Desert Wanderer

Desert Wanderer
Date of Scene:	20 December 2012
Location:	Dalamascan Sands
Synopsis:	Riku wandering in a fugue-state and half in and out of reality comes upon Cirra Constantine who searches for signs of the boy who destroyed Manhattan, and finds only a lost soul in need of shelter.
Cast of Characters:	Riku, Cirra Constantine

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Cirra Constantine has posed:
The Dalmascan sands. At a distance they look empty, barren, lonely.

But when you look closelyly, life moves under the sand. Brush may look withreed and dried out, but it's just waiting for the sparse rains. Predator and prey play the long game, trying to outlast each other in the heat while conserving energy. Waiting for the other to fall to the ravages of dehydration.

Cirra Constantine, Judge of Archadia has been stationed in Rabanastre just long enough that she's strarting to see the tip of this metaphorical iceburge. The silver haired woman stands atop a mesa, looking donw on the sands. No Judge armor, even her endurance would refer not to deal with being in a walking oven out here.

Instead, Cirra looks through a spyglass, searchign for signs of passage by man or beast.

Well, beast that was a man, but she's sure convinced Angantyr to mvoe further away.

Riku has posed:
The sands flow in a rhythm as constant as the seasons. The dance of predator and prey continues. The heat bakes the air and causes shimmering patches of distortion to curl the air. As the withered scrub that clings to the shadowsides of the surrounding Mesas fall away to an ocean of sand, there is movement.

Through the spyglass, it can be detected as no flash of monster or flurry of startled animals scattering for cover. They are a humanoid shape and wrapped in desert clothing. They walk across the sand with a slightly staggering and uneven gait. Perhaps they have been walking a long time, or they are unaccustomed to desert terrain.

In any case their feet catch but their movement never stops, as if they seek to run down the far distant horizon until they either catch it or expire.

The figure looks neither left nor right and seems disconnected from the scenery.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra looks away fromthe spyglass a moment, blinking against the desert sun then looks through it again. A person? Taking a route like that through the Dalmascan desert? And they don't look to be in the best condition either.

Cirra puts away the spyglass and pulls her own cloak tighter about her body as she turns and begins her trek down the Mesa. It wouldn't do to report finding someone dead of heatstroke when she can possibly do something about it.

She climbs down the cliff face, still able to move spryly in the heat - Dr. Bunansa's doing - and when she reaches the bottom she takes off briskly towards where she saw the lone figure.

Riku has posed:
In the vastness, the figure can be seen for quite some distance as little moves in this heat wrapped landscape unless absolutely neccessary. Several pillars of wind eroded sand pierce the general formlessness of the desert, a hot and arid wind stirring up the sand into small swirling storms that contrive with the baking heat to lend an air of unreality to the surroundings.

The figure staggers slowly across the sand between the two pillars, boots chuffing through the shimmering desert in a mechanical churning of sand. The figure was human, pulling the hood away and looking over the desert terrain as they stopped at the base of one of the eroding pillars.

Riku looked blankly out at the wind whipped sands, eyes squinting in the blazing harshness but searching-- as if trying to drink every inch of it in at once. Sweat dripped down the side of his face as he went to retrieve a canteen from his belt.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
The sands are a strength sapping trap for anyone, Cirra is reminded of this as she struggles with her footing on a dune. She pitches forward, catching herself with oen hand and continues the climb upwards. If it's this hard for her, many people must find it impassable.

The Judge crests over the sandy hill, wind whipping trails of fine dust off its peak. There she looks down betweent he two pillars, her own hood concealing her face as the beating sun frames her from behind. She sees down between the two erroded pillars and the young man standing there.

Her head tilts up slightly as she sees him. Him. Her eyes widen slightly, but she doesn't yell or shout.

Riku has posed:
Riku takes a small drink from the canteen, rubbing at the side of his face with his sleeve. This turns out to be a mistake as it plasters fine grit across his sweat soaked face and grinds it across his already raw flesh. He grimaces faintly but doesn't seem to really be paying attention. "I could always try again." he tells himself with the weariness of someone who is too tired to realize they are talking out loud.

"Maybe I won't dump myself in the desert this time." he snorts very faintly. "yeah. I'll switch back to the ocean." Riku sighs, leaning against the pillar and lingering in the shade that it provides. He stares into the distant desert, eyes hollow and abstracted as if the person behind them had abruptly left to attend to something else.

