benignant benevolence

[layersofuntruth]

"Dreams are funny things, aren't they?"

Low activity and not spoiler free.

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[layersofuntruth]

"It struck me—by linking their dream pieces back together, maybe I could make them exist again. Maybe I could give them another chance."

indie Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu of Kingdom Hearts. dreamed by nix.

RULES | INFO

[layersofuntruth]

how would i write you as a book character?

The morally grey love interest that only ever opens up underneath the night sky

"They did not linger, for they could not handle the weight of being known. But this once, they swallowed the lie down. This once, they faced the terrifying ordeal of being seen, heard, understood and loved all at once." You have matched my typical love interest - troubled, running away and oh so intriguing. Perhaps in another story, you would have been the antagonist. In mine, you are the person I focus on the most, the soul that often pulls the strings.

[musiingwords]

YOU SEEM PRETTY ▁▁▁ FOR SOMEONE SO ▁▁▁

❝ you seem pretty composed for someone carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. ❞

❝ you seem pretty invincible for someone so self - sacrificing. ❞

❝ you seem pretty prideful for someone with so much self - loathing. ❞

❝ you seem pretty reserved for someone who longs to be understood. ❞

❝ you're pretty manipulative for someone who cares so much. ❞

❝ you seem pretty detached for someone familiar with loss. ❞

❝ you seem pretty cruel for someone who once loved someone so gently. ❞

❝ you seem pretty young for someone sticking their neck out so recklessly. ❞

❝ you seem pretty timid for someone with such ambitious dreams. ❞

❝ you seem pretty loyal for someone so untrustworthy as a friend. ❞

❝ you seem pretty self - sacrificing for someone who called it hypocritical. ❞

❝ you seem pretty trapped for someone who values freedom for others. ❞

❝ you seem pretty forgiving for someone who wants revenge. ❞

❝ you seem pretty selfish for someone so willing to do anything for anyone. ❞

❝ you seem pretty fearless for someone who's a coward. ❞

❝ you seem pretty realistic for someone living in a fantasy. ❞

❝ you seem pretty well put together for someone beyond repair. ❞

❝ you seem pretty cold for someone with such a soft heart. ❞

❝ you seem pretty calm for someone who's about to meet their demise. ❞

❝ you seem pretty human for someone who isn't. ❞

❝ you seem so insecure for someone who sees beauty in everything. ❞

❝ you seem pretty trusting for someone so scared of betrayal. ❞

❝ you seem pretty kind for someone so full of anger. ❞

❝ you seem pretty strong for someone holding back. ❞

❝ you seem pretty bright for somehow so scared to outshine others. ❞

❝ you seem pretty certain of yourself for someone that's spent years questioning their own existence. ❞

❝ you seem pretty arrogant for someone who's about to lose. ❞

[catncore]

❝ it ain' even obon yet. come talk t'me after. i got things i gonna attend before i can start thinkin' about th' seasonal menu. ❞

[layersofuntruth]

"As if it wouldn't be child's play for you to waltz over to a temporally shifted Shibuya and get what you need." Kardia rolls his eyes. Well, whatever. He supposes he'll have to exercise patience.

"Is Shrimp breathing down your neck about your newest album again? Or is it something else?"

[dead-kids-calling]

Don't mind him, he's just silently being salty that apparently some versions of him weren't trapped being fifteen for decades

[layersofuntruth]

"Keep pouting like that and you'll age even more, dear."

[hallowedgardens]

"Oh yeah, sure, like I'm supposed to be able to guess that you're way older than fifteen. Makes a whole lot of sense."

[layersofuntruth]

"It's all in the... oh, what are they saying now? The aura? Yes, it's all in the aura, Neku."

"If I were still alive, I'd probably be filing a tax return right now—or something equally boring and mundane. Whatever Mr. H does that he always complains about."

[layersofuntruth]

@catncore

"Wait."

"You still owe me those pumpkin custard crepes!"

[layersofuntruth]

@hallowedgardens

"I never explicitly said I was fifteen, did I?"

[dead-kids-calling]

"Well no but..."

Joshua's reaching for something in his pocket. Which, if its what Neku thinks it is then...

"You know what? It was worth it!" and then he braces himself

[layersofuntruth]

What, did Neku think he was going to shoot him?

Ah.

Joshua says nothing, just stands there looking at him.

[dead-kids-calling]

Neku looks at the hand were a marker was half a second ago, then at Joshua who just erased said marker from existence

And who he just drew a half-assed mustache on

"...uhhhhh you could do nothing?" worth a shot right?

[layersofuntruth]

"Nothing? You don't think I've stayed Composer by letting slights like this slide, do you?"

Joshua slips his hand into his pocket, regarding Neku with gleaming eyes.

[extremepath]

@layersofuntruth | " if you'd never come for me , i might've drowned in the melancholy . " RANDOM LYRICS | accepting.

"Feeling a bit sappy today, huh?" Though he can't say that Kardia is wrong about that, he wasn't exactly in the best state of mind when he'd found him. In his position, the loss that Kardia suffered and the quarantine he was under ( as well as the ever present threat of the Heartless ), Joshua knows he'd feel exactly the same way he did.

