A strange meeting

[alexanderthegreat]

So after a very unsettling meeting with an old arch-nemesis of his father, Alexander gave himself a few days to rethink his earlier plans for dealing with a potential attack from Duo so that he could factor in this apparent attack that was going to come from Requiem...sometime. Being the king sucked sometimes.

But with time to recompose himself and prepare for what he felt was just about anything now (even move around his guards so when he says "keep everyone out" it should actually be done), Alexander felt better about trying to get back to work.

His meetings took him out of the castle today, more to survey highlights of his own city himself rather than be told by someone else what was doing well and what wasn't. Also if he wasn't seen by the citizens from time to time he almost feared that they'd wonder if he'd died or something.

He insisted Shanira come along with him before she blitzed back to find Zeke, it got her out of his study so she couldn't get caught in the drapes again and knock down three bookcases and launch a fifty year-old portrait into the fire. Yeesh.

Alexander stopped by one of the fountains on a walk through one of the main streets, part of his adventure to check in on what kind of business Lux Lucis primarily attracted. And nothing out of the ordinary at all could have taken his attention away! Nope.

[Duo Angelo]

"Good day, King Frexton..." A voice greeted from behind Alexander as a man put a hand on Alexander's shoulder, "I've been awaiting this meeting for a very long time."

The man was dressed in a dark cloak making it impossible to see his face, "I wanted to tell you that I was a big fan of your speech from earlier in Unda. Uniting of nations in hope of prevailing through dark times - it sent shivers up my back."

"Forgive me," the man said with a small bow, "I'm Duo Angelo, Emperor of..." he made a motion around the area, "...Everything. To put it simply."

[alexanderthegreat]

Alexander turned to face the cloaked man, hearing the kind words that were first delivered to him and nodding with a gracious smile. The last bit however made him raise an eyebrow.

"How adorable. Do you make a decent living off of doing these impersonations or do you commonly find yourself in prison for some type of fraud?" Alexander's tone was as sweet as his smile despite the message, "pretending to be Duo Angelo in a time like this, sir, will only land you in trouble."

Really. Who thought this would have been a good idea?

[Duo Angelo]

Duo seemed to play along with it, making some very dramatic movement as if he was hurt by Alexander words. "Oh my King, how you see through my lies. You even guessed how well I am at my act, which I work incredibly hard to go deep into the character... I even pretend to have seen the sweet look on Alessia's face as she greeted her guests and pretended to hear your obscene comments that followed..."

His dramatic tone began to grow dark fast as he stood up straight, looking down on the King, "I even pretend to have ordered the Senator to give President Benjamin the note saying hello... or how I pretend to have notice how close you and your Captain, Zeke are."

He got closer to the King and smiled, "And that is why I'm such a great actor, my King. But in reality it is not I who pretends to know all, it is you. You pretend to know how I work, what I think and how I could about doing it. It is you who pretends to remain calm when panic is the only true option, and do you know why?"

"Because you're just an actor, acting as the lead role to a country that is mine."

Yeah... this might be the real Duo.

[alexanderthegreat]

Yeah...that sounded pretty legit. That easily slapped upside the head wiped the smile off of Alexander's face.

"I suppose you could say that if I'm an just an actor, I should be capable of playing many roles," he said, in all honesty heart racing as it became apparent that Duo was indeed standing in front of him. He put on his best hardened stare and crossed his arms as his voice reduced to a venomous hiss.

"What role shall I play now? The valiant king who looks you in the eye with a haughty laugh and reminds you that your Senator didn't last too long under my watch and it's not the first that it'll happen? Or the man who audaciously questions what things you could possibly know about my relationship with any of my Captains?!"

Duo had barely said anything to him but it was obvious he'd already gotten heavily under Alexander's skin. Bringing up Benjamin was the first to hit him, but the specific mention of Zeke set off all sorts of alarms in Alexander's head, with many questions along the lines of 'how does he know? how could he know? WHERE did he find this out?' and most importantly 'he's gotta be bluffing, don't give him the answer he wants--LIE ABOUT IT ALL'.

[Duo Angelo]

"Actually, I was hoping you'd play the role of the King that would listen to reason?" Duo said, motioning for him to take a seat on the bench, "I hope we may avoid bloodshed. In fact I wish to put this entire ordeal behind us..."

He paused for a moment before shaking his head, "If I wanted to try and take your life don't you think I would've tried it by now?"

[alexanderthegreat]

Alexander looked over to Shanira...or not. She had disappeared somewhere on him. Great. He let out a slow, deep breath as he looked back to Duo suspiciously but he did oblige him by sitting on the bench to talk. It was true that if Duo had wanted to attack, he would have done it by now.

"Enlighten me then, sir," he spoke calmly, though his mind still raced with all of his questions and left him highly sceptical of Duo claiming to just want to put everything behind them, "and while you're at it, I'd like to have my own questions answered. Like how a man who claims to not want bloodshed attacks a country during peace to begin with?"