He stops moving, becoming completely still as he leans against the pillar with the closed canteen hanging limp in his hands.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Unseen, Cirra stands there for a moment and considers what to do. She met him once before the fall of Manhattan. He seemed like two completely different persons. One was this confident, almsot aroogent man that brought the ruin of a city. The other seemed like a lost young man, vulnerable.

Like how he looks now.

Mind made up, Cirra begins sliding down the dune and short sprays of sand, coming out at the bottom in a short run untill she can regain her balance and comes up to Riku. Does he not see her? Has he passed out against that pillar?

She gathers up one hand in a fist and moves forward, determination set in her eyes.

And a hand clasps Riku's.

"You need to change directions. If you go this way, you'll fall into the sandsea."

Riku has posed:
Riku stops walking when he is physically stopped. However he continues to stand there, inactivated by a broken doll until the vacant, fugue-like stare leaves his eyes. Riku presses his lips together in the beginnings of a frown as he looks up at Cirra.

Searching. His eyes piercing and gaze questioning. He breaks that intense gaze for a moment to look back down at the canteen, he puts it away before looking back towards Cirra. "I see." he smiles slightly at his own words. "or.. actually, I don't. Thank you." he looks out across the trackless expanse with an almost painful longing before his eyes track back to her.

"Is this a draw weapons moment?" His voice is not exactly resigned, it is like the stare. Asking an unasked question.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra turns her head as she sees Riku's gaze, she's not sure what to make of it, or of what he says. Is he blind? She lets go of his hand.

"No." She says as she looks at him. "If it was, why would I bother stopping you? If I wanted to fight you, in the state your in I could have just dropped from one of the pillars-" she realizes this not exactly a good line of conversation.

"I mean." she straightens herself. "No, no it isn't."

Riku has posed:
Riku laughs very softly. His shoulders shake and he tilts his head down towards the sand. He blinks hard several times before slowly raising his head back towards her.

" That's good. Then I suppose I should ask for your name?" he pauses, going into that distracted fugue again for a few seconds. "Ah. --yes. I don't think we had any time before, and I was distracted and somewhat not myself." he smiles wryly at that last part.

"This not being any excuse, really. My name's Riku. Can I ask where I am? --Pretty much any desert is the same to me."

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra seems slightly off guard at the laughing. Possibly because she's still trying to sort out the Riku from the TDA from the one in Manhattan's vault. "Uhm, no. No we didn't. I'm Cirra Constantine."

Cirra seems to be trying to sort out what the fugue state is. "This is the Dalmascan Westersands, near Rabanastre. I saw you heading further west towards the sandsea. It's not actually water, just very fine sand. Theres no way to swim in it."

Riku has posed:
"Oh?" Riku seems genuinely interested in this. "Is there any way to cross it?" Riku turns away from her to look back across the distance at the vastness that stretches off to the west. He watches the subtle bob and weave of the sand as another gust of wind plays across the seemingly endless stretches of fine sand, small 'waves' rippling from the distant dunes.

"No.. I suppose not. Dalmasca, huh?" he tilts his head slightly to the side as if trying to place something. He nods very slowly. "Ah. I think-- I think I've been there once or twice. I've been walking most of the morning but haven't seen anything like civilization." Riku smiles very slightly and with a fatalistic wryness, he murmurs. "Shows what I know."

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Hmmn. "There are airships, but the natives to the area are... unfriendly. I wouldn't risk it." Cirra says. "This part of the desert is confusing." She examiens Riku's weather beaten face. "How did you get lo-" she pulls back a little, realizing that she had closed the distance. "Get lost out here..." she ahems.

"...Rabanastre is back the other way and to the east." she considers asking about Manhattan, maybe when they aren't in the middle of the desert.

Riku has posed:
"Oh. I've been lost for some time now." Riku responds, still giving that intense and searching stare whenever he meets Cirra's eyes. He seems oblivious to her closing the distance, his voice and manner as still and becalmed as a subterranean pool.

He looks past her and around, trying to orient himself towards the east and Rabanastre. He twists a hand, a black staff materializing that he uses to lean heavily against. He sways against it, grinding the pole into the earth. "May I ask what you are doing out here? Not that I'm not grateful." again the small laugh. "I don't think I would have liked getting sand up my nose." He points with the staff towards the east.

"..I suppose we should start moving? Or maybe you know a place that will better shelter? I wouldn't want to stand here and talk to me either in that armor."

