revenance_rpg | In Which The Conversation Might Get Really Interesting...Or Not

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In Which The Conversation Might Get Really Interesting...Or Not

Characters: Ienzo and Eraqus
Content: Chatting about stuffs?
Location: Traverse Town, Fourth District, Tea Shop
Time: Evening?????
Warnings: None.

Ienzo supposed it was nice that everyone still returned to Traverse Town for sleep, for the most part; it meant that people still stopped by. Twilight Town was more than a bit interesting; he was even considering getting a second dream eater to assist him in battle. Luckily the fact that most people were exploring the previous week meant that he could spend time doing so himself.

For this week however, he decided to stay a bit closer to home. Struggle didn't hold any particular interest for him, and people still needed their tea and baked goods.

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Struggle also didn't hold that much interest for Eraqus. Per the usual, he was scouring both worlds battling Nightmares, and looking about to see if his Spirits pointed out anything in particular. If nothing else, that constant vigilance kept his mind busy.

But he still needed some time to rest, and since he happened to be in Traverse Town, he decided to stop by that tea shop that had been set up. He had actually not come by here yet, mostly because he had admittedly been a bit antisocial since his arrival, but now it seemed a good a time to try as any.

At the moment, just Kura was out and about with him, as Gengo (and presumably Yaza) had stayed back in Twilight Town to guard his place, and Chuza was napping.

He stepped inside, and noted Ienzo by the counters. "Greetings. What do you have available here?"

"We have several varieties of tea and coffee, as well as the baked goods in the glass cabinet; is there a particular type of tea or coffee you were interested in?" They had rather a lot, and it was difficult to start listing them; either the person listening knew exactly what you meant and was waiting patiently or you saw the listener's face slowly glaze over. The next question was usually "are there really that many kinds of tea" in the latter case.

Lea chose to help at that point by barking a cheerful greeting at Kura.

Eraqus noted the baked goods, but decided he didn't need any of those right now. After a moment's consideration, he replied "Some kind of green tea, I think." It was his usual, but something familiar did sound good at the moment.

Kura scrambled up and chittered back at Lea, greeting in that way that only Spirits seemed to understand.

Ienzo nodded and headed over to make the tea. "Gyokuro is the nicest that I have at the moment; I hope you'll like it." He'd be interested to know what this man thought of it; he'd be more interested to ask him about what he knew of keyblades and Xehanort, but that would be unforgivably rude.

"That sounds just fine. Thank you." He took a seat while waiting for the tea to be prepared. He might speak some about Keyblades, and even Xehanort if asked, but he definitely wasn't going to bring it up first.

Meanwhile, Kura sauntered over to the baked goods and pressed his face against the glass, obviously interested in getting a cookie or candy himself. Eraqus, however, chose to ignore his pleading actions for the moment.

Ienzo brought the tea to Eraqus and set it carefully on the table. "Do you wish to have anything to eat along with your tea?" Kura quite clearly did, but it wasn't good to give dream eaters everything they wanted, much like children.

Eraqus stirred the offered tea a little bit before picking it up. "I believe I'll be all right for now, thank you," he said, and took a sip. It was quite good. In the meanwhile, Kura was mashing his face against the glass of the baked goods in the hopes of getting his attention.

"This is good. How has business been for you?"

"It's been going quite well, actually. I think many people prefer to buy from someone in a similar position to theirs, and of course some of the people here I've already met, such as Xion and Riku." Not that he particularly remembered meeting Xion or particularly got on well with Riku due to unfortunate circumstances surrounding his attempted murder, but he did know them.

“That’s good. I imagine most also like having some semblance of normalcy.” He felt like he wanted some of that, himself.

He couldn’t help being curious that Ienzo knew some of the young Keybearers here. It seemed that quite a few already knew each other. Xion was still a complete mystery to him...he still didn’t even know much what she looked like. And as for Riku, he still wasn’t sure what to make of Riku yet, either, although it was good to see other young Keyblade Masters still around. “Is that so? Know them from where?”

"I confess that I don't remember where I met Xion initially, but we were colleagues for a short time. Riku I encountered in the course of my work, but we were in conflict, largely due to the results of Xehanort's machinations." He doesn't have to mention his attempted murder. It likely wouldn't go over well, considering the situation, and besides, if Riku hasn't shared it around, he's under no obligation to destroy his reputation with it.

