Time To Come To Terms

Time To Come To Terms
Date of Scene:	02 February 2013
Location:	WildKat Cafe
Synopsis:	Avira catches Cronus and helps him with his issues.
Cast of Characters:	Avira, Cronus

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Cronus has posed:
Cronus has been laying low for a while now. If there are other VitaTek remnants about, he doesn't want to draw their attention to him, and frankly his buttwhupping was enough that he could barely move for weeks as it was, ordering food out rather than venturing outside. And once he did feel well enough to get his butt outside, even then he only really did so to grab the neccessities before isolating himself like a Hermit once more.

He's been drawn to the cafe. There's something about that barista that he likes. He usually comes in, orders a cup of coffee and a burger, takes a while to eat it, and then heads on out back home. He adjusts his schedule every so often though whethe this is an attempt to not be predictable or simply the habits of his stomach is unclear. He does come in at around 1, after most folks' lunch hours, and sits himself down in the chair, leaning back and closing his eyes.

"Hurggh." He says.

Avira has posed:
Guess who pays attention to the radio! Well, it's kind of hard not to, even in the midsts of busting some iBacon. The uniqueness of an iris shaped like an hourglass could not be denied. Though Avira had only encountered Cronus once beforehand, that impression and the knowledge of his deeds was enough to have him permanently seared into her memory.

The conclusion of the fight and saga with the Legions stood out pretty significantly in her mind too. Cronus had been spared-nay, born anew with his puppet strings cut. At least that's what Avira had hoped since he was no longer off murdering Dennous like he was "supposed" to.

Between training, Avira makes some time to check out the Wildkat Cafe in search of this mysterious man. She had to ask the waiters a few times to establish a pattern to optimize her time here and actually catch him. Her little detectiving pays off as she walks in now and, after a few moments, catches sight of the man.

She doesn't call out to him, quietly approaching and sitting down at his table. "Hey." When Cronus opens his eyes next, he'll find the scarred face of Avira looking back at him.

Cronus has posed:
'Hey'

Cronus wonders for a moment if he's going crazy/ier since he's pretty sure he heard someone say 'hey' to him. Was he born anew? Well he's not screaming or giggling like a crazy person. So that's a good sign. Her opens his eyes a couple moments after the 'Hey' and after a couple moments of that, recognition dawns on him. Must have made something of an impression if he remembers her after meeting her once while a variety of light explosions train bits and so on were being thrown into him.

"Oi." He says. "You're that woman from before." He says. He shifts from leaning backward to leaning forward. He's at a bit of a loss for a moment or two but eventually adds, "Hey."

Another pause, and then, "What brings you here? You gotta have something better to do than poking a beast's cage."

Born anew or not, he hasn't forgotten what he had done.

Avira has posed:
Avira waits patiently for Cronus to look up and open his eyes. Before going any further, she wanted to see those unusual eyes of his just to make sure that he was really the guy. If he recognizes her or not, well, she's not /banking/ on it but based on the words she exchanged with him, she had some hope that he would. Also her face is pretty distinctive with all those marks.

"Yeah, it's me." she says after Cronus acknowledges her. "My name's Avira. I'm with the Twilight Detective Agency."

She leans foward. "Heard you were around. I wanted to catch up and see how you were doing, is all."

Cronus has posed:
Cronus is confused. "You...wanted to see how /I/ was doing?" He stares, gaping for a moment, but he recovers quickly. "Name's familiar. Thought you were the top dog of VALKYRI." Of course, he also recognizes her from the fight but he didn't neccessarily know WHO she was. Just seemed like--Cronus cuts off the internal monologue there before he thinks what she seemed like.

"Nobody forced me to do any of that." He tells her. "Could've stopped any time. I won't pretend that I understand you guys, but why didn't you finish me off? Or thrown me into the clink?" He pauses and glances to one of the waiters, "You like burgers?" Without waiting for an answer he says, "Hey--two burgers, and a coffee, alright?"

Turning back to Avira he adds, "Well I'm feeling as shitty as I should be, alright?" He's still kind of a surly guy, and this is him being restrained about it. He has nothing against Avira. He might even like her.

Avira has posed:
"...yes?" she says with a hint of confusion, trying to decipher why he might be surprised about this. Besides that, the last time they met, they were trying to beat each other's faces in. "Oh, I am. I'm also a member of the TDA. Sort of. They pay me in pizza." she jokes, smiling in a disarming manner.

She leans back. "Prosecution in Traverse Town is a thing I don't pretend to know anything about. Could you really have stopped at any time? I'm going to be blunt, Cronus, they used you like a tool for some <GOOSEHONK> science project, then you got some idea in your head that your fate was sealed or some ridiculous thing like that-oh yeah, I love burgers." She pauses to glance over at the same waiter.

Avira folds her arms over her chest as she looks at him. "That's a pretty decent reaction. You're a pretty decent guy, Cronus."

Cronus has posed:
Cronus's expression sours at being called decent, almost as if it was an insult, but perhaps more accurately he just doesn't feel like that really applies to him right now.

"I still feel them...but they're not as tight. Doesn't really matter though," Cronus says. "Hell, could've let 'em kill me. But it doesn't matter. I hurt 'em and I laughed while doing it and when I knew they were real people I kept at it 'cause I was too afraid."

He pauses and adds, "You ever do that to someone? Someone who stood no chance, but you went ahead and did it anyway?"

