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Entry tags:
❪ test drive #4 ❫
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YOUR STORY BEGINS  The Storm came. You only remember darkness, but you don't remember much after that. All you know, perhaps, is that it was cold. You don't know for how long you slept, but the dreams were short, at least. You remember the expanse of stars and the universe that came in view. Every world and solar system ever known was displayed in your dreams in careful, pristine detail. You have also witnessed The Storm, which has devoured a fair portion of these galaxies. It was a dark, thick smog — ominous in appearance and ever foreboding. Your Earth and similar planets were immersed in The Storm. Somehow, you knew it would be the last you'd see of it. That was when she told you what happened, and how you could help. You knew that you'd be living somewhere new, even though you never asked for it. The details here weren't clear, but you knew you'd made a deal with Darma. Not long after, you'll wake at Thesa Station — your body is still cold. It all felt like a dream, but somehow, you knew it wasn't — now, will you keep that promise you made to Darma? PROMPT: THE STORM  CW: death You were awake on Thesa Station. But at some point you, like many other new arrivals before you, wandered into the Observation Deck. Ordinarily, this is where images of The Storm are replayed to remind Refugees of the fate they have escaped. The Natha Orbiters' technology has evolved. They are aware of your gaps in memory. You may have doubts of The Storm even existing, or of your world's destruction. Though they do not wish reliving those last moments on anyone, they have created an experience that will do just that. Before entering the Observation Deck, you are warned that what follows will not be for the weak of heart. As soon as you step in, you will find that the walls around you begin to transform and expand. Welcome to the Planet Cespi, in the Circinus Galaxy. Unfortunately, we were not able to save this world from The Storm's Consumption.
These are its last memories. You are surrounded by blue, grassy hills as far as the eye can see and a pleasant breeze. The atmosphere is thick with a sickly sweet smell. Before you lays the scene of a quiet village, with its residents going about their everyday lives. You aren't alone, either, with an equally confused stranger (or perhaps you know each other?) surveying the scene. Then the world grows completely silent for a full minute. You and your partner are unable to make a sound, verbal or otherwise. Without warning, a deafening roar fills your ears and forces you to double over in pain. The villagers run out of their homes in a panic, finding themselves in just as much pain and confusion as you do. Where there was no sound before, now there is too much for a normal human body to process. Look up. An expanding mass of energy is swallowing everything you can see. It consumes the earth, the atmosphere, the depths of space — and it is getting closer. Your only hope is to outrun it, if you can. The people in the village certainly try to, racing past you. Their fear is very real. Their bodies are very real. You may be able to run from it for a time, only able to catch glimpses of this dark and sinister force swallowing everything and everyone. The earth rumbles and separates beneath you. Electricity surges through the sky, and then through your very body. You fought hard, but it is impossible to outrun the Storm forever. You too will be consumed. Your death is quick, but not painless. What were you thinking, before you took your last breath? You awaken back in the Observation Deck, next to your new friend. PROMPT: TRAINING MODULES  While it’s all nice and well to familiarize oneself with Thesa Station, it is most advised that new arrivals venture out a bit. Not physically. No one is quite prepared for that yet. However, there will be several virtual reality training programs set for those who dare to be adventurous. For those who aren’t and don’t dare, well — good luck, all the same. Once seated and appropriately strapped in, the system will automatically whir to life. 1. When you enter the Natha's newest program, at first nothing loads. You might think this is an error as you look around in apparent total darkness, only able to see your own virtual body if you look down, but soon enough a voice comes to life as if speakers have turned on somewhere. Long ago, the lands of El Nysa were dominated by the ancestors of the dragons who now live among the people, tamed. It was pretty dangerous! How about a little history lesson? And then the simulation comes to life—
2. Let us now travel forward in time, shall we?  a. The Olympian settlement around you is quiet — until the screaming starts.3. And now, the present.  After all those enlightening scenes, the simulation finally brings you to a more quiet area of Olympia. You are deposited out somewhere in The Outlook, a place the very first group of refugees had to trudge through before they found their homes. You've arrived in the early evening — but sunlight is waning, and soon you'll be under a sky full of stars. Luckily, their old campsites aren't too overgrown. The intention here is to get you familiar with some of the local flora and fauna. What sorts of plants will you encounter? Do you find yourself under a Verillum Tree, suddenly compelled to be painfully honest and truthful in conversation with a complete stranger? Find yourself behaving erratically in the presence of Whistleweed? Or perhaps you'll have to break the spell of being trapped in a Vena Amoris' vines... with a kiss. PROMPT: STASIS UNIT  You have found the massive section of Thesa known as the Stasis Unit. There’s no special access required to enter this part of Thesa Station, but refugees are warned that it may not be for the faint of heart. Here, in large pods that nearly cover every square inch of the space, are all of the people the Orbiters have managed to rescue. Your loved ones, your greatest enemy, your next door neighbor — you might find them here. These people are in a state of deep cryosleep. Due to the damaging effects of The Storm, their bodies are not yet ready to be awoken. PROMPT: OMAGE
Upon receiving your mobile phone, you will be asked to set a username. Voila, you can now access the network! You can choose to send a message to the entire network, specific usernames, or you can try out the Orbiters’ service, Omage, which connects you to a random user. They thought this might be a good way for their new guests to make friends with each other...
