third dawn - video / action

[nightmaresfear]

[Riku's finally made his way to Twilight Town, and has spent the day exploring. He's currently at the Tram Common, and for some reason is staring at a nondescript piece of wall. Interesting? Not really. But then he begins running his hand along it, as though looking for some kind of hidden mark or indentation. Then, after a minute or so of finding nothing, he gives up.]

...Funny. It's gone.

[He's mostly muttering to himself, unaware the communicator's on. For anyone already familiar with Twilight Town, they'd know he's looking for the crack in the wall that used to be there, leading into the forest. Feeling partly disappointed, partly relieved the way to his old headquarters is gone, he turns away from the wall.]

Alright, Bram. [He looks nearby, to his Komory Bat is looking on curiously,] There's nothing here. Let's keep looking around.

---

[Later, he'll be sitting on the Station stairs, and makes a private message to those with Keyblades.]

Hey, guys? I'm sending this only to a select few, because I don't want to freak people out, but to tell the truth, I'm getting worried. First there was Traverse Town, which shouldn't still be here in the Realm of Sleep. Me and Sora saw to that. Now there's Twilight Town, which wasn't a Sleeping World the last time we were here, but now it is.

I don't know -- something isn't right about all this, and I don't like it. All these worlds falling into sleep that shouldn't be, and people getting dragged in... The more we learn, the more it seems to be on a bigger scale than we even realised.

Which makes me wonder: what's going on in the real world that could be causing all this?

[And whatever's happening there, just how disastrous is it? Who's there to stop it? Mickey? Yen Sid? As much as he respects the both of them, he's not sure if that will be enough. Not if they're up against an enemy like Xehanort.]

Comments

[nightmaresfear]

Nah, not any more. Just memories.

Filtered to Riku

[unrecovered]

So why are you trying to get there?

Filtered to Wash

[nightmaresfear]

Mostly... I was just curious to see if anything had changed. Guess there's no telling now.

Permafilter

[unrecovered]

[He takes a moment to choose his words. Riku's already cut him off once before when he asked about his past, and he knows just how hard it can be to talk about that sort of thing.]

Look. You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but if something happened here - something that might have to do with the current situation - it might be better for people to know about it.

Permafilter

[nightmaresfear]

Like I told you, it's all just old ruins. Nothing happened there related to the Realm of Sleep.

[unrecovered]

[He's frustrated, but he hides it behind his visor. While he's pretty damn certain there's got to be more to it than that, he also gave Riku that out for a reason. Pushing now wouldn't accomplish anything.]

Right. Let me know if you find anything; I'll do the same.

[nightmaresfear]

All right.

[He pauses. He might not be able to see Wash's frustration, but he can probably guess at it. It's not the first time he's asked questions and Riku's been elusive, after all.]

If you're really that curious, I lived there for a while. I don't know why it's all blocked off now -- maybe the sleeping Twilight Town is from the past.

[unrecovered]

[There's a beat of silence; he wasn't expecting this extra information, not after Riku initially cut him off. On one hand, nostalgia explains it; on the other hand, he gets the feeling that there's still more to the story.]

From the past? [It makes sense, given the odd timelines.] So did you live in it before or after it was ruined?

[nightmaresfear]

After it was ruined. I'm not sure how long it's been wrecked, but it was long enough the locals thought it was haunted.

[Wash can probably guess where this is going: it made it the perfect place for a secret hideout.]

[unrecovered]

[That's something worth noting. Broken-down and abandoned places are the best places to go when you want to hide - there's a reason Command sent the Alpha to that abandoned base for fourteen months. Rumors of a place being haunted were an extra deterrent. The question now is, who or what was Riku hiding from, and what was he up to in the meantime? ]

And you lived in it. Why?

[Riku's answer might reveal something Wash hadn't considered...or Riku might cut him off again.]

[nightmaresfear]

To keep my best friend safe.

["Lived in" was maybe pushing it a little: he spent just as much time elsewhere, traveling, trying to find a way to conquer his darkness. But it was the one place he'd always return to, at least.]

[unrecovered]

[...huh.]

What did Sora need protection from? Xehanort?

[Yeah, he's been paying attention, and from what Sora said and the way Eraqus reacted, he figured this Xehanort was a force to be reckoned with, or at least a giant pain in the ass.]