chara vs chara the REHASHENING

[vacantis]

The endless horizon drifts beneath his feet as he swings them a little, tapping his heels against the edge of this world tunelessly.

Ventus doesn't know where he is.

That's, it's not exactly the most odd thing. Ventus often doesn't really know the names of the worlds he's on, because it doesn't really matter. But usually then he has a plan, or orders, but he woke up with no notes in his pocket and swinging Wayward Wind around did nothing to summon a portal back home. He's stuck here, purposeless...perhaps its a punishment. Ventus doesn't know what he's done wrong, runs over recent events in his head as he stares out blankly. He'd fought his other self once, beaten up that blue haired girl, unleashed heartless to strengthen Vanitas and draw Xehanorts new body away. All according to plan, so why?

He rips up a bit of grass from the lawn beside him, sprinkling it down slowly into the abyss instead of pondering further. The why wasn't that important, actually. He'd messed up, so he just needed to wait until it was clear what he needed to do.

Comments

[vapidus]

Vanitas wakes up on a throne.

It's eerily familiar. The thrones, that is, not the sleeping on them. Vanitas has sat on them, even sprawled on them, when he's figured none were looking or cared, putting Bunny on one of the others and leaving when it ceased to amuse.

But it never seemed worth either the cricked back or any scolding to stay long enough to sleep.

Figures. The mouse's thing malfunctions just to fling him right back to where he started. The universe just loves to laugh at him.

He gets up and wanders, keeping a wary eye out for Eraqus, who almost certainly has figured out he's gone, and the more he does, the more it hits home that wherever this place is, it's not home.

He knows the Land of Departure's castle like the back of his hand - the hallways and doorways are all wrong. And the architecture keeps changing. Vanitas throws himself against a pair of double doors like a man possessed, and finds himself in a lush garden, and keeps running.

He can feel his skin squirming in that way it does when his body wants to make an Unversed. He thinks about pushing it down, but, honestly, the more eyes he has right now the better. He comes to a halt like he meant to, takes a breath, and exhales the Flood before he can calm down naturally.

It jerks and twitches at his feet - he's a bit annoyed it wasn't one of the aerial ones but, whatever, he'll take it. First things first; find out where he is, find the mouse, see if Aqua or Terra are here and leave, potentially in that order. The Flood looks up at him, then around, then behind, darting and on edge constantly.

Vanitas thinks, as hard as he can at it, explore, fingers curling. It looks up one final time and races off, zigzagging, pausing occasionally to scan it's surroundings like a squirrel in a world of dogs. Maybe it's actually a good thing it was one of these.

Vanitas is still getting the hang of using the Unversed as eyes - while he could always sense where Bunny was it was simply never anything he'd thought possible enough to try until accidental cornering proved it such. It's still tricky to use both his and an Unversed at the same time without throwing up, and this one isn't making the nausea easy.

Stop fucking moving so much, he thinks at the Flood as he has to lean against a tree and close his eyes for the fifth time. The Flood gives no indication of having heard, it's gaze jumping from a stick, to a tree, to cobblestones, to where it heard a weird sound, back to the stick, to a place where the ground just seems to stop.

Vanitas groans. This was a bad plan. He prepares to try and wrangle it back so there's not just another piece of him out there doing whatever it likes (which have, apparently, ranged from attacking people to playing some kind of ball game) when it catches a flash of yellow, white, and black.

Vanitas isn't sure if it's him that freezes or the Flood, but after staying unnaturally still for several rapid heartbeats it starts slowly heading towards what it saw, crouched low to the ground.

The one who called himself Ventus, and has done nothing but ruin Vanitas's life so far.

Before Vanitas can even process this, the Flood pounces at Ventus with a desperate speed. Vanitas is already running.

[vacantis]

Ventus had just finally managed to to toss his last handful of grass into the abyss when something in the air shifts, almost subconsciously. A scuttle, the rustle of something moving behind him and then a sudden shift of movement! Almost without thinking his hand shoots up, grabbing the thing around the throat and slamming it to the ground with a practiced, almost suprised efficiency. Ventus is dimly surprised thats for sure. He didn't expect company.

