Comparing Notes

Comparing Notes
Date of Scene:	18 October 2012
Location:	Manhattan
Synopsis:	A visit from Riku to Manhattan finds Mercade Alexander of the Twilight Detective Agency working outdoors in Central park. Both of them catch up on current events and trade information. Will this help them achieve their goals?
Cast of Characters:	Riku, Mercade Alexander

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Mercade Alexander has posed:
Welcome back to Manhattan! The City that Never Sleeps... continues to not sleep. The Heartless invasion does that to some people. Others simply enjoy the nightlife, trying to forget and remember the good times.

The flames of hope still burn in Manhattan, shining with a neon light defiantly into the darkness.

Mercade Alexander isn't too concerned with all of that. He's currently sitting under a lamp in Central Park, writing on some papers in a manila folder as he shuffles through them intently. It's a nice evening, and he's taking advantage of it to do some work outside of the office for a change.

It's also a good place to keep an eye on the main portal into Manhattan in case people show up.

Riku has posed:
It's a wonder when portal magic works correctly. It doesn't dump you out into oceans, or lakes or trees or onto a hot dog stand. Riku steps out of the portal which snaps closed behind him with a faint rush of displaced air.

This alley is one of many deserted interconnections crammed with the detritus of a people for whom 'Not in my backyard' functions even without a backyard. Riku brushes his arms, making sure his disguise was intact. It's been a while since he thought of his regular clothes like that, but it was technically true. Diablo was perched on his shoulder, giving the city a beady and judging eye as they walked out of the alley onto the sidewalk.

Riku looked around at the buildings, trying to orient himself again. He recognizes the outline of trees and Central park, so he walks down the street until he sees Mercade sitting on a bench near a streetlamp "Hey. Good Evening, Mercade." Riku smiles slightly, his voice calm and steady. "I thought you had an office for all that." Diablo tilts his head at the detective, fluttering onto the back of the bench to peer at what Mercade is working on.

"Oh. Right. This is Dee." Riku says idly by way of introduction. "I'm pretty much taking care of him until he can find his way home."

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade also hates it when he lands on a hot dog stand, but he didn't need supernatural occurances to do it. It just happens sometimes.

The now-familiar sound of a portal causes Mercade to tilt his head slightly, not trying to give an appearance of immediately noticing the arrival.

That ends when Riku arrives and greets him, a raven on his shoulder. He looks up and blinks, smiling at Riku as he says...

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, bored and stuffy,
Over many a silly and useless volume of forgotten lore.
While I researched, neatly scratching, suddenly there came a crashing,
As of someone gently traveling, entering through our world's door.
Tis some visitor,' I muttered, 'entering our world's door; Our friend Riku, and nothing more.'"

Mercade gestures to the bench beside him, inviting him to sit. "Sorry, I couldn't resist with your friend Dee there." He laughs. "I blame high school English." He straightens, his back popping. He must have been hunched for a bit. "I do have an office, but Deidra's off doing her own thing. Normally she watches the place, but I gave her the night off. Also, it's stuffy in the office right now." He tilts his head, glancing at the raven. "So, where are you from, boy?"

Riku has posed:
Riku peers at him as if Mercade has well and truly lost his mind, but when he laughs Riku laughs as well. "Is that.. from something? or are you just poetically inclined." Diablo gives a steady glare at Mercade, giving him an up and down glance like 'seriously?' before hopping across the bench to peer more closely at Mercade, and then more closely, before eventually making a hop meant to land on his head, where the bird will look at Mercade upside down and squawk with amusement if they manage it.

"Deidra.. that's right. I think I remember her." Riku nods, taking a seat near Mercade and leaning back against the bench to stare up at the stars. "Still have a personnel problem I'm guessing."

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade gets used as a perch by the raven, and he grins. "Hey, fella. You're pretty social, aren't cha?" He reaches up, trying to give it a little scritch under its beak as it looks at him upside down.

