Seeking the connections in the cracks

"And they said unto the wind, 'Blow far, blow wide. See the world and learn many things; and when you return, speak to us of what you have discovered.'" Ventus||Age Unknown||Single [Affiliated genderbent!canon Ventus RP blog. Post-DDD.] Corner Image credits Tracking 'zephyrusanemoi'

[thebetterhalfofwind]

Now what was she talking about? He didn’t know her, he didn’t know who Roxas was, and unless she could get him back to the Graveyard he didn’t need or want her help.

He shook his head again. “No,” he muttered. “Who…?”

[zephyrusanemoi]

Who? Did he really not recognize her? She couldn’t have seen him that long ago -- “It’s me? Ventus?” Something was clearly wrong here. Crossing her arm, Ven stepped close, trying to corner him in the hall as she moved, scowling. “I introduced myself to you awhile ago, remember? And you were kinda a jerk about it?”

[thebetterhalfofwind]

Before? What was she talking about? He took two steps backward as she moved forward, keeping the distance between them about the same.

At the mention of his helmet, one hand instinctively reached up, grabbing on to it. It wasn’t stuck, no, it was just better that he kept it on. He shook his head, still leaning away from the girl.

[zephyrusanemoi]

He was acting really weird, and she was starting to get worried. Not that she liked him or anything -- but people acting weird usually ended badly. “Come on, let’s find Roxas or, um. One of them, anyway. Maybe they can help you?”

[thebetterhalfofwind]

Vanitas jumped slightly as the girl as she stepped out in front of him. She… knew his name? How… ?

He leaned back as she leaned closer, batting her finger away with one hand. What was she doing? Who was she? She did look… sort of familiar, but he hadn’t seen her before… 

[zephyrusanemoi]

“Hey, what’s wrong? You’re not being snarky asshat like you were before.” She huffed a bit, straightening up and shuffling a bit closer. “Are you alright? You’re not stuck in that helmet are you? We can find someone to get it off --”

[thebetterhalfofwind]

Vanitas cautiously edged down the hallway. He was just as lost as he was when he’d first arrived in this place - every hall and room looked the same. The strange environment was making him nervous - surely, the Master must have realized he wasn’t in the Graveyard anymore, and it would only be a matter of time before he found out where he’d gone.

He had to find a way back - hopefully without running in to anyone.

[zephyrusanemoi]

Wasn’t he...? Ven squinted, frowning to herself as she stepped into the hallway for a better look at the boy outside the room. “Hey! You’re Vanitas, aren’t you?” She leaned forward, trying to peer through the mask he was wearing as she lifted her hand to poke him lightly.

“What’re you wearing that for?”

[necksockuraba-deactivated202302]

Neku had just been walking around the castle again. It wasn’t like he was really looking for anything in particular- But it never hurt to look around and get to know the place a bit better, right? Who knows, maybe he’d be able to memorize the layout like he’d memorized that of Shibuya– … No, he wouldn’t be here that long, would he?

Either way, he had just so happened to be walking past the castle’s library when Ven woke up- And he quickly turned around when he heard the girl’s voice behind him. “… Yeah?” he asked, crossing his arms. He really hadn’t expected to be bothered.

[zephyrusanemoi]

“Oh. Hello. So people are still here, are they?” She rubbed her eyes, trying to wake herself up properly. “I seem to have taken a really long nap -- what time is it?” She was hoping that it wasn’t nearly as long as it had felt, but...

“What’s your name? I’m Ventus. Call me Ven though, everyone does.”

[zephyrusanemoi]

She squints tiredly, a little concerned. She’d only meant to take a short nap, but... How long had she been asleep for? She had no idea, and that was a little bothersome. (Too much like Before, when she slept for years --)

“Anyone around?” Ven called, poking her head out of the room she’d woken to. Library, maybe? Something like that.

[zephyrusanemoi]

“What is it with people and tentacles?”

[zephyrusanemoi]

Ventus poked her head out the window as she realized the water was draining away from the castle; being trapped in the upper floors had been a weird sort of hell, and she’d missed the outside more than she would have thought. Pausing for a moment, she considered the merits of climbing out or just taking the stairs.

“...Stairs,” she decided after another look down. Pushing away from the window, she zipped down the hall and around a corner, tumbling backwards as she slammed into someone leaving one of the other rooms.

“Woah, shit -- Sorry!”

[zephyrusanemoi]

xvxnitate:

Vanitas sad nothing, just shook his head and clutched the rabbit thing in his arms tighter. One of the blue things skittered away from the pile, looking up at Ventus defiantly.