Connecting to server... PROMPT: WILDCARD
You are welcome to write any scenarios in Thesa Station! Characters have been granted temporary access to the Observation Room, and are encouraged to study it carefully.
FINAL OOC NOTE
These threads may be carried over as game canon if players choose! Players are encouraged to submit TDM threads as application samples, but they are not required. Please direct any OOC questions to the questions thread below! An AC-length thread may be submitted for 2 NATHA ORBITER REPUTATION POINTS after acceptance here. Please submit by February 18th.
We will no longer be providing overflow posts. In an event where the post hits CAPTCHA, players are advised to move threads to an overflow post on their character journals or create their own catch-all post. These threads remain eligible for REP. There will be an application cap of 60, and no reserves. Please read here for more information. |
no subject
But he likes you now, we're all on the same side. We've got to stick together now and
Why wouldn't I remember you? You told me to get it memorized enough.
[And then there's a very, very long pause when he realises just how true a statement that is.
He does remember everything, even memories that he hadn't even realised he had lost. Roxas' memories. He knows them now.
And maybe, just maybe, telling Lea about that over a machine isn't the best way to go about it. Because he remembers Roxas' feelings, he can't imagine how he'd feel if someone came up and told him that they'd seen all of Kairi or Riku's memories of him out of the blue.]
I think you and me have a lot of things to talk about.
no subject
It's kind of a long story.
All on the
[Okay, now he's really confused. The same side? Sure, he was never especially interested in annihilating Riku and Sora the way the others might have been, but the last time he saw Sora had been in battle, and he had figured Sora thought he'd taken him out. Sora actually remembering him is weird enough, but this? This is downright bizarre.
He stares at Sora's words for a long moment, then hefts a sigh.]
Kinda sounds that way.
I only just got here, so I don't really know a good spot to meet up, but it'd probably be easier to talk face to face, don't you think?
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[Roxas. The mysterious girl in the Organization coat. And he needs to talk about those memories, and tell Lea how sorry he is that he's the reason why he and Roxas aren't still sitting on the clocktower eating ice cream watching the sun go down.
He needs to tell him that even if he doesn't know how, he's going to fix things.]
Soon, right?
no subject
I mean, I'm not doing anything right now.
Except being very confused.
[He gives a bit of a laugh, though he knows Sora can't hear it.]
I dunno how good the food in the cafeteria is, but I'm dying to know if they have ice cream.
Care to join me?
no subject
[And it's not like there's anywhere else that he wants to be where he can go to right now. If he'd known he'd never see it again, he would have taken a bit longer sitting on the beach on the play island, watching the last sunset with Riku and Kairi.]
I guess there's only one way to find out. I'll meet you there!
I'm on mobile today so I hope you don't mind prose!
He makes his way to the cafeteria, musing absently on how this whole place reminds him a bit too much of the Castle That Never Was. Most people would probably take a bit of comfort in the station resembling 'home', but the castle has never really felt very much like home. It's where he sleeps, it's where he reports in for work, but given the options, Axel would much rather spend his time in Twilight Town. The cafeteria is broad and just as sterile as the rest of the station, white lines and clean angles, and it's mostly empty, it seems. Well, at least they beat the dinner rush, he guesses.
