Match of the Millennium

Description: What is the nature of faith? What do human beings owe to others, and to themselves? What is the nature of agency, of victimhood, of compassion? What's in that snack Rei is eating? All these questions and more get addressed on a Jamaican beach during a not-so-chance encounter for Chevelle Beaumont.

[CHEVY]
After being trapped on an island behind a curtain of fire for what felt like an -eternity-, the last thing Chevy had wanted was any more fish. Sure, fish had been one of her favorite foods! And it had been better than starving. But fighters need protein, and lots of it, so she'd been very content to make use of the Mermaid cruise ship's multitude of buffets to fill her recovery demands.

Aside from the three-a-day buffet visits, she's been spending most of her time holed up in either Buck's cabin or her own. It may be a luxury cruise -- but after the numerous trials presented by Suzaku, quiet time is a much more valuable commodity.

Now, though, with the Mermaid docked in Jamaica's Montego Bay, it's time for an expedition! By this point, she's mostly recovered from the injuries incurred in her back-to-back fights against Hollywood Heat and the avatar of Suzaku. Those injuries that haven't fully healed -- like the ruddy handprints around her neck, or the gouges to her side -- are largely conealed by a floral-print scarf, a loose, billowy blouse, and colorful capri pants. A wide-brimmed straw hat shields the fair-skinned farm girl from the mid-morning sun -- though there's a good chance that one of the red-headed Queens of Zack Island might still be recognizable all the same as she disembarks from the Mermaid.

There's a good chance she might have plans with the others later in the day, but Chevelle has never one to squander daylight away. Her first royal point of order appears to be... shopping, in the clustered stalls on Harbour Street, not far from Harmony Beach a short walk to the north. She hums a cheery tune as she makes her way through the street, stopping occasionally to glance in the various shops in search of gifts for her family and friends back home!

[FREI]
The first indication came in a dream.

He'd been sitting on a dock at Lake Biwa, toes in the water. A meaningful place and one that Rei Hazuki had been visiting in his dreams -- by accident or subconscious purpose -- for some time, now. Given his past experiences, he'd chosen not to question it and instead just enjoyed the silence.

It was, in fact, the morning that the fighters would have reached Zack Island. Normally, this recurring dreamscape featured a placid, cloudless blue sky. For whatever reason, though, this time it was sunrise, or sunset... either way, the sky was dyed in hues of orange, gold, red, and pale pink. And to the southwest, along the low hills on the horizon, was... a glow. Like a signal fire set in the woods high in the foothills of Mt. Hiei.

To the confusion of others in the Starbucks that Rei went to that morning in Southtown Village, when the news reported, almost as an afterthought, about the events of the day, the redhead looked up at the TV, tilted his face to the side slightly, and went: "Ah. Well, that explains that."

He was on a plane to the US that afternoon.

They'd started to become more frequent, these... premonitions. Ever since the changes he's been through, that is. Not of the future, but of the present. Like there was an awareness of the world that was filtering back to him through something. Not like a security camera, but... well, metaphorical dreams. And in truth, when he arrived in the US, and as he proceeded steadily east across it, Rei could feel the disturbance in the energy of the world. A bit like a lead weight dropped onto a cloth sheet spread taut; you might not be able to see the weight itself, but you can definitely identify where it is.

The day before the final battle on the island found Rei on Grand Cayman. The entire trip had been that way, because he'd felt no need to hurry. His flight had landed in California, but everything since then had been sedate modes of travel: trains, boats, even a rented motorcycle for a bit. It wasn't as if the xian was heading to Zack Island to do anything about anything. He just felt... a pull. Something inside directing him, leading him. Sending him somewhere. Some mornings he would wake up in a hotel room, the signal fire in the dream getting brighter, but the sky getting darker; rather than sunset hues, the oncoming tide of velvety midnight blue suggested nightfall was approaching.

When it all came crashing down, he felt that, too.

And that is how we find the red-haired, relatively newly-minted sagacious immortal, having arrived on a totally different boat, taking a meat patty from a vendor and turns to walk up past a row of bright blue houses to see *another* red-haired and familiar face up the street, sun hat or no.

A blink, and then a slight pivot to turn in Chevy's direction as Rei walks off with his lunch, again causing some confusion among passersby with a simple but seemingly unprompted statement:

"Well. That explains that."

[CHEVY]
As one of the two Queens of Zack Island, keeping out of the limelight is -almost- impossible. The sun hat can only do but so much. She did manage to score a cookbook and a small bottle of jerk seasoning before locals and fellow tourists began to take notice.

"Ahaha -- yeah! Thanks! It... it's been a bit of a challenge!" She's had some experience in dealing with the onslaught of questions from pushy (if well-intentioned) fans. And in a way, it's somewhat opportune, as the attention results in Chevy's credit card getting waved off. The fact that a number of tourists are making similar souvenir selections may have -something- to do with that.

Chevy's eyes glimmer as they drift beyond the shoulder of one of a trio of fans, landing however briefly upon the familiar face of her Team Thunder sensei. It isn't until he gets closer that she looks up with actual -recognition- though -- evidenced by a noticeable brightening of her expression.

"Right, right! You're a true Chevalier, haha! Lemme see that photo real quick..." With a smile, she's quick to scrawl out her autograph on the piece of merchandise held out to her. And as she leans in close for a couple selfies, she notes, "Okay, I just got time for two, real quick now, okay?" She offers a bright smile -- and then claps her hand against her cookbook as a closing gesture. "It was great meeting you! Thanks, y'all!" And with gestures as smooth as water flowing over a stream bank, Chevy twirls her way free of the entangling crowd...

And she slips almost effortlessly into Rei's path, blue eyes twinkling with delight!

"I just -knew- you'd looked familiar! Fancy meetin' you here... sensei!"

As fluid and graceful as her motions may be, her sudden halt into a formal Japanese-style bow comes across as... well, a bit jarring. But when she pops back up, she's all smiles again.

"It's good to see you! And..." Her eyes cross at the semicircular pastry in Rei's hand. "Huh, what -is- that, anyway? It looks yum!"

[FREI]
The sudden appearance of Chevy in front of him certainly does solve a problem that Rei has not entirely worked out yet on this whole mysterious mentoring thing: making it seem natural and normal that you, a Japanese citizen who lives in Southtown, just HAPPENS to be on the same street in the same market on the same hour of the same day that someone else is, instead of it coming across as an insane coincidence or, worse, stalking.

Especially hard when the actual explanation really is 'I had a hunch and just let myself follow it'.

"Fancy meeting you here," is what actually comes out of Rei's mouth, which is a full compromise between sounding good and actually being true. He DIDN'T know that specifically it would be Chevy until this exact moment, after all. The xian's smile is genuine, and has been since he saw the American graciously receiving her subjects. Fighters are often either dour or, not to put a fine point on it, jerks; Chevy's relentless positivity endears her to Rei, even if he hadn't spent a brief period as her 'sponsor' last season.

Though, the potential cost of that positivity... well. First things first.

His green-eyed gaze follows Chevy's to the warm pastry in his hand. "It's, um... it's..." He pauses, at a loss, then shrugs and takes a bite, chewing it thoughtfully; the golden, flaky pastry reveals a dark brown filling with an extremely spicy scent to it. Swallowing, Rei turns back to Chevy and grins sheepishly. "It's meat," he finishes, a little lamely. "I dunno, it looked good and I was hungry. Honestly reminds me a little of xiao long bao I ate when I was training a zillion years ago, just more European. Good stuff."

He takes another bite, then tilts his head somewhat and makes eye contact with Chevy directly, voice muffled slightly because he is talking with his mouth full a little bit: "How've you been?"

[CHEVY]
Chevelle Beaumont is not burdened with the knowledge of how Rei got here, nor does she have any particular doubts. If he weren't her former mentor, then she might worry a bit more!

She definitely does not sound worried when she launches immediately into her on-brand, stream-of-consciousness chattering. "Oh, so it's like a meat pie, but like, easier to hold..." She blinks twice, before adding, "LIke an old-fashioned hot pocket. Neat!"

The question that follows, though, causes her face to display the organic equivalent of a 'now loading' progress bar as she tries to crystallize her thoughts into a form which doesn't sound like a complete downer. When that process is complete, her lips pull back into a tight smile, and her eyes shed an iota of their former luster.

"Mm, I'm recovering! Lots of, uh... What do folks call it, 'self-care?'"

She laughs, wrapping both arms around her cookbook as she swings side-to-side. "I mean, 'Junko' and I had a few more chats. Ain't nothin' good come from it. But me, I'll be fine!"

Her smile dampens by another degree. "I mean, yeah. I'm fine!" Perhaps her statement is less convincing than she'd hoped.

Her eyes meet Rei's for a moment -- and then tremble, as if she feels it's too -quiet- all of a sudden. Even though it's only been a second. She stammers out, "Wh-what about you? Been keeping busy?"

