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made it out of the torture labyrinth together :thumbsup:
Silence...
A boy who everyone called Ventus couldn't believe how little he once considered the world. Foolishly he'd once thought of silence as just an absence, a background when things were a little boring, nothing to be given any thought. How wrong he was. Silence was, as teacher who were people once said, golden. Silence was a sanctuary where no one could hurt you.
It made him so happy, curled up in a bed in a bunk he didn't want to think about, that Ventus didn't quite trust it. Sleepy, safe, quiet. Alone in his own head, not thinking about anything. It didn't seem real. A bit of safety like this felt so foreign after a few months that he couldn't wrap his head around it. Could't move, for fear of breaking it. Whatever. It didn't matter. Anything he said yesterday felt stupid the second he'd gone home, slunk away from that silence and back to...too...
For a second he flipped one of the earmufflers up just to test that he wasn't crazy. The roar of machinary, the shaking of this building, the sound of a hundred other children yelling or crying or just...breathing to close was enough. Ven curled up around his tiny corner bed, and absolved himself to stay here forever. He wouldn't even leave this place to eat, if it meant taking his quiet away.
A boy who everyone called Ventus couldn't believe how little he once considered the world. Foolishly he'd once thought of silence as just an absence, a background when things were a little boring, nothing to be given any thought. How wrong he was. Silence was, as teacher who were people once said, golden. Silence was a sanctuary where no one could hurt you.
It made him so happy, curled up in a bed in a bunk he didn't want to think about, that Ventus didn't quite trust it. Sleepy, safe, quiet. Alone in his own head, not thinking about anything. It didn't seem real. A bit of safety like this felt so foreign after a few months that he couldn't wrap his head around it. Could't move, for fear of breaking it. Whatever. It didn't matter. Anything he said yesterday felt stupid the second he'd gone home, slunk away from that silence and back to...too...
For a second he flipped one of the earmufflers up just to test that he wasn't crazy. The roar of machinary, the shaking of this building, the sound of a hundred other children yelling or crying or just...breathing to close was enough. Ven curled up around his tiny corner bed, and absolved himself to stay here forever. He wouldn't even leave this place to eat, if it meant taking his quiet away.
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"Woke you up, didn't it?" says Vanitas, like this was at all part of the plan and he's not just slowly lowering his own fist to nonchalantly wipe a trickle of blood from his nose with the back of it, snorting it up. "Ugh. Don't tell me you forgot our deal yesterday." He swipes his arm down at the hand holding his shirt. Let go of that.
It wasn't a deal so much as an argument and agreement, but they're going to prove this surface thing one way or the other or bust. It's the most galvanized Vanitas has felt in years, and his pockets are stuffed with protomush cakes, which is half of why he had to kick so many ankles and run on the way here.
"Anyway, I'm taking this," he says, of the blanket, pulling it up. It's thin and standardized, finders keepers. "Put what you're bringing in it or you're carrying it yourself."
If this is an apology it's an extremely weird one.
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Ventus also doesn't apologize for knocking Vanitas's nose or swearing at him (though a little voice says he should). Instead he drops to his hands and knees after Vanitas grabs the blanket, looking around for where his headphones could have dropped in their scuffle. If they broke... the idea makes him feel fuzzy so he focuses on Vanitas's smug expression instead.
"I was awake." Is all he says at first. It's nearly impossible to sleep here, even with his newfound quiet. It's not safe.
"Your idea was stupid." He glares at the blanket woefully. "It's not going to work. There's nothing here but a stupid pit in the ground that eats everyone up. They'll catch us and put me back in the hospital."
There's a bit of vigor in his voice from the irritation, the slightest hint of interest but its scraping against a scared, long running apathy. Too many patterns, too many days spent banging his head against walls trying to solutions to a problem that never went away. Yesterday he rode the high of someone helping him, someone trying to understand him but when he went home that hope was scarier then the dirt and grime and misery Ventus knew down here.
It was strange, but somehow Ventus felt like he had more to lose right now. The risk of failing again was too daunting, his little bits of safety too precious. If he didn't try, he couldn't fail. That was the winning strategy of a years underground.
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"YOUR idea was stupid," he retorts. "We're trying mine."