The thing crushed beneath his hand is strange and familiar, its claws hurt against his hands as he grips it by throat and crushes, pondering its nature. The scratches it leaves ooze negatively, a cold feeling that seeps into his bones and makes him almost-- Oh! Yes that's right. These are his other halves minions...he'd seen them once or twice when he'd watched the other boy in the Land of Departure. It's stupid. Vanitas isn't strong enough yet, but here he is, looking for another fight.

The blond boy turns slowly on his heel, when he actually knows what to look for the connection is laughable easy to trace at such short distance. He faces where Vanitas will come in, still choking the Unversed idly. "Your probation isn't infinite." He says slowly, white fingers closing further around the Unversed as he looked at the other boy with dim curiosity at best. "You should focus on getting stronger."

[vapidus]

Vanitas narrowly avoids hurling as one set of vision arcs up and over with dizzying speed and the other stays constant. While usually he doesn't feel anything from his Unversed unless they're killed, because he's borrowing Bunny's eyes he feels a muffled pressure around his own throat, absently pulling at his collar. The running isn't helping the difficulty breathing either.

He's loathe to cut the link altogether all the same, for the same general reason as he'd be to take his eyes off a snake he came across. He can tell, in that same muffled way, the Flood scratching and trying to bite with no result.

Vanitas breaks through the treeline with Keyblade already in hand and sees Ventus with his own two eyes, pulling back his attention from Bunny's. The too-tight feeling disappears from his neck just as Ventus's fingers clamp down further, in what would have elicited a squeak if the small creature could still get any air. Bunny's kicking intensifies.

"Go jump off the edge," Vanitas snaps. It's been a very long day. He points at Bunny with the Keyblade. "And give me that first." The words are definitely braver than he actually feels, and undermined by his panting. He still vividly remembers getting his ass kicked.

[vacantis]

Ventus squints a little, mild irritation. Its easily missed, and the closest thing to a reaction Vanitas is going to get. The other boy is so loud when he was the one who came and bothered Ventus in the first place.

"No." He says, eloquently, to Vanitas's requests. One because he clearly can't go killing his masters property himself. Secondly because- "What. Do you care about this...mindless thing?" The creature tries to bite him again and Ventus turns a half step, considering the edge once again. If you threw something that came from someone else, did it die when it got far enough away? Ventus couldn't sense a bottom here. Maybe Vanitas could watch this thing fall forever, uncomprehending.

Something about that was a bit interesting. Maybe even amusing, but Ventus wasn't really good at picking it out of his own thoughts. It was something Xehanort would probably do. Throw away whats useless, to make way for strength. An obvious principal of this world, just like how Ventus had to throw away Vanitas until they both became strong.

"You need to get stronger." He repeat, slower, in case Vanitas can't understand.

[vapidus]

Excuse u who has any right to be talking about bothering here, Mr. I'm-Just-Gonna-Show-Up-In-Your-Room.

"I heard you the last time," Vanitas snips. "And wow, I care exactly as much." There's a visible pause, because he's played keep-away before (although always on the other end). If it's something he knew Aqua or Terra cared about, that's why he would take it.

It's not so fun being on the other side of things. And he in no way expects Ventus to just hide it, or return it when the chase has played out and look innocent because what do you mean, it's right there, right where it was.

"Actually you know what," he says, straightening, trying to be nonchalant, arms folded, looking away. "Keep it, since you seem to like it so much."

He's trying to mentally gauge how close he has to be to reabsorb Bunny. Closer than he'd like to be near Ventus.

[vacantis]

That was blatently not the same thing! He was there to deliver a message, a message! Vanitas room should be his room to, anyway!!

Ventus clenched his teeth together in a sharp exhale of breath. Vanitas irreverance towards him is expected, but he's following Master Xehanort will here, and the insult to that burns unpleasantly in his chest. "You'd be wiser to care, for once." He mutters under his breath.

Vanitas turns away from the minion. Truth be told, Ventus wasn't the best at reading people who weren't Xehanort and Xehanort tended towards more subtle body language and overdramatic monologues. His other half was so intense in everything he did, Ventus couldn't quite grasp if he was reading into second meanings, or just plain ignorant. Vanitas might care, but then again he was a creature of darkness, so he might not. Ventus didn't know.

Luckily it would be pretty easy to find out. He might get some information out of the interaction after all.

"Like I would." He said, tossing the thing behind his shoulder carelessly. It bounced against the edge in a practiced arc, he can hear its claws scrabbling even without looking. The minion hadn't fallen yet, but it certainly wouldn't pull itself back onto the surface without help. Help that Ventus certainly wasn't going to give to a thoughtless creature of darkness.

man i forgot he could do this

[vapidus]

It's still bothering. Set and match!

Finally getting a reaction from Ventus is not as satisfying as Vanitas imagined, a mirroring aggravation rising instead. It's likely because it's the same reaction someone would have to an annoying fly rather than a weak spot needled, and also carries the condescending expectation Vanitas should give a damn about what people who've done nothing for him want.

The Flood finally manages a squeak on impact, clawing at the loose stone edge. While being made of pure negative emotion and therefore not strictly needing air, the shape something takes has a great deal of influence on it... as does intent to harm.

Vanitas knows he can't maintain the fiction he doesn't care even as he automatically reacts. He darts forward, eyes wide... then literally darts forward, skidding to a halt behind Ventus. A loose brick falls into the abyss of cloud at his heels - he has to dig his keyblade in reflexively to avoid following it. The Flood is close enough to place one paw on his foot and it does and he draws it in, and is immediately filled with sharp, restless agitation, adjacent to and approaching fear. This, he manages to push down enough it doesn't come back out again, although it by no means disappears.

He has no fucking clue how he just did that, but now he's at the edge, and Ventus is between him and the rest of the Castle Grounds - not a favourable position to be in, and therefore one in which that emotion won't leave. Anger rises up beside it, hot and then cold, and Vanitas resists the urge to push down on or scratch his skin.

"Why are you here." he says, and if it sounds like it's directed at the universe in general a little that's because it is.

vanitas: slurps unversed ventus: what the fuck

[vacantis]

Vanitas zooms past him faster then Ventus can blink, pulling the creature....into himself? The other boy feels his lip curl a little as he takes a step back. That is...well, he packs the thought away. Ventus knows with a heart like his, its hard for him to understand the workings of darkness, Master Xehanort had impressed this upon him several times with more then a little charign. His Master did favor darkness, after all.

Still...it might be better if when they became one again, that didn't happen. Ventus certainly didn't need minions to serve his purpose.

Vanitas is backed to a corner now, a rather stupid decision wasted on a rather stupid test that he quite obviously failed. Ventus needed to keep spoon feeding him answers, it seemed. Or at least he would, but Vanitas asked a bit of a suprising question.

"Er...." Ventus's eyes widen a little and he brings a finger up to scratch his cheek. His tone has lost a bit of its previous coldness, leaving behind a bit of an awkward demeanor. "Did you not...bring us here?" He'd sort of assumed, seeing as he'd woken up here and then had an unversed run at him. Castles seemed to be the sort of places Vanitas liked??

*that noise you make when you get the last bits with a straw*

[vapidus]

To be fair, despite being literally composed of it the way most people are of water, Vanitas has pretty much no idea how darkness works either. He didn't ask to be made this way. It's been a lot of trial and error.

(You break it you buy it Ventus. All of your darker half means all of your darker half. )

To date, Ventus has been this implacable, incomprehensible thing that explains nothing and seemingly has nothing better to do than make Vanitas's life worse for reasons unknown. To say this has been as intimidating as it is infuriating is an understatement, especially given the power showcased.

Seeing that statue-like air break into awkwardness feels more surreal than anything else so far today, and all Vanitas can do is kind of stand there staring before his brain spins up to speed again enough to speak.

"At which point did you decide I'd want enough of anything to do with you that if I had any choice in the matter I'd take you with me instead of throwing you into the nearest volcano??"

It's meant to be biting but it's also mostly disbelief. If he hadn't seen Mickey's 'uh oh' expression when the Star Shard randomly activated itself, he'd have assumed Ventus was the one that would have had anything to do with this.

Absolutely Disgusting

[vacantis]

He didn’t break it and he certainly didn’t buy this...side feature!! Please uninstall this darkness DLC.

“Well...perhaps you wanted a rematch..without a mouse?” Ventus said, looking torn between slightly flustered and cold. It’s a strange uncomfortable combination. “We were not planned to meet again for a while, so I can assure you it was not me.”

He sighs lightly. “But perhaps I was assuming overly much.” He says again, slipping back into the coldness of his usual character. “I suppose I continue to overestimate your abilities.” The dissatisfaction is prominent in his tone.

[vapidus]

I guess... Xehanort broke it? Maybe you should place a bug report with him.

I'd only want a rematch if I knew for sure I would win, and I want to win, Vanitas doesn't admit. He prefers to hold cards as much as he prefers getting the last word, unaware this is exactly aligning with the aforementioned plans. The idea of which make his hackles rise involuntarily.

Ventus's slipping back into his usual demeanor doesn't help this at all, only it's mixed with... Now, with the contrast, that cadence and tone feels familiar, like he's heard it somewhere else, emanating from below a disapproving, unraveling stare and giving him the weirdest urge to apologize. He can't place it. Eraqus, maybe? No, not even at his most disappointed. It's right there and annoyingly far at the same time.

It'll probably come to him at some point. He adjusts his weight, using his keyblade to get on more solid footing.

"I wasn't aware I was being graded," he says, heavy on the sarcasm. "Your opinion matters so much to me."

He exhales. "If it wasn't you, and we're not 'planned to meet'," he continues, using one hand to make the quotation marks, "then why don't you just turn around and leave?" It's a suggestion that sounds like it should have a reasonable tone and Vanitas is doing his best to make sure it doesn't.

Vanitas hasn't tried to open a corridor yet from it's place lower on the itinerary. He is perhaps soon to get a rude awakening.

[vacantis]

Honestly, if Ventus had been truely smart he would have taunted Vanitas with loosing until the other boy got stronger by himself. Unfortunately, he's almost painfully honest, even with his bad intentions.

"It's not an opinion." Ventus says idly, his tone practically begging Vanitas to deny it. "Besides, I'm not even the one grading you."

He looks like he might continue, but he blinks again in that same half-awkward surprise, though this time he clamps down on it faster. "We cannot leave?" He says instead, not meaning for it to sound like a question. "The magical distortion around this world is...immense. It might as well be a jail cell." Another reason to assume Vanitas would have taken him here, where he'd be declawed and helpless. Perhaps the Chi-blade could rip through the fabric of this world but no..no Vanitas wasn't even strong enough for that yet. He presses a hand behind his back and clenches his nails into his palm as he grits his teeth at the conundrum, venting his....dissatisfaction. Yes.

[vapidus]

Ventus wouldn't be in this role if his own inherent emotional problems weren't shooting his goals in the foot. It's required.

A point of proof is Vanitas taking the bait. "Absolutely an opinion. You think it, and say it, and I don't care."

He looks like he's about to continue, but the second part causes him to go quiet. The hint that someone else is involved doesn't sit well with him.

Vanitas slowly takes one hand off Void Gear and reaches out to the side, not taking his eyes off Ventus. He pulls, feeling the darkness in him churn and spin and try to call an answering formation.

Nothing happens, not even a blip. He lifts Void Gear and points it in the same direction, and though the keyblade thrums with power, nothing happens there either.

"Fuck," he says, with feeling, and then immediately glances around to make sure Aqua isn't in earshot, keyblade tipping back down. He hates this so much.

[vacantis]

Ventus raises a brow slightly, which for him is practically like screaming “i told you so!!” gleefully. He only raises it further as Vanitas looks around like he might get in trouble. What? Like the backup girl or Masters new body would pop out to tell? , Like, Ventus was going to come after him for swearing

He’d had to attend meetings with Braig, several meetings. The man had been very clear about what portions of Ventus’s vocabulary needed to be expanded.

“It seems that proves your friends aren’t here either. Now...As I was saying,” He continued, tone dripping an innate superiority. “This world is a clever trap, a prison.” He pointed at Vanitas. “The only plausible culprit is your Master....congratulations for finally breaking his trust after all these years...”

[vapidus]

You clearly haven't experienced the Force of Aqua, Ventus.

Terra, for his part, has been known to drop things on his feet and Vanitas absolutely leverages this fact if he tries to tell him off.

Every word Ventus says makes Vanitas contemplate the void behind him more and more. If he jumped he could probably turn Void Gear into a glider, probably.

Vanitas isn't a trusting individual, almost by default. In the four years he's lived with them, Terra and Aqua and Eraqus have earnt that trust, in little ways, over and over. He's not very inclined to extend Ventus that same courtesy.

But... this is a world that is both the Land of Departure but not. Pleasant but inescapable. It feels exactly like the sort of solution Eraqus would come up with if the dark child under his care went wayward. The kind of cruelness that can only come from light. And Vanitas has gone wayward. Although it was the stone that malfunctioned, a trap on return is not something he'd put out of Eraqus's power.

He doesn't push against it. Something thorny winds around a leg, and something lapine peers out from as close to behind him as it can get without falling off the cliff. With them out, he can gather himself a little, lifting his head and clapping his hands together slowly.

"Congratulations for landing in that exact same trap, then. Genius move."

It's a small consolation, but it is one really. If Ventus can't get out either, he's not any danger to Vanitas's friends either.

I'm not even the one grading you.

That one, he pushes down.

[vacantis]

His other half shivers, creatures winding around him as the words sit in. Ventus doesn't really get it, this overemotional reaction to what him seems like a logical seaquence of events. Vanitas couldn't be so idiotic to think that Eraqus would actually tolerate him--wasn't that the whole point of his assignment? Eraqus was supposed to make Vanitas more bitter or something, while making sure he didn't die.

Maybe that's what was happening? The same revulsion creeps up his throat at the creatures, but Ventus only cocked his head a little as he tried to watch Vanitas's facial expressions, face passive as Vanitas seems to gather himself.

"I didn't land in anything. I simply..." His eyes cross a little as he considers, before a thought strikes him. This would be a perfect trap for Vanitas, but then why would Ventus be here?

"I..." He grits his teeth in a soft exhale of breath, looking away from Vanitas to mutter. "But even then, that does not make sense . It's idiotic to trap us here together-!" Eraqus knew what Ventus and Vanitas were, why would he put them together? Ventus was confident that no trap could withstand the power of the X-blade, so why put its creators together? How had he even gotten here? He was in Radient garden before!

The lack of information made his chest feel tight. He put a hand to it unconciously, blinking. There was no plan or outline for how to deal with this. Where was Master Xehanort??

[vapidus]

Bitterness did happen. But so did other things. Vanitas's feelings towards Eraqus are complicated - there's reasons this feels like both a betrayal and no surprise.

Vanitas laughs as Ventus goes cross-eyed, once, thinly, then more. While that ever-present sense of danger has not and will not leave, he can't help feeding off it. "You don't know, do you?" he crows. At least he does (he doesn't.) "You're even more in the dark about this than I am."

Vanitas crouches down, half-sitting at the edge of the world, one hand still up on Void Gear. If he's going to be stuck here he might as well get comfortable, or at least visibly get comfortable in front of someone clearly distressed by it. He has to kick off the entangling Thornbite to do it, and it moves away to the sword with a betrayed air. The Hareraiser continues to stare mournfully at the ground.

"It makes perfect sense," says Vanitas contrariwise, lacking several key pieces of lore. "You messed up."

(So has he, evidently, but shhhh.)

[vacantis]

Ventus looks up, hand still on his chest. "It's quite literally impossible for me to be more in the dark then you are." Ventus shoots back, his tone flat. This is actually incredibly defensive for him, but good job literally ever showing him that.

Vanitas sits down in response, which is really driving the 0.00005% of Ventus's brain thats focused around emotion go buck wild with rage. It manifests as a slight grit to his teeth.

"See." He bites out again. He refuses to sit, and lower his guard. Unlike his other half he actually does his duty, and that means he has to be ready to do it. "Like that. You don't even know what we want. I can't have messed up, because we're here together."

[vapidus]

While Ventus was studying the blade, Vanitas was spending some time mastering the art of annoying people, and although Ventus is a difficult opponent, it's a lot easier than beating him in hand to hand combat. Is it really lowering his guard when he'd be trounced anyway? And look at what effect it's having. Hilarious. You can't hide your reactions from him forever. He can smell them (he can't actually smell them, that would be weird).

While step two is missing between 'get under Ventus's skin' and 'get out of the situation', step one is fun enough in an extreme sports kind of way that this feels a little unimportant.

