Riku ("Ansem") (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
justabignobody) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
towerofanimus2012-05-19 08:05 pm
justabignobody) wrote in towerofanimus2012-05-19 08:05 pm
Entry tags:
005
Characters: OU!Riku and OPEN~
Setting: Floor 3 and Floor 19 (Daytime, around Noon), Floor 29 (Daytime, until Nightfall), All around the tower (Nighttime)
Format: Action, but I'll match
Summary: Daytime: Riku has decided to get on with his quest to learn light magic. He is not very successful yet. Nighttime: Time to hunt down monsters!
Warnings: some violence maybe? Will add as needed.
[A - Floor 1, Floor 3, Floor 19]
[The days between Sora's death in the labyrinth and his revival are still a blur of numbness to Riku. It's better now that the presence of his scent has re-set itself in his heart, now that the blend of shock, despair and cold furry has kept him moving in those days has faded away.
What remains is some anger (at the tower and its games, at himself and his own helplessness) and an iron knot of determination to finally put all those gathered thoughts on Darkness, Light, the Dawn and their relation to himself into practice. So, right now after he got up sometimes around noon, he sets out to pick up some nutrition bars from the cafeteria, then to the libraries - first the one on the Third Floor, then the one on the Nineteenth - ready to raid whatever books he can find on light magic.]
[B - Floor 29]
[Once he's got what he needs (and potentially dealt with all distractions), Riku settles in the far corner of the garden behind the labyrinth, a place that he thinks should be a.) private and b.) peaceful enough for what he is attempting.
He is frowning down at his books, his legs crossed, blindfold removed and re-purposed to a bookmark - he knows he can probably forget learning how to access his light by book, but maybe they can at least give him a pointer.
About an hour into this he first leans back, eyes slipping close as he tries to reach for the light.
He knows he can do this.
He doesn't even think about the how every time the light wraps around his blade when he invokes his final limit.
Even so, drawing on raw light is different, more difficult, than drawing on darkness - at least to him - and so it's no wonder that he's frustration starts to show itself about half an hour later, the shadows around him darkening and tightening until he releases his breath.
He slowly opens his eyes and frowns down at his hands, then sighs.
Well... he's already known that this wouldn't be so easy. No choice but the try again.]
[C - all around the tower]
[Later that day, after nightfall, Riku is wandering around the tower, his hand closed tightly around the Soul Eater's grip as he follows the darkness-scent trail of roaming monsters. He may still have troubles with using the light, but darkness?
Darkness is his element.
Now that it has settled across the tower, he might as well take advantage of that, right?]
[ooc: Laaaate edit, but if you haven't please take a look at Riku's permission post!]
Setting: Floor 3 and Floor 19 (Daytime, around Noon), Floor 29 (Daytime, until Nightfall), All around the tower (Nighttime)
Format: Action, but I'll match
Summary: Daytime: Riku has decided to get on with his quest to learn light magic. He is not very successful yet. Nighttime: Time to hunt down monsters!
Warnings: some violence maybe? Will add as needed.
[A - Floor 1, Floor 3, Floor 19]
[The days between Sora's death in the labyrinth and his revival are still a blur of numbness to Riku. It's better now that the presence of his scent has re-set itself in his heart, now that the blend of shock, despair and cold furry has kept him moving in those days has faded away.
What remains is some anger (at the tower and its games, at himself and his own helplessness) and an iron knot of determination to finally put all those gathered thoughts on Darkness, Light, the Dawn and their relation to himself into practice. So, right now after he got up sometimes around noon, he sets out to pick up some nutrition bars from the cafeteria, then to the libraries - first the one on the Third Floor, then the one on the Nineteenth - ready to raid whatever books he can find on light magic.]
[B - Floor 29]
[Once he's got what he needs (and potentially dealt with all distractions), Riku settles in the far corner of the garden behind the labyrinth, a place that he thinks should be a.) private and b.) peaceful enough for what he is attempting.
He is frowning down at his books, his legs crossed, blindfold removed and re-purposed to a bookmark - he knows he can probably forget learning how to access his light by book, but maybe they can at least give him a pointer.
About an hour into this he first leans back, eyes slipping close as he tries to reach for the light.
He knows he can do this.
He doesn't even think about the how every time the light wraps around his blade when he invokes his final limit.
Even so, drawing on raw light is different, more difficult, than drawing on darkness - at least to him - and so it's no wonder that he's frustration starts to show itself about half an hour later, the shadows around him darkening and tightening until he releases his breath.
He slowly opens his eyes and frowns down at his hands, then sighs.
Well... he's already known that this wouldn't be so easy. No choice but the try again.]
[C - all around the tower]
[Later that day, after nightfall, Riku is wandering around the tower, his hand closed tightly around the Soul Eater's grip as he follows the darkness-scent trail of roaming monsters. He may still have troubles with using the light, but darkness?
Darkness is his element.
Now that it has settled across the tower, he might as well take advantage of that, right?]
