[OPEN] am i in heaven here or am i in hell?

[got_it_memorized]

Characters: Axel and anybody who wants to run into him.
Setting: Anywhere from top-floor dormitories to... idk, wherever we go.
Format: i default to prose but if you prefer action that's okay too.
Summary: Axel wakes up in a hideous unitard and thinks he's gone to Hell. here's a little context.
Warnings: nothing yet? dsjhfskdfl i hate intro posts i'm so bad at them halp.


His opinion of this place improved exponentially when he discovered the trunk at the foot of the bed that contained clothing he was a bit more accustomed to. After making sure he was alone in the room and peeling the ridiculous white monstrosity off, he quickly fumbled into his usual getup and found himself ten times less disconcerted. Adjusting the zipper on the front of his coat, Axel peered around the room with a frown. Dorms? Hell had dorms? Where in all the worlds was he? Well, at least whoever else was supposed to be bunking with him wasn't around to see his moment of panic. He never would have lived that down.

He took a moment to summon his chakrams, just to make sure they were still there. Thankfully, they heeded his call and he breathed a bit easier. Maybe this wouldn't be so difficult after all. Maybe this wasn't Hell--he was pretty sure Hell wouldn't do him the courtesy of providing wardrobe and weapons. Wherever he'd been sent by Saïx's last attack, if Saïx thought he'd be rid of him that easily he had another thing coming. Old friend or not, Axel was inclined to go give him a piece of his mind.

Well, maybe better to figure out where he was, first. Using portals when one didn't know where one was didn't sound like a good idea. Best to at least have a grasp of Point A before attempting to find Point B. Dismissing his weapons (he could call them back at the drop of a hat, after all), Axel turned and moved toward the door, carefully opening it to peer out into the hallway. There didn't seem to be anyone in the immediate vicinity, so he supposed it was safe to venture out. His guard up, his eyes alert, Axel stepped out into the corridor, closing the door behind him, his senses keen to all the new sights and sounds around him. First unitards, then dormitory beds... there really was no telling what sorts of things this place would throw at him next.

Comments

[got_it_memorized]

Axel was really starting to think he was losing his mind. First there was the guy who looked and sounded just like him, then there was Ventus who was all grown up and... wearing blindfolds... and now there was another Roxas? Or... no, this kid wasn't dressed like Roxas. But it couldn't be Ventus, Ventus was all grown up and wearing blindfolds! What the hell was going on?

He lifted a hand and scratched at his temple, a nervous, awkward fidget, and then gave the boy a perplexed look.

"Define 'okay'," he said. "Despite my physiological shortcomings I'm still successfully breathing, so for most intents and purposes I guess you could say I'm 'okay'. Admittedly I'm a bit unsure about the mental side of things but I guess that's a different story entirely."

[forceless]

Ven let out a small chuckle, though it wasn't malicious; the guy's confusion was something he was used to encountering when talking to people, and well, this guy definitely reminded him of Lea.

"Don't worry, that happens. This place is pretty confusing when you first get here, but you get used to it. It's better than having broken bones at least, right?"

...Er, wait. "'Physiological shortcomings'?" What was that supposed to mean?

[got_it_memorized]

Well, Axel endeavored to be amusing when it was conducive. He let out a short, sharp laugh then.

"I guess you make a valid point," he said; "broken bones are pretty lame." Jeez, the kid even sounded like Roxas. Or Ventus. But he couldn't be Ventus, because Ventus was an adult now--which made perfect sense, really, since he'd met the kid ten years ago. So who was this? A long-lost son? Or was it a coincidence?

He shook his head then, waving one hand. "I guess you could say I'm Not All There," he chuckled; "literally. But that's another story for another time." Maybe. "Anyway, what's your name, kid?" he asked, the curiosity really prodding at his brain. He jabbed at himself with his thumb. "My name's Axel; got it memorized?"

[forceless]

"Then I guess I'll just have to ask for story time at your nearest convenience," Ven teased with a chuckle and a grin.

Though he stopped and stared at Axel after he introduced himself for a minute. 'Got is memorized'? Man, he really did seem like Lea! When he was done thinking however, he smiled once more and extended a hand towards Axel. "I'm Ventus, but everyone calls me Ven. Nice to meet you, Axel."

Would it be rude to ask if he had a little brother or something?

[got_it_memorized]

Axel gave a visible start when the boy said his name, his eyes going wide. Ventus? ... Wait, how was that possible? This whole place was just insane--there was no way there could be two Ventuses (Venti?), was there?

"Ven... tus?" He shook his head. If it was really him, the kid looked exactly the same as he had ten years ago. That was just absurd! Even when Sora had been locked in Naminé's memory egg-pod-thing he'd grown over the year he'd slept; how the hell could Ventus look exactly the same when ten years had passed? Lifting a hand to scratch the crown of his head, Axel boggled at him. "Not... not Ventus Ventus."

Right, because that made a lot of sense.

[forceless]

"Huh?" Ven quirked an eyebrow and returned Axel's confusion with a look of befuddlement of his own. "Um...Yeah. Ventus." Was there another Ventus in his world or something? Did he do something weird in an alternate universe? Augh, this Tower just kept getting more confusing.

"You...OK?"

[got_it_memorized]

Axel narrowed his eyes a bit. Why hadn't Ventus aged at all? It had been ten years! This whole alternate universes and weird time paradoxes thing just kept getting stranger.

"Er..." He rubbed the crown of his head. "Yeah I thought I was okay, but now I'm really confused. You look a lot like somebody I met once, a long time ago, but... he would logically be like my age now, so..."

Surely this Ventus could understand why that would prove befuddling.