"Figured I could become so strong it didn't matter."

Avira has posed:
"Hey don't give me that face." Avira huffs, seeing his reaction to being called decent. "I'm just sayin'. Right now, you're feeling like crap about what you did. You're not some soulless monster that feels no remorse."

She relaxes a little to listen to him speak, inwardly pleased that he's letting on to these things. Again it gives off a great sign of his own self-awareness in this whole scheme.

But that question tossed her way brings instant negative head-shaking. "No, if anything, I was on the other end of that equation. I'm not strong enough to...do whatever I want to people. Heh, guess that makes me coming out to talk to you even weirder." After that awkward moment, she hazards to ask, "Are you still afraid?"

Cronus has posed:
Cronus wasn't exactly expecting to be called out on his huffyface and for a moment after being called out on his huffyface, his huffyface gets double huffy. But it's brief, he sighs shortly after and admits, "Alright, alright, so I'm not the worst ever." Sometimes it's not what you say but the way you say it. Calling Cronus out on his grumpiness seems to have helped him relax on that subject.

The burgers arrive--Cronus gets coffee enough that they know to bring him one. How does Cronus even get the money to pay for these things? MAybe he's been punking some heartless for some spare munny, he is likely not getting living expense funds from arrested scientists and Abramson hasn't tried to make contact as far as anyone knows.

"Pretty weird." He smiles for a moment. "But eh--I wouldn't say you're weak. Power isn't what it's cracked up to be anyway. You draw people to you." And he doesn't just mean the cadre of folks that seem romantically interested. He looks at Avira--no, not really at Avira, but he seems to be trying to find those strings, to feel them out. But eventually he just shakes his head. "Well, you've certainly got guts. Comin' here and asking me all sortsa questions."

He thinks over that one. Is he still afraid?

"...Yeah." He admits. "...Between you and me--I was wrong about everything, and besides all that they want to give me another chance. That's all they kept talking about, how they wanted to help me. It was kind of disgusting. Being around me won't be good for them."

Avira has posed:
DOUBLE HUFFYFACE WHAT DOES IT MEAN

Avira's not going to question this guy's finances. There are plenty of ways to pick up some extra cash in Traverse Town if one is willing to do inane things like putting up posters or delivering letters. She will dig in to that burger with vigor, though, after offering up a 'thanks' in his direction. Training made her ravenous for delicious food.

"Aww." she offers after she's swallowed down a big chunk of burger. "Thanks. It's been rough getting there. Well, getting to not being weak."

He admits to being still afraid and wonders if that crazy Feige woman has been giving him problems. EVIL SCIENCE IS IMMORTAL after all. More accurately, though, he seems afraid to be around the Dennous. "I can see it..realizing that moment when you're wrong about everything, including what you thought'd happen. Then they're all cheerfully out to help you and suddenly nothing makes sense."

Reminded her a bit about the Will and Riku situation, come to think of it. "So you're going to keep avoiding them, then." Avira concludes. Cronos probably needed time (badum-ching!) to come to terms with being forgiven. "What else do you plan on doing with yourself?"

Cronus has posed:
Double huffyface, oh my god, double huffyface. It might even be a triple huffyface.

If Feige has been bothering Cronus, he's not bringing it up which, to be fair, is probably seriously in character for him. His desire to not drag people into his own problems is rather strong and Cronus aversion to receiving help is probably even stronger. But Avira seems to get him, so he allows himself a nod. IT's also entirely possible he has no idea Feige Abramson even exists. Evil Science Is Immortal, though.

"Yeah, got it in one. No wonder the TDA wants you."

But what does he plan on doing?

"...No idea." He admits. "Just been coming in here, eating, going back, staring at the ceiling..." He grunts lightly, yeah he's not very impressed with himself either at the moment.

Avira has posed:
If Feige had been bothering Cronus they'd all probably be hearing about it, like her appearance in the Hades Cup qualifications. Feige was NOISY. A confrontation between her and Cronus would be all over the news! Unless Cronus can secretly time-erase things.

After another bite of that burger, Avira laughs. "All I'm doing is listening. ...though I guess that's a pretty important detective skill." Avira signals a waiter over and requests a glass of ice water.

"Well for goodness sake, figure out something at least. You've got a life ahead of you now and I'm going to get pretty mad if you do nothing. One little tip though..." she leans forward and lowers her voice, "You might wanna skip Traverse Town. The Dennous are around this place a lot. Same goes for Fluorgis."

Cronus has posed:
If Feige assaulted Cronus that would be pretty obvious. Cronus has not shown any time erase abilities and, frankly, if he could he probably would've. That sort of thing was what he was working towards before everybody beat the hell out of him. It might even be purely beyond him.

"Yeah." He says. "Actually, some wandering might be good." He stands himself up, finishing off his coffee in a gulp and picking up his burger. He places some money down, it's enough to pay for both their meals and then some. Only true evil stiffs waiters. "Thanks for the tip. Take care of yourself and--" He pauses and then writes down a number on a small slip of paper and slides it over. "If you need anything." He tells her. Not that he's the sort of person who likes going out of his way for folks, but hey, he thinks he likes Avira and this conversation made him want to...do shit again, so it's the least he can do.

"Have a good one." He heads on out the door. Not very sociable.

TEN MINUTES LATER.

"Oh hello Cronus, Shida of the Network exclaims having found you."
"Mother <goosehonk>"