8. [Video/action]

[brodakota]

[Of all the Freelancers here, North is probably the happiest to see the Mother of Invention. For all intents and purposes, it's home for him, and after a few months of technicolour monsters and other weird goings-on, it's nice to see something familiar, dream world or not. He spends some time on the bridge, before heading out into the ship, seeing all the familiar places. Mess hall's still intact, and it looks like the common room is as well, with it's lousy selection of books. The training floor hasn't changed, and it's nice to see that his name is still where it should be on the Leaderboard. As troublesome as it is, he is number five and takes a decent amount of pride in that. They don't spend a lot of time there, taking out the nightmares quickly before moving on. It still brings back a few unpleasant memories.

Theta's been pretty quiet throughout the whole journey, but he skates alongside North's head, equally glad for the familiarity. The last time either of them saw this place had been in a dream, so the, somewhat real thing is good to have, and North lets his hand trace the wall. He rounds a familiar corner, and heads to a familiar room.

His barrack is pretty much how he left it. Bed, table, locker, all the comforts of home. He sits down on the bed. Home sweet home. After a few moments, he turns on the communicator.]

I was just thinking that anyone exploring this place might want to avoid the barracks, or at least rooms 1115 and 1116. 1115's mine, and 1116 is my sister's. If she shows up here, I don't think she'd approve of anyone going through her stuff, dream world or not.

[Private text to Xion]

I guess I can actually give you a tour of my world now, if you want it? Unfortunately there's not a lot of places for ice cream.

Comments

[brodakota]

[In short, Ienzo has lived a very different life from North. And he's not quite sure what to say.]

So, what you're saying is that you're practically a genius?

[shadearchivist]

[Ienzo shrugs. Genius or no, he hadn't noticed what was wrong back then. His plans at Castle Oblivion had been all for naught. Clearly even if he was, he didn't know enough. Or he didn't know the right things.]

Yes, but it's hardly important.

[brodakota]

It's counts for something, though, right?

[shadearchivist]

I suppose what I mean is that it didn't help, in the end, with the tragedy that befell my home.

[brodakota]

Oh. I'm sorry, Ienzo. I didn't mean to bring up a sore subject.

[shadearchivist]

[Ienzo shakes his head.]

Of course. I apologize for being short with you; I don't recall if I explained before. Ten years ago my world was...I suppose you could say it was destroyed, though the destruction wasn't permanent. I regret not being able to stop it's happening.

[brodakota]

[North nodded. He could understand that, in a way. There had been a lot of colonies lost in the war after all.]

That...must have been tough. Again, I'm sorry for bringing it up.

[shadearchivist]

You couldn't have known.

[Ienzo sighs. Let's get this on a topic that isn't his horrific crime against his own world, shall we?]

I'm glad you had someone to spend your childhood with. Was your sister very like you?

[brodakota]

Try almost exact opposite, to be honest. She's a lot more...outgoing than I am.

[That's the nicest word he can use off the top of his head.]

[shadearchivist]

[Exact opposite of North gives Ienzo the mental image of Larxene for a moment. He shakes his head to clear it of that mental image.]

You seem fairly gregarious to me.

[brodakota]

[Unfortunately he's not that far off.]

Maybe outgoing was the wrong word...Rash might be better. She's got a pretty strong mind of her own.

[shadearchivist]

Ah. You're the calm, levelheaded one and she's more impulsive. I hope you didn't spend to much time keeping her out of trouble.

[Like Isa and Lea, then. Though North was much more pleasant than Isa to deal with.]

[brodakota]

That's a good way of putting it, yeah.

[He sighs.]

More times than I care to count, but that's just who she is. She's done the same for me, the odd time I do.

[South would have reamed him out for letting himself give up that much sleep.]

[shadearchivist]

That's what family does, isn't it? You must miss her terribly in that case.

[Ienzo's fairly sure that Even and Aeleus are family, even if he's not quite sure how they relate to each other all the time. Not that they've ever been effective at keeping each other out of trouble.]

[brodakota]

I really do, actually. I think this is the longest we've been apart, and that's saying something.

Even when we enlisted, we were still together.

[shadearchivist]

[That must have been interesting for the two of them. Perhaps one of them followed the other? Well, it's hardly his business to ask.]

Well, hopefully we'll all be able to return home sometime in the future. Or I suppose she might arrive here.

[brodakota]

[North nods. He's still worried about the future.]

Personally, I'd prefer the latter right now.

C'mon, I'll show you another room.

[shadearchivist]

Perhaps it will happen then.

[Ienzo nods]

Of course.

[brodakota]

I guess from here, it'll be easiest to go to the mess hall or the locker room.

[shadearchivist]

Whichever you prefer.

[The construction is interesting; is this how the ship is configured in the real world? It must be at least a bit similar, but it certainly seemed that the everyday parts of the ship are emphasized. Which is...interesting, considering that the dream of Traverse Town is larger than the one in reality.]

[brodakota]

I guess we can do the locker room. Hopefully there won't be a lot of nightmares.

[shadearchivist]

I should think that between the two of us, nightmares won't be a problem.

[Ienzo's quite willing to follow North to the locker room without further delay. It's a pity that he's gathered that the ship computers aren't responsive; he would enjoy playing with technology that was straight technology, without magic in it. It would hardly be appropriate to ask after anyone's armor, but the ship looked to be a dead end in that regard as well.]