revenance_comms | First Breeze

Entry tags:

First Breeze

We have a little situation on our paws, kupo, and we were hoping one of you guys could help us out.

[The speaker is a moogle, one that appears to be fairly high up if the flashes of picture over the communicator are anything to judge by. Well, moogles can fly, after all, but this one seems to be on the roofs of the second district.]

Don't worry, kupo, it's not anything bad! It's just something that needs to be taken care of - see, there's this tunnel between the second and third districts that's nice and high up and we wanted to put some mechanics in it, but Momo came up here to check it out and she found something we didn't expect.

[It's at that point that the moogle reaches its destination, which is indeed a square little entrance over the general shops in the Second District, not big enough for an adult to walk down without hunching over a lot and about just as wide. The moogle shines some sort of dim light ahead of himself, wings humming a bit as he starts down the tunnel - and about ten feet in, there's the obstruction. Ven is laying on the floor, dead asleep and face partially obstructed, curled around his Hebby Repp which is acting as a pillow for him but is also using him as a pillow in return. Neither of them react to the moogle or the light he brought with him, though it probably helps that the moogle doesn't make any noise or try to wake him. Instead he just gets a good shot of the sleeping duo before reversing course and backing out of the tunnel, back to the roofs.]

Does he belong to anyone, kupo? We've seen him around a couple of times, but ever since the first couple of days he's run off whenever he's seen one of us!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I am your least favorite student. You talk to me the least, you left more of my training to Aqua and Terra, we aren't nearly as close as you and either of them are. [Ven's expression was growing gradually more hurt as he slammed a fist against his leg, but his words remained more or less on an even keel.] I thought it was just because I'd been there less time or something, and you can't help who you've got things in common with, but then I find out you were afraid of me and what I could maybe be- how am I supposed to take that?

[Yeah, that was genuine hurt there - his eyes were gradually getting wider, and while he didn't realize it, Ven was a few steps away from crying. Not loudly and he probably wouldn't notice it even when it did start, but the emotions were just building again. His voice was also starting to get more emphatic and closer to yelling.]

And telling me could have only helped! At least then I would've been prepared for it! Maybe I wouldn't have fought you then, would have let you do what you wanted to, because you're right - I can't exist as long as he does, as long as there's the possibility that he could force me to make it, because believe me I don't want to make it. And maybe telling me could've brought some of my memory back, because it definitely started coming back when Vanitas started reminding me of things, I remember him ripping my heart apart now. And maybe we could have thought of something else, I mean I know I was just a kid, but I've been awake for over four years and you- you-

[He couldn't say anything more. Wheeler chittered in alarm again and moved over to wind around Ven after Ven threw his hands down in frustration, anger, and betrayal, turning around to more or less storm over to the corner to face the wall rather than start yelling for real. He was trying to beat this down, really he was - he gets exactly why Eraqus tried to kill him. He just couldn't cope with the length and scale of the betrayal even before that. For a few moments he could only stand there, taking deep breaths as Wheeler made worried, inquisitive, and soothing noises at him, and finally Ven could speak calmly, and much more quietly, again as he put a hand on Wheeler's head to calm him down a little.]

I did it, you know - I asked Terra and Aqua to put an end to me. And when he took me over, the X-blade was made but it wasn't fully made because I wouldn't join with him completely. And in order to stop him I destroyed my own heart, so his and that weapon would be destroyed too. And it worked - or at least I thought it did. I ended up here.

I did attempt to stop Xehanort, when I first found out his ambitions. [He rubbed his face, but lingered longer over the scar on his cheek, flinching as if the scars were hurting all over again. He had never told any of his students how he'd gotten those scars...but perhaps now, they had some idea.] I tried, but I failed.

[And the knife-twisting just continued. Eraqus just leaned forward, his face buried in his hands, saying nothing for awhile. Kura quickly became agitated at how tense both his master and the others in the room were, and began to scamper back and forth between him and Ven and Wheeler, chittering at anyone and everyone. It still took awhile before Eraqus spoke again.]

