A Relaxing Vacation [Zack, Lanying, Loru]

[Nothingness]

Don't Take Candy from Strangers

Well, this was certainly unexpected. "The Ways of Existence"? Raen had heard of a few methods of travel, but never of something like that. He didn't want to think about what kind of effects something like that would have on him, especially his heart. Yet, the pathway itself intrigued him. "Should I risk it?"

For him, time seemed to slow down as he was making this decision. Weighing the risk/reward factors in his mind, he couldn't come up with a concrete answer. Too many unknown variables. With that in mind, he chose the only safe route he knew. "I'm sorry, but as much as it interests me, these 'Ways of Existence', I won't take them. You may say that no harm will come to me, but I can't in good conscience follow you into something I know nothing of." Walking to the door before stopping and turning around, he said, "I won't be long coming." He flipped his hood up, obscuring his face, and zipped his jacket up. It was more or less an assurance that he wouldn't let anyone see who he was. Raen waited for his guest to leave before he himself did.

[Zack]

Zack thought he had a a good plan, but apparently it wasn't going to work. The girl said the game was over and didn't seem interested in continuing. Though it then hit him, the girl had said his full name and he hadn't given it. He doubted Lanying would have given his name, so he wondered how exactly she knew. Who exactly was this girl?

Though he didn't have long to really think about that, since now the girl was now apparently relating something to Lanying from her father, saying he was disappointed in her. Lanying seemed to take the statement hard, but Zack couldn't believe this. There was no way this girl was talking to spirits was there? Whatever the case, they obviously needed to leave, now. "That's right, you aren't useless at all Lanying," he said as he approached her.

He wasn't sure if there really was a spirit around or not but all he knew was Lanying was bothered by it and that meant it was time to go. He turned to her "C'mon let's go. I think we've stayed here too long,"

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Buttons grows tired of your obvious ignorance.
--

Loru simply waved Zack off, not phased. "Silly, she's not leaving. She's staying here with me forever.[/color]"

In her disjointed, disconnected brain, the experience with the spirit of Lanying's father was already a distant memory. After saying what he needed, the spirit faded and Loru quickly forgot. Lanying would more than likely not forget so quickly. The only thing on the redhead's mind was keeping Lanying here. Even if it meant handicapping her escape in a very violent way.

Speaking of escape, Loru was agitated out of nowhere. One moment she was waving Zack off and laughing like it was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard, and the next the words actually hit and she went slipped back into that darker persona, dipping her head once again so that her hair covered her face. Her whole body went rigid. She turned and faced Zack, definitely no longer laughing or blowing it off.

"If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all, Zack Fair,[/color]" she said, speaking his name like an expletive. Her body relaxed and she shook her head, swaying a bit. She looked up sharply and took a deep breath. "You're going to stay here, too, you know. You both are. You're going to stay here forever and ever with Lulu and Buttons and all the others. I have to protect you, protect you, protect you from them. If you leave Lulu, They'll get you and then They'll find me. And They'll get me too, and bring me back to the Bad Place. They'll bring you to the Bad Place, too.[/color]"

[Prythian]

A look of slight disappointment crossed the Champion's face. "Another time, then." He said, lowering his hand... and with a golden flash from the sword, he simply vanished into thin air. No portal opened up to receive him nor anything else of the sort. He appeared with a flash on the beach, observing as he did that it was empty.

As the sword vanished, he dropped into a sitting position as he waited, calmly, weaponless, and cross legged. When Raen came to him, he would have to ask him some questions before he could start teaching him.

[Nothingness]

So That's Where You Guys Were

Raen watched as both sword and man vanished. Truth be told, he felt a little bad as he watched some apparent disappointment go over the Champion's face, but in all honestly, what else was he supposed to do? "Bah, what's the use in worrying about it? Maybe I'm just overthinking this all and playing it way too safely. I mean, listening to Zexion? At least this guy hasn't tried to kill us." Thinking that, a small voice in his head said, "Yet." Shaking his head, he kept thinking to himself. "Whatever. I won't know until I find out."

