3rd Day [Text]

[seasaltkeys]

[He's been thinking about this a lot. Since he got over the shock of the mansion showing up, and since people started returning from it unscathed. He's not sure if that's a good thing or not, since he doesn't know if he'll go through the same thing.

But at some point he needs to know. Deep down, he knows he can't keep running. At least this time, it's his choice, and he's not being forced into anything.


He's off by himself, keeping things to text in an effort to stay anonymous, though who knows how effective that will be.]

How do you deal with something that's bothering you?

[That should be vague enough.]

Comments

[allfunandgamesuntil]

Sure. Where to?

[The station tower would work; not many people would want to climb that without a reason.]

[seasaltkeys]

[Roxas looks around, trying to find the best spot.]

I guess the clock tower's the most private place.

[It's still hard to go up there though. Doesn't look like any of this will be easy.]

[allfunandgamesuntil]

Sounds good.

[York started to head up the hill. Something was weighing on the kid; he only hoped he could help Roxas more than he'd been able to help Wash since getting here.]

Just going to fast forward them if that's alright.

[seasaltkeys]

[Roxas sits away from the edge when they get to the top. Normally, he'd sit on the edge and look out at the town and the sunset but he's not in the mood for that. With everything weighing on him and his memories, it's hard to even do that.

He looks around, blankly.]

I don't really know where to start.

Yes good

[allfunandgamesuntil]

[It helps to know what's bothering someone, but Roxas might not want to share. They can start there, though, and work out from that point.]

Well, we can start off with general stuff. I saw your post to Wash, a while back; are you worried about the crack in the wall?

[He'd noticed Roxas was wary of it.]

[seasaltkeys]

Yeah. Well, not just the crack, but what's behind it.

The mansion.

[allfunandgamesuntil]

Did something happen there?

[seasaltkeys]

[Roxas nods, trying to find the right words.]

Yeah, something did.

That's hard to explain though.

[allfunandgamesuntil]

[York nods. Sometimes things could be too hard to put into words. Especially the really terrible stuff.]

You don't have to tell me about it if you don't want to.

[seasaltkeys]

That kinda beats the point of me getting advice though.

I mean, that's why we're here, right?

[allfunandgamesuntil]

Yeah, it is.

[York pauses.]

If it's something hard to talk about, the best way is to start at the beginning and just push through. There's no way to make it easier to talk about with people.

[seasaltkeys]

[Roxas nods. He's quiet for a moment, trying to figure out where that beginning is.]

Right.

I guess this all starts with Sora, because I'm...I'm part of him.

[allfunandgamesuntil]

Part of him? How does that work?

[That sounds like...more of this weird heart stuff that this place has going on.]

[seasaltkeys]

I'm his nobody.

[He's soldiers on, just trying to get through it.]

At some point, when he was trying to save the worlds, he had to turn himself into a heartless, and I showed up at the same time. I didn't know though. Axel says I was like a zombie back then.

[allfunandgamesuntil]

Okay. So he became a heartless, and you were born.

[It sounds like the fragmentation process; York can feel Delta curl up into a tighter ball in the back of his head. Delta didn't figure that he'd be in on this conversation for Roxas' comfort, but it looks like he'll want to bow out for his own protection as well.]

[seasaltkeys]

Yeah, exactly. But I didn't know about Sora then. But I guess he managed to turn back into a human, and so we were existing at the same time, which is not supposed to happen. And then he got his memories all mixed up, so he had to go to sleep to put everything straight.

I didn't know about any of that. I was just running missions for the Organization.

[allfunandgamesuntil]

So you just figured you were an ordinary kid?

[If he didn't have any memories to compare his life to, Roxas would have thought was going on around him was normal. Especially if you have routine, it's easy not to question things and just go with it.]

[seasaltkeys]

I dunno about ordinary, I just did what I was told. I had friends though, and I liked being with them.

[Even if he can't really remember one of them.]

We used to come up here every day after we were done our missions and eat ice cream and watch the sunset.

[He sighs]

This is where it gets complicated.

[allfunandgamesuntil]

[So the complicated part was not being part of someone else who came to life and stayed that way after he wasn't supposed to any longer.]

Okay, I'm listening.

[seasaltkeys]

[Roxas pauses for a moment, trying to collect his thoughts. He's still bothered by the fact that Xion isn't where she's supposed to be, and it makes the story confusing, and he has to keep reminding himself that she was there.]

Because I'm Sora's nobody, I can also wield the keyblade. Apparently, that's a big deal, but I didn't know that. It was just something I could do. But the Organization wanted to use that ability, and so I was just a pawn to them, and I wasn't getting any answers.

So I left.

But it turned out my friend was also a pawn for the Organization, and then I ended up fighting her, and...I defeated her, I think. I ended up losing my memory of that, of her. But I knew I had to stop the Organization, and so I headed back, but I got stopped by Riku.

He and the guy in Red threw me into a digital version of this place, and I thought I had a life here. A regular life.

[allfunandgamesuntil]

[York lets out a long sigh.]

So this place has a lot of memories for you, even though you weren't really here for long. ...I'm sorry that you had to go through all of that. I know it doesn't make a difference, but something like that shouldn't happen to anyone.

[seasaltkeys]

[Roxas nods.]

I've only been around for a year and a bit. I used to keep track of the days, but then I lost count. But there's a lot of memories, digital and not.

[And half of them are missing.]

I have Sora's memories to. Sora, had his memories all mixed up, and had to sleep to get them back. I guess I was the last piece, so that he'd been whole again. That's why they put me in the digital Twilight Town and made me think I had a regular life, so that the Organization couldn't find me and take me back.

[He glanced down at the ground sadly.]

None of it was real though.

[allfunandgamesuntil]

[So the kid went from working for people who were only using him towards their own ends to being trapped by people who only saw him as a part of someone else and who were totally okay with sacrificing him. To the point that they'd given him a fake life to keep him docile and hidden him from everyone who would try to rescue him and tell him who he was.]

[It was a wonder that the kid wasn't more screwed up than he seemed to be.]

I know it sounds kind of corny, but even if it wasn't real, it mattered to you. So, the mansion...that's where everything came to a head, right? That's why you don't want to go there.

[Because that's where he lost everything. York knows that feeling.]

[seasaltkeys]

[Roxas nods. He hasn't let go of the Twilight Town memories. They're still good ones, even if he doesn't really share them with anyone.]

Basically, I thought it was the last week of summer vacation, and I just wanted to spend it hanging out with my friends, but all this weird stuff kept happening, because the Organization was trying to get to me and I was remembering Sora and all that.

On the last day, Axel showed up and tried to take me back, but I still had trouble remembering him, and we fought. I went to the mansion, where I met the guy who was controlling everything, and found out the truth, that the Twilight Town I was in was a fake.

He pretty much told me that I was nothing, just another piece of Sora and that I wasn't important. That Sora was the only one that mattered. I didn't really have a choice at the point, I had to go back him.

I ended up here instead. I'm scared if I go back to the mansion, I'll...

You get the picture.

[allfunandgamesuntil]

[And this is a dream world, and York can't really offer any guarantees, other than the fact that he thinks that this world is real. The people in the fake town probably thought it was real too, though, so that's not any reassurance at all.]

Well, let's start with this. No one here is going to make you go, and from what I've seen of your friends, I think they'd fight anyone who would try. You might be better off going just to reassure yourself that you won't disappear, but I can understand that you're afraid to go. I don't think that anything will happen to go to the mansion, but it's up to you.