Riku's quextion causes Mercade to glance over slightly. "It's from a poem called 'The Raven', by Edgar Allen Poe. The original is kind of depressing, but it's pretty famous." He shrugs, then. "As to personnel problems... Well, a lot of people just want to live their own lives. With our current jobs and the way the worlds are right now, it's not safe to be a part of the TDA." He then grins. "Then again, you can't succeed if you don't take risks, right? Hiding under a bed doesn't solve anything. Besides, it's more exciting this way."

Riku has posed:
"Yes." Riku agrees softly. "It's better to be out here than hiding." he raises an eyebrow at Diablo but just smiles at the raven 'chuuurs' and settles down on Mercade's head, chewing at his hair.

"I'm not in Manhattan all that often, but I'd be glad to help you out if I can. You working on anything right now?"

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade nods, seemingly content with letting the raven nest on top of his messy hair. It's not like he's going to make it any /more/ messy. "As a matter of fact, I am." He smiles. "There's a couple of things I'm working on." He reaches into his coat and holds up a picture of a robed woman. "The Heartless seem really intent on catching this woman. They showed up at the Coliseum in Traverse Town en masse in order to try to capture her, but were beaten back. She ran off before anyone could talk to her afterwards. She seems a bit jumpy. I know I would probably be jumpy too if they were specifically targeting me." He shrugs at that. "I'm trying to find her so we can find out why that's happening. She's special somehow but I have no idea why."

He then looks down at his copious notes in Mercade's custom shorthand. "Also, I'm trying to look for ways to slow down or stop the Heartless. The thing that keeps coming up over and over again is the Keyblade. I met that Sora kid, but..." Mercade shrugs. "He didn't seem very interested in helping. But maybe if more can be found out about the Keyblade, we might be able to determine why it's so effective... Or maybe find more of them or something. Can't just depend on him to save everything even if he did luck into the secret weapon, you know?"

Riku has posed:
"He didn't seem interested in helping?" Riku repeats that sentence with faint incredulity. Diablo gives the teenager what can only be determined in raven as a knowing smirk from his perch. Riku scans the picture, taking in the image of the woman.

"The Coliseum huh? I wonder what she was doing there." he rubs the back of his neck, relaxing his shoulders as they begin to tense while Mercade continues. "Keyblade huh? Hm" he pauses, fingers drumming against his leg.

"Maybe it's a theme of some kind. I don't know what Sora's doing with it, but maybe there are more. Maybe-- there's a reason it keeps coming up again. Something to do with the culture like that poem you talked about. Is there any significance to keys here in Manhattan?

Mercade Alexander has posed:
"Yeah, seems he was worried about finding his friend. He didn't tell me who it was, but..." He shrugs. "Then he bailed on an airship from Fluorgis. Maybe he's following around those Shard Seekers or something, or maybe that girl Kairi. Whichever."

Mercade rubs his chin, leaning back and not seeing from his vantage point that Diablo happens to be a little more intelligent than he first expected. "I checked into the guy she left with. Jean Faraven, a tough mercenary from Balamb. Maybe she hired him for protection. It seems to be the most fitting option here."

Mercade flips through his pages. "Keys and locks have a lot of symbolism in themselves. Freedom and bondage. Safety and access. There's even an old tradition that every city would have a key that is a mark of great honor, giving them access to anywhere they would want to go there." He smirks. "It's obviously a lot more ceremonial than that these days, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was more literal in ancient times."

Riku has posed:
Riku nods. "Huh. Well-- maybe he'll find her. Whose to say. I hope so." he glances at Diablo, who stares back at Riku with the same lack of expression. "Well. I think I've heard of Jean Faraven but I don't think I've seen this girl before. No doubt she'll be safe at the Garden, at least for a time. They are doing regular patrols to fend off the heartless and explore the surrounding territory." he leans against the bench, crossing his arms as he looks over the information.

"There's got to be some clue here. Keyblades. A mark of honor in every city. A key to every city." he snorts faintly. "But this city doesn't have a gate, or-- walls, for that matter.. unless you count skyscrapers."

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade snorts. "They wouldn't even let me in last time I went to the Garden. However they want to handle it, I guess."

