if (again) she can't see it.] Not really. But I never think it's wrong to get as much information as possible. ["Or go after people who understand."]

[Xion's quiet for a while. That... wasn't exactly a resounding endorsement, but it was definitely supportive. More than maybe she expected, though truthfully she isn't sure what she expected at all.]

What are the risks?

[Nobody's exactly spelled it out to her yet, though she's gotten a lot of implications. Truthfully she's not really sure she needs them to do so to get it. She's heard of the famous punishment in the Organization by now, to be turned into a Dusk. She can easily imagine something similar happening here. There's an unusual sort of grim note in her voice, an indicator that she's more confirming what she's already guessed.]

[He can't really give an endorsement. Not over the lockets. Not where the monarchs could hear him. He has to play the right part and keep things under wraps. Next time he sees her they can talk but for now he has to be careful.]

The risks of associating with our enemies? [...maybe he can't give an endorsement, but he can tell her stories.] At the last audience, Reul sort of punished anybody who was caught associating with the Seelie. He ripped one girl's soul from her body and made her like a ghost. He beheaded somebody else for the same reason. [And then, casually:] Morla also threatened to rip out my shard for the same thing. The more you do, the higher the threat of punishment is. The monarchs see it as a threat to our side if we have associates on the Seelie side. Like I said, there're also those on our side that'll turn you in just for treason.

...that's not even counting the risks from the Seelie themselves. They have the same objective we do which is to take as many opposing shards as possible to help reach their goal. You've just really gotta know how much you trust people. But that's a risk no matter who you talk to around here. Does...that make sense?

[... That's a hell of a story, Hiro.]

Yeah. It does.

[There's a full minute or so where she doesn't say anything. She's got a lot to think about now, in regards to meeting Riku, and the others from the worlds they know best. There's a lot she could say. A lot of things some of her wants to say, but she isn't sure where to start, or how to correctly parse them together.

This whole war thing is... it's overwhelming. In so many ways. Which reminds her of the other question she wanted to ask.]

Hiro... what do the people who live here think about all this? About the war... about the Void... about us?

[That's a loaded question, too.]

They're just like us, people with different opinions based on whoever they're listening to. It depends on who you really ask. Some of them don't see us as a threat and are willing to help us find answers. A lot of them think we're just here to hurt them and they're mad at us for being here and stripping them of their options. [Loose. He's keeping everything loose until he can tell her in person, until he can really break down all of the information he knows about this world. It's too much to load onto one person at one time.]

…there've been a couple of cases of shardbearers being killed by some of the native people. [Some. Some were killed by the Cult, which they didn't realize until later.] A lot of natives aren't very kind to us…there's a lot of anti-shardbearer sentiments depending where you go. They believe the false opinion that we're encroaching on their territory. For all we know, some of them think we're causing the Void. I hate to say it, but be careful with them, too.

[A beat.] I can explain more next time I see you. It's just…a lot.

It's... confusing.

[She sighs.]

I think... I know a little about it. There were this guy in Daonna. [Uncomfortable pause] Yuri got into a fight.

The people I met in Leathann acted all different ways too, when they got letters from friends and family about the Void. Is... it always like this?

[To end her earlier statement, she thinks, people with hearts were confusing. She didn't know a lot about them, not being able to remember having one herself. But she would have expected that having one would make things simpler, not more complicated.

...no. [He answers, but he's also not sure he's right.] At least I don't think so. This has just started getting really bad as the Void keeps getting closer. But people are always a little confusing. The thing about people is that their opinions and thoughts change all the time. You've gotta learn to work with them but...it's not always easy. [A pause. He doesn't say anything about Yuri getting into a fight because that doesn't surprise him, really, but that's also not the point here. It means Xion's seen things first-hand.]

The one thing that people have in common is that they act different than they normally would when it's out of fear. Some people are braver, some people are more ruthless, and some people hide. The Natives? A lot of them are acting out of anger because they're afraid of what they're gonna lose, I think. It's kinda the same reason some of us are fighting, too.

Things might go back to normal someday, but who knows when that'll be? [A rhetorical question.] Stay safe until you get back to our territory, okay?

I'll be the watcher of the eternal flame [Eachdraidh IC Contact]

no subject

SORRY FOR THE DELAY, was waiting for the thread w/ Riku to get a bit further

No worries o/

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject