|
|
Post by Beaver Dude on Nov 10, 2009 13:16:11 GMT -5
[continued from here]In popular media, the heart goes 'ba-dump,' 'ba-dump' as if it were one synchronous mass of pulsing flesh and muscle. It's not a state of affairs that far from the truth : the heart contracts and distends at regular intervals and does make a peculiar sound. However, the erudite qualify it with the unlovely 'lub-dub, lub-dub' because the sounds do not come from the heart itself, but rather from the blood gushing within.
Much like how the suit in a deck of cards do not resemble the hearts that pump blood and do work, that which is particular,specific and ugly has been forgotten or ignored for the sake of an ideal Heart.
And as a Marquis once mentioned on the subject of happiness, ideals are but works of imagination.
__________________________
Dilan woke to the smell of coffee.
Daylight filtered through cheap blinds, illuminating a small, sparse flat cluttered with dollar-store goods that'd been artistically arranged such a way that despite their lack, the place appeared to be lived in by a multitude of people. The dragoon blinked as a sudden impulse to wash the floors and dust the blinds overcame him. Through the concentrated force of his will, he resisted.
Ugh. Pain. No, wait, hangover. Looks like someone had dragged him home. Or something.
Where was he? No, more importantly-
"It's out of control!" Even says, fear making the usually composed scientist shrill and incoherent. "He - he-"
The memories were dissonant, clashing things. He could vaguely recall names. People. Places. But there were just sections of him that were gone. As if someone had taken a vacuum to his brain and sucked away all but the most tenacious of memories and replaced it with dreamscape garbage. Dilan shook his head. Some of it was weird to the point of absurdity.
Like a kid killing him with an oversized key.
Head pounding, Dilan mulled over these recent memories but finally, exasperated, shoved them into the 'odd and inexplicable' folder. It wasn't like Radiant Garden had been destroyed. And Xehanort might have been a genius and all, but even he wasn't capable of destroying worlds. Honestly, even the experiments had only generated-
Mark. Age 29. Former occupation, window washer. Experimental subject forty-three. After his exposure to the Darkness hit saturation, even the sedatives won't work. While Ienzo tries distracting him with illusions, Xehanort watches on without comment, smiling ever so slightly. Official cause of death is listed as a heart attack.
-failures.
Hmmm. While this trip to memory lane was interesting, Dilan realized that there were other parts of him that required attention. Specifically, he needed to visit the washroom. Rather soon, too. Getting up, (ow. Owowowow.) Dilan staggered to his feet and feebly tried to croak out some approximation of 'needtotakeapiss' in as many languages as he could manage as he stumbled towards what he presumed was a vague direction that might represent a chance, slim as it was, to find a toilet.
|
|
|
|
Post by Emi on Nov 10, 2009 14:53:03 GMT -5
Soundtrack: "Fuminshou no Nemuri Hime- Miyavi -- Her guest was awake. Emi stirred at the small dining table, where she had fallen asleep. Her face was stuck to the plastic. She sat up, rubbing her eyes. He was stumbling around the apartment. Emi pointed to the only other door besides the front door. "Bathroom's there," she muttered. The coffee was cold. She stood up, the chair scraping across the floor and busied herself with the coffee pot. She'd had strange dreams in the few hours she slept. It was the kind of dreams where she knew she'd had them, but couldn't remember what they were about. Only snatches of faces and colors. She stared at the water going down the sink drain, lost in thought. She still couldn't remember. Up until now, she didn't really care that she didn't remember when she lived in Radiant Garden. It was so long ago, and her time from when she'd arrived in Twilight Town had been stuffed full of so many new memories and experiences that she had trouble discerning what was real and what wasn't. But she hadn't cared because she didn't want to remember that time when she'd been... troubled, to say the least. But now she cared, and she was going to get answers. Leaving the water running, Emi walked to the door. She engaged the dead bold, pulled the chain across and turned the door knob lock. He wasn't leaving until he told her what the heck he had been talking about back in the alley and how he knew she was from Radiant Garden. It was scary, just to think that someone knew more about her than she did. |
|
|
|
Post by Beaver Dude on Nov 10, 2009 21:26:16 GMT -5
Ah. Bliss.
