The Best Thing About Not Being Home is Missing You

[preuxchevalier]

There are people back home that your character hates. Or maybe they love them, but they're terrible people/influences. Here's your chance to talk or play out that special someone turning up in the Meadous. Are they so far out of their element that they're now defanged tigers? Do they lead right in with their wicked ways? What is your character's CR even going to think when they meet this person?
 

Post with your own character or the person they most/least want to see again who's a bad thing for them. Feel free to play out encounters in the snow between this character and your regular character's CR, or talk it out with if you're not sure you've got the voice down.
 

Fun for all ages! And by fun, we mean misery!

Comments

[letxequalnull]

There's more than one man in a black cloak lurking around the Meadous, it seems. This one, however, is one whose choice of blacks is a bit more coatish than cloakish. Either way, it is both the sort of thing that doesn't precisely bode very well and also the sort of thing that is probably going to be immediately familiar to a certain subset of people already present.

He cares little for that however. What matters is the people here, and how many of them can be put to good use - something that he cannot tell by the words left on the bulletin board alone. So it is that he can be found drifting along the streets, quietly exploring this new environment.

To those with magical senses, or simply those with enhanced senses he may also read as not only powerful dark but also of the deadly chill of the void.

[ignes_fatui]

Ienzo nearly collapses where he stands upon recognizing the scent. That's more Darkness than any other person could bear, it has to be him. But it couldn't be, could it? The little god was young, but even they had to know what would happen if they released someone like him into a place like this. Even children knew not to let wolves wander amongst the flock, right?

It has to be someone else. Another Riku, this one from before Castle Oblivion, and he's simply misremembering and overreacting. That would explain it, yes. He's tempted to just accept that explanation and stay as far away as possible (Riku is still dangerous enough in his own right, especially before he's mastered Xehanort's Heartless), but curiosity gets the better of him. He has to know for sure.

His read on the scent becomes clearer as he approaches, as does the person in question's silhouette, and he immediately regrets his decision. The invisibility he'd wrapped around himself, all of his protective spells fall away as he freezes in place, eyes wide with mortal terror.

"Xemnas," he hisses, voice barely more than a whisper.

[letxequalnull]

And it should be more darkness than any other person could bear. After such a long time spent making use of the darkness it should perhaps come as no surprise that he is darker than most. But Ienzo may have his assumptions, for as long as he can hold them. Xemnas may be aware of Ienzo's presence in this world - he's recognized the handwriting on the boards - but he can't say what other people might guess at.

That curiosity should lead Ienzo to him, however... that is no surprise. Whether he has been counting on it is anyone's guess, but he turns quite unhurriedly at the sound of Ienzo's voice. He may be a wolf let loose among so many unsuspecting sheep, but he will not be outwardly so, and that alone makes him all the more dangerous. He can - and likely will - play at politeness until all the pieces are aligned just so.

"Ienzo," he answers, and there's a sharp gleam in his eyes as he recognizes the scarf at Ienzo's throat. He's not seen it's like in years, and it is almost amusing that someone who has spent so long without a heart should willingly seek a return to that which they had once been.

[ignes_fatui]

At this point Ienzo's very unsure of what he should be doing here. Cry is the foremost suggestion in his mind and as tempting as that is he's pretty sure it would help absolutely nothing. Run, hide away somewhere, get Aeleus or Even and warn everyone are among the more helpful ideas, but what would any of them accomplish? This world is too small to make any real escape viable, and there's a reason Xemnas was able to keep the Organization in line for as long as he did. Even together they wouldn't stand a chance and how exactly would he go about convincing the rabble of just how dangerous Xemnas is?

He takes a step backwards, shaking his head and trying very, very hard not to start crying. This absolutely cannot be happening, even if his Sense powers are telling him that there's no veil to be lifted or false visions to be banished. It just can't be. He refuses.

[letxequalnull]

It can be. In fact, it is, and whether this is a catastrophic error in the young god's judgement or the symptom of some darker force at work is something that Xemnas would hardly deign to mention even if he were aware of which one is the nature of his arrival here. Still, if it is the former, he can't say he's much pleased. He can work alone well enough, but he still feels a little unsettled about leaving Xigbar behind.

But he trusts Xigbar to know how to keep the plan running smoothly despite his absence, and it's only an inconvenience insomuch as the two of them working in tandem is somewhat more... efficient then working alone. But it doesn't matter. One of him should be more than enough for a world as small as this one seems to be.

"Can you truly have nothing to say?"

[ignes_fatui]

He has a great many things to say, actually. Too many. How dare you, how could you? A list of transgressions longer than he has breath to rattle off. Betrayed Ansem's trust and killed him, destroyed the worlds and let all of them think it was their fault, did something to Braig that Ienzo's still not fully able to accept, took everything away from him when he was too young to understand what was happening. And all for what?

Clearly dismayed, Ienzo struggles for a long moment to find the words for all of this. "Why?" is what he finally manages, all the anger and indignation choked down by fear of retribution.

[letxequalnull]

For the plan, of course. For his grand design that Ienzo heard nothing of and will continue to hear nothing of until it is all too late. Or until he manages to bring Ienzo once more into the fold, perhaps. But the details are nothing that is important to the conversation at hand, and Xemnas merely smiles at the question.

"You shall have to be more specific then that."

[amourtician]

Jay, suffering from an attack of both good spirits and unusual chumminess (likely helped by the fact that a couple of hours earlier, he'd taken laudanum for a migraine), goes out of his way to greet the newcomer, once again showing that he has absolutely no survival instinct.

"Afternoon, darling!" he calls. "You know, the last person to go skulking about like that got into some rather terrible trouble."

[letxequalnull]

Fortunately, Xemnas is not likely to be any immediate threat. Quite the contrary, in fact. Any danger that he brings with him is the sort that is potential danger. The kind that doesn't really care about how many people must fall on the way to his true goals. But that isn't what he shows to Jay. Instead he offers his very best impression of curiosity.

"What manner of trouble would that have been?"

If Jay is paying attention, he's speaking the same language that Even and the rest of the people from his universe have been speaking but it's... unhurried, somehow. As if he will get to where he means to get in his own time and the rest of the world can simply deal with it.