towerofanimus | A gift and a curse

Entry tags:

A gift and a curse

Characters:

reverse_destiny and you
Setting: Floor Eleven, once more
Format: Whichever!
Summary: Sora's been given a Keyblade by Aqua. But now, that light is wearing him down--and he's panicking about what this means.
Warnings: None as of yet

No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Sora's shaking, staring at the cold, metallic weapon in his hand. It's foreign, not at all what he's used to. In fact, instead of the wing-shaped blade that he's used to, he holds in his hand a giant key. And no matter how hard he tries, no matter what he does, it's all he can call. And that just won't do. Ansem would kill him. Keyblades are of the light, and light is bad and wrong and it's everything that's hurt him in the past.

Unable to hold in the emotions anymore, Sora throws the Keyblade, it spinning out over the water before vanishing in a flash. It merely appears in his hand again. Finally, after giving a loud, emotional scream that leaves his throat raw, he falls to his knees, shaking. The key rests on the ground beside him where it had fallen. And not too far away, two creatures watch him.

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Screams, in Ienzo's limited experience, never meant anything good. And considering it was coming from the pool, well...

He showed up in the doorway to find a very unusual scene. There was a boy crumpled up against the edge of the water, and lying next to him was a weapo--no, a Keyblade. There were Keyblade bearers here? ...Well, of course there was. Ventus. But to find more than one, well, the chances were slim to none. The Keyblade bearer was alone in the room, meaning he had to be the one that had screamed.

Maybe it's because the Keyblade was affecting his judgement somewhat, but instead of lurking in the doorway as he usually would have, Ienzo actually moved into the room and approached the boy... though it still took him a moment to figure out what to say. What, after all, were you supposed to do when a Keyblade bearer was crumpled in front of a pool?

"...Excuse me," he said quietly. "What's the problem?"

Well, make their lives easier, of course. Keyblade bearers were very important people.

"I don't want it!"

It's a shout. Not directly at Ienzo, but because the boy is upset. He doesn't want this Keyblade, this weapon of light. And all that happens when he tries to get rid of it is it coming right back. He's angry, upset, afraid. And the two Heartless only quietly watch, attentive, as if observing.

Alright, Sora, you got him there. Ienzo jumped slightly when he received a much louder than expected response, but after taking a moment to compose himself, Ienzo managed to figure out what the boy might be talking about. Not that he understood why, but, well. "...The Keyblade?"

"Yeah."

...How does this kid know about it? He'll be staring at you now, Ienzo, because not many people here seem to know what it is or what Heartless are or anything.

Oh, no worries, he's totally in the dark about the Heartless. But Keyblades? Yeah. Ienzo meets the Bearer's look, cold and static as always. He'd be wondering how Ienzo knew, probably. But instead he asked, "...Why do you want to be rid of it?"

"Because I'm not of the light. Light is bad. It's disgusting and the worlds would be better consumed by darkness. So to have this is..."

Well, Ienzo can fill in the blanks. Either way, Sora's not happy about it, and he once more tries to summon Soul Eater. Like always, there are the beginning wisps of darkness before it suddenly vanishes to be replaced with the key.

...This makes no sense. Light is no more bad than Darkness is. Obviously the Keyblade wasn't one of Darkness, otherwise he wouldn't be concerned with it. Which leads back to the question of who told him the skewed worldview he was displaying today. "...What makes Light worse than Darkness?"

Tough questions. He loves 'em.

"Because it blinds people from their flaws. But then, humans shouldn't exist, either. Only Heartless."

It's a very automatic response, as if he's thought this for a long while. And really, he has. He's grown up with that mentality, really, so it's understandable that he comes to this conclusion so fast.

"Does Darkness not do the same thing?" Ienzo folds his arms, looking down at Darkra with a typically severe expression on his face. "Both Light and Darkness have driven people to become 'blinded to flaws'."

At the mention of Heartless, though, he stopped. What exactly were Heartless? Presumably the two little creatures sitting a short ways away. They didn't seem to be attacking anyone, particularly him, so he supposed they weren't as openly violent as the (shudder) Unversed were -- or he just had these two tamed. Speculation was all well and good, but...

"Why do you think these Heartless are so superior to humans?" God Ienzo, enough with the questions already.

"Darkness doesn't end with you alone."

It's bitter, the first sign of emotion he's shown in the conversation. But then he moves on, to the other questions, shrugging and walking over to pick up the Shadow. This is comfortable, this is nice...

"...My dad told me. And I was raised with Heartless around me."

Ienzo doesn't move when he does, merely standing there; the two of them are still close enough to carry on a conversation, after all, though Sora might need to try a bit harder to hear his mumbling. "Darkness and Light are merely elements, with semi-sentient properties. If magic is used to kill a man, who is at fault: the magic or the one who cast it?"

Sora laughs, long and loud. He can make it out, just barely. And he'll quietly turn to face Ienzo, a smirk spread across his face. Oh, how little this kid knows...

"Darkness is actually entirely sentient. It may not seem like it, but it and light are both eternally warring, trying to consume everything and rule it. They can't speak--not in a way we hear--but it's what animates the Heartless, what devours the heart."

And Sora is quite content to tell you all about it, Ienzo.

'Devours the heart'.