[FREI]
Once the conversation is not about food, well... all bets are off, apparently. Rei has his patty up to his mouth and literally taking a bite of it when he gets to experience the realtime downslide of Chevy's emotional affect from 'holding it together' to 'dot dot dot, dash dash dash, dot dot dot' in short order. You KNOW it's a problem when someone starts talking about self-care.

Into the indeed slightly too-long silence, there is a moment when Rei simply bites into the patty he was holding, chews thoughtfully, and then brings the hand holding his snack down, the other rubbing the back of his neck. "They didn't, uh..." A pause. "I mean, they could have..." Another pause.

The height difference between these two isn't particularly stark, but it's enough that Rei has to tilt his gaze up a tiny bit to look into Chevy's suddenly duller blue eyes, and he shakes his head a little bit, almost in... annoyance? Though hopefully the rueful smile he follows it with might defuse the idea that it's annoyance *at her*.

"Okay. Let's take a walk. You clearly got some stuff to talk about and I'd have THOUGHT the organization that let all this happen might have perhaps let you sit down with someone and do said talking, but maybe they didn't."

He gestures onward toward the nearby beach, not that much of a walk from the harbor marketplace. "I mean, you don't HAVE to, but if you want someone who'll listen that will understand, well... I promise you, I absolutely understand how this stuff goes down."

[CHEVY]
Chevy doesn't know what to make of the shifting emotions on Rei's face. Guilty? Maybe a little bit -- at least until that smile helps to set her mind at ease. Her natural inclination is to fill the uneasiness with obvious questions, but now that she's remembering how she 'should' be talking with people who deserve the 'sensei' affix, she holds her tongue for the moment.

"Oh!" she responds, as Rei's thought process is made evident. "Oh, well, I mean, they -did- offer. But the last time I done talked with 'em it didn't amount to much. The folks mean well, they do, but..."

Southern hospitality keeps her from expounding much further on what she -really- thinks of the psychological "specialists" brought in by the NFG's talent management division. The silence that follows, as she pointedly looks away is... well, it's pretty 'loud' by Chevelle Beaumont standards.

A gust of wind whips through the area. Seagulls caw in the distance. And the beach is offered as a possible destination.

"Oh, sure, that'd be great! Thanks!"

She's not dressed for the 'beach' per se -- she'd spent long enough in -just- a swimsuit and shorts that she's kind of written it off for the time being.

As she walks, though, the silence turns into a pressure she feels the need to break. When it's too much to bear, she blurts out, "Oh, I got a cookbook for Momma. Bless her heart, she cain't handle spice or nothin'. Bojangle's chicken is near about her max. But she does like tryin' new things here an' there." She lifts the cookbook, scanning the pictures on the back: "... Might see if they have a recipe for them meat pockets..."

The wind's intensity begins to pick up, as the pair approaches an intersection. Chevy cautiously raises one hand to brace her hat, chuckling lightly. And... As she looks back to Rei, she realizes idle chatter might -not- be the reason she was asked to the beach.

"... Oh, but yeah, I'm gettin' by, sensei. I just... I just got a feelin' we ain't seen the last of Junko." Clearing her throat with a little cough, she adds, " ... Or Suzaku. And that's got me a little on edge."

[FREI]
"It's not that they don't care, probably," Rei says, being far more generous than the situation probably calls for. "But I expect their first thought is for the company, more than about you, which... well. I am glad they recognized you might need to talk it out with someone," he finishes, deciding much as Chevy did, not to go too far down that particular conversational road.

He's content, as they walk, to let Chevy talk, regardless of what it is she needs to talk about. A little remnant of another life, a skill he learned dealing with teenagers -- people not much younger than Chevy is now -- at the YFCC: sometimes what they really need is to just... know someone's listening. "You might want to break her in easy, first," the xian says with a faint smile, at the idea of Chevy's spice-averse mother eating jerk chicken. "Or maybe not. Make her something ridiculously spicy and see what happens?"

The gust of wind feels like, however, it literally takes the small talk with it, after a moment or two. Rei's dark red bangs flutter back and forth as the wind picks up, and Chevy's sudden outpouring of her anxieties comes with it, a breeze blowing out toward the expanse of blue ocean not that far from here.

Was heading to the beach versus back into the market a strategic choice on Rei's part? Yes, on multiple counts. The first is that anything that TRULY bothers Chevy does not seem as if it should be said in front of an audience of strangers, especially strangers who might want autographs or selfies or whatever. The other, however, was simply his hope that being near her element -- both literally and spiritually -- might put the young woman more at ease.

"Just 'Rei' is fine, Chevy," the xian says, on autopilot, before adding: "If I'm not taking 'sensei' from Ichika, I'm not taking it from you, either." He gives her a sidelong grin, before taking another bite of his meat patty and looking out at the sea.

"You know... I want to thank you," he says, unexpectedly, without turning back to her. "For treating Junko and her 'passenger' differently, just now."

In his head, he hears his own words, said to a Junko whose possession had been temporarily suppressed, echo back at him: 'If they want to get where they're going -- hell, if they want to SURVIVE -- they need you. Because if they didn't... pardon my harshness, but you wouldn't be here right now.'

A heavy sigh, a shake of the head. "I wish I could tell you that anxiety is just anxiety, but honestly, I suspect you're right. We'll see... them... again, probably."

[CHEVY]
For the company, more than for her. Chevy scratches her cheek, at that particular note. "Yeah, that's what Dev was tellin' me..." The hayseed isn't naturally inclined to be so cynical, but that's one reason her mother had pressured her into even -hiring- a social media manager. Psychological services are, unfortunately, not included in the service fees.

For the time being, Chevy's content to talk with someone who -hadn't- been isolated with her, either aboard the cruise ship or the ill-fated island. Rei's an 'adult' and speaks from beyond his apparent age, which causes her to second-guess -some- of the things she says -- but he's had some pretty good advice for her in the past. So she grins and nods -- "Yeah, I'll have a few things I can try out when I see her next. She always gets so tickled when she sees me trav'lin the world an' all."

Now, though, as the two walk towards the beach, Chevy feels like it's safe to adventure away from small talk. Though, she does feign 'bonking' herself in the head when Rei admonishes her to drop the formality. "Haha. You done told me that before, didn'tcha. I'll try to remember, Rei." There's a slight hint of mischievousness on her lips as she adds, "It's hard *not* to think of you as a 'sensei' though, you done taught me so much." It's hard to believe how far she'd come since their last meeting. Chevy looks forward, smiling as if reacting a joke from long ago.

Though, that happy moment does mean she's caught a little off-guard when Rei expresses his thanks. Chevy looks a little surprised, at that.

"I mean, it was just... It just felt like the right thing to do." She purses her lips, lost in thought for a moment. "At the time, I mean." She barks out a small, self-directed laugh, knowing how things had gone awry in the time -since- she'd reached out to the little miko.

It takes a good long while for the hayseed to digest the last thing Rei says to her. Her smile fades away -- but her eyes are still passing from one thing to another, showing she's thinking without really paying much -mind- to what she's seeing.

"I... I kinda feel for her though. Junko, of course. But also Suzaku. And like..."

Her brow furrows. She struggles -- just as she did through most of her schooling -- in trying to bind words to her thoughts.

She lets out a sigh. "I feel like she's just stuck in a moment. The record's skippin', but it just keeps on spinnin', beltin' out the same snippet of song over and over again. And that fight..."

She reaches up, brushing a stray lock of hair back under the rim of her hat. Her blue eyes search for Rei's.

"I felt like I just warn't able to break her out of that moment." One side of her lips curls up slightly: "Like, just to... let her know we'd listen better if she warn't tryin' to wipe us out, y'know?"

[FREI]
The tide rolls in, the tide rolls out. Even at this distance, the sound of it is audible if you think to listen for it. Waves have lapped at this beach since well before anyone standing on the island was born, and will do so longer after they've died. It's a thought that comes, unbidden, to Rei as he considers what Chevy is saying to him. Yesterday flows into today; today flows into tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow after that, until everything burns.

"Don't sell that short," Rei says, tilting his head somewhat and giving Chevy a sidelong smile. "The right thing is usually the hard thing, which is why people don't always do it. If doing the right thing were easy, it would be a no-brainer in most situations." He takes a bite of his rapidly-dwindling snack, chewing thoughtfully, before continuing. "Usually doing the right thing means giving something up, on your part. Time or energy or something more tangible, I guess."

The followup, however, catches the red-haired xian slightly by surprise. 'I feel like she's stuck in a moment', Chevy says, and there's a faint widening of Rei's eyes as he considers that. His own impression, talking with Junko -- JUST Junko -- and then a Suzaku=poisoned Junko, post Coco burning, was of a girl living in an abusive home. The door is right there, but the prison isn't physical, anymore. It's mental, a cage built out of their own thoughts and fears.

Actually...

