Dueling Thoughts

The scene is soon after Lexali's duel with Ruby. She's sitting in the stands of the dueling ring, focusing and writing something down. Awaiting the next battle between Garnet and Ronobe. Alyx approaches her.
 
"Taking notes?"
 
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She'd shuffle the papers together a bit and nod. "Yes. My weakness is quite intolerable. It was as I had feared, of course. There is not currently much I can do with being immobilized. I need to find a way to... silence that." Her voice trails off and she would write something down.
 
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"It's the desire to be stronger that drives us, you've realized this already I see. I suppose I'm impressed, regardless of your.. weaknesses. I'm sure there's magic that you can learn to help with that.
 
I am seeing a theme of course, it seems like a rather strong strategy for those who can master it, and most of us fall victim to it ever too easily"
 
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"If it can be spoken. It can be silenced. Soon enough." She'll put her writing to the side again. Looking up at him. "Suppose your impressed?" She will smirk, leaning back into her hands on either side of seat and flicking her tail towards him. "Quite the way with words, you sure know how to flatter a girl." She'll blink, look from him out at towards the fight and watch it for now as it starts.
 
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"Are you sure I know how?" Alyx looks away from the battlefield and towards Lex, smiling briefly before continuing "I just speak truths, nothing more. It's rather boring really, well.. most of the time."
 
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“Oh, it was absolutely sarcasm on my end.” She flicks her tail again as her red eyes slowly roll towards him away from the fight. She stares at him blankly for a long moment, smiling softly before it gets awkward. “Speaking truths does not have to warrant boring answers. It’s all about your delivery, Alyxander.” Her tone is sleek and she sounds as if she is teasing him just a bit. “The art of half truths is a powerful language all of its own.”
 
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"Good to know we all have some room for improvement." Alyx pauses for a moment, almost as if mimicking the amount of time Lex gave between her responses. "An answer may be boring to one, and interesting to another; A lie to one, a truth to another. As powerful of a language it may be, one perhaps will never understand it the same as another. But you know this, of course."
 
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There is little pause in her answer, but she speaks this in Infernal, “A lie is still a lie, no matter how it is perceived. Unless you are lying to yourself of course, but how then do you know what is the truth.”
 
And then switches back to common. “I am well versed.” She agrees with a nod, and it is unclear whether she is agreeing with Alyxanders previous words, her own, or both. “I feel I must ask, Alyxander. What is it that brought you here. To the academy.” She raises one of her hands up, leaning heavily on the other and seems to start inspecting her long pointed nails.
 
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Alyx flatly smiles at the infernal bit. Giving no indication one way or another if he understood it or not.
 
He then pauses for a few moments, glancing at the arena, obviously giving the question a fair bit of thought before replying, "Good intentions I suppose, and a fair bit of luck." Alyx softly traces a finger across the burn scars on his neck.
 
"What keeps me here however, that's the interesting bit." Alyx drops his hand away from his neck and looks back towards Lex, slightly more intently, almost as if in anticipation of something.
 
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Lex’s eyes will flicker from her nails to follow his hands towards his neck and the scars along it. Her eyes linger then match his, offering similar energy. “I see.” She’ll consider herself a moment. “Then what is it that keeps you here. Surely not some speech about good friends and good times.” She’ll look back towards her nails.
 
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Alyx smiles, pleased that Lex has entertained this line of conversation he has presented.
 
"When I arrived at the academy, I knew nearly nothing and no one either. I was entirely overwhelmed. One could even say I didn't feel as though I belonged here. But then, I grew stronger, and I liked that feeling. Of course I did - who wouldn't? That's what we're here for after all isn't it? To learn what it is Ioth and his school has to teach us, and then return back to whence we came, and figure the rest out then." Alyx sighs and shakes his head for a moment before continuing,
 
"But then I realized something. Ioth doesn't care about us, he doesn't even really show up at the only event he's supposed to every year. What's the purpose then? Why does this academy even exist? Surely there's still some point of this, hidden away, deep down, or even, up somewhere?" Alyx glances towards the top of the spire.
 
"Secrets are so frustrating to me - I can't help but just want to know , after all.. (Alyx looks from the spire to Lex' notes) knowledge is power"
 
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Lex listened quietly, switching her eyes between her nails and the fight. Eventually setting her hand back down next to her, drawing her nail slowly across the stand. ’Of course I did - who wouldn’t?’ There’s a slight pull on the corner of her mouth. Of course. He was right after all. Many of the students here had one purpose or another, and if they didn’t they were a fool to waste the opportunity.
 
His sigh turns her head, and she watches his face grow more serious. Or was it frustrated? Ioth? Lexali frowns. She had not given the old man much thought, honestly. He wasn’t the one grading her papers or teaching her classes. He was the old man who kept the winds at bay. A shiver runs across her skin. It was getting colder lately.
 
