[012//Audio & Commentlog?]
Oct. 21st, 2010 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oathbreakers[Well! Riku sounds rather flustered for once!]
Just whose great idea was this?
Oh, what, you can't deal with the truth for a change? Can't deal with someone who won't lie to make you feel like a better person?
Stop it!
Or what? Are you gonna--
[The rest of that threat doesn't make it to the network--Riku's muted the comm. He turns it back on a moment later, sounding both irritated and resigned.]
Is anybody else noticing something strange going on?
[Well, that's -one- way to put it.]
Just whose great idea was this?
Oh, what, you can't deal with the truth for a change? Can't deal with someone who won't lie to make you feel like a better person?
Stop it!
Or what? Are you gonna--
[The rest of that threat doesn't make it to the network--Riku's muted the comm. He turns it back on a moment later, sounding both irritated and resigned.]
Is anybody else noticing something strange going on?
[Well, that's -one- way to put it.]
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-23 01:39 pm (UTC)[She knows him, and she knows this ship; it is honestly the best response she could have hoped for.
They're probably going to be here a while. Kairi feels her way around the room until she finds the bed, and then sits on the floor next to it, leaning back against the bedframe.]
What did it mean, "hiding for two days"?
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-23 01:50 pm (UTC)It's...
[He trails off, realizing he was about to brush it off as being nothing again. Normally it wouldn't faze him to do so a bit, but today was different. Today he had the words of his shadow looming overhead.
Riku sighs.]
It wasn't hiding. Not really. It was back when a lot of things happened, one right after the other. Remember? You were a boy for a couple days, I was a girl... right before that happened, there was another... change. I think most people on the boat got their ages changed, right?
[Another pause.]
It was during that time.
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-23 02:08 pm (UTC)[For a moment, she's left wondering if he'll elaborate, and then some of the pieces fall into place.]
Oh.
You were older.
[The next question hangs in the air, unsaid; how much older?]
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-23 02:15 pm (UTC)[He glances down at his hands in the dark, as though he could see more than the faintest of outlines there.]
I wasn't me. I was... somebody else.
Kairi...? What happens?
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-23 02:40 pm (UTC)I don't know exactly.
[But it's not good enough, and it would be lying to leave it at that.]
When I woke up in Hollow Bastion, Sora disappeared. There was a man there, with white hair and yellow eyes. He called me princess.
[Like Riku's shadow. Kairi suppresses a shiver.]
And then you appeared and told us to run. But you weren't really there. You were a part of him, somehow. You held him of, and we left, me and Sora's friends.
I pulled Sora back and we left for Traverse Town. Sora was going to go back to find you but... You'd lost your heart, Riku.
[She stops, her voice quavering. But she's not done. She can't leave it there.]
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-23 03:05 pm (UTC)He loses his... heart? Then why had he become that person on that day of the shipwide change? He should have become a Heartless, fallen into the darkness... he shouldn't have had an older body at all. He should have had a Heartless's body. Shouldn't he?
Not to mention... it hurts, hearing that he loses his heart. Riku makes his way over to his bed slowly, taking a seat on the edge of the mattress and rubbing his face. He'd sworn he wouldn't let the darkness get the better of him. He'd promised himself, and he'd reassured Kairi, and he had -believed- it, too, believed that he was too strong to have his heart taken. Maleficent had reinforced that, always speaking of his strength and granting him more power over the darkness. Once he'd considered that a good thing, but now he wasn't so sure.]
So... that's who I turned into?
[He's quiet now, his ego gone. He's hearing his weaknesses, his mistakes, all of them dragged out to be put on display. -Sora- wouldn't have made those mistakes--but that thought is quickly put out of his mind with a frown. He turns into someone else.
He turns into someone else who threatens Kairi.]
...what happens then?
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-23 03:28 pm (UTC)Kairi's lost track of the number of times she's promised him and herself that it won't.]
