Keeping a clear head

[savedbyasong]

Characters: Shion and open
Setting: Mailroom, graveyard, forest
Format: either!
Summary: Elena is gone, Shion slips further down the not okay scale and breaks a little bit more
Warnings: beserkness


[Mailroom]

Shion,

If you are getting this, then I am no longer in the Tower. I wish I could have remained to continue to train you and Xion, but it appears the Admins had other things in mind.

You have a strength in you that you should be proud of, and with Reno's training you will be able to defend those you love and care about. You are a Turk and you have been trained by the best. Remember to always keep calm, keep a clear head, and you will go far.

To be honest, I wasn't sure if Reno made a good decision in making you a Rookie. I'm glad to see that I was very wrong. Be good to Xion and watch over her for me. You two are partners, you can and should rely on one another during times of trouble and crisis.

I am very proud to have known you.

~Elena

Shion stood reading the letter, twice, three times, six times until the words were seared into his mind. Elena was gone... She couldn't be gone, it just wasn't possible. He refused to believe it, but had to make sure, and so he slipped the note into his pocket and made his way to the graveyard.

[Graveyard] So it was true, of course it was true. Elena wouldn't have sent such a thing as a joke, though he had hoped it was some kind of cruel trick. Tears came to his eyes but he swallowed hard.

"How can I protect them." He asked her grave. Reno, Rat, Safu, his mum... All people he loved and cared about, far out of his reach. How could he protect any of his friends... Even the one's already here. How could he protect them from cruelty worse than any he had seen in West Town, from people more powerful than gods.

He shook his head and turned away. "I've already failed."

[Forest] Keep calm, keep a clear head. Shion gathered food silently, picking out mushrooms and berries. More than enough for him and Xion, there were others that would need food too. He had to keep going, he touched his Turk pin. Even if it was hopeless he owed Reno that much. He couldn't give up.

As he searched for food anger rose in him, they had taken another of his friends, sent them to be alone in a world devoid of life. Another soul they had just given up on. "If you're going to imprison us, then at least keep us here." He spoke to the air and kicked a tree. His anger finding form as his hands balled into fists and he punched the bark.

His fists were soon bloody but he didn't stop, there was no one to hurt for hurting his friends but himself, and the trees but he couldn't stop the anger, it swirled around him and he was powerless to stop it.

Comments

Forest

[justabignobody]

Riku doesn't like entering this - or any other floor that leaves him magic and keyblade-less - unless he has to (though this particular one is preferable over quite a few others), and given that he been successfully fishing today already...

Still, he freezes right as he passes by thanks to the scent of the darkness that suddenly rolls over him just before he enters the floor, a sharp-bitter taste lingering on the back of his tongue... a taste he knows only all too well. Anger. That by itself wouldn't be so unusual - there are plenty things to get angry at in this place - but there is something familiar about this particular scent... familiar enough for Riku to know he's met them before, but not familiar enough to place it.

It's certainly familiar enough to spark his curiosity, to keep him from skipping the floor like he usually would and make him wander it until he finds the other - not that much of a challenge, given how much noise he is making - and for a moment, Riku just stands there and takes in the scene.

Now that he is seeing him, he has no trouble recognizing him as the kid that is close friends with Xion, he's almost go the name...

"...Shion?"

[savedbyasong]

Shion barely heard him through his anger but his name being called did make him turn around.

"Riku?" Not someone he knew very well, but one of Xion's friend. That was enough to give him pause. "Is Xion alright?"

[justabignobody]

Well... at least he's stopped punching the tree; his hands really don't look all that good, not from what Riku can glimpse.

It's certainly enough to make a spark of worry flash over his face. As for his question...

"I haven't seen her yet today."

Though given how Shion is acting...

"...Did anything happen?"

[savedbyasong]

Hopefully she was alright, Shion needed to find her... but he couldn't, not while he was this angry.

"Elena's gone." His voice was scarily calm, and he turned back to punch the tree some more.

[justabignobody]

He shouldn't, really... Riku's only sensed it for a moment, but it's been long enough for him to know that it's the kind of anger that's not only unhealthy, but downright dangerous. He'll deal with that in a second.

But for now. Riku closes his eyes at the news - he hadn't been close to Elena, but he had liked her well enough, had trusted her enough to ask her to help watching over Xion after Reno... well. Had turned out unsuitable for the job. It always hurts when someone disappears from the tower, though the blow is certainly lighter on him than it has been on Shion... than it will be on Xion when she finds out - he makes note to definitely seek her out once he's done here, but for now he has to stay.