The situation looks completely hopeless. Like there will never be anyone out there who comes back to save them, and that they're only delaying the inevitable. Not to mention, that horrific thing Kardia's Hanekoma has become...

Three years left behind here without interference, the damage must be immense.

But he was chosen by him help keep this place - to keep Kardia - afloat. There has to be some hope in that, it has to mean something, otherwise what would be the point? Aware of his own habits, Joshua knows can't give into questioning the efforts they're making because he knows he'll start to falter too. No, instead he faces this situation as a problem he's been tasked with not quite solving, but removing the edge from.

It was a bit unnerving to be someone else's beacon like this, but Kardia's well-being will mean so much for Shibuya's survival. No matter what, he can't fall, be it to the Heartless or his own despair.

"I'll always come back." Joshua's expression is serious but his smile is a touch warmer than usual, yet more than anything it calls out to Kardia; Pay attention. "I may be limited in what I can do, but I can give you that much. You won't be alone in this. Don't forget that, because I hate repeating myself."

[layersofuntruth]

"Maybe a tad. I think I'm owed a bit of sappiness, though."

It would be easy to fall into despair. Technically, in a way, he already had. He'd been completely fooled by his own dreams, lost himself in the labyrinth of his own guilt and self-hatred as the sleeping Traverse Town had folded itself according to his desires. If Kardia hadn't been so devastated, he would have been mortified by how easily he'd been able to play himself, essentially.

Well, he was still plenty mortified by it.

But he couldn't let himself fall apart again. Not just for himself, but because he had people who needed him. Not in the abstract, but very real way that his citizens did, but because he had people who had proven their intentions toward him beyond a reasonable doubt.

The power of friendship... it was easy to dismiss it as a trite platitude. A meaningless phrase, often mocked by those who didn't understand that really, at it's heart, it speaks to a very real, very human need.

'Whatever I'm doing, I'm not doing it alone.'

And, well... he would have wanted Kardia to keep going.

"I'm glad to hear it." Both of them knew that they didn't make promises like this lightly, so there was no need to point it out.

"You know, I think he would have liked you quite a bit."

[dead-kids-calling]

"Just trying to...pft...you know...make you look more manly"

[layersofuntruth]

"Well, forgive me for not performing my gender to your expectations."

With a snap of his fingers, the half-assed mustache is gone from this world forever. The offending marker is also gone from this world. Forever.

"Now, what to do with you, hmm?"

[layersofuntruth]

"I guess that's the way things go."

Lyrical Starter Meme!

"Pretty much." What else is there to say? The World was a cruel, unforgiving place. How else could you respond to such widespread tragedy than to ape the very same nihilism that the universe showed you? Some people might say that it was an unhealthy coping mechanism, and Joshua may have been one of those people—once.

But sometimes, something went too far. A crack in the armor of optimism that Joshua had been desperately trying to build for himself. A single chink that spread across his very being and revealed the unrelenting negativity that had the Heartless so ravenous for the specks of darkness that polluted Joshua's heart.

Sometimes, a wound was just too substantial, too all-consuming.

"I'd been really looking forward to the live-action tokusatsu Tin Pin spin-off. But, I suppose I understand why they're holding off on it. It just wouldn't do for the actors to get turned into Heartless on-set."

[dead-kids-calling]

"Yeah, now go back to sleep. I'm not done drawing a mustache on you"

[layersofuntruth]

"Excuse me?"

[hallowedgardens]

Did Joshua really not remember anything? Or was he playing him? Neku couldn't really tell, and honestly, he didn't really have the time to consider it much before Joshua threw what little he could supposedly remember out there.

The twitching... that hunger, too. Yeah, it's easy to recall. It leaves Neku with an uncomfortable feeling deep in his chest. There was something else there, sitting on the edge of his mind and clawing at it. Something horrible, desperate to be remembered.

Suddenly, Neku has to remind himself to breathe.

"Y-Yeah... Everything... Even..." Even what? Tension builds in his shoulders and he crosses his arms instead, holding them tight against his chest, "Hey Josh... What were we doing before we left, anyway? Do you remember?"

[layersofuntruth]

"Fighting them off, I presume." He does recall that they'd been racing to WildKat, Joshua had wanted to reach Sanae and ask him about what those strange creatures were. He hadn't been able to link up to the Higher Plane and inquire while he'd been bumming around in the Lower Planes, so he'd felt this was his only option.

Shibuya had been odd during that week. First, there had been that bizarre meteor shower the night after Neku's final day with Shiki. The streaking comets had been bright enough that even the immense light pollution of the city hadn't been able to drown them out. It'd been straight up unnatural.

And then the shadows in Shibuya had grown darker, yet darker with each passing day.

"Well, no need to push too hard. It wasn't all that long ago that you remembered that we were partners, too. Why don't we take a trip to the cafe in the First District? If Mr. H is out, we can just help ourselves."

[layersofuntruth]

"Oh, did I fall asleep again?"