Running Into A Bar

Running Into A Bar
Date of Scene:	08 May 2013
Location:	Cloud Nine - First Floor
Synopsis:	Riku runs into a bar. An awkward conversation follows after the bruising impact.
Cast of Characters:	Mercade Alexander, Riku

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Riku has posed:
*THUD*

"..Almost." Riku says from behind the counter of Cloud Nine, where moments before there had been no emo ham in sight. He grunts, having whacked his side pretty hard on the way down and thankfully having not actually broken anything. He looks up at the tender with a look of chagrin and asks, raising an index finger to explain, decides not to.

"Ow. Uh.. soda please?" the teenager brushes himself off and takes a seat at the counter instead of being forced to sit down hard behind it. He turns in place gingerly, resting his elbows on the counter behind him as he looks up at the ceiling.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
A man looks up from the bar and his meal of a steakhouse double cheeseburger and fries. He blinks at the sudden influx of emo, and frowns. "Riku?" Mercade asks, and he gives a nod, sitting back down on his stool. He drinks some soda, and he looks over to the adventurous kid. "What's the latest? Haven't seen you around in a while."

Riku has posed:
"Hey." Riku laughs softly at himself, looking down from the ceiling to pick out Mercade and gives an almost cheerful wave. "The latest?" he sighs. "..I have no idea where to begin." he shrugs prosaicly.

"Well. At the beginning I guess. The investigation is over. They found his honor Gabranth So.. that's a load off my mind. Scary armor the sequel that I showed you a picture of is still at large and.. and.. " he looks over at behind the counter, then looks at Mercade, looks back--

"And.. what's new with you?"

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade sighs. "Yeah, I tried looking into that but there was jack-all for leads, even with our... various advantages in our Agency. That's why I never contacted you back about it." He replies.

"And you still have no idea who the scary dude in the armor is, huh?" He thinks for a moment, and then shakes his head. "Well, we have a few problems with Garland lately. Other than that, mostly it's just little jobs, nothing spectacular. Will's been getting into trouble, Max is being Max, Avira, well..." He pauses, looking down for a moment. "I'm... uh..."

Riku has posed:
"You are.. what?" Riku asks curiously, taking the soda and sipping from it gratefully while he rubs the back of his neck and rests his forehead on the cool glass for a moment before setting it down.

"And Will.. getting into trouble?" he snorts a faint laugh. " .Well.. maybe the bunny ears will save him."

Mercade Alexander has posed:
"I don't even know why he's been wearing them!" Mercade says, flailing his hands slightly in confusion. "He's been so smug about something and he hasn't been talking about it." He sighs. "Anyway, Avira's been having a lot of trouble lately and I want to help her. But this Garland... thing... has been threatening her and everyone around her. He's targeting innocent people to try to break her down, but I don't know how to stop him. Nothing can kill him. He just keeps coming back."

Riku has posed:
"Well, whatever reason it is.."

Riku says with a shrug. "I'm sure he has a right to be smug. And I don't know.. maybe the bunny ears help him negotiate better. God knows he needs that help." he laughs quietly to himself and the smile on his face dies away as Mercade continues and speaks about Garland.

"Yeah.." he says softly. "I heard about that. Angantyr.. really took an axe to that place didn't they? And his master Scary armor the greater isn't someone to mess with.. why is he targeting Avira?"

Mercade Alexander has posed:
"That's the entire thing." Mercade says, looking over to Riku and leaning back on the bar. "I don't even know what the hell is going on with that. He's apparently been attacking her randomly for a while, but now after this Morrighan thing he's taken it to an entire new level. He's now just being spiteful and cruel in order to keep us from doing this again." He shakes his head. "I don't know enough about this guy in order to have an idea of how to make him back off... Not without giving him what he wants, and that's horrifying. Angantyr... Well, it feels like he's had to make a decision, and he made the darker one." He's not going to say 'right' or 'wrong' here. This is too personal to be assigned such labels.