Ventus...I don't know what more I can say. I believed those actions to be the best to take in those circumstances, but I was wrong. I acted out of fear and mistook it for prudence. There was so much I didn't know, and I believed that not knowing would be better for myself and my students...

I can't make up for what has happened. But...please believe that I cared about you. I still do.

[The last part, however, made him look up towards Ven again, his expression unreadable. The X-Blade...made, but then destroyed? And Ven had made that decision himself? Had Terra and Aqua actually helped him?]

Destroyed? But...

[A large part of him was now wondering...what was Xehanort doing now? How much of what had happened was his intention all along...surely Ventus destroying himself to destroy the X-blade couldn't be intended? But then why were so many of them here, when they believed themselves asleep or dead? He'd never felt simultaneously so determined and so hopeless.]

...And now there's again too much that I don't know.

I've been a fool.

[Luna stays where she is for a second, ears flat with shock, and then takes a few steps back as well to be closer to where Ven is standing. She spreads a wing protectively as Kura comes near, trying to keep him at a distance, but otherwise makes no move towards the Spirit; the little creature means well. All this talk of hearts being destroyed...she thinks she understands what that means well enough. What can she say? She's known enough ponies who died, but never spoken to any of them afterward.

She wants to comfort Ven - and maybe even Master Eraqus some - but she's never been good at that sort of thing. If only Celestia were here! Hesitantly, she looks to Aqua to see what she'll do.]

[Aqua has no answer for why they're all here. Not for certain anyway. Sure, it's easy enough to assume that she simply fell asleep and Ven already had been sleeping, more or less. Eraqus, on the other hand, goes rather counter to the thread of simple sleep. She can, however, address other questions. Namely, the ones about the X-blade and what had happened in the aftermath of that fateful battle.]

Yes. The X-blade was destroyed. I saw it happen.

[Helped it happen, really, but if Ven's willing to take most of the credit for its destruction she's glad to let him have it, regardless of the price he's had to pay for it.

Unfortunately, she has no more idea of how to comfort either Ven or her Master than Luna does, and so she makes no attempt to. As much as she'd like them to be on friendly terms again she knows it isn't going to be a thing that's going to be quick in coming. Not after the events of tonight.]

It worked, but... not without cost.

I...

[Ven started off, but the words failed him almost immediately. He stared at the floor in front of him for a minute, and then made his way to the bed in the room and slowly sank down on it, still mostly staring at the floor. The heavy emotion had almost completely trickled out of him with that last declaration, leaving him more somber and subdued than anything. Aqua was probably the only one who would recognize that mood, that expression on him - it was the same one he'd worn when he'd described the X-blade and Vanitas to her and Terra, before their final battle, where they'd tried to comfort him and he'd rejected their comfort. He knew by then that there were some things that just couldn't be fixed, and he was one of them in a way. Now... maybe his and the Master's relationship could be fixed. But it would need work, and time. From both of them. Wheeler followed him of course, hopping up next to him on the bed and flopping himself over Ven's upper legs, and he started absently rubbing on the lizard's head. The expression of absolute contentment on the Hebby was a stark contrast to his master's.]

Do you remember... what I was like, when I came to live at the castle? I hid away, I wouldn't talk to anyone, or look anyone in the eye. I kept having nightmares that didn't make any sense. I was afraid of something, and I didn't know what. [He still didn't know the word for it, but he'd suffered from PTSD after getting his heart ripped in two. It had taken months and work from all three living in the castle to get him back to the way he was supposed to be.] I woke up and I didn't know where I was or who any of you were, all I knew was that there was something out there I had a really good reason to be scared of. But you guys... you all helped me get through that, helped me be me again. I felt safe around you, all of you.

