towerofanimus | Third Fragment

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Third Fragment | Open to All

Characters: AU Terra and whoever crosses his path
Setting: Multiple! [Floor 1] the Kitchen, [Floor 3] the Library, [Floor 14] the Media Room, [Floor 6] - Night time, the Forest
Summary: [1] Just preparing lunch, now that there's actually food to do it with. And much to the surprise of, strangely enough, himself, he actually knows what he's doing. It's like riding a bike; you never really forget.
[2] Terra's looking for something interesting to read, and actually finds more than he bargained for.
[3] No chance getting bored in here, that's for sure! Might as well see what's available.
[4] Rusty. He's too rusty, even after a year or more in the Realm of Darkness. Time to get some practice in.
Format: I'll start in [Action], but I'm willing to follow your lead.
Warnings: Um... Not sure. Keyderp stuff, likely. If Xehanort or Xigbar show up, they're their own warnings.

[1]

[Anyone stopping by the cafeteria will be quick to note the sounds and smells of someone at work in the kitchen. Anyone curious enough to take a peak will find a tall, dark-haired man wearing a black hooded coat at work, a knife in hand as he continues to prepare ingredients and an oddly relaxed look on his face.

It actually looks like he knows what he's doing, and he seems to be 'in the zone', as it were, though it won't take much to draw him out of it if you want to know what he's making.]

[2]

[Terra has stopped by this library before a few times since his re-arrival, and today was no different. As strange as it might be to those who knew him, he was finding himself enjoying the quiet of the place. With his lack of knowledge about a vast number of the topics that are written about, he's happy to spend a few hours reading one of the many volumes.

It's a carry-over from his 'Apprentice' days, but not a terrible one. He vaguely remembers someone always telling him he should crack open a book more.

As he's searching the shelves, he comes across something... odd. A set of bound papers without a proper cover. Curiosity getting the better of him, he pulls the set of what appear to be research notes off the shelf, settles in at one of the many tables, and begins to read...]

[3]

[It was good to know that if he ever became bored with the library, this floor offered a good alternative. It still isn't quite what Terra has been searching for these past few days, but maybe watching one of those movies or listening to music would be a good way to unwind after training.

Once he finds a good place to do that. For now, he'll be looking at each of the game consoles, seeing what's available for them.]

[4]

[Night is falling, and the more dangerous forms of wildlife on the forest floor are starting to become more active. If anyone should enter the forest, they can follow the sounds of crackling and an odd whirring to a tall man in a black coat in the midst of fighting. In one hand is a very peculiar-looking sword, and in the other? A beam of solid red light that looks like the blade of a light-saber, but lacking in any sort of visible hilt.

He's surprisingly fast, all things considered, and looks like he's handling himself well enough. But the night is just starting, and things will only get worse from here. Does he really want to be out in the tower this late?]

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[Oh man, even though it had been a good week of relatively normal food (at least for the tower), the thought of some actual food was still pretty enticing after the month of having to fend for himself.

Ven was a naturally nosy kid, so even if he wasn't gonna get any of that food on his own, he's standing in the kitchen door grinning at this stranger (?) from behind.]

Hey-- what's cooking?

Edited (casually forgets subject lines whoops) 2012-07-14 09:03 (UTC)

[This Ventus didn't know that it was night. He only knew that the animals of the forest had gotten a little more dangerous. Nothing that he can't handle, yet, anyway.

He'd just started to fight the animals when he picks up on the sounds that the other is making. Curiosity gets the better of him -and importantly, Ventus allows it too as he follows the sounds. He tries to not get too close, but close enough to pick out sounds and hopefully identify who this is.

It's easier said that done when one wears a blindfold. But he manages it, somehow.] I didn't know anyone else was here.

_{[So okay, Sayaka has actually gotten more attached to hanging out in the library than she would like to admit. It'd sure ruin her ~carefully cultivated reputation~ of being a non-academic, but, well...

She's a creature of habit, and Sayaka was mostly biding her time until she saw someone she knew. Yes, that's the perfect excuse. ...well, that didn't happen, but she did see a fellow leafing through a set of papers. _{He looked a little familiar, like she'd seen him once, a long while ago...? Ah, probably not.}

Bothering people that are trying to read is another one of her long standing hobbies. Sayaka slips into the open chair opposite of Terra, and leans forward over the table a bit -]}

Reading anything interesting?

*There are miniature piles of books the next table over, along with a cafeteria plate and the lingering ammonia smell of century egg, thankfully somewhat mitigated by the multiple cups of green tea in front of the blond reader. Enoch pauses from reading to roll his neck and rest his eyes a moment, opening them again when he hears movement. He watches Terra sit down with his own book and rubs the back of his neck before starting to sort the book piles to his right by subject. He doesn't think to address the other reader; after all, he's reading.*

[The stranger(?) briefly freezes in place and stops his work. It takes a few seconds before he replies, but when he does?