Grabbing a chair and spinning it around so he can sit backwards, he folds his arms on the back and rests his chin on them, awaiting Sora's arrival.
I don't mind at all, prose gets too neglected these days :3
But, more importantly, he needs to get all of his eggs in one basket, so to speak. That means finding as many friends as he cans, whether they're awake or not, and making sure they're safe. That's the important thing. He hadn't expected to find Lea so soon, but if it's Lea and him and Riku then that's a good start. Then they can wait for everyone else to wake up and join them and they can put their heads together and find a way to make this right.
He finds the cafeteria easily enough; even if there weren't that many people in there when he arrives, Sora would have no trouble spotting Lea. The red hair's a dead giveaway, and the long black coat is hardly inconspicuous.
"Lea! Hey!" he calls across the hall, waving enthusiastically before he bounds over to join him.
huzzah!
"Ah... yo," he says casually, a little haltingly, lifting a hand from the back of the chair to wave. "It's been a while." He's still confused as to why Sora even remembers him, let alone fondly, but it's like the kid said: they've apparently got a lot to talk about. He doesn't bother correcting him that it's Axel, not Lea, because frankly the fact that Sora knows his human name at all tells him there's a lot more to this story than he's got any real inkling, and he'd rather not get sidetracked before he gets the information. "You hungry?" he asks, friendly enough. "Or do you wanna just get right down to this... important conversation."
no subject
But before he can even start on all of that, his stomach gurgles audibly.
"Heh heh, I guess I could eat," he admits, taking up a seat across the table from Lea and rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Boy, sleeping really takes it out of you, huh?"
Axel used to nap a lot. He remembers that from Roxas' memories. It seems weird that he should know so much about the person across the table from him when he, Sora, had a whole other life that Lea had never been privy to. He wants to be friends, better friends, with Lea, but where does he start?
He's not Roxas. He doesn't ever want to replace Roxas and he knows he won't. Roxas was, is Roxas, no matter what anyone else might say about Nobodies.
"We can talk and eat at the same time, right?"
no subject
"Right?" he chuckles. "Man, sleeping should be a competitive sport." He buffs his fingernails against the lapel of his coat. "I'd definitely take first place, for sure, I'd be a world champion."
It's a lie. Axel loves to nap, it's true, but it's mostly because he can't remember the last time he managed to sleep through the night. It's hard to feel safe enough to get any rest when any one of your colleagues could silently portal into your room and kill you at any moment, no matter how many locks you have on your door. He can nap just about anywhere, which earned him the reputation for laziness, but half a dozen twenty minute catnaps throughout a day do not a solid eight hours make. No one needs to know just how exhausted he is half the time, though; he'll keep that to himself.
He waves a hand.
"Sure, sure, let's go check out the offerings," he says, getting to his feet and stretching his arms over his head. "You think it's real food? Or is it like weird alien food?"
It's a little strange. He knows Sora is essentially the other side of Roxas' coin, and though their personalities are vastly different, Sora... feels like Roxas. Something about the kid's presence just sort of puts him at ease, and it's really weird. Well, Xemnas isn't here to order him around anymore, so Axel can do whatever the heck he wants, and... well, he kind of wants to get to know him. So that's what he's going to do. Icky orders are a thing of the past, at least for the time being.
"I'll give you ten munny if you eat some weird alien food with eyeballs," he snickers, shoving his hands into his pockets.
no subject
Except... that hadn't really been all on him. There'd been a lot that needed fixing and sleeping was the only way he'd be able to get it back. Then there had been his time in the Sleeping Worlds which had taken longer than he'd thought. And then... these five months that had just happened without him knowing.
Huh. So much time... spent sleeping. He'd already missed out on so much, and that first year proves a lot could go wrong when he wasn't aware of what was happening...
He's quiet as he follows Axel to the counter, listening with half an ear when he starts to bring up the weird alien food. Could he and Riku have stopped the Storm if he'd only managed to stay awake in his exam, if he'd been able to pass it and become a Master... would they have known that it had been coming? Would-
Eyeballs?!
"What? Hey no way, you first! I thought you said we were going to get ice cream, who'd eat eyebal-"
Someone walks past with a tray; there's a big bowl on it with lots of floating round things in it, and Sora can't help but recoil from it in surprise even as they give him a funny look.