Rei suddenly stops walking. The beach isn't far; the two of them are by now standing adjacent to the sand, next to a bike rack and a pair of benches. Provided that Chevy notices and doesn't just leave him in the dust, he speaks a little quietly, but enough to be heard... and unusually subdued, compared to his typical verve.

"I, ah... I haven't told anyone this, Chevy, but I think you should hear it." A pause, and then he straightens somewhat, and turns directly to her, all seriousness. "No, I think you *deserve* to hear it. Maybe it'll help you make sense of all this for yourself."

He steps over to one of the benches, finishes his meat patty, and tosses both wrapper and napkins into a trash can before having a seat and turning to her. "Listen to me, talking like I'm going to ask you to sacrifice a villager to the local necromancer. It's not bad, I promise."

[CHEVY]
In Farmville, Sunshine City and Metro City, it wasn't hard for Chevy to _sense_ her connection to large flows of water. She was attuned to their ebbs and flows -- if not _feeling_ them, then definitely _hearing_ them, somehow. But for the past few weeks, it's been pushed into background noise. The ocean was a familiar friend on New Zack Island. The ocean was a relentless bully to the Mermaid whenever a new current or cold front was encountered. But here on a larger island... it felt 'quieter' somehow. And she sought out the susurrating voices of the her assorted Chevaliers to feel... 'right.'

"Hm... I guess that's true, yeah."

She lets the thought hang in the air for a moment. A good distance away, she offers a slight smile upon hearing the surf crash into the shore.

"It seemed like everyone was yellin' at me like it was the -wrong- thing," she admits, discomfort creeping into her shoulders despite that faint smile.

But once she'd heard that tide... she starts to listen for it again, subconsciously. Another wave crashes into shore; her eyes half-lid with the sensation.

In the next moment, her eyes open, as she realizes she'd nearly walked right into the sand without her conversational partner. She turns towards Rei -- leaning close to hear his admission.

And then her eyebrows lift in surprise.

"Are those -real?- Necromancers? I thought they was just in D&D..."

For a moment, it's not clear if she's even serious or not. If it were... well, the way her eyes shift in the next few seconds shows she's puzzling through the thought, and by the end of it, it seems she's made peace with whatever implications came about.

"I mean, yeah, what is it?" Freckles lift, as the hayseed puts on her brightest smile. "I'm all ears!"

[FREI]
Well THAT question sure catches Rei by surprise, and for a moment the typically glib xian looks uncharacteristically blank. "You know, I... don't actually know," he admits, blinking a couple times. For a moment, his features seem to settle on the expression of someone trying to figure out a thorny puzzle. "If wizards are real then I guess necromancers are PROBABLY real? But to be honest part of me hopes I'm wrong." Looks like Chevy will just have to ask Iris later, perhaps.

It's obvious for a few moments there that the Carolinian 'needs' the moment of just being with the surf, and it's for that reason that Rei didn't say anything. She'd notice eventually, probably. When she turns back to him -- and once the question of necromancers has been, if not settled, then addressed -- he watches her with obvious curiosity. "Wrong and right... well," Rei starts, before shaking his head and putting his hands palm down on his hips with a light slapping sound, a definite little gesture. "I told myself I'd lay off the didactic monologuing, so I can comment on that later, maybe. I will say, when you're trying to figure out what's 'wrong' or what's 'right', having all the info helps. Or as much of it as you can get, anyway."

And that's the rub right there, isn't it? Ichika would have been one of the people claiming Chevy trying to save Junko would have been 'wrong', probably; after all, the young swordswoman all but said that the possessed miko needed to be removed from the world, to Rei directly. He could have told her then what he plans to tell Chevy now. Would it have made a difference? Rei doesn't actually know, and that question may never be answered.

Breathing out from the bottom of his mouth, sending his bangs fluttering again, the xian looks at Chevy. "Last year, during the first season of the NFG. When you were Team Thunder and I was one of the sponsors," he starts, suddenly gripping one hand with the other. Not out of nervousness, per se; he doesn't seem anxious, so much as... frustrated? "I took Junko out for a 1-on-1 session. It was after I saw her and Ichika in the park, and we got our first glance of what was going on with her."

Now, the tricky part. "There's a... let's... call it a mystical method. A... a Taoist spell, you could say," Rei explains, deftly skirting needing to describe what sage arts are. And in truth, considering the Taoist syncretism in the spiritual side of his personal style, 'Taoist spell' isn't entirely inaccurate anyway. "A way to calm spirits that are out of balance. I used it on Junko, and it put her passenger -- Suzaku, I guess we know now -- to sleep for a bit. Long enough for me to talk to Junko without its influence, for just a little while."

[CHEVY]
Miss Beaumont bares her teeth for a broad smile. Rei's logic is, to her, unassailable in that regard. She hasn't run into a necromancer before -- and if she does, there's a good chance she'll lose her nerve as much as she did against Zarine. And even then, that encounter worked out okay!

As for Ichika... for better or worse, Chevy's been far enough removed from the katana-wielding prodigy that there is once more daylight between their respective views on life, the universe, and everything. And this means that, upon further reflection, she'd come to the conclusion that she would likely have made the same choices regarding Junko a second time. All throughout her school life, standing up for the underdog had always ranked much higher on her priority list than staying in the good graces of the popular crowd. And if there's a will, there's a way.

It's just that she just wishes that her friendship would have had more of an impact upon Junko than her waterbending talents.

"I appreciate that, Rei." She curls her arms around her cookbook as if it were as cuddly as a teddy bear. It's not, of course. "Sometimes I just feel like a fish outta water. And it's good to know... that's alright, sometimes."

She nods quietly as Rei tells her things she knows. It's hard for -her- to forget Team Thunder, of course. But... the news that Rei had talked to Junko himself raises her eyebrows. "Oh yeah?" she asks, curiously.

Her curiosity slides a notch towards concern with each of the three words: 'mystical,' 'Taoist,' and 'spell.' Each word carries a certain aura of mystery to her, much like the word 'necromancer' earlier. It isn't scary... but she's eager to hear how these new puzzle pieces fit together.

And then... well.

"Oh." She grins. "Kinda like... how my ice let her cool down enough to show her real self a bit."

Chevy's cheeks redden; she realizes how arrogant that might sound. It's not a competition! She shakes her head, dismissing her own analogy. "Mm, I mean, it's different, I'm sure! But, like... you got to talk to the 'real' Junko? What was that like?"

[FREI]
What was that like? "It was..."

There is a short and gradual but definite shift in Rei's affect; it is a bit like watching a time lapse of someone receiving bad news. Eyes get hooded, a slow breath comes out as the corners of the mouth turn down ever so slightly. "Scary. Like a little girl trapped in a house with an abuser," he adds, voice quiet as he explains. "Which if you think about it, is pretty much what that situation *is*. Before whatever changed, changed, Suzaku would threaten her with pain if she didn't do what he wanted."

A pause, here, as he thinks about his advice to Junko in that moment, which was: you're a victim, but you can still make better choices. You can still fight. It will hurt and you'll keep being hurt, but the alternative is lying down and giving up.

Something about that thought seems to bring some strength back to his voice, his bearing, as the xian shakes his head and turns his gaze back to Chevy.

"Not saying that to 'poor Junko' anything. Believe me, I talked to her again, after that whole thing with Coco, and realized things are probably more complicated than I just made them sound." A pause, then a shrug. "Actually, after that second talk with her, I decided to wash my hands of Junko, Chevy, and I'm not really proud to be saying that to you." A sigh, another shake of the head.

Rei turns to the ocean and stares out at it as he keeps talking, almost as if he can't 100% bring himself to make eye contact with Chevy as he says it. "The thing about wanting to help someone is that you can't help someone who doesn't want to help themselves, or who doesn't want to be helped... and even if they DO want to be helped, there's only so much other people can do, y'know?" Now he turns back to Chevy with a rueful smile. "You really CAN'T make the horse drink. I used to think Junko could be convinced to help herself. Ha, maybe that was just me being cocky," he adds, with a helpless little shrug. "One of my worst traits, kiddo, if you haven't noticed, is feeling like I can Fix Things. Well, that and all the long mysterious mentor speeches where I come off sounding like a Wikipedia article."

[CHEVY]
The breeze tugs at the hem of her scarf, flapping it about. Chevy's smile fades as she rubs the side of her neck. Though, of course, it's not *just* because the fabric's brushing against her skin.

What does she even do with the knowledge that her mentor -- strong and resolute -- decided to -stop- taking any action at all to help someone who he'd already identified as a victim? The thoughts simmer in her head as she listens to Rei. There's a lot to be said -- and Chevy's quietly nodding along for most of it. Because, having been in the situation she's in now, she can certainly understand why he did what he did.

The logic of it, though, isn't bulletproof when viewed through the rose-colored lenses of an idealist like herself.

