dear_mun | possibly looking at Wonderful Worlds.

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possibly looking at Wonderful Worlds.

You already know how I feel about that place. [This is one Keybearer that is Not Amused.

A sigh of resignation, and a shake of his head.] If you're serious about it, then I can't stop you. But try to get my history straightened out first. I know it's a lot to cover, but I have faith that you can do it.

[A pause, and... a very serious look.] Try to pick a kinder point to pull me from this time. I don't want to have to recover everything again unless I have to.

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It's not too bad.

[Amused Xehanort is amused.]

[Oh, fuck his life. Why did you have to respond--

Wait. Don't answer that. Terra's just going to lineface.] I have never been one to approve of toying with the lives of others.

[Oops, did he just... slow down to near-Xemnas pacing with his verbal syntax there? ... need to stop doing that, Terra.]

It's hardly toying with their lives, now, isn't it?

[Oh, he's quite glad he's bringing the Xemnas in you out--maybe he can finish doing that.]

[Wait until you figure out that any Xemnas-isms are just habits instead of the presence of any heart seeds.] You know exactly what I meant.

[He's gone back to his normal speech patterns now.] I don't want to be the reason someone gets denied a chance to reclaim their life. It's not right.

And so you would sooner be Erased yourself?

[He's disappointed in you, Terra. He thought that you had stronger survival instincts than that.]

[Xehanort. The point, you're missing it.

He's emulating Xemnas again, though this time by choice. The 'so very unimpressed' line-faces that the Superior had been capable of were still an art he'd yet to perfect.

But damn if he isn't getting better at them.] One would think that you would be happy if I were.

[This isn't about whether he'd let himself get Erased.]

What kind of place are you being sent to? [Because your reaction is kind of worrying.]

[... okay, keep it together, Terra. Answer the question, instead of gape and/or stare as if you're seeing a ghost.] ... Have you ever heard of something called 'The Reaper's Game'?

[See what she or her mun know first, and then fill in any gaps.]

[She wouldn't have minded the staring. As it was, if she hadn't already met him a couple of times here she might have done the same because, that thing about pulling them from kinder points? That's something she wished her own mun would do once in a while.]

I haven't. [Her mun, however, has, which Aqua is very much aware if the way she purses her lips (worried and more than a little frustrated at being kept in the dark) is any indication. It's never a good thing when her mun keeps information from her, after all; this she knows from experience.] What is it?

[She hopes, like Death City, it's something that sounds worse than it actually is.

Though she's not holding her breath on this one.]

[He's sorry, Aqua, but it's pretty bad. Not as bad as what goes on in his current home, but really...

Sighing, and... he sounds like he's almost reciting this.] The Reaper's Game is a game that is in a parallel realm known as the UG, or 'Underground'. There are two main groups - the Players and the Reapers. The Players have to solve a series of puzzles, riddles, or perform tasks set by the Reapers within a set time limit that's marked on their palms. It's the job of the Reapers to set the barriers, tasks, or puzzles that the Players have to deal with, or outright Erase players.

[He pauses, and... yeah. This is the part that he really. Doesn't. Like.] Winning the game means that the Players get to return to life. For the Reapers, they have to rack up a number of 'points' in order to retain their right to exist.

My Mun wants to send me there as a Reaper. Players don't get to keep their powers. [And he doesn't want his Wayfinder taken as his entry fee. No. Just. No.]

[So she was right to worry. Aqua's not one for big reactions usually, so all there is to show how very Not Okay she was with this whole thing was in the way her posture stiffened and the way her eyes hardened.]

You said the prize for winning is being able to return to life. So the Players are already dead when they enter the game, but what about Reapers? [What about you? Is what she doesn't (can't) ask, not directly, anyway. Still, her voice is deliberately even, but not accusatory, not even when she asked the other question eating at her.] And what happens to Players who are erased or Reapers who don't earn enough points?

Right.

[... Well, the look of 'Why did you have to ask that?' on his face says it all.] ... Reapers are also deceased.

