An overworked, high-achieving student, twenty-one year old Aqua Levana is the fraternal twin sister of Saix Levana.
Affiliated with Realities Intertwined. Please read the application and about pages for more AU info.
The festival was still in full swing, and although it could occasionally be frustrating for the locals to move about their daily business with myriads of tourists in the way, Aqua didn’t mind much. In fact, the only thing she found frustrating was that she wasn’t on vacation like most of these people. There were still days she had to lifeguard, although she supposed she would get her fun participating on Solias University’s diving team for the games.
For now though, until it was her shift at the beach, she was content to walk among the street vendors, fellow locals, and tourists alike. The streets were filled with bright colors (the ice cream stand in particular caught her eye, and not because they were also selling balloons there) and it truly was her favorite holiday of the year.
Aqua had spotted a few familiar faces in the crowd and smiled in greeting but one in particular stood out to her. “Hey Hakuno! What are you up to?” She recognized Terra’s younger adoptive sister-- she was about Kairi’s age, right? Better make sure she isn’t lost, or anything...
The whole week had been a series of nightmares. One right after the other. All of them the same-- walking down a long, dark path that had no end, attacked viciously by monsters again and again and again, each time resulting with her waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night.
This dream was no different.
She trudged on. She was tired and her muscles ached from exhaustion, but she had to keep moving. She was not sure when she last slept, but Aqua supposed that in this realm devoid of time, she didn’t need to. Yet the stress had begun to take its toll on her, and the strength in her magic began to wear out. She needed to relax, if only for a bit. The monsters would catch up soon, their beady yellow eyes peering at her from the abyssal darkness that loomed around her, but they would either catch up later after she rested, or catch up when she was too exhausted to move.
It was more tactical to rest.
She sat down behind a rock-- the cracks in it glowed, the only light in this place. Her Wayfinder had stopped being a source of light long ago, fading when she saw the darkness get sucked up out of the realm. Terra and Ven were in danger. She knew it in her heart. She had to return to them, but there was no way out of here that she could see.
Aqua was not even sure how long she had been here. There were no days, no nights, and she would give anything to see the sun again. This was the longest day, the longest night... and she wanted it to end, but end in her returning to the light and her friends once more.
Tears pricked at her eyes, but she had cried enough, mourned enough. There was also no time to, as a monster lunged without warning and she brought her-- her sword?-- up in time to--
Aqua gasped as she awoke and the tears that threatened to fall in the other realm did in this one. Another one. Another nightmare. She shoved the covers off and wandered her way to the kitchen-- turning the lights on, she couldn’t stand it being this dark right now-- and got a glass of water but didn’t drink it.
“...What... what was that place?”
Obtained: A full small, insignificant memory of one of the instances in the Realm of Darkness.
“Whoa, that sounds awesome! I gotta get front row seats for that one!“
Ven’s grin deflates after being chastised for his laziness. “Uh, well…Maybe a bit of napping, and sometimes getting ice cream with friends…This is the one time of the year I get to really goof off, Aqua! Don’t I deserve a little rest?”
“A little bit of both.” Xion pulled out a sand dollar and examined it before placing it back into the pale. With the festival starting, Xion wanted to make little necklaces and bracelets for her friends, that’s why she was collecting the shells. Some were really pretty though and she couldn’t bear to put holes in them. She’ll put them in her aquarium.
“Kairi?” It was always like Aqua to worry over her younger sister. Sometimes, Aqua would do the sae with Xion. She didn’t mind, it was nice to know that Aqua cared about her as well. “Sorry but…” Xion shook her head, “I texted her a few hours ago to invite her to come but she declined my invite.” She mirrored Aqua’s expression, “Maybe she’s with Sora?”
Aqua’s face visibly fell when Xion didn’t know where her sister was. Although she treated Xion like extended family, Xion tended to, well, behave herself just a little better. “I hope she’s with Sora.” Sora was a sweet boy, although the fact he was related to Vanitas made her uneasy even though he was nothing like his older brother. Still, it was better than being lost, or worse.
“Maybe she’s already back at home! Would you like to come with me? I set some cookies earlier this morning, there should be some left.” If Kairi wasn’t at home they could look for her from there, but Aqua also didn’t want to send Xion into a panic either.
Aqua did not dream often, and whenever she did, rarely did they feel so...
So real.
She was not her current age, no, this was backwards in time, as small hands clutched a large book that she struggled to carry. Her determination saw her through in carrying the tome and hopping up on a chair to put it down on a desk in front of a robed man reading some papers.