"Like, you call that a 'worst trait' thing, but you're here thankin' me for stickin' with it...?" She offers a brief chuckle -- only to soften what she -knows- is another one of her 'blurting things out as soon as they come to mind' episodes.

She turns away, looking off to the breakers crashing into the coastline.

"Folks keep sayin' it's the NFG's fault for puttin' us in this place. But what's a bunch of pencil-pushers and bean counters gonna do against a vampire with the thirst for blood, or crazy children-sacrificin' necromancers, or... a goddess?"

Chevy closes her eyes for a moment, drawing in a long sigh. It's a few moments before she lets that breath out, turning over to face Rei directly.

"I ain't tryin' to give you a hard time, Rei, honest. I'm... I'm still steamed over this. You... gosh, I don't have any clue where you'd been, but for like a -week- it felt like, it was up to us first- and second-years up to stop someone liable to turn the whole planet into a burn pit."

She closes her eyes again. And hitches herself up to her full five-foot-eight height, as she draws in her breath.

"You're the first one of anyone that's asked me how I'm feelin' here. And that means a lot to me. 'Cause if I'm bein' honest? I'm 'bout wore out, Rei. Facin' angry goddesses what wanna burn the world down ain't what I signed up for."

[FREI]
'It was up to us.'

The xian's face freezes. Nothing she'd said so far had been worrisome, really; nothing unusual, nothing unexpected, nothing PROBLEMATIC. In fact, he'd been opening his mouth to say something, to say it was *because* he had decided to stop that he's thankful Chevy made an attempt to help Junko. But talk of facing down gods not being what she signed up for freezes him as thoroughly as if it were a scream.

Why? Because now he has to decide. How much to say, and about what? What to reveal, and what to hide? Rei Hazuki -- Frei Renard -- does not like lying. And so much of his life now by necessity is lies of omission. Lying by what you're *not* saying. A silent lie he keeps telling-by-not-telling for the sake of letting go of the past and living here, now. But the past doesn't work that way. Without the past, the 'you' of now is just a mirage, a fantasy. Where you've been determines where you are.

Rei realizes his mouth is open, still unclosed from what he was about to say, and he shuts it, eyes closing too. In his lap, his fingers twine and untwine together and apart, and now, NOW there is a nervous energy to him. Now there is anxiety.

"When... when I first started fighting, it was little street matches," he says, in a quiet voice. "Neo League, Saturday Night Fights, that sort of thing. Oh sure, there was some interpersonal drama, of course. Not everyone got along..."

Images of Jiro and Alma, Hotaru and Mimiru, Sakura... a host of people crowd his mind and there is an obvious moment of him swallowing his emotions as they play by on the screen of his interiority.

"...but that was all. Like a high school sports manga."

A hand comes up, smoothing back his dark red hair, before he continues. "And then there was a war. A couple of big crime syndicates decided to take over the city I was living in, for real." He does not say: the city was Southtown. He does not say: the syndicates exist right here in this world too. He lies, with every fact he doesn't say. "Lots of people involved in that were fighters. Some of them were with the syndicates, some of them were just like me: everyday citizens who just happened to know how to fight, who weren't asked if they wanted to be involved or not... and it's not like the government, or the military, or whatever, could have stopped two big international crime mobs either."

Seeing his own face, about to die at his own hand, say back to him: 'This is what we want. Live, for us.'

Green eyes look up toward the sky, as if searching the pattern of cotton-like clouds for some sort of meaning or explanation for anything that happens in life. "That was the first time, for me, anyway. It wasn't the last. Stuff like that *kept happening*," Rei adds, voice becoming heated and vehement, as he turns to Chevy and away from the sky. "Stuff I never asked for. Pain I never wanted."

A pause, and then the eyes become hooded again. "Listen to me, rattling all this off like it isn't you who's suffering, right now," he mutters, shaking his head, before bringing his gaze to meet the waterbender's. "I ended up hating Spider-Man, after, you know? 'With great power comes great responsibility'. No it doesn't. People with great power are irresponsible all the time. The power and the responsibility have nothing to do with each other."

"You don't owe the world a thing, Chevy," Rei says at last, after a brief silence. "I wish I could say stuff like this won't happen to you again, but it will. Learned that the hard way, myself. But you don't have the fix the world just because you have power, especially not if it means so much cost to yourself."

[CHEVY]
Rei may have found himself in an unfortunate place today. Because Chevy's been keeping a lot bottled up to herself these past few... days? Weeks?

Everyone in her orbit had been living through the same nightmare. They'd said all about it that they'd wanted to say to one another. Talking any *more* about Suzaku, or the zombie onslaught that her dear Buck had to deal with, would just run the risk of reopening old wounds.

But here Rei is. Sharing his own war stories, mercifully condensed into bite-size snippets for Chevy's benefit. She nods along with that, her sapphire gaze fixed upon him as he tells his tale.

She can feel his weariness. His discretion. His... concern. And she feels a little guilty for even -trying- to make the assertion that ... he shouldn't take a break from that. That he should just pick himself up by his bootstraps and just jump into someone else's problem.

"Yeah," she starts, once his eyes are back on her. There's a sense of guilt for nodding along without contributing anything on her own. "I'm... sorry you had to deal with that."

It always feels... weird apologizing for something one has no hand in. But it can also be hard to contribute anything at all, sometimes.

His tacit admission that it's -her- suffering that he's trying to help with gets her to break a smile, if only for a moment.

"Yeah, I've been tryin' to keep those words -outta- my head the past few weeks," she admits. She continues to listen -- though, for a moment, she seems to be infected with an ounce of fidgety energy, that she copes with by pressing a palm into her hip.

The statement of 'you don't owe the world a thing,' though... that *does* earn a slight twitch from the twentysomething farm girl -- her brows knit together with concern.

She takes a breath. There's clearly a moment where she's trying to decide whether to speak up or not. When she does, though -- it's with the resolve of someone who really -has- grown up a bit since her last conversation with Rei.

"Well, no. But if I don't stand up an' fight when I oughta, there's this... feelin' that someone else is gonna suffer. If not Junko... then my mom. My friends back home. Folks who cain't defend themselves."

It might be a little unsettling to have the freckled farm girl's full attention. She's not sorry for that.

"But I was there. And there was somethin' I could do about it. It warn't like I was just gonna set down and say, 'Not today. I don't feel like it.'"

Her thumb hooks into a belt loop. Her fingers drum lightly upon her hip. "I turned twenty this year. I don't think I'm ready to wait out the rest of my life holed up in my garage like a hermit. But I know I cain't just fight people like that all by myself."

[FREI]
"I know," Rei says mildly, in response to Chevy's insistence that had she not acted, someone, somewhere, would suffer instead. "I'm not telling you to do nothing, Chevy. That'd be a waste of time. I haven't known you long, but I've known a lot of people LIKE you. So I know that you would never choose to do nothing." That right here might be confusing; didn't he just say she didn't owe the world anything? That it was okay for her not to get involved?

Hands come up, on both sides of Rei's face, and are flat down on his temples, fingers going into his dark red bangs, as he seems to look at nothing with a vacant expression before he starts talking again. "It should be a choice, though. It should be a thing you do because you WANT to, not because you feel like you HAVE to. And... and..."

He stops. Again, the potentially disconcerting feeling of someone who always seems to know what to say, to always have a reply ready to go, suddenly caught short. And it's not, Rei reflects, because he doesn't have words ready to go. It's in whether or not they can, or even should, be said.

"I don't know how to help you avoid making the mistakes I made, when I would probably make those mistakes all over again, Chevy," he says at last, looking at the ground. "You're a good person. I don't need anything special to know that. All the evidence I need is how you act, what you do. But..."

Hands continue to wring, and some internal voice finally says to Rei that he is mostly scared of messing this up. Of making things worse. A worry he might not have thought he'd experience, looking at his own past. The xian was always so sure, so confident. Now, in this new world, this new history full of the shining faces of strangers about to make the exact same choices, that confidence has so many cracks.

Turning, looking up at her from a hunched-over position, Rei searches Chevy's face as he continues to explain all this. "It doesn't have to be YOU, every time. I bet there were people on that island with you who would have wanted to be in that fight with you, against her," Rei says, eyes flickering briefly to the tiniest hint of burned skin visible at Chevy's neckline. "And weren't. I'm not going to ask if you thought they were cowards, or wrong or bad to not be there, because I know you don't think that. Maybe they were injured. Maybe they just couldn't face that; maybe they were afraid to die."

A pause, then a sigh, and a rueful little smile. "You're going to say, 'but what if nobody steps up?'. Then maybe you change your mind. Maybe they change THEIR minds. It doesn't HAVE to be you, every time. You're allowed to be hurt and need to recover. You're allowed to be human."

[CHEVY]
Chevy, with her full attention devoted to Rei, is able to take note of each little nuance of his shifting expressions. It's not hard for Chevy to understand that he's trying to walk a very thin line between expressing his concerns and letting her walk the path she's destined to walk.