Mercade nods, leaning in over the folder he's been working with. Diablo might need to move a little to prevent himself from sliding off. "It's important, sure. But how? I mean, New York hasn't had walls for ages. But there's all kinds of symbolism going on here. I'm just not sure what I should be looking for. I don't want to go chasing off into some stupid crystal-waving theory about this, I look silly enough as it is. That's why I'm trying to pull up facts. But they're hard to get. Seems like no one really wants to talk if they do know."

Riku has posed:
The raven hops off Mercade's head, shuffling along the back of the bench to peer with one eye and then the other at what Mercade is leaning over. "So.. I'm guessing crystal waving is frowned upon here." Riku brings out his journal, flipping it open. "That's valuable information right there." he smirks, opening the journal to a map of manhattan. Sandwiched between the pages is a number of sheets of paper.

Riku glances at them briefly, then flips past them to a map of manhattan. " That reminds me.. have you seen any more of those heartless coins?" he digs into his pocket, retrieving one of the coins from the casino run by same owner of heartless.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Diablo sees a number of sketches of Heartless and the Keyblade, with a lot of notes in a shorthand form Mercade designed himself. It could be figured out, of course, but to a casual observer it'd be mostly gibberish. "Nah, there's always people like that. But I... I don't get magic. I want things to make sense. Everything happens for a reason, and I need to put together a logical flow from point A to point B. That way people can understand it even if I'm not the one who has to use the information." Mercade replies. "These people here... They want to live a normal life again. They don't want to wonder if they or their family is going to get eaten by Heartless. They want to walk the streets again in relative peace. They might not be fighting, but they want to know why this is happening. 'Why us?' is the question you see in the eyes of anyone here. And if people can get those answers, maybe it will help them sleep better at night."

The Detective leans back against the bench, sighing for a moment... And then he flicks his eyes over to that coin, and his eyes narrow. "Yeah, I've seen a lot of those coins. The Casino GOLD, run by the Mistress of Games. I tried to bait her out to get some information on the Heartless but she wouldn't bite. She took my hat." From his tone, apparently his hat meant a lot to him.

Riku has posed:
"To tell you the truth, I don't get magic either. It's.. complicated." Riku flips the coin up in the air and catches it. "But I saw some Heartless spreadng these around as I was passing through Costa Del Sol. Maybe whoever she is has set herself up again. I was wondering who it was that snatched your hat." he pockets the coin, looking fown at the notes and sketches. Diablo shuffles back over to Riku, reaching over to climb back onto his shoulder and settle there.

"I'll check around here and tell you if I find anything relating to the keyblades. I'll drop a note by the office or something." he smiles. "It might as well be used for something."

Mercade Alexander has posed:
"Costa Del Sol?!" Mercade says, grimacing. "Resort town on the beach, lots of idle people with money. It'd make sense. Perfect place for someone like her. I'll check it out." He glances over to Riku. "Be careful with that coin. The Mistress of Games is the kind of person who tries to get you to bet your soul." He nods at the offer. "Awesome. Thank you for your help, Riku. I appreciate it. Is there anything I could do for you? Besides find Kairi, of course. Still working on that one." He frowns. "We'll find her eventually. Don't worry."

Riku has posed:
"We will." Riku says firmly, although his smile becomes rather strained as he says this. "We'll find her." Diablo makes a low warning warble and Riku rolls his eyes, face relaxing. "Alright Dee. Whatever you say." he gets up from the bench. " As to what you can do for me." he pauses, then grins. "Don't make a habit of investigating solo. Like you said.. people who take bets against their soul and the souls of others are dangerously volatile." he stretches gingerly, then gestures down the street.

"I'm going to grab something to eat and get something for his highness before he starts taking a bite out of my ear. You take care, Mercade."

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade nods at the suggestion. "I'll make sure to bring someone with me. You're right, it's dangerous out there and we all need people to watch our backs sometimes. Enjoy the Manhattan nightlife, Riku. Plenty around here to do and see. Good luck with your friend, he looks hungry." He chuckles. "See you later, Dee." Mercade waves as the pair depart.