Preservation

Preservation
Date of Scene:	30 December 2012
Location:	Hollow Bastion - Courtyard
Synopsis:	Riku encounters Ember as she escapes back to Hollow Bastion after her kidnap of Maira comes to a climax with unexpected results and failure. He offers some explanations and tries to inflict common sense on her. The Horrors.
Cast of Characters:	Riku, Ember

---

Ember has posed:
Fate has been unkind to Ember recently..Not only did her plan fail miserably, but Angantyr had managed to violently attack her, slicing through her armour and leaving a long scar down her back as she stumbled through the portal and to safety.

It is here, in the castle courtyard that Ember opens a portal of darkness and stumbles through, falling to one knee as pieces of her armour fall to the ground. "D-damit!" She growls as she glances over her shoulder, half expecting that insane mad man to follow after her.

Fortunately, the portal snaps shut before anyone else can follow. What fools they were, such blind fools..And yet she had sensed the darkness starting to form in Avira's heart. Perhaps it was not so much in vain..

"Seith..Where are you, dammit? You called me away from there..." Again, someone tried to step in and stop her from fighting him. Was she really not ready to take him on? ugh, how..frustrating!

Riku has posed:
Riku actually feels good about being-- in this disguise(?) for the first time in awhile. After a surprisingly amusing talk with Captain Baigan and Lady Melody, he returned here and, as always, slept peacefully. The troubled sleep he gets outside of these walls, while no longer full of nightmares, is not particularly restful and one of the reasons his alter ego stays on their feet for such long hours of the day.

As such, Riku is feeling almost cautiously cheerful as he walks across the courtyard towards the arch leading out of the castle. He is stopped from his wanderings by Ember, who seems to have gotten herself into trouble.

He takes several long strides, digging into his jacket and extracting a Hipotion from his supplies. Not taking or at least cheating in the way of money is going to end up hurting him severely-- but she looks like she could use it more than he could (unless Reize lands on him again-- ugh)

Riku shakes away the dour memory. "Here. Are you alright?"

Ember has posed:
Ember clutches her midsection, feeling the blood ooze through the armour. But seeing Seith in this condition would be highly embarrasing, considering she was trying to impress him..Of course seeing Riku in this situation was almost as bad. She didnt like to be seen as weak around other shadow lords, certainly not the most powerful of them all.

"Riku, hey.." She forces a smile through gritted teeth, rising slowly to her feet and taking the hipotion gratefully. "Thanks..I'll be fine.." She chuckles, shaking her head, "Just a run-in with that traitor, Angantyr..." Ember doesn't hesitate to drink the potion, feeling its effects almost instantly as it seals the wounds..Guh, but she's gonna need to repair this armour soon and clean up.

"I dont get it..That guy, swathed in darkness, yet fighting for the good guys. I guess now he and Avira are out for my life. Figures..I guess I'll need to get stronger by then if I need to take' em both on.." She sighs, glancing back at him. How does he do it, appearing so cool and collected all the time? Just..A kid..She wishes she could be that collected. That..Powerful. And yet Ember cant shake the uneasy memory of what happened last time they met..

Riku has posed:
"Let's get you cleaned up." is all Riku says to her for now, his face shadowed with concern as he follows after her across the courtyard. After a few steps, he asks.

"Can you tell me what happened? Believe me-- if you've gotten on the wrong side of that guy, you are lucky to have survived. I've met him once or twice before and-- it's never gone very well for me."

Ember has posed:
Ember nods as she follows after him. "Yeah.." She frowns, "I dont get it though, I thought Angantyr was Garland's student, so why does he fight for the heroes and train with a Shadow Lord?"

A shrug as she continues with her story, "Well actually I wasn't picking a fight with him. I've been watching Avira closely recently..But ever since the fall of Manhattan and her recent mutation into a creature that seems more aligned with darkness, sh'es grown even more powerful..But she's also openly declared a war on Shadow Lords from now on.."

She sighs, shaking her head, "I really admire Avira, but I thought maybe I could recruit her to join me, working for the Shadow Lords where I'm sure her skills would be put to better use. I know shse's close to Maira too, so I kidnapped Maira and told Avira to come alone to meet me. I put her through a series of tests to see how she would fare and to encourage her to give in to the darkness in her heart. The last test however..."

