![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
back at it again @Krispee Kreme (thanks rover)
There's another boy in the Land of Departure.
Ventus has seen him, maybe three times, despite apparently everyone involved's best efforts. Always in the evening or the early morning. Questioning Aqua and Terra never helped, and the one time he walked up to Master Eraqus and asked him plainly he'd gotten a firm hand on his head and a stern word to mind his studies.
He'd...forgotten about it for a while after that. Just hadn't thought about it, and went back to training with Terra and Aqua. They were finally letting him use keyblade, and they said it was fall now, and the leaves turning red meant snow was on the way, and it was so dreadfully exciting.
But he'd seen the boy again, when grabbing a book for Terra late at night, just a flash of a head of black hair from a window, but before he could stop himself he was pressed up to the glass like someone had pulled a wire taunt.
The other figure, the other boy, his age maybe, was limping along back towards a wing of the house Ventus had thought nobody used. He'd opened a door, vanishing from veiw, and Ventus had reeled back as the spell was broken.
The desire to follow the other boy was overwelming. Ventus had to swallow it down, a hand on his chest as his heart pounded. He'd finally managed to stumble to bed, but his mind kept returning to the door, to the boy, to the...incessent pulling he felt. It was frightening, but he kept it to himself, even as Aqua scolded him for poor footwork.
That night he sat up in bed, eyes wide and unblinking. He could put it off no longer. Without even bothering to put anything over his sleep clothes he walked out over the wet grass towards the unused wing of the house, its windows boarded up and dark. The door, when he put his hand onto it was cold. It was also locked.
Ventus groaned. Unlock spells...the simplest imaginable, still eluded him. There was only one thing to do. With a huff he shot a palm out, a giant gust of wind following and rattling the door on his hinges. It remained closed, feeling desperate, the pull in his mind growing stronger, Ven tried again and again.
When he paused, opening his eyes and breathing raggedly, the door was swinging--its lock shattered and its hinges squealing from the abuse. Ven felt terrible for about a half second, before he stepped inside.
Ventus has seen him, maybe three times, despite apparently everyone involved's best efforts. Always in the evening or the early morning. Questioning Aqua and Terra never helped, and the one time he walked up to Master Eraqus and asked him plainly he'd gotten a firm hand on his head and a stern word to mind his studies.
He'd...forgotten about it for a while after that. Just hadn't thought about it, and went back to training with Terra and Aqua. They were finally letting him use keyblade, and they said it was fall now, and the leaves turning red meant snow was on the way, and it was so dreadfully exciting.
But he'd seen the boy again, when grabbing a book for Terra late at night, just a flash of a head of black hair from a window, but before he could stop himself he was pressed up to the glass like someone had pulled a wire taunt.
The other figure, the other boy, his age maybe, was limping along back towards a wing of the house Ventus had thought nobody used. He'd opened a door, vanishing from veiw, and Ventus had reeled back as the spell was broken.
The desire to follow the other boy was overwelming. Ventus had to swallow it down, a hand on his chest as his heart pounded. He'd finally managed to stumble to bed, but his mind kept returning to the door, to the boy, to the...incessent pulling he felt. It was frightening, but he kept it to himself, even as Aqua scolded him for poor footwork.
That night he sat up in bed, eyes wide and unblinking. He could put it off no longer. Without even bothering to put anything over his sleep clothes he walked out over the wet grass towards the unused wing of the house, its windows boarded up and dark. The door, when he put his hand onto it was cold. It was also locked.
Ventus groaned. Unlock spells...the simplest imaginable, still eluded him. There was only one thing to do. With a huff he shot a palm out, a giant gust of wind following and rattling the door on his hinges. It remained closed, feeling desperate, the pull in his mind growing stronger, Ven tried again and again.
