towerofanimus | (no subject)

Characters: [OU] Master Xehanort, and anyone else who happens to come his way.
Setting: Choose your location.
Format: Will follow whatever you do.
Summary: Catch-all loose threads/CR aggregate post with a variety of amusing options.
Warnings: Standard Xehanort disclaimer applies.

Floor Seven
[The water here doesn't smell fresh or clean, it smells like astringent chemicals and reflects the surreal light blue of the paint lining the pool's basin. Still, it's something he hasn't done in a while. The Tower is all about trying different things to while away time, so perhaps it's time to revisit that period of his childhood where he practically lived in the water.

Thankfully, swimsuits are available and in plentiful supply, so finding one that fits isn't too difficult. He stretches a little bit before diving into the pool almost elegantly. Muscle memories, perhaps. He splashes around a bit, getting used to the strange quality to the water - he assumes from those chemicals they use to keep it clean for public use - before starting to swim properly. His strokes are even, although his leading arm droops a bit due to lack of practice.

After a couple laps, he does notice the odd branches off, hints of something new to explore. Why not indulge a bit, as he's already started... He never did any proper diving, but with a bit of magic, holding his breath shouldn't be too much of a problem.]

Floor Fourteen
[He's managed to find a corner to himself, playing one of the games while perched on a chair with his back straight, frighteningly good posture for something so casual as playing a game. He's intent on what he's doing, pressing the buttons with precision, a look of intense concentration lining his face.

It's such a strange hobby to have gotten into, but it's one that works on reflexes and timing and reactions, all things that are important to keep sharp. This is its own form of training in a way.]

Floor Nineteen
[He pores slowly over a rather decrepit tome, gloved fingers carefully holding the corners of pages. This book is one of his favourites, one filled with the complex magical runes of some long-dead civilization. It's something he's been working through slowly, and while he has a great many of his prized books he doesn't have all of the ones he was using to help him break the complex codes.

He's never backed down from a challenge, though, and while his progress has slowed, he's still made it. It's a good way to pass time, especially when the mazes and other features of the tower simply don't satisfy. There's not a lot of ways to further his own learning, so sometimes he simply must take matters into his own hands and challenge himself.]

Floor Twenty-Four
[He doesn't realize how lucky he is. He's simply staring at the walls of the apparently empty room, tapping them curiously every now and them as if searching for something.]

Floor Thirty-Three
[He's stooped over, examining the soil. It's dark and rich and loamy, perfect for growing things. While he's not terribly interested in such things himself, he's sure that others will find the land suitable. It's quiet, though, and being outdoors is comfortingly familiar. Even in desolate places such as the Keyblade Graveyard, feeling the wind and the sun at his back gave him a sense of progression.]

Anywhere else?
[Perhaps you cross paths between floors, or on your way somewhere else. He's not hard to miss, walking at his familiar, even gait while he counts his steps, hands clasped behind his back, yellow eyes intently studying everything around him. He doesn't seem to be in a hurry, though, so perhaps engaging him isn't a problem.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...after the various and sundry horrors of the tower that she's both seen and been told about, coming upon a seemingly empty room is still quite a jarring event. Tara has passed through this floor a couple of times already, but almost always at a fast walk or a run. There's something about it she doesn't like.

So finding Xehanort here is unexpected, and she stops at the base of the stairs, staring at him for several seconds. The fact that he looks to her to be searching for a secret door, much like she had on her first day, advances the possibility that he's not actually an outright threat.

"...w-what are you looking for?"

He turns at the sound of her voice. Ah, someone he doesn't recognize. It seems new people come in spurts and bursts at times, and he's been meeting a few of them lately. Not that he minds... those without preconceived notions of who he is are a high commodity.

"A sign or clue of what this floor's true purpose or intent is. It's highly unlikely that it is simply an empty, harmless place."

"Hope springs eternal."

Tara had been hoping that it was something like the garden, only much less nice, where at least there were no monsters. But it isn't even being used as storage. A room that's simply empty does stand out...

Tara marches for the opposite wall, putting her back to Xehanort. Once she has, she'll cast the same spell she cast on her first day, when she made it to the first floor and found no way out. It should unlock any locked door in the vicinity, but...again, she feels nothing.

