Bored, Bored and Boom (Hollow Bastion; open, incomplete)

[infinityshot]

After introducing River to her room, Xigbar had wandered off in search of something to do. He was still loath to return to his charred room, and therefore had taken a quick detour to one of the libraries before finding his way to one of the gardens

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[infinityshot]

"It's more bothersome when ya don't know if yer fallin' down," he said, leaving it at that. The man could decide whatever he wanted to about that cryptic remark. Sparda, huh. At least he didn't have a habit of falling on people...

"Yeah. Yer in Castle Oblivion. Welcome to da place of infinite, blinding white walls. It's disgusting. Though my room's kinda blackish gray at the moment. Ya know...explosions and all..."

So first he dealt with a happy-go-lucky g-d-something-or-other, then a girl who appeared to be here-but-not-here and then a guy who looked like he belonged in a courtroom wooing ladies. This day was kinda getting exciting! What next? Dancing strawberries?

"So, ya human, Heartless, Nobody, g-d...?" he continued for a while with other...species, for lack of a better word. Xigbar was rather bored with the whole 'I'm a fill-in-the-blank,' but for some reason, people seemed to think it a very important question. "And where are ya from?" he finally finished. In retrospect, maybe he should have asked that last question first...

[sword_and_demon]

Castle Oblivion. That was certainly an intimidating name. And not one he was familiar with, either. Sparda quickly assembled what he knew. The seal had been broken, he'd spent at least a couple centuries trapped in darkness, this person was clearly familiar with quite a number of creatures that weren't human, and Sparda was ashamed to say he didn't particularly recognize any of the names.

"None of those, I'm afraid. And I could give you a name for where I am from, Xigbar, but until I figure out where here is in relation to there, and what name you would recognize here, I doubt I can give you any name that would have meaning for you. That, and I've been away for quite a while, so the name could have changed while I was absent."

[infinityshot]

Xigbar studied the man in front of him for a while, and didn't hide the fact that he was doing that. How interesting. So he wasn't a human but he wasn't anything he had listed either? Well, there were certainly plenty of species out there, so he wouldn't've been able to list off everything anyway.

Ah, the thrill of a new being! Whatever he was, the man was obviously long lived if he even considered the possibility of a world's name changing. Usually that took a while, though in a few rare cases...
It sent tingles down Xigbar's spine to know that he would be able to study this guy for a little bit, and that meant he had to find a way to keep him occupied.

"Relation is relative," he finally replied. "To me, it's quite easy ta go to a world that I know. Distance means little, really. I can't help ya if ya don' tell me more 'bout yerself. 'Course, if ya want something like a drink or food, I can get ya that. I ain't doin' anything at the moment, so maybe we can talk."

[sword_and_demon]

Sparda took a moment to process what Xigbar had said. 'Quite easy ta go to a world that I know. World. That meant... well, this place certainly had a much closer resemblance to the human realm than the underworld, and this man did look like a human, but... other worlds. In reality, it wasn't such a far-out idea.

"Just a moment..." He said calmly, "Other worlds... Do you mean to tell me that not only am I no where near home, but I am not even on Tartarus anymore?"

The demon had lived long enough and had to deal with enough strange occurrences that this did not really bother him as much as it might have shaken a human. Sparda was frowning, as the thought. He had been on Tartarus, and the seal between the demon world and human world had been broken.

[infinityshot]

Tartarus? Well, well, and well...Xigbar tucked that little bit of information in the back of his mind. At the moment, it didn't mean too much to him, really. Worlds were just names for places. What made a difference were the type of people there and specifically, the person he was dealing with right at that moment.

"Well, nope, not really. Castle Oblivion is definitely not on Tartarus." Xigbar stretched. He sure hoped that Sparda wasn't going to have the normal shpiel like the other people who found themselves off of their world. It was really getting tiring to hear the disbelief and other crap.

[sword_and_demon]

"Not on Tartarus? Well. That complicates things." No doubt Tartarus was descending into Chaos now that the seal was broke, and he really needed to get back there.

If he was going to seal it again... surely there had to be a better way to seal the Temen-ni-gru than he had used last time. "I don't suppose you have any idea how I ended up here, do you?" Well, probably not, but it was worth a shot.

[infinityshot]

Xigbar nodded. Yes, usually being somewhere one didn't recognize usually did complicate matters a bit. He just didn't feel like restating the obvious.

"I don' know how ya got here. Ya see, it's kinda different for each person. Some people jsut kinda show up, some show up 'cause their planet died, some show up by accident and others not...ya know. Long list o' stuff."

He put the chair back into its proper position and sat down, crossing his legs. He wasn't getting too much information here and frankly, his attention span was fairly short. Maybe if he poked him a bit, something would happen. Though last time he had poked something, that had ended up being a bad idea.