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra meets Riku's intense gaze with one of born from someone used to carrying duty on their shoulders, but is currently mixed with sometihng like concern, maybe even worry. Not necessarily for the one she's looking at.

She blinks at the pole appearing. Well, he maybe using it as a walking stick, but it's still a weapon in the right hands. She doesn't seem like the kind to laugh a lot. THe mention of her armor though gets a reaction out of her. "It's... not as bad as it looks. I just drew the short straw on scout duty." Lie. "Theres a Hunter's refuge not far away from here, you can rest there." well that much is true.

Riku has posed:
Riku nods, gesturing for her to lead the way with the staff as he looks out over the desert. He slowly comes to a standstill, eyes slightly glazed. What he is looking into or at doesn't seem to be immediately obvious because a long minute, then another, then another passes without him either moving or speaking.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra nods at the single to lead the way and starts off in the direction she mentioned. She takes a few strides forward and looks over her shoulder to see Riku in that Fugue state again. Thats...a problem and she's getting on edge about it.

Turning back around, Cirra reaches out and takes Riku's shoulder. "Hey...hey!" she raises her voice. He could have sunstroke, or something...else.

Riku has posed:
Riku tilts his head slightly down, beginning to walk across the desert sand in the direction that Cirra has gone without seeming to notice the discontinuity of her being right in front of him and her being a few strides away, and now her with her hand on his shoulder.

Riku traces the line of her hand up her arm to her shoulder and then up to her face again with a vaguely annoyed expression. "Anything else?" he asks curiously. "You said it wasn't very far away." He tries to gently disengage her hand using the staff.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
The Judge moves her head slightly as Riku's hand touches her face. Something is clearly wrong with the young man, but she can figure out exactly what it is. Her hand is easily released from his shoulder. "It isn't far." she searches Riku's expression for some indicator of whats wrong, but she doens't now him well enough.

"But if you think you have heat stroke, I can carry you there."

Riku has posed:
"Heat stroke?" Riku asks, genuinely confused, but shakes his head as if to negate his own question. He seems to lose interest in the answer while whatever he is searching for is on his mind. He reorients himself and gestures again with the staff, following Cirra towards the refuge. "Nevermind. I'm not a sack of potatoes, thank you."

Cirra Constantine has posed:
No you're not. Cirra thinks to herself. a sack of potatoes would be mroe likely to spill the beans then you.

Cirra sighs, "Of course not. It's this way." and she starts leading Riku to the hunter's refuge through the snds, though this time she keeps a much closer eye on him, glancing over her shoulder once every few minutes.

Riku has posed:
Despite his lack of similarity to a poorly tied sack of beans, Riku does not slip again into another trance as they make their way towards their destination.

Every so often he asks a question about the landscape or about Rabanastre. About the people there. He does not ask anything of Cirra that she does not volunteer, just continues asking about the city and then falling into long silences.

Several monstrous predators peer out of cracks in the terrain, something scuttering away through the withered and crackling heath. Riku gets his cloak caught several times by the low lying scrub, untangling the edge and gathering it around himself as he tries to keep up.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra watches those predators with warning eye, normally she'd have to fend a few off, but they seem content to leave them alone. She speaks about Rabanastre though, it is a lively city with markets and a hardy people, though she is from the Empire whom their ruler abdicated too.

Eventually, Cirra comes up to a rocky mesa wall and walks behind a small outcropping. She pushes against something and frowns.

She then lifts up her foot and with a *THOOMP* boots in what was a false rockface. "Hunters are allways getting fancy..." she mutters.

Inside the cave is much cooler and dark. Wooden boards afixed to the cave floor to make a more or less even surface.

Cirra moves across the room and takes a lamp off the shelf, she takes a set of matches next to it and lifts up the guard. She strikes the match and lights the wick before closing hte glass guard. "It's not much, but it's better then being out there."

Riku has posed:
Riku nods, taking in a deep breath and coughing as he's not prepared for the cooler air of the refuge. He also loses the glazed, squinting look of vague pain that he had picked up the last distance to the refuge.

Riku rubs at his eyes, stripping the coat away and folding it up neatly to place on the ground. He murmurs. "Everybody has to protect to their home somehow." as he looks towards Cirra and the lamp. He gently eases himself down onto his cloak, sitting up against the wall with his knees pulled up and his hands resting on them. "and yes.. It's much better."