When he paused, opening his eyes and breathing raggedly, the door was swinging--its lock shattered and its hinges squealing from the abuse. Ven felt terrible for about a half second, before he stepped inside.
no subject
"See? It would be nice if she could help?" Ventus pleads, clasping his hand before Vanitas shoots his offer down once and for all. More threats. More stupid insult that don't make sense. Ventus opens his mouth, stepping forward, with a look in his blue eyes that says this is about to devolve into another shouting match between the two.
A voice cuts through the darkness outside, a flash of light as something is lit. Ventus is standing beside one boarded up window, and for a second his eyes line up enough with a crack to see the flash of a white robe.
The walls arent't exactly thick, but the voices are still a bit muffled. Ventus can still make out the key words 'door' and his name and of course 'not in bed'. Terra's voice is there as well, speaking in a frantic confused way. It's getting louder and clearer the longer he listens, it doesn't take much thought to realize it's because its closer
And it shows a lot, that in that half a second of realization--Ventus' first impulse is to grab Vanitas' wrist and dive for the bed.
no subject
Vanitas is already drawing himself up, gearing up sharp teeth and tongue, but then he freezes, breathing somehow even shallower than it already was, almost like he's a corpse. They had the same thought, or almost would have; Ventus is already moving towards the bed himself, and Vanitas, off-guard, goes in with him.
His eyes adjust quickly to the added layer of darkness; the bed is small and they're tightly packed in and Vanitas kicks Ventus in his efforts to press himself deeper out of all possible sight. The conversation approaches, approaches... and stops. Outside the door.
Ventus's breathing sounds so loud, in this space - Vanitas slaps a hand over his mouth. He's shivering a little, something he has no control over, and his eyes are wide in their red glow.
The door opens. Quietly. Slowly.
A line of lantern-light slashes out as it opens. Vanitas is blinded, can only see two silhouettes, and screws his eyes shut, throwing an arm over them as he bites his tongue. He can feel Ventus's existence next to him.
"He's not here," comes Terra's voice, that Vanitas hasn't heard in so long, or ever, to a flood of emotion across his tongue, trapped behind teeth. There's a long agonizing moment before Eraqus speaks. "No, it appears not."
The door swings back, and shuts with a click, the room thrown back into dim light. The conversation and motion continues down the hall, if less steadily paced. Vanitas breathes in a long, shuddering gasp like something starved of oxygen, laughing quietly again. The hand over Ventus's mouth falls down and Vanitas stretches out, lying there, before scrabbling like a trapped rat to get out from under the bed.
starts playing [nanachi in the dark]
Ventus breaths in sharply at the light, at Terra's voice. He sounds stressed and afraid, in a way that seems wholly unlike the tall friendly Terra Ven knows. From his place under the bed, Ven can faintly see how Terra moves on his feet, as if he's half ready to slip into a kata or draw his keyblade.
Eraqus beside him, doesn't seem to be moving at all, his voice is...its not cold. Its not. But its enough to freeze Ven in place, that particular tone. Slightly disappointed, and nothing more.
It only takes a few seconds before Vanitas starts wriggling and kicking his way out from under the bed, laughing in a way that's only scaring Ven more.
"S-stop!" He whispers trying to grab onto the other boys...lack of clothing. What was he even wearing? "W-where are you going, get back here!" Terra and Eraqus could not have gotten far, they shouldn't start running around! They'd hear and then...and then....then what? What was he afraid of? Eraqus. He'd...he. Ventus lets out a shuddering gasp, letting go of Vanitas to grab at his head and curl up, the panic spilling over on his end too. He. he'd. He...he...he uh. he'd. he..there was..some. something bad. Not safe. Not safe he had to- He just had to. had to uh. He could. What was he thinking just--just!
hhhh
Ventus's breathing goes funny behind him. Fear is running between them like a livewire, rabbit heartbeats in sync. Vanitas false-runs back across the room and presses his ear against the door, straining, straining for sound, before moving just as such over to the bed, grabbing Ventus's shoulder and half-shaking, half-pulling it, not at all gently. "Ventus. Ventus. Get out." He keeps glancing over his own shoulder at the door, twisting and tense frustration rising up in him. "They're going to come back." Right now Vanitas has no plans other than flight, isn't really even thinking of them as anything other than a singular unit. They have to go. They can't stay. It's going to happen again.
