01

[requital]

Characters: Zexion, open
Setting: Dorm 1-08 → Floor Three → Dining hall
Format: Action brackets to start, following with either
Summary: Zexion arrives, sniffs around, hits the library, sniffs some more, then eats oatmeal.
Warnings: None

[Zexion awakes, waits for the sleep paralysis to pass, reads the letters, then promptly prepares himself with the trunks' possessions and departs for the third floor. A multitude of scents assault his nose on the way. There are many in the Tower; some are familiar, including a few whose names are on the tip of his tongue, but most are new. He proceeds with care and caution so as to avoid being seen.

Seating himself before a network terminal deep on the third floor, he burrows into the backlogs. Never mind the books. It's imperative that he learn as much as possible while unable to utilize the Corridors of Darkness to a worldly extent, and the library provides a more private atmosphere than the halls of the dormitory. A great deal of time passes. He reads and listens in silence, pausing for the heavier information to sink in as he balances the new-found knowledge. Certainly, with all this rich (yet unreliable) information floating around in public, he can inwardly justify the impossible presence of certain scents and why some seem different. Even his.

He spares an hour or two for the bookshelves and finds nothing of significant worth.

Then he's back on the first floor, seated so casually in a corner of the dining hall, bowl of oatmeal in tow, that he appears inconspicuous upon initial glance, except he's anything but with his dark style of dress and flat expression.]

Comments

Floor Three

[lethechained]

[Naminé has, during her time in the tower, come to find the library a pleasant place to visit. There are countless books to entertain and instruct as well as comfortable seating and lots of out-of-the-way places tucked between the shelves where one might feel relatively safe. It's become her favorite place to draw; there, she has space and solitude and comfort, without any of the unsettling things that are present on other, similar floors.]

[Let's see how long that lasts, hm?]

[Today, Naminé makes her way through the library as she often does, sketchbook and box of colored pencils clutched to her chest while she takes quiet steps between the aisles of bookshelves, totally oblivious to the presence of an unpleasantly familiar arrival from home. She doesn't have his sense of smell, she isn't using her powers to seek out the hearts and minds of others, and she can't see him through the shelves, so her travel continues uninterrupted and she remains unaware of him even as she grows ever closer.]

[requital]

[Although this is a scent he hasn't picked up in many months, it is one he can put a name to almost immediately and doesn't bother confronting right away. Her status as a traitor has been long established, but she's neither of significance nor of harm at this point. Especially here.

It's curious. According to her responses on the network, she'd last been in The World That Never Was after claiming to be from Twilight Town. She never went there on the Organization's notice -- not that he's aware of, anyway -- and she went missing sometime during his debacle with Axel, which leads to one conclusion . . .

Once she's close, perhaps a shelf away, he speaks up.]

After all that it took to escape the Organization, why did you return to the castle? Naminé.

[lethechained]

[The sound that she makes as she stops short upon first hearing his voice is quiet, but obviously distressed. She freezes, in more ways than one; her muscles immediately arrest all movement, and a profound chill fills her from head to toe. She wishes she could lie to herself, tell herself she was just hearing things, but she's not much of a liar, and she heard him loud and clear. She's long been aware of Ienzo's presence, and although she still has not fully accepted that he means no harm, she's at least gotten more relaxed. Her fears have been directed at the actions of the tower, not the Organization and the possibility of their involvement or arrival. Perhaps she's gotten too comfortable here, to have been so thoroughly taken unawares. Her eyes are wide and fearful when she finally begins to move again and turns swiftly in search of the source of the voice.]

[requital]

[He isn't about to round the shelf between them just for her sake. Not yet. Zexion doesn't need to see the girl to continue talking to her, and if she says or does something, he'll hear it. At times, however, like now, he doesn't even need to use his ears to guess what she's up to. He can practically sniff the fear, which, as a primal reaction, isn't entirely unheard of for a Nobody, special or not.

Folding his arms, he glazes over the titles on his side. He'll just have to keep talking. Throw in a calculated guess.]

Was it because of Sora?

[lethechained]

[It's easy enough to figure out where he is by the sound of his voice. Even once she's done so, she doesn't move from her spot. She's still too used to being unable to escape, to being at the mercy of the Organization. Her shoulders rise, and she holds her drawing materials more tightly.]

How do you know about that? [Not the part about it being because of Sora, the part about her going back to the castle. It comes out sounding at least a little less distressed than she looks.]

