Knightly Ixaminations

[Play Back]

How in the Thaynes name did I wind up here?

Perhaps I should elaborate a bit more. My name is Play Back, and I wear a mask specifically designed to keep people from looking me in the eyes (long story). I'm from Lavinian and after a chance encounter with Sei Orlouge, I wound up working in the employ of the Ixian Knights. Sei placed me in an area were my special 'gift' could help with his most untrustworthy members. Being a teenager, I am not one to say no to money, which will in turn help me out with dating, but the job in question borders on ridiculous.

I am the official Ixian Knights Guidance Counselor. Why a group of soldiers needs someone to tell them what they should pursue when they are -already- soldiers is beyond me, but like I said, I'm getting paid to do it. I'm also supposed to be able to deal with those warriors who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition why psychologically alters the way one perceives themself and those around them. Look at me, talking like I'm some sort of text book on the thing.

I suppose that I technically am the most suited for the job, with the way I absorb knowledge like a Salvarian Sponge. Just reading a few of the books that lined the bookshelves in my office opened a new world to me, and I think I'm prepared for whatever may come my way. However, it has been weeks since I have seen even the slightest hint of somebody requiring my help. Needless to say, I have to subject myself to boredom on a regular basis.

However, the silence that seems to come with my new job has provided me an opportunity to get acquainted with my office. The room itself is as big as most people's living rooms and dining rooms put together. In exactly the middle of the room is a small wooden table with a checkerboard, a few ink blots, and some blank pieces of paper. Between the table is a couch on one side, and a leather chair that is stretched out for comfort on the other. The air in here is always pretty nippy, as it gives me a chance to use a scarf given to me by my parents.

At the other end of the room, completely placed opposite of my door, is my desk. There I am, sitting in a chair with the ability to spin around, and I'm not even taking advantage of the potential fun I could be having. Instead, I am tapping my fingers rhythmically on the yew wood on the desk that is almost too big for me.

It could be worse, I could still be in Lavinya, grieving over the one woman I ever truly lusted over. Maybe that's why Sei brought me here, to keep my mind off of Maggie Beth. Just thinking about her causes my hand to reach for the necklace under my black scarf, rubbing the plate I had added to the necklace myself. It reads 'R.I.P. M.B.', which is sad considering that I never even learned Maggie Beth's last name before she passed from this world.

I look down at floor, a smile from behind my mask as I admire the black carpet that Sei had put in. If that self-righteous Mystic was good at anything, it was trying to please everybody all of the time. In fact, the last person I had in my office had been Sei Orlouge himself, wondering what he could do to change his image. Judging from the way he carried himself around now, I think he took my advice to heart, which I gotta say, gives me a huge confidence boost.

Dear Thaynes, I'm thinking about helping Sei Orlouge out when I could be doing something that doesn't involve me thinking about an orange haired cherub with a dwarf complex. Please please PLEASE somebody walk through that door!

[Enigmatic Immortal]

Jensen looked at the door with the golden plaque and the name Playback written on it. He sighed mentally as he thought just about what he was doing here. Sei had asked him, as a friend, to get an evaluation on his state of mind considering the huge number of changes that occurred in the past two years. He supposed the Mystic was right, as his friend usually was, about these things. He had adopted a little girl, joined an order, awoken an ancient evil, proposed to Stephanie, found his father, made peace with an elf (long story), and found out Tobias Greenleaf had sex with his girlfriend when he broke up with her for a three weeks. To be fair, Jensen used that time to sleep with Kyla Orlouge. (Worst idea ever.)

And that was just a tiny peek into what went on.

So with that in his head he begrudgingly stepped forwards through the door where he found the masked man looking at him with such shock that Jensen narrowed his eyes in concern. He was contemplating if the man was having a heart attack or not, but decided to do his usual thing of ignoring the situation entirely and moving along in the room. He looked at each trinket and nic-nac, ran one finger down the spines of the many books, and turned to see the enigma Playback starring at him like he were a hawk.

“Gonna say something to me?” Jensen mused loudly as he turned and looked at the checker board. Why in gods name it was sitting just in the middle of the room baffled the immortal, but he shrugged. The black carpet was nice, very nice indeed. Sei spared no expense to make whoever this fruitcake was happy. So, Jensen did what he normally did when in a new land with nobody to tell him no. He lifted the ink pot, inspected it, and then dropped it so the contents spilt out onto the floor.

“Whoops,” Jensen whistled as he looked outside. “I’m sure Sei will pay to have that cleaned. Or have the whole thing replaced knowing him.” Jensen turned to look at the doctor as he fell backwards onto the couch, kicking his legs up and relaxing as he sighed again.

