maskormenace | 7th dawn → video

7th dawn → video

[Riku's face, when he appears on the network today, is a little exasperated, and a little apologetic. Behind him, something tiny and black moves, and he picks his hair up and away from it, pulling it over his shoulder for lack of anything else to do with it. A sharp-eyed observer will note that the black thing is a wing. It's small, but it's clearly a pointy, leathery bat wing. Presumably, there's a matching one.]

So... I guess I was ported out.

[His very first port-out after a year and a half. What a strange experience. Riku pauses. He's pretty sure he... owes some people an apology.]

Uh -- sorry. From what I can tell it hasn't been very long, though...? A day or so tops, I think. I saw Kagami made a post, so I thought I should clear things up.

[He's surprised you all panicked, honestly...]

I guess I should thank you all for worrying, though.

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Thanks. I'm pleased, actually. You know, I said I liked it here, but... going and coming back makes me grateful to have been able to stay. There's so many people who... I'd hate to never see again. You know?

[He's sure she does, so he just goes ahead and leads the way upstairs to his room. It's the same as always too, the bed made neatly, afternoon sunlight spilling in. Riku sits on the bed, pats the spot beside him in invitation to sit.]

It's weird... back home feels like some wild adventure, and this feels like real life. But that is my life. Which isn't to say this isn't equally my life, because it is. Just... now I have two. We're lucky, I think.

[ It's a familiar room, now. She knows what that pillow smells like, knows which drawer he keeps his pyjamas in. Knows the number of blind footsteps between the bed and the door to the bathroom.

She takes the offered seat comfortably. All the way upstairs, her attention had followed the flutters at his back, but now . . . for just a moment she appreciates how easily he can sit and stand, how he breathes without straining, and lifts his arms without pain. ]

Mm. I think . . . I know what you mean.

. . . one of the people I knew from home was ported out. At the end of August—we didn't know if it would only be for a little while, but . . . she hasn't come back.

I've been thinking about the same thing, since then. That . . . we never really know how long we have, here. But the time we have—the time I've had, the people I've met . . .

They're really important to me.

[There are scars there still. But they're healed -- they're just red lines now. They returned with him, when he came back, but they look a lot better than they did just a few months ago.

Riku isn't thinking about that, though. What Riku is thinking about is Kururu's words. "One of the people I knew from home." Like the times Sora left, and even when Roxas and Xion did. It leaves a hole there, the part of you that you reserved for them left empty and alone. It half feels like you shouldn't feel bad -- after all, you'll go back to see them eventually. But the unknown factors are what make it hard -- how long will it be? Will they come back before you leave again? Will you leave and they'll only have just arrived? It's hard to say.]

... Yeah, exactly. I feel like that too. It feels like it should be used productively, doesn't it?

It does. I think so too, I mean.

There's still things I want to do here. Even if I do want to go home, sometimes, even when there's people that . . . mm. There's some I haven't seen in a long while, now. I'm still not ready to go home yet.

I'm glad to be here.

[ It seems like such a strange thing to say, after everything that happened those first few months. Being barred from Heropa, the kidnappings, the rescue, the Soviet occupation . . . all those things that shaped her initial impressions, her reactions.

All the reasons she'd never really settled here, why she hadn't even moved into the house that was supposed to be her own until a few weeks ago . . . it had all mattered less, suddenly, faced with the fact that 'someday' could just as easily be 'tomorrow'. ]

. . . I'm glad to see you again, too. More than just your wings.

[ Curiosity cracking at last, she turns a bit, lifting a hand . . . and hovering. ]

But . . . um. Can I . . . ?

Yeah, exactly. I'm happy I got to see Kairi and Mickey and the others. But there's something good about being here, too. I've got friends here I don't have anywhere else, you know?

[Riku considers this line of thought, nodding with a quiet smile when she tells him she missed him -- he can't say that back, considering he didn't remember anyone, but he's pleased he gets to stay here and talk with her more.

And then she raises her hand, clearly wanting to reach forward, and Riku can't help the little smile that appears on his lips. He shifts a little, so she has an easier time.]

Go ahead.

Ahh~!♪

[ Her response is nothing short of delighted. She wastes no time in moving his hair over his shoulder, no more shy of touching him at this point than she would be of any of her teammates.

He has wings. He really has wings, tiny little wings, fully defined and capable of moving even if they could probably barely even stir a breeze.

She runs her fingers over the ridge of one wing's 'arm', as gentle and careful as she would be with any newborn chick. ]

Do they even carry sensation? Can you feel this?

[She's so excited... it's actually a little entertaining. Riku gathers his hair into one handful, holding it across his shoulder for her. They twitch a little as she touches them, then stretch open, Riku's expression turning thoughtful.]

Yeah. They're like I always had them. I didn't even notice they were there until I got in the car on the way back and squashed them.

[He'd let the military drive him home, like when he'd first arrived. No one had said anything -- he figures they assumed he'd noticed them.]

Sleeping on your back is going to be hard. They sound . . . sturdy, though.

[ Sturdy enough that he won't break one just by leaning back, at least.

Those pleased hums continue as she strokes down the 'fingers', runs the curve of her finger under the webbing . . . it's so stretchy, and supple, the fainest echo of his heartbeat through those tiny veins . . .

Her hand comes to rest between wings, warm on his back, and she gives the softest of huffs at the suddenly muddled sound. Fabric. ]

Take of your shirt?

They are, I think. They feel like... they're meant to be bigger, but they're not. Or maybe I'm meant to figure out how to use them at this size.

[Riku nods, letting go of his hair so he can tug his shirt off, guiding the wings back through the holes he'd unceremoniously cut into it. Later he'll have to make some actual modifications to his clothes, but this is fine for now. He leaves the shirt in a little heap beside him on the bed, then settles again, patient.]

Carry on.

[ That's better. That's so much better, both her hands fanning out over the ridges of his shoulder blades with the same curious delight she'd had touching his wings.

His heartbeat is loud in her ears, strong and familiar. She could lose an hour to that sound, picking out the shifts since the last time they'd sat together (slept together, even, her head curled light on his shoulder), but right now . . . isn't the time for that.

The sounds she's looking for are higher, lighter. She traces his muscles, following the similar and familiar, humming curiously as she feels things that are neither. Small muscles, new tendons . . . could he support larger wings? Maybe. What would it feel like then . . . ]

Are they connected to your magic?

I think that's what keeps them there, [he says simply, reaching behind his neck to drag his hair forward again. He's used to this now, her needing direct skin contact to properly hear, so he doesn't mind sitting here for her. Besides, since he can't really examine them on his own, it's good that someone can. How is he supposed to know what they're like, when they're on his back?

Besides, having them touched is... nice, weirdly. Maybe it's like when you pat a dog, he rationalizes, and then gets dragged off on that tangent. What kind of invisible changes is he going to figure out later? There's a lot to learn.]

I can feel the air underneath them, they know how to fly, but -- they're not big enough to give me any lift.

Really none at all. You'd need to be a lot smaller to fly with wings like these.

[ Or magic, maybe. If magic could call fire and lightning from ocean air, maybe it could call a wind that could lift someone from the ground no matter the size of their wings. Though that wouldn't really be the wings flying then . . .

Her fingers follow the inky edge of the sigil. Dark as his wings . . . had that been there before? ]

What does the mark mean?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too.

[Riku pauses as she touches his back, curling his fingers into the blanket. His eyebrows can't help but raise at the question, and he tilts his head back, trying to see.]

What mark?

[He hasn't actually realized that's there yet.]

There's . . . a mark, on your back, between your wings. Like a tattoo?

[ But not a tattoo. It's hard to get a tattoo this size, this dark and not know about it. Right? And he's definitely surprised, the whisper of tension in his back like a note turned slightly sharp.

One of her hands spreads across it, while the other digs through her pockets for her comm. ]

Right here. Like a stylized flower with three petals. Kind of . . . like a crocus.

[ Her hand drops so she can snap a picture, and then the brief distance is erased entirely as she leans forward, her shirt brushing his back as she holds her comm out to where he can see it. ]

Hm...

[He reaches up to steady her hand over his shoulder, then makes a face. Right, of course. It makes sense, but...]

That's the Dream Eater mark. I guess I should have known I'd have it, since... I'm a Dream Eater. But for some reason I didn't expect it. Usually it's not coloured that way, though. Normally it's like... pinkish-purple.

It's . . . kind of purple? Purple-black. The light changes it a little.

[ They're idle words, almost, her focus almost entirely elsewhere.

Dream Eater.

