Twelfth ★ [Video | Filtered from Aqua]

[limitless_land]

[...A feed during the attack? Seriously? There's only a brief glimpse of gold eyes beneath a hood before the SFC is tilted so only one of the kraken's tentacles can be seen. It takes five seconds before a deep, almost blank voice filters through the darkness.]

What do you do when you've been lost to despair. [A pause as disks of light(?) are tossed at it from behind the speaker.] What is it that you do when you lose sight of the hope you'd kept alive until now and realize that you don't have what it takes to protect others by your own power?

[He's silent for a long while, seemingly focused on dodging the retaliatory actions of the attacked appendage... until a black hand suddenly shoots electric shocks of the same white and pale blue energy at a now writhing mass of flesh.]

Tell me... What does one do with oneself then-?!

[Click.]

Comments

[voice]

[nos-servabit.livejournal.com]

[There's a pause, and a calm voice filled with sympathy and wise understanding comes in over the SFC. Oh, Riku, Jacob feels for you.]

Then you do whatever it takes to find that hope again. And if you can't, you rely on the people you love to bring you out of the darkness.

[voice]

[limitless-land.livejournal.com]

[He doesn't respond for a moment, but he couldn't help but feel some comfort by those words. Yet letting go, when there's still so much work to be done...]

What happens if you can't. [There's no arrogance, he just really doesn't know what he would do if those he loves see him like this. After all they'd done for him, and he still relied on it...]

[voice]

[nos-servabit.livejournal.com]

...Then you need somebody who won't judge you and will do whatever it takes to help you find your redemption.

And I'm willing to do that.

[voice]

[limitless-land.livejournal.com]

You don't even know me, yet you still offer this... [To say that he's in shock is to understate the fact. While it's true that the King had always been there to do the same back home, he...

He didn't expect someone else to offer it, let alone someone who didn't know him. There has to be a catch, right?] ...Why?

[voice]

[nos-servabit.livejournal.com]

Because that is what I do. I help people. I realize that you have flaws, but...you have the chance to be redeemed. And there is nothing more that I want than to guide you through that.

[There are no catches when it comes to Jacob. He's benevolent like that.]

[voice]

[limitless-land.livejournal.com]

[Does he really deserve it, though? He's silent for a moment, as if contemplating it. He wants it; wants to return to the light so badly he can almost taste it. Yet floating here, with this monster attached to his shadow as it fends off the attacks of the kraken for him...]

... I can't; not yet. This fight isn't over, and until it is... I may still need the power of darkness.

[voice]

[nos-servabit.livejournal.com]

That's quite alright.

Be in the darkness as long as you have to. And then use me to find a way out. I'll be the lantern in your darkness, so to say.

[voice]

[limitless-land.livejournal.com]

Who are you? [Yeah, he can't afford to look down and see the caller ID right this moment.]

[voice]

[nos-servabit.livejournal.com]

Jacob. My name is Jacob. And you are Riku, correct?

[voice]

[limitless-land.livejournal.com]

[It's silent on his end aside from the sounds one would think of accompanying a fight to make it obvious that he hasn't hung up. Does he truly deserve that name anymore when his face says something else entirely?]

[voice]

[nos-servabit.livejournal.com]

[He pauses, understanding.]

...I know you go by other names. But you're Riku. You have been from the beginning.

[voice | private]

[limitless-land.livejournal.com]

[Right to private, because honestly he was not expecting that.]

How do you know about that.

[voice | private]

[nos-servabit.livejournal.com]

I know because it's what I do, Riku. I know about people.

[voice | private]

[limitless-land.livejournal.com]

[Mental siiigh.] I'll ask again: Who are you really, and how do you know more than even my friends seem to?

[voice | private]

[nos-servabit.livejournal.com]

My name is Jacob, and I am the guardian of a place very much like this one. And I am here to help. Knowing about people is what I do.

[voice | private]

[limitless-land.livejournal.com]

A guardian... [That could mean so many things in his world, like the being that just moved ahead of him to block an attack from the front. He just doesn't know what to think about it.]

[voice | private]

[nos-servabit.livejournal.com]

Yes. And I try to show people the right path.

[voice | private]

[limitless-land.livejournal.com]

...Isn't it for them to decide if the path's right or wrong?

[voice | private]

[nos-servabit.livejournal.com]

Of course. I offer them a choice. I merely guide them. I don't make decisions for them.

[voice | private]

[limitless-land.livejournal.com]

Now why does this sound familiar...

[voice | private]

[nos-servabit.livejournal.com]

How so?

[voice | private]

[limitless-land.livejournal.com]

[Must not chuckle must not chuckle must not accidentally give someone else + self nightmares for a week...]

Nothing. Just an old memory.

[voice | private]

[nos-servabit.livejournal.com]

Old memories? I see. From your life back home?

[voice | private]

[limitless-land.livejournal.com]

If you can call it that.

[voice | private]

[nos-servabit.livejournal.com]

A life is a life, Riku. What you experienced was real. Your friends are real. And this is real.