"...i-if there's anything secret, though, it's...pretty well hidden."

He watches her from the corner of her eye, noting that she seems to be using some sort of magic - although the effect of which he does not know. Perhaps some sort of scanning or detection magic, based on her reply...

"Indeed," he responds. "Our magic will not help us in this case. We must rely on our own mundane senses and instincts."

Tara flinches very slightly at his reply, mentally kicking herself. Mundane senses and intuitions. She did still have those, after all. Magic was just...so much more reliable, than she herself was.

"I-I'm not...I-I don't really have, um, good senses. O-Or instincts."

Even so, she begins to run her hands over the wall, stepping carefully, trying to do as she had noticed Xehanort doing.

He laughs quietly. He's noticed that many people who are skilled at magic are so at the cost of their non-magical abilities.

"It seems to be a commonality. It's no matter. Perhaps you are fortunate to have not been in a situation where you cannot use your magic to assist you..."

He slows his movements down, more deliberately, so that she can see what he's doing and extrapolate the reasoning for it. How he taps on the walls and runs the tips of his fingers over them, his feet gliding carefully around without leaving the floor in order to feel for seams or weak spots. Precise steps in order to make measurable footsteps to count in a mental map.

Tara stops.

...she hasn't, has she? She's never had to be without her magic. It's always been there, a part of her, her strength. For most of her life, she had the advantage of control, and even after...

"M-Maybe I am," she murmurs quietly.

After that, she watches Xehanort carefully for a few seconds. She sees what he's doing, and she extrapolates the reason for it. It's one of Tara's scant few skills, watching. Maybe she should have been a Watcher.

Finally, she goes back to helping him search, mimicking his techniques with more surety this time. It's a few seconds more before she speaks again.

"I'm T-Tara. I-It's, um...nice to meet you."

He observes her movements, ensuring that they're satisfactory, before going back to his own. He doesn't mention that he's already done the area she's doing... it would be a better test of her abilities, if she could find something he could not. At any rate, it would be vageuly mollifying for her to engage in those motions.

"Xehanort," he replied simply. "A pleasure to meet another one confined here... and another practitioner of the Arts."

"Y-Yeah. I mean, a lot more people seem to know about magic here than back home, but I, I haven't really met anyone else besides...um, besides a friend of mine that can use it."

He reminds her a bit of Giles, in that regard. Giles hadn't had much power of his own, but he had known a lot about magic and he had been able to use it if he'd had to.

"So, um, h-have you been here long? I mean, I just didn't see why you'd be exploring here, if you'd been here f-for a while."

"Some worlds, magic is fairly common. Others, one must have specific parentage or be suitably trained or other such means to wield it." Xehanort's words were dismissive, as such things were fairly standard knowledge to him.

"Ah, I've been here two months, by the reckoning of this place's calendar. However, floors like this do not shed their mystery so easily. Surely there is something more to it than simply an empty floor...

"...do you want there to be?"

No, it probably wasn't just an empty floor. But, privately, Tara thought that it would be nice if it was. She'd met more than her fair share of monsters already.

"I, I mean...we're so high up, it probably wouldn't be an exit."

The actual result doesn't matter to him so much as the knowing, and he makes a sweeping gesture with his hand as he speaks.

"What I want is simply to know. As most floors have some secret or quirk to them, it only seems appropriate that this one does too. Like many others, it will not so easily manifest itself... and thus one must dig a bit deeper."

Tara only nods - she can certainly respect a motivation like that, even if, privately, she doubts that the secrets of this room will manifest itself as anything half as easy as a secret door or a trap door.

She keeps searching, working her way slowly and conscientiously around the wall to eventually join Xehanort.

Of course not, but getting others potentially interested means that when the floor does manifest its true nature, someone may be there to see it.

He stops, letting her finish up, casting a quick look around the room before turning to smile at her.

"I thank you for your assistance, young lady."

And, in this particular case, someone eventually will.

"Y-You're welcome. I'm, I'm glad I could help." She smiles, hesitantly happy with her progress, even if nothing had come of it. "Well, um...good luck! And, and stay safe!"

With that, Tara will give Xehanort a tiny wave before continuing on, up the steps and back up to her rooms.

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Floor Twenty Four

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