These ones will not leave. The words formed into both Vanitas’ and Ven’s heads in a strange voice. Mind need these ones. These ones will protect mind. Protect mind from missing one and hurtstick. It hissed at the thing in Ven’s hands and stood its ground. It would not be moved, and if it was destroyed another would simply take its place as if the first had never vanished at all.

Vanitas just quietly stared, saying nothing. It was… in his head…?

Ven jerked in surprise, alarm flicking across her face. It was intelligent? No, that couldn’t be right -- “You’re the danger here!” That was the only reason she had her hurtst -- keyblade out. If they were gone, she wouldn’t need it.

Mind? Missing one? What did any of that even mean, anyway? She was starting to feel overwhelmed by them as it was; too many in such a small space, and flitting at the edges of her thoughts were hazy memories: the blues ones holding her down, someone saying they were going to merge now -- no.

“Go away.”

[zephyrusanemoi]

xvxnitate:

Less yelling. Better. Still yelling. Not better. The yellow ones bobbed and weaved around in the air, trying to stay out of the range of the thing that Ven was holding. Vanitas, very slowly, tried to dry his eyes, look at the creatures around him. There was a sudden feeling of sickness in the pit of his stomach, hatred and revulsion and… some sort of weal calm all at once.

“I…” Hurt. Why was the person helping him yelling? He hugged the rabbit thing in his arms like it was some kind of security blanket. “Don’t…” Please, no hurt. That… that thing in her hands was… no… no… he was shaking worse now. “Please…” Hurt pain bad things, no memories just… uncontrollable shaking, fear… more yellow things appeared and he didn’t know why.

“Vanitas, get away from them.”

Ven shifted her grip on her blade, eyes flicking between all of the creatures. “They’re dangerous --” Weren’t they? Why weren’t they doing anything? Stepping back, away from them, she shuddered. She didn’t like this.

“They hurt people, I think --”

[zephyrusanemoi]

xvxnitate:

Vanias just stood there, trying not to shake. This was bad. Loud. He just… sat down, head in his hands. Hurt. Loud. Bad.

“…Please…” Please no. No… One of the rabbit-like things, one different than the one on his shoulder, jumped into his lap, snuggling up to his chest. The rest of the rabbits piled on him, making soft noises. A few of the odd blue ones appeared, piling into a… pile of sorts, purring away. Purring…

Purring was… good… even if he didn’t know what was going on. What was purring? Why was there yelling? Why?

Ventus reached out and smacked the communictor off, cutting off Aqua’s yelling; Lost Memory appeared in her hand before she’d really thought about it, and Ven held it in front of herself defensively, though she didn’t move. The creatures ducked away, preferring to pile onto Vanitas instead, leaving the blonde concerned and uneasy.

“Get off him!” This wasn’t right? Something about this -- they were supposed to be attacking her, she was certain. (Why? Why do I know that’s what they should be doing?) This... this cuddle pile was all wrong.

“Vanitas --”

[zephyrusanemoi]

xvxnitate:

Vanitas let out a soft, startled noise, hiding behind Ven. Why was there yelling? Why? Loud. Loud was bad. He shivered, huddling close to the other.

Why was there yelling? Why? He was starting to shake and all around him, creatures were popping up, even if he couldn’t see them. They backed off, trying to get away, skittering out under doors if they could press themselves flat or trying to move away and go unnoticed. Yellow flying ones fluttered away, one of the rabbit-like ones hopped up and wrapped its long ears around Vanitas’ shoulder. He didn’t notice it there, all he noticed was an oddly familiar weight.

He’d… tried to kill people before? No… no way…

Aqua’s yelling increased in volume as creatures began appearing in the room, and Ven instinctively shied away from the ones she could see. The one on Vanitas’ shoulder was the worst, and she ducked away and down, making a noise of half surprise, half fear.

“What --” They’re Heartless? No, no they’re not they’re -- get them away --  Something about them was familiar, but she didn’t know what, only that she wanted them gone. And whatever they were, he was doing it.

“Vanitas!”

[zephyrusanemoi]

xvxnitate:

Vanitas tried to stay quiet as he went through the bag of food. And… ooh, sweets. The box full of cookies was his now, or at least the one he’d gotten out and was currently munching on was now his. He might not remember much, but he liked sweets, so he knew that about himself now at least.

“…Sure?” Who was Aqua? The name sounded… vaguely familiar, but not concretely so. He set the cookies down and wiped the crumbs off his face and cautiously shuffled over into view of the communicator. He didn’t recognize the face in the screen in front of him, so he said nothing, just stared quietly.