His name's Ansem, Sora said. He said you fought over the keyblade too. And when he won, you disappeared. The next time he saw you, you were someone else. I don't know what happened after that. He went back to Hollow Bastion to find you and-...
I stayed behind.
[She can't keep the brittle edge out of her voice. She had accepted it, at the time, that she must stay. But after today's events, the memory bites at her, that she couldn't be there. She doesn't know what happened.]
I didn't see you again. I got pulled into a dark abyss, and then all the worlds were released from darkness. And... Well I forgot a lot of things for a while.
I didn't forget you. No-one did. But... I don't know what happened.
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-24 01:40 am (UTC)Riku allows himself to fall backwards and sprawl over the bed, staring up at the darkened ceiling in thought. He's inherently grateful now for the disappearance of his shadow; he can already imagine just what it would say to him--he can hear it in his own mind now, no matter how hard he tries to banish the thoughts.
"You still refuse to admit it? You've been refusing to admit it from the start--you're wrong, you're -wrong-, you've always been the one in the wrong."
With some difficulty, he pushes the thoughts from mind, arms going behind his head as a pillow.]
I wonder...
Do you think we can really change things?
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-24 02:24 am (UTC)Even if things go back to the way they were... Well, they can't go back to the way they were.
[She pauses, reminded of something that, in her haste to see Riku's "shadow," she'd forgotten.]
I have something for you.
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-24 02:49 am (UTC)[He's grateful when Kairi changes the topic; things were getting a little bit too heavy there for a moment.]
Really? Like what?
First the captain's ball, and now this... I wasn't kidding when I told you people are gonna talk, Kairi.
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-24 03:21 am (UTC)[She's grinning.]
Then I better go.
[She gets to her feet and starts toward the door.]
If gifts might make people talk, then staying in your room definitely will.
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-24 03:46 am (UTC)H-hey, you know I'm just kidding, Kairi, ri--
[Click. Kairi's opened the door and is already slipping out--Riku stares after her, but his brain isn't going fast enough to actually stop her. She's gone before he can say anything more.
The door doesn't fully latch behind her; Riku stands almost without thinking to cross to the door and look out after her. But as he glances outside, he hears something behind him. Laughter.]
"You know I'm just kidding," oh yeah, you're kidding all right! Like anyone's gonna talk about you and Kairi, everybody knows you'll never be able to actually do anything about that crush of yours!
[Riku groans, shutting the door. But light still spills in under the gap between the door and the floor, dim but evident, and he won't put the towel back in case Kairi -did- decide to come back.]
You know, you probably could have even had a chance tonight, if you hadn't gone and messed up right there. What would you have done if she had decided to stay in here overnight? You wouldn't be able to handle it, would you, probably go and die of shock!
Are you done yet?
[For once, he doesn't sound as frustrated with the shadow as one might have expected. After all, nobody's around to hear it talking, and it's just attempting to fluster him when it comes to Kairi--nothing that hasn't happened in the past already. It's not pulling his future out to torment him... he can deal with -this-.]
Maybe if you did get her to spend the night with you you'd have a chance at making people talk! But I doubt that--you ask me, you need to worry about people talking about her and Xanth more than they'll talk about the two of you.
You'll have to try a lot harder than that if you're looking to get a reaction out of me.
[Riku returns to the bed, sprawling out on it again as the shadow keeps up its running commentary, back to looking up at the ceiling. If nothing else, he's got a lot to think about.]
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-24 03:57 am (UTC)She shrugs. It's probably better the door shut, even if it does mean she has to knock again.]
Riku?
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-24 09:12 am (UTC)That's enough out of you!
[Riku swings up from the bed in one fluid movement, crossing the room to open the door back up for Kairi. There's one good thing to this--now he'll be able to stuff the towel back under the door to drown out his shadow without worrying about the door being impossible to open!
He opens the door, giving her a half-grin.]
I think it's getting worse.
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-24 09:27 am (UTC)[She darts inside the room and pushes the door closed behind her, trying to catch a glimpse of Riku's face, to gauge his mood before they're left in the dark again. He's grinning. Well, whatever it said can't have been too bad.]