And that... tempers her intensity, to a degree. Her shoulders loosen, her gaze shifts downward -- still keeping Rei in focus, but not shining the big thousand-watt spotlight upon him. She opens her stance, letting the elbow of her cookbook-holding arm slide down towards her waist. And most importantly -- she nods attentively to each statement, absorbing each iota of advice.

She smiles faintly at the compliment -- being 'good' is a personal goal. It'd be nice if a certain NFG announcer-slash-former-pro-wrestler would stop calling that into question, but who knows?

And she -almost- laughs at the suggestion that other people would want to fight Junko. Lord knows Coco almost threw down right on the spot in their initial encounter.

But... she remains quiet. Right until Rei makes the case for being human.

With her smile lingering from before, Chevy gives one long, slow blink. It takes a moment to finish processing all that. And then... she nods in agreement.

"I ain't sayin' you ain't right about this. I do... I mean, I think I do... get to -choose- when to step in." She breaks eye contact for a moment, just long enough to adjust her grip on the cookbook. "Last season... Junko was my teammate. And I know Ichika was tore up from talking to her. If I was in a worse mood I'd'a liked to beat her within an inch of my life for that. But I wanted to make things... more right."

She shakes her head, tilting her head down and closing her eyes.
"But that ain't what got me tore out the frame right now."
Her eyes open. She responds, her voice tepid in tone.

"It's that Junko was tryin' to kill us."

Even that... feels wrong. She drops her gaze again, not... feeling entirely comfortable with being so forward in what she says next.

"She warn't really givin' us a choice in the matter, and... there warn't no time to ask for volunteers to go first."

She draws in her breath, looking off to the coastline as she makes her case for what could -really- be bothering her.

"All through the fight... Suzaku didn't have no one on her mind but me. Like the goddess got mad I was tryin' to ruin this all for her. Like it all just... made Suzaku hate me even more."

She presses her lips together... and looks back to Rei with sober concern.

"... I don't think I -get- to sit anythin' out, so far's she's involved. Much as I'd like to, anyway."

[FREI]
"Oh, you DID have a choice," Rei responds, in a quiet but intense voice. "What you didn't have was options. It... that was something I tried to explain to Junko, too," he adds, reflecting on what he had said to her, in those precious moments while Suzaku was suppressed. "Out on that island, she took control of the options away from you. She forced you to choose, but your options were 'fight for my life' or... well, lay down and die."

A pause, and then a shake of the head before the xian makes sure to keep eye contact with Chevy as he continues, to be certain she has as many opportunities as possible to see and hear the sincerity that he's trying to express. "You're probably hearing me say that and going 'man, what the heck?' and that's fair. But it's the truth. You chose to fight for your life. You didn't HAVE to. You CHOSE to. There are people all over the world that stare similar choices in the face every day, though usually it's not against a teenage girl with a powerful mystical being inside them."

The green eyes get hooded; the freckled face darkens, somewhat, as what he says next comes from some internal place even Rei himself had forgotten existed, somewhat. "People choose to live every day in situations where it would sometimes be easier to just let go. To stop feeling pain. I'm not telling you this to disagree with you, Chevy, but just... you made the choice to fight, and live, because you wanted to live. You made the choice to help Junko because you wanted to help Junko. That's important. Bad things happened to you, legitimate bad things you didn't deserve, but you're *not* a victim, because you chose to live."

It's when he finishes that sentence that Rei realizes he stood up, off the bench. As in, Chevy would have seen him do it -- get up, make an emphatic statement -- but Rei almost doesn't seem to know that he did until it's over.

He's quiet for a moment, thinking about the end of what Chevy said, and the last time he spoke to Junko. That it felt *personal* on the part of Suzaku, perhaps. That was the impression he got at last, of Junko, the one that made him decide that she was on her own from that point forward. It was exactly this: he had become convinced there was a part of Junko, the person, that *wanted* to give Suzaku control. That wanted to do whatever he said. In the same way that there is a part of Junko that wants to be 'saved', whatever form that takes.

A blink.

"Would you call yourself religious, Chevy?" the xian asks, tilting his head somewhat. An utter non-sequitur of a question, but he appears to be serious about it. "You're American and there's no telling what religion you might be considering how diverse your country is. So maybe let me revise the question: would you consider yourself a person of faith?"

[CHEVY]
As Rei is watching Chevy, there is a clear point in which her eyelids droop and her lips slacken to suggest annoyance. That point roughly coincides with the moment in which Rei begins to delineate the difference between a 'choice' an and 'option.' She continues to blink here and there, listening with her full attention. She may be a bit stubborn at times, but she seems like she'll accept Rei's reframed wording without protest.

... When Rei states that she's not a victim, though? That gets a slight twitch of her right eyebrow. Fortunately or not, the frustration that had begun to take root seems to dissipate a bit when she takes a couple steps back, giving the xian room to rise to his feet.

It dissipates a bit more, when he asks the seeming non-sequitur. She blinks in surprise, stance opening up again as she answers.

"Y--" is all she manages to slip out before Rei begins to clarify. Bowing her head in apology, she waits until he's done before she resumes.

"Yeah. I've actually, uh... been readin' my Bible a lot these past few days."

She lowers her eyes for a moment, before self-consciously pivoting to one side.

"I kept feelin' like Suzaku done got some things wrong about the Gospel. And I warn't none too happy about that."

[FREI]
It doesn't go unnoticed, the eyebrow twitch; unremarked-upon, yes, but not unnoticed. If he were in Chevy's place, he'd probably feel rankled -- or worse -- by the suggestion that he wasn't a victim. Arguing over the semantics of 'victim' is a thing they COULD do, but it wouldn't be productive or helpful. If the Carolinian wants to push back afterwards, he'll happily listen. For now, there's a different line of thinking.

Chevy mentions the Bible-with-a-capital-B, and while that's only a vague confirmation on some things, it's enough for Rei to nod in seeming comprehension, giving a little 'mmm' sound before he speaks. "So, I don't know a lot about the differences between Christian faiths," he says, with a sound of almost scholarly interest, "but that's not really important right now, anyway, because I have another question, and I think the answer to it would be more personal than religious anyway."

There's an element to all of this, a piece of it, that might be the key to new awareness for Chevy, or at the very least, a new way to think about her problems. One that Rei is going to have to jam a crowbar into a lever open, as carefully but as firmly as possible.

"What is God to you, Chevy? Not necessarily your relationship, but what does it mean? For God, to BE God?"

Two emerald eyes watch her closely, nothing but genuine curiosity writ across the deceptively youthful face.

[CHEVY]
For now, Chevy seems wholly disinterested in semantics. Words rarely matter to her so much as communication is achieved. A person's heart will be revealed through their actions more than any words they might say, and Rei's done enough to prove he's worth listening to regardless.

Oddly enough, the topic of religion doesn't seem to bother her. Not only is she calm when she turns back to Rei, but a smile even flashes across her face as he broaches the sticky issue of Christian faiths. She won't give an answer to that implied question, though -- he didn't ask.

There... is, however, another twitch of her eyebrow, as the point of the proverbial crowbar is planted into place. What is... God?

"I'm afraid I don't..." she starts, her mouth running away before the thought is fully formed. Her usual self, in other words.

Her lips curl in puzzlement as she considers an answer. After a moment, she relaxes with an easygoing shrug. Deciding to just go with the flow and say what occurs to her, she starts, "Well, uhm." She clears her throat, setting her earlier attempt at answering aside.

"He's the guy in the clouds who watches over us. He sees everythin'. He knows everythin'. And if we pray to Him, there's a good chance He'll answer our prayers."

A tongue darts out, moistening her lips. The breeze can dry things out a bit.

"Been doin' a lot of that, lately. Prayin'," she adds with a faint smile. "It helps."

[FREI]
The guy who in the clouds who watches over us. Rei's eyes head skyward, primarily without his intending to do it, when she says that, but all there is to see are the occasional white puffy cloud and the endless expanse of blue above. As the Carolinian continues, the xian reflects on the sort of definition it is with some satisfaction. It's a practical answer, the kind one might expect from Chevy, who seems like a practical person.

Bringing his gaze back down from the sky, Rei nods at Chevy's offered description of what God -- notably, capital-g God, not 'a god', as it could have been phrased -- is. "Makes sense," he says, encouragingly. After all, it's not as if this is a question with a right or wrong answer he's trying to ferret out of her; what matters is what Chevy believes, in her heart.

Of course, there is a TINY internal wince he manages to suppress at the mention that she's been praying a lot lately, that it helps. Because... well. He's committed to this course, now. There's no backing down.

"Here's a slightly harder question. What do you think we are, to Him?" Another curious tilt of the head. He doesn't bring up 'as his creations' or anything of the sort; Chevy didn't mention them, so neither will he. In Rei's eyes, this isn't about metaphysics. He's not out to prove anything about God, singular, or gods, plural.