Ienzo could really care less about the eternal warring of Darkness and Light and whatnot, but he latched on to that one phrase. Devouring the heart... that was supposed to be his area of study, wasn't it? Obviously this boy came from a different world -- but it was only now that he realized that the other worlds had no means of contact with his own.

Which means there might be some planet, somewhere in the galaxy, that already has all the answers. And chances are, if that boy is here right now, then that planet has been destroyed, along with his own, and all of the progress that he had made of his own accord. Blast.

Well, looks like he's going to invite a few more lectures about Darkness into the conversation. "...Devouring the heart...?"

Oh, so the boy caught that much? The curiosity is easy enough to see. Sora chuckles, then scratches the Shadow behind the antennae before walking closer to Ienzo.

"...Do you know what a Heartless is?"

"No." He's gathered by now that a Heartless, in the strictest sense of the term, is that little black thing... but past that, nothing. And the name certainly implies that it is something important.

"Heartless are what happens when the heart gives out under the weight of darkness. They are, as far as Dad's been able to discover, nothing more than darkness animating the shattered remains of a heart."

He is much too delighted to say this. This is something he enjoys, detailing the horrible (but to him, wonderful) process through which people became Heartless. Maybe one day, he'd be a Heartless, too.

Oh. This is all very interesting information. Can't miss this. Even if hearts work differently in different worlds, he still really wants to learn more from this guy, even if he is a little skewed on the principles of Light and Darkness.

"'Dad'? Your father was responsible for these discoveries?" He's not using ellipses anymore, notice, and he's actually speaking at a reasonable volume. "Is there anything else he's found?"

"Yeah. The mysteries of the heart and the Heartless are his life's work."

There's a sense of wonder and amazement at this. He's quite fond of his adoptive father's work, after all. And why wouldn't he be? He's been raised under those philosophies.

Well! This really is interesting. Ienzo’s gotten over his temporary bout of ego-bruising at the idea that someone unlocked the secrets of the heart faster than he did, and is now pretty much intent on gathering as much information about them as possible from this boy, apparently the revered scientist’s son. Though… it might be possible that he had heard of this man before? Some of his research may have… slipped through the cracks, as it were. The world barrier was not completely ineffable, after all; there had been some stories of people slipping through to a new world, and not just fairy tales either.

“Would you mind telling me your father’s name?”

And there is the very faintest of grins. It's such a simple question, easy to answer. And one he's quite glad to answer, too.

"Ansem, Seeker of Darkness."

…

“Ansem?” He repeats the name, his tone sounding ever so slightly strained. Of course it had caught him off guard. The striking similarity to Master Ansem was… surprising, to say the least. Was it some kind of alternate universe function? He had long since known of the people who discovered alternate versions of themselves, be it via gender or something else, so it was entirely possible that there were other people in this boy’s alternate world similar to his own.

But of course, they weren’t exactly similar. Master Ansem would hardly take a title of ‘Seeker of Darkness’; they obviously couldn’t be the same man, since aside from coming into this tower, inter-worldly communication or traversing wasn’t yet possible. It seemed that in the other ‘version’ of the world, Ansem had had a son… though this boy looked very different from the Ansem Ienzo had knew, it was entirely possible that the ‘other’ Ansem simply looked different. What a curious occurrence.

“…That is odd,” he said. “My world had a scientist named Ansem as well… he studied the same thing…”

That earns a blink and confused expression. Ansem seems like it wouldn't be a very common name. Especially with the studying bit. Too many coincidences, really, and that's something he's learned is rare already. One way to be sure...

"...What's your world like?"

Well then. Prepare for a lengthy monologue, Darkra. “…The world is called Radiant Garden, after the only known civilization in it, a city-state surrounded by grasslands. The city is centered around a castle belonging to Ansem the Wise, who in addition to studying hearts with the several apprentices who live with him, is also the mayor. The rest of the city layout circles around that.” Ienzo decided not to mention his own status, figuring that if the boy couldn’t figure it out on his own, he didn’t really need to know. However, he did eye the two Heartless. “…When I left, there had been a monster infestation, though not ones that looked like these.”

"Oh... Well, I'm from Hollow Bastion. It's a ruined old castle, and he's tried to repair it, but... It's too old and ruined. It's beautiful, though, alone and just floating there. The towers are high, and there's plenty of room. And the library's amazing," he begins to reminisce. He's softened a lot from earlier, and now he's looking for... Something to draw on or with. Because this will be good.

"My dad's a king, by the way. King of the Heartless. He tamed them, then taught me."

Interesting. Though this boy’s castle sounded somewhat similar to his own (he couldn’t say the castle was a small one, nor did it have a particularly small library – that, of course, he could attest to, even with the limited amount of time he had been given each day to go exploring in it. The second part concerned him, though, at least to a degree – he had never felt that a scientist should be ‘king’ to the creatures he is studying, just because he happened to be the one to learn about them. (His adult self, for the curious, would look back on this philosophy and laugh and laugh and laugh.) Regardless, he said nothing about it except for, “…I see.”

A gift and a curse

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he is totally ok with long lectures over Darkness btw.

Of course.

Re: Of course.

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oh my god Ienzo, you are just digging yourself so much deeper

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Ienzo you are just setting yourself up for hell right now

He is.

Damn you and your quick recovery time, boy >:I

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Kind of C+P'd from a different post because apparently everyone is interested in Radiant Garden D:

Pffft, of course they are.

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