Archadian Crossroads

Archadian Crossroads
Date of Scene:	07 March 2013
Location:	Archades - Upper
Synopsis:	Gabranth and Riku have a heart to heart. It seems even in the darkest moments, there is always light.
Cast of Characters:	Riku, Gabranth

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Gabranth has posed:

After an engaging spar yesterday, Gabranth was highly concerned about Riku's state of mind. Such things are not easy on anyone. The way he left was, also one he could relate with.

Guilt.

Thing could have gotten bad, yet Gabranth knew he probably should have done what he did. Riku wasn't at so much fault honestly. The Judge Magister moved out with darkness in his own frustration, which sparked Riku's own. A cascading result.

So as the Judge Magister approached the door, though in armor. His helm was actually tucked under his arm for once. He raised up his hand and gently tapped the door three times with the back of his knuckles.

Riku has posed:
He'd gotten complacent.

Riku throws a small white sphere up and down where he lay on the floor of his cluttered apartment. He kneaded the rubbery substance between his hands and then threw it up towards the ceiling. There was things he should be doing out in the city if he really wanted to get anywhere, but right now he just continued to throw the sphere up into the air and catch it.

Riku doesn't even turn his head. He didn't want to go out into the city right now. Not until he stopped seeing the smears of light overlaid over his vision in mesmerizing streamers, making the whole world look surreal and painted over. He plays with the idea of pretending not to know who it was. Pretending to be normal.

"Well. You just about blew that out the window." Riku murmurs with a faint chuckle to himself. "Come in, your honor." he says with a sigh as he pulls himself to lean against his bed with one leg drawn up against his chest."I'm here."

Gabranth has posed:

The Judge Magister waits till he hears Riku tell him to come in and does so. Gabranth opens the door with ease, stepping in and closing it behind him. Those blue eyes examine the room in all its disorganization, to then the rest of the room, before his eyes focus down on Riku himself.

"I thought I would come check up on you and see how things were going. Studies and all that." He looks down at one of the books. "..or if you would like any assistance with anything."

He wasn't going to bring up the spar. No. He wasn't going to bring up any of that. If Riku wanted to talk on it, Riku could start the conversation on it. For now, he just keep it, well, try to keep it professional and attempt to be.. how would Zargabaath put it? Sociable? Polite? Friendly? Many words could fit in right here.

Riku has posed:
Riku doesn't exactly look at the judge magister. In fact, he attempts to be looking pretty much anywhere in the room but keeps not being able to settle his gaze for long. "..there's too many people here." he grumbles to himself, rubbing the side of his forehead.

"I forgot how long it usually takes for this to go away." he tosses the sphere between his hands, and then tosses it very lightly towards Gabranth." ..And I'm fine, since that's what you are really here for." he pauses, then adds. "your honor." grudgingly, as if trying very hard to remember his manners. "I.." Riku puts a hand to his face.

"I just sometimes think I have a better handle on things than I really do." he chuckles faintly, digging some papers out of his pocket. "I think.. the farther I put myself from people for awhile, the better it will be for everybody. At least until things calm down again and I can pretend." he softly tchs his tongue, chuckling. "..always pretend."

Gabranth has posed:

Gabranth catches the ball easily with one hand; prehaps using a bit of dark magic to help take hold of it if he could. "For now. Just.. call me Gabranth, like we did on the walk around the city. No honor needed. Not right now." He can't believe he was saying that, but he recalled Zargabaath taking a similar attitude long ago with him during a training run that went /very/ wrong. Then he smirks a bit, "Or if you feel inclined, call me jerk."

The Judge Magister studies the ball for a moment, before he rests his helm on a stack of books and places the ball in both hands. He listens to what Riku has to say. Weighing in his mind if he should respond or, remain quiet. If he spoke, would his words come across as him lecturing, or would they come across as friendly conversation.

