OOC: *Fidgets* Well, I was thinking of waiting a bit more with my IC but...*Fidgets* I'm only human, you know.
IC:
Vincent nodded at doctor Kipling's words, "Understood." he replied simply, giving the doctor another curt nod as a 'goodbye' and waiting silently as the younger and more enthusiastic people vacated the room before leaving at his own, leisurly pace. That person certainly seemed to be eager to leave, he mused as he walked down the hallways, But no more than the rest of them, maybe it's nothing but... he took a pause, I didn't achieve my position with maybes. the securit chief nodded for himself, making a mental note of checking the tournament entry records as soon as he got the chance. He needed to do so because of Kyoko anyway, so he might as well get these suspicions out of his system. After all, that boy's face had been quite easy to memorize, all it would take would be a little patience on his part to match it with his picture in the database. These people were definitely hiding something, and he would find out what.
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As he was brought through his inspections, Valen remained in a groggy half-state between dreaming and consciousnes, vaguely aware of bright lights in front of him, a meaningless bustle of sounds assailing his ears, distant, just on the edge of his comprehension...like so many other things in his life. He briefly caught a glimpse of a face in front of him, a foreign face...or a familiar one? Was it Vincent? Or Slythe? Someone he didn't know? He made an effort to squint, only for the face to become even vaguer before slipping out of view altogether, the bright lights returning as he floated forward...or was it upward? Yes, it made sense...floating upwards...to the lights. But the lights didn't get closer, he tried to reach but they always seemed to be just a little bit further, just out of reach...calling to him, tempting him, taunting him with their brightness. Soon there were more noises, someone calling out in agitation, a question...another face in front of him, just out of reach...like the lights. But this one looked...female somehow...Valen's initial reaction was revulsion. Female, as in the people he hated...the giggling girls from the reception...the twit who had led Kachiko astray...Rosairie...Lori...but...he took a slight pause, also Reina...the only person who had suffered the same as him...the only one who could understand...
"No-one can understand you."
Valen spun around, at least in his mind, as his physical body merely twitched a little. The world around him had now grown fuzzier than before, unimportant somehow...dimmed out and frozen in time, the once alluring lights now little more than the faintest change of shade in the darkness around him. With this dimming however, something else had snapped into clear focus, something which Valen instinctively found important without even knowing why, the person who was adressing him...he turned his gaze in the direction of the voice and saw...Vincent, standing there in his usual calm, collected manner and eyeing him with that same old penetrating, analytic look as he had worn when the two first met, the kind which gave Valen the uncomfortable feeling that he was reading his mind directly.
"Vincent?" the boy managed at last, "What are you doing here? What's going on?"
"What am I doing here?" the man echoed in a tone which suggested that it should have been perfectly obvious, "Why I'm simply doing what I have always done, Valen." he continued, "Teaching you, guiding you, helping to rid you of this confusion in your mind...I've always been here, Valen, don't you remember that?"
"Of course I remember..." the boy replied, his confusion growing, "But I mean, how did you get here? And in fact, where is here?" he peered around the seemingly shapeless darkness around them, suddenly aware of that he was standing and that the hospital bed was nowhere to be seen.
"You tell me." Vincent replied, shrugging nonchalantly, "It was you who called me here, even if you consciously did not intend to do so. And this place...it is a place between places, grazing infinitely close to every place you know but not truly touching any of them, an everyplace, one might say, but just as certainly a noplace." he smiled lightly, "Do not be afraid Valen..." he added, "You are safe here...as long as you behave. And you shall learn a thing or two."
"Just a minute!" Valen growled, his suspicions beginning to override his confusion, "You aren't Vincent! He's never spoken about any of this nonsense! Who are you?!"
"I'm you." the man replied simply, "Or rather...a part of you, a certain aspect amplified. Do not blame me if I have took the shape of your mentor." he added, raising an eyebrow, "That was your choice, even if you did not consciously make it. And at any rate...it is altogether fitting." the 'Vincent' took up a slightly more relaxed pose, "I'm here to advise you, Valen..." he continued, "Just as I have always done."
The boy opened his mouth to protest at this, but the appartition in front of him cut him off.
