vatheon | 6th Combo

Entry tags:

6th Combo

Who: Lloyd Irving and anyone
Where: Island beach
When: Morning
Style: Either
Status: Open

[There aren't very many good places in Vatheon to get away from everyone. Not that Lloyd is trying to avoid anyone, but it's usually a good idea to go someplace out of the way when training with new mana techniques - and that's exactly what he's doing today. He'd found a good stretch of beach that was, for the moment, unoccupied - probably because of the chill in the morning air discouraging casual beachgoers. There might be more people in the afternoon, but he'd no doubt have called it quits long before then.

So, while he still has the beach to himself, time to get to work! Drawing both his swords, the teen in red runs through a basic warm-up before settling into a familiar routine. Without calling on his own inner mana, he goes through the motions of the techs he thinks are closest to what he's trying to achieve. Demon Fang, Tempest, Beast, they all involve molding mana around his blades. If he can just keep it there, instead of unleashing it...

Anyone passing by this particular stretch of beach will either see a teenage swordsman hard at work training himself - or they'll pass by just in time to get blasted by mana and sand from one of Lloyd's failed technique attempts.]

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[The physical change is like a slap to Lloyd's face and he flinches visibly. There isn't any way he can deny it now. Not after that.

Mithos is Yggdrasill.

Fortunately, though, Mithos (Yggdrasill?) gives him a rallying point to focus on, a challenge to his goals and ideals that he can't ignore without protest. He shakes his head, gesturing expansively with his hands - and with his swords, because he's still holding those, but the gesture isn't a threat.]

"Never" is too long a time for anyone, even an elf or a half-elf or an angel, to predict. Anything is possible, M-Mithos.

[The slightest of hesitations slipped into his voice there before he squashed the uncertainty. Mithos is still Mithos. He has to be. He can't be just Yggdrasill. The half-elf boy was too real to be just a lie. And Lloyd doesn't want to let him go.]

If you learned that what you were doing won't work, then you need to try something else. It's only once you stop trying that you don't have a chance at all. Maybe the reason why humans weren't changing was because the Desians and Cruxis were making it worse. Wouldn't it be easier for people to stop hating if we weren't hated, too?

[He gives the angel an almost pleading look.]

We didn't ever hate you when you were our friend. Can't we... can't we keep that? Doesn't that prove it can work?

Edited 2012-06-08 13:32 (UTC)

There is nothing else, Lloyd. If there was, I'd have done it already.

[ The Seraph's eyebrows narrow, and his eyes are reduced to slits. ]

The Desians gave half-elves a way to fight back. Before they existed, the roles were almost entirely reversed. Half-elves had to relocate to Exire to escape their treatment.

[ Yggdrasill exhaled sharply at what Lloyd says next. ]

As I said, Lloyd. It isn't that simple. You're seven humans out of millions. Martel and I saved their world, and they thanked us by killing her. And still, after four thousand years, they refuse to change. I've given up on convincing them. The world you seek is an illusion. Nothing more.

So because humans did it first, it's okay to do it back to them?

[Lloyd shakes his head. He can't understand that logic.]

Doesn't that just make half-elves as bad as the worst of humans? I mean, not all humans are like that! Even if some of them hurt and betrayed you, it wasn't all humans, was it?

The minute the Desians stop, humans will retaliate. The only reason the Desians aren't the ones being slaughtered in the ranches is because they have the upper hand.

[ Mithos logic: Either we kill them, or they kill us. ]

If that were true, Exire wouldn't be necessary. Stop deluding yourself: The vast majority of humans will never accept half-elves willingly, Desians or no.

[Augh. Mithos's logic is so frustrating!]

As things stand right now, you're right. Humans won't accept half-elves while they're being oppressed. That's why the Desians need to stop if there's ever going to be a world without discrimination. I don't mean that they should back down and just let humans hurt them back, but places like those ranches shouldn't even exist! No one should be in there! Then, once people stop hurting each other, maybe we can work together! We can show everyone that humans and half-elves can live in peace! If we did it, they can, too!

Perhaps they can, but they won't. Do you think the first thing I did as the ruler of Cruxis was to create the Desians?

[ Mithos doesn't care. The humans deserve everything that happens to them, in there. Especially since, in his mind, he's tried everything else. ]

They killed my sister, Lloyd. After she risked everything to save their world, and only for their narcissistic desire to monopolize mana and continue using it to power their weapons.

[ Yggdrasill throws his arm out to the side, dramatically. ]

I once thought as you did. Four thousand years of being proven wrong was all the proof I needed to realize it was naive. The only way for humans and half-elves to live in peace is if we become the same.

I understand that you hate what happened to your sister, and what some humans tried to do, but you can't blame all humans for what a few of them did. Humans aren't all the same, just like half-elves and dwarves and gnomes, and I bet elves aren't all the same, either. Can't you see? You're hurting innocent people for something they didn't do.

[He can't believe that Marble did anything to deserve what happened to her.