“So, ready to pop into my head?”

[Play Back]

Well this was certainly a surprise, to say the least. Out of all the Ixian Knights, Jensen Ambrose was one of the last people I would have expected to come see me. I was sure that the only reason the warrior was here involved Sei Orlouge convincing him that he was in need of my services. I watched as Jensen poured ink onto the carpet, shrugging at his comment about Sei paying for it. The carpet was a dark color anyways, so I could have cared less if it got redone or not. He was right though; Sei was obsessed with keeping things as neat and organized as possible.

I looked over the form of Jensen a few times while he relaxed on one of my couches. The guy looked like he had a lot of issues that needed to be dealt with. I looked downwards and opened up one of the drawers at my desk. Several folders all lined up the drawer, names of Ixian Knights sticking out onto little white tabs in cursive writing. Andrew Octane had provided me with the need-to-know basic backgrounds to these 'patients' of mine, and I was not going to let my first real case end poorly. Scanning each name, I slowly pulled out the smooth manila folder that was labeled "Ambrose, J." I opened the file and read for a few moments, ignoring the fact that the patient in question was right in front of me. When I felt I had enough information, I closed the folder and stood from my chair. I carefully made my way to the couch opposite of Jensen, smiling as I sat down.

"I understand that this is not the first time you've been in an organization involving knights," I spoke with the professional manner that was becoming of a man of my station, "I'd like to talk about that for a few minutes." Jensen's eyes seemed to be darting around, possibly trying to see what he could pilfer from my office. It took the man a minute or two to realize that I had stopped talking altogether. I rolled my eyes from behind my mask, thinking of how hard this first study was going to be if this so called 'Enigmatic Immortal' was not going to pay attention to me. I was a bit surprised when Jensen finally nodded, though I had doubts that he had even registered what I said.

"Good. This group, the Knights of Apocalypse, your father was a part of this group, right?" My question was met with a nod, Jensen apparently now paying attention so he would not be lost again. "I also understand that this is where you first discovered your unique 'gift'. Your immortality kicked in when you should have frozen to death," while I spoke, I stood up and began to pace around the man known as Jensen. "This could have been a blessing in disguise, if not for the fact that your close friends did not share the same gift as you. After being found alive, the K.O.A. tortured you, killing you multiple times to see how exactly you did what you did. Eventually, you got put on to a new team, stationed primarily in Corone. Would you care to tell me what happened next?"

"I met Sei..." Jensen's words seemed to trail off a bit. It seemed that I was doing a good job at testing out people's psyches after all. "I met and fought Sei in the citadel He was such a stuck up ass. He acted like his shits didn't smell and that he was this big thing. He handed me my ass, and I tried to off myself to get the last laugh..." I listened intently, nodding and taking notes in my head. "He saved me, told me that I could be a better person. I hated him for it. Later, as I was telling the story to Adolph and Stephanie, I found out that we were assigned as allies to that fucker. Asshole even had the nerve to make me his primary bodyguard."

Jensen spoke with anger and resentment towards Sei. It reminded my own loathing of the Mystic after Maggie Beth had died. The mute seemed to be able to see all the good in the bad, because according to Jensen's file, the immortal was now one of Sei Orlouge’s closest confidants. Jensen would not be able to see me smile from behind my mask, but I tried to contain the enjoyment anyways. It was not very professional to be amused at the anger of others. That was something I would have to work on. I walked back to the seat across from Jensen and sat upon the soft, slick leather once more.

"That brings me to my primary question, Jensen Ambrose," I locked my hands together, index fingers and thumbs making a makeshift gun that was now pointed at my patient, "Say, hypothetically, that the honorable road of the Ixian Knights finally clashes with the 'Keep The Balance' mantra of the Knights of Apocalypse. I need to know right now, which side would you be on if your two factions had to fight one another?"

[Enigmatic Immortal]

“First off, I wanna know where the fuck you got this information,” Jensen said coldly. Playback merely lifted his gaze as he began to answer him, but the immortal cut him off. “I’m not talking about the Knights of Apocalypse, but how you knew about my past and my torments. That’s not exactly something I broadcast around the world. Only people who know are Adolph, Stephanie, Kyla, Cassandra Remi and Duffy Bracken. That’s it. I wanna know how you of all jackasses got that tid-bit of knowledge.”