Re: hhhh
Something grabs his shoulder, rough and Ventus lets out a sound that is much to loud for the situation, kicking back and trying to push Vanitas away. He opens wide eyes at the blurry, static reality of the world and in his panicked haze Vanitas is all to much like a looming dark shadow over him. It makes his breath go funnier.
"I--stop no. Get away. I'll do it better just." He bats Vanitas's hands away, babbling a little. "I'm sorry. Sorry I'll. I'll do it better just stop. P-please."
He's not really thinking about his volume, in the panic. He just see's the shape, and something awful coming and the words just keep coming out, even if he can't find the context to recall why.
no subject
"Shh, shh! Shut up! Get up!" A sharp bark - the kind that makes him get up quick before the keyblade teeth come down and make him. He tries to press a hand over Ventus's mouth again and gets batted. The things Ventus is saying, babbling, are making gorge and hackles rise and he has no idea what do other than the urgency of the situation pressing down on him. He's never seen this from the outside. He can remember feeling like this but he can't remember what to do - he's scrabbling for purchase.
He stops still, and then scrambles back under the bed next to Ventus, bracing his arms and legs against the wall and with straining effort trying to push Ventus out from under the bed with his back - it doesn't last long before he flops, panting. "Come. On. Already." He could leave Ventus behind... but the thought itself is selfishly recoiling. No, he's not going to. He shouldn't have to.
no subject
"Ack!" Ventus yelps as he's shoved a bit forward, to be fair, Vanitas's bed isnt very large and he's mostly knocked out from under it, looking back around to stare at Vanitas in dismay. Sometimes physical contact can shock people out of it a little bit, just at the audacity that you did that to them. At the very least with Vanitas not looming over him theres no mistaking who he is, but Ventus still can't quite fit Vanitas in with the roiling panic he's feeling .
"I. Um. w-what." He backs up a little more, at least remembering to whisper. "I...get out. Yes." He was paying attention, totally. He can definatly do that right now. Pay attention that is. Not think about other stuff. Yes
no subject
"Yes," he repeats, offhand, echolalic. He steps around Ventus to the door. And stands in front of it. Lifts a hand. Drops it. Does so again. Looks at Ventus, looks back, stares, and presses his ear against it again.
There's a sound, sudden, rapidly approaching, increasing in speed and volume, and before Vanitas can react the door suddenly locks itself with a loud click, as further clicks continue to race further away down the hallway. "Hah?"
He laughs disbelievingly, a little hysterically, and then claps a hand over his own mouth in rare practicing what he preaches. "What..." Eraqus is Master of the Castle. The very room can turn on them. "What does he even think... that'll do?" He has his keyblade, doesn't he? They both do, right. He's staring at the doorknob still.
no subject
"It's locked?" Ventus has to steady himself on the bed as he stands up, trembling. Maybe its the night air, or his thin clothes, but now the entire room feels ice cold. "I...who locked it? Terra? Is he trying to help us...?"
Even as he says it, that rings false, but what else is there to believe. The fear suffusing every breath, echoing between the two of them in ways Ventus can't detect, its like a heavy stone that makes it hard to even breath. Ventus wants to see the best in people. He wants to be happy and safe, but now that's feeling like a far off fantasy.
"I'm not...I can't open it..." He says helplessly. "I..I'm not very good." He's not been in "lessons" since he was ripped out of someone. He was in a coma, and then a blank half awake state where he didn't respond to anything. A waking coma. His heart is still fragile, and he hasn't grown his light that much at all. He's only 12, after all ;w;).
no subject
"Fine," Vanitas says, and summons Void Gear. He hates summoning the thing. Hates that it came to his desperate, frantic calling and pained straining of an already strained heart instead of Wayward Wind. But it hums in his hand, makes him feel a little surer, a little more powerful, a little more able to fight back. Not that it really matters, or has ever made a difference.
