The Art of Corruption [Nadia]

[Slash]

Interesting little paradise this is.
(July 23rd, 2010)

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Jericho looked calmly out at the waves. Destiny Islands was known for the beauty of its beaches, and this one was particularly lovely. The sun was just rising over the horizon, and there was no one there except for Jericho and Nadia. A wind blew slowly past them, kicking up small waves of sand that didn't reach past his ankles.

It is quite early. Few people are awake at this point.[/color]

He sat down slowly, the tips of his shoes being touched by the rolling waves. "I guess I misjudged how long it would take to get here," he said. "Might as well wait an hour or two. Nobody's up and nothing's open. Sorry about that."

Jericho hadn't misjudged the time, of course. He figured this would be a good time to have a conversation. Alienating Nadia from other people was only half of this first stage. He had to create various connections between himself and her. This was a good way to do so.

[Aerith]

Fish Out of Water Sand
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Already, she liked this world better than Traverse Town. The beach was so pristine, so free of the marks of humanity. And the sea. She was utterly enthralled by the movement of the waves, the sound of them lapping against the shore, the smell of the brine in the air. Having been born and raised in a desert, the sight of so much water stretching far beyond the horizon was breathtaking. And the way the rising sun painted everything in a glow only added to the scene of natural beauty.

She was so absorbed that she almost forgot about Jericho. He was sitting down on the sand, and she joined him. Suddenly, she was struck with the somewhat childish idea to take off her shoes, which she did with hardly any hesitation. When the water washed over her bare feet, she couldn't help but smile and wiggle her toes into the wet sand.

"I don't mind at all," she said to him, staring out at the horizon. "It's so peaceful here. And I've never seen so much water. It's... amazing."

[Slash]

I guess it would be weird.

[/center]

He nodded. "Oh, yeah. This isn't anything like Agrabah." Almost instinctively, he looked up at the sky for clouds. There were a few wisps, but nothing that could turn into rain.

Or a thunderstorm.

"To tell you the truth, I prefer being out in the early hours, when no one's awake. Like you said, it's peaceful." He turned to look at the beach. "The wind erases footprints made the day before, so it's like no one's been here before. Like it's one of the few remaining places untouched by humanity."

He was certainly calmer in places like this, isolated areas. Of course, Nadia was here, but he didn't consider her like he considered other people. On the contrary, he had a sort of affection towards her, as one would have towards a small child. She was a poor, naive little thing. Was it wrong, what he was doing to her? He was going to show her the world as it really was. Then there would be someone else who understood, someone who Jericho could actually talk to without having to lie or conceal things.

"I realized something. You think you owe me. Yet, in a way, the opposite is true. When I met you a couple days ago, you told me your situation. That's a lot of trust to put in a person, even if you didn't really mean to. And in response, I avoided your questions about myself. That was rude of me. If you could be that open with me, there's no reason that I shouldn't be with you. So, if you actually have a question, shoot. And don't worry about bringing up something too bad- time heals all wounds, and most of the wounds I got occured more than a decade ago."

He picked up a small stone washed flat by the waves and skipped it across the water.

[Aerith]

A Surfacing Need
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This was what she had been craving her entire life. Someone to talk to. Not about money or social status or proper behavior or anything of that nature. Just seemingly simple conversation that hid a complex underbelly. Talk of nature's perfection inevitably led to deeper thoughts, thoughts she would never have been able to voice back home.

"Everything does seem simpler when humanity isn't involved. I don't know why we feel we have to distort something as wonderful as this." She caught herself. "Although, humanity also does much that is good. Sometimes, it's more important to see to the needs of others than it is to worry about disturbing nature."

Even now, she spoke as though afraid she would upset her family, disappoint them somehow. She had grown used to tip-toeing around a conversation, saying what was on her mind but not actually saying it. Or quickly covering it up with a far more agreeable statement. It was silly of her, she knew. She had already committed a terrible crime against her family and the rest of Agrabah and been exiled for it. There was nothing else she could possibly do to make herself any more of a disappointment in their eyes. If there was still even a glimmer of familial affection to be found, they wouldn't have been so adamant about making sure they never saw her again.

Coming up for air out of the depths of her thoughts, she realized Jericho was insisting it was he who owed her a debt. The rock he skipped over the water held her attention for a moment. After considering exactly what to ask and how to ask it, she dug her toes a little deeper into the sand and turned her head to look at him. "Well, I'm not usually one to pry into other people's lives, but... what exactly happened to you? I mean, what was so terrible that made people want you dead?"

She had experience with that sort of thing, of course. But she hadn't seen anything about him that might be misconstrued as demonic possession.

[Slash]

A little story, then?

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"Well..." He dredged up old memories, brought them to the surface, and begun to tell them. As he had said, they didn't affect him all that much anymore. It was a little like talking about a different person.

"I don't look very much like it but I'm actually quite old- almost 41. And back about twenty years ago, my life was a lot different. I wasn't rich, or famous, and I didn't have some glamorous job, but I was pretty happy.

I was married, you see. I also had two kids, a boy and a girl. My salary wasn't much, but we got along.

