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

[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]

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