towerofanimus | Sleepover before the storm

Entry tags:

Sleepover before the storm

Characters: [OU] Xion, Excalibur, and whoever comes
Setting: Floor 101
Format: Whatever floats your boat
Summary: It's the night before the infiltration. People are plotting, discussing, and Xion has brought a Dream Eater so those who want to try to get a good night's sleep have a marginally higher chance of doing so. So in short it's a Tower-flavored sleepover. Bring your own pillows.
Warnings: Nothing in the top level. Will try to edit if anything changes but if something comes up in one of your threads make sure to add a warning in the subject line

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[Standard mingle post procedure. Make your top levels. Tag around. Have fun. Or not, this is Animus after all.

Notes will have been passed out and quiet discussion gone around by word of mouth, just saying that several people were spending the night in the hidden floor. Anybody who spoke to Xion would have been told that she's trying to figure out a way everybody can get a good night's sleep. You'll need to supply your own blankets and pillows but... hey, at least if you have trouble sleeping, you'll have company?

Note that any characters who sleep on the Hidden Floor, if they normally suffer from nightmares will likely have notably lessened or absent nightmares (up to your discretion) owing to the Dream Eater that Xion has brought with.]

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[Xion hesitates. No one... she can really remember has ever made a big deal about it before. Unless... did he think she didn't have enough experience, or something? Because of the mistake she made... like Reno said, she needed to read more into things behind what people said... And other mistakes like that. Because of who and what she was, not having the experience that others might...

She's confused, and a little worried and self-concious.]

Why?

[Waver shrugged, trying to play his concern off as nothing as he lit a cigarette.]

...I just don't particularly care for the idea of children walking headlong into danger like this. It would still bother me even if you were as old as I'd assumed you were, frankly.

[Xion... doesn't really know how to reply to that. On some level, she knows there's probably... something to what he's saying. And yet... it's true, what she said. Nobody's ever cared before.

The worlds she comes from are messed up in a lot of ways, and children being sent - whether by choice like the Organization or pure lack of other options like many of the others - to decide the fate of the universe was one of them.]

We're all in danger here though, every day.

[If they're going to be in danger anyway, why not... do something productive with it. If they're going to die, die for a reason, like seeing Jason's true form, rather than by accident or cornered by some monster]

I'm aware of that. Even so, you shouldn't have to to put yourself in worse danger than that. Honestly, none of us should, but that's just the shit situation we're stuck in.

[Xion frowns. There's nothing she really can say, because... she agrees. Really. But, as he said... it's part of their reality right now. All she can try to do is reassure that... that he maybe can worry a little less than he feels he needs to]

I guess... I'm used to it. I... even back home, I was doing stuff like this. Maybe... not quite this dangerous but...

[Missions, fighting.]

It's not any of my business, so maybe I shouldn't be poking around like this. But the whole thing just sounds...unfair. Why would you even be doing anything like that?

[Xion hesitates a little, waiting a few moments as she considers whether to speak or not. He already knows about her being three though... Reno trusted him with that. That meanas she can too, right?]

Back on my worlds, there's a special weapon called the Keyblade. It... here.

[Normally she might not have done it, in these more close quarters, but she only just recently got her true powers back, and to some extent there was an element of awe at summoning her Keyblade. Her real one. Even if it was just Sora's...

She summons Kingdom Key in a flash of light, careful to keep it clear of hitting anyone. She holds it up in the air, seeming half-mesmerized by it, before slowly letting it go again.]

They're really rare, and group called the Organization wanted to control one. At the time, the only normal one was a boy named Sora. [She says Sora's name so reverently, and her voice is infinitely sad as she continues.] There... Sora was here, until just a little while ago. Maybe you saw him. He has spiky hair, and he's always friendly to everyone.

[She cares a lot about him, okay? But, she is digressing... She shakes her head.]

But... they couldn't control him. So... they made me and found Roxas instead.

[She pauses there. Since.. this story is a long one]

[...That was a bit much to process. Giant key, first of all. It looked like an impractical weapon, but considering Waver himself used a maid of liquid mercury he was probably in something of a glass house on that one. If it was so special on her world, he decided just to take that at face value and not question why it was something that unusual.]

[Besides, as Xion continued there were far more important things that caught his attention.]

So you're basically a homunculus...not surprising. We have something similar on my world, but it isn't a common or simple practice to create one. I've only read about the subject myself.

What happened after that?

Replicas. [She corrects him, then adds.] At least... that's what we're called on my world.

[For this next part, she has to explain some things.]

The Organization is a group of Nobodies. Nobodies are... people who lost their heart to the Heartless. The Organization says that their goal is to collect hearts from the Heartless and use them to make Kingdom Hearts. Then, they'll be able to get their hearts back and be real people again.