This is about Chevy.

"If you pray to Him when you need help, it sounds like He would look on you kindly, at least a little."

[CHEVY]
Chevy simply dons a beatific smile as Rei looks up. She doesn't feel the need to join him -- for with a day like this one, the warm rays of the sun convey all the information she needs.

She nods crisply to Rei's affirmation. She's... glad, honestly, that the xian is asking her rather than making assumptions about her faith based on things she's said. And she's more than happy to walk the proverbial path with him; the questions don't really seem to bother her much.

Which is good -- because her sapphire eyes show the same curious interest when he poses a new question. Her jaw moves, though her lips don't fully part -- a visual sign of the gears turning within the shadetree mechanic's mind.

"The Church always calls us His children, or His flock. I mean, that's what I'd always heard."

She looks down for a moment, distancing herself to make sure she can put her thoughts into proper order. When her eyes lift, they shine with newfound focus.

"Like, as the Father, he watches over us, and protects us from harm."

Her hand rises from her side, fingers splaying out as she talks herself through a half-formed thought. "... But, like... a lot of times, He's more like the shepherd watchin' over a flock. Like, if one or two start to drift off, he can kinda bring 'em back with that hook thingy, y'know?"

She laughs faintly, at that.

The last thing Rei says, though, has her smiling widely enough that her nose wrinkles. "I'd cain't see it happenin' any other way, to tell the truth. He led me to y'all when I was lookin' for answers about my Paw. And... gosh. Even with all this..." She wiggles her fingers, frustrated that she can't fully encapsulate the gravity of 'everything in the past few weeks' with a single gesture. "... -stuff-, even with all that I still feel like fightin's the right place for me."

She steps a half-step closer, shoulders bunching up as she curls her free hand around the cookbook once more. "What about you? What... sorta higher powers do you put your faith in?"

[FREI]
A parent. In a way, the *ultimate* parent... that's how Chevy sees God. Someone whose love is unconditional, but unconditional love doesn't mean uncomplicated and always indulgent. Sometimes, the crook comes out and the sheep need to be pulled back onto the path. But nobody questions that the shepherd, in his way, loves his flock. With his own complicated parental relationships, however, this version of the story brings a faint, slightly bittersweetly crooked smile to the corner of Rei's face.

Then Chevy asks, as is her right, a question of her own, and he half turns toward her as he answers, as solemnly as he can: "I don't, really," the xian says gently. "I believe in you and me, basically. This beach. The sky. The island." A pause, and then Rei turns fully to face Chevy with a bit of a what-can-you-do shrug. "It's not that I haven't wondered about that question, though. Honestly when I was your age, wondering about that sort of question is pretty much all I did, all the time." Rei's own philosophical past, looking for *meaning* that he wasn't finding in the sword his mother wished him to learn. An answer to 'what is all this FOR?' that he needed and didn't get.

"I don't know if there's a higher, more sophisticated power out there or not. I look at how this world, this universe is put together -- to the extent that we can work that out, anyway -- and it's nice to think that there's some divine architect that brought it all together. But in a way it's equally nice to think... maybe there is no purpose. Maybe it's sheer, stupid random luck that Earth just HAPPENED to have the one in a million conditions to produce life like us. That there's no purpose to the world, or our lives, that we didn't give it ourselves."

A pause, and yet again, he seems surprised to hear the words coming out of his own mouth, as if he'd planned to say less and just blurted it out anyway... which, in a way, he did. "I'll be honest, Chevy, I don't really believe in gods, plural, or a God, singular. But I asked what you thought, because I wondered if it would help me explain something about Suzaku that would help you, maybe. We'll see if I'm right."

Ducking down a bit, knees bent, Rei puts a hand onto the warm sand, palm down, and closes his eyes. "Suzaku's not a god. The fact that it seemed angry at you for trying to save Junko, that you can sense the conflict going on inside between whatever Suzaku is, and Junko... that's proof enough of that, for me."

The green eyes open as he stands back up and turns back to Chevy. "It's like the shepherd, just as you said. The shepherd needs the sheep, but they don't need him. Sheep existed before shepherds, after all. The firebird might be powerful -- IS powerful -- but under all that power is something very, very human in its nature."

[CHEVY]
There's a moment where Chevy just... blinks in response.

It's been years since she's encountered someone who just... doesn't believe in a higher power. It's certainly true that there were kids at school who were atheistic, or agnostic. But those were the kids who never stopped to ask her what she believed in, or what she felt God was. The answers either obvious, or irrelevant.

So it's just... unusual to have a conversation about faith where the person asking questions is effectively faithless. And once Chevy comes to terms with that, she purses her lips together and nods in acknowledgment. Fair play.

"Yeah, maybe!" she says, her exuberance at resolving that personal conundrum bubbling over into her voice, for better or worse. Redness floods her cheeks for a moment as she deals with that particular embarrassment; redness that more or less goes away as Rei segues into the reason for his query.

Suzaku... is no god? That... makes sense, of course. Particularly in Chevy's own framework of understanding, in which such a statement is codified in gospel. She'd even said so much in talking with Suzaku -- that the only proper name for what Suzaku is, in fact, 'demon.'

"... Maybe not, no? But..."
Chevy grasps at straws, trying to pick up what Rei is getting at.
"... There's something more."
Chevy flashes a toothy smile.

The hayseed clasps her free hand to her chest, closing her eyes to help herself remember. There's... a lot to unpack, and she wants to be sure that she at least doesn't say anything -wrong- even if she misses a lot of what she was supposed to convey.

"Suzaku and I had a lot to talk about, on the island. I mean, I'm like you -- she's no God. But she said almost the same thing, about... how she needed -us- to believe in her. Left out that 'more than we needed her' part, of course."

She takes a deep breath -- and for all intents and purposes, looks like she's about to launch into a recollection of -everything- they talked about.

But then something occurs to her -- and she turns to Rei with a quizzical look.

"Oh, uhm. How's the legend of Suzaku go? The way, uh... " Consternation comes over her face, which is then expressed by her hand grasping thin air for the missing word. Eventually, she settles on a substitute. "What do Japanese folks learn about Suzaku?"

[FREI]
What DO they learn? Basically nothing, Rei realizes, and that is probably why he brings a hand up and rubs the side of his head in obvious embarassment. "Believe it or not, 'Suzaku' isn't even Japanese," Rei explains. This part he knows, but largely because of where he trained as a young adult: China, not Japan. "The... uh, I'm gonna sit back down for this one, haha. It's more me-sounding-like-Wikipedia stuff."

Turning, he indeed sits back down on the bench and does so in a way that leaves obvious room for Chevy, if she feels like sitting... though it seems like there's enough nervous energy in the Carolinian that she'll probably remain standing.

"So... in the West, people think of there being four elements: water, fire, earth, and air. In China, there's five: water, wood, fire, metal, and earth. They make a circle called the wu xing -- 'five movements'. It's all very complicated but the symbolism of it gets taken very seriously. You've heard of feng shui, right?"

Ducking forward, Rei draws a circle in the sand at his feet, and then marks a little 'N' on the top of it. "Feng shui's based on that, somewhat. Four of the elements were associated with directions on the compass: water in the north, wood in the east, fire in the south, and metal in the west." Drawing kanji in the sand is hard, so instead he just traces little shapes: a flame, a water drop, a tree, a sword. "Earth was in the middle. Because each direction had an element connected to it, they all built up symbolism, too, like colors, parts of the body in medicine, days of the week... all sorts of stuff."

A pause, while he lets that sink in. "'Suzaku' is how the Japanese pronounce 'Zhuque'," Rei adds, hammering the difference in how they sound to make sure they're distinct. "The Vermillion Bird. It's the symbol of the south, the scarlet bird of fire. As for what the being inside Junko calling itself Suzaku is... I couldn't tell you, kiddo, sorry." A pause, and a shrug. "It could be that human belief created a being that took on that form? It would certainly follow from what you just said she told you. Or maybe there's always been a primal spirit of fire of some kind, and Suzaku is just one name it's been called. There's really no way to know for sure."

[CHEVY]
Chevy grins; she's happy to go along with the suggestion to sit down. And as space is opened up for her, she accepts the invitation to sit down alongside him. The cookbook and spices are rested neatly upon her lap.

And, not long into the explanation, Chevy is already blinking with welcome surprise. "Wood and metal? That's... huh. Neat! At least fire and water are the same, so I'm with you so far! Haha..."

A few moments later, her eyes light up as the 'new' vocabulary world stirs up an old memory. "Oh! Yeah, I know that one! There was this Chinese transfer student in tenth grade who got all tore out the frame 'cause her neighbors put their flower vase in the wrong wind'er. 'Terrible fang schway,' she kept sayin'. We had a good ol' laugh about..." She laughs softly... and then starts to turn pale.

