[006: Text; forward-dated to midday, December 23rd]
[Oh, hey, keep. Guess who's finally popping back up?]
Where did all this snow come from? Last I checked, it had all melted.
[Sealed to Varric]
Varric. Are you in the stable tower? Or is it even later
[The words are carefully marked out, though it's possible to read them if for some odd reason you really wanted to :|]
Where did all this snow come from? Last I checked, it had all melted.
[Sealed to Varric]
Varric. Are you in the stable tower? Or is it even later
[The words are carefully marked out, though it's possible to read them if for some odd reason you really wanted to :|]
Hello, this is some radio silence.
Kairi doesn't know what to say.]
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Kairi?
What is it? Is something wrong?
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I thought you left.
[And she still doesn't know how to feel, be it surprised, relieved, angry or hurt.]
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Left?
Come on, Kairi, I wasn't gone that long.
[Just a couple of hours at most. Right?]
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[And that's being generous. She'd already been looking for him before that and just thought he was avoiding her.]
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[Have an inkblot there. Whoops, that wasn't what he meant to write! Outside of the journal, Riku's just going to. Stare in surprise for a moment. But it doesn't change. Two weeks.
He's been gone for over two weeks?
There's a smaller blot below, the beginnings of a formed "W." But then he's lifting the pen again, considering it.
There -are- places in the keep where time doesn't pass the same. Heck, he's reasonably sure that the labyrinth he found himself in is one of them. It's entirely possible that he's been gone that long.
Well, crap. What does he say now?]
Sorry. I guess I kind of got... caught up.
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[There's an edge to her tone. He can't see it, but she's glaring at the journal, arms folded. Will he tell her what he was doing on his own?]
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[He winces slightly, safe on the other side of the journal from being seen. He knows that tone. He's not getting out of this one without an explanation, that much is obvious.
And besides that, if he's been gone for two weeks, then he kind of -owes- her an explanation, too.]
Where are you?
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[She doesn't mean to dodge the question, but if he rushes off to find her, he'll get lost again.]
Riku, are you near a light?
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Yeah. I am.
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Can you bring it with you?
I'm by the bonfire. Where are you?
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I think so.
I'm in one of the towers.
[He doesn't ask if he should come to her. After all, she's already answered that. Kind of.]
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Something's happened. The sun didn't rise and now people without light are disappearing.
[Just like Riku did. Some of them are still talking through the records though. And they've only been lost for a few hours.]
Riku, where did you go?
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[He doesn't want to say it over the journals. But it's important here, he knows, soo... ]
I went into the tunnels,
[The enormity of it settles over him again. He went into the tunnels -without her-. Without -telling- her.]
I didn't mean to. I was checking out the ivory tower, and I guess I got too close to the trapdoor.
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Dimly she remembered Sora asking Riku why he'd had to do everything on his own, remembered forgiving him for exactly this. It had been easy then. It had been easy because when she'd called out to him, he hadn't left her.]
You don't have to do everything on your own.
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I know.
[He doesn't have to do everything. He just has to do -enough-. And he hasn't hit that yet.
For a long moment he stares at the journal. He knows that's not enough. But what can he say?]
I'm sorry.
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