Gabranth furrowed his brow more on these thoughts, nodding his head gently. "I understand, yet..." He then tosses the ball back gently. "..I don't think it would be wise to leave." He then crouches down where he stands, resting his arms across his knees. He wanted to ask, 'do you think that would really help you though?', but he didn't. He would save those words for now. "You have a great deal of talent. You have a great deal of.. weight." The Judge Magister inhaled the air around him. He wanted to bring up the conversation he wanted to have with Zargabaath, yet, he wasn't sure how the youth would react on that either.

"..and we all sometimes think we have a better handle on things then we really do. It is surprising how often we realize we don't until it is to late." Gabranth adds with a frown. Then whole time he speaks though. His voice is still calm, but, there is a side of concern there. A side of even understanding. It was odd even for himself to hear his words sound like this. "..But.. that is why we have others to watch our backs."

Riku has posed:
"Oh, I reserve jerk only for Sora, and maybe Will. As in. 'You stupid'" Riku murmurs that almost by reflex, not really looking at Gabranth until he crouches down. He then forces himself to look, peering past the patina of light mottled with darkness and looking at Gabranth.

He squints slightly and rubs the bridge of his eyes. "..yeah.." he shakes his head, voice becoming increasingly shaky. "That's the part I don't understand. I started to rely on others. I started to let my guard down a little.. and then I betrayed them. I should have trusted them and I failed." he rubs his face, resentment creeping across his face as he is unable to keep himself from talking. He should STOP TALKING but he can't stop.. "Even if they forgive me for that, I never will." he shakes his head. "So, telling me that I have people to rely on. People to look out for me only means it's starting all over again."

Riku takes in a breath and lets it out slowly. "I thought I could handle this. It was rigid, and I didn't belong here so everyone was more than willing to keep me at arms length." he snorts. "I should have known better. I should never have come here."

Gabranth has posed:

Gabranth continues to listen. As Riku speaks, speaks from his heart. The Judge Magister's stern blue eyes actually soften. It was actually pulling at old string that had not been tugged on since he left Landis. Since he watched his twin brother leave. They were such old strings being pulled on.

It was as if he was listening to his brother once more, so long ago. As if his mind could so easily slip him back into their room. Those long days they would just--- talk as teens. Talk about problems, people, what they would do the next door, hell, even pretend to visualize the future.

The future that burned in fire of rage, anger, and war.

The Judge Magister lowered his gaze away from Riku, looking away in silence. He wanted to move over to hug the lad. To comfort him, yet he was not sure if he should. His hand clasped together as he crouched there. The look on his face was of deep contemplation, if not uncertainty.

He did not know what to say. He did not know how to comfort anymore. Though the strings were being pulled, though the old fractured wall that kept an old name locked away was trying to break out. He wasn't sure how.. and it was hurting. It was hurting within.

The Judge Magister closed his eyes and nodded his head, his face perhaps showing a bit of a shared pain on it. "You.." he hesitated for a moment, his voice though also shaking unsure. Unsure of these words. "You may have failed once, but do you believe you will let yourself fail again?" Gabranth then looked at Riku. Those eyes shifted from those stern blue eyes of a commander, to those of concern; those of mild compassion. Hidden friendship.

"Riku, you can handle this, if you believe in yourself. You are strong, I saw that, I know you see it also in yourself, yet you need to believe in that. Believe in those who are with you to help guide you." Gabranth glances down at his hands. "If you stray, I will find you. I will come for you. I promise." The Judge Magister then reaches for a leather string around his neck, removing it from his neck. On there is a ivory stone design, which he then stands and walks over to Riku to crouch down closer. Handing him the necklace. "I promise by my birth name and by my honor." He stares at him for a moment. "I told you as you arrived here, that Archades to be your new slate. Let it be your new slate. Take hold and become that you know you can be, but you must believe.."

Riku has posed:
Riku doesn't know how to react to this.

He's been offered freedom, and power, belief and truth and friendship many times in the past nine months (or was it six? Ah.. time schenadigans). Some in good faith, in innocence, in shared purpose. Others for selfish ends, for delusions of grandeur, as another piece in games between immortals.