"S'there a reason ya want to go back ta that place?"

[sword_and_demon]

"There's very likely a massive war taking place there." Well, everyone on Tartarus knew the story, so there was no harm in telling this man, right?

"There are two species that inhabit Tartarus, humans, and demons. Tartarus is divided between the human world and the demon world. For thousands of years, the demons enslaved and controlled the human world. Two thousand years ago, a demon rebelled against his own kind on behalf of the humans, and waged war against the demons. The demon world was sealed off by that demon, the Legendary Dark Knight, who had also defeated the Emperor of the Underworld, Mundus. That seal has been undone." It was a short and rather nondescript telling of the Legend of Sparda, but he could give a few details here and there if Xigbar wanted.

Sparda wasn't, however, going to reveal that he was the Legendary Dark Knight. "Hm, the seal is probably why I was trapped for so long."

[infinityshot]

He shook his head, a grin on his face. "Always with the wars and the power, eh? Seems like it'd be a typical story, ya know? The one day I hear a story where everyone gets along's the day I worry."

It was obvious that there were parts and pieces that were being left out, but most people simply figured they weren't going to get an answer. Most people would simply attempt to manipulate the answer out of a person, usually by playing the give-a-little-get-a-little game. Xigbar didn't want to play that game. In fact, he was getting bored.

"Okay, so what are ya not tellin' me?" he finally asked, his grin growing even larger. Did he really think that he would get an answer? Not really. But the looks on peoples' faces when he pulled something like that was wonderful! "No offense, but I don't have any reason ta...mmm...help ya if ya don't say anything."

[sword_and_demon]

Sparda considered things for a moment, weighing his options. He could remain silent, and not get any help from this person, or he could open his mouth, reveal a lot, and get some assistance.

"Sorry, but I'm not sure what you're asking. You'll have to be a little more specific than that." Xigbar was probably just fishing for information. "I would appreciate whatever help you can give me, however, but I will understand if you're reluctant to get into the middle of a war with demons. It is not a pleasant place to be, I hear."

[infinityshot]

The corners of Xigbar's lips twitched as if he was holding back from laughing. "I really don' think that a war with demons is the only thing ya have ta worry about, really. And I know that there's parts and pieces about yerself that yer not tellin', such as why you were trapped by whatever and so forth."

Xigbar leaned back in his chair, throwing one leg over the the armrest and shifting so he was a bit more comfortable. "Do demons have Hearts?"

[sword_and_demon]

Sparda looked at Xigbar curiously when he said that a war with demons wasn't the only thing he had to worry about. "I am afraid I can't tell you why I was trapped, because I am not sure myself. In fact, I am still not entirely sure what managed to capture me in the first place."

He considered the question for a moment. "Yes, they do have hearts, in the most literal sense of the word."

[infinityshot]

He closed his eyes, thinking. At least he wasn't up against an all-powerful, psycho demon. That was always a pleasant thought. On the other hand, if one took into account the Superior's attitude...

Moving right along...

Would the Heartless try to go after demons? He had never really thought about it, but he supposed that if they had any sort of emotion whatsoever, even hatred, they could become targets. Or they would try to take all the humans on that world and probably the Heart of the World. Well, then there wouldn't be a war, that was for sure!

With a little bit of manipulation, Xigbar made a small table, extra chair, tea and mugs appear. He poured himself some tea and looked at Sparda. "Do you want some? And if so, do you want sugar or anything else"

[sword_and_demon]

Sparda just stared for a moment as the table appeared, he had hoped for an explanation about the odd question concerning demons and hearts, but perhaps it wasn't relevant.

"Ah, yes please, and sugar would be good, thank you." He sat down at the table, carefully adjusting the Force Edge sword as he did so.

"Have you ever heard of creatures capable of hiding in a persons shadow? I'm certain there aren't any demons that can do that. I know of a few that can hide in a mirror as a persons reflection, but that's it."

[infinityshot]

It was really quite tempting to say "Zexion," but decided that would just raise more questions that he probably didn't want to answer. In fact, he really didn't want to talk about him, so he remained mute on this point.

"Not sure," said Xigbar, pouring his guest some tea before pouring himself a mug full. A tray with cubed sugar seemed to rise out of the table, but settled once it had emerged completely. "Would you like one lump or two?"

[sword_and_demon]

"Two, please." This was all very interesting, the way things just materialized. Handy, too.

"I suppose creatures like that aren't very common, or people would be paranoid about their shadows." Well, he still wasn't sure how or why he had been captured and trapped, but he wasn't any more, and that was certainly a step in the right direction.