Bitter Welcome
| Bitter Welcome | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 15 October 2012 |
| Location: | Hollow Bastion |
| Synopsis: | A week in Hollow Bastion. The place where monsters go to plan, and to think. |
| Cast of Characters: | Riku, Malificent |
Monday, October 15th—Dusk
The last rays of sunlight touch the rising falls as Riku steps from the portal. The air is already cooling, moisture heavy in the air as he walks across a floating platform towards the castle proper. It had almost been a month since he’d last seen this place and so the quiet grandeur of it struck again almost as hard as it had the first time.
His head craned upwards, eyes scanning the gatehouse and the looming towers, up to a place on the left hand side of the castle where he can barely make out a small balcony ledge jutting from one of the inner towers. The last sunlight fades from the world as Riku stares at that ledge, remembering a time where he had stared down at the world from it. How long had he stayed there? He couldn’t remember. He had only wanted to get away, away from this castle with its cavernous silence and grief. Away to find his friends, to find his destiny, to..
{He only had to strike once more. Strike again, and dig out the light inside and keep it. Keep it all for himself..}
Riku had not come here because he considered it home.
He had been driven here because this was where monsters came to think.
Riku looked down at his hands and realized the heartless surrounded him. He had been so abstracted that he had not felt them approach, but it was difficult to make out the near ones from those far away here. They were lost in the constant whispering sea of their sounds and feelings and hunger.
They stared at him, several dozen turning their hunger on him as they twitched and quivered with anticipation. With the memory still fresh in his mind he couldn’t stand them to stare at him like that. They were going to lunge at him and there were so many, so very many to fight. Riku leaned on the only power that would send them away, even though his energy was near to exhausted from the events of days before. Ghostly fire exploded into the center of the darkening platform.
He had not even words for the anger he felt towards them, or the doubt and fear he feels wondering if he had looked the same. So he let out a frustrated snarl as he banished them in a single wild flare of energy. He disappeared, reappearing on that balcony ledge he had been studying to throw himself into his own room and lay across the bed, not moving, merely breathing in the smell of the clean cloth for many heartbeats.
He dreaded the next morning, if she would even wait that long, but he didn’t care right now. Let him sleep easily for once, just for once, since the nightmares were all out here.
Tues, October 16th – Mid-morning
Everything looked better in the morning. He had rested easily for the first time in weeks and felt his strength already returning despite how dangerously low he had depleted himself. Riku looked out at the shimmering water extending to the horizon, elbows leaning on the balcony as he watched the light glitter on the dark water surrounding and part of the Rising Falls. The Heartless had not bothered him and breakfast had arrived when he had asked, just like before. Just like he had never left this place.
A soft noise turned him back to his large and well appointed tower bedroom to find Diablo perched on the edge of the breakfast tray, wolfing down another of his sausages. Riku snorts faintly, the raven taking no notice of him as he sits down opposite the bird with his head balanced on one hand, elbow leaning against the dresser he put the tray on. “Enjoying my breakfast, Dee?” The raven cocks an eye at the boy, turning a beady stare on him with half a sausage still in his beak. The raven chomps it down while still staring at Riku.
Both boy and raven spend an enjoyable five minutes or so fencing each other for the remainders of breakfast. Riku blocks a pancake-aimed strike with a fork, commenting. “If you’re here, she must want to see me but not badly enough for her to just call me to her.”
Like any other heartless.
The raven warbled low, the sound rolling up and down mimicking bubbling liquid remarkably well. It was commented on by a short, shrill cackle also mimicked by the raven. “Ah. So that’s what she’s up to.”
Riku pushes himself away from the more or less empty plates with a feeling of disorientation. Again he’s caught not quite knowing how long he has fended off Diablo’s constant assaults on his food. It has an air of the familiar to it, a routine he couldn’t possibly have acquired in just the day or two he stayed here. Or was it that short? Riku shook his head, pushing the thoughts aside. It wasn’t important, just very disconcerting.
“Well, are you going to come with me or are you mad at me too?”
The raven responds by fluttering onto his head, pecking down at his head and ears until Riku displaces himself just enough to grab the raven while they peck down at thin air. Diablo looks quite surprised he has managed to do this and wiggles in the teenagers grasp, chewing on his fingers without any intent to wound. He makes a long ‘churrr’ noise somewhere between annoyed and amused, flapping onto Riku’s shoulder in a ruffled heap as he is let go. “I’m going to take that as both.” Riku smirks, heading into the long empty corridors and silent halls as Diablo gives him a grumpy snap as they preen down ruffled feathers.
They hear the sorceress far before they see her.