She smiles darkly, "The last test was to witness the death of her best friend Maira. An ingenious plan put together by LEXUS and Seith. Unfortunately it seems some of her friends came along for the ride. Jasmine, and Angantyr. Angantyr was furious, naturally. So was Avira, they both tried to attack me, before Maira's ghost friend popped up and revealed to them the illusion, that Maira was alive...I was SO close! I barely escaped with my life, but not before Angantyr summoned all his strength and attacked me brutaly. I guess the only thing stopping him from following me was realizing Maira was still alive, that it was all just a trick, a test..But both of them nearly were lost to the darkness, before Seith called me back.."

And now she has just the scars as a reminder of her failure.

Riku has posed:
Riku takes them through the corridors, listening to the story with a complete lack of expression. He occasionally looks away from her, down corridors or up at the ceiling but he doesn't meet her eyes again until silence has fallen between them. He has dropped back a little to walk beside her instead of in front of behind.

"So." he pronounces softly after the silence becomes uncomfortable. "You didn't listen to a word I said, did you?" he walks a few more paces. "You, alone-- thought you would take on Angantyr, Garland's apprentice. Avira and Jasmine. --Any one of which could clean the floor with me separately, let alone together and seriously pissed off." he shakes his head in absolute amazement.

"You then proceeded to use ham handed tactics and illusions to try and brute force someone to fall. You didn't bother with restraint." he pauses, then asks. "Are you sure LEXUS and Seith are not trying to get rid of you, Ember? Because it seems you barely escaped with your life."

Ember has posed:
Ember frowns a bit, "Wait a minute, I wasnt expecting those other two to be there. It was only supposed to be me and Avira. They showed up unexpectedly, dont you see?"

She sighs, shaking her head, "But I guess that's what..Friends do, huh? They're always there for each other. As for Seith, that's probably why he pulled me out. there's no way he and LEXUS would be trying to get rid of me. So far, they've only been trying to help me...Haven't they?"

However, Ember folds her arms, trying to think this through, Something certainly wasn't quite right. "Even so, they must have known those other two would come to her rescue...Ugh..what a mess.." But, I only wanted to impress them, she thinks, clenching her fists.

Riku has posed:
"They show up, and you... you--stay." Riku looks at Ember curiously, crossing his arms as he turns to face her. "You stay and-- Look. I gave you that number for a reason, and it's because the heroes have something going for them. They trust eachother and come to the rescue." he shakes his head as if in denial to some mental thought.

"I'm not even expecting that. What I am expecting is a little bit of thought before actions. I could have helped you Ember but you didn't even have the sense to pull your own bacon out of the fire." he enuciates /very/ clearly. "You could have died. What did you plan to earn yourself by causing Avira to fall? Do you think she would have thanked you? Do you think afterwards, she and you could have gone shopping?"

He shakes his head. "People who fall like that break up inside like razor glass. Do you think some crazy person who hates themselves, hates others, is nothing but sharp edges is going to be of any use?" he tries to frame this very carefully, shifting his weight.

"The best you can do is just-- point them at a problem, without help or instruction.. and see if they destroy whatever they are pointed at before they expire"

Ember has posed:
Ember bites her lip. Was she too rash? Could she have really relied on this Riku for help? After what happened, she's not sure she can trust anyone - shadow lord or not. "Hmm, that's too bad, no one came when I called for backup, but.." She sighs.

What he seems to suggest causes her frown to deepen. She shakes her head, "what, are you saying? That I should just run away any time something gets a bit hairy? I cant be a coward! However, I'll just have to plan more carefully next time..I suppose you might be right, being a bit more...Subtle, huh?" she smirks.

Unfortunately, subtlety is not her nature, usually. But seeing as she almost got herself killed, and no one came to help her...."Fine, I'll try it your way..Next time. But maybe I wont take advice from LEXUS again either. If you're right, if he really WAS trying to do me in..Although I wonder why he would do that? Turning against one of his own. I guess there are people in Hollow Bastion I cant even trust.."

Riku has posed:
Riku sighs. "Because you seemingly have no sense of self-preservation. You don't run away when you should. you throw trust and coward and darkness around like they were pocket change.

"It looks like he should be starting to get angry, but instead he just looks tired. He shakes hie head. Finally, he seems to have just become exhausted by this whole conversation.

"Go get cleaned up, Ember." he says as he turns away from her. "I'll see you later, okay?"