He'd been quite lost in thought and had hardly noticed that he passed by Lanying and Zack until a bright red splotch of something caught his eye. Passing the alley, he slowed his pace, and sure enough he could see the backs of Zack and Lanying, and the profile of some strangely dressed woman with terribly-dyed red hair. Some tramp, no doubt, but, for whatever reason, seeing her put him on edge. Trying to catch a whiff of their emotions, he quickly cut it off because of how repulsive that woman's odor was. It was like having his head smashed into a bucket of pepper. Moving away as furtively as possible, he could barely hold back a coughing fit. "The hell is she?" He had the severe urge to see if he could get those two away from her, and figured that a little distraction might help.

Holding out his hand, he could feel both ice, as well as darkness, forming. Before he knew it, a spear of ice shot out of his hand and landed just in front of the alley with a loud crunch. It formed a rather beautiful rose--about a foot in diameter--that shimmered with an almost ethereal quality. It being the dead of night, the sound of the impact echoed quite nicely. With that done, he jogged down to the beach as quietly as possible.

It didn't take long for him to spot the Champion, though he did kind of blend in with the white sand. Walking up next to him, Raen sat down with one leg stretched forward and another propped up. Leaning forward, he rested an arm on his knee and said to the man, "Sorry to keep you waiting. So, when do we start?"

[Raen used Dark Blizzard, three posts until next use]

[Aerith]

A Rose is a Rose... on the Frozen Side

Attempting to follow Lulu's logic was an exercise in patience. Who was she talking about? "Them"? And what was this "Bad Place," exactly? It was a little too vague for Lanying's tastes, and she decided that, despite the woman's protests, it was time to leave. Zack was here now, and between the two of them, they could probably handle anything she would try using to stop them. The sooner they left, the better. Shaking her father's ghost just became that much more difficult.

"You're right, Zack. We should--"

A sharp sound interrupted her, and she whirled around to look. There, in the mouth of the alley, was an icy, rose-shaped sculpture. It caught the moonlight and played it along the walls, a beacon of breathtaking beauty.

Raen?

Quickly, she moved toward the end of the alley, careful to avoid disturbing the rose. However, looking up and down the street proved fruitless. Raen was nowhere in sight. That had to have been him. What was he doing awake? From here, she only had a limited view of the town, so perhaps he had ventured down to the beach just as she had earlier tonight.

"Come on, Zack." It was a half-hearted afterthought that she spoke to the swordsman over her shoulder. She was distracted by something, though she could not define what it was. A feeling in the pit of her stomach was telling her she should find Raen.

Heedless of Lulu, or even Zack, she exited the alley and began walking in the direction of the beach.

[Prythian]

"Before I can begin teaching you, first I must know what all is needed for you to understand." The Champion began. "What I need to know is what you know about both light and darkness. What characterizes them, what you associate with them, and other thoughts and feelings about those two forces." He closed his eyes briefly for a moment.

"Then I can tell you what you do not know and yet need to know."

[Zack]

Zack was just going to start ignoring the girl talking about Lanying still staying here, but then she just pulled a 180 out of nowhere. All of a sudden she was saying they were both going to stay and about being protected from "them". He wasn't sure at all what the girl was talking about in the slightest, but whatever the case he wasn't staying here. Lanying agreed, but stopped in the middle of what she was saying.

A loud sharp noise had suddenly been heard and Zack turned towards it along with Lanying. There was now a rose sculpture made out of ice. Lanying went toward it telling Zack to follow. He did so, wondering where the ice sculpture came from and then it hit him, had Raen found them? Was he nearby? "Right behind ya," he told her, as they started for the beach.

[Nothingness]

Very Well, Professor

Raen could already tell that this would be a rather interesting conversation. Well, "lesson" would be more appropriate. Smirking at the thought, he began to answer. "Very well, Professor. In all of my travels, here's what I've come to know. The darkness and the light are in a dangerous imbalance, greatly favoring the light. The general consensus as to how they're views is that the Light is "order" and Darkness is "chaos."" He figured that those two terms sounded at least a little bit better than "good" and "evil." "However, as with all opposites, they must be in balance, or else destruction will ensue for both parts."

Raen stood up and brushed the sand off his pant legs. Glancing behind himself, his shadow, cast by the moon, seemed oddly cold, and the moon's pale light made the sand seem as snow. Pointing at that pale sphere, he continued. "While not true for all worlds, in this world, too much if either would kill the plants around here, as would lack thereof. Overexposure to sun would dehydrate them, while gross lack of sunlight wouldn't give them enough energy to live." Lowering his arm, he bent his elbow at a right angle, and began to let some dark fog roll down to the sand. "As far as my own opinions on them, well, 'There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.' I think that summarizes my own feelings towards them." Staunching the flow, he sat down again as before, but turning to look at the Champion. "Is that a sufficient answer?"