[Another thing he really doesn't like, because he's not dead.

Back to the near-recitation quality with explaining.] Players that don't win or are set to be Erased are given the option of becoming Reapers themselves, I think. I... don't know what happens to Reapers that don't earn enough points. They might become Players, or they might just be erased themselves.

[And the mechanics work a little differently in this newer version of the Reaper's Game. But... either way, he really doesn't like it.]

[She guessed as much, but she had hoped his answer might prove her wrong.

And she falls silent for a moment after his explanation. It tore her up inside, knowing that there was nothing she could do about this. What good was being a Master, what good was all those years of training if she can't even protect her friends?]

...is there any way for you to escape the game if you're a Reaper? [Besides being Erased, she means.]

[There's a long pause, and then he just sighs.] ... I don't know. My mun is still doing some reading on how the game works in this place.

[He kind of hopes so. Being dead isn't exactly something he wants to be for any length of time.

It makes putting his life back together a little difficult.

At least there's... well. One bright side to this...] The only good thing I can see about going to that world is that it isn't anything like my current home.

[He. Really wouldn't wish the tower on anyone.]

[Dare she even ask?]

Where is your home right now?

[Considering you just did...] ... it's called the Tower of Animus. We just call it the Tower most of the time.

[Pausing in clear hesitation. Should he even say what kind of place it is? As much as he'd be happy to see her--to feel her side of the bond he knows they share, and the calming nature of her Light, and to know that he wouldn't be the only Master there...

... would it be worth it? Being trapped in a tower that is infinitely worse than the Realm of Darkness, just to be reunited with one of his closest friends?

Damn. The conflict he feels over this is all over his face.]

Terra...

[When you grow up with someone, it's not hard to hear what they're not saying...and there's a lot she can read in his expression and body language. She wasn't liking what she saw. Even though there were times when she doubted, at the end of the day she was certain that no one knew him as well as she did. She had a pretty good guess as to why he didn't want to speak about it (and why he might want to) and it broke her heart a little to know that there's nothing she can do about it.

At least if it was an enemy she could place her self firmly between it and her friend. But how do you fight a place?

She trails off and after a moment she steps closer and pulls him into a hug. It wasn't exactly usual of her to do this, but after losing him once (and then being told that the loss may be more permanent than she thought) and after losing so many people during the half-year she'd spent in Death City, she was almost ashamed to admit that she probably needed this as much as he did.]

Whatever happens, remember that we're always with you.

[Well.

He actually stiffens at the hug, even if only for a moment. Physical contact was something that had become foreign to him.

But it's Aqua, who has been wandering in that dark realm far longer than he has been searching, whose Light still feels the way it did when she fell into the darkness with that sad smile on her face, just to save an echo of him?

That moment ends, and he relaxes. And then... he returns the hug, though for him it's not quite a cling.] I know. What do you think kept me going for so long?

[Twelve years was a long time. That he'd still held on to that one sure truth--that his friends were still out there, waiting for him... it's the only reason he's here now. He's sure of it.]

[She could understand that sentiment. She would have given in long ago if it hadn't been for the fact that Ventus and Terra had been waiting for her (they quite literally saved her life). Even though on some level she had given up on actually finding a way out of the Realm of Darkness, she had held onto hope. She had a promise to keep after all, no matter how late she might be in keeping it.

It occurred to her, when he returned the hug that even though what happened here wouldn't ultimately matter anywhere else, it was real now. Even though these aren't memories she will bring back with her it still mattered.

That was...comforting, in a way. At the very least, it was enough that she wasn't clinging to him like she was afraid he'd disappear at any moment. She didn't, however, plan to actually let go any time soon.]

...I'm sorry. [For not keeping her promise. For not being able to save them.

For a lot of things, really.]

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possibly looking at Wonderful Worlds.

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These two... ;w;

Why must being a KH kid be suffering? ;~;

Because Nomura is an S.