Dilan relaxed as his bladder emptied itself. While there were a great number of things more enjoyable and less inherently disgusting than pissing into a plumber's main income generator, he couldn't think of any at the moment. Getting out of the Halloween costume that was his coat had been a bit of a gymnastics experience, all zippers and buttons in the most awkward and intricate of places. By the end of it all, he'd nearly ripped the dang thing off to get himself to the toilet.
His brain was being a wee bit slow just now. An unfortunate state of events, yes, but also a logical one: he'd overstepped the limits of alcohol tolerance by quite a bit last night. Lord knew why, he hadn't the foggiest notion. His munny was all gone and instead he had a brand new coat. Fashionable, but
Glancing into the mirror, he noticed the sheen of dried blood that had draped itself onto his forehead as well as the thin layer of stubble that had accumulated above and below his lips. Hnnn. He'd wash his face and ask the girl for a razor. He had forgotten her name, but her face was vaguely familiar. No doubt he'd remember in time. Probably.
Besides, what was the worst that could happen?
"We made a mistake, Dilan." Ienzo shouted as the furious maelstrom of Darkness surrounded the sundered laboratory, hungry for Hearts. Somewhere below, Xehanort's Heartless laughed, reveling in power beyond their understanding. "We dabbled in something we shouldn't have. Ansem was right. And now it's over. It's all over."
Finally done with number one, Dilan zipped up his pants, washed his hands and then scrubbed off the blood on his face. The wound still felt tender, but it'd closed up nicely during the night. It'd probably leave a faint scar, but it wasn't terribly noticeable. A nice addition to the collection he'd already gained in his various practice bouts with the other Apprentices and the Radiant Garden soldiers.
He moved to open the door.
It'd been bolted. Annoyed and vaguely concerned (it wasn't the first time someone had tried to kidnap an Apprentice) Dilan rapped on the door politely.
"I'm sorry, I think the door's been locked by accident." |
|
|
|
Post by Emi on Nov 11, 2009 11:19:13 GMT -5
Emi had never once stopped to think about why there was a deadbolt and chain on the bathroom door. She looked over her shoulder to the front door. Was it locked? She didn't remember. Instead, she just leaned her weight on the bathroom door. It was a cheap, hollow door she was sure he could break through if he wanted to.
"It wasn't an accident," she said to him through the door. "I'm not letting you out until you answer my questions. I don't like being confused, and I have a tendency to beat people that make me feel ways I don't like."
She had a tendency to beat people for more than that, for less serious violations than that.
She had to admit though, this guy looked fearsome. She took pride in being able to win most fist fights. She lost once, because she was drunk or high or in some other altered state of consciousness and picked a fight with a man at least a foot taller than her (a feat in and of its self, Emi was nearly six feet tall, which embarrassed her half the time but gave her a great intimidation factor) just because he had looked at her funny, no doubt criticizing her behavior from afar.
At any rate, she wouldn't be afraid to at least try to beat him up. It wouldn't be as easy as last night when she punched him in the head and slammed his face against that lamp post. Maybe he would just take the easy way and answer her questions.
Crap, she left the water running....
|
|
|
|
Post by Beaver Dude on Nov 11, 2009 22:34:46 GMT -5
It wasn't a kidnapping. Oddly enough, that was actually more disquieting than the alternative.
Dilan dispelled the gust of wind that he'd been storing, letting it harmlessly dry the water that he'd splashed on his face rather than into and through the door. The shower curtains rattled as did the rest of the room - odd, he hadn't *thought* he'd stored that much energy - before departing as a quiet hiss of leaked mana permeated the room with a smell of ozone.
Dilan blinked. Castle-training surface as he asked, almost purely instinctively: "I beg your pardon?"
Dilan didn't like scenarios he couldn't understand or predict. This was rapidly falling into both categories. He'd made many assumptions - half of them due to his instinctive estimation that danger was not present, the other half due to an odd feeling of familiarity he hadn't bothered to question. Now if his head would just stop - ergh - pounding so he could get a grip, he'd be able to think things through. As it was, his neurons were firing every which way except in a straight line.
He needed sleep. He also needed to re-establish control over the situation. He knew the girl. Vaguely. Of that much he was fairly certain. The muttered threats were serious but not deadly.
Not like...
Anyway.
"Ask away." |
|
|
|
Post by Emi on Nov 13, 2009 22:22:42 GMT -5
Emi rested her curled fist on the door, and her forehead too.
"First of all, what's with the black coat get-up? After that you can tell me how you knew I was from Radiant Garden."