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Axel stops short, pausing in his steps for a moment, and then exhales audibly. He really hadn't meant to say all of that. Sora wasn't Roxas, and he knew that, but he really did feel like Roxas, and somehow that just made Axel feel like... well, like feeling, or something. Ugh, it's so confusing. It really doesn't make any sense. Just because Sora is Roxas' other half doesn't mean he should automatically just be friends with him, so why is Sora so easy to talk to?
Okay, regroup.
"Anyway," he says, clearing his throat awkwardly, "obviously we need to have a nap contest sometime. We can discuss terms later."
He can't help but laugh again as Sora recoils from the tray of bizarre food as it passes them by, but he really does hope there's some normal-ish food to be had. He meets Sora's eye and raises his brows.
"I'm all for having ice cream," he says, "but if you're actually hungry you should probably eat something substantial first. Ice cream's great, but it ain't exactly a meal, got it memorized?"
no subject
Sora pauses at the talk of the Dusks drawing on Roxas and he remembers... he remembers a stark white bedroom, seashells next to his bed... who had put them there? It's hazy, like it's his but not wholly his. It's almost like intruding on something private that doesn't belong to him.
Lea looks at him with raised eyebrows and for a moment he wonders if it's him that he's looking at, or if he's looking for someone else, and it makes his heart ache again.
Roxas... I know he promised to bring you back, but I'm going to do all I can to help.
"I know, I know," Sora laughs, flapping his hand offhandedly at him. "It's the icing on the cake, but you gotta get the cake first, right?"
no subject
"Y... hah?" He snaps out of his musing when Sora's words register, and he squints at him like maybe the kid's gone slightly out of focus.
'Here ya go. The icing on the cake.'
Axel has to figure it isn't a turn of phrase explicit to Radiant Garden, but that Sora had chosen that exact phrase...
He shakes his head quickly, rubbing his crown and giving a weak laugh.
"Yeah, exactly," he says, his grin a little uncomfortable for a moment, and then he levels a hand at his shoulder, waggling it back and forth. "If all ya eat is icing, you'll never get any taller."
no subject
He knows he's not the tallest out there, but hey, he's still growing. Although, maybe there is something to be said about all that sleep stunting his growth. At least he's taller than Kairi, he'll never be able to live that down.
He doesn't miss the weird look Lea gives him after he mentions the icing on the cake. It's then that he remembers that Axel had said it to Roxas when they'd had ice cream after his first week in the Organization and he feels guilty. That was their memory of something important. He needs to be careful, he can't go throwing around Roxas' memories willy-nilly, he knows how precious they are, and he needs to take care of them. Roxas trusted him with them, he's not about to betray that trust.
"Hey, you think they've got pizza here?"
no subject
He hums in thought when Sora brings up the idea of pizza, though. He hadn't considered that; it's really just bread, sauce, and cheese, even an alien space station has to be able to do that, right?
"Maybe," he says, moving up toward the food line and letting his eyes move across the heated pans of offerings. Most of it looks pretty, uh... alien. There's some strange green noodly-looking stuff that appears to be moving of its own accord, something that resembles mashed potatoes but it's bright purple, and sliced meat of some sort, but it's far too dark to be any animal Axel is familiar with. Further down there are a few things that look a bit less bizarre, at least: something that might be ribs in barbecue sauce if you squint, some sort of fish, he thinks, and what is unmistakably rice, even if it's entirely the wrong color. "Hm... think we should ask? Or are you feeling especially brave today?"
He does want to get this conversation going--he's dying to know how Sora knows his human name, and why the kid's being so doggone friendly. He's sure there's a really strange and interesting story here, but he doesn't just want to wring it out of him. He'd really rather not fight Sora and Riku anymore; being on the same side sounds way easier, so playing nice and trying to be patient is par for the course, at least for the moment.
no subject
"Who d'you think you're talking to? I'm always brave." Well, he likes to think so. "What's the worst that could happen?"
Apparently, the universe is laughing at him as one of the servers appears with a fresh vat of what looks like the possible eyeball stew they saw earlier. Sora's face is a mix of horror and apprehension as he quickly looks away at the rib-looking things which he eventually settles on, with a heaped serving of the purple mash. He's not quite brave enough to try anything that's wriggling though. That being said, he's brave enough to pick up a bowl of something cold that looks like a cross between shaved ice and jello that keeps changing colours every time it wobbles.