He's met some very confusing immortals.

The teenager has known what he has done before. Push them away. Good and Evil both held at arms length because ultimately, he could only trust himself. Except he wasn't sure that was the case.

When he couldn't trust even his own decisions he had nothing to hold onto and he was simply.. lost. He should make an example of this one. An example to the others to keep their friendship and their distance. If he struck out now, at this moment of vulnerability, at this fleeting moment of weakness he could brand the judge magister with the mark of his hatred of those who had put so much doubt and confusion into his heart.

He used to know how the world worked.

They didn't know what it is that they asked.

He believed in himself when Manhattan fell, and the disappointment of an echo that may not even be real decried him as a disappointment. Something that felt so real could have been only one more lie of the dark faery. One more attempt to break him.

He believed in himself when Destiny Island fell, when he wished to reach out into the sea of stars with only the shadows of an idea what that might mean for him. That reaching out had cost him his friends, and his parents, and his home.

He believed in himself and fought his way free of the darkness only to find he had taken a part of it with him. A part that he had buried and forgotten until the well meaning and the malignant both made it bubble slowly to the surface where he could no longer deny it.

He believed in himself when he took the words of a stranger into his heart. When he prepared, when he fought to keep the doubt at bay. When he promised to live by words spoken to him. When he was proven unworthy. When all that should have been his was tossed into the idle, oblivious lap of his best friend.

Make an example of this one, so that they know that you kneel to nothing and to no one. Friendship was just another way of breaking you down, of defanging you and making you harmless. The chosen weapon of heroes was to smile and to forgive so that you would doubt yourself.

Do it.

Riku very slowly looked up from the floor, his face completely composed and still as one hand reached out for the ivory token. He stared into Gabranth's face, never taking his eyes away and never blinking.

Wrap hand around, trap arm and slash.

He could do it. The Judge Magister would never trust him to get this close again.

He would not have to.

The lesson would be learned.

And if he attacked..

well..

He still hadn't eaten yet.

Riku's hand trembled slightly, clawed nails quivering with tension as they looped around the leather cord of the token. His eyes minutely narrow in preparation of the strike. Close for a flicker of an instant.

The world was a bizarre panoply of noises. Of breath, of the settling of stone and metal. The creak of wood. The hiss and thrum of machines. People moving about in the corridor beyond. A flare of brilliant and startling twilight cuts across his vision like a sword, slicing the dark ties that bound his thoughts. As they fall free, he finds himself asking the opposite question.

What happens if I am wrong?

Not just that THEY, are wrong. The ones speaking to him, forgiving him, urging him. That he was wrong. Wrong to listen but also wrong not to. Wrong to stand alone and apart. Wrong to clutch onto the past when there was nothing but the present, and no future but that that he chose for himself.

What was he choosing by lashing out at Gabranth? By betraying his trust?

What was he choosing if he accepted this and all it meant?

Riku looked slowly down at the token, eyes refocusing on the small talisman.

He chose..

to believe.

One more time.

Riku took the talisman from Gabranth's fingers, nonchalantly throwing it over his neck and shrugging it into place as if it had always been there. He looks briefly at Gabranth and then explodes up onto his feet. "Well. That merchant isn't going to find themselves." he laughs quietly, and it's a changed sound to before.

He takes in a deep breath and lets it out as if he had been holding his breath for some time and only now come up for air. "What. 20 Metal bars? Wolf Pelts?" he shrugs in exasperation. "Where in whatever serves for a hell am I going to find any of--" he shakes his head. "Nevermind. I'll figure something out." he throws a hand over his shoulder. "I better get started. I've got a long.. /long/ way to go." Riku chuckles, raking a hand lightly through his hair as he reaches the door. "I'll see you later, Gabranth.. try not to let the paperwork eat you." he snorts faintly and opens the door to leave.