Day 49: Early Afternoon - Main Street

[hes_deadjim]

Other than catch a glimpse of a few book spines and the first floor, McCoy hadn't gotten the chance check out the store fully. He'd still managed to uncover a few interesting things before he left. It wasn't exactly the answer, or even close to it, about how to get out of here, or what they had planned for them, or even who these people really were

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[rischiarare]

Being with Axel - free time, not a mission - had been nice. Roxas had even enjoyed the peculiar smell of Tasty Burger (and enjoyed the taste of its ice cream even more. It wasn't sea-salt like he was used to, but he certainly wasn't complaining. The sweetness had actually made his jaw kind of hurt... in a good way.) Easing back into friendship with Axel was simple; he didn't have to try. It was like he'd forgiven Axel for all the lies without breathing a word of forgiveness.

Simple. It was nice.

Though he'd intended to spend the day with his best friend while he could, a familiar shock of hair (very close to his own) caught his peripheral vision. Following it, he saw it was who he was afraid it'd be.

Sora. His stomach turned uneasily.

The situation with Sora was... so complicated he didn't know if complicated was the right word for it. Admittedly, he felt uncomfortable knowing Sora even existed (funny, since he was the one who shouldn't). But part of him wanted to be near Sora. It was like some inner hand in him, trying to grab on to his Other's and bring them together. Roxas definitely did not like it - but then, he liked Sora. Sora was sympathetic, but not condescendingly so. He was familiar. And, most of all, he was truthful.

Don't be a coward, he chided himself, watching the movement of his Other through the front window of the restaurant. Excusing himself from Axel's presence ("I have to go see him, okay?"), Roxas put his hood back over his face and walked back into the torrent being unleashed from the sky. Making his way through a treacherously puddle-filled road, he stood a few feet away from Sora before speaking up. "Hey," was his only greeting.

[scintillatingly]

Just as Sora had been thinking that maybe he didn't have enough space left in his stomach to finish the whole ice cream cone by himself, he heard a very familiar voice and then glanced up to see Roxas standing close-by. The first thing he felt was relief; he'd been worried about his Other. Their connection here was completely different from how it had been back home, so he couldn't even be sure if he'd sense if something happened to Roxas.

At the same time, he knew better than to try and protect the Nobody. They were one and the same, and he wouldn't have wanted someone treating him like that. Roxas held the power of the Keyblade, same as him. He had to still be capable of that here, right? Or... maybe not? Maybe the Keyblade could only be used by one of them at any given time.

No need to get himself worked up about something that wasn't for sure, though. Sora's features smoothed out as he grinned widely at the other boy. "Hey! This must be your first time in Doyleton, huh?" The first time that he could remember, at least. Roxas had been here twice before. He was like Riku in that way; both of them seemed to have a hard time staying here and keeping their memories. And yet he'd also run into both of them today. Hopefully that was a good sign rather than a bad one.

"And hey, did you want this?" he asked, moving the hand holding onto the cone to indicate what he was talking about. "This is actually my second one," he admitted with a sheepish smile.

[rischiarare]

Though Roxas was more than a bit confused on why Sora always seemed so happy to see him, he couldn't say he didn't like it. It kind of reminded him of Axel and... like he and Sora were supposed to be friends. They just kind of clicked. Even if he liked the feeling, the Nobody's face didn't change until his Other offered the ice cream. Smiling like an idiot, he took it with a nod. "It'll be my second too. We could split it?" Not that they had spoons... or anything. But they were kind of the same person, so did it matter?

After pushing his hood back again, he dipped a finger in the ice cream and tested it. Okay, really cold when eating it outside, while raining, while wet. But still sweet, so a little bad weather wouldn't stop him. "Yeah, this is my first time here. I didn't even really know about it before this morning. Has it always looked so messed up?"

[scintillatingly]

Sharing it sounded like a good idea. Somehow, it made sense, since they were so connected. Sora smiled and nodded, figuring that he would let Roxas work on the ice cream for a bit before taking it back and doing his part. Even if this weather was no good for ice cream, there was something about this moment that felt almost nostalgic. Figuring it was best not to question it, Sora simply chose to enjoy it.

Seeing how Sora had just explained the past week to Edward and Venom, he couldn't say he was thrilled that he was going to have to go through it all over again. Still, he wasn't going to hold back information from Roxas of all people, and so he shook his head. "No, everything was normal the last two times," he said with a frown. "But last week there was an attack here. The people turned into zombies and even more showed up, and all the patients had to work with what they had to fight back." Well, Sora hadn't had to worry about finding himself an impromptu weapon, but that was always the case.

Which only brought up his earlier concern all over again. He peered worriedly at his Other. "Have you gotten into any fights here? It might not happen again, but..."

[rischiarare]

Great. Like the Nobody didn't get enough headaches as it was from the word zombies. He didn't know zombies liked to do graffiti. At least the damaged buildings made sense... sort of. His knowledge of zombies was kind of minimal; being compared to him and the short description of them from Axel was the most he'd gotten. He felt like he should know about them.