She hadn't known that. Of all the things they'd talked about, it'd never come u—she'd never asked. It seems a bit silly in retrospect, doesn't it? Komasan can look human too, and Magicman . . . it's probably a little rude of her to assume people are human just because they look that way.

Her hand still on his shoulder, she leans further around his opposite side, looking at him. ]

Riku's . . . a baku?

[ His nose is so short, though. ]

Yeah. I mean -- I wasn't before. I only became that way after our exam. Or -- during, I guess.

[He wonders whether he was originally, but he doesn't think so. The way he feels now compared to before is -- different. Perhaps it's the shift in his powers.]

Our exam happened in a dream, right? But it went bad, and I had to enter Sora's dream to help him. I guess because I did that, I became like the Dream Eaters who were there already. So coming back here, I guess I kept those powers. ... I didn't have any wings, though. Only when I Linked with one of the other Dream Eaters, and they weren't attached to my back like these ones are.

We have stories of dream eaters, but I've never heard of someone having more than one. I've never heard stories of a baku with a nose as short as Riku's, either . . .

Was Sora having a really bad nightmare?

[ A nightmare bad enough to feed multiple baku wouldn't be good at all. But baku left hungry would be worse . . . ]

The ones in the Sleeping Worlds don't necessarily have long noses either, [he replies simply. He's amused -- he knows what she's getting at, but the real ones weren't like the folk tale ones at all.] They looked like all different sorts of animals. As for the nightmare... sort of. There are -- worlds that get swallowed by the darkness, when they're restored, they don't always come back right away. They stay asleep. We went into the dream world to wake them up. Sora -- got led astray. So it wasn't his nightmare, exactly -- it was more like, he was trapped in one.

Is he okay?

[ Riku had said he'd passed, that there was an 'after', but still . . .

She turns off her comm, setting it down on the bed beside them. ]

. . . are you?

Yeah. Yeah, he's fine. And me... I'm all right, too. I think, anyway. I... feel better than I did, about a lot of things. About being a Master, and... about me, in a way, too.

[He looks thoughtful, stretching his wings out to the sides, as open as they'll get.]

Just have to figure out what kind of teacher I'm gonna be.

Teacher . . . ?

[ The movement pulls at her attention, and she shifts back behind him, fingers brushing the taut webbing. ]

Is that what your masters do? You teach?

Well -- that's part of it. But with what's happening right now, I have to, whether I'd have chose that or not. We -- there's a guy who's trying to... what he wants to do is force the conditions of a prophecy to come together.

[Xehanort... the smile on that old man's face is burned into Riku's memory. It's just like the one his Heartless wore, and the one Xemnas had, too. It was obvious they were all related. But Xehanort's obsession with Kingdom Hearts is more than just a problem. Riku flaps the wings distractedly, just to let her get a feel of their range of motion, as he speaks.]

He needs thirteen on his side, and there are seven on ours -- but we don't have all seven. Sora and I -- our friend Kairi can use the Keyblade, too. She's not at our level, but... we have no choice but to put her on the team, even though I'd like to keep her out of that. So I'm supposed to help train her.

[ That's just mean, really, making her divide attention between his wings and his words.

She goes a little still, though, when he mentions the prophesy. That's . . . familiar, really familiar. Her world's 'Sora' . . . maybe it just came with the name. Prophesies. Destiny. ]

Are you worried because of what happened last time? With Kairi, I mean. You were really worried about her when you were younger.

Edited 2016-11-03 00:46 (UTC)

... Yes, sort of.

[He doesn't really remember what he talked about, when he met Kururu that time. Frankly, Riku barely remembers what went on during that week at all. But it makes sense that he would have talked about Kairi. Kururu is someone he trusts implicitly -- so it makes sense that even with his mind altered, he still would. He looks thoughtful, trying to find a way to explain properly.]

See, that all happened, but also... the problem is that she's decided she's tired of having to wait for us. Which I get -- if it were me I'd be as frustrated as she is. But she didn't even have to leave home and she got kidnapped, and then now she's being dragged into this? I'm scared she'll do something rash, I guess. We don't even have a choice between fighting and not. If we refused, Xehanort would just -- Kururu, when we met when I was younger, did I tell you about the princesses?

[Whether they include Kairi as a combatant or not, because of her status as a Princess of Heart, she's involved either way.]

7th dawn → video

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