Ninten Tried

[fourdslip-blog]

The raven boy is seated on a fence. He’s got a new bat and is humming to himself as he swings his legs.

Said bat is stained with zombie blood and the graveyard definitely has experienced a drop in the undead population.

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“Take a chance, my heart will lead the way...”

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13th-member:

“Waaaaaaaaaaan!”

It’s the skype chat all over again. Nin run. Save yourself- Just don’t get caught by a wolf along the way.

“Waaaaaan! Wan wan wan!”

... He’ll suffer. He’s hiding from the wolf right now, he can handle puppies.

[fourdslip-blog]

13th-member:

“……..”

Hoe don’t do it-

“Wan!”

Oh my goooood-

“Wan wan!”

There is no stopping him now. The puppy has been revealed.

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“... Wan?”

“Shush. No one knows yer here, keep it that way.”

“Wan...”

[fourdslip-blog]

The weather was fine. A bit cloudy, warm from approaching rains, but nothing too bad to chase the description out of ‘fine’. A breeze sighed through trees and turned fields of wheat and corn and various other crops into multicolored seas.

Arms draped over a fence while crimson orbs took it all in. His bare legs swung back and forth as sneakered toes barely brushed cow shortened grass below. He could see a house in the distance and make out the speck of a man in overalls carrying around a pitchfork as if it were a royal staff.

A dog padded over and sat next to the fence.

He didn’t look as he spoke.

“Yer dead. This ain’t real.”

Tags jingled as the dog scratched himself, a voice drifting into the boy’s mind soon after. Familiar, grounding, possessing age and wisdom despite him having had the canine since he was a puppy.

It doesn’t have to be real to serve its purpose.

He rested his chin on the fence, knowing there was no need to worry about splinters from the old wood. Finally he glanced to the dog, taking in the white fur speckled with black, the brown eyes full of loyalty only a dog could possess.

“I never understood these places.”

They’re places of power for your kind.

“Ya don’t have ta be psychic fer ‘em. The ‘yer kind’ ain’t necessary.”

Yours is unique. Just like hers.

“Can we not talk ‘bout her?”

The dog laid down and all became silent. The grey skies seemed to sag briefly before a light drizzle of moisture graced the world below. The farmer continued to move, though the movements seemed to hiccup. Memories overlapping and fighting for dominance, he supposed.

Will you be going home? Or to the home in this place?

Nails dug into decaying wood as red eyes looked away. Back to the sea of crops. Greatly interested in the farmer moving jerkily about like a puppet on tangled string.

“... I guess.”

Where is home?

“... Not sure.”

The dog yawned before stilling once more. The boy glanced to a tree near the fence, taking in the cliched sight of initials in a heart carved into the weather worn bark. Several rocks were neatly stacked in a pillar at the tree’s base.

Home is where the heart is. Don’t humans say that?

“Some do.”

The dog stood, stretching and shaking himself out before walking to sit under the tree. The boy sighed and untangled himself from the fence to follow, fingers brushing the ‘N’ on the tree.

“No one’s allowed here.”

If they possess the Onyx Hook they’ll come. It’s a key for the gate to this place.

“I ain’t lettin’ anyone touch the Hook. No one needs ta see this place.”

She let people in.

“She had ta. Someone needed ta put her spirit ta rest. Her place needed ta fade.”

Letting others in won’t make this place fade.

“I know.”

You simply don’t want others seeing the home here.

“If ya know that then shut up. Thar ain’t a reason ta bring it up.”

Monsters exist in this place to make those wandering it stronger.

He remained quiet at the dog’s statement. To anyone else listening in, a lot of all this wouldn’t make sense. It was just the two of them though, him and his memories of his most loyal friend before his adventure.

“... Ya know I miss you, Mack. Right?”

Dogs know these things.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thar when ya... She had me collectin’ the melody. I couldn’t come back. Mum would o’ stopped me.”

She’s not a bad person. She’s just sick. Many people in this world are sick.

“I’m gonna make ‘em better.”

The boy bent, squatting before the pillar of stones. Some shone bright. Others shone a bit less. The shine would never quite last, he needed to keep the shine up, like a jeweler polishing gems.

“I know none of these people are in this world. But... But if I can help these people, I’ll have the power ta help people in this world, ya know?”

Guarding the flock. At least you have help.

“I... It’s weird havin’ help. But I ain’t complainin’.”

He stood again, looking beyond the tree. A house rested on a hill. Ghostly images of two girls that kept changing their ages ran around the front yard.

A dark shadow stood at the window.

“I think I’ll visit the home in this world. So long as no one else can get here.”

It’s okay to miss her.

“... I know.”

[fourdslip-blog]

Heeeeeey Nin~?

“What?”

Since Maria’s Magican’t is capoot, does that mean the Onyx Hook takes people to your Magicant?

“... I gotta make sure certain assholes don’t find the hook.”

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kyemastcr:

“Sounds complicated.” He followed it, though. Multiple timelines to worry about, or at least multiple places on a single timeline that he had to keep track of. He wasn’t going to ask about any of it either. Timelines were big complicated thing and unrelated ones had to be hell to try and explain in detail.

“Everything here’s complicated too. See.” He gestures out from where they were - his favorite vantage point overlooking sleepy little Daybreak Town. Or it would be sleepy, if not for the encroaching threat of the Heartless, drawn by the presence of Lux.

“This world’s made up of a bunch of worlds that are all connected. They stretch out as far as the eye can see. Thing is, though, there’s darkness in this world. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that, but we live in an age of light where we are in events now. ‘The Age of Fairy Tales.’ See, people think that the heart of this whole world, Kingdom Hearts, is always gonna be around to protect everyone. Thing is, it’s not. There’s always gonna be darkness around, and eventually people are going to fight over the light. So I just… sped things up a bit.”

“Pretty soon, I’m gonna make myself scarce, and a few months after that this whole world is gonna fade. Thousands of people are going to die in a battle over the light. But the thing is, I’ve got my apprentices all making sure that when that battle happens, there’s a group of people that don’t fight. They escape, and their light brings back the worlds. Just, not as connected wholes, but separate ones. It’s that or just… poof.” Man, it felt good to get this off his chest.

“And I know exactly how it’ll go. I’ve seen it.” He flipped back his hood, turning so the visitor from another timeline would see the eye patch, the gold of his remaining eye. Forbidden techniques sure left their mark. “See, I put my eye in something that gets passed down into the far future. I’ve seen it all, up to a point. And when I leave I’m heading there to make sure the guy that ends up with that eye doesn’t do anything stupid enough to destroy everything for good.”

“Huh. So it’s like...” He gestured, down to the town below, shrugging his backpack off to better move his arms. “A sweater. Old ‘n cliched, but still a good comparison. Ya pull a thread ‘n the whole unravels. Granted it has ta unravel in the end. Sweaters don’t last ferever, wear ‘n tear claims the best o’ ‘em. But this one needs ta at least last fer one last date. So ya gotta make sure it lasts ‘til that date.”

It’s... actually rather brilliant. A bit like how he was planning to ensure Ness got born, but this is on a much wider scale. Multiple worlds scale. He’s impressed and it shows in how red eyes are wide and bright with wonder.

“Ya know, we got light ‘n dark stuff in my world too. ‘cept it’s more... I wouldn’t say complicated, but mm...”

Well it wouldn’t, he supposed, hurt to pull out his grandfather’s journal and open it to the drawing of a white and black dragon chasing each other in a circle. Somehow he feels like this guy is going to understand better than anyone else.

“Thar’s two ways ta get power. Destroy forty-two lights ‘r chase off eighty-nine shadows. Basically ya either slaughter forty-two people fer yer own selfish reasons ‘r help eighty-nine people to grow ‘n mature. I know it ain’t the same, but... Well, it’s kinda similar ya know? I mean...”

A pause. “... How do ya know yer doin’ the right thing? I mean, I get what yer doin’ ‘n see that it’s the best course o’ action. Some have ta fall so that at least some get a chance. But like... how do ya tell yerself that is what I guess I’m tryin’ ta get at. Sorry, I’m just... I guess a little conflicted ‘cause my plans fer my friend ain’t really... consensual. ‘gain sorry fer derailin’ things a bit, yer just stupidly easy ta talk ta.”