Ven, you should recognize this voice. It's carefully controlled, like he's trying to maintain his composure, and it's a little rough, like it hasn't been used in some time, but it's still very recognizably Terra's.] Some sort of stuffed flat bread. The recipe looked easy enough.

[The knife gets put back to work, cutting a couple of peeled potatoes into large chunks. There's a hint of a waver in his voice this time, but it's so brief that it could be waved off as just hearing things.] I could make you one, too, if you'd like.

[Note, he hasn't turned around. He doesn't trust himself to not crack if he does. Hearing Ven's voice over the network was one thing; seeing Ven? He won't be able to keep the emotions at bay.]

[He's on the third page when he hears the voice across from him. Looking up, and--

... did Aqua have a younger sister that he didn't remember? Or possibly never knew about? He blinks, before mentally brushing off the shock and visibly forming a half-smile.] Sort of. It's... more 'enlightening' than interesting, though.

[And a little bit horrifying, consider he knows who the author is.]

_{[A sister-from-another-dimension, as it were.]}

What, is it like, someone's philosophy manifesto? Some of the people you meet around here, I wouldn't be surprised if they'd left it laying around.

_{[Mark her genuinely curious. She's never seen anything looking like those papers around before, but then again... ..Sayaka isn't the most observant person]}

Edited (grr typos) 2012-07-15 05:17 (UTC)

Hm... kind of. [How does he explain without letting his own emotions out regarding what he's been reading.]

They're a collection of research reports of a very... questionable nature. [He idly flips through the pages and scowls. Questionable is putting it mildly.]

The first report was written by a man named Ansem the Wise. The rest of these page are written by someone pretending to be him--an apprentice that was in over his head.

[... sounds like he knows the author.]

[ The answer to that question should honestly be no. It's not wise to be out so late, especially amidst all the monsters who roam the area at night.

To him, though, it's familiar ground. He's hunted in the forest many times before, and there's nothing here that intimidates him.

Every now and then, of course, he spots an oddity. This evening is no different as he scopes out the newcomer. It gives him pause, those mismatched blades...

For now, he'll opt to watch from above. ]

So this guy wrote a whole bunch of notes on...something, under the other guy's name? What, was Ansem's first report so awesome he just had to copycat?

_{[She furrows her brow. ..this all sounds kinda ridiculous.]}

So what are they about?

[Shaking his head.] The apprentice was furthering a set of experiment that Ansem had forbidden from continuing. I assume he took his mentor's name for some other reason.

[He flips the bound notes closed and slides them over so she can have a look.] Why don't you see for yourself? They're... hard to explain, to someone that isn't from my home realm.

[That's the biggest understatement ever.]

..Wow, what a way to spite your teacher. 'Screw you, sensei, not only am I gonna do this stuff anyway, I'm gonna do it in your name!'

_{[She carefully flips the bundle open, considering that it would be, pretty awful if the guy handed her these notes just for her to immediately accidentally rip a page.]}

So this is the first one, by the real guy... _{[The talk of darkness and corruption is a discomforting one that's... a little bit close to home. It's surprisingly short, sort of a like a single entry from someone's diary. She continues to the next.]}

[Okay, that got a small laugh out of him.] I'm not sure about this version of the apprentice, but... mine was hoping that he could give credit to the man that inspired him in the first place, and was hoping that his mentor's fears wouldn't come to pass. Unfortunately for the apprentice, there was a reason Ansem the Wise forbade going further with that particular vein of study.

[A quick nod.] You'll notice that the way the writer puts their sentences together changes, and the over-all tone of the entries shifts from contemplative to methodical, almost excited.

[The fighter in question keeps up the pace, the difference in weight between the two very different weapons only a minor hindrance. It's simple enough to tell that he's used to fighting with two extremely light weapons, as he tries to compensate for the weight of the blue blade by reducing the speed of his attacks. The rhythm of what should be a never-ending storm of slashes is thrown off, and the fighter--

Well. He's good at dodging. And teleporting as well, though only a few feet away at a time. With each teleport, that Keyblade is getting held up and a spell of some kind is getting cast through it-- usually a Firaga, but occasionally, the flames act... different. Sometimes the fireball moves at a slow pace through the air, sometimes the fire splits into three and spins around, covering a larger area and hitting multiple enemies at once.

There's too many spell variations for this person to be using Vexen's clever little 'panels'. And then there's the occasional Strike Raid, or Sonic Blade, or variations thereof. There's even a slash attack that takes out a few of them in one quick strike.

It's interesting to watch, at the very least, because of the sheer variety of attacks he's using. But the fight is winding down, and to the observant, it's clear that the fighter, however skilled he might be, is still trying to piece together a cohesive fighting form. His steps sometimes stumble, he hesitates a second or two too long between spells or attacks, the barrier that he throws up occasionally flickers as if unstable.]