~/FOOLS. IMBECILES. CRETINS\~ booms down the corridor as Riku descends the last flight of stairs to one of several studies dotted around the castle. There was a nagging sense of the familiar to this one, with the unknown glyphs carved over the doorway but the horde of heartless and other creatures under Maleficent’s control fleeing in droves takes the brunt of his attention. Riku keeps out of the way of the fleeing minions, bracing himself for the shouting as he walks through the archway into the magical sanctum. Diablo almost immediately flies over to a gnarled perch in the midst of books and magical paraphernalia, settling down with a content chirp as Maleficent turns her baleful gaze on the last of her pitiful minions, these too stupid or too paralyzed by fear to flee. A bolt of dark lightning sees them on their journey, the things howling and whimpering as they dart past Riku into the corridor.
The silence is smothering when Maleficient registers Riku’s presence, her lips quirking into a pleasant smile as her eyes narrow slightly. Her pleasant, hypnotizing voice is jarring against the echoes of her anger. “Ah. Riku. Such a pleasure for you to visit, my dear. Come in. Tell me about your progress.”
Riku enters the sanctum crammed with books and candles and a bubbling cauldron. He tells her what he has prepared to say on the walk down here. He took a seat on a stool, taking out his journal and giving his observations on the princesses. The current guardians keeping the heartless at bay. Some relatively impartial notes about the worlds he has traveled to. That disconcerting feeling returns though as he starts in on what he hadn’t intended to say without the ability to stop. Meeting Reize Seatlan and Shiki Misake. The Shardseekers. The Twilight Detective Agency. Fights against monsters as well as the heartless.
She didn’t even seem to be paying attention to him, petting Diablo or reading from an open tome as he talks. Occasionally she will ask a question and he can’t help but answer. He nearly bites through the side of his mouth trying to keep back Will Sherman. The mysterious detective blowing his cover effortlessly over noodles. Princess Belle showing him her homeland in the French Countryside. A carefully phrased truth that diverts her attention in Balamb Garden. A picnic with Princess Jasmine on top of a rockfall on the Road of Destiny.
Riku tries to choke back the words, but ends up describing trying to eat Reize, or scare him, or both and only realizes he was digging his nails into his palms when blood starts to pool in the indentations left behind. The pain somehow disrupted the cycle, freeing him from the spell and he finally trailed off into angry silence. Furious silence.
“You’ve been quite busy I see.” is her only comment after a minute or so of that silence. Riku glares at her back, hating her for bespelling him. Hating Diablo for the way the raven was smirking at him in amusement. The hate is cut by shock as Maleficient turns suddenly and touches him, chin uplifted slightly in her fist as she tells him. “Your hate is still terribly unfocused, boy. You would be best served by working on that.”
Not giving him a moment to recover, she lets him go and continues. “So you found your friend. Or rather—you had others find him for you.” Riku gets up from the stool. “Which means I don’t need you anymore. I’m done.” He throws the journal down on the counter, turning on a heel to leave the sanctum. “Are you now?” is the mild reply. “Have you given up then on your lost love?”
“She’s not my—“ Riku stops there and glares at the outside corridor. “Sora and I can find her ourselves.” Maleficent scratches Diablo’s headfeathers, a sneer curling the edge of her face. “Ungrateful brat. Will your friend be so willing to help you knowing what you are? How easily you replaced everything you lost?” Riku whips around with a snarl. “I did not—“ and the words are cut off in his throat. Reize blinks uncertainly around at the surroundings, while Shiki sits on a stool. Ivo, Faruja, Lily. All of the Shard Seekers populate the room, some crisp and others faded almost to invisibility. They all vanish in a curl of dark smoke. “Perhaps I was too.. trusting, that you were dedicated to finding your friends, Riku.” Maleficient’s voice carries an edge of sad resignation. “Perhaps I was too trusting when a shadow appeared on my doorstep still clinging to the last memories he had of his consumed world.” Riku clenches his fists, desperate to keep control of his anger. “I’m not a shadow. I’m not one of the heartless. Whatever this is, it’s your spells that are doing it. Spells that I never asked for.” “Oh? Is that why the detective was able to see into you so easily?” Riku brushes a hand through his hair, raking through it with irritation. “I can’t be blamed for your magic being too weak to disguise me.”
Maleficent advances on Riku, the staff in her hand swirling with dark energy as her temper begins to fray. “Insolent, pathetic little shade. I gave you nothing but the time to gain a modicum of control and a task to keep you focused. This is how you repay me? “ “I know who I am!” “Do you? Well then I release you to do as you will. And when you again succumb to your wild anger, who knows who will suffer for it? Oh, it is a long and very perilous journey that stretches before you Riku” a cruel smile twists her face as she continues. “But at least you will be well fed.” Riku stares at her, shoulders heaving for a long time and breath coming in short gasps, his eyes gone blank yellow and face contorted with rage.