“I have to insist, Mr. Ambrose, that my contacts and sources are protected under patient doctor confidentiality. I’ll never tell you.” Jensen merely pulled one of his throwing daggers out, aimed it for Playbacks desk, and lobbed it forwards so it flew upwards and then arced down landing between the man’s fingers. He instantly rushed his hand to his chest where his eyes narrowed, looking as Jensen pulled out another knife. “You can’t harm me,”

“Let’s go for a shoulder…” Jensen aimed another one and tossed it gracefully out. The weapon barely grazed Playback, but did manage to tear the clothing of his shirt. Playback looked to the wound, and saw a small dribble of blood.

“Octane, you petulant child. Andrew Octane. Does this satisfy you now?” Playback scoffed as he cast the knight a rather bland look. Jensen merely chuckled a haunting laugh, before pocketing his throwing glaive. Playback merely shook his head as if the moment never happened, drinking a sip of water before the immortal spoke again.

“Hmm, we’ll I’ll need to give the loudmouth a little visit later. Anywho, what were you saying, something about my two orders?” Jensen pretended like nothing happened as he let a sly smile cross his features. “ Oh yeah! Loyalty issues huh?” Jensen sassed as he kicked his legs out and sat forwards leaning on his knees as he peered forwards into the shrink. “Is that what this all is, a big fat loyalty test for Sei?” Jensen scoffed at the notion but sat back again kicking his feet up as he did so, shaking his head back and forth.

“To be fair, it is an honest question,” Playback insisted.

“To be fair, it’s none of your business. We created an alliance with the Ixian Knights, we sent out people to train with him, they’ll return when the shit hits the fan.” Playback again shook his head. He tilted the folder open again, looking at a passage before nodding and continuing on. Jensen gave the man credit, if nothing else, Andrew Octane kept the man well informed. Something the knight figured he would remedy when playtime here was over.

“Anita Orlouge has been in charge of book-keeping as of late. Her numbers have finally caught up for the past two years and it seems, Jensen Ambrose, that your order had never sent even one soldier to aid us in the war. With the recruitment drives we simply missed them, as your order is rather secretive, but some form of proof and Sei’s mental abilities began searching for any member of the Order of the Apocalypse.”

“And let me guess, he came up with nobody?” Playback nodded, but hesitantly. Jensen shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. We’re not amassing an army if that’s what you think. Far from it.”

“Then the tithe rate you promised…” Playback whispered in concern.

“Not gonna happen. The knights are all dead.” His doctor literally dropped his jaw in shock. “It’s true. You see, in our order we have a prophecy. The End Bringer’s Prophecy. During the third winter of the ragnarok, a child of destiny will be born who bares the faces of the four aspects of the end, and with his cries the Knight’s of Apocalypse will be no more. The End Bringer is none other than Vladimir Sigma. He fought some guy named Raven or something and lost, so he figured to train he’d just, I dunno, wipe out an entire order from existence. Funny thing was he succeeded.”

“But surely you and the others would have been recalled. The Ixian Knights could have helped!” Jensen shook his head.

“By the time the first fortress fell, The Labyrinth of Pestilence, we were assigned to Sei. It was our last orders we received, but about four months ago we were assigned to go back. So I took Stephanie and little Azza, Adolph brought Aislinn Orlouge along, and we went to go see our families. The death and devastation was to say the least, troublesome. We were approached by the spirit council. Nine spectres of our past who would guide us forwards to create the new Knight’s of Apocalypse. The four greatest Champions of the Horsemen, the four greatest Avatars, and lord Ragnarok, the Avatar of the Horsemen. They told us that we succeeded in infiltrating to the highest level of the Ixian Knights, and the time came to usurp them and create a new order of the Apocalypse. Kill Sei, his family, and bring them into the new fold. That way we thwart the end Bringer’s prophecy. We all thought about it for a long time, and decided to end our old order once and for all.”

Playback merely looked to Jensen, his eyes scanning his face to see if anything was amiss, but Jensen gave him an honest look. There was the shuffling of papers and Playback looked to notes, before he looked back up. Jensen gave him an uninviting grin as he stood up.

“See I thought this was supposed to be for my betterment, but I can see now this is merely just a test to see if Sei’s got loyal soldiers. I’ll be taking my leave now, cause it’s clear I just wasted my time. Feel free to report back to Sei I’ve done everything I can to make his order successful and if he ever question my loyalty again…” Jensen let the thought linger for a moment as Playback looked to him. What was this hidden threat. With a laugh Jensen turned back to playback.

“Tell him he ever questions my loyalty again I’ll convince Tobias and Kyla to join me and Steph for some freaky orgy.”