thebastion | [Day 154]

Entry tags:

[Day 154]

Who: Xion and whoever
Open: Open
When: Day 154 (pretend I'm not late)
Where: Open Plains, maybe a bit further out.
What: Arrivals and things!
Format: Pick your poison!
Warnings: Nothing yet, but it honestly depends.

[She shouldn't be waking up at all. She knows this. So when she does, it's such a surprise. And for a while she just lies there, not reacting or moving, just staring up at the sky and marveling that it's there. From there it feels like a long process to sitting up, and from there to standing.

At that point, she sees the Bastion in the distance, and it's the only thing nearby she can really see that's worth heading towards, so towards it she goes. All the while wondering if this is even real or not. She doesn't remember this place from Sora's memories, or her own. But it can't be real can it? She shouldn't exist.

But there's definitely something off, whatever the case may be. Something not right. Especially if this place is real...

And if it is, why is she here?]

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[Roxas makes frequent enough trips out onto the Skyway, although with Colin's upcoming expedition, he doesn't plan on going far today. His Samurai shadows him, mostly on the look-out for now. He hasn't needed its help to take care of the few Squirts they've run into so far.

When he first spots the black-cloaked figure in the distance, he assumes it's Axel or Saix, coming back from an earlier expedition they didn't invite him on. It doesn't take him long to realize the figure is much too small to be either of them.

His step slows for just a second, and then he takes off running. Is it really who he thinks it is?]

[Xion hears the footsteps running through the grass and turns around, startled. Whoever or whatever she was expecting to see though... Roxas was not it. As soon as he gets close enough for her to recognize, her eyes go wide and her mouth falls open, hand reaching up to cover it.

She doesn't know what to say or do, she doesn't want to run towards him because while she's happy, so happy to see him, does she have a right to be after what just happened? What if he was upset?

Wait, how would he know her at all? He should have forgotten!

A part of her wants to run because she isn't ready, doesn't know how to deal with this, but she doesn't know where she is or what's going on, so that feels like the wrong answer too.

In the end, she calls out]

Roxas?

Xion!

[It is her! He slows down enough so as not to bowl her over, but he does try to pull her into a hug.

It's been a long time since their first goodbye, the one he doesn't remember, and still more than a year since he last saw her. Knowing (at least some of) what happened to her, and with things in the state that they are, he wasn't sure he ever would again.

Xion might notice the time on him; after all, he's 17 now, and he's grown a few inches since their Organization days.]

[She doesn't resist at all, letting herself be pulled into that hug. Truth be told, she's rather shellshocked. Roxas knows her, actually knows her. He's older, taller - how and when did that happen? And he's not mad or sad or anything about what happened (she guesses?). He's happy to see her.

Slowly, hesitantly, because this is probably one of the first times she can really remember being hugged, she hugs back, though the confusion doesn't fade from her face.]

Roxas? Wh-what's going on?

[The Samurai hangs back for now, evidently resigning itself to keeping watch during their reunion. Though, it may be watching them a little, too. It doesn't recognize Xion, but it certainly knows the coat. Can lesser Nobodies be curious? Who knows.

Roxas just hugs her for a few moments before drawing back enough to look at her. Ah, yeah, this would be really confusing. When is she even from? he wonders. Does she even know anything about Vatheon?]

Ah... It's sort of complicated.

[He tries to think on how to explain. She did say something once about having Sora's memories, right?]

Do you remember the End of the World where Sora fought Ansem? It's- sort of like that.

[She doesn't really have Sora's memories anymore, not exactly. To a certain extent, she was made from them, and they could never really be gone entirely, but... now that she'd gone back, now that she'd returned to him, many of them were more like... echoes. She felt their absence and how they used to be there more than the memories themselves.

She puts a hand to her forehead, trying to think.

She thinks she knows what he's talking about, vaguely. The name itself of the place gives her a good clue. But somehow it doesn't really sink in what that all means, not yet. It's too much to process all at once, on top of her already existing confusion.]

But... where is Sora?

[How can she be here if he's not?]

[His face falls at that question.]

I dunno...

But, he was supposed to go home, and- I haven't seen any part of the islands here, so maybe he's still there.

But- [That still doesn't explain how he'd be there and she'd be here. In the end though, she lets it go. There are other things to worry about now]

Never mind. What- ['is this place,' she's about to ask, but he'd already answered that, sort of.] How did we get here?

Everybody here's a survivor, from the worlds they were on.

[He hesitates, because he can guess why she's confused. It's the same question that was never quite answered for him in Vatheon. How did he wind up anywhere when he should have been with Sora?]

I guess- it's kind of a mystery for some of us, though.

[The hesitation, and the words he says after it make her jump a little. Because... he really does know, doesn't he? Knows where she's supposed to be. Maybe where he likely would have ended up too.]

Roxas, I...

[She bows her head]

I'm sorry... for what happened back home.

[She really hadn't meant for things to turn out the way they had. Hadn't meant for Xemnas to get ahold of her. She knows, to some extent, that things hadn't gone as peacefully as she would have wanted in the aftermath of her disappearance. And she knows seeing her vanish must have been hard on him, whether he'd recognized her or not, and she hadn't wanted that.

So much of how things turned out she hadn't wanted. But there'd been no other options. None she'd believed worth considering, anyway.]

[He knows, but only as much as she told him before. He knows what she is and that she chose to disappear, for his sake, but he doesn't know about any of the craziness leading up to that, or about his own part in her end. He still doesn't understand what she's apologizing for.]

It's okay. I don't- remember any of it anyway.

And you don't remember Vatheon, do you?

[She wouldn't be quite so confused if she did. She wouldn't be talking about "home."