Cirra Constantine has posed:
The lamp isn't great, it barely lights the room. "I'm not sure this is a home." she glances around. There isn't much other then bare survival necesscities. "More like a storm shelter." She turns back to the door and pushes it closed, light only just peeking through it's edges.

Cirra then settles down on the floor, knees pulled up to her chest. She examiens Riku from where she sits, he looks better already. Was it heat stroke? Hmn.

Riku has posed:
The lamp does cast a number of flickering shadows against the walls. They seem to twist slightly as Riku gestures and shrugs.

"Shelter. Home.. It's a place where it is Safe Enough." he says these two words with faint emphasis, clawed fingers tapping very lightly against the wooden boards while the wind moans outside the shelter built into the Mesa. "Which I suppose is all anybody can really expect."

Cirra Constantine has posed:
The flickering light of the lamp casts shadows over Cirra's face as she looks t Riku from where she sits. She keeps watching him for any sign of the person that was in the vault under Manhattan. The bearing just seems completely different. How could this be the person that sank a city into darkness?

She pulls her hood down and dusts herself off. "Safe Enough." she repeats.

"I always just thought of Home where I was supposed to stay for more then a few days." THe lamp flickers heavily, casting dark shadows over her eyes.

Riku has posed:
The lamp flickering makes the shadows shiver inside the storm shelter. Riku gestures and the shadows dance again in time with the movement.

He doesn't seem to be aware of this, turning half lidded eyes on Cirra and staring straight through her. He frowns very slightly, asking with a faint tinge of curiosity. "You move around a lot?"

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Eyes are drawn to the flickering shadows. Was that the lamp? Cirra's eyes move back to Riku. She considers how much to tell him. She frowns a little.

"My home was burned down. After that I lived in the Acdemy and wherever I was sent." she shrugs her shoulders. "So yes, I move around a lot."

Riku has posed:
Riku looks at her, continuing to give that piercing stare that alternates between being abstracted and confused and attempting to draw everything in at once.

"I see." he murmurs, head dropping slowly towards his chest. The wind picks up outside, starting to howl mournfully against the Mesa exterior. "What was the Academy like?"

Cirra Constantine has posed:
The wind outside is like some low brass instrument as it hols outside. Cirra's red eyes meet the piercing stare for the time it looks at her until it drops away.

"Difficult."

"I wanted to be a Dark Knight but I was already so good at being a Rune Knight, everyone thought I was just angry..."

Riku has posed:
Riku moves his stare upwards towards the ceiling. The shadows there are starting to flicker like flames as the lamp light gutters further.

Seemingly hypnotized by the sight, he continues to stare at the ceiling abstractedly. A small lizard crawls through the sand, wiggling through a small imperfection inbetween wall and the boards.

The shadow flames begin to crawl down from the ceiling, flickering across the edges of the walls as Riku continues to stare. "..just angry at what?"

Cirra Constantine has posed:
"At Nabradia." An edge does creep into her voice. "The ones responsible for sacking my home." Eyes move to follow that lizard. She decides to leave out further details. "And I was, but thats not the only reason I wanted the path of Dark Knight."

"You can't defend anything when you have no strength, wehn all you can do is watch."

Riku has posed:
"When is it enough?" Riku seems to become interested in the conversation instead of drifting. The shadow flames become more pronounced as Riku seems to come briefly back into reality.

"When is the strength enough that you will stop watching evil things happen? Because usually.. strength is only useful after it is too late."

Cirra Constantine has posed:
"When you can be there to stop it." Cirra's voice regains the edge it had a moment ago. "I can be there to defend Archadia, and Rabanstre now." the flame of the lantern sputters and burns brighter.

"I was was there defending Manh-...." Cirra settles down slowly. "At Manhattan." she looks at Riku for a long time, then looks away.

"It wasn't enough. It's gone."

Riku has posed:
"No." Riku says simply in agreement, eying the lizard as it scurries across the wooden paneling.

The wind outside has jacked up to a full throated scream. Sand sifts through the cracks in the refuge as fine particles "It wasn't enough."

There is a pause, then he raises an eyebrow in curiosity. "What are you doing to stop it from happening again? This seems.. rather remote."

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra's stare becomes withering. "I have responsibilities to attend and orders from my superiors to carry out."

"And in this remote place there was a monster attacking animals and injuring people. I drove it away. It may not have been a Heartless but it was still dangerous."

"I don't know anything about the Heartless or how they come to be. Theres something different about the darkness that spawns them. It's not like what I learned as a Dark Knight."