And then with this... [He choked up again, free hand balling into a fist, but was able to continue relatively quickly.] I found out you... someone I trusted, someone who'd helped me so much, had... done to me what Master Xehanort had done. [His head dropped a little lower.] You had a lot of better reasons for it - you just wanted to protect the worlds. But you both took me in when I needed somewhere to go for some reason, and then you both hid things from me, and when I got to be too much of an inconvenience to him or a-a threat to you, you both tried to get me out of the way.

[And when it all came down to it, it was those parallels that were hurting him the most deeply. He knew, once upon a time, he had trusted Xehanort. The fact that he had a Keyblade and was in the Master's care to begin with was reason enough to believe it. But Xehanort had betrayed that trust in the worst way possible. Eraqus really did have much better reasons for doing what he'd done, and Ven still believed that. But the parallels were there and unmistakeable, and that betrayal of someome that had committed himself to keeping him safe in the past... hurt more than Xehanort's had.]

[A part of Eraqus was relieved to hear that the X-Blade was destroyed, although if Ven did it to his own heart and he was here now...he also didn't know what that meant, for Ven or for any of them. His expression showed a mix of relief and confusion. But he quickly buried his face in his hands again...all this meant that his fight with Terra was all the more pointless.]

I remember.

[The very last thing he'd done was admit the darkness in his own heart to Terra before everything had gone black and he'd found himself here. He had already been wrestling with this ever since arriving, but hearing that parallel from Ven? Pushed him out of despair and into anger. It was more at himself than at anyone else, but it was obvious his temper was heating up under the surface. Kura sensed it, and immediately stopped his scrambling around to dart behind Eraqus's chair, quiet for once. He didn't rise from his seat, but his voice made it sound like he didn't need to.]

I have admitted that I did wrong. I have admitted my inability to correct those wrongs. I have struggled, every day since arriving in this realm, with the knowledge that there was darkness in my heart I refused to acknowledge, that it dictated my actions when I should have set aside those fears, and that it was I more than anyone who was responsible for failing you and Terra.

[He voice rose a little more, with that rumble that accompanied dead seriousness and temper.]

But I will not tolerate a comparison to a man who would undo all the worlds for his own ambitions, and who plotted specifically to destroy my students' lives to accomplish it!

[Perhaps a lot of it is because Xehanort also betrayed his trust, when he had been friends with him most of his life, and then forgiven him after their first fight, only to have that fragile trust destroyed. Eraqus knew too well how that felt, so hearing it from Ventus just made him angrier with both Xehanort, and himself for falling into that same trap. It wasn't something he wanted to hear now, or ever, and that meant lashing back at it.]

Edited 2012-11-05 04:41 (UTC)

[She remembers too. Ven had been quieter then, and almost skittish. She knows the somberness as ell, and knows what it means, that things are almost too heavy even for him. It's understandable, even though she can't say she much likes seeing it, and she'd have been more than inclined to offer what comfort she could were it not for the fact that things were clearly spiraling all out of control. For all that she understood that things would take time to return to anything like how it had been before, they certainly weren't going to get anywhere as things stood.]

That's enough! From both of you.

[There's an edge of sharpness in her voice, one that Ven will likely recognize more than Eraqus. It's not really true anger, not yet, but it could easily become so, given the right sort of push.

Her voice does soften a bit as turns to speak to each of them in turn, but there's still an edge of steel hiding underneath it.]

Ven, you know Master Eraqus thought he was doing the right thing. Even if it wasn't the best choice, he can't have known about everything that Master Xehanort had done.

[She takes a deep breath, before turning to Eraqus. She hasn't ever really spoken back to him as she means to now and it's only the fact that she holds more-or-less equal status that keeps her on course, along with the fact that it would be unfair to only correct Ven, at this point.]

Master. I know we've all suffered at Master Xehanort's hands. But do you really think this is the right place for that anger?

[Luna takes half a step forward when Eraqus raises his voice, arching her neck proudly in a display that isn't quite defensive yet. Whatever the validity of the comparison - and at this point she really couldn't say - she doesn't like his tone.]

