towerofanimus

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[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.

[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.

[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.]

[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.]

[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.]

[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.]

[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.]

[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.]

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