{OOC: Wow, short post. >_<}
|
|
|
|
Post by Beaver Dude on Nov 14, 2009 14:32:13 GMT -5
Dilan regretted drinking so heavily. He had been wondering about the black cloak himself and now... Now it was pretty apparent that he'd said some odd things. And been binge-drinking like nobody's business in order to buy a cloak, have it stick out and not remember its provenance at all except that it was connected to some fevered dream-verse where Radiant Garden had been destroyed. By, if he was still believing this idiocy, all of Ansem's apprentices.
A shiver of foreboding coursed through his frame as he considered the wording of her statement. Was he in a different country? Radiant Garden was pretty extensive so...
"Aren't... aren't we in Radiant Garden?" |
|
|
|
Post by Emi on Nov 14, 2009 14:52:23 GMT -5
Emi was thrown. She picked her head up off the door.
"Uh...no," she told him.
To be honest, she'd been hopping between worlds so much that they all began to blend together. Just the same shabby gray place she was perpetually drawn to.
But she WAS sure this wasn't Radiant Garden. Her memories of her childhood home had faded and she could no longer see the faces of the townspeople or the lay-out of the streets like she once had been able to.
"We're in Chicago."
|
|
|
|
Post by Beaver Dude on Nov 14, 2009 15:01:32 GMT -5
Dilan reviewed his internal geography. He was never a particularly diligent student, but was once committed to memory rarely left him. 'Chicago', however, sounded wholly unfamiliar - which was odd, because there should have at least been some inkling of what place this was. He'd taken three geography courses and while not specific, his knowledge was fairly broad.
"Chicago...? Is that East or West of Radiant Garden?"
A horrible suspicion struck him but he let it go unvoiced, hoping against all odds that it wasn't true. It couldn't possibly be true, right? |
|
|
|
Post by Emi on Nov 14, 2009 15:34:16 GMT -5
Too easily provoked and not tolerant of what she saw as stupidity, Emi slammed her fist into the door.
"We're not in Radiant Garden anymore! Don't you know what happened?" she shouted. And then, as if to remind herself... "I'm not even sure if we can get back."
|
|
|
|
Post by Beaver Dude on Nov 14, 2009 17:21:27 GMT -5
"What happened?" Dilan asked as... comfortingly as he could. It was a poor attempt but at least he made it, modulating the roughness of his voice so that it wouldn't rasp as it much as it might for someone fighting the after-effects of an epic drinking binge. It didn't help matters that his voice had a natural tendency towards roughness as opposed to being a smooth velvet. His was a battlefield voice, not a manipulative one.
Funny how his dream-memories told him that he had been trying to pull a Mephistoles over some Beast-like creature. Pfffft. Like that could possibly happen.
"Pretend I got really wasted and hurt my brain last night," he joked. It probably wasn't that far from the truth. In fact, now that he thought about it, it was probably a pretty reasonable answer.
A scary thought. It was more reasonable to suspect someone was playing a prank on him. Oh well, he'd go with it for now.
"What happened to Radiant Garden?" |
|
|
|
Post by Emi on Nov 15, 2009 21:39:41 GMT -5
"Ten years ago... almost eleven... these monsters came. Everybody got split up and sent to different worlds. Rumor was that Radiant Garden was destroyed, or at least taken over by those creature things and made unlivable. We couldn't get back... me and my friend, Kei... we were the only ones to survive the attack on our orphanage... I'm not sure what happened but I woke up in Twilight Town. I don't know what happened to Kei."
She spoke to Xaldin through the door, staring intently through the cheap wood as if maybe he could feel her intensity through it.
"It's all so blurry now..."
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to make the picture in her head sharpen but the memories refused to surface. She slammed her fist into the door again in frustration, and then kicked the door and turned from it. She put her back against the door and slid down, resting her chin on her bony knees.
"Don't tell me you don't remember that happening. Trust me... even being completely wasted doesn't erase stuff like that."
[OOC: Lets get a fix on the time. If I am remembering correctly, Radiant Garden was invaded by Heartless 9 years before Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts II is a year after KH, which makes 10 years. So I'm estimating this RP takes place almost a year after KH2, considering Emi was 7 when Radiant Garden was invaded and she's almost 18 here. LOL it may not matter to you, but I'm weird about time lines.]
|
|
|
|
Post by Beaver Dude on Nov 17, 2009 0:26:54 GMT -5
Heh. I guess some congratulations are in order.