Those final words catch him off guard, though, and his brow furrows in confusion. From when he's from, no one's ever mentioned Mithos's Age of Lifeless Beings. An Age of Half-Elves, yes, but not yet a whisper of making everyone the same, or what that would entail.]

What do you mean? How can everyone be the same? Isn't that impossible?

I blame all humans for half-elves needing to live in hiding, or being contained to slums.

[ Sure, they didn't all kill Martel, but that just brings him back to his original point of "If all humans aren't evil, why do we need Exire or the Desians?"

When Lloyd asked his question, he realized that nobody told him about his master plan. Fine. He'll do that now. ]

Why do you think the Human Ranches exist, Lloyd? If I wanted to simply kill every human, there are much easier and more efficient ways to do it than with Human Ranches. I require Exspheres for realizing my sister's final vision.

It's still not all humans who're doing that to you!

[Unfortunately, Mithos's words don't do anything to clear the confusion on Lloyd's face. If anything, they just bring a hint of anger and frustration to his voice. The Human Ranches are a sore subject with him, but how do they connect with this?]

I don't understand. Human Ranches don't make humans the same as half-elves. All they do is cause suffering and pain, and people die to make those Exspheres. How does that solve anything?

Exspheres are used for more than simply increasing one's power.

[ Come on, Lloyd, don't you see where he's going with this? ]

A Cruxis Crystal is simply an evolved form of an Exsphere. They will turn everyone into the same species, thus eliminating the basis for discrimination. It will create an Age of Lifeless Beings, where at long last, everyone can live in peace without fear of hatred.

[Exspheres. Cruxis Crystals. More than just increasing your power. It takes a moment for Lloyd to connect the dots, but when he does, his eyes widen with shock.]

Wait. You're saying you're going to turn everyone into angels? But that's-! That won't solve anything either! Race isn't the only reason people can hate each other.

The blood between the races will vanish. Everyone will become the same lifeless being, incapable of hatred. That is the only solution to humanity's most basic flaw.

[ Sorry, Lloyd. To him, it's really that simple. ]

...lifeless?

[Mithos can't be suggesting what it sounds like he is. He just can't. Surely Lloyd is misunderstanding.]

You make it sound like nobody will feel anything.

Have you not been to Welgaia?

[ A question Mithos has been meaning to ask. ]

[Lloyd's brow furrows, answering the question before he even opens his mouth.]

Where's Welgaia? And what does that have to do with this?

Derris Kharlan.

[ Mithos' eyes are narrowing. So, Lloyd doesn't even know the name of Cruxis' main base of operations... ]

Then we have nothing more to discuss.

Oh!

[He has heard of Derris-Kharlan, though. Even if he's never been there either.]

Wait, what do you mean we have nothing more to discuss? You didn't answer my question!

The term 'lifeless being' should be self-explanatory, Lloyd. If humans are incapable of hatred, then discrimination will disappear entirely.

[It's with a certain dawning horror that Lloyd begins to think he's grasping Mithos's plan.]

So you're... what? You're going to take away all of their feelings? What about happiness? What about peace? What about hating the homework your teacher gives you, or being bored, or excited, or all the other feelings we have?

There will be peace. There will be no more war, no more anger, no more hated. Human nature will be entirely replaced.

It's the only way humanity will ever learn to co-exist.

But then no one will ever live!

[He tries to imagine a world like Mithos is describing, and his mind balks at the idea.]

What would even be the point of living if no one felt anything at all?!

You say it would be better to live with pain than with nothing at all?

[ Mithos balks at that idea. ]

I've waited for four millenia to see humans change. They refused every step of the way. The only way I will ever see my sister's dream realized is by changing their very nature, even if I have to force it.

Yes, I am saying that! I don't want people to suffer, either, but if we don't have any kind of emotions at all, then no one will ever be happy, either! Isn't that just as bad?! [He shakes his head.] No, it's worse, because at least with pain, you know it can end, and you can still find moments where you're happy. What you're planning won't let anyone have even that!

[As he speaks, something deep within him solidifies, determination and a kind of pain. If Mithos refuses, if he stays with this plan...

When he speaks, his voice is low, almost anguished.]

I don't want to fight you, Mithos, but I can't agree with what you're trying to do.

There is nothing else, Lloyd. I have grown tired of waiting for what will likely never happen. Humans have left me with no other option, and I will not see Martel returned to a world that hasn't changed since the day she died.

[ Yggdrasill's wings flutter. ]

Then stay out of my way.

I can't do that, either.

[His voice is sober. He knows what it means to say this.]

I can't stand back while people around me suffer and die, and I can't let people become as good as dead. I'll work to change the world and make it a better place. I'll work with my friends to reunite the worlds so they don't have to fight for mana, and then we'll work together to show everyone that it doesn't matter what race they are. And I'll show you that we don't need to be lifeless to work together and live peaceful lives.

[He takes a breath, preparing himself.]

But even if you've given up, I haven't, and I'll stop you if I have to, Mithos.

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