(no subject)

[midgarhorizon]

Characters: Reno, Axel, Open
Setting: Floor 3, the library
Format: Prose as starting
Summary: Reno is doing some research on the network. WHY IS HE ALWAYS DOING RESEARCH LATELY.
Warnings: With these two, who knows.



Ow! Reno ground his teeth and rubbed his arm, being careful of the bandages. Moving it still hurt after that little incident that shall not be named. He had been through a lot worse, though; this wasn't too bad as far as 'injuries sustained in the line of duty' went. It was certainly the reason why he was taking it easy today in the Floor 3 Library rather than off kicking monster butt.

Today, his research on finding a way home was taking a backseat. Scuttlebutt had it that there were some interesting things going around recently and he scrolling through all of the posts he had missed during the incident that shall not be named. One rather strange habit Reno had picked up turning his internment at the tower was that of making hideous faces while reading the posts. Eye scrunching, lip biting, you name it- he was doing it.

So far, he wasn't getting too much on any details, but that wasn't going to stop him.

Comments

[got_it_memorized]

To say Axel was an avid reader might have been an exaggeration. Certainly he enjoyed a good comic book, and he had been known to bury his nose shamelessly in a trashy romance novel when the occasion called for it, but it had been quite a while since he'd had the time for such carefree hobbies. Admittedly after everything that had happened with Xion and Fey though, he rather felt like he needed to decompress. After assuring Xion she was welcome to chill in his room a while he had headed out and decided to visit the library. He hadn't really checked out everything there was to see yet, after all, and while it wasn't his job anymore recon still came second nature.

He hadn't expected to find Reno there, but he was actually kind of glad to see him; after the week's fiasco he had found himself wondering about the other contacts he had made. Axel didn't come by comrades easily, but Reno had struck something of a chord in him, and he was pleased to see he was well.

Er. Mostly well, at least. He couldn't quite tell if the faces Reno was making were a reaction to the injuries beneath the visible bandaging or... if he was just making faces. With Reno it seemed it was anyone's guess.

"Well don't you look like you got hit by a tram," Axel said, sidling up to the other redhead where he was seated at one of the network terminals. "Seems we've both had an eventful week. The hell happened to you?"

[midgarhorizon]

Now that was a voice Reno didn't mind hearing, even if it was a bit strange considering they sounded quite similar. He looked up, the face he was making fading into one a bit more normal. Damn, the one question he wished he had a Restore materia around for. Healing naturally always invited questions this way. "I got into a tangle, nothing too serious. What about you? Eventful? Suddenly all hell's breaking loose around here, complete with rain storms."

[got_it_memorized]

"Right? The rain just wreaks havoc on my hairdo," Axel complained, reaching up to tweak one of his wiry spikes of hair. "Me? Ah..." He scratched at his cheekbone awkwardly. "Let's see... my best friend got kidnapped by a megalomaniacal evil clone of the guy who saved the universe, for starters." He waved one hand. "We got her back; she's safe, but..." He shook his head and grabbed a nearby chair, spinning it around to sit backwards, his arms folded. "Well, let's just say I'm not interested in doing that again anytime soon."

He pointed then.

"So what sort of tangle has you banged up still?" he asked, cocking his head to one side. "Can't they Cure you in the infirmary?" It only seemed logical, after all.

[midgarhorizon]

"Who? Xion?" It seemed like a rather obvious guess. Both Xions seemed to know Axel when he had met them, but being a she Reno was willing to guess the girl. Though it was the only guess he had; Reno's knowledge of who knew who was still rather lacking. Blame that on the hours he was doing in the libraries.

Xion was a sweet kid and the idea of anything happening to her had him concerned, though they didn't really know each other that well. "She all right?"

Reno keysmashed slightly-by-accident when that incident that shall not be named was brought up again. "No. Of course they don't. All I got was this lousy bandage. They didn't give me my damn Restore materia either when I got here, so I got to do it the hard way."

Looking at the screen, he made another face and backspaced the nonsense off the text box. Obnoxiously colored text taunted him, and he stared at it for a moment.

"You afraid it might happen again?"

[got_it_memorized]

He nodded, frowning. "Yeah. Yeah, she's okay," he said, a crinkle forming between his eyebrows as something like discomfort crossed his face. "She's still kinda jumpy, and she hasn't been sleeping well." He shook his head and scratched his crown. "I really don't think I'm cut out for this kind'a stuff, you know? I'm just not sure what to do to help her."

He cared about her a great deal, even if he couldn't remember precisely why or how or what had happened in their past, and he hated that he couldn't help her.