However, I started trying to obtain more for my family." He laughed. "Gambling. It was a terrible idea, and to say I got stuck in a hole is an understatement. I made enemies with the wrong people because I couldn't pay them back, and what's more my wife was about to leave me and take the kids with her.

Then, one day, she vanished, along with the kids. And the next day, I got a ransom note with my wife's ring attached. Pay the money or my family dies, basically.

I was desperate. I did whatever I could, and many of the things I did I'm not proud of. But that wasn't what made people hate me. On the very last day, I got the money and paid them back. They said my family would be at my house."

He paused for a while. The next memories were quite fuzzy. He had to straighten them out.

"There was a big storm that day. How cliche, right? I went back to my house and...well, I found my family. They were in pieces...all over the house and there was blood everywhere and that...smell..." He stopped for another few seconds, then shook it off. "I was framed for it. No one believed me. They'd rather believe that I went crazy and killed my own wife. The men who killed them had connections, you know, and besides it's so much more interesting to have it committed by me. More shocking." Bitterness entered his tone, but he refrained from continuing on that line further. It wasn't time to reveal the depths of his hatred, or even more than a small part of the surface.

That was most everything. He finished it off. "So I left. First chance I got. I doubt there's anyone left who remembers it. It all happened back when I was 26."

Now she was the only living person who knew everything about that day. He hadn't told anyone else anything, not even Clive or Aerith. And why was he so open to Nadia? Well, the connection had to go both ways. He knew that. If he kept taking from the girl and giving nothing in return, then something would mess up. What good would a Zero be that didn't understand him? On the surface, they might seem like him, but something inside would be fundamentally different and would throw everything off.

[Aerith]

Empathy
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The longer Jericho talked, the wider Nadia's eyes became. He certainly didn't look his real age, so she had a hard time believing him at first. But as he went on with his story, she felt more and more drawn in, imagining everything as he said it. He had had an entire life before, and then he had lost it all. Of course, the gambling problem hadn't helped. But to see your entire family dead...

She still had hers, even if she would never see them again.

"Jericho... That's terrible." Her eyes were filled with some mixture of pity and horror. "My problems don't seem nearly so bad in comparison."

Pulling her knees up to her chest, she rested her chin on her crossed arms. It was true. Her life suddenly seemed a lot better now. Then again, she hadn't lived as long as Jericho had. She shouldn't speak too soon.

"I wish I knew what to say. I'm so sorry."

[Slash]

Thankfully for the both of us, I'm not into angst.

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He smiled a little at her sympathy. "Don't be sorry for me, Nadia. And don't feel bad on my behalf. I lived through it. That's what matters."

While it was common practice for one with a tragic past to angrily reject sympathy, Nadia's genuine consolation combined with her well-meaning only served to bolster his affection. In this moment, at least, his words were completely genuine.

"If your problems aren't as bad, then that's not a fault of yours, but the opposite. I got into what I did because I was a fool. I couldn't have gotten into something that bad without it being partially my fault. You've done better than I have because you're not as stupid as I was. Keep it that way."

While those tragic events on his 26th year had shaped his worldview ever since, he did not angrily brood on the events themselves. There was no point to that. Besides, there was something to be gained out of that night.

That night, he got a crash course in learning how the world really was.

No, he wasn't being cruel by making her his Zero. It would be a gentle transformation. He would not force her as he himself had been forced. That way, she would be immune from such a horrible thing happening to her, without having to go through hell to gain that immunity.

How interesting. The goal seems less vile when done with the best intentions. But do I really have the best intentions, or am I fooling myself?[/color]

He didn't really know.

[Aerith]

Connection
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She was silent for a moment, content to just stare out across the sea. The difference between both of their stories was that she had stumbled into a situation without any sort of choice. The gods or destiny or whatever nebulous force that might rule this universe had decreed that she would have to leave her old life behind. There had been no opportunity to protest.

That didn't change the fact that she felt very connected to Jericho now, at least in this moment.

"Thank you for the compliment. Glad to know there's someone who doesn't automatically dismiss me as intellectually inferior just because I'm a woman." She couldn't help but smile a little, finding amusement in the thought. If only her father had known just how much she had absorbed during her time in the library. The social intrigue had quickly grown to be more of distraction then any central piece of her life.

"And you're right. I can't recall any conscious choice I made to get exiled. But I've tried to make the best of things. Even when I was still at home, I always tried to do that." Even if it became very difficult to do so.

[Slash]

Agrabah is rather backwards.

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Jericho laughed. "Inferior because you're a woman? I might be a fool, but even I'm not that stupid. Mental acuity has nothing to with gender." He never really understood that viewpoint.

He sighed. Such optimism. It was almost regrettable that he would be taking it out of her. But it was too misguided, no matter how good of a character trait it was.

He would keep from making it painful. She wouldn't really notice until she was at a point that she could appreciate its loss. He would make sure of that.

"It is admirable to see the silver lining in every situation. But..." He laid back in the sand, staring up at the sky. "You should be careful. Optimism can be a light that guides us through the darkness, but it can also blind us to danger ahead."