Ven was as surprised as Vanitas when Aqua gave an angry shriek, pointing. “Vanitas -- Ven, get away from him!” Eyes wide, she looked from the screen to Vanitas.

“Aqua -- Aqua, why?”

“He tried to kill you!”

“But I just met him --”

[zephyrusanemoi]

xvxnitate:

“H-Haunted?” As in ghosts and stuff? Was he…? No, that would be silly, he was perfectly human and perfectly alive. He’d be all see-through if he wasn’t anyway because ghosts were a bit see-through if he was right about that. “I… don’t know.” Old house. He didn’t remember an old house.

Food. Food food food… he didn’t remember eating at all, so he must have been hungry, even if he didn’t feel like it. So while Ven did whatever she was going to do, he’d have a look through the bags, see if he could find something small just to have something in his system.

Ven smiled slightly before turning her attention completely to the communicator and placing the call to Sora. “Hi! Yeah, uh -- hey, don’t suppose you know anyone named Vanitas? No -- hi Aqua? What? Um --”

Tilting her head at the electronic for a moment, she finally turned back to her guest sheepishly. “Can you c’mere a sec? Aqua wants to look at you.”

[zephyrusanemoi]

xvxnitate:

Vanitas followed, albeit cautiously. He’d been told where they were going but… he didn’t know where they were going in terms of location. And how did she…? No, she must have just guessed, based on his word choice or something.

He hoped she was just guessing.

“…Not sure. Everything’s… blurry.” He’d stumbled around in a half conscious daze for awhile, he knew that much. “I… think I was in the woods.” It had been green, lots of trees, that surely counted, right? And he cautiously slipped inside of the hotel when she opened the door for him. Windows, doors, people were there… why was he instinctively checking for exists anyway? Everything he did on reflex seemed so strange to him.

“The woods?” She turned her head reflexively to look in that direction. Didn’t it lead to the mansion...? “Did you come from the house there? Supposedly it’s haunted, though no one seems to know for sure.”

Local legends were odd like that. “If you’re hungry I’ve got food in one of the bags on the table.” Ven ducked into the other corner to grab her communicator before dropping into a chair at the table. “Let’s see -- Sora should be up, so...”

[zephyrusanemoi]

xvxnitate:

Hotel? Communicator? Yes, he knew what those things were. He still remembered what words meant at least, so that was good. At least he understood what a communicator must be, electronic, used to talk across large distances.

That name… he remembered that name. Very clearly. But it wasn’t the same person he remembered, surely, otherwise they would have recognized it. But hearing someone say that name was theirs… made it easier to pick out which name was his that he could remember.

“I’m… Vanitas.” No nicknames that he could remember. But this ‘Ven’ they… seemed okay. No, she seemed okay. He needed to get that into his head, why was he just thinking of her as a ‘they.’ Weird.

“Vanitas? Nice to meet you, then. Come on.” She stepped back out of the alley and moved in the direction of the hotel she was staying in. “Do you have a room yourself? And what’s the last thing you remember?” She was only assuming that her conclusion of memory loss was right, but it was looking more and more likely so...

She’d run with it until he said otherwise, Ven decided. If she was wrong then they could deal with it after. Holding the hotel door open for him, she frowned as she tried to remember if Destiny Islands ran on the same time as Twilight Town. Would Sora be awake?

[zephyrusanemoi]

xvxnitate:

“…Twilight Town.” He repeated the name, turning it over in his mind. No familiarity, at all. He was lost in his own thoughts, not even noticing when his arm was released as it dropped back to his side. Nothing, not a single glimmer of familiarity. Yet this person… there was a faint nagging sensation in the back of his head. Perhaps he once met them.

“So… ra?” Another check of his empty memories. Nothing, no bells, no sudden memories. “I… don’t think so.” It was possible. Did he have friends? Family? The suggestion to move on, though, made him uneasy though… he didn’t know why.

“…Alright.” Where would they go?

“I’ve got a room at the hotel over there,” she explained, pointing. “We can use my communicator to call Sora and see if he’s ever met you. You look a lot like him, so even if he hasn’t met you, you might be related anyway.” She offered him a small smile.

“I’m Ventus! You can call me Ven, though. What’s your name?”

It was looking more and more like he had no memories of anything, but surely he remembered his name at least? It’d be good if they did, maybe it would give them something to go on when it came to finding out why he didn’t remember anything.