"... Well. Gosh." She scratches the back of her hand. "Was it rude of us to say that? I didn't know squat about China or Japan back then."

Shaking her head, she breathes a quick "Sorry!" before hushing up to listen.

Her eyes light up as Rei mentions a different way to pronounce 'Suzaku'. And of course, she hazards a poor attempt, getting the tone markers all wrong. "'Zoo chee-eh?' That's..." She shrugs lightly. "I s'pose I cain't say much, there's folks who still say 'port's mouth' when they read 'Portsmouth.'"

She laughs, faintly, when Rei talks about what the 'Suzaku' entity really is. And... oddly? She just... points at the xian with understanding.

"That! That's... what she told me, yeah!"

Chevy claps both her hands to her book. "She'd told me a long story, through like, -pictures- and such. Remember when you made that little blue guy out of your chi, when we was at Metro Park? It was kinda like that!"

She chops her hands onto her cookbook, as if framing the story. "... I cain't remember *all* the details, but she definitely said mankind came before the gods. And that it was like, people got smart and started putting together theories about how the world worked. And that's how they got the first gods -- Amma Terassu and Raiden and Fujin. But then I guess folks got hyperactive imaginations and such and made yojin and demons and such."

She crosses her eyes for a moment, as if focusing at a point in the sand. Maybe even the compass rose Rei made.

"... Then Suzaku came, and gave people fire, and weapons."

She looks back to Rei, perplexed. "And she's mad that people used weapons to hurt each other, and blamed -her- for not givin' 'em better weapons. So she's tryin' to kill everyone now. I cain't make sense of that part."

She dons a hopeful expression. "Can you?"

[FREI]
Chevy wondering, in the midst of ALL THIS, if she was rude to an exchange student in a conversation that must feel like it was a million years ago compared to now, makes Rei suddenly give out a little uncontrolled burst of laughter. "I don't think you have to worry about being rude. If I had to guess I doubt your exchange student was being terribly serious." He does not say: they were PROBABLY poking fun at the Americans, themselves, but that's a discussion for another day.

Still, the rest of it... "It's funny," Rei says, thoughtfully, after Chevy describes what Suzaku told her, about fire and weapons and the origins of gods. "The Greeks have the same myth, only for them it's Prometheus, I think his name is," the xian continues, rubbing his chin briefly in thought. "Gave fire and skill to mortals, but paid the price for it." Who knows, maybe Junko's fate is to get chained to a rock and have her liver eaten by an eagle, only for it to regrow the next day and the whole thing to repeat all over again.

Fuujin and Raijin, though... "So, if you read anthropologists -- people who study how cultures develop -- they'll say a lot of early gods and mythical creatures are just humans who didn't know any better creating stories to explain stuff that happens in nature. So you get Fuujin, the wind god carrying the wind on his shoulders in a sack, and Raijin, the storm god who makes the sound of thunder with a set of drums." Amaterasu is a different story, and Rei decides to stay mum on that one. She doesn't entirely fit the narrative anyway.

Leaning back on the bench, he makes a little 'hmm' noise in the back of his throat again. "Sounds like Suzaku agrees with that. Belief is pretty powerful stuff, really, for the same reason that you have to train your mental discipline to use abilities like yours," he adds, inclining his head in Chevy's direction. "After all, it doesn't even need to be a magic spell to say, 'if enough people believe a thing is true, it kinda becomes true'. The internet's full of people pulling that trick off all the time," Rei quips, giving Chevy a little conspiratorial smile.

Another pause, another shrug. "As for taking it to the extreme she did... well, that doesn't surprise me, I'm sad to say. Powerful beings have a real 'take my ball and go home' attitude when it comes to people not doing what they want. Sounds like she's upset people did things she didn't want with gifts she gave freely, so now it's all 'I must wipe the world clean and start over'!", the xian says, making big dramatic waving with his arms as he says that last bit. "Typical JRPG final boss megalomania stuff."

[CHEVY]
Chevy wasn't worried about having been rude until the moment those words came out of her mouth. But now as she thinks back... well. It's clear from her expression that she's not 100% convinced that Rei is right about their friend teasing the Americans, but she's willing to concede the point. "Yeah, I guess so...!"

In trying to understand what Suzaku had told her, Chevy had initially placed it within the context of the Bible's teachings. But now, Rei makes another tie to Greek mythology -- which seems, in retrospect, a bit closer to what's actually going on. "... Oh yeah, I remember him." She pauses for a beat. "I played Scylla and Circe when we did that in the NFG. It was kinda fun! I don't know if anyone actually got to play Promotheseus though."

A few sentences later, Chevy finds her eyes start to cross again. She's -close- to voicing a protest at the introduction of anthropologists to the story. And she seems like she might have something to say about belief being powerful enough to make up a god from imagination, whole cloth.

It isn't until Rei likens the internet to a wish fulfillment engine that Chevy's teeth really start to grind, though -- at least in a joking sense, if her half-smile is any indication. "Well, that would mean Lou's right and I'm really just a heartless queen bee inside."

Somehow, somewhere, one of Chevy's friends is talking about how Chevy doesn't realize that a "queen bee" isn't the correct euphemism for a "queen bitch."

The Carolinian does have -one- more question.
Along with a blank stare in Rei's direction.
"... Je arr pee gee? Is that, like, French?"

After that, though... it's clear she's got a -lot- of thoughts buzzing around in that head of hers, because she's planted her elbows on the book, and she's hunched over with forefingers pressed to her temples.

"Ugh... so. I almost understood everythin' afore, but now... she's a je arr-pee-gee boss? And we dreamed her into existence? And now she's tryin' to wipe us all off the planet so -she- can start over?"

She grits her teeth. The way she's pitched forward and pressing her fingers into her temples, she might blow a fuse soon.

"If she kills us all, don't that mean that she disappears, since we ain't around to keep dreamin' about her?"

[FREI]
"Ah," Rei says, unexpectedly glad that Chevy decided to disagree with him on this one. "But you're not. Lou is wrong." A brief pause, as the xian reflects on his brief time being associated with PFW and keeping track of what Tom and Lou were saying. "Lou is wrong about a lot of things. You might be surprised to know, Chevy, that people out in the world don't actually believe, in their hearts, what Lou is selling for the sake of ratings," he adds, giving her a sidelong, eyebrow-raised look with an almost... parental bent to it.

"Saying you believe something is one thing. Actually believing it is different, especially in the kind of situation we're talking about with gods and faith. I imagine you probably know at least a few people in the world who CLAIM to be faithful, like you are," Rei adds, the expression on his face shifting from knowing to quizzical, asking a question he's pretty sure he knows the answer to. "But they don't act like it. From what you said, to me, it sounds like God as you know him is a loving parent, and he would want his flock to show that too. Not everybody in the flock does, though. They SAY they believe, but they don't. Not in their heart of hearts, anyway. Deep down, where it matters."

A pause, an exhaled breath, and Rei sits back against the bench, having leaned forward a bit to say all that... and his tone is a little softer, a little more gentle, seeing the Carolinian's obvious frustration. "I doubt it works that way, if you want my opinion," the xian says, eventually. "I don't think Suzaku has thought any of this through. It's exactly as you said: hurt, and lashing out. Maybe so-called gods just do that on a bigger scale than the rest of us. But I think you asked exactly the right question, anyway: if killing us means no humans to believe in them, why would any 'god' ever do that? And the answer is: if someone says they want something, and then do something that seems totally counter to what they want... then they probably want *something else*."

[CHEVY]
Chevy cracks a smile. "Oh. Yeah, I know that, gosh!" A fit of snickering ensues. "I'm just sayin', it ain't -everything- gets said that comes true."

She nods her head lightly as the xian suggests that... maybe not -everyone- is as 100% as they claim. "... Yeah. I mean, the best I can manage is to take people at face value whene'er I can, but like, even that you gotta be careful with. For churchgoers, a little white lie here and there don't hurt all too much."

Chevy drums her fingertips on the cookbook for a couple seconds. "... But when you got the power to light a whole -island- on fire like Suzaku can, well. It stops bein' a lil' fib."

The matters of more serious import get Chevy's smile to fade away. The... ones that really seemed to be bothering her.

"Yeah. That squares with what we'd been sayin' when we were fightin' her. She kept sayin' she didn't care what we thought, but dang if she warn't tryin' to convince us she was right the whole time. Like we needed to be *convinced* of it..."

Chevy sighs. It takes her a few seconds of listening to the waves crashing against the shore before she speaks again.

"At the end of the day, it just sucks that... there ain't no reasonin' with her, and there ain't no amount of force we can use to -make- her stop that won't make her even more mad. It's like if... y'know, *someone* could..."

Chevy slowly tilts her head sideways. It's such a subtle change that it looks like the muscles on one side of her neck just... fell asleep.