[Prythian]

"You are... partially correct. Closer, and yet further, from the truth than I expected." The Champion said solemnly. "Order and Chaos are forces in their own right, and neither are associated with Light and Darkness except when their paths coincide. However... you are correct in that neither are good or evil, as well as thinking making it so." His sharp eyes had caught Raen releasing darkness.

"When we are finished here, you will not need that stopgap measure to keep yourself under control." He said suddenly. "Full knowledge on light and darkness should prevent any problems from arising. Now... to begin with the basics. There are eight great forces that support reality. Each of these has several characteristics, but such is currently unexplainable in ANY language. Some languages come closer than most, but in the end the easiest way to make someone learn of these forces is through symbolism... for you see, the knowledge is already within you. You too are part of this universe, and thus all eight forces are inside of you. Speaking in symbolism can touch upon that knowledge, awakening it."

He paused. "You will not be able to express the information properly, but you will understand it. Do you hear me?"

[Nothingness]

Whatever You Say

To some, being told you were "technically" wrong could mean that you were totally wrong, however, as far as he was concerned, being "technically" right also meant he sort of knew what he was talking about. Raen's heart almost skipped a beat when he was told that he could soon control the darkness freely without having to force it. As far as everything else he was talking about, well, he would try his best to get a grasp whatever that stuff was in due time.

"I have a general understand of what you're talking about. It's like expressing one's emotions through art, right? No words can really describe it, yet the understanding is universal that something is being expressed." He hoped that was a proper analogy and he wasn't just making himself sound like an idiot.

[Prythian]

The Champion nodded. "Indeed, an apt simile." He smiled approvingly. "Now, as you are aware, light and darkness are opposites. However, they are far more similar than most people know. The truth is that it is not accurate to state that they are two sides of the same coin. Rather, it would be better to say they are the same coin viewed in two different ways. In addition to that, each of these forces has, to people's eyes, two 'sides', as it were. This is not really the case, but people tend to view things in their own black and white ways."

He thought for a moment, apparently trying to phrase things properly. "In addition to this, many people view only one of the sides that are arbitrarily assigned to these forces. Light, for instance... courage is considered one of the characteristics that belongs to light. And yet, stubbornness, greatly related, is part of darkness, when in reality they are two sides of the same quality, belonging to both light and darkness. To understand the darkness, examine the light, and to understand the light, examine the darkness."

He shook his head. "There is no separation of the two forces. Opposites, but not necessarily enemies. I would say that twins is a more accurate description. Yet it is people, using the power of these forces, that are truly enemies of each other... and cause this imbalance."

[Nothingness]

Okaaaay...

Raen was sort of understanding what was being said. As with all things, it's when the natural balance is disturbed by outside forces that they begin to be given connotations. "It's the human element that twists the forces into being seen as separate, opposing entities, then, correct? People forget that one must exist in order for the other."

[Prythian]

The Champion nodded again. "And that is the cause of the upcoming war..." He murmured softly. "In any case, knowing what you know now is already a step in the right direction. However, I must tell you both of darkness and of light now. If you do not understand what I say... Then I can do no more, and you must discover what you have not yet gained without my help." He paused, looking away. "We shall start with light." Turning his red gaze back on Raen, he concentrated, closing his eyes. When he spoke, it was almost a chant or recitation, with a pulse that was both mesmerizing and rhythmic.

"Light can be kind, warm, and comforting. It can show you the way and drive away your fears. Everything has light, and it shines no matter where it is located and how little it is. Yet, beware, for it also can become harsh and searing, an intolerance that burns to the bone with hatred, and can blind you to the truth."

He opened one eye, and drew a four-pointed star in the sand between them. "Open your heart to those words and understand."

[Nothingness]

Feeling

War? Raen could barely hear him, but he was sure that the Champion said something about a war coming. No, that was something to worry about later; he had to focus right now. Then, his voice took on an odd cadence, and as he spoke, he marked a star in the sand. Something inside of Raen's mind, as well as his heart, seemed to open. It was like a door opening. He closed his own eyes, taking in this new feeling: it was unlike anything he'd felt before. With an odd calmness, he said, "Next."