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| Valencia and Oswald |
| (2012-11-16 - 2012-11-16) |
| Valencia and Oswald discuss light, darkness, and heartless |
| Valencia | Valencia is wandering through New Orleans, having just walked out of the portal as she looks about and seems to be quite interested in what she sees. "Hm..." she says with a thoughtful look on her face, "Looks... Charming. Spirited, even." as her bird automaton flits down and lands on her shoulder. A few people turn their gaze towards her, as she looks fairly well off not to mention her bird automaton. Her clothing doesn't seem to be standard for this time period either. "Plenty of people here... Must be a fairly large city." she says, "I wonder if they have heartless here..." she says as she walks around, apparently looking for -something-. |
| Oswald | Nobody seems to wear the clothes they should be wearing anymore, probably due to the world shards being all splintery and such. Fashion trends spread, and bad fashion in particular spreads like wildfire. The new world's economy is seeing a boom in seemingly superfluous zippers and pockets. Oswald is one such person who has bought into the pockets and zippers thing, under the guise of his new attire being 'traveling clothes'. He has seen a lot of the world, more than most in fact due to his ability to use Coridoors of Darkness, but it still eager to see more. It's always interesting to see people's reaction to a half pint, anthropomorphic rabbit wandering around the place. It's also a good rule of thumb to assume interesting looking people will have interesting looking things to say, and Oswald seems to have hit an instant jackpot when he sees Valencia. Moving a bit closer, he overheads -- among others things -- her use the word 'Heartless'. "Interesting thing so say," he comments, paying her a polite not when Valencia looks down to see the Lucky Rabbit. "Lots of people are afraid to use the H word now adays, even where they already know all about 'em." |
| Valencia | Looking around for a few moments, Valencia says, "Who's there?" before catching a glimpse of Oswald's ears and looking down before saying, "Oh, hello. Well, I want to understand them. They destroyed my world and... Well, if they can do that then they have to be something special. Imagine what could be learned by studying them! Although I wouldn't want to get -too- involved with them. The last person I saw doing that wound up as a heartless herself." she then pauses before saying, "Although I can imagine the average person's fear of them. They are quite dangerous, and don't display many characteristics associated with living creatures. Blood, pain... Gruesome characteristics, but certainly signs of life. Without that, it's arguably even more frightening than seeing someone heavily injured. But in any event, I'm after knowledge. Not power, not some kind of control." |
| Oswald | Oswald flashes Valencia a smile when she eventually looks down at him. It's always interesting to see the first look on their face after all! He hears Valencia's story and nods in some places, listening as intently as possible. "Study them?" he asks, scrunching his face up a little. "Yeah, the Heartless are dangerous like that, that's why most people are afraid of them like you've said." "They aren't all that complicated overall. They're just... things. What kinda control were you looking for? Maybe I can help." |
| Valencia | "I said I -wasn't- looking for control." Valencia says, "As far as I can tell, that could very well cost me my sanity or humanity. I'm sure you'd rather be a rabbit than some kind of half-alive shadow monster, now wouldn't you? I heard that there's this company studying them right now... What was their name?.." she then pauses and looks a bit zoned out for a moment before she says, "Oh! ShinRa. They offered me a job with them, but... Well let's be honest, someone offering you a job just for advice? I'm not that naive." |
| Oswald | Everyone is after control Oswald thinks, though he gives Valencia a sympathetic nod regardless. "My mistake." he says. "ShinRa isn't the only company reseaching the problem," the Lucky Rabbit says conversationally. "I'm sure if you looked around there's a lot of information you could find - try the Twilight Detective Agency, for example, I've heard good things about that place." That said he looks from side to side before continuing. "That said, I know a bit of something about Heartless. It's quite difficult to get one to stay still, for a start. If you wanted to study it you might be out of luck. They can travel through darkness, and I've even seen some move through shadows. Did you think about how you'd contain one?" |
| Valencia | "Well..." Valencia says, "I do have the ability to produce a certain amount of energy that seems to be... For the lack of a better word, anathemic to them." as she holds out her hand as though gesturing to receive something as a ball of sparkling light appears in it, "It erodes them... Quite unlike other things I've seen. Of course, extreme gravity is always effective but this... Is unique. I was thinking insulating a containment unit with this energy -might- be enough to keep them from traveling. Weaken them enough to get them to stay put." |
| Oswald | Anathemic to them? Anathemic to Oswald. He takes a step back reactively and turns half of his body away, though manages to pass this off as being surprised how bright the sudden lightshow is. "Wow," he says, pondering. "That could definitely work..." Oswald waits for the light to die down before straightening himself out. "I think I can definitely help you," he says. "In exchange for being told anything you may find out -- how does that sound?" |
