snowblindrpg | [network] @SummerVacation; Day 18 fears and lies [open]

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[network] @SummerVacation; Day 18 fears and lies [open]

[ This little dude has not slept, nor has he left the house numbered 121 since returning there, drawn by the memory of the humming in the wall, by the dreams of the torn wallpaper. Driven away from his prior hideout by pictures of exactly what lurks outside the windows now and the dreadful singing that had invaded him, making him feel like he was losing himself in its omniscience, its omnipresence.

He feels scared and heartsick, sleepless, listless, emptied out. Nothing has ever come close to this sensation. ~~There's no psychological horror in Disneyland~~. There's a distant sickening thought that he would almost prefer to be put back where he came from: in the depths of Sora's heart where it had been quiet and dark and nothing could hurt him--(except for himself, his own rage.)

He should feel defiance in the face of this. ]

I thought it might be a Heartless. [ The camera is on, he's not talking to himself but with his eyes fixed on one of the dark windows he may as well be. ] I found a picture of one in a house on the East side of town. I thought... that made sense, that the Heartless had taken everyone, that they'd cast some kind of spell to lock the doors at night and protect everyone... but they got in one by one. That's what they do, following the cast of a shadow, hiding in the cracks until they get what they came for. They could have caused all of this, if they got to the heart of this world and ate it up... Maybe this world is about to blink out.

[ His eyes turn suddenly, intensely to the camera, ]

Did you know that shooting stars are dying worlds? [ For some reason it feels important that everyone understand him. Maybe because everything is so strange and uncertain in Norfinbury? He wants to hold on to something with surety?

The sudden burst of energy fades and his eyes turn back towards the window. ]

But I've never seen a Heartless like this. Just looking at them makes me want to puke.

[ Silence for a moment before murmuring in a small voice, ]

It's not like I have my keyblades anyway...

[[ooc; didn't fit in to his crazy here, but he wants to tear down a wall in 121, anyone who'd be interesting in coming to help him, let me know and I'll get him to bring it up in convo!]]

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[She doesn't know what a Heartless is. She doesn't know what a Keyblade is, either, and she has no real idea what Roxas means by "the heart of this world," but she can identify someone having problems when she sees it.

And if there's anything Yuuri has a habit of, it's ignoring her own problems to try and help someone out with theirs.]

Hey, keep your chin up! Whatever they are, they're not going to destroy this world for as long as we're on it. We'll figure out a way to stop them.

[She says it with a lot more confidence than she actually feels.]

...but we've all got to be well-rested to do that. You don't look like you've slept...

[ Oh geeze. Her voice penetrates into his fog like a knife and he sits up, startled, looking around himself. The words sound like Kairi, like Xion, like Namine. All the voices that have ever called to him in the darkness and promised him it would be all right. A war wages inside of him, whether it gives him strength or he resents being called to action he doesn't entirely know.

His brows pinch as he finally turns his eyes towards the screen and sees her. ]

I don't want to sleep with those things out there.

I understand that. They're... really scary.

[She doesn't particularly want to sleep with those strange creatures right outside her door, either.]

But it would be scarier if they were able to break in somehow and you were exhausted. It'd be harder to fight back... [Not that fighting them is something that would really work, but still.] Are you a deep sleeper?

[ The deepest, sometimes he slipped into another world in his sleep, caught up in the currents of someone else's memories. But really, more pressing to him, ]

How am I supposed to fight back? A stick won't work on monsters like this.

[ Roxas... that's a stick... ]

Heartless?

[ because all he sees in that grinning shadow is a homunculus, just like his home. a spoiled child turned monster, angry and thrashing. ]

Where did you find that picture? [ because if it was taken somewhere specific, then perhaps it may give them answers about those shadow people. he ends to know more, but finally, seeing how dazed the boy seems to be, he sighs. ]

Shooting stars are nothing but the termination of debris and gases. It's a scientific, chemical reaction. Friction, force, lift, pull. I don't think we're on a dying world -- this world has already died, long before we got here, and it's starting to wake back up.

[ but the things the boy describes, these... Heartless? it sounds almost plausible. ] Why do you think the creatures from your world did this?

The Heartless were just people once, they lost their hearts and then multiply by taking them from others.

[ Roxas never had it explained to him so literally, it was a piece of information picked up from his Other in the dreaming state as they had slowly become one again. ]

They can get into any world. The doors to darkness can take you anywhere.

[ That part he knows for himself, he used to travel them with the other Nobodies, safe from the ravening darkness because they had no hearts to steal.