They find an empty table and move there with their trays, and Sora suddenly realises he has no idea how to even start. He has so much to tell him and he feels like he knows Lea so well already when he really doesn't thanks to Roxas' memories. Will it make him mad if acts too friendly too soon? He hopes not.
He pushes at the mound of purple potatoey things with a fork, grimacing a little as they make a weird slurping noise as he does, before he finally bites the proverbial bullet and takes a bite.
His face immediately brightens.
"Hey neat, it tastes just like bacon!"
no subject
"Ah--!" He holds a hand out sharply, just shy of actually covering Sora's mouth with it. "Don't ever ask what the worst that could happen is, kiddo. You might just find out."
Axel's face rather mirrors Sora's look of anxious suspicion as a new vat of the eyeball stew is added to the lineup, and he quickly clears his throat and moves past that particular menu option. Instead he decides to try whatever the fishlike stuff is, and some of the bright blue rice. He glances at Sora, then gives a shrug and decides he'll try a bowl of the soup at the end of the line, which looks like a mostly harmless broth, except that it's surprisingly glittery. Well, maybe a little of Sora's courage has rubbed off on him.
They make their way to a table, and Axel swirls a spoon experimentally through the sparkling soup.
"I wonder how they get it so sparkle," he muses absently, lifting the spoon and staring at it a moment. Then he watches as Sora intrepidly takes a bite of the purple mash, his whole face lighting up in excitement. Axel laughs helplessly at the boy's reaction, shaking his head. "Bacon, really?" he asks, and impulsively reaches across the table to snatch a tiny bit of the mash on his spoon. If Sora's gonna treat them like old pals, he might as well play along, right? Share and share alike. He cautiously sticks the spoon in his mouth and then makes a huh! sound. "It does taste like bacon," he says with a nod, and then dips his spoon back into the glittery soup. "All right, I guess let's go for it, then," he says, and sips at it carefully. His eyes wing toward the ceiling as he considers the flavor a moment. "A little sour, actually," he says, pursing his lips. "Weird. Not bad, really, but definitely weird."
He wags the spoon at Sora then.
"Okay, talk and eat," he says, though he's not really being forceful. "I can believe that maybe your memories of what happened at Castle Oblivion weren't erased after all, but... I'm still really surprised you seem so happy to see me." He shrugs and takes another slurp of the weird sour soup. "Not that I'm complaining," he admits. "I'd rather be chummy than fight, all things considered."
no subject
He holds the grumpy expression for a moment longer before shrugging with a laugh. It's one of those things. Friends steal their friends food, it's how it goes. It's just... one of those unwritten rules. He's relieved that Lea feels comfortable enough with him to go for it.
But then Lea mentions Castle Oblivion and Sora sets his fork down. He almost wishes they didn't have to do this now that they're getting along, there's a lot of difficult things he's going to have to tell him and honestly, the sooner he tells him everything, the easier it's going to be.
It's just not going to be easy in the telling.
Sora picks up his fork, carefully takes another mouthful of purple bacon mash and chews thoughtfully. He could drag this out, try some of Lea's sour glitter soup and discuss the intricacies of alien cuisine, but that's not going to do either of them any favours.
"I don't want to fight either. You saved my life. And... you're Roxas' best friend. I can't change what's happened, but I'm going to do whatever it takes to fix things." He pokes the prongs of his fork into the mash, leaving indents behind. "I don't remember what happened. Riku's told me a lot of things, and I needed to thank Naminé... but I still don't know everything. I know my memories were broken, I know they needed to be fixed and I needed to sleep until they were."
He sets his fork down and looks at Lea, his face open and earnest.
"I know the Organization did some bad things but I can't... I know you're not a bad person. Xemnas was using you all, and Xehanort was using him. He's the real enemy. You aren't. You're Roxas' best friend, and I know I'm not Roxas and I don't want to be, he's him not me, no matter what anybody else says. But I saw him not long ago. I was dreaming, and he showed me everything. I know it sounds crazy, but I remember things that happened in that year when you were together in the Organization."
no subject
He stops short when Sora continues, though, and slowly stops the fidgety swirling of his spoon in the soup. What the hell is Sora on about? He hadn't even been all that close with Roxas when he'd had to go to CO, so how could Sora possibly know that they had been best friends? When Sora straight up admits that Riku told him what happened, Axel can't decide if that clarifies anything or just makes it muddier.
