towerofanimus | (no subject)

Characters: Master Xehanort and open to anyone
Setting: Floor 29, either inside the maze or out (specify where in your reply please!)
Format: Starting prose, but will match whatever (HE JUST LIKES TO HEAR HIMSELF TALK)
Summary: Xehanort likes things that exercise his mind HEY THERE'S A NEW MAZE TIME TO SHOW IT WHO'S BOSS.
Warnings: LMAO IT'S XEHANORT. I'm so sorry forever. Also, your standard disclaimer applies.

The emergence of new floors was fascinating in its own way, and Xehanort had decided to waste no time in exploring what he could. The twenty-seventh floor had been exciting in its own right, something else to occupy his time outside of his research and explorations. However, stepping onto the twenty-ninth floor he was quite surprised to see another picturesque floor. He had never been one for horticulture - cultivating living things in such a fashion was more Eraqus' style. Still, he was able to appreciate the variety and arrangement of the flowers, but even more so was the specific borders of the hedges...

Now this was right up his alley. He was no stranger to hedge mazes, as some worlds used them quite extensively. He did enjoy the ever-changing labyrinths on the eighth floor, but the change of scenery would pleasant... and if there was a maze, there was an end, and what laid in wait at that end he needed to know. A grin cut across his face as he cleared his mind for the moment, preparing to count his steps, to become the master of this maze just as he was the master of everything else he set himself to.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Trying to get anything from the people who have already decided he is a terrible person is pointless, and he knows this. They just close up like shellfish when he's around, and while smashing them open to get at the soft meat is an amusing mental image of metaphor gone wrong, it's simply too unlike him. He'll learn their secrets other ways, and that's fine with him. In the end he'll have what he wants, whether they shared with him or not.]

It's hardly the best way, and perhaps not the correct way. At this point, the wound is gangrenous and putting a bandage over it does little but keep it closed and the pus from oozing out. There are measures to correct the damage and perhaps even save the limb, but those are hardly common knowledge...

[Though the look in his eye probably spells out the fact that he DOES in fact know how to do this.]

[It's hard not to see that look, to guess at its meaning - and even if that indicator hadn't existed, Riku would have guessed that Xehanort at very least fancied himself to know.

Admittedly, he is curious just what the right path to regaining the balance was, but he is not about to forget his reservations. Even though they might not show as much as before.]

Maybe not common... but hardly lost, right?

Apocrypha, uncovered after years of searching. Heresy to most light wielders, but then again so is balance or not simply destroying the darkness wherever it rears its collective head. One must look beyond the precepts and the evenly-rounded spoonfuls of easily-digestible pablum ladled out in order to see the real truth behind the centuries of propaganda... I have yet to see any bearer capable of realizing this.

Heresy... huh?

[What Xehanort describes is not that surprising... even though there aren't many lightbearers active in Riku's time, only two really, only Mickey and Sora (...and well there are Roxas and Xion, but Riku really isn't sure how much they can be counted when they never really had much choice in what they did, not with the Organization pulling their strings for the majority of their existence), Riku is no stranger of the general public's opinion of the Darkness, of the wariness, the fear.

Mickey himself had admitted it after all, the thought of balance, of using the darkness without being used by it, of walking In-Between... it had not occurred him until they had met.

It's maybe a little bit sad that that opinion had reigned even before the Heartless had started to invade the Realm of Light, when things (or so Riku thinks) had been more balanced than they are in his time.

There isn't really anything for him to say or ask... he doubts that Xehanort will tell him much more, if he asks. Besides, there is plenty to think about still. There is no rush to answer, is there?]

Perhaps in your time things are less formalized... with the lack of masters comes a lack of the old prejudices after all. However, darkness has always been seen as a terrible foe, an enemy to be routed. The millenia of that attitude's prevalence have left the universe in the state it's in... tilted. Broken. Unbalanced. Believing that, not believing the Key Precepts and that Light is absolute is tatamount to heresy, to casting away all that the Key represents and the duties one takes on upon bearing in order to walk a deviant path of darkness and ruin. Regardless of belief. Regardless of intent.

[Less formal indeed, but the lack of actual Keyblade Masters is maybe made up with whole worlds that have been swallowed by the dark, by light knows how many people, who had their heart stolen away and consumed, who became Heartless themselves, who are wary of the dark and really... have the right to be so as far as Riku is concerned.

He continues to listen quietly, filling away what he is told (even though with a note to take this with a grain of salt. Even so, he can't quite help the question that spills over his lips after Xehanort is finished. It's one that he's meant to ask Mickey if there ever was the chance - even more so after all the he's spent in the tower so far.]

...What is a Keyblade anyways? What was its original purpose?

[Because, surely it can't be just to defeat the Heartless and set the Hearts free, right? With so many keybearers around before the invasion of the Heartless... why had they had the Keyblade?]

[An abrupt shift, noticeable. As most others, Riku will not pursue these avenues. It's almost a shame.]

That answer has been lost to time and the Great Darkness... no doubt you are not the first to ask it. Once upon a time, there were keyblades of light and darkness in equal shares. Now, hearts only call on those linked to the Realm of Light.

[The only avenues Riku will ever pursue, are the ones he's chosen for himself. Whether they are anything like Xehanort's... only time will tell. (He sure hopes not though).

Keyblades of light and darkness... like Kingdom Key and Kingdom Key D, he supposes. Mickey had needed to venture out into the Realm of Darkness to find later... but if what Xehanort had said was right... then that hadn't been always the case.]

Is there a reason for that? Aside of... 'heretic' teachings?

Our universe has been bifurcated - no, not merely cleft in twain. Shattered into pieces. We dwell within the Realm of Light... and thus our hearts call blades of light. To find a blade of darkness, one must walk the infinite maze of the Realm of Darkness. It is as simple as that.

Of course, wielding any such blade does not preclude any judgment. A blade of darkness is exactly the same as a blade of light. It is simply from the Realm of Darkness. Its wielder is no more evil nor good than any who bear a blade of light.

So, origin is the deciding factor?

[He nods - how could he not agree when the first Keyblade of Darkness he has ever seen is in the hands of one of the kindest persons he has ever met.]

Of course. It's always about intentions.

[Always.]

Of course. And intentions [his expression hardens slightly, fingers clenching just a little] are always subject to one's personal paradigm.