[Riku has no idea what to say.

He's heard Xanth's post, and his mind immediately leapt to all sorts of conclusions, and he is praying and hoping that all of them are wrong. Funnily enough, the idea that she was no longer on the boat never crossed his mind--it is impossible for his mind to even fathom the possibility that she might be gone. Or maybe he feels like he'd know it, maybe Kairi's been rubbing off on him.

That's why she'll still be there. She's still here. If he's lost her again...

Riku doesn't know -what- he'd do. And quite frankly, that -unnerves- him.]

K--

[He breaks off. Licks his lips, tries again, trying his damndest not to let the edge of desperation he feels seep into his voice.]

Kairi.

Kairi, are you out there?

C'mon... pick up your comm...

[Mute. He has no idea what more to even say--nothing he wants to say sounds right or appropriate. Selfish--"you can't leave," "you can't do this," she can do whatever he wants and he know he has no right to stop her. But he is -worried- about her, and he can't take the sitting around hoping that something will come to light.

Finally, he unmutes:]

I managed to find you twice already.

I'm not giving up on you, Kairi.

K--Kairi!

[Riku sounds surprised, but also excited. What has he found?]

You've got to come see this. Deck 12--around the left side of the luggage.


[Riku's on the luggage deck, off to one side sitting on the floor. Scattered around him is an entire collection of interesting things, including a bunch of Disney movies--but what -Riku's- looking at is a game. Yeah, he's holding Kingdom Hearts I and II, and is staring at them both. There's a PlayStation 2 nearby, and you can bet he's planning on figuring out how to play these things.

What in the -worlds- has he found here?]

[So the past couple days have been rough on Riku. He'd been hit by the same thing that had hit everybody else--but he didn't think that the age difference was supposed to -entirely change- one's body. The normal sort of aging, yeah, but you'd still be able to recognize the person... he'd been an entirely different person--and he had no idea why. He'd felt... he'd felt -ashamed- as well, for no reason that he could think of, like he had to do something to redeem himself (but in whose eyes...?) and so Riku spent most of the past two days skulking around looking a little like this, though he kept his hood -up-.

At first he'd been thrilled to find that he was no longer in that strange, unfamiliar body. But very quickly Riku realized that oh, hey, -this- body isn't quite a familiar one, either.

There seems to be a distinct lack in what -should- be there, and several things that should -not- be there... -are-.

But Riku's not so uncertain as he might have been at first; in fact, his good-natured sense of snark is coming back. So when he speaks over the comm, he sounds as though he might be about to laugh--come on, this may be weird, but it's certainly something new.]

Well, what do you know? I guess all sorts of things happen on this ship, don't they?




[Riku may be a girl, but she's not going to let something silly like that stop her! You'll find her first in the Bazaar, looking for something to wear that fits a little bit better than her normal clothes. Then it's off on a quest for something to eat; all that skulking over the past two days and avoiding people? Means that there's been little food to be found. From there, who knows where she'll be found? Anywhere and everywhere--she hasn't been around much for the past couple weeks, so now it's time for her to see what's new or the same as always!]

[By this point, Riku's figured out that he's being somehow compelled to tell the truth.

And that is not cool.

Riku's a kid that has to be in control at all times. And not being in control of what he's saying? -Bothers him.- He doesn't like it; he doesn't know what people are going to ask. He's got an image to maintain! He doesn't want to risk people cracking that.

So Riku is hurrying up to grab something for breakfast before disappearing for the day--he's not going to let this trip up his plans, but he's not planning on talking to anyone until he knows that this affliction has gone away.

Oh, how the universe loves irony.]

[Audio, because it gets people's attention better >.>;]

Hey, listen up! For those of you playing capture the flag Monday, your teams have been decided. Anyone else that wants to play, we're still letting people join.

For those of you on my team, we'll talk about strategy soon.



[Text]

Sokka won the pick, so he's captain of the other team. We'll meet at 1:00 Monday and teams will have a half-hour to hide their flags and build prison. We'll officially start the game at 1:30 via the comms.

If you're going to have a weapon on you, it can't be anything that will hurt anyone more than bruises or scrapes. Nothing that burns. Someone gets seriously hurt because of something like that, and your team loses.

TEAM 1: Riku, Kairi, Tachikoma, Lily, Mikaela, Reno, Pit
TEAM 2: Sokka, Zuko, [Link's ID number because Riku never asked for his name ahahaha~], Roll, Catpaw, Jinx, Pamela


Check this again before the game starts--if anything changes, it'll be noted here.

Edit 1: Boundaries of the game have been drawn. Decks 5-11 are fair game, but your team's flag can't be hidden inside any room that requires a key to get in. Each deck is split in half the length of the ship. Casino's open territory, so if you get caught there it doesn't matter which side you're on, you can be captured. Stairs and elevators are safe areas. You can't be captured there.

Your flag can't be hidden anywhere where it won't be visible--so no burying it under anything or sticking it in a cabinet, or anything like that.

[The comm clicks on and for a moment, there’s nothing except the ambient noise of the room. But then Riku speaks, a laugh in his voice.]

Well, seems there’s no shortage of action here. This place always so explosive?

Since there doesn’t seem to be any land on the horizon, how about a game? Capture the flag. Monday. Open to anyone that wants to play.

Who’s in?


[A little bit later, there’ll be a text post! It says:]

I know there are people from a bunch of different worlds here. You probably played different than we did at home. So here’s the rules we used to play by:

1. Two teams. One captain to each team. You want to captain the other team? Note it here. Once we get enough people, me and the other captain’ll pick teams.

2. Captains are in charge of how their team is run.

3. Teams hide their flag somewhere in their territory. Your goal is to get the other team’s flag and bring it back to your home territory. Inside your own territory you have home base and prison.

4. If you’re in the other team’s territory, they can catch you and take you prisoner. On the islands, we’d fight it out—if the intruder lost, they got taken prisoner. If the intruder wins, the defender has to give the intruder a minute’s head start. If you don’t want to fight, you don’t have to, but you’ll automatically forfeit the match.

5. To rescue prisoners, someone from your side has to sneak to the other side’s prison. Tag the prisoners and they’ll be freed, but they have to get all the way back to home base without being caught again before they can go back to searching for the flag.

6. If you have the flag, you can be taken prisoner just by being tagged—no battling.

7. Once you get the other team’s flag back to your home base, you win.


Got a problem with the rules? We’ll talk about it.

Let me know if you want to play—game starts Monday.

[The communicator clicks on—the sound of rustling. After a moment, there is the distinct click of something being set down.]

So. After a bit of exploration, I think I’ve managed to figure this thing out.

[The voice is young and smug—Riku is very pleased with himself.]

We’re on a ship, right? You can tell by the windows.

Now, just need to figure out why I’m here and not in Hollow Bastion any more. If this is Maleficent’s idea of a joke…

Anybody out there?

[Pause.]

Better yet—anybody out there heard of a girl named Kairi? I’m… looking for her.

[No, he’s not mentioning Sora. Not at all.]

Being a list of Riku's threads so that Abilene doesn't forget anything! (And hopefully, she remembers to update it as well...)

Feel free to use this space also to drop me a line if there are any specific threads you'd like to play out! I'm always open to more~


( in order to 100% this journal, you must first walk across the pacific. and then across mount ewbuoiamsmlawrkjubncla. )