"Naminé?" he echoes, and lowers his eyes a bit. He doesn't really know what even happened to her, and had he the heart to do so he would probably feel bad about that. He had let her escape from the castle, sure, but where had she gone? He guesses anywhere is better than in Marluxia and Larxene's clutches. Or Xemnas'.
Sora's sort of talking a mile a minute now, and Axel sets his spoon down, holding up one hand as if to slow him a bit.
"Now-- Wai-- Hang on a--"
He wants to say that he knows he isn't Roxas, and he would never have even assumed as much. Okay, sure, maybe he could drag Sora into a Corridor kicking and screaming and the kid would lose his heart and Roxas would reappear. Maybe. But he knows if he ever did anything like that the first thing Roxas would do is kick his ass into the next life, right? (Is it worth the risk? Maybe?) He wants to say that Sora's right about one thing: he doesn't want to be his enemy, or Riku's, and not just because he's pretty sure they can both wipe the floor with him if they set their minds to it (those stupid overpowered key swords of theirs. So unfair). When Sora says that he remembers the things that happened during the year Roxas was a part of the Organization, though, Axel is struck completely dumb.
The spoon and the glittery soup completely forgotten now, Axel lowers his hand and narrows his eyes a little, searching Sora's face for any sign that he's just screwing with him. That doesn't seem like the sort of thing Sora would do, really, but... the kid can't possibly be serious. Turning his head slightly to squint at him, Axel folds his hands together and leans forward.
"Excuse me, what?" he asks, his voice low and his tone sort of flat. "Are you telling me that Roxas told you a whole year's worth of memories... in a dream." It's hardly even a question, and as soon as the words leave Axel's mouth, he's laughing softly, almost giggling at the absurdity of the very idea. "That's a good one, champ," he says, shaking his head and picking up his spoon again. "You almost had me going, there. Did Riku put you up to this, to mess with me?"
no subject
"Marluwho?" he manages to get out before Lea starts to look at him like he might start examining him clinically and picking him apart for clues and as he leans forward, Sora instinctively leans back just a tad, keeping some semblance of personal space between them.
With Lea looking at him this closely, Sora suddenly twigs to the presence of those funny purple tattoos under Lea's eyes and... had he had those back in the tower? He hadn't, had he? Perhaps they're make up... oh wow, okay, they're the exact same shade as the mash bacontato...
Wait no, focus Sora!
Lea doesn't believe him, and honestly Sora's not sure he can blame him for that either. It is pretty farfetched, and he lived through it all to do the telling. He hasn't even got to the most outlandish parts of it all yet- Lea doesn't even know about his Keyblade.
"No... no I promise, I'm dead serious. Riku doesn't even remember this stuff happening so how could he put me up to it?"
Honestly, at this rate the diverging timelines are just going to give him the mother of all headaches.
"Ask me something if you don't believe me! Something only Roxas would know. Go on, I'll prove it."
He's desperate to convince him, and he'll even push away the surprisingly moreish plate of purple mush to show how dedicated he is to the cause.
no subject
Eyes narrow, but not in a sinister manner, Axel regards Sora sternly for a moment, then wags his spoon at him again.
"All right," he says, twisting the spoon in his fingers and thinking for a moment. Something only Roxas would know? Hmmm... "Okay, riddle me this," he says then, and takes a moment to carefully balance the face of the spoon on his nose. "Very early on, when Roxas was still pretty new to the Organization, he was pretty spacey. Like... super spacey. Like tell the kid something and three seconds later he's forgotten it spacey." He crosses his eyes to look at the spoon, then pulls it off of his nose and wags it at Sora again. "When I asked him if he had my name memorized, what'd he call me?"
No way anyone else knew that, and he didn't think it was likely Sora would be able to guess.
Time to put an end to this silly little ruse.
no subject
Should I say somethin-
Lea asks him the question though and Sora's immediately back focusing on the matter at hand. What had Roxas called him that first time? He tests his memory- or rather Roxas' memory- and thinks back to stark white corridors, talking alongside Axel as he was then, talking about going to a meeting room. There had been Dusks that Axel had chased from the room before.