He points it at the lock, and a thin beam jets out into it. It's not like tapping a chest, there's a struggle that feels like his bones creaking dangerously except in his heart before it gives and unlocks with a click. Vanitas exhales, grip white-knuckled still on Void Gear, before splaying his fingertips on the door and pushing it.
The hallway is empty. He looks back at Ventus before stepping out into it, every line of his body on edge. The torches flicker in their wall grates; it's not the shadows thrown that bother Vanitas, but the pools of visibility and sense-of-being-watched. "The... stairs." It starts out tentative, then decisive. "If we can get down..." They have to get out of the Castle, that's for sure. But where to, after that?
no subject
Still, some of the doubt in Vanitas' voice wraps itself into Ventus. Why would Terra be with Eraqus, his heart screams, even if his brains logic tells him its the most normal thing in the world. Why does it feel like there are suddenly sides here, and Terra picked the one against him. Will Aqua do the same? Those two are such a pair in Vens mind, he's suddenly very scared they'll both leave him.
Ventus pads out a little after Vanitas, his bare feet making very little sound on the wood. The reality of his clothing, the PJ's and lack of footware, are probably going to be a very real issue in the future.
He also stares with slightly calmer interest, at Vanitas's keyblade. Its really cool looking, very different from any other one he's seen. The great blue eye on it seems to meet his own with interest and Ven looks away.
"Where are we gonna go?" He asks and then after a second."Should we take a torch?" Its dark outside, and Ven doesn't want to waste energy on light spells. "There's no way off this world...Master Eraqus is gonna find us."
no subject
"Don't say that," Vanitas snaps, and would probably be experiencing a bit of vertigo at the swapping of roles of optimist and pessimist if he knew Ventus any better. As it is, it's not so much hope as the closing jaws of no other option; if they don't escape... well, he doesn't want to think about it. You'd think you can't go further than rock bottom, but Vanitas is sure there's lava underneath.
The torch thing is a good idea though, and he stands on his tiptoes to carefully lift one out of it's grate, glacing from side to side up and down the hallway, almost dropping it due to refusing to let go of Void Gear as he does so. "Here." He holds it out to Ventus to take - it hadn't occured to him as a problem, so used as he is to his eyes now, and it's for similar reason he isn't really thinking about Ventus's PJs and the night chill. But Ventus does have a point (he's discovering he hates when that happens). They're stuck on this world. Vanitas chews his lower lip, tasting blood.
"Aqua," he says. "She knows a lot about magic, we can make her tell us if there's a way off this rock." She's helped him before, so many times, even though he still can't fathom why. They don't have a lot of other options.
no subject
You know, if they survive this.
Ventus' optimism usually comes from a stalwart belief in his friends, but with that relationship hardly 8 months old and recently shaken...its hard to summon it.
He takes the torch, staring at the flickering flames for a second before Vanitas speaks again. Ventus nods slowly.
"Don't say 'make her' like that." Ven says quietly, but he's already pretty much agreed. He just really doesn't want to fight her. He starts quietly walking, keeping the torch low and leaning around the hallways. The walk to the battered remains of the door isn't long...but it feels like forever.
"We cant take the torch out there." Ventus whispers, glancing back at Vanitas. "We don't...they could be right in front of us." They could be anywhere.
no subject
'What's with all these scuffed up doors' enters Vanitas's head and then exits it without hitting a conclusion. He stops at the most broken one with Ventus - the one to the stairs.
They could be anywhere but... "They can't be everywhere," Vanitas says, his voice equally low, but there's a note of uncertainty to it. Eraqus is really powerful and nothing Vanitas has ever done has shown a hint of being able to cause him harm; he's always in control. Maybe they do know where they both are, and are just toying... no, that doesn't make sense. Or they wouldn't have been physically looking in the first place.