Something can almost be heard breaking inside him as he crumples to the stone floor at her feet.
Maleficent leans down, almost kneeling as she whispers into his ear. “You will never find Kairi because she is beyond all help but mine. I have told you this, and you do not listen. Even if you were to find her by some miracle, would it not be.. prudent to learn how to prevent.. accidents, shall we say?” Riku flinches away from her words, turning his face to the floor. She waits for him to speak, forcing an answer from him as the crushing silence continues. Several long minutes pass. Finally he whispers. “yes.” His voice and spirit broken as she continues, straightening up to her full height. “Was that so terrible? You know you are always welcome to stay, boy. You have always.. been made welcome.”
Maleficent turns from him then with an idle gesture, sending him back to his room. The journal also vanishes. She comments to Diablo after a moment of silence, a purple glow spreading over his feathers as she preens them. “I think it would be best if you kept an eye on him from now on, Diablo. Some .. projects require more careful tending, it seems.” Diablo dips his head to his mistress, disappearing out of the doorway in a flutter of wings. ==
Wednesday 17th of October – Midnight
I know who I am.
Riku slams the sword into another illusory target, blade whirling with more manic speed as he spins to the side, slicing across two others. Sweat streams down his face and neck, his breath coming in heaving gasps as he drives himself forwards as he had for the last few hours.
She’s lying to me. She’s lying to me like the voice lies. Guiding voices lie.
Exhaustion chased him at every turn and yet he threw himself at whatever she put in front of him. He would prove her wrong. He would prove himself wrong, and then he would leave this twisted place forever.
But as hard as he practiced, as hard as he concentrated, as chillingly polite as he was to the other ‘guests’ he could not erase that flicker of doubt. Shadows did not feel anything but hunger. They did not plan. They did not organize. He would do both, even if it was planning against both villains and heroes. His lack of control is what caused any of this. ALL of this. His lack of control. His lack of willpower to block out a voice. To believe in a promise. And still..
That flicker of doubt.
So he threw himself into it all over again, because there was nothing else to do. The only alternative was hope. Hope that it would never happen again. Hope that it wouldn’t get worse.
Hope that Sora would find Kairi if he—
No.
I know who I am.
Focus.
Riku closed his eyes and ran through the sequence again, through the old ones his dad had taught him and the new ones he created. The ones he had seen used by others and wanted to adapt. Diablo watched him from a outcropping of rock, eyes glinting in the dark as he ran through it again.. and again.. and again..
Thursday, October 18th—Dusk
He slept through the day, untroubled by nightmares and wrapped in a feeling of unnatural safety that he had never been able to shake. It was never safe here. It was anything BUT.. and he had still been unable to banish the idea. Diablo had not yet come to rouse him but surely would soon. It did not matter what time it was. It could as easily be dawn outside as dusk, twilight dappling the storm clouds in red and gold and orange as he lay on his side looking outside. He had never wondered why the wind or the cold never came into the room.
Magic.
His life had been turned upside down and twisted inside out because of magic.
And now he had a perfectly valid reason to leave, a plan to follow-- and he was still sitting in bed. Riku sat up, leaning against the headboard as he watches the storm approach the castle. The journal lays where he had thrown it against a wall the day before. It seemed none the worse for wear for his screams and curses. It all boiled down to he could do things he couldn’t have dreamed of back in Destiny Isalnd, and yet it was all just another, larger game of Let’s Pretend.
Let’s All Pretend.
Heroes and Villains. Everyone pick a side.
He had a valid reason, and now he was afraid to leave.
Riku snaps at the book, summoning it into his hands. He flips to the first couple of pages, staring down at the pictures of Destiny Island and the life he had there. He flipped back and forth across the pages, staring at the island, and the images of his parents, of Sora and Kairi. Diablo came into the room, hopping across the bed and nearly turning his head all the way upside down to look at the picture Riku was staring at.
The teenager smiled faintly at the amusing antic, almost glad for the disruption. The raven didn’t seem to particularly want anything from him though. It wobbled around on the bed until it found Riku, then settled down next to him with a grumbling warble. Riku smirks at the bird but doesn’t say anything, turning the journal to a new page. He rested the journal down on his lap, beginning to sketch the oncoming storm outside, red tongues of lightning flickering from a long way off as it builds, and the rain begins in earnest.
Tomorrow.
Whatever he did.. or decided.. or planned.. or hoped.
It could come tomorrow.
After the rain.