[requital]

Research.

[The network boasts a great deal of useful information, personal and in relation to the Tower, and that's exactly what he took advantage of. He's going to leave that for her to piece together, after all that piecing together he's had to do, himself, for other matters.]

For you to deliver yourself to the heart of the Organization after over nine months of hiding, I'm curious as to the cause.

[Though he sounds rather flat as he says this.]

[lethechained]

[Research? She needs to think about it for only a moment or two before the answer presents itself to her. The network. Of course. She should have realized it immediately. She feels a little more unsettled than she already was to think of what he might have perused.]

[Her first instinct is not to antagonize or disobey him, but-- she's also not about to go telling him everything, either. Belatedly, she begins to consider the possibility of attempting to escape. Staying quiet, however, would probably make her thoughts too obvious, if they weren't already, so, as benignly as possible,]

... There were things that I had to do.

[requital]

[He pulls at the spine of a book to get a closer look before pushing it back in. Honestly, this library has so little to offer beyond mundane subjects.

An obvious answer, but it isn't as though Zexion were expecting any different. Naminé has no reason to tell him anything. She was never even a part of the Organization. Of course, that doesn't mean he won't find out. Just later than sooner, he supposes, should he find himself truly invested in the answers. But it would take a while.

The idea of obligations is laughable considering her multiple offenses in Castle Oblivion.]

You are not exactly known to follow what you "had" to do.

[lethechained]

[The tension in her brow grows a little at the comment. She doesn't seem otherwise conspicuously offended by the comment, even though it's an absurd one, itself. The obligations she had to the Organization were the kind of obligations based in threats and coercion. They may have 'raised' her, in a sense, but they did so for their own ends, and she has no illusions about that.]

I didn't have the right kind of motivation before. [It's not a jab so much as a truthful statement, and that's the way it sounds, behind the nervousness.]

[requital]

[It's remarkable how picky she can be. For Nobodies, the ends should justify whatever means they employ. But Naminé -- she and just about every special Nobody -- begged to differ. Perhaps antagonism on the Organization's part had to have played a part.

Zexion's reply is as smooth as his earlier responses, and just as flat, save for the slight difference in pitch from the smallest of feigned amusement.]

Is that why you followed Marluxia? Because your motivator was Sora? He seems to be the primary driving force behind your actions as of late.

[Though that particular incident isn't what he's getting at. It's no feat to connect Naminé with Sora's faulty restoration. Naturally, he's no fool to believe Sora may be the only cause, but it's a start, and it would make a lot of things logical.]

[lethechained]

[She's not very good at being a sociopath. Pity, empathy, guilt, shame - all are surprisingly good checks upon her actions, considering what she is (supposed to be?). She didn't have much incentive to be loyal to the Organization, but for them, too, she holds some amount of pity, some sympathy for the loss they all share.]

....

[The mention of Sora makes something in her chest tighten. It's not too far a jump. No matter what she'd said, he'd likely have realized that Sora is, in fact, one of the main forces behind most of her actions. She doesn't want to endanger or involve him, but it's far, far too late for that.]

I followed Marluxia because I didn't think that I had a choice. [That loneliness was too much to bear, at least until she understood that the alternative was too much to bear, too.] I stopped when I realized that I did. [And when she had the chance. Axel, at least, she can protect, assuming Zexion isn't already aware of the redhead's involvement in her escape. It's not at all a lie, it's just a way of saying it that doesn't focus on Sora.]

[requital]

[Fortunately for Axel, Zexion isn't aware.

Yes, he thinks. She stopped for someone else. If she had a choice, then it would have been between Sora and Marluxia, or at least anyone besides the latter, though that doesn't change the fact that she did indeed, since her moment of rebellion, make a decision of her own. So she gained some measure of independence. It isn't impossible, and it didn't come as a shock in the slightest.

And so it's no longer a matter worth gracing with an answer.]

[lethechained]

[His silence is almost as unsettling as his speech is, and it causes her to fall silent, as well. Perhaps this is the best time to make her escape. She doesn't know if he's distracted or he's simply lost interest in her, but whichever is the case, now's her chance. Quietly, she turns to do her best to hurry away.]

[requital]

[He lets her go. The conversation was never meant to go too deeply on his agenda; it had been only been to have her be aware of his presence, among other things. She's straightened out quite a few things for him, anyway, unwittingly or not.

So he turns his full attention back to the books.]