[Duo Angelo]

"Just because I don't like it doesn't mean it's not necessary. I can bring peace to this world, Alexander. I can stop the bloodshed that is running so rampant... I can make sure that never again will the people of Allorum have to suffer under a tyrant."

He clapped his hands together and smiled, "So here it is: give up Santo-Luce's sovereignty and pledge allegiance to the Empire. You'll make everything a lot easier by doing so."

[alexanderthegreat]

Alexander opened his mouth automically with the purpose in mind to tell Duo something along the lines of "bitch, I don't think so!". But he was trying to pass himself off as more professional lately so...
But as nice as it would be for everything to just...go away and be better, he knew already agreeing to this would be a bad idea. He'd done a lot of things in the past couple of years that would make his father angry or turn in his grave, but giving up his family's throne from all these years? Bradley would probably rise from the dead and beat alexander over the head himself if he didn't disown him in the afterlife for all eternity.

With his rude comments stifled Alexander tried to give Duo his best businessman smile and said, "Well, as generous as that offer is I'm afraid it's not in my best interest to accept."

[Duo Angelo]

Duo didn't speak to him for a moment, instead he just gazed around the area. He finally looked back at the King, "Then let's start a debate. Give me a counter offer..."

He leaned forward from the bench and looked straight into the King's eyes, "Give me a counter offer that would make me believe that you're not just some actor pretending to be a leader."

[alexanderthegreat]

A counter offer? He couldn't just produce that out of nowhere, what could he actually offer him? Leave us be, we're sorting it out ourselves? Yeah right.
That was when another thought came to him, one that should have been obvious before to Alexander.

"If I may, where do you get the idea it is me needing to impress you? You want a debate, I'd rather start with that," as disturbing as it was, he actually grinned a little at the thought of this scenario, "I could tell you your idea of an entire empire is a bad idea because with so much diversity in Allorum, there's no way we'd ever function peacefully under one person. We have enough problems with a monarch for every nation. But here you are trying to convince me it's the right thing to do because 'the bloodshed will stop'--it never even had to start, had you left us alone. So I'd appreciate you trying to tell me what will be different. Tell me why my first instinct to tell you no is a mistake."

[Duo Angelo]

"Sense of nationality is not a problem, young actor. Fly a flag above a people for long enough and eventually they'll come to see themselves as what it represents. So let me enlighten you on the advantages of a single government: as an example, instead of waiting for the famine and civil war to end itself in Vuoto there would be action right away, resources would be dispatched to end any large scale death."

He opened the palm of his hand, using his powers to display a model of the world with a single flag above it, the countries he was speaking up were lit up with a soft blue light. "Technological advancement would skyrocket with the entire world working for it, economy would boom by cutting out the negotiations between leaders and a better world would be on the horizon."

He looked up at the King and smiled, "It seems unrealistic, but Alexander... I saw that future, the world I ruled over led to the very advances that you enjoy today."

"So now it's my turn, your rule is for the good of the people, correct? Than would you not do any and all things to ensure their safety, to insure their lives continue to grow in the faith and prosperity that every human deserves? Join me and you will see first hand the growth to a better world."

[alexanderthegreat]

Alexander took a lot longer than he probably should have been allowed to to think about this. The things that Duo promised, it really was no wonder that he could win over the hearts and minds of civilians as he wanted, and that was dangerous itself. He remembered once a time when his father grumbled over poor and 'whiny' commoners and how some groups would establish themselves to demand the king reduce taxes and 'give more to their community' particularly in Lux Lucis.
Would that have made them happy? Sure, they had more money now that they weren't spending it on things like property taxes and the king could basically do anything so why not dump extra change on the poor people every once in awhile? At least that's how Alexander had seen it and it was no surprise that when he threw the suggestion out at his father, the former king shook his head with a look that shouted with disappointment and frustration before the man could even speak.

"They get plenty, and not a single one of them deserves a damn coin more!" Bradley slammed his fist into the table, causing his son and their teacups to jump, "they want money, they want to eliminate taxes, they want the best education, they want the best hospitals, they want better security, they want roads fixed and new buildings put up all over the damn place--they want, and want, and want all the time and they're never happy! And they'll never be happy and you want to know why, Alexander?"

He and Alexander stared at each other across the table for a couple of moments, Bradley's fiery glare boring into Alexander's highly intimidated and nervous stare. The boy's shoulders twitched into a bit of a shrug, his way of encouraging the man to go on (or rather just get on with it).

"Because nothing is ever perfect. It simply can't be! You can't feed every person, cure every disease, prevent all wars, hand out everything that your citizens want! You give them their every demand and who's paying for all of it? They're not paying anything to our government and all of their wants are highly expensive, and probably so much so that our economy just won't handle it. People are poor for a reason! It's not desirable, it's not like I wish this on them, it's just how things are in a realistic world because if it were their way everything would just unravel and they'd destroy themselves! You know what this all is?" he paused, but not enough to actually give his son a chance to answer, "cause and effect! It's common sense, it's not that difficult!"