Please, see the truth in that statement. Or at least try to refute it so I can help you out of your optimism. If I use any other way, it'll hurt. Maybe not much, but still.[/color]

[Aerith]

Disagreement
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Nadia laughed a little herself. "It's silly, isn't it? I never understood why my father thought that way." Trailing off, she grew serious for a moment, feeling a stab of loneliness. Despite everything they had done to her, she couldn't help but miss her family on occasion. She wasn't one to hold grudges, after all.

Hearing Jericho's back stir the sand, she turned her head to look at him while he spoke. While she appreciated his concern, her own thoughts were not congruent with his.

What else did she have besides her insistence that everything was going to turn out fine? What else did she have besides a hope, vain though it might be, that one day her family would realize their mistake and seek her out? If she was not constantly looking for the bright side to things, she would have given up a long time ago.

"It may hide potential danger, but at least having that light there makes it easier to get back up and keep going, even after you fall." She looked back out toward the rising sun. "At least, that's what I think."

[Slash]

This has to be done carefully.

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"Maybe you're right," he said, with a note of sadness coming into his voice. "But here's how I see it, at least."

"It was precisely optimism that got me into everything I did. I was optimistic about my chances of winning money, then about paying debts that rose up. Then I figured that if I worked hard enough, I could save my family. If I had been more realistic about all of these things, or even just one...And after that, if I had still possessed my ability to hope for the best, I would have stayed in Twilight Town and tried my best to convince someone, anyone that I wasn't lying. And I would have been arrested or just killed."

He glanced towards her, then turned back to the sky, folded his arms over his chest, and continued. "It presents itself as a great shield, yet in time of great crisis it reveals itself to be as insubstantial as smoke. It may reform, but in a large enough crisis it will shatter and disperse forever. And it will take much of you with it when it does so. There are other things besides hope."

Jericho closed his eyes and remained silent for a while. He doubted she'd grasp his words, but it was still worth a try. Perhaps the only way to show you is through certain examples.[/color]

[Aerith]

Nothing Else
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Of course, she knew she was right. It wasn't an arrogant sort of knowledge, no. It was just a certainty she held onto.

"That isn't optimism, though. Eventually, you realize that you're being foolish. I don't carry it that far. ...Then again, I've never been in a situation like yours. Close, but not quite."

She traced her eyes over the sand at her feet. "And what else is there besides hope? That's what keeps me going. If I let go of that, I truly have nothing."

[Slash]

An existence dependent on hope? Poor girl.

[/center]

Jericho didn't open his eyes. "At what point is the line from optimism to foolishness drawn? It is far too blurred to be seen by those close to crossing it. And besides, something small can become something great given time. It is only with hindsight that you can see where it started, or what you could have done."

The next part did make him become aware again, and he looked at her with a mixture of sympathy and weariness. She was so sure of herself, but that was probably because, as she had said, it was all she had. What a pitiful way to exist. Turning your head towards something you could never actually gain.

"Don't say that. There is more, and you only have to look around to realize that." He raised a hand towards the sky. "There is so much around to appreciate without wishing for some far-off dream. Hope is not congruent to happiness. There is what exists. There is the present. Live for it and look towards the future, as well as the past, as they are, not as you wish them to be."

He stopped, then laughed. "That was overly poetic." He wasn't going to push it any farther. "Of course, do what you will. Just do it with caution."

[Aerith]

Appreciation
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Nadia considered this for a moment. "I suppose that's true. Sometimes, it takes someone on the outside to say whether or not your actions are foolish. At the time, you can think your own actions are perfectly logical. It isn't until you look back that you realize you probably made mistakes."

She raised her eyes to the sky, then looked down at him. "But what's really so wrong with hoping for something better? Don't you hope for better things? Not obsessively, of course. I recognize that even hope can be controlling. But it doesn't have to be eradicated completely."

This was the most she had spoken to someone in ages, it seemed. And it was perhaps the first real verbal and mental exercise she had experienced with another breathing human being... ever. Words could not describe the thrill. She gave Jericho a friendly smile. "And even if we may not agree, I'm enjoying this conversation. Thank you for that."

[Slash]

And now we near the end of this stage.

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"Not completely, no. But mostly." He shrugged, which shifted the sand near his shoudlers slightly. "It's hard to explain."

She'd learn soon enough. He'd change other aspects of her first, weakening that one until he could crush it without difficulty. It was really ingrained into her. But what to focus on first, then...?

He'd have to get to that later. Right now, he'd just focus on making Nadia a more permanent traveling partner. Then he'd be able to take her to worlds without building up a false pretense, and could therefore reach his goals more easily.

"You're welcome," he said, sitting up and running a hand through his hair to get the sand out. Now here was the test. Even if she didn't outright ask to leave with him, if the thought of him leaving caused even the tiniest bit of sadness he could use that.

"I enjoyed it myself. But look- the sun's up. People will be awake now." He looked out at the water. "You'll like this world. It's quite peaceful, and the people are even kinder than in Twilight Town. And there's bound to be someone here on a vacation who'll give you a ride."