"Have you memorized my name yet?"
"Access."
For some reason, even though it's the moment of truth and he's depending on this as proof for Lea to believe him, Sora can't bring himself to look at him or his slightly sparkly nose. But then he steels himself and looks up, glitter and all, and meets Lea's gaze dead on.
"Even though you told him just before. He called you Access."
no subject
For approximately eighteen seconds, all Axel can do is stare, and then he removes the fork from his mouth, fish still resting on the tines, and he sets the fork down on his plate and stares at it for another seven seconds before lifting his head.
"How..." He looks at Sora intensely, but it's intense confusion, not anger or accusation. One doesn't have to know Sora all that well to know the kid would be hard pressed to bring harm to anybody without a darn good reason, so he's pretty sure Sora didn't wring that information out of Roxas somehow. That does leave the burning question, however, "How the hell did you know that?"
And of course, Sora... already told him that. But really, Roxas telling him stuff in a dream? That's just a little too far-fetched... He shakes his head a little in utter disbelief.
"Seriously, there's... there's no way..." He runs a hand back through his hair and pushes his plate aside, the tip of his nose still a little sparkly from the soup, but at the moment that's the least of his concerns. "How are you even awake?" he asks then. "You said it yourself, that you had to sleep for like a year to get your memories straightened out. So I guess if Roxas told you that in a dream, maybe that's not the most insane thing I've ever heard, given your sleeping habits, but..." For that matter, Sora does look older, taller. "Sora, what... how...?"
Words are hard.
"How much time has passed?" he finally manages, shaking his head again. "Something really doesn't add up here." He wags a finger at him. "All right, okay, all the rest of this I could... probably find a way it makes sense, somehow, but I gotta know: how in all the worlds do you know the name Lea?" He shakes his head again. "I mean I haven't gone by that name in... in ten years. Not even Roxas knows that name."
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Sora takes a deep breath and exhales audibly with a soft 'whew' as he does so. He could see it in Lea's face that he had got it right, that it was a true memory of Roxas' and in truth, he's relieved for the confirmation. That part of his nightmare was real, Roxas' memories had really happened, it hadn't been a dream within the dream. Not that he had doubted that part, but he had wondered...
But now comes the hard part. The explanations, the difficult news he was going to have to break. If Lea thinks that saving his life happened in Castle Oblivion, then that means he hasn't lost Roxas yet. He hasn't lived to sacrifice himself for Sora.
How do you even begin to tell someone that they died?
"Silly. Just because you have a next life..."
"I... couldn't wake up until Roxas came back to me." Is that even the right way to put it? "And... I woke up a few months ago."
The guilt is written plainly over Sora's face and his chest still hurts, even knowing now that Roxas was content with the choice he had made. There had been no other way then, Sora knows that, but if he could fix it. And Axel had been Roxas' best friend; he'll let Lea fill in the blanks, he can't bring himself to say it out loud. It's too sad.
"The first time I remember meeting you, you told us what Xemnas and the Organization were after. You'd taken Kairi... but you told me you were sorry about it and then we fought together when we were attacked by Dusks. You saved me then, because you wanted to see Roxas and you said I reminded you of him. You put everything into your last attack so me and Donald and Goofy could get away and I couldn't save you."
He's watching Lea so carefully now, sincerity and apology open in his expression. This can't be easy to hear for him, it's certainly not easy for him to tell.
"But... Riku and me, we defeated Xemnas and after that, we went to try and become Keyblade masters and well, Riku totally aced it, of course but me, I got into trouble so this part I don't remember 'cause I was asleep, I only know what Riku and the others told me. Xehanort- you know Xehanort, right? Anyway, he tried to turn me into one of his vessels and then you showed up because you'd got your heart back and you saved me, but you told us your name wasn't Axel anymore. It was Lea."
Sora takes another deep breath, this time the tension leaves his shoulders.
"So now we're all on the same side because we've got to stop Xehanort because he wants to remake the χ-blade by having the Thirteen Darknesses fight the Seven Lights and I guess maybe Master Yen Sid thinks you're going to be one of those now because you've got a Keyblade too."
He laughs awkwardly to break the tension.
"I think that's everything... more or less."
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BARRELS BACK IN HERE NOW I AM ALL MOVED AND IN POSSESSION OF A TAGGING BRAIN
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