Alexander finally shook his head, remembering all of this and at the same time realizing that he'd heard similar plans before. They weren't the same, but along the same idea as that of Trucido Damnedblood and his want to rule over a 'new world'. Though he claimed many times that each of the leaders of the world would still be in charge of their respective nations, Alexander not only figured that to be a false claim but also realized that that was another example of simply giving everyone what they wanted, and how it would lead to conflict somewhere.

'There was a reason why Trucido failed. There was a reason why even Duo had fallen before. Someone somewhere realized this wasn't right. Think, Alexander, think!'

"My rule is for the good of the people as a whole, to keep our heads always above water. I'm in charge of managing a nation, not solving everyone's problems," he answered slowly and quietly, almost not believing that he'd even said those exact words himself, "I can't give away everything my nation needs to survive, I can only give what we can. And in a single government ruling, it won't change. There's only so many resources we all have, some we work together on and some we don't, but that's why some countries have more than others. It may not seem right, or fair, but it's all a product of management from region to region, a project that myself and the late President Benjamin were just touching on so places like Vuoto don't have to continuously live in the shambles they do."

He gave Duo an unamused stare at the mention of Benjamin, throwing in rather quickly, "Speaking of him, consider that another reason I'm still unconvinced by you. Unda had been quite the wreck for awhile and there he was, as I said, with proper management. In the midst of our big changes you can't expect me to have taken his death or your little cowardly note very well. It was actually pretty rude, really."

[Duo Angelo]

"Benjamin did a fantastic job leading my country while I was away, but..." Duo paused, giving himself a moment to arrange his sentence, "He didn't agree with what I had to say and a man who possess that much respect and admiration...? Is a dangerous man to keep alive."

He leaned back in his bench and gave a laugh, "He even had you caught in. You're trusting a great deal of coastal security by letting Undian warships sail your borders! I'm not sure if it was a great deal of trust or just stupidity that let you give Unda that great leverage."

[alexanderthegreat]

"Someone who does acquire that much respect and influence is, I agree, a dangerous man. It's almost like someone out there was scared of him. But isn't it also true that our greatest leaders were considered very dangerous because of the power they commanded? Shouldn't it matter then what purpose you have for that kind of power?"

To hear that Benjamin had Alexander 'caught' into his plans and stupidly trusting warships to even have anything to do with the Santo-Luce border was frustrating, because Duo was wrong, simple as that. Alexander and Benjamin had a good business relationship and even a friendship out of it, it wasn't like he threw all caution to the wind on his decisions or anything simply because the man was highly persuasive.

But then, Alexander remembered that this wasn't the first time he'd been bought into an older, wiser man's words. And where they may have had legitimate truth to them, he'd personally still been used to further someone's plans, even being coerced into a deceitful friendship.

'...No...' Alexander's thoughts clubbed him hard in the heart with fear for that brief moment, his eyes widening so much and quickly so he couldn't hide the shock as he realized all this time he may have only made the same mistake with Benjamin as he had with Seigmand. He believed him, trusted him, and while agreeing to go along with whatever he made sound good Alexander played as the stupid pawn in the whole game.

'No...NO, Benjamin wouldn't have done that. I wouldn't have let that happen! Come on, Alex, it didn't matter how much he tried to tell you we 'needed' Roxa on the throne in Roccia you always were and still are sceptical of it all! And yet you agreed because why? It wasn't because you actually agreed with him, remember, it was because...'

...because why? He didn't want to ruffle feathers with his new ally? No, that wasn't it at all! He actually agreed with what Benjamin said, he agreed solidly that Allorum needed strong, competent leaders so everyone would benefit, if not at least their own countries. Alexander couldn't have been tricked into that...could he?

'Listen to yourself, Alex. You're panicking, that won't fix anything. Benjamin and Seigmand aren't the same person, though they had similar goals in mind. You had your own plans, too--it's enough to trust yourself, isn't it?'

Alexander shook his head again, no matter what he told himself his doubts still remained. Questions that would never be answered, but that was a time to look at now and what he believed in. What did he personally stand for? Benjamin didn't matter anymore, almost.

"Benjamin and I made our arrangements with my opening our ports to Unda's ships, and giving them their space back. Whether his intentions were of good or not is irrelevant, what I'm saying is that sometimes it's beneficial to take a gamble like that to make a statement. Many find it troubling or stupid, but then again why would such a benevolent land like Santo-Luce even consider such an outrageous agreement to begin with? Because surely we've thought about what happens when Unda decides to invade us instead, right? And they've got the brute force of the Navy to take us down? But maybe..." he shrugged then and narrowed his eyes, "maybe I don't need to worry about that. Maybe there was a reason why Santo-Luce never needed Unda to begin with. Maybe your thespian here is the craftier one for playing his many roles than 'the leader' you're looking for."