sᴛᴀʀᴄʀᴏssᴇᴅ;; {naminé&roxas}
By no means was she allowed to depart on these sorts of endeavors. To say that she had been forbidden from such things was taking it several steps too far as it was never imagined she would actually go to such lengths, but it was likely implied somewhere between the words that were partly encouraging yet primarily poisonous. In fact she was sure that somewhere in between it wasn’t allowed in the least, no clearance given nor leeway that would allow her to wiggle free of the cage that bound her and set her limits so thoroughly that there was no way to pretend as if they were not there.
But that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t do it anyways, wouldn’t partake on these things and advance forwards and do what she wanted, to follow what her instincts were telling her. Courage was difficult to find, hidden somewhere deep in her chest, but once it was mustered and summoned it was easy. Easy to slip out of her white room and drift towards the library, to descend the stairs and to stand in front of the complicated computer that had been build and the technology that surrounded them entirely. It was not as if she had never been down there before—after all, the room where the hero slept, waiting to be awoken once more, was not so far away.
And that meant she knew how to operate the machinery.
Little bits and pieces that she only found through careful watching and with a silent gaze, but enough information that she could approach it with confidence. DiZ and Riku were not very quiet, after all, and it was easy to pick up on bits and pieces of their conversation, it was easy to let her hands linger over the equipment and to press the right buttons and set the right times and to let herself stand on the platform. Easy, yet still there was a tight sensation in her chest that made it hard to breath, something that she supposed could be equated to nervousness and perhaps a tinge of fear, but she tried to push that side, down.
Being digitized felt strange and like nothing all at once and she let herself be carried seamlessly, consciousness shifting from the true Twilight Town to the digital copy that had been erected solely for the use of keeping a single boy captive. An idea that she had never agreed with, something that she wanted to say no to with all of her heart and soul but in that mansion, in that place, in that world, in that entire universe her voice had no use. No one listened to her words or her pleas, they only listened to her actions and the things that she strove to do.
To leave the mansion, empty of the other two who had been inhabiting it, behind was risky. After all the comatose young man still drifted inside, along with his two companions, but she would not be gone long. Could not be gone long, because if she did not she would be pulled out forcefully, and she could not afford that to happen. After all, her progress on the hero’s memory was only so far, and she would have to continue onwards with it but for the time being there was a part of her that yearned to check on the blond young man who was kept in this digital world, to see if he was okay and happy. There was no telling why she felt the way that she did, but something tugged at her, at her conscience and at her entire being, shouting at her that she had to do this, had to follow through—with what she was unsure, but with something that was innately important, in the end.
And in that digital world she appeared outside of the Old Mansion.
"—This is my entry point..."
Yet she did not know where he would be, where that young man would be who was so similar to her in their situations, whose name she had learnt so belatedly but had kept in her mind ever since. It was hard to erase, hard to ignore, hard to shove to the side because he was always present, always constant. There was no denying his importance… there was no denying the wrong that they were doing him by forcing him into doing such a thing, without first realizing it himself. And there was a residual sadness that lingered in her chest whenever she thought of his name, when she had to rearrange his memory to place him into that digital world, but only enough so that the old memories were just out of his grasp.
Crossing through the dark forest that was free of Heartless and all general threats she easily made her way to the wall and out the other side, into the heart of Twilight Town that she had seen so many times, yet not enough at all. As always the world was bathed in red and orange, peaceful and quiet for all intents and purposes, and she looked around quietly, hands absently smoothing the white of her skirt as the tram rolled by slowly, almost lazily, as if it were a personification of the world itself.
Twilight Town always seemed quiet, and beautiful in its quiet simplicity, and sometimes she wondered what it would be like to truly live there, but already those thoughts were cast from the forefront of her mind and instead she wondered over where she had to look to find the person she had appeared there for. That head of messy, disarrayed blond hair always to one side, and she took careful strides forwards. Looking into the artificial world was unacceptable for her, and she had not touched his memories since she had rearranged them so carefully with her own two hands, so in truth she had no idea where he could be, where he could have possibly gone in that town.
In the end, though, Twilight Town was only so big, and she was bound to find him eventually. To find him and to check in on him, and that was all that she would do, all that she would allow, because to speak to him and to even be seen by him meant that she would have to, would be forced to by the twist of their own fates, make him forget that he had ever seen her there, in that world. And that was not something that she could accept, not right then and there, so she tried to move as carefully as possible across the main square, glancing fleetingly at the small shops that were set up, yet still she ended up letting her guard down. Somehow Twilight Town, for all of its quaintness and serenity, could always force people to let their guards down… even if only a little bit.