Shion is her friend after all, and given what he's sensed before and is seeing now of his state of mind, leaving him by himself just won't do. He sighs quietly and then walks up to the other, carefully reaching to put his hand on the other's shoulder, like he'd usually do it with Xion or Naminé.

"...Hurting yourself like this won't make you feel better. It won't bring her back either."

forest

[fusedstars]

'Take care of them,' the last words in that message he got from Elena. So the tower wouldn't even let the Them grieve. Clearly a bad thing now, given how she was torn from people that cared for her. And now he was left with those words and the Materia. It was already a challenge to take care of himself and Kirika, but he couldn't just not follow her wishes. He owed it to Elena, and to himself if he really wanted to aid the tower. For now, he had hoped hunting for food might lead him to one of them.

Luckily it had.

He jumped down from the trees, grabbing Shion's hands before he did anything else. "That'd enough, Shion. Hurting your hands won't help."

[savedbyasong]

Shion lashed out, too far gone in his anger to recognise anything other than someone was grabbing him and he had to stop them grabbing him. He kicked out. "Let me go."

[fusedstars]

"Shion, it's me, Hei--" Hei moved to the side, dodging the kick, and quickly growing irritated. He wasted no time in trying to pin the boy down to the ground, leg moving to sweep Shion to accomplish that.

[savedbyasong]

Usually he would take him down easily, but Shion was angry and Hei had turned into a good alternative to trees. He fell but continued fighting, trying to get at Hei's throat.

Graveyard

[lightofhumanity]

You have not failed them.

[If Shion was to turn around, he would see chaos without his smile. He had come here to mourn his friends and think back once again, but when he saw Shion in despair and agony, he couldn't just walk by and know that he had left the person in anguish.]

If your friends are missing and gone, then you have to fulfill their lasts requests and protect the things that remain that you do care for.

[savedbyasong]

"But they will all go. They always go." Everyone left eventually, how could he protect people who weren't here.

[lightofhumanity]

"Not always. Even here, there will always be people who will stay by your side through it all. And, if it seems that you have lost a person like that, you will always find a new one, if you keep your spirits up."

[savedbyasong]

"You can't just replace people." Shion told him, but listened to his words, Xion was still here, and Equius, Chihiro, Xue'kol, he still had friends... One's who needed him.

forest

[marriedthebloke]

[Sola-ui had come to the forest for some peace and quiet, but it had been destroyed by the noise of something impacting against the trees. She carefully walks closer to take a look, just in case it was a monster of some sort. When she sees Sion, she watches with a disgusted expression as the boy abuses his fists by throwing them against the three. Finally, she can't help but speak up.]

Even for training, that's a little much, don't you think?

[savedbyasong]

[Shion glanced at the woman who was watching him, and went back to his punching.] It's not training.

[marriedthebloke]

Then what is it?

[savedbyasong]

I don't know.

Graveyard

[warriorscribe]

*It was easy for other people to see these markers as representing people who are gone.

For Enoch, they represented people who are alone. Even if he didn't know what the person named looked like, he would still imagine someone in their ruined world, unable to distance himself from his task.

It was far too personal, now, to ignore. Gone were the days where he would loiter on this floor to comfort mourners. But it was the loitering that was gone, not the comfort. Someone here and now needed help.

Enoch pushed his rain-soaked hair from his eyes as he approached Shion.

"It couldn't be helped...you can hope for the best. They'll find them again."

[savedbyasong]

Shion blinked at the blonde man who had spoken, and stared back at the grave, "The best is a difficult thing to hope for when I don't know what the best would entail."

[warriorscribe]

"The best for now...is as I said, that they will find them again, and bring them back."

The best for them, at least. With any luck, they'll be able to escape the tyranny of this tower as well...

[savedbyasong]

Shion nodded, "When being in this place is the best case scenario, it is a wonder we have any hope left at all."

Forest

[evokingfool]

With the cafeteria's menu selection for the month, Minato has been going out and gathering food he can cook with. Non-poisonous mushrooms, edible herbs and plants, fruits and hunting down animals with good meat. On other days, he would try fishing, but he's still learning which fish were edible.

As he walked, he heard a faint sound and followed it. Followed it until he saw Shion punching a tree.

"...Hello?"

[savedbyasong]

Shion heard the voice and it made him pause for a moment, he turned and stared at the boy. Before turning back to punch the tree again.

[evokingfool]

Minato walked over to Shion, watching him punch the tree. Now that he's closer, he can see the other boy was punching without any protections on his fists, judging from the unmistakeable blood.

"...When you're done, take care of your hands."

[savedbyasong]

He paused again, and blinked at the man like he was speaking another language, and then looked at his hands in confusion.