Normally, she was good with formalities, the quiet and respectful student, always reading, always studying, but today the Master said they were going to specifically be working on magic which interested her the most. It was all she had been reading about for the past few weeks, and she already decided what she wanted to learn.
“Master!! We’re doing magic today, right? I wanna leaaaarn...” She flipped the pages until she found her bookmark (a paper doodled with stars, she never dogeared a single page, that ruins a book) and pointed to a spell with a picture next to it. “This spell.”
”What are you doing here, huh? Looks like youre lookin’
for trouble, Aqua.”
.Eyes glance over to the familiar figure, their silhouette being all Lightning needed in order to confirm the sounds of her friend walking about. It wasn’t strange, rather the section that she finds her wandering about is what is most strange. The streets of Solias weren’t always filled with a welcoming air, and the specific street they were walking upon was vehemently known to be filled with all sorts of trouble.
”Not like trouble doesn’t make a job of finding you, though.”
.She would jest, with a slight scoff. Lips twitching into a slight smile, albeit her own wishes of denying this. Lightning looks to the side, practicalities lost to her as her body language seemed to have lax’d into a casual regard. Where her heel clicked against the pavement, taking step after step to close in the distance between them. The combat veteran still wondered much as to why her friend was here of all placed, with slight worry upon her face she she reels back to look to her.
It was getting dark and some of the allies weren’t particularly welcoming, although Aqua figured she could handle herself-- she was tall and had a nasty right hook, and most thugs didn’t want to mess with her due to her association with Terra, whom she was currently looking for. It had been a couple days since she had last seen or heard from him and she liked to check and make sure he wasn’t face down unconscious in some alleyway or worse.
A familiar voice made her turn-- and only spooked her just a little, a little, all right-- and Aqua sighed with relief. “I’m looking for a friend, Light.” She answered honestly, knowing that her friend would be able to figure the rest out. She knew her too well.
“I’ll be fine though, always am. Trouble finds me and leaves.” She joked, crossing her arms. “What are you doing here though? Seems like you’re looking for trouble too.”
Ichigo wasn’t exactly one to go out and be a part of festivities such as this, being the notable grump that he was. But between his friends and his family visiting him in Solias - both to greet the wayward college student and for the Festival itself - he would be remiss to avoid going, and decided to do so, if only out of obligation. Despite that, he wouldn’t lie and say he wasn’t enjoying himself, and for that, he felt generous. A little gift to his youngest sister would go a long way he imagine-
“Huh? What are you talking abo-Oh crap!”
Almost as though on cue, a mess of legs popped out of the shell that Ichigo had been holding moments before and had been quickly dropped back onto the sand. He blinked as the crab scuttled away, turning back to the lifeguard in particular.
It was difficult to maintain a straight face as the redhead before her peered at the shell and yelped as a crab popped out of it, and her lips twitched into a bemused smile as he immediately dropped the poor sea creature. This happened at least once-- maybe twice-- every month during tourist season and some would argue that it got old but it was always at least a little funny to her.
“Happens a lot. You have to look for the ones that have a small slit in the top. That means something ate whatever’s inside. You’ll still be able to hear the ocean, promise.” Aqua explained cheerfully, knowing the latter bit of information was important to most.
“Name’s Aqua, by the way. I’m going to take a small guess and say that you’re not from around here.”
Today was perfect for shell collecting. With a bucket in one hand, Xion began to walk along the shore of the beach. With each wave that came in, more and more shells were being left. It was a relaxing hobby for the girl. With every shell that she found to her liking, it encouraged her to find more.
When she heard her name being called out, she looked up. A wide smile spread across her face as she saw it was a good friend of hers. She held up the bucket, proud of the amount she had found today.
“Yep!” she beamed, “This place has so many, I can’t help myself.” she showed the other the contents of the bucket. There were seashells and sand dollars of all sorts. “Pretty good haul, huh?”
Aqua peered into the bucket with a bright smile-- there were quite a few rarer shells and even some sand dollars. “Yeah! Adding these to your collection or are you making things out of them to sell to tourists next week?” The Festival of the Sun was soon and eventually the beach would be packed to the brim with people visiting from the other regions.
The sun set brightly, an orange glow casting on the water-- it was picturesque, the reason why Solias was often the most visited of the four regions, but Aqua’s mouth faded from a smile into a thin line before looking at the younger girl. “It’s starting to get late. Have you seen Kairi at all today?” She hadn’t heard from her younger sister at all...
