action & prose; open; ☀/☾
Who: Aqua; OPEN.
What: After exploring the city and dealing with some major frustration, Aqua finds herself at the beach at the end of a very, very, very disappointing third day in the City of Dreams. She's been at this constantly. Hasn't even returned to the house yet.
Where: Some quieter section of the beach.
When: Late in the day, ( Read more... )
What: After exploring the city and dealing with some major frustration, Aqua finds herself at the beach at the end of a very, very, very disappointing third day in the City of Dreams. She's been at this constantly. Hasn't even returned to the house yet.
Where: Some quieter section of the beach.
When: Late in the day, ( Read more... )
The exhaustion had only sunk in so far. It weighed heavily on his body but not on his heart. Seeing that it really was her as she turned about re-energized him, enough that he could make a conscious effort not to drag his feet or, worse, yawn in front of her. The situation was already too complicated. There was no possible way to keep her from worrying about everything (he'd learned that a long time ago), but he could certainly try and minimize the number of concerns she ended up with. Terra returned her smile and was relieved when it came to him easily. A soberness remained in his eyes, but his expression stayed warm. Their bonds had been seriously tested by Xehanort, but it appeared they'd held up after all. To think he'd worried about that during his time spent exploring.
He had wondered, toward the end of that first day spend in the city, what he would do with himself. Trapped in a strange world with no way out, his friends far away, fighting for their lives. No Xehanort to defeat, no Master to guide his actions, no home to dream of returning to. The strangers he found himself surrounded by spoke freely, but the sounds of their voices were hollow compared to the words that laced his memories. Now he no longer had to worry about that. Ven had gotten in contact with him and here was Aqua. They were together again.
He would figure this world out and they would get through it.
Though he'd taken the initiative to cross the distance between them, he stopped a few steps short, not drawing in as close as he would have only a week or two earlier, to that comfortable amount of space they'd settled on when they'd both graduated from children to teenagers and then to young adults.
The threat the darkness posed had been a world away from him when he'd first spotted her, but that fear returned with a vengeance. But would she sense it? Would she know what he'd done, how deeply he'd reached into the abyss in his attempt to save them? His own darkness seemed as obvious as an open wound to him, but he wasn't about to let it stop him from reuniting with his friends.
"Are you okay? Vanitas... I tried to stop him, but Xehanort was right there," he explained with a low gesture. His smile faded at the mention of the old Keyblade Master.
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Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how one looked at it), the segment of Darkness attached to Terra's doubt was lost on Aqua, who was waging a valiant battle against an internal tempest of her own.
Vanitas... and Xehanort. She turned her face away slightly at the very vivid recollection of the searingly hot blade against her back, followed by... nothing. It was a severely uncomfortable thought... one that Terra could probably do without.
"I'm fine. Don't worry." Here, she paused for a beat, wanting desperately to continue on, assuring him that everything would be fine as well. Probably too soon to make a promise like that...
... It just didn't feel like the time or the place to stand and discuss it anyway. Swallowing her anxiety, her stance shifted as she broke their unspoken protocol, taking an unceremonious extra two steps toward him -- which could have easily been explained away, as he was standing out of the tide's reach. It certainly wasn't because he looked like he could topple over at any given moment.
"Let's just... calm down for a minute."
First thing's first. Aqua clumsily slipped her mask off, still a little unused to the way it settled on her face.
"Have you heard from Ven...? Is he here, too?"
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Only then, pulling free of the distraction his own fears provided, did he begin to notice how troubled Aqua looked under the mask. Something was seriously wrong. But as he watched her, trying to read her better, he gave into the assumption that it was this world and their combined troubles that were wearing at her reserve. They had all been through so much. They were all still going through so much. That had to be it.
Terra's gaze stayed with her, but he scrutinized her no further. There was nothing he could say that would change what was happening or what had become of their lives.
"Yeah," Terra's nod was immediate, leaving no time for her to dread his answer, "I put a message on this..." He drew out his PORTAL and held it forward. Looking down at the odd device, he felt a twinge at his jaw and had to suppress another encroaching yawn before he could continue.
A pause and a slow exhale later, he slid the PORTAL back into its place in the pocket opposite to the one that held his charm.
"Ven answered it. He's all right, too. I haven't seen him yet, but he's here," he tried for another smile, knowing Ven's safety would provide a measure of comfort for her. It left him as quickly as the first had at the realization that Ven's well-being wasn't so certain.
"There's something else you should know. Vanitas was also brought here," he'd already fought the masked boy once, but that was a detail he could afford to keep from her.
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The PORTAL, which had promptly been labeled as erroneous and had was left behind at the apartment, was then observed with a measure of interest... If it was a method of communicating with Ventus, then it was worth carrying around.
"Thank goodness..."
What's more, the news of backhand-wielder's presence had such a profound effect upon her, though, that she sighed and shifted her weight from one foot to the other, which absolutely just... stopped altogether when Terra included the addendum.
That Vanitas was there as well.
It was as if all output of visible empathy was... sucked right back to internalization. He didn't even have to finish his statement. By the end of the end of the third syllable of that boy's name, she reverted right back to her previous rigidity. Composure regained and maintained, the rough beginnings of a plan of action began to materialize in the back of her mind...
She'd find Ventus. And personally exterminate Vanitas if she had to. But first, there was Terra... and she had to approach the topic of rest very carefully.
"Then... we should stay together as best we can. Do you remember th... ...?"
A pause of alarm.
Her left hand rose to gingerly brush her fingertips against her throat, confused for a moment... before realizing that her voice had vanished. Kind of an unsettling sensation... She'd never been caught mid-sentence before.
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A roll of his eyes and a hard shake of his head made his annoyance even more obvious. He raised one hand in a frustrated half-shrug gesture but forced himself to settle afterward. No use getting too worked up about it. It did strike him as funny (albeit it not 'haha actually amusing' funny) how much worse the spell was when he actually had someone to talk to, though.
Terra went quiet for a minute, glancing between Aqua and some indiscriminate point to her left. He'd had some practice with the TENEKA, but he still felt awkward using it.
Concentrating, he fixed his eyes on hers.
Can you hear me?
Though no sound came of it, his mouth formed the words along with the telepathy.
What were you trying to say? About remembering?
He was cautious not to let his mind wander away from the moment. He was still having a tough time discerning which thoughts he was sending through and which were being kept private.
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... Terra, obviously being that much more cautious than Aqua, may or may not have had a bit more time to prepare himself for the transition, as she literally didn't give a second thought about letting her own mind wander. Keeping oneself quiet and introverted obviously wasn't going to do her any good -- not anymore, anyway. Not until she could get a better grip on the mental communication filter.
Shaking it off with a shrug, she paused to soundlessly clear her throat, move a pile of sand to the side with her foot, and ... do what she could to pick up from where she left off.
...I'm sorry. You're coming in loud and clear. Am I? Following his example, she quickly found that physically going through the motions in speaking along with the TENEKA did feel quite a bit more natural... which would probably help with the --
-- Anyway. I meant to ask if you remember the place where you first woke up. Was it a room with a mirror...?
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You are.
Instead, it was strictly serious business between them. And rightfully so. Vanitas was at large and for all he knew, Xehanort could have been lurking somewhere in the city, too. Hiding again. The twist of a grin came and went, in the same fashion the others had, taken over by something that was almost but not quite a scowl.
Aqua bringing up the mirror didn't help his mood, either. His eyes darkened and he looked away, but there was another nod for her.
Yeah. A room with a bed and a mirror. That was all he let himself 'say'.
Motioning for her to follow, he started back the way he came across the sand.
Come on. Let's find Ven and get back to one of the houses.
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