[Her mouth tightens into a grimace]

That's not what they really want. At least... that's not what Xemnas wants. I don't know what it is, but... I saw enough, in the mirror.

The Keyblade is special because when we destroy a Heartless with it, it releases the hearts they had. Anything else, the heart just turns into another Heartless somewhere else.

As early as I can really remember, they were training me and sending me on missions to collect hearts, especially after I got the Keyblade. They told me I was a Nobody too. I couldn't really remember anything at first... so I didn't know what to do but believe them. After missions, I would spend a lot of time with my friends, Roxas and Axel. Things... were okay for a while, mostly, but... then the started to go wrong.

I started getting memories that I thought were mine, but really weren't. Memories that just made everything confusing. Finally I ran away to try to find out what was going on.

[She lifts a hands and covers her heart with them]

I found out they were Sora's memories, not mine. I found out what I really was, just a puppet, and that I was made with his memories. For a while, I didn't know what to do. The Organization didn't care about bringing me back either, because they still had Roxas, and some of them thought I was just a mistake.

[Finding out that the Organization had lied had been bad enough, but on top of everything else... it'd felt like everything she'd known had been thrown into question]

...That's so fucked up on more levels than I can count that I don't even know where I should begin.

[Waver pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing in exasperation.]

What a fucking mess. Alright, let me start with the least of a long list of questions I find rapidly growing. What the hell is a Kingdom Hearts, and what constitutes 'not having a heart' on your world?

[And of course you happened to ask the questions to the person least able to answer]

Kingdom Hearts is... I... I don't really know. To us, it always looked like a big heart-shaped moon, that got bigger as Roxas and I collected more hearts. There's... a lot more to it than that though... I think. I... [She hesitates. This is mirror impressions coming into play. They're vague though.]

I think... it's not the only one? Or maybe not the real one... [She shakes her head] They never... never really explained to us. To Roxas and me.

I'm not... really sure about hearts either. Axel would always tell Roxas and I we'd understand better when we had them. They told us though, that because we didn't have hearts, we didn't actually exist, and couldn't feel anything.

[There's a strong measure of skepticism in her voice at that last point in particular.]

Heartless attack people with them, too. I don't... know why. But there are some Heartless, here in the Tower. Darkballs, Neoshadows... I... I think I might've seen an Invisible once, at night. I didn't stay and look though. None of those are the ones that release hearts when they're destroyed, though.

...I think I understand the concept. [Possibly. Odds were good it was the metaphysical 'heart' and not the literal one she was talking about. Unless there were those in her world that could live without the latter. After a year in the Tower, Waver wouldn't count out that possibility.]

What I don't understand, if it's quite alright I ask a little more: If this weapon is so important, why just...disregard you? [The tone Waver took suggested he was less than fond of the idea.] Not that I'm arguing in favor of working for what sounds like a group straight out of an insane asylum, but why consider someone with a weapon as rare as you say a 'mistake'?

[Xion looks down.]

The Organization had Roxas. Roxas is Sora's Nobody, so... he could use the Keyblade too.

Besides, I... He was better than I was. I kept failing missions, and there was one time where I even lost my ability to lose the Keyblade, for a while.

[What she doesn't mention - or in some circumstances even believe - is that in general she was likely being treated as more expendable. Not to mention the amount of memory interference.]

So long as they had him, they didn't need me.

That's so absurdly fucking stupid I'm not sure I have an appropriate phrase for it.

[Goddamn videogames and their child soldiers.]

I probably should have kept my mouth shut about the whole thing rather than get you to tell me all that--sorry if it's something you'd rather not have spoken about.

It's... it's okay, really. [She's not sure it really is, but it's reflex to say it.] Besides, things here... they've been worse, but... they've been better too.

[She pulls her pillow up into her lap and wraps her arms around it.]

Here... is my best chance. I have friends and family here. I have a future. I... I don't want to lose that, or mess it up.

That's why I have to go tomorrow. To make sure.

...I get it.

[It still didn't sit right with him to let a three-year-old fight, homunculus or otherwise. But in the end he had no right or concrete reason to, least of all when she pointed that out.]

I probably can't understand how you're feeling to any proper extent, but I get the idea. I guess there's nothing I can do to change your mind...so I'll just step aside and accept it.

[Xion nods, smiling a little sadly]

Thank you. [beat] I will try to be careful.

[Not so much that it might cost them their chance to do something real, she hopes but. She'll try. Slowly a hand snakes over to rub at Excalibur's side. The dream eater stretches and makes a soft noise of appreciation.]

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Sleepover before the storm

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