Taking another mouthful of ice cream, he tried not to think about that.

After he'd taken the time to swallow (and shivered at the coldness; it kind of made his head hurt), he handed the ice cream to his other and shook his head. "I haven't seen any Heartless here," Roxas said, wiping his sticky fingers on his pants. If the patients had had to use what weapons they could find, he wondered... could the absence of his own weapons be because of Sora?

"Can you use the Keyblade?" Not that he could be very upset, if that was the case. It was his Keyblade, not Roxas's. Were zombies even Heartless? Wouldn't that mean the Keyblade wouldn't have helped anyway?

[scintillatingly]

Considering how crazy that news was, Sora was a little shocked that Roxas gave a pretty muted reaction. Then again, that was kind of how it was with Nobodies, right? Of course, Sora knew that Roxas was different from all the others, but it did make it clear that they were far from being the same person. Then again, maybe Roxas was just as used to fighting monsters as he was, so it didn't faze him anymore.

Blinking when the ice cream was handed over, Sora took it carefully and then started to idly lick at it while he listened to Roxas' response. If he was still talking about Heartless, then that probably meant he hadn't seen any monsters so far.

"Yeah, I can use it! It's... kind of unreliable, though, since it only forms when I'm actually being attacked by something." Which was both helpful and unhelpful. While it did show up in a pinch, he usually had to stick his neck out before anything would happen.

"There aren't any Heartless here, though," he cautioned the other boy, lowering the ice cream away from his mouth as he adopted a frown. "So the Keyblade doesn't work as well." The only time it'd really felt right when he'd attacked with his weapon had been in the fight against Xigbar, and there were all sorts of things wrong with that.

[rischiarare]

Only during a fight? Could Roxas be optimistic enough to think that was why the Keyblades didn't come to his fingertips on command anymore? The most danger he'd gotten into was getting lost (which had happened a few times). He hadn't even seen a bird out in that forest. Just some trees and grass.

So, yes. He could be that optimistic. Imagining fighting again without them was... uncomfortable.

"That's kind of weird, don't you think? Both of us are here and they're not showing up." Unless it had to do with the fact that they were together, the Heartless should have come running straight to two Keyblade wielders. And if what was here wasn't Heartless (or Nobodies), what were they? Just... monsters? Like under-the-bed monsters? Like Beast monsters? "No one seems to really know anything about this place. Like what world it's on, or why we're here."

[scintillatingly]

"I guess the Heartless haven't gotten to this place yet," Sora guessed with a frown. It was something he'd thought about before, but he'd never been able to come to a really satisfactory conclusion about it. It seemed like Mr. Landel would have been the exact sort of person who would have welcomed darkness into his heart with open arms, and yet... nothing.

Then again, the Head Doctor did have to know about darkness as he and Roxas knew it, since he'd ordered that experiment on Kairi. Sora thought about mentioning that to Roxas, but he didn't want to reveal that kind of thing to even his Other without Kairi's permission.

"With so many people here from so many different worlds, I guess the Keyblade isn't as important as we're used to." Sora had been forced to accept that he wasn't the hero here. He was the same as anyone else who'd been brought to this place, and he wasn't able to just fix things with the power of his friends and his own heart. Not this time.

He handed Roxas the ice cream cone and crossed his arms over his chest as he considered the Nobody's last point. "I've heard this place is called Earth, but that's all I know about it," he admitted.

[rischiarare]

Roxas was so accustomed to the Heartless being everywhere he was sent, it was surprising to consider he might be on a world they hadn't infected yet. "That's true," he agreed, considering the idea. It'd be nice not to be followed everywhere - and since the Nobodies definitely weren't here, it was almost like being left alone.

Just other monsters to worry about. Monsters not really hurt by keyblades.

But without seeing them, Roxas found it kind of hard to be worried, even if he knew he should be. An unknown world with unknown enemies - "Earth" certainly didn't mean anything to this Nobody, but it was possible it was a world another one of the Organization members had explored. He shrugged, unable to offer any help. "I've never heard of it. How long have you been here, anyway?"

[scintillatingly]

"I hadn't heard of it, either. Not until I got here." It didn't seem like anyone he knew from his travels before Landel's had heard of Earth, though, which was pretty weird. He would have thought that someone would have made it here, but if this place really was untouched by Heartless, then... maybe not. There was always that connection to the darkness, and worlds without it weren't of interest to his old enemies.

The question was one that Sora had learned to hate answering, and yet he was pretty sure Roxas would be able to handle whatever he tossed at him, especially after their first conversation.

"Definitely over a month by now," he admitted, looking away for a moment as he watched the rain. He should have been able to get out of here in a few days at the maximum, but it just wasn't that easy. "Probably a month and a half? I've kinda lost count..."