(Untitled)

[tall_dark_and]

There is one Riku, outside the bar, sitting at the lakeside. His shoes are off and his pantslegs are rolled up, his feet in the water. His eyes are closed and he seems to be reflecting on something.

But even if he's thinking a lot about something, he wouldn't be opposed to company. It'd probably be a lot better than his thoughts.

Comments

[mogget_cat]

Here's someone Riku wouldn't want to see, even if he could.

He smells of blood and fire and ashes, and makes no sound as he crosses the grassy area beyond the lakeshore. The demon bunnies have found the weakest of their population culled yet again, tonight.

[mogget_cat]

"But... where?" The boy says, frightened now. He's being growled at! "How do I get home? Can I even get back?"

The idea of going out of one's world and not being able to return home again, for one so young, is a frightening thought, indeed.

[tall_dark_and]

"There's plenty of people to ask inside," Riku says, and pushes the kid in the vague direction of the door. "Go get one of 'em."

[mogget_cat]

There's a doubtful pause, as the child eyes the people he can see in the windows.

"Mama says I'm not supposed to go into taverns," he says, obediently. "Do you not know where this is, either?"

[tall_dark_and]

".....no," Riku says, after a moment. "No, I don't."

[mogget_cat]

He still hesitates. It's a strange bar, in a strange place, with strange people. He doesn't know anyone. It would be, he figures, far more dangerous than the taverns his mother had warned him about.

"Maybe...uh..." there is unsure tugging at Riku's hand. "Maybe we could find out?" He sounds scared of going in alone. He's not supposed to.

[tall_dark_and]

"Look, kid," Riku says, and snatches his hand away. "You know that monster in the closet they always warn you about? The one that's going to rip your head off?"

He bares his teeth and lets Ansem touch him, for just a moment, the yellow crawling into his eyes.

"That's me."

He'll scare this kid intentionally for the kid's own good.

[mogget_cat]

This kid must come from a family who doesn't scare their children in that way. As it is, he sees the change in Riku's eyes and stumbles backwards, tripping and falling some few feet away.

"What are you?" he says. 'What,' not 'who,' mind you. He's all small boy, scared and disbelieving and Yrael's enjoying himself way too much.

[tall_dark_and]

"Trust me, kid," Riku says, his voice gruff. "You don't want to find out."

[mogget_cat]

Curiosity is the one non-physical trait that carries through in all of Yrael's shapes. "But... why do you look human, then, if you're a monster?"

[tall_dark_and]

"Everyone's a monster," Riku says. "Maybe even you."

He smirks a little at this, but not of his own accord - it's someone else's impulse. Someone who's getting closer to scraping the surface, out of interest at this entire situation.

And amusement. You can't forget the amusement.

[mogget_cat]

There is the soft, quick sound of a young boy shaking his head in vigorous, frightened denial. "Oh, nossir! I'm not!"

"'M Sam. Just Sam," the impressionable young boy says, needing to make that distinction. He's not a monster! He's not!

"...'M Sameth," he mumbles.

[tall_dark_and]

"That doesn't even sound like a real name," Riku says, suspiciously. "Sounds like a made up name."

Pretty stupid one, too.

[mogget_cat]

Sameth's voice rises in the whine of a kid being picked on unfairly by a bully.

A really, really scary bully.

"It is too real! It's my name. Mama said I was named after a great prince," he whines in that way of kids being personally offended at someone not liking something about them that they can't help.

Saying his name's not real is like saying he's not real, Riku! That's mean!

[tall_dark_and]

Ansem presses a little on Riku's conscience, and his head hurts. It hurts and he's having a little bit of a hard time keeping track of this situation now. Words are coming out of his mouth, but they're not his words, but he's not underneath the surface, either. It's not Ansem, but it's not him, either... is it?

"Not only made-up, but you've got an ego, too," he says, a sneer in his voice. "Great prince, huh? Probably just a story they told you to keep you from whinin'."

[mogget_cat]

That stops him.

The boy's silent for a long moment before his face crumples, and, uncertain and trying to reassure himself more than to protest at Riku, he mumbles through hitching breaths, "That's... that's not true. F-father and Mama wouldn't do that."

He's the very picture of a vulnerable young child.

But will Riku strike at the vulnerability?