He's still got his hand on the keyblade, though.

"So enlighten me then," says Vanitas, leaning back a little, and then continuing with what is usually a surefire move for him. "I bet you don't actually know."

[vacantis]

Can we Please go back to hand to hand combat. Ventus is really min maxed on the whole "duel of the wits" concept.

Also whats wrong with smelling people? Riku would be disapointed at your small mindedness.

Vanitas is a bit better at manipulating people then he thinks.Something in Ventus sparked at the challenge and he spoke without thinking. "Of course I know. It's why we were created. When we're together we can create-" He blinked, expression flatlining into something dead and uncomfortable. His eyes trailed away from Vanitas for a second and when he spoke again it was distant, not even really addressing Vanitas. "Actually....Am I allowed to tell you that?"

He was pretty sure that Xehanort was going to tell Vanitas about the X-blade soon in order to set him against Eraqus and help spur both Vanitas and Terra further into darkness...But Ventus wasn't really involved in that portion of the plan up until the end. He didn't want to step on his masters toes...the thought of messing up the plan made his head spin uncomforably. But Xehanort wasn't here to tell Vanitas, which was just as bad. This whole situation was really, really, really bad, as far at the plan was concerned.

[vapidus]

To be fair, Vanitas has spent the entirety of the life he remembers with people who knew him from the start, and by this point are wise to his tricks. This is, perhaps, unfair to Ventus, who gives more information than Vanitas expected.

He sits up a little in interest, before experiencing a flash of near-failed video game level frustration when Ventus cuts himself off at the important part. It is mixed with a mildly smug satisfaction he got that much.

Then what was actually said hits - the verb used. Created.

What Vanitas had been told about how he came to be had always been vague. From what he'd been told, and not told, and pieced together, there had been some kind of accident, and a kid had died to make him. Eraqus had taken him in out of the kindness of his heart, yada yada yada. Nobody liked mentioning it, and Vanitas himself wasn't inclined to pry overmuch because thinking about it too hard made his stomach roil with Unversed when he had.

Vanitas props his head on his free hand, elbow on his knee, trying not to show this inner consternation. The way the Unversed are acting, clustering closer like plants towards the sun isn't helping this endeavor. The Hareraiser tries to climb into his lap and he drops his hand enough to push it away a little.

"You tell me, messenger boy," he says. It's really, really apparent right now that someone else is pulling the strings behind this, which is a terrifying thought behind which several other, equally as distressing ones are lining up to have a go.

[vacantis]

Ventus is very dumb actually. He might give off the whole "cool headed logical type" vibe but actually hes stupid. He's so stupid he still counts with his fingers. The second you take him out of a fight his only other skills are sewing and being a good listener.

The unversed cluster and chitter and Ventus clenches a hand for a keyblade that he doesn't want to summon. He'll only summon Wayward Wind if he intends to fight--not before. His trigger happy response to Unversed isn't reason enough to go off the plan.

He blinks at Vanitas command, mouth half open before he squints again. "You...can know....When you're stronger." He finally says. "That's the plan, anyway. I don't think I can say much else without permission."

He says it very matter of factly, as if needing permission to say things is a very expected part of life, and one that needs little discussion.

[vapidus]

(Hi, I'm Ventus, 14, and I never learnt how to read.)

'When you're stronger' pisses Vanitas off a little, and it's an added stone flung into the morass he's trying to keep down and under control, things crawling under his flesh. Four years of practice lets him swallow it down, for now, but he knows from exactly those years he can't just store it up forever. He breathes in through his nose. Meditation, with it's inherent requirements for sitting still and behaving never really struck a chord with him, but the bits that did stick help.

He could let it all out now. He really could. Nothing's stopping him, not Eraqus's disdain, not the looks of Terra or Aqua. He's already in a cage, and apparently alone save for Ventus, at that. There's nobody he has to care about hurting. The plate comes pre-broken.

Entirely unconsciously, his hand rubs at his throat as he tries to pay attention to both this and what Ventus is saying. He doesn't want to lose his momentum here.

"Good luck getting it, then," he says, hissing as he pricks himself on the Thornbite's thorns a little likewise pushing it away. It's one more distraction he doesn't need right now. "Because which part of 'the plan' involves being stuck here, again?"