syvia
in
kh_drabble
challenge post
Challenge: [241] Ghost Stories
Title: Experience
Word Count: 575
Spoilers: none
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 (one swear word in another language, horrors XD )
Notes: Belated! many thanks for crimsoncookie's lightning-fast beta. :D
Time frame is post-KH2 and more wacky world-hopping with the DI trio. Guess where.
Graveyards, Riku found, were not that creepy. Then again, his measuring bar was somewhat unusual. The most picture-perfect green meadow with flowers and bright sunlight, if saturated with Darkness, was far worse than a cemetery at night.
Still. There was Darkness, or he wouldn't be here. Once, when he'd been young and still ashamed of his affinity, Mickey had told Riku he'd always have an advantage while looking for the rise of Darkness. Riku could smell it. Could more easily recognize it.
Then he could vigorously apply a keyblade to it before it did real harm.
Whatever the source in this world, it was here. Somewhere.
Riku frowned, smoothed back his hair and tugged the lapels of his tuxedo jacket. Then he closed his eyes. Some things were easier done without sight.
Nothing, nothing... shadows coiled small and delicate within the shade cast by mausoleums in the starlight, edging outward like fingers, which splayed from hands, arms...
...friend...
There it was. The smell grew stronger, stronger. Sweet-sickness, excrement and things that grew in the rot of the world.
...friend... long time since I... one of my own...
Riku stood and opened his eyes. This mausoleum had a face. Several of them did, but Riku would have bet munny that this was the only one moving.
"Facilier, I presume."
The stone face looked at him with slyly narrowed eyes and such a friendly smile.
Riku.
It wasn’t the first time someone had made his name sound like something good to eat, but he'd never really gotten used to that. More disturbing, the mouth didn’t move. The smile never wavered, but the head tilted slightly. The light shifted over the carven image, and the words echoed through the stones at his feet.
So the little lightbearers gone and left you to do the dirty work again.
Riku crossed his arms over his chest, raised an eyebrow. Maybe he hadn’t gotten to the party yet, but this could be entertaining.
"You know my name." Facilier's was obvious. It was under his head.
'Course. Shadows speak to one another. My friends pass me news of new friends droppin' by. 'Specially the ones from out of... town.
"Huh. We're friends?" Riku took another step forward, gesturing between Facilier and himself.
We could be. You got talent, boy, but think what you could have with the benefit of my expertise.
So he wouldn't notice as the shadows crept closer. While Facilier began to dip insubstantial fingers in the edges of Riku's power and test how easy it might be to grasp and pull.
Uh. No.
Riku smirked. "I've met Tiana and Naveen."
... Merde.
He found them easily enough. The trumpet-playing alligator distracted him for a good five minutes (sure, he'd heard stories about Tiana's Place, but they hadn't actually been there yet) but soon there was Kairi, kissing him on the cheek. Over there was Sora grinning, wincing a little as Lottie continued to talk his ear off.
"So."
"It went fine," Riku said. He grinned as Kairi gave him a look. "Really. It was fine. What about you?"
"Beat the record." Kairi smirked, linking her arm with his. "Two minutes."
"You're kidding--" and then he sensed it. Bright, warm and welcoming and coming closer.
"Riku," Kairi said, beaming at the prince and princess of Maldonia as they wove through the crowd, a little girl snuggled in Tiana's arms. "Meet the youngest member of the Maldonian royal family, Princess Evangeline."
Title: Experience
Word Count: 575
Spoilers: none
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 (one swear word in another language, horrors XD )
Notes: Belated! many thanks for crimsoncookie's lightning-fast beta. :D
Time frame is post-KH2 and more wacky world-hopping with the DI trio. Guess where.
Graveyards, Riku found, were not that creepy. Then again, his measuring bar was somewhat unusual. The most picture-perfect green meadow with flowers and bright sunlight, if saturated with Darkness, was far worse than a cemetery at night.
Still. There was Darkness, or he wouldn't be here. Once, when he'd been young and still ashamed of his affinity, Mickey had told Riku he'd always have an advantage while looking for the rise of Darkness. Riku could smell it. Could more easily recognize it.
Then he could vigorously apply a keyblade to it before it did real harm.
Whatever the source in this world, it was here. Somewhere.
Riku frowned, smoothed back his hair and tugged the lapels of his tuxedo jacket. Then he closed his eyes. Some things were easier done without sight.
Nothing, nothing... shadows coiled small and delicate within the shade cast by mausoleums in the starlight, edging outward like fingers, which splayed from hands, arms...
...friend...
There it was. The smell grew stronger, stronger. Sweet-sickness, excrement and things that grew in the rot of the world.
...friend... long time since I... one of my own...
Riku stood and opened his eyes. This mausoleum had a face. Several of them did, but Riku would have bet munny that this was the only one moving.
"Facilier, I presume."
The stone face looked at him with slyly narrowed eyes and such a friendly smile.
Riku.
It wasn’t the first time someone had made his name sound like something good to eat, but he'd never really gotten used to that. More disturbing, the mouth didn’t move. The smile never wavered, but the head tilted slightly. The light shifted over the carven image, and the words echoed through the stones at his feet.
So the little lightbearers gone and left you to do the dirty work again.
Riku crossed his arms over his chest, raised an eyebrow. Maybe he hadn’t gotten to the party yet, but this could be entertaining.
"You know my name." Facilier's was obvious. It was under his head.
'Course. Shadows speak to one another. My friends pass me news of new friends droppin' by. 'Specially the ones from out of... town.
"Huh. We're friends?" Riku took another step forward, gesturing between Facilier and himself.
We could be. You got talent, boy, but think what you could have with the benefit of my expertise.
So he wouldn't notice as the shadows crept closer. While Facilier began to dip insubstantial fingers in the edges of Riku's power and test how easy it might be to grasp and pull.
Uh. No.
Riku smirked. "I've met Tiana and Naveen."
... Merde.
He found them easily enough. The trumpet-playing alligator distracted him for a good five minutes (sure, he'd heard stories about Tiana's Place, but they hadn't actually been there yet) but soon there was Kairi, kissing him on the cheek. Over there was Sora grinning, wincing a little as Lottie continued to talk his ear off.
"So."
"It went fine," Riku said. He grinned as Kairi gave him a look. "Really. It was fine. What about you?"
"Beat the record." Kairi smirked, linking her arm with his. "Two minutes."
"You're kidding--" and then he sensed it. Bright, warm and welcoming and coming closer.
"Riku," Kairi said, beaming at the prince and princess of Maldonia as they wove through the crowd, a little girl snuggled in Tiana's arms. "Meet the youngest member of the Maldonian royal family, Princess Evangeline."