Riku has posed:
Riku thinks about this for awhile, he rubs his eyes, the blue hazing over for a moment as he looks into the middle distance and drinks his soda. Eventually he shakes his head.

"No.. I don't.. think you are looking at it the right way. Or at least. Maybe I'll give you a different angle on this. I can't say I know Angantyr. Not really. But-- I know someone as powerful as Garland has multiple irons in the fire at any time. I know this because Maleficient was like that. Always the next scheme. Which, by the way, makes me REALLY nervous that she's gone so quiet. It could have been /ANY/ of those other irons. Hell. He could have thrown the whole bag at Avira if he'd wanted to, and.. then we would probably be speaking in the past tense." Riku takes another drink and sloshes the fluid around in the glass.

"So.. ask yourself this. What's the darker choice? Stepping in and betraying everyone you cared for, and they live, or staying out of the way and telling yourself afterwards that they couldn't be stopped? Because.. as you may imagine.. I have a little familiar with a similiar decision. For me, it really was the darker choice. For him?"

Riku shakes his head. "..I don't know. I just know if he comes around Archades and starts trouble I'm going to kick his ass or at least /severely/ get in the way of him kicking mine."

Mercade Alexander has posed:
"Oh, I understand completely why he did what he did." Mercade replies. "I could tell from what I heard that he did it that way because... well, he was trying to keep Garland from doing this personally. Angantyr has a... gentler nature than his Master."

Mercade sighs. "But there's always another choice, isn't there? I don't know. I can't say what I would have done if I was in his position. I just hope that I never have to be. I don't envy him and what he's doing."

Mercade drains his glass, and then looks over to Riku as he gestures for a refill. "The Angantyr thing isn't something I can fix. It's too personal and it's something that has to be worked out between Ang and the people he's affected. All I can do is help Avira and Maira and the others however I can to keep them together in the face of all this. The problem is Garland himself. How do we keep him from just slaughtering Traverse Town at will? We can't cover the entire town. We don't have the manpower and the ability. He's holding back, but I'm not sure why. I don't... understand him."

He grins to Riku at the last. "You're really liking working for Archades, huh. How is it over there? What are they doing... That you can talk about, of course."

Riku has posed:
"Well. At least somebody understands completely. I sure as hell don't." Riku says softly with a huff of air. He takes in a deep breath and lets it out with an air of such profound exasperation as to be beyond exasperation back into calm again.

"And I don't have an answer either. How do you cover a whole town? What I can say is.. I guess you can't let yourself watch all the time, even if you want to. That's part of the mindgame. The waiting. It's.." he smiles sourly. "It's often the worst part, I've come to understand." The teenager seems to attempt, if futilely to shake off the subject. "Yes. I.. know they've hurt people in the past and his honor thinks I don't know but.. I do. The things that aren't in the books. The things that people whisper about and scheme about and--" he laughs.

"I know a little bit. So I know Archades is like that. But-- the people I know? The people I've.." he halts there and then forces himself to swallow the sentence and complete it, smiling at Mercade with chagrin. "I've.. come to trust believe in a different version of the city. Of the people. And.. that's why I stay. Because they are chasing a vision of a place I want to be a part of. And if it's not really the same place? Well. Then.. I gues we'll just have to make it."

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade Alexander squints at Riku, and grins. "Haha, you actually said it. Good stuff." Mercade says, saluting with his drink. "I'm glad." He ponders on what Riku's said, and then nods. "Well, I hope that vision that you're looking for comes true. I believe in you, Riku. I think you can make that place happen even if you have to build it yourwself." He chuckles, then. "But I doubt you'll have to do it alone. There's good people out there. Some of them even like to pretend to wear bunny ears."

Mercade frowns for a moment. "I have /no/ idea what I'm going to do with that kid."

He looks back to Riku. "Anyway. You'll do what's right. I know you will. You've been learning from the harshest teacher out there."

Riku has posed:
Riku grinds his back teeth a little and then chuckles at himself. "Yes. I did, didn't I." he drinks the rest of his soda and then peers into the bottom of the glass before setting it aside.