[fourdslip-blog]

“Makin’ a list ‘n checkin’ it twice. I feel like Santa here.”

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kyemastcr:

“Exactly. It’s why I’m careful about what I share. Still feel bad about the whole Book thing I’ve had to pull, but it’s that or run the risk of everything just going… poof.” He made had motions to accompany that point. “Because you set one person up to try and fix what they hink is wrong and everything collapses in on itself.”

He sincerely hated what he had to do to his kids, but it was that or the worlds would have vanished entirely.

“That’s good. And you gotta be careful about what you say. See, I’ve had to set up a self fulfilling prophecy to keep everything running the way it should. Without it this world doesn’t get split up, and if that doesn’t happen there’s no one around to bring all the worlds back. It’s set up what happens or poof.” He wasn’t sure why he was telling this kid all of this. It was nice o be able to talk to someone who understood, though.

“Huh. Maybe I should’ve tried something like that. Then again, I think future me already did. I mean, guess it’s okay ta tell ya, but the kid that has ta die gets revived by future me. Then booted out o’ his timeline because his twin brother wished fer things ta go back ta how they were. ‘n pup was made part robot, which ain’t allowed in the reset world. So now I gotta make sure I help those people, my friend gets saved, a certain special child gets born, ‘n I successfully get put ta sleep until a crybaby kid ‘n his cyborg twin wake me up.”

Yeah, saying that out loud has him realizing he’s royally fucked himself. Why is timeline preservation so hard?

“But man, sounds like in yer case there’s more than one world at stake. Sure hope ya manage ta successfully nuke off the world that needs ta die fer the others ta survive. Is it goin’ well so far ‘r do ya have no idea?”

Seriously how is this guy so easy to talk to? It was probably the similar experiences and having to pay close attention to nearly everything. Sure was nice to talk to someone about it though without them wanting to tweak events.

[fourdslip-blog]

kyemastcr:

Strict timeline? “Well, so long as you don’t go poking around any of the Unions, you’re fine. Gotta keep that part of the timeline in check. You set that one off course and then goodbye universe. At some point. It’s pretty complicated.” Well, not really, but preventing the end of the worlds was important. Without the Dandelions, everything was toast.

“Not much you could really do to mess up the timeline beyond that. I’m making sure the one guy and his possey that could screw it up don’t get too much on their side of the field. Sucks about that corruption thing, but at least you’re doing what sounds like a good job of cleaning it up.” He paused for a moment. “Just keep the timeline thing to yourself aside from me, alright? Time travel’s tough in this universe for everybody other than me, can’t have people trying it and derailing something on accident, you know?”

“Derailin’. Oh how I understand that. Ya try tellin’ a guy that no, he can’t assassinate one guy ta try ‘n save the kid he’s grown attached ta, the kid has ta die so things fall inta place ‘n the world gets safely reset. Pup’s still ‘round so I’m assumin’ the guy ain’t gonna try any assassination attempts.”

Unions. Right. Probably had to deal with those masked guys he was told to avoid. He’d remember that very well, no mucking with anything dealing with Unions.

“But yeah, I’ll keep it hush. Consider these lips sealed when it comes ta anything time related.”

[fourdslip-blog]

kyemastcr:

“Ah. I get it. Saving the universe type of deal, am I right?” Kid sounded like he was dealing with something remarkably similar to what he was. Only with more helping people out directly and less guiding the timeline around by the nose to make sure everything didn’t go to hell and disappear. 

“Trust me, if that’s what it takes, you’ll be fine.” He had to wonder what timeline this kid was on, none of his eyes had seen the kid before. Interesting. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

Well he was found out fast. Not like he was trying to hide it. “Nope. I get ‘round. Can kinda go ta different worlds. I let time ‘n space carry me here. Don’t worry, I won’t muddle ‘round here if ya got a strict timeline ta keep. ‘m just restin’ until my powers recharge.”