He turns the ugly picture over in his hands, head low between his shoulders, still trying to make himself small and beyond the notice of the creature's outside. ]

The house was north of the creepy vet's office. It has a dead flower garden out front.

Hey.

[ She doesn't know what to say to him, really, but his voice sounds so sad she just can't leave it alone. She wants darkness and safety, but she doesn't want loneliness. ]

I'm Steph. What's your name?

[ He looks up from where he's huddled into his arms, knees pulled up. He stares at her image for a long moment before his eyes dart away. (The screen is maybe starting to feel too bright... Why isn't there a beacon to save him from it now, where had it gone?) ]

I'm Roxas.

Hi Roxas. [ She doesn't bother forcing a smile when he isn't looking anyway, but there's friendliness in her voice. ]

Where are you from?

Nowhere.

[ He had come to Norfinbury wrapped in sorrow. He had resigned his existence for the sake of someone else, a sorrowful and bittersweet choice. Being in the cold and lonely town has only amplified the depression, the strange events and sleeplessness have honed it to an edge. ]

A world that never was.

If it never was, how can you be from there?

[ A simple enough question, one would think. ]

Because I'm a Nobody. We aren't supposed to exist.

[ It's a simple enough answer, if you find existential magical bullshit to be straightforward..... ]

[ Ah, okay. She almost kinda sorta knows what that is. Somewhat. ]

So it's... a name? Because really, if it exists then it doesn't matter if it was supposed to or not.

It... matters to people where I come from.

[ In a way, it's kind of nice of her to say that she doesn't care. In another way... his entire life has been defined by this unfortunate state. He has been lesser in the eyes of everyone, his strings pulled, his powers coveted and misused. ]

We don't have hearts. It makes us... unnatural.

[ The zombies of the Kingdom Hearts world. ]

[ Now this is something she can help with. She manages an actual smile, if not proper eye contact. ]

Some of the most incredible people in my world aren't human, or not quite human. We call them 'metahuman'. Like the Flash, I know he's human, but he can run fast enough to break the sound barrier. Superman is from a different planet, and he's saved the world a dozen times. My favorite is Wonder Woman. She's a demigoddess.

[ Oh? He looks up. That is... literally the nicest thing anyone has ever said to him. That he could be special or favorited for being different rather than merely used and looked down upon. He's quiet, most of his face hidden behind his folded arms across his knees, but his blue eyes peering out. ]

I tried to save everybody. [ It's a sad story he's about to tell, but the fact that he wants to tell it at all is a good sign, a push back at the darkness clouding his sense of self. ] But it turned out I couldn't do it by myself... Every Nobody has an Original. I went back to mine, so we could be whole and he could save the universe.

[ It was sad. He had given up his agency for that. But remembering why he had done it, no matter how bittersweet, makes him feel... better. Reminds him of what it can be worth to be true. ]

[ She feels her breath leave her like she's been punched in the stomach. She knows a little bit about Nobodys and Somebodys from listening to Demyx and Axel talk, enough to know that they refer to sorts of people. Enough to understand what he's saying.

She doesn't know what to tell him for a long while. ]

That was really brave of you.

[ He just looks... kind of shy about that. Even something as simple as 'thank you' feels a little big in the britches, so he just resonds demurely, ]

You don't really... think about that kind of thing. When you do it. I just had to do... the right thing.

[ And it had been the only option, by the end... He'd been manipulated in to it. Sora would never have made him do such a thing, if he'd been able to protest. ]

Yeah... I think I know how that is.

[ Of course, she had been angry enough to say to hell with everyone else, but in the end she knew she had to help. ]

[ he's quite for a long moment in response before he admits warily, ]

I don't know what to do here. It's... [ He needs a word like intimidating or disheartening or daunting, and he searches for one before just going with the ever simple: ] scary. It's pretty scary feeling.

[ She nods sympathetically. ]

It is. It's very scary. To be honest, I don't really know what to do either. But, you know, I think all we can really do is survive until we figure it out.

[ His sigh is faint. He feels like that's all he's ever done and things have never resolved themselves in his favor.

He's just tired, deep down inside. ]

I guess you're right.

[ But what else was he going to do. ]

[He... doesn't have any idea what this kid is on about, really. Heartless? Dying worlds? Key... blades? Well wasn't this guy a poet. Too bad he never was one for poetic mumbo jumbo, particularly if it was this depressing. There is something that does catch his attention among all the things outta the boy's mouth, though, and at that, he cocks a brow.]

Picture? Of those creeps outside?

[Were those what he called Heartless? Why would anyone wanna snap a shot of their ugly mugs?]

I found it in one of the houses. There was a... dark room, for pictures.