That's.. actually really sad.

_{[So the second writer had hopefully set out to find the answers his teacher had wanted, but wouldn't seek. For a minute, she can feel a pang of sympathy for them. They'd gotten in over their head, and...

Then she reads the second report.

It's easy to make the mental comparison from 'heart' to 'soul.' And with that in mind, what's written here is...]}

...

_{[Sayaka rereads it a couple times, trying to trick her mind she'd misread. She hadn't. Despite her current silence, Sayaka's horrified state is easily evident.]}

Mm... it is. The two were close. [Part of why 'the apprentice' had been able to mimic Ansem the Wise well enough that none had been able to tell there were two authors.

Ah... yeah. Grimacing now.] It gets worse, I'm afraid.

[If those reports were anything like the ones he had written while he was 'the apprentice', it was only going to go further downhill.]

[Well, while Terra looks around the media floor, he's sure to find this Riku wandering around and doing... pretty much the same thing! However, when Riku spots Terra, he stops for a moment. Black coat usually means Organization, but he just can't be too sure.]

See anything interesting?

_{[She seriously considers just stopping right here, if it's just going to get worse and worse.

But if she did, the thought of it would just fester in her brain until she gave in and read the rest, wouldn't it?

So Sayaka clams up, until she manages to get to the last page. She blinks at it, for a moment - it felt like that would go on forever, but there's the end.

She's going to... need a while to process all that. Whoever the second writer was, she definitely doesn't feel that sympathy for them anymore. The bit at the end about hearts and souls being different things, about non existent people - well.

Considering he wrote it after changing himself like that, it's pretty easy to dismiss as crazy in favor of the mental jump she'd made before.]}

So in the end, he turned himself into a monster.

_{['Keyblade,' though. That's a word she knows from a friend. Were the writers - and this guy - from the same place as Ven? Considering the kind of trouble Ven had been dragged into before, she's not sure whether she should ask.]}

Edited 2012-07-17 04:52 (UTC)

[The voice hits him almost instantly-- he narrowed his eyes in both suspicion, scrutiny, and interests.] Terra...?

[It hadn't really been that long since he'd seen him, when he thoughts about it. But it still felt like forever. He stepped closer into the kitchen, nonchalantly walking up to stand next to him.] I... didn't know you could cook.

[That was kind of the least weird thing about this situation, but he had to start somewhere.]

[A quiet laugh escapes him before he can even attempt to hold it back.] It caught me off guard at first, too. But it's familiar enough that I can almost remember it clearly; I think Aqua and I used to take turns.

[But he never made dessert. That sticks out, for some reason. Maybe the memory will come back.

Up close, it's easier to tell that he's trying to keep his composure.]

[Just... nodding. There's a grim look on his face now.] Yes. A sentient Heartless, with all of his memories and his sense of self intact. He was extremely dangerous, but so was the shell he abandoned.

[If Xehanort had been the one to leave a greater impression, Xemnas would've been a greater threat than the Seeker of Darkness by far. But that's in the past. He feels he needs to add something.] But... really, that monster always existed within him. It only took the right push to bring it out, and once it was out, it took over.

You... think?

[That... didn't sound quite right. Obvious hardhead jokes aside, these sound like things that Ven would expect from himself, with all the memory shenanigans that had gone on in his life. But Terra...? Why would Terra?

It makes him frown, and just a bit more hesitant than he was before, or than he'd like to be.] What do you mean? You don't remember?

So he split himself into a super dangerous two times jerkwad combo, and gave people even more hell than he did before?

_{[That last thing he said pulls out a bit of dark contemplation from her - a conclusion she'd gathered after recent events already, but seemed to just have more evidence for now.]}

Monsters that are just waiting inside people. Those aren't uncommon. It's pretty sick.

[After the first week back, he really should have expected there to be another person possibly making something as well. So when he finally arrived in the cafeteria to hear and smell something going on in the kitchen, he gives a brief pause before continuing on. After all, it would be rude not to at least say hello since he was... going to at least try and work in the same place, yet give the other space.]

...Hello. [a pause] What are you making?

[A pause -- enough of one that he has to put the knife down, and a sigh.] I think your memory's in better shape than mine right now, Ven. The last several years haven't been very kind to me.

[Understatement of the decade, but he's not about to dump exposition on what feels like the Ven in his fragmented memory. With how this place took people from different times and universes, it very well could be that Ven.

Even more of a reason to keep his mouth shut about the last decade.]

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Page 1 of 3

Third Fragment | Open to All

[1] Kitchen

4 and up for sparing if it heads that way.

[2] Library

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[4] Floor 6

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[1] Kitchen buddies? c:

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