What'd it say?
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-24 09:44 am (UTC)[As soon as the door closes, Riku's shoving the towel into the gap again, cutting off the last remnants of light.]
--too much of a pansy to make her y--
[And then the light is gone, and Riku actually gives a short laugh of relief. He feels sorry for the people who haven't figured out a way to deal with their shadows. He knows he'd go crazy if he had to listen to it constantly for the next however-long.]
Anything it possibly could, whether it made sense or not. It's just becoming obnoxious background noise by this point.
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-24 10:01 am (UTC)[Kairi touches two fingers to her lips as she mulls over that. Was Riku the "pansy?" Was she the "Her?" What couldn't he make her?
It doesn't matter. It's just obnoxious background noise.]
Well, I got your gift!
[And reaching for where he was last standing, Kairi finds his shoulder. She holds the gift out in the dark between them but stops short of finding and dropping it in his hand. He won't be able to see it, but handing it to him when he hasn't accepted it doesn't feel right.]
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-24 10:18 am (UTC)Riku doesn't have to hide his smile in the dark, but he -does- wonder how Kairi plans to hand it off to him when they can't see. But then her hand finds his shoulder, and he reaches up to take it in his own.]
What is it? Can you put it in my hand?
[Sorry, Kairi, he's not taking any risks tonight!]
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-24 01:21 pm (UTC)[She's smiling. She presses the small gift into Riku's palm. It's a star shape made of five pieces of leather, each cut and shaped like a thalassa shell. She's rimmed the edge with thin metal wire and in the centre there's a closed Pippi shell. The whole thing has been hand-stitched and in the dark, Kairi hope Riku can tell what it is.]
You remember that charm I made on the island, before the storm?
Well, I made you one. I couldn't find any thalassa shells, even when we made port, but it's yours.
[She holds onto his hand just long enough to make sure he won't drop the gift, and then let's go.]
Even if we can't change things, or something else happens, at least this way we won't forget, right?
[Commentlog] 1/2
Date: 2010-10-24 04:28 pm (UTC)It's just like her lucky charm. Just like the one she had at home.
There's another grin on his face. Even with everything else that's been said and done this night, this makes him happy, makes up for anything else.]
Yeah... Thanks, Kairi.
[For a moment more he stands still, the charm in his hand, but... that's not enough. He reaches out to the lightswitch.]
I'm going to turn on the lights for a second. I want to actually see it.
[Click.]
[Commentlog] 2/2
Date: 2010-10-24 04:29 pm (UTC)[CLICK. FASTEST CLICK EVER. Riku hadn't thought about how turning on the lights would make a much stronger shadow than the faint one from the dim light from the door--it had been -loud-, and it had come -very- close to saying something that would have doomed him. If you were looking, Kairi, you could probably see it on his face, the way it went from looking happy and peaceful to panicked and horrified in approximately two seconds!]
On second thought, maybe I'll get a better look at it later.
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-24 04:40 pm (UTC)Kairi tries to stifle her giggles but doesn't entirely succeed.]
Going to think what Riku, hmm?
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-24 04:48 pm (UTC)[Because if she thinks he's going to tell her what the rest of that sentence would have been, she has got another. thing. coming. Riku rests one hand at his hip, smirking his best at her. He knows how to distract her from here.]
I have a better question. Are you laughing at me, Kairi?
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-24 04:59 pm (UTC)But Riku was still talking, and immediately Kairi thought better of it. Instead she grinned, her reply unabashedly teasing.]
Hmm... Maybe.
[Commentlog]
Date: 2010-10-24 05:09 pm (UTC)Hmm. Come here for a second.
[But he's not waiting for her to agree; he's reaching out to find her, carefully, almost tentatively, reaching for where she'd been in the dark with the intention of finding her shoulder.]
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From:[Commentlog] wait what am i doing DIDN'T I SAY I WAS GOING TO BE NICE? XD;;;
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