The gunner's voice is weak with pain and fatigue. His one good eyes burns brighter than the dying sun. Darkness mats his hair, his clothes - his entire being really. The guts of thousands upon thousands of those 'Heartless' things. Dilan isn't in much better shape - in fact, strictly speaking, he's worse - but where darkness suffuses him, so does blood. They are the best mid and long-range fighters that Radiant Garden has but time has taken its toll.
About what? We destroyed the world, Braig. It ain't coming back.
Dilan falters first. He's always been an up-front fighter and cannot truly hold himself back. Time and time again he bursts into the crowds, swinging wildly and furiously before retreating back to a more lofty and defensible perch. It's really only a matter of time before he falls. And falls he does.
Well, the way I see it, we're the last.
The blood wells in his mouth and then disappears as the darkness swallows him whole. Braig's laughing - fear, the end, no one knows, no one cares (no one's left to care). It's more painful than anything in his entire life - pain compounded by pain because it feels wrong wrong wrong wrong-
The last ones on the farking planet. It's an accomplishment, innit?
v.v.v.v.v.v
Dilan grabbed his pulsing, pounding head. No. No, it wasn't true. That crazy dream world... that crazy dream world couldn't possibly be true. He only realized he was yelling when he heard himself spew out sentences and fractured insults at himself at a 'Xaldin' at a world that had come and gone.
In the end he crumpled into himself.
No. No. This wasn't possible. This wasn't possible.
Dilan blinked. Slowly got to his feet.
"You." His voice was curiously dead. "Are lying."
He readied a wind spell. Time to find Radiant Garden.
"And I am going to prove it." |
|
|
|
Post by Emi on Nov 17, 2009 17:58:29 GMT -5
Prove it?
Before Emi had a chance to process most of what he said, the bathroom door exploded off its hinges around her. She squealed in fright, wondering if the back of her head was torn to smithereens. The explosion only lasted for a second, of course, and the cheap wood mostly disintegrated into pieces too small to hurt her too badly. The backs of her arms were scraped up and her clothes were covered in splinters, but fear affected her the worst. Adrenaline pumped through her, making her shake, make her sick at her stomach, making her hyperactive. She climbed back onto her feet shakily and turned to face Xaldin in the door way.
"I could've...just unlocked it... if you'd asked," she said, voice quivering. She clenched her fists.
"Prove it," she continued. "Prove Radiant Garden is still out there. Take me back. Take me home."
|
|
|
|
Post by Beaver Dude on Dec 1, 2009 13:30:35 GMT -5
It was raining when he woke. Water sluiced off weather vanes, steeples, minarets, domed towers, vaulting ceilings, broken skyscrapers.
There were no streets. Just rooftops. It was as if someone had made a world and only looked at it from above.
v.v.v.v.v.v
Prove it. Prove it? He didn't need to prove anything. The girl was insane, a liar, a memory-twister - a freaking - Leviathan, freaking damnit. This was a B-rated movie with a bad title and worse script. This was impossible. A single person's darkness could not crack the world in twain. He only realized that he was so contorted with fury that his fingers had dug into his palms with enough force to make them bleed when the blood dripped onto the floor.
He took a deep breath. Let it go.
Relax, Dilan.
It was time to do things methodically. Like an Apprentice might.
"Your door will be repaired."
He considered the situation he was in - his fabricated memories and piecemeal impressions. Created and discarded hypotheses. Though the girl was the primary suspect, it was likely that she had been planted there as a false lead - either she was a fantastic actress or a victim like himself. Either way, he needed to keep her close at hand.
"This could be an illusion," he mused to himself. "A form of waking dream. Ienzo might be capable."
But Ienzo never cared for such poor jokes.
And then Dilan realized.
"Ten years ago, you say." Dilan said softly, his calm restored. "And yet I have not aged at all."
He might have had ten years worse of memories. But he sure as hell didn't have ten years worse of scars or wrinkles.
The dragoon approached the exit of the domicile. It was time to find where Radiant Garden was. It was possible - ever so slightly possible - that he had been transported off world.
No matter.
"I fear you have been caught in a poor Castle joke." [ooc: Nomura confirmed that Nobodies do not age. Dilan will be most confused and disappointed that his logic was not sound. xD] |
|
I did post in shades of grey if anyone even remembers that lmao