14

[asea]

Who: Walter and you
Where: Forest
When: 16th, noon
Style: Either
Status: Open

[A window on the second floor of Phasma Apartment throws open, and there's a blur of black as something leaps off the sill. Whether it's noticed, the winged creature speeds startlingly toward the forest quadrant (by sheer coincidence in a blind charge), only slowing once several meters in.

The blackness disperses with a sparkle and 14-year-old Walter stumbles forward, twigs crunching under roomy boots. A length of torn cloth is wrapped around his waist to secure long pants, the hems of which he can feel under the soles of his feet. The shirts hang loosely off his frame, but they're not so oversized that he needs to do more. The cape clings to his arms, so he shrugs, tossing it up to rest on his shoulders.

The familiar whites and blues had been the only comforting thing in an unfamiliar room, even if they're a bit big.

He treads carefully deeper in the forest, until he comes across the sizable lake in the center. Crouching, he stares into the expanse of water and frowns. Landlocked.

Should one make the slightest sound of approaching, be it the rustling of the thicket or the snap of a twig, Walter will act before thinking: that would be plunging himself into the water, away from view and safe from dangers of the land. And he'll be down there for minutes, hours even, unless provoked to emerge.

Or he may come out on his own to attack. It's up to how one presents oneself.]

Comments

[shirleyhopeful]

[After dealing with the aftermath of Zelos and Walter, she was trying so hard to get Walter to see that there was some good in the Orerines. Yes, there were some that were cruel and wicked but there were also some that are kind and gentle...

It was true that for a small moment in her life she honestly believed that the Orerines needed to die, but she knew better then that. With a small gulp, she simple nodded.]

[asea]

. . . You're too kind.

[And naive.

Walter looks up, vaguely lost in his thoughts.]

The Merines is born. She will right everything with her return. When that happens, you won't have to worry about such a thing anymore.

[shirleyhopeful]

[Yeah, about that...]

But there's still some innocent Orerines that could be caught in such a thing! I just...don't think it's right to kill like that. If there was another way...!

[asea]

[Perhaps if he'd been his older self, he might have walked away from the conversation. Yet in his more honest youth, Walter seethes more openly, with fewer emotions pent up inside him.]

They started this!

They never belonged. They were the invaders. This is a fate they've made for themselves—it is retribution.

[shirleyhopeful]

[Oh what has Shirley walked herself into?]

Then mind if I ask you something? What...what do you think would happen should you see a Ferines betraying your own kind? What would you do?

[asea]

[She has thrown herself into the pit of racial irrationality.]

. . . What are you saying?

[What are you implying? He looks warier now, beginning to suspect something at play beneath her words.]

[shirleyhopeful]

[Indeed]

I'm saying...there's always a chance that there's one Ferines that might do horrible things to their own race just like how there's always one Orerines that is kind.

[She notices but she is trying to get across to Walter though]

[asea]

The Ferines had lived a life of harmony before the Orerines arrived. It's the Orerines that allow their ambitions to destroy themselves. [He pauses.] We're different. We come together under Nerifes' will, rather than hope to usurp it.

[shirleyhopeful]

...No matter what?

[There was a judging tone of voice coming from her. Yes, she does believe in Nerifes. She does believe that he will do what is best for everyone, she doesn't believe that his word is absolute on something like genocide.]</small.

[asea]

Yes.

[His, in contrast, is a challenging one.]

Nerifes' will is absolute.

[shirleyhopeful]

Then what would happen if...Nerfies changed its mind? What if one day, Nerfies decides that Orerines aren't all bad and there is a way to bridge the gap between the both of us?

What would you do then? [She had a feeling that she knew what his answer was and she felt like it was cruel to ask him this. But, he just had to know]

[asea]

That's impossible. What have those Orerines bastards done to you? [Hastily, almost frantically:] You've been tricked.

[Reminded of sour memories, he's off on a tangent, his visage one of overt anger.]

Our village's end is the very result of trickery. He lied his way in, and see what happened to us! It's only right that we protect the return of the Merines, to ensure none of that happens again. There's no way coexistence between the races can exist—not when they thirst for the blood of our people and use their own children as tools for gain.

[shirleyhopeful]

[Yup, this was the answer she would get]

Tell me, what you do think of the child that entered into the village? You said that they were using them as tools for gain but...how do you think he must have felt?

[Try and see Senny's point of view!]

[asea]

I don't care how he felt. He's an Orerines, and he caused our village's destruction with his interferences. We would never have been found if it weren't for him.

[shirleyhopeful]

And what if he regrets his actions? What will you do?

[She would be lying if there weren't some lingering feelings on Senel keeping her in the dark. Still, the past was the past and they just had to move on and start over again]

[asea]

Regret doesn't change the past.

[What Senel feels doesn't matter a damn to Walter, especially now when the anger is just starting to fester after recent events.

He would like to say that he'd kill Senel if they ever crossed paths again, but he doesn't particularly like saying it aloud to a fellow kinsman. That's crude.]

[shirleyhopeful]

No, it doesn't but it also means that he's trying. He's trying to undo what he has done and trying to do his best to atone for it. I know it isn't enough but...I just want to give him another chance.

[Just then, Shirley realized what she just said. Was that enough to give herself away? Maybe not but it was a clue to lead him toward that direction]

[asea]

[It's enough to trigger something dark in him, and Walter seems to stop suddenly, rearing back at the intimacy of her words.

He already asked who she was and she neglected to answer truthfully. The problem is not her, anyway. The problem is Senel.]

He destroyed that chance when the village was attacked. I won't forgive him.

[shirleyhopeful]

What would you say to those who do?

[Or rather, Shirley has forgiven Senel in someways but in another, she doesn't. However, she knows that it's all the past. They just got to keep moving forward. What else can they do?]

[asea]

[That they've been tricked. Been used. Been looked at like pawns and not the human beings they truly are.

And, ultimately—] That they're too soft. That we were too soft. And that's what he used.

[shirleyhopeful]

So you're saying that he was too weak and...the others took advantage of it?

[...]

I think I can relate to that a bit. I guess that's something we have in common, we both are weak but...we're learning from it and trying to move on from the past.

[asea]

[It's a little more complicated than that, he thinks. But not too much. Simply other Orerines must have thought Senel weak and sent him under that guise to take advantage of what they perceived to be the "weakness" of the Ferines—that his kin would consider taking in the pitiful orphan, whereas any Orerines would have abused a Ferines child of similar circumstance.

It's not the same thing, and that this woman would say it is is just wrong.]

Orerines are ignorant. They can't move on from what they don't know.

[shirleyhopeful]

[Once again, Shirley was a standstill. Oh how she wished that Walter could see that Orerines aren't as bad as they appear. But, it seems like she has no other choice]

Then it seems that we both have made our decision. I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on what Orerines can and can't do.