Of course, bringing that up is probably only going to add to her confusion, but he can't pretend to remember when he doesn't.]

[Slightly startled again, Xion shakes her head. The name doesn't even ring a bell.]

No... what is it?

[She's confused, and a little flustered. He... didn't remember? And yet he knew about it, or at least some of it.]

[Roxas glances off as he opens his mouth to speak, but doing so reminds him of where they are, and he closes it again for a moment.]

...let's head back to the Bastion. They're not too strong, but there's monsters out here sometimes. I'll try to explain on the way.

[Xion nods after barely a moment's hesitation.]

Right.

[She turns towards what she guessed to be the Bastion, the small conglomeration of buildings she could see in the distance]

It's over there, isn't it?

Yeah. It's not much, but it's safe.

C'mon.

[Turning from her, he starts back for the Bastion, the Samurai falling in some paces behind them. Roxas is quiet for a while before he starts in on his attempt at an explanation.]

...the world I was in, before this one, was called Vatheon. You were there for a while, too. That's- how I know you.

[Xion falls in a pace or two behind him, content to let him lead the way. Roxas clearly knows where he's going and what's going on here, which is more than can be said about her.

'That's how I know you.'

So he really had forgotten. Somehow she's not sure how to feel about that.]

I don't remember anywhere like that...

[She wonders why. Why would she have forgotten? It would have been really important, if he'd found out about her again there...]

A lot of people there didn't remember after they left. We got- brought there for an experiment.

Still...

[Xion isn't sure she likes the idea of having lost memories of somewhere she'd been... Memories were important to her. They were what she was made of, and hers were one of the few things she really felt fair claiming as her own.

But that's a matter for another time.]

What kind of experiment?

[She isn't getting good feelings about this place.]

[Roxas can understand that. It bothers him that there are still so many things he can't remember, his original friendship with Xion chief among them.]

Probably not what you're thinking.

We were stuck in this underwater city, and weird stuff happened, but mostly we could do what we wanted. I made a lot of friends there. And- in the end we took the place over.

You did? [She pauses thoughtfully] It sounds like you did so much there.

[It's leaving her feeling a little out of her element. The Roxas standing next to her is so much older, done so much she doesn't know about.

But he's still her best friend. That at least she can trust, right?]

I guess I did... I was there a year and a half.

[He glances at her, wondering what she's making of it. Does she feel like she missed out?]

There's a lot to be done here, too.

[A year and a half? The length of time is almost surreal to her - it's longer than she can remember being alive. She's having trouble processing all this still, to the point where everything has a sort of unreal feeling to it.

And yet this was real, wasn't it?]

What kind of things?

[Surely there weren't Heartless missions and recon to do, were there? Not that she'd want to do them anyway, given... well, her general suspicion towards the Organization's goals in the aftermath of what'd happened.]

Like rebuilding the Bastion, and taking care of everybody who survived. And...

[He hesitates and continues on almost shyly.]

And maybe if we find out more about what happened, we can fix it. I don't- know if anyone else really thinks so, but if Sora restored the worlds... We can, too, right?

[Rebuilding the worlds. Like the world they left behind... but Xion hadn't been on a world. She'd been with Sora. So waht did that mean...?

But still, restoring the worlds, like Sora'd done. Like he probably would have wanted to. She nods.]

Yeah. It... makes sense.

[Sorry Roxas, she'll be more talkative once she stops feeling so generally disoriented.]

It's a lot to take in, huh?

[Roxas probably had had it easier, even if he had arrived with a concussion. Any questions he had about why he was separate from Sora, he'd already asked himself in Vatheon. Plus he'd been so focused on Axel...

Oh!]

Axel's here, too, you know. He'll be glad to see you.

[That gets her attention. She moves to catch up with him, eyes wide.]

He is? Is he- [How to word this question] Did he go to Vatheon too?

[Roxas smiles and nods.]

Yeah. He knows who you are.

[There are some things that don't change - such as Roxas being able to read her well enough to know why she was really asking that question. Xion's eyes drift down towards the ground.

Both of her best friends are here, both of them remember her. She should be overjoyed, and indeed, the relief and happiness will probably come later, mixed with other, more complicated feelings. But for now she's just so overcome by the idea.]

I... never really expected this.

[Expected anything, really]

Edited 2014-02-10 00:06 (UTC)

You get a few good things, being here.

[He peers at her face to try to determine her expression, and then glances ahead. By this point they're quite a bit closer to the Bastion. They can start to pick out people amidst those buildings.]

Look, we're almost there.

[Xion lifted her head up, and looked out at the Bastion itself, and all the greater detail she could now pick out. It wasn't quite like anything she'd ever seen before.

Whatever other expression she wore faded away to be replaced with awe.]

Wow... it's amazing.

[Maybe she's just appreciating everything more, given that she thought she wouldn't be experiencing anything anymore after she'd faded away, but... if asked, she'd have disagreed. This place would've looked amazing either way.]

Amazing?

[Maybe he got spoiled living in an underwater city, or maybe it's just that everything seems awesome after you realize you aren't gone after all.]

Hm. It's all right.

[Xion glances over at him, a little unsure. That was a sort of lackluster response, but she doesn't really know what to say to it - she doesn't know what Roxas' other experiences were like, in Vatheon and anything else she might have missed.

She isn't sure she's ready to ask either.]

So... um How long have you been here?

[Here being the Bastion]

[He might be more enthusiastic about the place if it had always looked like this, instead of being torn apart first.]

We got here- about a month ago. Long enough to have the basics down anyway.

The basics?

[He'd mentioned helping rebuild the Bastion earlier, and other survivors. Perhaps it was something to do with that?]

You know. Where to stay and- where to get stuff, and what it's like on the Skyway.

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[Day 154]

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