| Valencia | "Fair enough." Valencia says, "If you participate, you're contributing just as much as some others. You have a right to the fruits of your labor, just as much as I." she then pauses for a few moments before looking at her bird and nodding as it flits over towards him before -screeching- and flying back away as she says, "You're not interested in them for scholarly purposes, are you?" she then looks up at her bird and says, "He tends to be a good judge of character. Something's not right here." |
| Oswald | "Does he?" Oswald asks innocently. "Well I don't suppose I have anything to hide: I am, as they are called across the world shards, a Shadow Lord. I seem to be able to create and control Heartless, for my sins." "Does that surprise you?" he asks, flashing a genuine smile. "It's shocked people before. I am interested to know because my heart tells me dark is not always bad and light is not always good, so learning more about these creatures is interesting to me." |
| Valencia | "...Interesting." Valencia says with a slight glare before she says, "If you can control heartless, why not simply order them to cease their destruction of worlds? Perhaps turn them upon each other? Why create more when it costs people their lives and... Well, the state of being that they had previously?" then folds her arms and says, "I'll work with you... For now. But if I find you coming after my allies, or attacking the place or places I choose to live in." she says before she holds out her hand palm forward in a, 'Stop' gesture before the light returns as she says, "We -will- have trouble." before it vanishes and she smiles saying, "Understand?" |
| Oswald | "There are several forms of control," Oswald says. "And they do not always mean what you want them to mean. Much of what you're saying isn't actually possible... you would need to talk to Maleficent." Hearing Valencia's reaction doesn't exactly surprise the Lucky Rabbit; it's so interesting how a person's reaction towards you can change over a few little words. His ears twitch, a single eyebrow raised. "Oh will you?" he drawls in response to Valencia's agreement to 'still work with him'. "Fantastic." Oswald once again withdraws a step in reply to the girl flaring a bubble of holy energy against him. He frowns, imagining that she expects him to hiss and retreat back like some kinda of vampire. "There's no need to be like that," he says with a sigh. "As I have said, light does not mean good. If you think you are strong for the power you weild imagine how strong my heart must still be to study darkness yet not be consumed by it." |
| Valencia | "One may study a fire without attempting to light it, or fuel it." Valencia says, "If it limits my research, so be it. However, knowledge should be pursued by its own sake while observing proper ethics. Meaning, I am -not- going to be turning people into heartless, I am -not- going to be attempting to instill darkness in a given subject... You see where I'm going with this." |
| Valencia | "As far as I know." Valencia says, "He hasn't reacted to that since the first person I saw wielding darkness, albeit unsuccessfully and far too carelessly regardless of your standards." |
| Oswald | Oswald nods. "I see... that's unfortunate, but it happens to some people I suppose. Well regardless, you will notice that I never suggested turning anyone into Heartless. Or infusing anybody with darkness for that matter... Shadow Lords aren't all like that. Not all shades of gray are black. There is a lot of middle ground, some of which I am in. I can still help you but how can you hope to learn if there's ways of thinking you aren't willing to leave behind?" |
| Valencia | "I saw it destroy my world." Valencia says, "In its raw capacity, darkness is destructive. I'll observe it, and make my own decisions. But for now, it's very dangerous and that's what I know. As such, I will exercise extreme caution." |
| Oswald | "There's a lot of that going around," says Oswald. "The Heartless are destructive, though, on that we can agree on even if you still find me for some reason distateful. Caution is good, though. A lot can go wrong without caution - which you have no doubt experienced." |
| Valencia | "People are by definition, not distasteful." Valencia says, "That label is applied to someone because of what they do, or because of some sort of pre-existing assumption or knowledge. I'll... Entertain this idea, but I won't necessarily accept it. Everything must be tested and observed." |
| Oswald | Oswald smiles and gives a little nod. "I understand," he says. "Do you have somewhere we can go? I can provide you with a weak Heartless, under my direction, while you see what you can learn." |
| Valencia | Looking over at the swamp, Valencia says, "Well... The swamp probably wouldn't have anyone nearby." as she walks over and says, "It's a bit gross but... Well, science has its costs." |
| Valencia | Valencia is currently in her lab, gesturing left and right as various cords leap up on their own and snap into place between what looks like several small servers and a central console, even screwing themselves in when necessary. Finally, she walks over towards a lever and pulls it as the lights in the room turn on and the computerized equipment powers up with a hum as she dusts off her hands and says, "...And that's that! Bit more advanced than I'm used to, but nothing I can't learn!" |