Anger shall solve nothing. [And who knows that better than herself? She stops at that thought, pulling her wings tight against her sides and taking a breath. After a second, she raises a hoof to point behind the man, speaking more quietly.] Thou shouldst calm thyself, thou art frightening thy lizard.

[And Ven... well, didn't react like Aqua probably thought he would. There was no flinch at her correction, or more precisely scolding, but he did raise his eyes to hers and hold them. There was a point to his words, and he didn't like them being dismissed out of hand because they made the master angry or sounded "unfair." He'd learned the hard way that fair or unfair didn't matter - was it fair to him, after all, to give up his life after only being aware of it for four and a half years? Yet that was what it had come to.]

I know, Aqua. I know he had better intentions. But just because someone doesn't realize they're doing something doesn't make it okay that they did it. And even if he didn't realize how much what they did was similar, he still hid everything from me and then tried to get rid of me. It- it's the betrayal that hurts, okay? And the fact that I had to go through it twice just makes it worse!

[That did it, he couldn't hold it back anymore, even though he was unaware of it at first. Tears started slipping out of the corners of Ven's eyes, as the sadness and frustration and everything about this situation just caught up to him and more or less overwhelmed him. Wheeler noticed, though, and scrambled up onto his little boots to try and climb over Ven's shoulder and drape himself around his neck, trying to comfort him. Ven helped him to avoid getting kicked in the face, and used the flurry of movement to dash the tears away with the back of his hand.]

I'm not going to sit here and be told that I don't have a reason for being angry, Aqua, Mastery or no.

[That anger kept stewing until Aqua interrupted. He actually was surprised to hear her speak that way to him, even though as she was a Master she technically was on equal standing with him. He's just been too used to treating her like...well, an apprentice, and one of his children. It is enough to get his anger to cool down, however. It took him a bit, but he eventually let out a long breath.]

No. It's not.

[Kura ventured out from behind the chair a little more, still keeping quiet. The last straw, however, was Ven bursting into tears. He wanted to comfort him, but probably the last thing Ven wanted right now was his comfort. And he couldn't stand to just remain here if nothing he said or did could fix anything. He already had a very difficult time knowing how to deal with any of his students when they were sad, let alone right now under all these stresses.]

...And it is clear this is not right place for me, either.

[Whether he was talking about just this moment with Ven, Aqua and Luna, or about the Realm of Sleep as a whole, it wasn't clear. He slowly got up, and glanced at both Luna and Aqua with a quick apologetic look before heading for the door. Kura jumped up as soon as he moved, and scampered after him.]

[Luna watched the man go sadly, finding something rather familiar in his retreat. She, too, had betrayed her children once. At least Eraqus had good intentions...despite her firm stance by Ventus's side, the alicorn could only hope that someday the two could be reconciled again.

Turning away, she moved hesitantly to sit by Ven's side, carefully spreading a wing around his shoulders. Truthfully, she felt it might have been a mistake for her to be here; these were clearly family matters. But she'd come to keep Ventus feeling secure, and that was what she would keep on doing. Still, she darted a questioning glance over her shoulder at Aqua. Luna would move aside if she wished to comfort her brother (or similar enough, it seemed) herself.

[Well, that hadn't been quite the reaction Aqua had been expecting. True, she could see how Master Eraqus wouldn't want to stay any longer, but it hurt to hear him suggest that maybe this wasn't the right place for after having not seen him for so long. She didn't attempt to stop him though. As much as it hurt and as much as she was unsure of how he meant it, Ven was more important right now.

There was a moment of silence after Eraqus left, and then she quietly moved to sit next to Ven. As much as she might certainly like have hugged him, she wasn't entirely sure that he wanted one why now, even if she was likely doing a very poor job of hiding the fact that she very much wanted to.]

I'm sorry, Ven. That wasn't what I meant at all. You have every right to be angry, I know. What happened... shouldn't have happened. Either time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

First Breeze

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject