RETROACTIVE DEFENSE OF PAST SELF
Sep. 14th, 2020 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vapidusThis is the first time it happens, so Vanitas is taken completely by surprise, mid-conversation even. The surroundings fuzz, blur; Vanitas's eyebrows come together but before he can say a word, the Ventus in front of him vanishes. So do the Unversed around them. So, as he turns and stands, turning his head this way and that, has the cairn.
Instead of the desert, there's a courtyard. White buildings, bleached as bone with doorways of mouths, surround it. He can hear and smell the sea, somewhere.
"What." Says Vanitas, into the listless air. He's not stupid, he's on another world somehow but he didn't do it, either by lanes or dark corridors.
An Unversed peels out of his shadow and into those of a bush. Fast enough he didn't get a good look at it, but one of the small ones. He ignores it for now, and starts walking, then using keyblade tricks to go from roof to roof. Staying in the empty streets makes him feel weirdly exposed, watched.
Ventus is nearby - he can feel it, he's always been able to feel it even when he had no idea what it was, when it faded over time to the point that, now, he has to really concentrate if he wants any kind of indication of it's truth, and more importantly, it's direction.
He levers up a skylight with his keyblade instead of tapping it, and drops down into the little atrium. This is a weird-ass house, but he's nearby, he knows it.
"Ventus!" he yells. "This better not be your fault!" Although it probably is. Either Ventus.
Instead of the desert, there's a courtyard. White buildings, bleached as bone with doorways of mouths, surround it. He can hear and smell the sea, somewhere.
"What." Says Vanitas, into the listless air. He's not stupid, he's on another world somehow but he didn't do it, either by lanes or dark corridors.
An Unversed peels out of his shadow and into those of a bush. Fast enough he didn't get a good look at it, but one of the small ones. He ignores it for now, and starts walking, then using keyblade tricks to go from roof to roof. Staying in the empty streets makes him feel weirdly exposed, watched.
Ventus is nearby - he can feel it, he's always been able to feel it even when he had no idea what it was, when it faded over time to the point that, now, he has to really concentrate if he wants any kind of indication of it's truth, and more importantly, it's direction.
He levers up a skylight with his keyblade instead of tapping it, and drops down into the little atrium. This is a weird-ass house, but he's nearby, he knows it.
"Ventus!" he yells. "This better not be your fault!" Although it probably is. Either Ventus.
just do better next time :/
Date: 2020-09-14 04:46 pm (UTC)"Hm..." 'Ventus' looks thoughtful. "Very transactional. Would you like my explanation first then? I'm a very good guesser."
He puts his hands on his knees and stands. Despite still being a full head shorter then Vanitas, the action still looms. "I've been in this body a long time. Much longer then it remembers. Time is very funny, like that." He snorts a little at his own joke. "My name... I suppose I was once called Darkness, but that seems a bit redundant now. Oh well. Perhaps Ventus will do?"
Another joke. Darkness is a very funny guy. Yellow eyes meet red as 'Ventus' looks Vanitas up and down.
"And if you want my explination--you seem to be...well thats quite interesting isn't it. Some sort of mix of myself and a human heart. A true chimera. I didn't think such a thing was possible, even here." Perhaps to Vanitas, Darkness appeared a predator, confident and sleek and unbroken--but unspoken was the fact that Darkness lay sleeping even in this world, unable to take its own form anymore outside of the body it had chosen. Oh it was powerful, very powerful, yet its stability was not centered in this world. It was no shadow of the human heart or a creature born from this new realm of darkness--it remained itself, something very old and arising from beyond the world of light, even after dragging the entirety of reality down to its level.
Perhaps the Foretellers had succeeded more then they might have thought--or perhaps it just meant there was more to go, a final nail yet to be placed on the coffin. Darkness was very good at patience.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-14 10:54 pm (UTC)"You're not Ventus," Vanitas snips defensively. It's like if Xehanort claimed to actually be Terra; injuring Terra's body or no, Vanitas would have attacked him on the spot. The Ventus that was in front of him wasn't his Ventus, but had more claim than whoever this was. "Pick something else."
Vanitas likes transactional, as a general rule. No mess, no fuss, no one owing each other anything, just the impersonal grounding of trade. No wonder he has such an affection for gifts. Darkness answered, with more than expected even, so Vanitas sets his jaw to reply. "Vanitas." A terse name for name.
"It's all Xehanort's fault," he says, the words coming easily from habit. "He wants Kingdom Hearts and had the bright idea that splitting Ventus in two would get him a Chi-Blade." Vanitas's eyes narrow. He'd taken a step back when Ventus stood up; that was a mistake. "Only it didn't work out." It's a reeling concept. 'You came from a boy that died', he was told once. "Who are you? Where did you come from? What do you mean, longer than it remembers?" There's just so much going on.