Axel made a bit of a face then. "What's a restore materia? I thought it was all the lightning kind." He still didn't quite get the whole Physical Manifestation of Magic deal.

[midgarhorizon]

"Being there after trauma, that's a no brainer," Reno muttered absently, being distracted with trying to talk to Axel, the network and the pain that still flared up in his arm from time to time. Finally, he turned away from the obnoxious colored text and looked back at the other man.

"Seriously. I wouldn't be surprised if she has a touch of PTSD. The kiddo sounds like it." Getting his eyes off the screen was a welcome relief. He felt like stretching his back out, but winced when he started to move his arm and the warning twinge reminded him of the still raw wounds. Scrap that idea. "After what she's been through, she needs a stable anchor. A friend. Even if it's just where she's gotta cling and cry a bit. That's really all ya can do." Traumatic experiences in the Turks were an unfortunate side effect from time to time. He knew something of them, though he definitely wasn't the healer type. Bad times, after all.

"Just Lightning? Gaia ain't that boring, slick. There's the base elements, bunches of healing spells, summons, and so on. You probably got them back home."

[got_it_memorized]

"Peetee whatnow?" And then he nodded. "She was crashed out in my room, so I decided to take a break--keeping an eye on someone's a full time job, I tell you what." He blew out a sigh and shook his head. "I left a note, though," he added for good measure; "didn't want her to wake up and flip out 'cuz she was alone."

Clinging and crying... there hadn't been much, thank goodness. The hugging he supposed he could eventually get used to, even if physical affection had never been something he was good at, but he never knew what to do when girls cried.

"Oh!" he said then sitting up a bit straighter. "I guess... it just didn't really occur to me. I guess I figured since Lightning was all you had that was all there was." After all, Axel always automatically brought all his magic with him regardless of how light he was packing for the trip.

He scratched his cheekbone then, frowning and meeting Reno's eye.

"You know, ah... if you need a Cure spell..." And then he sort of shrugged, leaving the rest of the offer implied. Axel wasn't a Nice Guy, really, but... well, he wasn't not a nice guy. It was just difficult for him to properly articulate an offer to do something nice for someone else without making jokes or just trailing off so he didn't actually have to say it.

[midgarhorizon]

Eyebrow raise. "You mean you know Cure?" This was interesting. "As in, you can cast it-" he broke off.

"Damn, why didn't I have you days ago?" It was still weird, getting used to the idea of people being able to cast magic without the materia. "Yeah, sure, that'd be great." He wasn't about to say no, not when the scratches still burned whenever he moved his arm and he swore he felt infections setting in.

Tugging off the bandages around his arm, he frowned a bit and concentrated on answering the question instead of the pain. "PTSD is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It's an- ow!- mental reaction to traumatic events. Like kidnapping."

[got_it_memorized]

Axel made a bit of a face. "Yeah I know Cure, it's pretty basic training where I come from." He wasn't really bragging, it was just the truth. He'd never used magic before joining the Organization, but Cure had been one of the first things he'd been taught. And it was just as well--learning to play with fire without getting burned was a lot harder than it sounded.

He chortled and shook his head.

"Clearly you just shouldn't be allowed out without a seasoned mage anymore," he said, stifling amusement behind one hand. He waited for Reno to tug the bandages away, and then grimaced a bit at the wounds. Hissing through his teeth, he cast the restorative magic and then absently rubbed at his own arm in something like sympathy pain. Axel was no stranger to injury, but having to deal with how painful those looked for any protracted amount of time just seemed cruel and unusual.

Casting a second round of Cure just to be safe (he was a whiz with Fire and all applicable variations, but his skill with most other magic was mediocre at best), he nodded at the explanation.

"Ah, I see," he said, and then puffed a laugh tinged with a bit of bitterness. "Prolly have a bit of that in my own history, then; now at least I have a name to put with it."

[savedbyasong]

Shion had been given a job as a librarian which meant that he spent a lot of time in the library. He was glad that Reno was here today because it meant he could make sure his roommate wasn't picking any more fights with tower monsters.

The library was big so for the most part Shion was off in far corners of it replacing and organising books, but he came round the corner with a pile of books that were far too heavy for him and staggered to put them down.

"Found anything interesting?"

[midgarhorizon]

Making another face, but this time on purpose, Reno shook his head. "It's all stupid shit. The most I've got is a list of people to avoid. I was hopin' someone had something useful to say about the Tower. Maybe if I checked the archives."

Oh, that was a good chance to ask a question. Shion was a librarian, right? "Hey, do you ever do work in the Research Library? You know, where the History sections are missing?"