[forceless]

"Well, I did kind of fall asleep for about ten years I think..." He says rather casually as if it's a perfectly normal thing.

Ven looked like he was about to say something else, before he cut off his own train of thought with another. Not only did this guy look ridiculously similar to Lea, but Axel also knew someone that looked like him and had stumbled when he brought up his name...

"Wait..." He looked at Axel with wide eyes and an even more curious look, and spoke the next word carefully. "...Lea?"

[got_it_memorized]

"Wow, that's quite a nap," Axel chortled; "I'm jealous."

He blinked curiously at the boy then when it looked as though he was trying to connect dots, and then Axel gave a visible start when Ventus called him Lea. No... there was no way! How could this be that same kid? Sleeping for ten years was one thing, but why would that mean staying the same age for that period of time?

Axel was really starting to wonder about his sanity now.

"W-wait..." He shook his head. "How do you--? I mean, there's no possible way you could... That just doesn't... What is...?"

His voice trailed off and he lifted a hand to his crown, looking absolutely baffled. This had to be a trick, right? He was being punked or something. He gestured vaguely at Ventus, something suspicious in his eyes.

"Where did you hear that name?"

No one knew him by that name except Saïx and... Ventus. Light, could it really be him?

[forceless]

Ven's brow furrowed in confusion and he frowned when it seemed to be confusing him; had he been mistaken? But it was uncanny...

"It was the name of a guy I met in Radiant Garden, when I was exploring the World ten years ago." He scratched the back of his head, both a gesture out of awkwardness and trying to figure this out. "He challenged me to a fight so that I wouldn't forget him. You look a lot like him."

[got_it_memorized]

Axel almost gawped. He was that surprised. This... was really Ventus, wasn't it? Like really him? He had no idea how it was possible that the kid looked exactly the same as he had ten years ago, Rip Van Winkle situation notwithstanding, but... the only other person who had been there to see that fight was Isa. This had to be the Ventus he had met!

His hand swam to the top of his head again and he sort of blew a raspberry of disbelief.

"Well I'll be damned," he said quietly, "it really is you." Talk about blasts from the past! He shook his head and ventured a hesitant grin. "Looks like you memorized it after all," he said. "Still playing with toy swords?"

[forceless]

"Wha-- no way!!" It was him! Well that was a surefire way to flip Ven's confusion around to an excited grin. Finally an old friend, and someone he knew! And someone that still remembered him, even ten years later..

"Hah-- no way! I was just using that to go easy on you," Ven boasted with an all too confident grin. "I've got a real one to kick your butt with if you ever want a rematch."

[got_it_memorized]

Axel would have been a terrible hypocrite to forget Ventus, after insisting they were friends that day ten years ago. Axel--Lea--didn't forget his friends unless it was, you know, out of his control like the bizarre situation with Xion that he still didn't really understand.

He folded his arms and lifted his chin.

"Kick my butt? You must be mistaken," he said with an arched eyebrow; "we had a draw last time, and unlike some of us I haven't been sleeping and out of practice for a decade."

If anything Axel had been doing little but practicing his combat skills, joining up with the Organization, but Ventus... doesn't really need to know about that part. Not yet, surely.

He straightened his back and made a big show of looking waaaaay down at Ventus, but he was grinning.

"Looks to me like you're literally ten years too early to kick my but now."

Man. After Garden had fallen he really hadn't expected to ever see Ventus again! He hadn't known where Ven had come from, or where he went after that fateful meeting all that time ago, but this mysterious tower in the Afterlife was surely about the last place he would have ever expected to run into him.

It was really good to see him.

[forceless]

"Hey! I may have been sleeping, but that doesn't mean my skills are any less dull!" Plus the fact that literally the last thing he remembered from his own world was having the toughest fight of his life.

And he returned Axel's show of looking down on him by craning his neck up, straightening his back, and basically trying to make himself look as tall as possible. "Besides, that just means I'm still in shape while you're getting older."

Not that Lea looked to be that much older, and in the big picture, ten years wasn't much-- but it was fun making fun of him nonetheless.

[got_it_memorized]

"Oi, oi, I'm not that old," Axel complained, giving Ventus a mock irritated look, and for a single instant it almost felt like no time had passed. ... Well, in a way, it hadn't passed for Ventus, it seemed--he still looked exactly the same.

He dropped the affected posturing and just shook his head, giving Ven a genuine smile this time.

"Man, I honestly didn't think I was ever gonna see you again," he said, shifting to lean against the wall. "After that day I didn't know where you went, and then..." Ah, well, if Ventus had been sleeping, did he know what had happened? Axel didn't really want to be the bearer of such bad news, but the kid had a right to know. Axel didn't even know where Ven hailed from, honestly. Those had been more carefree days, when he'd made friends easily and didn't look before every leap. Axel probably wouldn't have just up and made friends with a complete stranger after a spar, after all.

He would have been lying if he said he didn't miss those days, when things had been simple and easy and the shadows hadn't seemed so dark.

Axel pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes a bit.

"I'm hurt you never came back to visit," he said with an exaggerated pout.

[forceless]

Axel's complaining only got a laugh out of Ven, and retracted his own ridiculous posture as he folded his arms behind his head. Still grinning, in spite of Axel's ridiculous pout.

"Sorry... like I said, I kind of fell asleep for ten years after we met. I'm not even sure how I woke up here, to be honest." Seeing as the last thing he remembered was fighting Vanitas... yeah he had given up trying to figure things out for the most part.

And he dropped his arms back to his sides. "Besides, you look like you've been doing OK!" He couldn't help another small laugh here though. "What's with this 'Axel' business though?" It sounded kind of silly to him, really.