[ The term stumbles out of him. He'd never really lived a normal life, there were a number of things about Norfinbury that he had never personally experienced, but there was also an entire false vocabulary inserted into him when his memories were once erased. ]

[A dark room for pictures, huh. Yeah, he knew what the guy was talking about.]

I see. Hm, was that like... the only picture there? [Because the idea sounds a bit strange to him, really. Why would someone leave that particular one behind, if they took all the rest with them? Or what, was it some creepy prank by a kid who wanted to add to this whole ~mysterious~ feel or whatever? Or maybe the guy who brought them here planted it there for them to find, or-? Gah, questions!]

Also, what's this whole thing about... dying worlds or whatever? The only dying world I knew didn't appear as a shooting star.

It was, I looked around a lot.

[ He had hoped to find something more comforting. Maybe a picture of a family, or their friends. But there hadn't been any pictures, just this one shadowy monster... That's an unpleasantly familiar situation. That was exactly how things had gotten ugly in Twilight Town, first the missing pictures and then the monsters who had taken them... trying to erase him.

At the second question, Roxas's wild expression returns, his eyes growing large and his features looking strained. It wasn't his memory, and the pressured strain of identity shows on his face. ]

When the heartless eat the heart of a world. It blinks out and falls from the sky.

[... Right.]

Ate the heart of the... world, huh.

[Yep, sounds totally legit, alright. Was this guy smokin' something? Zelos isn't sure, but judging by the guy's expression, he's at the very least not joking. So, okay, he'll give the guy the benefit of the doubt and roll with this for a while.]

Hm. Was the heart, by any chance, a tree?

[Because if so, he can kinda picture that. Sorta. If it was an actual giant, floating heart somewhere in the middle of the planet, this guy's crazy.]

[ He blinks slowly. It's not his memory. The tangle of roots, the humidity in the air, the butterflies exposing the glowing keyhole. Not his. ]

It depends on the world. But it can be a tree.

[His interest. This guy just piqued it.]

Oh?

[He's not sure if there's any connection between what this guy's seen and where Zelos comes from, but at this point he welcomes anything even barely resembling a clue.]

Alright, kiddo, and these worlds - are they connected somehow? I mean, do they just exist separately, or is there a link? Something, y'know, like... [Would mana be too big a buzzword? ... Probably.] Energy?

Yeah, they're connected. You can go through the doors to darkness to get anywhere. Well... you shouldn't. You probably have a heart, the shadows would eat it.

[ Oh my god dumb ass Disneyland logic is a go. ]

Some people use magic, and there are these ships made of meteors that can move to other worlds if their barrier is unlocked. They're supposed to be sealed to keep the Heartless out, and stop them from eating the world's heart.

[ heart hearts hearts hearts hearts. ]

[Holy crap, calm down kid, that's way too many hearts.]

... Uh.

[Is about all Zelos can reply to that with, really. So much for making sense outta this guy's ramblings.]

Say, just... out of curiosity - you hit your head lately?

[ Well. At least his offense draws him out of the half-dead stupor he's been in. His pissy relationship with smart ass redheads is forever. ]

No. [ Defiant af ] I'm telling the truth.

[Redhead hell forever.]

Oh.

[He doesn't sound entirely convinced]

Then I've got nothing, kid.

Just because your world is different doesn't mean I'm crazy.

[ And really, with his experiences he has questioned his sanity more than once. He doesn't like it when other people add to the doubt. ]

No, but it does mean I can make fun of yours if I feel like it. You're the one who said you were crazy, alright.

[He's innocent!]

But, alright, so suppose our worlds are just different. How exactly does a mass of land or sea or whatever have a heart?

Doesn't your world have magic?

[ He comprehends not everyone who was in Norfinbury understood magic, but he'd met enough and the way that Zelos had followed the conversation so far had kind of suggested to him it was understood. ]

The heart is where all the magic is... its essence, its life.

Well, sure, but--

[But magic is a long way from everything having a heart, you know.]

To me, that still sounds more like mana than anything else. Think it's the same? And someone just figured they needed a cornier name for it and figured they'd call it a heart or whatever?

[Man, whatever! This whole otherworldly business is too confusing.]

Mana?

[ He feels as if he understands the dictionary definition of that word but can't remember ever hearing anyone use it. He hazards uncertainty, ]

It might be the same... Nobody called it mana.

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[network] @SummerVacation; Day 18 fears and lies [open]

@ishtar; video

@ishtar; video

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video; @fullmetal

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@Spoiler; video

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video ; @lovesya

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Rgehawj I misclicked and almost hit "ban user" omfg that scared me

those hover menus kill meeee

Saaame, man

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