He remembered Xion mentioning something about fighting before, and having colleagues, but she gave very little details on it. He'd have to ask her for more information on it sometime, because there were a lot of things that seemed to need adding up with her. He raised an eyebrow at the fact that he'd been in conflict with Riku. If Riku had been a Keybearer working for light (and thusfar he didn't have reason to believe otherwise), then that make for good conflict with Ienzo.

And there was Xehanort's name again. His face tightened. "What sort of machinations?"

"Sora appears to have a better idea of what was going on, at this point in time." Ienzo settled at the table himself, spreading his hands. "Xehanort sought control of Kingdom Hearts. I believe he created as many possible avenues of success for himself as he could."

That did seem to be the case from what he’d seen, although he was still a little upset that they hadn’t known about a lot of this until after quite a few people had gotten injured fighting a Nightmare. That upsetness then circled back around to Xehanort quickly enough, though.

He still looked tense when the mention of Kingdom Hearts was brought up again, and took another sip of his tea to try and calm his mind. But he still needed some answers. “Yes...I assume a failed plan. What did he do with this avenue?”

"He amassed an army of Nobodies and worked to release increasing numbers of heartless on many worlds. He then manipulated the keybearers into fighting the heartless - not difficult, since the other option was letting them run rampant - and ensured that the released hearts were trapped in a false Kingdom Hearts that would serve as a gateway to the true one." Ienzo sighed. "I don't know if you are familiar with Radiant Garden, but he started there."

Eraqus sat and listened through that brief explanation, putting a hand to his forehead partially to hide his expression. This was even different from what he had feared with Ventus, and from what Sora and Riku had spoken of. Just how many people and worlds had Xehanort hurt, over and over?

"Yes, I am, actually," Eraqus said quietly, still trying to absorb all that information. "I had thought that world was well-protected..."

Ienzo had lost count of how many worlds had been harmed in the end. The tragedy was truly incalculable, and he wasn't sure what his responsibility was with regards to the damage that was done.

"The brightest light can cast the darkest shadow." Ienzo sighed. "I also suspect he thought it was funny."

Eraqus had his own fair share of guilt, mostly in that he hadn’t been able to stop Xehanort when he felt he had the best chance. But that was a different kind of responsibility, and one he wasn’t sure Ienzo would understand, even if he did bring it up. And it was not something mentioned lightly.

That next statement also hit home rather hard, and Eraqus almost winced at it. A lesson that he had forgotten far too soon when training his students. “Yes, unfortunately...”

The idea of Xehanort destroying such a world for his amusement, however, moved Eraqus’s emotions from regret to anger. For all Xehanort had claimed he was seeking knowledge, “for fun” seemed to fit into his motivations quite often. “If he did, all the worse for those he has hurt, and for him.”

"Mm. I have faith that Sora and the other keybearers will be able to find a solution. Sora seems to have a singular amount of luck, and of course Riku is quite skilled and Kairi will, I suspect, prove to be impressive." Kairi would be somewhat terrifying when she grew into her powers, which Ienzo was quite looking forward to. Anything he could do to help the effort against Xehanort when they returned home would be truly worthwhile.

If there was one thing he did have to have faith in, especially since he was a teacher, it was in the new generation of Keybearers. He hadn't taught any of them, but he would certainly expect Yen Sid to do his best training them.

"Yes. I trust that it's the young who will be able to solve these problems and mistakes left by the old." He was speaking mostly of Xehanort, but was perhaps a little bit of himself, too.

That was, unfortunately, very true. Ansem the Wise would not, Ienzo suspected, have the privilege of making up for his mistakes. He felt a faint ache in his chest and rubbed at it absently, then willed himself to stop. Young people could make terrible mistakes as well, though, he was reminded. He supposed Master Eraqus felt that having more time to resolve things meant that they were more likely to do so.

"I don't believe you should count yourself out of the solution yet," Ienzo said slowly.

He noted that pause; that thoughtfulness that seemed to accompany an older heartache. He was starting to wonder just how many of them here had such a thing associated with Xehanort. And especially since he’d said he’d been involved in his machinations...just how involved was he?

The next statement, however, brought back a bit more sadness to him. He knew that even if they managed to escape this realm, he wouldn’t have anything waiting for him in the waking world. All he could do to help his students, and the others, he’d have to do here. “I don’t know. I suppose we shall see.”