But just as suddenly, she sits straight again, pivoting her head to Rei. "Oh! Uh. I coulda been imaginin' it, but... like... there was a point right when I was about to pass out, when a whole -ton- of water was about to drop onto Suzaku, where... somethin' changed, Rei."

Chevy forges a half-grin. Pride -- but just a smidge. "So... I'd frozen myself to her. Give her a big ol' weight so's she couldn't keep dodgin' every single thing the folks were throwin' at her, right? But ... I coulda -sworn- that just before I passed out, I done saw Junko helpin' me hold her in place. It's like her face was reflected back in the ice or somethin'."

Chevy draws in a deep breath. "I cain't explain it, really. It didn't look like Suzaku. It warn't just a reflection. It was actually *her*, Rei."

[FREI]
Oh, well, you know. Sometimes it happens! You got two souls in one body and obviously they can't both control the body at the same time, and one soul gets emotionally compromised so the other one can take over, or at least suddenly make itself heard. Totally normal. It probably was Junko you were seeing there, so chin up! All of this makes perfect sense to me!

Rei Hazuki, former 'second soul occupying another person's body', tries to imagine actually saying all of that out loud, instead of just thinking it to himself, in a way that wouldn't bring Chevy's cosmology crashing down around her at a time when a degree of stability is the very thing she needs.

"I'd believe that," is how the xian actually responds, with a genuine but slightly weary smile. "No amount of... oh, heck, what did they call it last time? 'Demonic apotheosis'?" A helpless little shrug, but in Rei's defense, PFW did in fact suggest that one match in the finals was indeed called on account of 'demonic apotheosis'. "Whatever happened, I don't think... when I talked to Junko -- just Junko, and Suzaku was 'asleep' -- I noticed that their energy is... intertwined," he explains, bringing up both hands and making a little twisting motion. "Knotted up together. I told her that I wasn't sure what separating them would be like, but I know it means Suzaku can't just... wipe Junko out," Rei adds, looking serious. "They're stuck with each other. Maybe... maybe Suzaku was so exhausted or upset or both, fighting all of you, that it gave whatever Junko there is in there an opportunity to do something."

[CHEVY]
Intertwined. That's a good term for it. And Chevy nods, her eyes shimmering in something more akin to their usual luster.

"Mm. Yeah! That might be it..."

Gods. Demons. It's... way more than the hayseed had expected to encounter in what she'd -thought- was just battles between high-powered humans. The whole world grew larger over the past year -- and thanks to people like the xian beside her, maybe it isn't all so much to take in after all.

"So, maybe... if I'm putting things together right. Maybe it's *not* something I have to figure out right now, then? That... it's something *they* have to figure out for themselves?"

Chevelle grins, folding her hands atop her cookbook. Her skin still shows a roadmap of scratches, callouses and burns from her time on the island -- wounds that have yet to heal, but don't look completely out of place on a farm worker or a shade-tree mechanic. Chevy smiles, turning her hands over, upon thinking about how someone *like her* might have made a difference.

"Maybe they won't both be stuck in that moment, now that they see how we -reacted- to her. How hard we fight to survive."

She laces her fingers together, turning back to address Rei with her broad grin. "Maybe they can be free this way, y'know? After seein' how we live. Seein' that some people really -are- faithful, instead of just actin' like it...?"

[FREI]
She sounds so hopeful, Chevy does, Rei thinks, as she digests what he has said. Hopeful that Junko can be saved. Hopeful that this can end without someone getting hurt. But more than hopeful, she sounds... well, faithful. She believes. Not a surface belief, but a belief in her heart. The kind of belief that matters.

Part of him wants to say: it might not, though. And you have to be prepared for when it doesn't. Because he's seen beings like Suzaku who truly would rather watch the world pretty literally burn than to change or adapt, for starters, and while he knows there's a part of Junko that wants the kind of salvation Chevy wants to offer, deep down the xian knows that there's part of her that actually is all too ready to give in to the firebird's demands.

It's not hopeless, but it's not guaranteed, either. That's... well, that's life in all its terrible majesty. But what is it Chevy NEEDS to hear, versus what someone else might think she SHOULD hear?

"I don't know," Rei says honestly, because on some level he's simply not capable of doing otherwise. "But the first step to making something happen is believing it can happen, right? So if you want to save Junko, or calm Suzaku, then the first step is believing they can be helped, I think. Just..."

A pause, a shake of the head. "Promise me you'll care about you, too, okay? If you can bring yourself to show an angry fire... bird... god some compassion, then you should show *yourself* some too."

[CHEVY]
Chevy does sound hopeful, doesn't she? But what Rei may or may not know is that Chevy's been wrestling with many of these same questions behind closed doors. She's been plagued with the very real possibility that, at any moment, Suzaku could explode onto the scene. A simple autumn day could become a blazing catastrophe in the blink of an eye. Just like before.

It was a fear she'd wrestled with when she'd first seen Suzaku stand up, after being knocked down twice. It was a fear she could barely keep down even after Tanwen rammed her into the volcano. And it was a fear that never left: not when she reached the base camp at the foot of the volcano; not when she boarded a rescue ship to return to the Mermaid; and not even now, thousands of miles from when she'd last seen the demonic phoenix.

No. It might *not* happen the way Chevy dreamily prophesies. But it could. For a moment, she has the air of her carefree fourteen-year-old self, all set to doodle notes in the margins of a spiral-bound stationery.

When Rei addresses his concern, though -- her stance closes, her expression hardens. The wisdom of her age shows in her features, her lips pressed tight as she nods her head.

"Yeah. I think... I just needed to believe that it *could* happen, first."

She wraps her hands around the side of the book, tentatively.

"... To move on," she adds. "... Cause I was stuck in that moment for a -long- time."

She dips her head once more for a nod. "Right, I will. It's... I promise. And thanks, y'know... for talkin' with me."

She leans close -- keeping her voice low as she adds one more thing. "And I want'cha to know... If I start spoutin' out doom and gloom, it's... it ain't that I believe any of it." She forges a smile, as she bumps her shoulder lightly into Rei's. Just a light touch -- to communicate how controlled she -is- even if she might not seem like it.

"It's just me gettin' those bad thoughts outta my gourd."

[FREI]
The little shoulder bump seems to take Rei by surprise, but as he leans back from it afterwards, a faint grin crosses his expression, though he shakes his head a little. "Hey, like I said, you're allowed to be human. Have a bad day. Be afraid or worried." A pause, a shrug, another smile. "Then get up the next day and keep going."

The xian dusts off his hands on his hips, and then gets to his feet, stretching, fingers linked and arms making an arch over his head. As his arms come back down, he seems to give Chevy a slightly inquisitive look, head tilted to the side... it's almost like the look you give someone who you feel like you should recognize, but don't.

"There's something different about you, Chevelle Beaumont," he proclaims at last, cupping each elbow with the opposite hand at stomach height or so. "Your aura, I mean. It's..." He pauses, then tilts his head a bit, as if trying to hear something quiet, before saying: "...fuller. More layers. How interesting."

The xian grins somewhat. "We're peers now, you know. Not teacher and student. Let's have a friendly match sometime. I'd be interested to see what you can do now."

[CHEVY]
There's that phrase again, 'allowed to be human.' Chevy never had any doubts about her humanity before. -- she's reminded of her mortal limits time and time again. But the fact that a mentor -- maybe a peer in one sense, but someone she looks up to -- is repeating the phrase has a way of -installing- the doubt in her. But not in a bad way -- more like an opportunity to soul-search at some later time. Like if someone asks you if you'd like a breath mint, just accept it with gratitude.

"Thanks," she answers with an honest smile. "I'll do that."

Her eyes track Rei as he stands up. The arching of his arms gets a curious look from her, but once she realizes it could've just been a stretch, she starts to get up, herself.

She pauses, once she realizes Rei is studying her over. And that makes her snicker a moment. "What, is there somethin' on my nose?"

To hear that it's her -aura-, though? Chevy draws back with slight embarrassment shining through her grin. "Well, I mean... I ain't -scared- quite so much any more. Now that some wise man once told me I can just peel water right out of the air and all." She grins back -- and only then does she hop to her feet, similarly dusting stray grains of sand off herself.

"Well, if you -say- so," she concedes, not wanting to belabor the point too much. She still -feels- like she's just getting started, despite her history as one of the NFG's front-runners.

"'Sometime' sounds good, yeah! I've got about a half hour to finish huntin' down souvenirs afore my date with Buck..."

She smiles broadly, swinging her cookbook to the side as she spins around, enjoying the sensation of the breeze. She'd been grateful for the fresh air earlier -- but now after a talk with a close confidante, she truly feels less burdened. "I think we'll be in port till tomorrow! It was great seein' you, Rei -- we'll catch up sooner or later!"

The Queen of Zack Island adds with a wink, and a laugh: "I'm sure we'll be able to make you some space on the royal itinerary!"

Log created on 20:59:53 11/07/2024 by Frei, and last modified on 08:20:59 11/13/2024.