Which is clearly much better. The talk of the hospital does give him pause, though. Everyone knows all the rumors about the hospital. There's precious little choice in the matter.
"Tell them I threatened you or something. Then it's not you being crazy." His tone isn't as breezy about it as he'd like it to be. "They'll believe it." Probably. Probably Ventus is already marked down as being a flight risk, if he's tried before.
"That's if we're even caught. The quicker we are, the less chance. I'm not sticking around."
He's going, with or without Ventus, is the implication in his tone... largely to get Ventus with.
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Then Hayner can have his bunk back. Nice and neat. Ven's hands close around the headphones. He could put them on and ignore Vanitas until he went away. That's what he's implying.
...
"I wouldn't do that..." It's another emotion that makes him hesitate. Vanitas isn't saying this lightly...but Ven won't take it either. It's kind, but he doesn't like it. "What if you went to jail? Even if they probably wouldn't believe me, I don't like lies like that."
He shuffles to his feet, trying to grab the blanket back half heartedly.
"Besides, why do you even care so much? Stupid... Just go."
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"Takes one to know one," Vanitas shoots back. I know you are but what am I. This is kind of fun. He's... missed stuff like this, weirdly, and it's a thought that hurts to have. He hadn't thought of Skuld for a while until just yesterday.
"I'm already going to jail, Ventus. It's just a matter of time. Doesn't matter, anyway." It's matter-of-fact. He tugs back on the blanket, trying to whip it away to stuff it under his shirt. Warm AND doesn't make him stand out. Fight him for it Ventus.
"If you're just going to wait for it to happen anyway, it's stupid to pass up getting another chance in. Or," and a grin splits his face. "You just don't want to admit I'm right."
It's full on needling smugness. It's not the same doing it without Ventus, even as he's deciding not to unpack the whys and wherefores of that.
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The blanket is tugged, and Ventus with it. No he won't let go. It's his. He blinks a little in surprise, his own depressed apathetic train of thought trailing off into shock that Vanitas actually understands a concept like jail. Ven didn't think these people even knew what crimes were. Their views of good and bad were all wrong!
"Ugh! It's not about being right!" What really scares him is if Vanitas is wrong. But the boy is so laissez faire on the prospect. Of going to jail, of being wrong.
"Aren't you..." Ventus doesn't want to ask if he's scared. That would be like admitting he's scared.
"If you go to jail I want your boots."
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"Yeah? Where else do you think people who make too much noise go?"
Nobody cares if things get stolen from you, or if someone grabs you in the street. But there's a reason there's Watchers. There's a reason people just go missing sometimes. Not every time. But often enough. It's the hospital for people they don't even try to pretend to 'fix'. Maybe it's just Vanitas has more connection to the underworld by default.
Also a reason that, apart from the initial yelling, he's been pitching his voice slightly lower than the ambient sound, just by years-long habit.
"How can you be a r-e-a-d-e-r and not know this?" Honestly the way Ventus says 'down here'... did he decide that jails were only a Surface thing, or something? He doesn't ask 'aren't I what?'. There's fear underneath, but he won't admit it either.
"You'll have to come and take them, Ventus." He sniffs. These are his boots! They might as well be made of solid gold. They're steel-capped things, meant for workers in the production lines, and they're just a little bit big on him. "From my cold dead body." That's how it works here after all. No way is he just giving him them, even in principle of prior agreement.
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Or worse. Being mean about this place and everyone he hates in it is the only thing that makes him feel better right now. Look, he'll even let go of the blanket and hope Vanitas falls over.
"This just doesn't feel like a place with a j-u-d-i-c-a-l system." There's a new word to chew on. If Vanitas knows what judical is, ok fine, Ventus really will believe him.
Its annoying, but Ventus does stand up in a huff, hugging one arm and listing against the wall half heartedly. He clearly doesn't want to even consider going with Vanitas, but at the same time no matter what he does, its clear Vanitas won't leave. So that leaves him...
"I won't wait that long. Someone is going to try and steal them first. I have to stand right next to you to make sure I get those boots." This is why he's actually maybe kind of following you. It's not that he thinks escape will work, or anything, tch. The steel toed boots are just way to inviting. He's like a real pit person now.