Ienzo would rather not go into just how involved he was; it wasn't something that he wanted to discuss with other people in general, right now.

"I suppose we shall. We still need to discern what's going on here."

Eraqus didn't press at the moment...he was here to enjoy his tea, and if he asked too much about Ienzo's involvement, he ran the risk of having to admit his own past mistakes, too.

"Yes. Unfortunately, what clues have been yielded so far haven't added up in a clear manner..."

"I tend to suspect Xehanort, but that's only because it's so often been him over the last decade," Ienzo admitted. Xehanort was usually more up front about what he was planning...or so Ienzo had thought. From what Sora said, he'd been hiding his true plans from everyone. It didn't explain how people were arriving here from worlds that had no concept of magic, but then, Ienzo hadn't seen all the worlds and there must be some far flung places where they didn't know of its existence.

"I think it's safe to assume anything out of place is related to him unless we discover otherwise," Eraqus said with no small amount of bitterness in his voice. He had thought it was bad enough that Xehanort had one plan to cover the worlds in darkness...it was infinitely worse knowing just how many and how long these plans had gone.

"But this is all far removed from what he's done in the past...I am not sure how one would discover his reasoning behind these occurrences."

"He never does anything without a reason. He has plans within plans, and he doesn't share them until and unless he's sure that sharing them won't disrupt them." Ienzo shrugged, trying not to think too hard on what Xehanort had led them into.

“The first thing to assume would be that he would do this to achieve his goal of overrunning the worlds with darkness...” Although even that he couldn’t be entirely sure of at this point. “But throwing multiple worlds into the realm of sleep...if this is a plan of his, how can its conclusion be anticipated?”

"I suppose the best thing to do would be to inquire of Sora or Riku what happened when he was previously in the realm of sleep. I think that he has the most information regarding events at this point." They understandably didn't want to share all of that information with him, but Eraqus might be a different case.

"Depending on what they are willing to share..." Eraqus said with a sigh. He'd asked about that rather angrily upon learning that they did have all this knowledge, and had ended up being rebuked for it, which was frustrating. If he did ask again (which he did intend to do with both him and Sora being more calm,) it'd have to be in private.

"But more info on that would be best."

Ienzo inclined his head. "Given Xehanort, caution is understandable." Not that anything seemed to come as a surprise to the man. It was one of his most annoying traits.

"Caution is a necessity, but given that Xehanort obviously has multiple plans that we can't even manage to keep on top of, all information available is also a necessity." Although he had been a bit hypocritical about that himself, mostly due to his own failings more than anything.

Ienzo inclined his head. "I should hope that we would all share what information we have, but I'm also sure that there are reasons that people would be hesitant to do so. History can be uncomfortable."

Eraqus finished off the remainder of his tea, his shoulders slumping a bit as he sighed internally. The tea at least was quite good all the way to the end.

"Yes...the past can haunt the present with any number of lingering pains."

"Perhaps all of us who've encountered Xehanort in the past should meet and compare notes. It might be for the best." It isn't something he particularly wants to do, since he doesn't want to gain enemies, but it could be helpful in the long run.

Eraqus’s first instinct was to say no to the idea, because that likely meant that his past failures would come out for many to hear, and he was resistant to that. But the more he thought on it, the more he realized it would be a good idea...if for no other reason than to pass all the information they could on to the younger Keybearers that could do something about Xehanort in the future. He’d just have to swallow his pride, bitter as it was.

“Yes, I think perhaps that would be for the best.”

"I will attend if and when you choose to hold a meeting." Ienzo is not above putting this decision on Eraqus. Obviously the man is reluctant, and he's hardly more enthusiastic about sharing his past, necessary as it might be.

It was one thing to attend a meeting; and it was quite another to coordinate one. He got the feeling that quite a few here would not look that kindly on him trying to gather information from them. But at the same time...who else would take the initiative to do it? It seemed most were just as reluctant as they were to speak about their past knowledge.

Maybe that was something that Xehanort had been counting on, somehow.

"I will consider it," he said.

Ienzo inclined his head and rose, heading back over to the counter. Hopefully Eraqus would initiate something; he was loath to do so himself.

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In Which The Conversation Might Get Really Interesting...Or Not

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