[ooc: Laaaate edit, but if you haven't please take a look at Riku's permission post!]
no subject
Now, if only she could be convinced of that. She's failed before, and because of that, she'll always fear some future failure, some weakness that might still be in her, and her shame - that'll be with her, too. ... They really do have a lot in common.][She'll have to tell him, some day, how grateful she is to be allowed to be that for him and that he has been that for her. She'll have to thank him for the chance to be allowed to know him and to not be hidden from nor have to hide her own knowledge, and that he doesn't resent her for her intrusion. (Of course, he might not call it that - she knows that, too.)]
[He needn't give her an answer, really - he wouldn't have had to give her what he did, either, but it's appreciated, nonetheless.]
... I understand.
[And she does.]
But, Riku... [She doesn't scold, just makes the words something like an offer.] ... you can't let it hold you back. You're trying to learn so that you can protect them, aren't you? And... you know that they'd want to help you, any way that they could. ['You don't have anything to be ashamed of.'] So... even if you don't think you have the right to... [because goodness knows she's been familiar with that feeling, herself,] ... maybe you can still do it, for them.
no subject
...They do. But one day, he'll convince her that she doesn't need to fear herself or her powers or all the what-ifs. He certainly is stubborn enough for that.When that day comes he'll hopefully be able to do the same, to not just trust that she knows how he feels about her and the bond between them (surely she does after all), but to say it out loud.
He turns his head back up to her, listening attentively... and after a moment, understanding dawns on his face. It's just the same as it had been in Castle Oblivion when he had faded into the light - just like then, she's given him that little nudge he needed to see just where he went wrong. Just how he needs to continue.]
...Thanks, Naminé.
[He's been focusing too much on himself. On what he might or might not deserve, on his own worth or rather lack of it. But it isn't about that. It's about them, about protecting all of them, just like she said. And if it's not for himself, but for them...
He breathes deep as he settles back, eyes closing as he focuses on that new mindset, fingers threading together as calls for his light - for them, for the sake of protecting all the things that mattered. It takes a moment, and even then it's only gathering slowly, but after a few minutes there is a small, softly glowing ball of light in his hand, radiating warmth and this time? This time no darkness appears to drown it again.
It disappears with a shift of his hand, but when his eyes, there's a soft smile tugging on his lips. Maybe he isn't so hopeless after all.]
no subject
Perhaps, though he might find that she seems to have inherited Kairi's iron will, even if in Naminé it manifests more subtly. Maybe she's just stubborn enough to help him, too, some day.][A lot of things needn't be said to be understood, yes... but that doesn't mean letting things be spoken and heard is without value. It would mean a lot, were such thoughts ever to be properly let out.]
[There's something very gratifying, too, about being able to offer assistance to others. She remembers well that time in Castle Oblivion, remembers him as he was then - and the way she was, too, and were she not distracted by the welcome sight of understanding dawning, she would be reminded, to a twist of guilt, the guise she took, that time. It wasn't that she wanted to, but rather that she'd felt she needed to. Now, though - now, she needn't hide. He knows her as her and listens to her as her, and that's a comfort, despite any associated shame.]
[She nods, firmly, just once, a smile on her face. The girl holds her tongue as she watches him make another attempt, that smile unfailing. Her faith was well-placed, it seems, and his success grants her a warmth as well, somewhere in her chest. She's-- proud of him, in her way. Not of herself or her involvement, but that he was successful, that he grew, that he accomplished something.]
[Even once the light fades, she watches him, her expression warm. She lets the silence linger a few moments more, then,]
You did well.
no subject
Maybe. Maybe one day they'll be able to help each other.Indeed. It just takes the right words though, words worthy of her and of the things left unspoken, and once he does, she will be the first (and only) one to hear them.
He has never been anything but grateful for her coming to him back day, never been angry or irritated about that guise; and he'd never even think to be, not when he knows that he would never have listened otherwise. It's her action, her knowledge of him and his heart that had saved him that time. So, there's really no need for her to be anything like guilty or ashamed about that.
He, too, is glad about the way things have changed between them since then though, that there is no longer any need for masks or guises or pretense, not while they are by themselves at least.
The smile stays, even as he shakes his head - he isn't sure if this really can be considered 'doing well' but...]
...It's a start.
[There is still much for him learn, after all.]
no subject
It'd certainly be an interesting day.][She'll be patient until then, it seems; she has no need to ask them of him, but perhaps she'll appreciate them all the more for that.]
[No need, maybe, but until she finds herself properly forgiven, she'll hold herself accountable. (Even after that, probably.) Something in her is disgusted with herself for impersonating her Other, thinks it terribly presumptuous. She knew the necessity, yes - that's the reason she went through with it at all. Helping him was more important than her own discomfort with the matter.]
[It's a rare honor, for her, to be able to be like that with someone... or at least, to be able to be like that with someone on her side of things. She can know what she wishes about others, peel away all of the walls they put up and rifle through their innermost thoughts and feelings if she wishes, know what they know and who they are in a way most people never get the chance to. But it's not the same - it's not the same as knowing and being know, not having to hide what she knows or what she is, and it's comforting in a way she isn't sure she can admit to, considering her lack of a heart.]
... Mm. But that's really something.
[And he's taken the first step - that's something to be proud of, isn't it? It's not hard to tell from her look that even she's proud of him.]