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See he knows big words too, Ventus. It's not entirely accurate, since it's largely down to how much the system cares enough to act or neglect, but it does happen. There's always more misfortune to fill the gap. The usage of 'you' annoys him a little, as it always does. You're here despite your dreamland, is his opinion.
Vanitas does stumble with the combination of the sudden slack and word mastication, but sadly doesn't fall over. Gotta have a good center of balance in crowds by habit. He's not going to admit the idea is turning up blank, with only the connection to jail to go off of, so:
"Like you really need one of those." Clearly jail seems to work without it. As much as any other part of the City at least.
He rolls up the blanket in his arms, then ties it around his waist under his clothes, glancing around at the surroundings before surreptitiously slipping the protomush cakes into the roll before dropping his shirt. Much safer than pockets and in it's own way a measure, doing it in front of Ventus.
He grins. That's more like it. More normal, and equally as importantly more galvanised. He lifts one of the boots, knowing that envy well.
"What, they don't have these on the Surface? They don't come from the earth?"
Now he's just being mean, in his own good mood. He's ready to start walking, so he's just getting a little needling in.
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"Does too. You can't just send people to jail because you want to. There's like..." Local teen tries to remember how court works. "A jury of your peers. Otherwise you live in...um I can't remember the history, but before everything fell apart there was one."
He is eying the food, but not with as much interest. Eating is one of the first things you stop caring about under stress, and while Ventus will neurotically defend his space and his right to silence, right now the idea of eating just feels like boring nonsense.
"Don't be a...dick." Grimace. "They show how to make shoes at your school."
He had shoes before. Better shoes. Best shoes. They're gone forever, so fuck you, give Ventus yours.
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"Yeah, I can't." Vanitas knows it's a general you but he's being pedantic about it. "It's all the Watchers' deal." It's so arbitrary and inscrutable it might as well be 'because they want to'. Local teen understands court even less.
Vanitas devastates me by not enquiring after the apocalypse and assuming Ventus is just talking about the entropy all around them in general. Thematically they're technically the same thing but still. He sees Ventus's disinterested look and has a kneejerk reaction of 'good'. Vanitas has the rare allowance of hoarding, and these have been immaculately counted down to the broken bits.
Someday Vanitas will experience the joy of sneakers. Someday. Ventus calling him a dick makes the grin wider. Were you going to call him something else? "Ughhh... don't remind me." He could recite those lessons verbatim with his eyes closed if he wanted to (he does not want to). Well, he could reflexively hit the right answers without paying attention. "I skipped school today for this, I don't want it from you."
Speaking of. "Let's get moving." While they've still got that window of lost or late as an excuse. He's heading out.
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It's all faceless cameras and disappearances. Even the doctor who looked at Ven just pushed a few buttons, and listened to the diagnosis being read out. Ven might be new, but he's keyed in enough to Vanitas' life to know that if anyone might know anything about the inner workings of the city, it might be him.
"If you skipped for me, then you should be thanking me for the excuse. I think this is the day they talk about street signs for eight hours."
He does move, but in the same aimless way. He's got nothing to grab so he just picks up the pillow from his bed and holds it as he starts towards the door. He doesn't want to look to Vanitas for direction, but if the other boy has a plan, then Ventus is sure he'll drag him some way or another once they get to the street.
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Vanitas is keyed into the City, but his ennui is a disadvantage. He has more of an ear to the ground than the average person through Xehanort and all his shady dealings, but his concern is narrowed to the personal. The shadowy politics and chess moves are something the old man has given up on his disappointment inheriting, and that's it's own kind of spite. Unbeknownst to Vanitas (or maybe knownst in the sense of picking up on it) he looks for his legacy elsewhere.
"Hey, what did I say." The fact that this is karma goes whoosh over his head completely. "Besides, you're skipping too now."
They are complicit together. Vanitas walks like he knows where he's going, which is true, and like he's taking Ventus to where he's supposed to be going, which is true only in a very broad sense. He puts his headphones on and leaves one open so he can hear if Ventus starts screaming or something, the one nearest the wall. "Straight shot to the stairwell." Even Ventus probably knows where that is, but Vanitas is going to grab at his hand or wrist to tug and run anyway. He does not want to have to double back and hunt him down.
Those are still noisy and busy, especially at this time of day, but still a little easier to talk in. It's going to be a long climb.