[savedbyasong]

Shion lent over him, "Have you seen this?" He went into the archives and pulled up the guide.

He nodded at the question though. "Sometimes." When he had to, it was a bit creepy.

[midgarhorizon]

Staring at the guide, Reno scrunched up one eye. "Never saw it before. This woulda been really helpful when I first got here."

Though, after scanning through it for a moment, he stopped on the subject of death. "Uh, is this right? You can't die here?"

[savedbyasong]

"Sometimes they are left out around the tower, paper versions but the clear collared workers must clear them away because they are never there for long."

He waited while he read through it and blinked at the question. "Yeah..." He felt himself trembling again, it was a subject he really didn't like thinking about. Far too many unanswered questions, far too many things that made absolutely no sense.

"It... feels like death. You still die, stop breathing, but... you just... come back."

[midgarhorizon]

Something told Reno what Shion told him was more than just hearsay.

"You didn't-?"

Hearing that someone couldn't die here, even if that was a fluke or it was the Tower just messing with him even more, that just flat out floored the turk. If death didn't exist here, why have monsters about or dangerous things about the Tower?

One thing he would never admit to anybody was that in reality he was afraid of dying. It was what made him cautious in his dealings. But to not have that to hold him back.

Reno's mind was churning by now.

[savedbyasong]

Shion looked down and nodded, "I've died four times since I got here... I don't... don't understand why it is not permanent..." He was trembling now and he stopped trying to make himself calm down. Permanent or not it had still been painful and terrifying.

It should be reassuring, that they couldn't die. But somehow it wasn't, the idea that anything could happen and they could die over and over again, terrified him.

[midgarhorizon]

Four times. Shion wasn't the type of guy to lie, not at all. Hearing him say these things gave Reno a very odd feeling of disconnect.

"That isn't right. A body dies once it's broken."

That was probably what scared him the most, and the feeling of disconnect grew stronger with his own words. Wasn't there a theory he had mentioned as a joke some weeks ago?

"It should be the same here..."

[capax_infiniti]

While he preferred the research library on the nineteenth floor, every now and then Xehanort would return down to the more basic one on the third floor. A bit of catch-up reading, lighter and more relaxing. Learning new things - sometimes there were random gaps in his impressive knowledge. After all, knowing how to tie a shroud knot or a bowline could come in handy.

Seeing the young redhead hunched over his terminal, making bizarre faces, is enough to give the older man pause. While he'd seen the terminals he'd dismissed them at first as being unnecessary. Were they perhaps a more detailed research device? It was curious. This fellow didn't seem to enjoy his work, if his expressions were any indication. He also seemed a bit roughed up, as though he'd run into trouble somewhere.

"Is there something you're looking for?" he asked, pleasantly enough.

[midgarhorizon]

The voice startled Reno enough to make him jump slightly and look up. It was just a slight start, almost like he forgot the rest of the Tower existed for the moment. "Not in particular. Just looking around on the network. It's pretty much the only thing that's got any history around here."

[capax_infiniti]

It's as though Reno has said the magic word. A pleased, almost hungry look crosses Xehanort's face, and he gestures towards the terminal Reno's looking at. "If I may, would I be able to read with you? The complete lack of history is rather aggravating."

[midgarhorizon]

This guy seemed harmless, but that look almost made him say no. Still, there wasn't any harm in it as far as he saw, so he shrugged. Maybe this guy came from a world where computers didn't exist. "Yeah, go ahead. Should be chairs around here. I can't guarantee there's anything good on here."

[capax_infiniti]

"Thank you, young man. Anything with history in it can't be all that bad." He goes over to one of the sitting chairs, picking it up easily in one hand, before returning to set it off to the side a bit, not so close as to be leaning over Reno's shoulder, but still close enough that the screen is visible. "Some new reading material would be nice."

[midgarhorizon]

Focusing back on the terminal, Reno continued clicking through the archive, skimming stuff. His plan was to go back as far as the terminal would let him and go from there. That is, until his hand slipped and brought this on screen.

"...the hell is this?"

[capax_infiniti]

Sorry, Reno, have a 'Nort all up in your space, though it's not intentional. He just wants to see this madness.

"Fascinating... a technical issue? Somehow it seems there must have been more going on."

[midgarhorizon]

"It doesn't look like any technical issue I've ever seen..." Reno frowns at the junk on screen, and maybe shifting a bit away from Xehanort. "The networks back home never had 'em, anyway. Unless things work different here I can't see this network being that different."