"Fine, we'll say pretty please with rainbows on top as long as she does it." Well, Vanitas won't. He has some dignity. He really doesn't want to fight her either; he's seen her utterly obliterate a training dummy in the yard by accident, a slip in her usual perfect poise. He doesn't like thinking about how they might not have a choice, if Eraqus orders her; it roils in his stomach, an Unversed clawing at his insides unable to escape.
It's also at the idea he has; this has never worked on Eraqus. The man has always been able to pinpoint him and pull him out of the shadows, or simply wait the short time before Vanitas loses hold of it and comes back into form, staring down at him. "Snuff the torch then, I'm going to try something."
He takes as deep a breath as he can and melts onto the floor, feeling his way along it and under the door. He's not really sure how he can 'see' anything like this, but there's nobody on the other side, at least immediately; he quickly moves back under and just in time before he's himself, panting on the stone. He hates doing this. It's like holding his breath, or pulling himself up a wall with one arm, but more than that, it's like not being real. "No-one's... there." The stairs might be another matter themselves.
no subject
"I'll do the talking, if you're gonna be stupid about it." Ventus groans, rubbing his face a little. He'll figure out how to convince Aqua to let them out of here, if you're so fucking complicated. For a second, he's confused about how exactly he's supposed to put the torch out but...good old Aero comes in again, blowing it out in half a second. Best spell. Best. He only hopes Vanitas has a plan to relight it later.
The dark takes a second for his eyes to adjust, which is a small mercy because Ventus blinks to see the end of vanitas melting into shadow in what can only be described as some sort of horrifying hallucination. Then he blinks again and Vanitas is back, gasping onto the door and looking worse then ever.
"W-what was that." Ventus took a step back, gripping the torch tightly. The connection between the two sears like a live wire as Ventus feels paranoia eat at it. What was that? Darkness? It couldn't be that, could it? Darkness was evil and cruel and tore you away from what you loved and made you different and....
oh no...
no subject
The emotion jangles between them like a repetitive rotary phone and adds to the paranoia already there. Adrenalin or it's equivalent is a hell of a drug; it aids in pushing Vanitas to his feet, his heart already curdling sour, already singing betrayal. Right. Darkness bad, light good. Should have thought Ventus would have remembered sooner.
"What do you think, Ventus?" He says, the glow of his eyes as he cocks his head even more pronounced with the torch out. His smile is half sneer, the effect somewhat ruined by how awful he feels and the constant distracting pulling worry of discovery, eyes breaking line to dart to the doors and hall. He looks at Ventus clutching the torch like a lifeline. "What, are you going to hit me with that?" He's almost insulted.
no subject
He might fear Eraqus, for some deep, unexamined reason, but Eraqus had put a healthy fear of darkness in his head, and Aqua and Terra had very firmly, almost urgently affirmed it. Darkness was just about the worst thing Ven could think of. Something that corrupted and wanted to hurt.
"That was Darkness." Ventus looked at Vanitas glowing red eyes, failing to recognize them as a sign of infection, but feeling trepidation stir all the same, swirling around them both. "You can't. You're tricking me?" He didn't mean it to sound like a question. "This isn't...isn't safe. I need to-"
He half turns, clearly unsure but unwilling to tolerate Vanitas's overt threats. Maybe he'd hit you with this stick Vanitas, if you made him.
"my mother told me I was a monster. she was right of course but it still hurt"
"What, you need to what? Run back to Eraqus? To your friends? They wouldn't care though. They're not going to protect you. They'll just stand by and watch it happen because they don't care what happens to you, they'll just lock you away after and pretend everything's fine!" He's been stepping closer as he's been saying this, face locked in a rictus grin and his voice drops low with vehemence. "You're the one who came to me." If anyone was tricking anyone here, then you played yourself.