"And thank you. I think.. that's the only reason I can do this. Because I don't have to do it alone. And.. neither do you. You'll figure out something to do with Scary Armor the greater. Just don't harass him to his face. That will.. probably get messy. I.. would have already offered to help you but my magic--" he trails off and thunks his head lightly against the glass.

"Wait. Can I just rewind that sentence and pretend like it never happened? I've been telling the truth too much. It's getting on my nerves. How do you cope?"

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade laughs again. "/And/ a sense of humor. You're getting better and better, Riku!" The detective reaches over and gives Riku's hair a good ruffle. "Yeah, I know. You can't beat the Darkness with the Darkness. Maybe I can pry Sora out of whatever rock he's hiding under and see if he can help fix it. Isaac..." He pauses, and looks away. "Isaac tried going up against Garland a while ago."

There's another pause. "He came out of it missing an arm."

He shakes his head. "I feel like I'm outmaneuvered, outgunned, and outplanned. I hate this. And if he succeeds in doing... whatever he is trying to do to Avira..." A hand clenches. "I can't let that happen."

Riku has posed:
Riku laughs and bats away the offending ruffling hand but doesn't look like he's trying very hard. He smooths down his hair and mutters. "I don't even know if it's the darkness anymore." he then throws up his hands in exasperation.

"Figure THAT one out. yeah, if Sora has disappeared again to go off on some long and harebrained adventure, I really AM going to dent a few walls with his hide." But his laughter is cut off short.

The blow almost knocks the wind out of him. He shuts down and withdraws a little emotionally, his face going blank as he thinks this over.

Riku frowns and then swallows. "And you have no idea what he's trying to do?" he asks after a long silence.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
"I feel like I can guess, but everything, all of my instincts are based on people who think like... people." Mercade says quietly. "That's the problem with working with Garland. I have to try to think like him to predict his actions and it's just... I don't think I can really do it. I can't think like that." Mercade looks over to Riku. "I don't know what he wants. But it's apparently based around Avira. He wants to know something. He wants something. And if he gets it it will be horrible. But I'm at a loss on how to deal with it."

Riku has posed:
Riku nods. He tries to think of something and then just shakes his head letting it out with his shoulders slumping as he sits back.

"Well. I guess you don't know any friendly neighborhood monsters, do you?

Mercade Alexander has posed:
"Not really, no." Mercade rubs his chin. "But maybe I can find someone who does." He munches on his burger thoughtfully. "I don't know. At this point I'm just grinding uselessly. I need to go do something productive." He looks over to Riku. "Any suggestions?"

Riku has posed:
Riku gets up from the stool and shrugs, grinning mischieviously. The expression is more than a little strained but he goes through with it anyways.

"Well. I do know a large amount of places that are /unproductive/. The trick is getting to them without being suspended out over a lava lake or falling into an ocean somewhere. Is that close enough?"

Mercade Alexander has posed:
"You seem to have experience with that, I guess? You have the worst luck with your... zipping through space and time thing you do." Mercade says. He peers over the bar. "At least you didn't land in the freezer or something, right?"

Riku has posed:
Riku smirks and handwobbles. "That.. only rates a 4 really." With a sage nod, he leaves what rates as a 8 or above to the imagination of the viewers at home.

"I've had worse landings. So.. instead. I am going to do the sane thing for once. I'm going to walk." he walks towards the door, adding.

"--And possibly see a movie. Cultural exchange is productive, isn't it?"

Mercade Alexander has posed:
"Sure." Mercade isn't one to judge... but he has to ask. "What movie?" He glances over to the escaping emo kid.

Riku has posed:
"I'm not sure what it's called, but it's a movie about a king and his noble quest that, while sounding good at the time, ends up going nowhere and leaving everyone at loose ends." Riku holds the door open. "You coming?"

Mercade Alexander has posed:
"Sure, why not." Mercade stands. "Let's go get some culture." He tips his hat, and heads out to go watch a confusing movie.