After he finishes, Lex puts a hand gently on her papers as his eyes linger there, if only to draw his attention to her face, which is staring at him with her usual, albeit casual, intensity. “We share a similar origin story on many fronts, Alyxander. Which leads me to ask…” She leans closer towards him. “Do you intend on finding out the answers to your questions? The purpose? Are you willing to risk your peace to know and understand? For power?” She stares at him, unblinking bright red eyes. There’s a certain glow to it. One might recognize from the moment before she snapped the chain during her duel with Neodym. A certain… sudden insanity.
 
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"Oh I very much plan to. " Alyx says confidently "What good is peace if you are ignorant; What good is safety if you are weak?" Alyx eyes scans Lex' face while he says this, searching for an affirmative reaction.
 
"As much as I do love to share my own truths though, I'm sure yours are quite fascinating. Might I ask -what's your.. story?" Alyx asks very intentionally vaguely, giving as much flexibility to answer as possible for Lex, curious as to where she'll take the answer to.
 
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Lexali considers this and leans back again, a small smile growing on her face and she relaxes. “Good. That is exactly what I wanted to hear.” She purrs, clearly delighted by his confidence. He finally turns the questions towards her, as she had expected him too eventually. Her eyes narrow a bit, as she studies his face she.. realizes something.
 
A young boy with messy dark hair and dirty feet, like her own. Large careful eyes that glanced around with comfortable nervousness, like her own. A boy who placed his footsteps carefully, as to not crush the papers he held close to his chest. He moved his way through the crowd, his eyes turning very briefly to see the young girl with a crude hood over her face. Staring at him with wide, red eyes, before slipping away herself.
 
She blinks once. The words softly drifting from her mouth before she could speak. “Secrets can truly be frustrating can’t they…” She’s staring at him with an uncertainty in her gaze she’s not used too, and one he’s definitely never seen from her. After a moment of consideration she’ll pull one of her papers over, turning it over to the clean side. She wasn’t sure why, but she was almost certain now.
On the paper she begins to draw a fairly decent picture. First a large circle, with a building in the middle representing the school rather well. Then she begins to draw smaller things just outside the circle. A specific area here, she begins to put a little bit of finer detail, not too much.. she did not have much practice. She sets the quill down with its point directly over the spot of detail. A small drop of ink falls from tip, bleeding across the paper.
 
As she’s drawing she speaks aloud. “My potential had never been realized from the eyes of others growing up. They taught me nothing, and I knew no one.” She copied his verbiage purposely. “But I found my own power within myself, and took my life into my own hands. My parent saw it too, and came around. That is why I am here now. To cultivate my power into exactly what I need it to be. My previous weaknesses will no longer be tolerated” As she finished, she snaps her eyes up to his. Would he understand? Did he know?
 
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So she does remember, interesting.
 
"You're right, Lexali. We do share a similar story."
 
Alyx pauses - momentarily unsure on how to continue.
 
"It is fascinating isn't it. How one could come from nothing, and just the slightest little change can potentially give you everything, and all you need to do, is just reach out and take it." Alyx extends his hand forward and mimics the motion.
 
"There is power in controlling your destiny. I daresay you've even started before I have. I am impressed. But I suppose the real story is where we end up isn't it?"
 
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Lex breathes out slowly, perhaps betraying she was holding her breath in anticipation. But perhaps she was holding her breath, with a carefully placed hand on her watches rope. Just in case...
 
The same sly smile that Alyx might have been growing familiar with crossed her face again, her previous worries lost but not forgotten. She would have to keep a closer eye on him, he absolutely knew too much about her now. But.. she also knew more about him. An even exchange of information. It was an almost implied secrecy between their eyes alone.
 
“There is power in many things. Control… Knowledge… Lies.” She sighs, giving a slight huff of a laugh. “Where we end up is all dependent on the steps we take to get to what we think we deserve.”
 
“My story begins with a predetermined death, but I wonder if it should end the same.” Her voice trails a bit, and she looks away from him.
 
“Perhaps you should return to your friends. The fight seems almost won now..” She glances to where Athalor and Arianna are sitting.
 
“One day Alyxander, id like to know your full truth. And you my own. I could tell you my plan, and you’d be the first to know it. It all of its grandiose.”
 
She pauses before starting to gather her papers together. “In the meantime, I enjoy our vague attempts at true conversations. Perhaps next they’ll be rumors about us instead.”
 
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"Our ambition knows no limits, same for Garnets as well." Alyx towards his intent stare towards the arena as garnet wins the fight.
 
"As for rumors," Alyx shrugs, "Perhaps so, I wonder what they'd say - probably nothing close to the truth, but we'll find out in time.
 
Alyx smiles and then gets distracted by the pixies turning Arianna to a chicken and all that fuckery.
 
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Lexali decides better than to comment about Garnet for now. The girl was interesting, someone she'd want to spend more time studying really. She knew little about her other than that she was popular and that Cuan seemed to have a certain dislike for her. She pulls her papers into her hands and brings them close. "Perhaps. Perhaps not." She purrs softly, standing up from her seat in the stands. "I'll leave you to this then." She tells him, waving a hand towards the sudden mess. Walking past to leave she speaks again, "If you should need me... For any reason... I spend much of my time in the back of the library." She shakes her papers gently. "Lot's to work on."