Would it be wise not to mention the Player’s Guide? Probably. Not like it had been helpful, it had simply said ‘Avoid the people in masks. Cloaks are okay though, go nuts with getting to know them.’

“But yeah, yer right. My planet got messed up by my great great grandfather, so I’m fixin’ it by takin’ over the job o’ what’s corruptin’ it. Ta do that I gotta help people.”

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kyemastcr:

“Then you’ll be fine. The darkness is only dangerous when you lose sight of what’s important to you.” Which was why he used it without worrying about it. 

“Plus you’re helping people you, good on you. More people should do that. I’d give you a medal but I’m all out.” If he gave the kid a medal medal, would it work? It was a thought. There was no trace of sarcasm in his tone whatsoever. 

Usually the words would make him mad, but the tone of the guy’s voice only peeked curiosity and put him at ease. Maybe he was tired? No, it was more the guy seemed... easily talked to.

Or he was more tired than he thought.

“Guess I’m safe then. I got the knowledge o’ what’s gotta happen. Not every detail, just enough ta know what needs ta happen. ‘n this friend needs ta be saved. She’s essential ta everything, even if she’s done a lot o’ stupid stuff.”

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kyemastcr:

“Depends on the darkness. It’s useful when you know what you’re doing, but if you lose sight of what you really want, it can take you over completely.”

“It can be one hell of a balancing act, believe me.”

“Eh, it’s the darkness o’ others. Takin’ their worries away, grantin’ wishes ta best o’ my abilities, just... Makin’ thar light shine brighter. It’s a means ta an end with power as a bonus. I don’t want the power, just ta be able ta save a friend bein’ stupid.”

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“So... Takin’ darkness inta ya is a bad thing? Guess I’m doomed ta a shorter life then.”

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faithfulreplica:

Maybe you could stay here for awhile. At least a few days. Clear your head. Leaving would be the tricky part, but where else would you go? The best guess you even have to that is Traverse Town, and you’re not sure you’d be able to stomach that world forever.

…Friends?

“…Not really.” You remember Sora’s words clearly, but Sora is the original’s friend, not yours. Even if Sora thinks you’re your own person. And you’re not sure Namine wants to see you, promise or not. “I’m… not really someone people would want to be friends with.”

So much for your good mood… maybe if you stop thinking about it it’ll be okay.

You’ve shoved your foot so deep in your mouth you can easily imagine your ankle is in your mouth too. Saying aside, you wish you were capable of punching yourself hard enough to pay for ruining the good mood the other’s probably been in desperate need of.

“Hey, ya can’t really believe that.” Comforting others is not exactly your expertise word wise. Small actions? Yes. You can easily claim that they’re just as much for your benefit. Even if they aren’t.

Still, this is your fault and you have to fix it somehow right?

“Look, ya seem like a good guy. Bit o’ a weenie, but I’m pretty used ta weenies at this point. If ya want, I mean... That is... Er... Ya know, we’ve just met but... Yeah. Ya get it. Right?”

[fourdslip-blog]

faithfulreplica:

It’s so cheesy, though. You can’t believe this guy is going along with that. Better than nothing, you guess. Plus you can’t smell any darkness anywhere nearby, the lack of it is beyond refreshing after being so used to the omnipresent reak that was Castle Oblivion. Maybe you should just sit down for awhile and relax.

“…Happier than I was back there.” You still have a lot to deal with, but you can forget about all of that for now. This place is… nice. You can kind of see where the Real Thing was coming from now. A new sky after being stuck somewhere for so long really is worth the risk -  to a point, at least.

It’s a start. A very good start. You have a distinct feeling that this isn’t enough to count as one of eighty-eight, but given time it probably will count. Part of you wants to sulk about how long it might take, but the rational side of your mind knows that you can’t rush anything.

The sky really is a nice view, so much better than your home world. You wish your friends were here to see this. Well everyone but her. If she was here you’d be dead. But everyone else would like the view.

“Ya got any friends? I could bring ‘em hear if ya want. Ta share the view‘n all.” You want to hit yourself after because based on that castle he probably got very few visitors, which makes making friends hard. Way to go Ninten. Foot meet mouth.