"I am not lying." he added, shaking his head, "I am what has kept you alive for all these years, the part of you who knows the answers even when your mind does not. You should thank me..." the fake Vincent added, "Although truly it would matter little, I am, after all, little more than a part of you."
"I-" Valen began, finding himself assaulted by the same feeling as he had had when conversing with the robed man in the alley, a lack of words...a lack of will to fight, and this feeling certainly didn't make him any more pleased, "I don't...understand..." he said at last, surprised by his own words.
"I know." the appartition remarked calmly, walking over to the boy and placing a hand on his shoulder ever so slightly, "It is perfectly understandable." he added, "After all...you are only a child yet." he smirked at the flash of rage on Valen's face, "A poor and confused little child." the 'Vincent' continued, seemingly ignoring the boy's temper, "But do not worry, I shall rid you of all that..." he smiled reassuringly, "And do not glare at me so..." the appartition added, "There are no hidden conditions for my help, why should there be? I am you, remember? Your gain is mine." his grip of Valen's shoulder tightened just a bit, "All I ask..." the dream Vincent continued in a low voice, "Is your trust. And I ask...that you trust me when I say this; those people won't understand you."
Once again Valen opened his mouth to protest and once again he was cut short.
"No, not even Reina." he added, giving the boy a knowing smile, "She might tolerate you right now...but do you think she'll give you another glance once she discovers the truth? Do you think she - no, any human - would ever trust one with your background?" he shook his head, "I'm afraid not, Valen." he continued in a slightly melancholy voice, "And do you know why?"
"That's rather hypocritical of you, isn't it?" Valen remarked, finally managing to get words out again.
The dream Vincent chuckled slightly, "Not entirely," the appartition replied, taking a brief pause, "You do know the answer, even if you can't bring it up. The reason people hate you, Valen, is because they fear you." he locked his eye's with the boy's, "Now what do humans fear most of all?"
A myriad of possible answers ran through Valen's mind at this point; war....solitude...disease...loss of loved one...change...death...but one answer in particular distinguished itself from the crowd, making its way out of the boy's mouth before he could even realize why;
"Power." he said simply, recieveing an approving nod from the dream Vincent.
"Precisely." the appartition replied, "Certainly people fear a great deal of things, but all of these fears stem from a common source; the fact that humans can not control them. Man fears everything which has power greater than their own. What man fears man hates. And what man hates, man seeks to destroy." he took a brief pause, "You are already stronger than this rabble, Valen." the dream Vincent continued, "And they know this, even if their consciousness refuses to admit it, but what's more...they know that you can become even stronger."
"Even stronger?" Valen echoed, now sounding slightly intrigued.
"Yes..." the appartition replied, smiling gently at him again, "You have already felt it, have you not? The power you hold over creatures of venom, taming the fiercest of snakes in a matter of hours. Have you never stopped to ponder this gift?" he continued, "Have you never stopped to ponder...what if? What if I told you that you could expand upon it? What if I told you that you could gain dominion over not only all pokémon but also all people? What if I told you...Valen, that you could become a god?"
"I-" Valen began, aiming to say something along the lines of 'I'd tell you to go back to your asylum' but somehow failing to do so, his instincts telling him that this man was correct while his mind was stubbornly doubting, resulting in the fact that he did not manage to say much one way or the other.
"Yes, it is a lot to take in, is it not?" the dream Vincent continued calmly, "But you know I'm right. I am within you, Valen, and I know what's best." he gave the boy another smile, "Abandon this ridiculous struggle for acceptance." he continued, "Why grovel and adapt for those fools when commanding them is your birthright? You need to become what you were meant to be, Valen...trust me." he leant a bit closer, "I am within you, and I know what's best."
The appartition took a brief pause, "We shall meet again soon." he added, "Until then, contemplate on what you have learned here today. After all...knowledge is power..." the dream Vincent nodded to Valen one last time before suddenly advancing at him at an alarming rate, the boy experiencing a sudden chill in his body as the appartition dissapeared into him, the boy feeling increasingly nauseous and dizzy and shutting his eyes from the darkness around him, intent not to open them again until the sensation had passed.