Riku has posed:
"Ah. Responsibilities." is what Riku responds to her. It is neither mocking nor particularly approving. He is simply agreeing with her while appearing to be rather disconnected from the situation.

Riku stares at the ground for several long minutes before reanimating. He nods slowly, asking. "What do you want to know about the heartless?" he pauses, then offers. "Perhaps we can exchange information."

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Riku's sheer ambivalance is what makes Cirra finally flinch. She's used to being...Judged for what she is, but she didn't tell the whole story yet, maybe thats for the best. She looks at the wooden floor and pulls her legs clsoer to her chest.

When she speaks again, it's slow and purposfull. "Where do they come from? I know rumors but sorting fact from fiction is nearly impossible. Are they being controlled? The Machine entity in Manhattan seemed to command them."

"And you..." she looks back up at Riku. "You were there, but I don't think you're the same eprson I saw then."

Riku has posed:
"Tell me why your defended Manhattan." Riku urges softly, the shadowy flames now dancing along the walls a little above head height.

He draws patterns in the floor with two fingers, scratching the wood with a faint but protracted scrape as the wind howls outside. The lizard darts back towards the safety of it's hole, disappearing. "Was it because you had friends from there?"

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra watches as Riku draws on the wooden floor, and thinks about the question.

"I'm not sure if Mercade or will are my friends. I've just kept running into them, thats all." The wind whips pwoerfully against the door into the refuge, shuddering it.

"...Because if Manhattan fell into Darkness, then it's the same as my home burning down. Everything for so many people just gone. Whatever anyone says about Archadia or the Judges, I remember."

"I remember what it was like when it was me in that position."

Riku has posed:
Riku nods. "So it was personal to you somehow." he seems to be able to accept this answer, because the shadowy flames still between one flicker of the lamp and the next. The shadows return to being just that and no longer seem to move on their own.

"The Heartless come from a realm of darkness. It is dark there.. and cold.. but the worlds that can taken there are asleep." he pauses. "At least that is what I have heard." he smiles very thinly. "LEXUS controls some of them. They are.." he thinks about the question. "Fragments. Echoes. They want the light so badly because they are empty, and they need to be complete again. Anybody with a strong enough will can command them. Most of them are nearly mindless."

Riku smiles wryly, a moment of genuine humor on his face. "Others only tend towards dazing moments of heatstroke."

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra looks up as the shadows suddenly still, the mood of the room changing. That /was/ just the lamp light, right?

"Empty?" Then the name sin't just metaphorical. "You make them sound desperate." Mindless monsteres commanded by a strong will. cirra narrows her eyes as the wind seems to calm down outside.

When Riku laughs, she just looks up, a genuinely perplexed and puzzeled look on her face.

Riku has posed:
"Desperate." Riku nods slowly in agreement. "Yes. Very much so. Tell me-- What exactly is a dark knight anyways? I have only heard bits and pieces myself and my experiences are-- somewhat conflicting."

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Asked a question, Cirra stares ahead for a moment as she catches up with the change in the conversation and tone. "Uhm... Well. It differes a little from different countries, but in general we command the darkness in nature to increase our strength and fighting power. Some use it for spells."

"I've heard Baron makes their Dark Knightss carry cursed weapons, ones that push them to more destructive impulses and wilder more aggressive fighting."

Riku has posed:
Riku raises an eyebrow. "You use the darkness but don't know anything about the heartless." again that tone of utter neutrality as he stops scratching at the wood panels when he has to painfully extract splinters of the old wood from his fingers.

"People are the same everywhere. And then.. not." he rests his head against the back of the mesa wall, listening to the wind howl outside and putting his hands in his lap.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
"It's been that way since long before the world of Ruin was created." Cirra frowns. "I was always told that Dark Knights of Archadia used the darknes between the stars, not that it birthed monsters. And we certainly don't use madness inducing weapons like Baron."

Cirra inhlaes through nose and lets out a short sigh. "Maybe we didn't know the truth about it."

Riku has posed:
"Maybe nobody does, and they make up what is good enough to be truth. Just like this place is good enough against sand, but probably not against the heartless."

Riku shrugs, slowly closing his eyes and letting his head drift towards his chest. "Who can say."

Cirra Constantine has posed:
"...Maybe." she pulls the desert cloak around herself and shifts her sitting position so her side is proped up agains the wall. "It's getting dark out."

"There are predators other then Heartless out there. It should hold against them." and closes her eyes.