sixthiterationlogs | a mile could you walk in my shoes ( OPEN / KH 3 SPOILERS LIKELY )

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a mile could you walk in my shoes ( OPEN / KH 3 SPOILERS LIKELY )

WHO: Aqua
WHERE: Fountain, Inn, House 13 steps, schoolhouse, anywhere in the south village
WHEN: March 12th
OPEN TO: Initial fountain scene for Brigitte, everything else is OTA!
WARNINGS: KH3 SPOILERS ARE HIGHLY LIKELY, PROCEED WITH CAUTION. I will still warn in the subject lines

Fountain arrival - closed to Brigitte - SPOILERS

So much has happened in such a small amount of time. Sometimes Aqua closes her eyes and it still feels like she's in the Realm of Darkness, fighting her way out of the dark water. Falling, drifting, unsure of where she is or how much time has really passed. If she opens her eyes, she can still remember that moment on the shores of the Destiny Islands with Sora, Riku, and Mickey. The moment she realized she'd been saved.

"You're in the Realm of Light."
"You're home!"

She'd cried then, her emotions overflowing and taking control. But they were happy tears, ones of relief and gratitude. By the time Sora pulled her out, she had honestly come to terms with the idea that she was never going home, that she had failed Terra and Ven one last time. Being in the Realm of Light again was... more than she could have hoped for. Sora had given her one last chance to fix things, one last chance to save the worlds... and her friends.

Her cheeks are still wet now, almost like she'd been crying in her sleep again. In fact, her whole face feels wet. Aqua pries her eyes open and has to stop herself from gasping out loud. Somehow she had been dunked in a pool of water. No, more like a well. It reminds her of the one by the castle in the Dwarf Woodlands. She can't see the bottom, so she turns her head upwards and starts swimming for the surface, hoping to make it before she runs out of air, stretching her arm out until her hand breaks the surface, in a desperate attempt to catch the attention of anyone who might be nearby.

Fountain OTA

Once she's gotten her bearings, and been back to the house she claimed to see that all of her things are where she last left them, she actually goes back to the fountain to have a closer look at it. She doesn't want to risk the temperature of the water any longer than she has to at this point, but she is a bit curious about it. The last time she had been brought here, she had been broken out of the tube down in the bunker. Someone else had mentioned a fountain, though, and now she's gotten to experience that.

Honestly, she isn't sure which one she prefers at this point.

Sighing to herself, she examines it for a few minutes, taking mental notes and seeing if anything looks odd about it. "I wonder if water is a theme on this world," she muses, more to herself than anything, but loud enough for anyone nearby to hear. "The bunker, the lake, the rivers, the fountain. Even the springs. So much water. I wonder what it all means."

South Village OTA

Aqua takes her time re-acclimating herself to the way this world works and how her own personal routine had been going. She knows it's been a few days here since she vanished and turned up in the fountain, but things seem mostly normal. For whatever constitutes as normal here. Still, she can be found at the Inn for the lunch meal, helping out and then eating a little herself out at a table. She may be alone at first, but she looks up if anyone approaches and smiles. It's a soft, small smile, but it's still there. She takes a walk around the perimeter of the South Village, trying to find anything out of the ordinary, and even stops by the schoolhouse to see about some of the books. Towards the end of the day, she makes her way back to House 13, where she promptly spends some time on the porch steps, watching people and thinking about everything that has happened lately. If anyone passes by, she snaps out of her thoughts long enough to smile before she's right back to getting lost in her thoughts.

This place isn't home, but it's becoming just as familiar as the Realm of Darkness was, for better or worse.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The village today has undergone something of a cold snap -- nothing as dramatic as a snowstorm, but temperatures are consistently below-freezing. It means that keeping an eye on the fountain for new arrivals is more important than ever, though it's been a while since Brigitte has met someone shivering at the inn.

Today, though, there's the distinctive sound of splashing and the sight of someone coming through. So the mechanic's rushed over as quickly as she can, plunging an arm into the frigid water, catching the neck of magenta scrubs, and hauling the gasping woman out of the water and to the edge. Which is the point when she sees distinctive blue hair, and realises--

"Aqua! What the hell are you doing in the fountain?" Aghast, Brig has to wrack her mind to think if she's seen the other girl around the village lately -- whereupon she realises, crestfallen, that she hasn't and she hadn't noticed. There were so many people here now, and so many rotating faces at the inn, and Brigitte had been so absorbed in her daily overload of tasks and duties to keep busy-- well. She's kicking herself, unless this is a twin sister that Aqua hadn't mentioned yet.

No twin that Aqua knows about, unless the phantom version of herself running around in the Realm of Darkness counts. This, though, is the real Aqua and she gasps for breath as soon as her head breaks the surface of the water. For a few minutes, she rests her upper body on the wall of the well, adjusting her breathing and trying to get her bearings. It's only when she hears a familiar voice, but not Ven or Terra's, that it starts to come back.

"Brigitte?" she says, confused. "How did you get-"

The rest of that sentence trails off as she takes a good look at their surroundings. This isn't home. It isn't even Master Yen Sid's tower or the Destiny Islands. It is familiar, in a distant way, but the feeling of disappointment crushes down on her. They had been so close, had a few moments together, but now they've been forced apart again and it feels like they might never have enough time. Her head bows, resting on her arms for another moment before she finally tries to push herself up out of the fountain.

"I guess I'm back, then," she says softly, with the weariness of someone who has been through hell and hasn't had a chance to process it all. "Thanks for pulling me out."

Edited 2019-03-13 22:17 (UTC)

For now she focuses on dragging Aqua over the edge, until the girl tumbles to the ground at her feet as freezing water drips from her hair, sloshes over the fountain rim.

"Warm up first, explanation later," Brigitte says, a businesslike cut to her voice that she rarely has to use on people in the village. But the moment there's something to be done for their own good and their own safety, she snaps to practicalities. And then she's hauling Aqua towards the inn (a fairly good approximation of how Anne had fished Brigitte out of the fountain a few months back) -- which is the point when she notices that Aqua moves with an exhaustion that doesn't seem entirely attributed to the effort of swimming up through that drowning water.

Once she has her camped out in front of the inn fire, though, and offered up a blanket and her own coat, Brigitte is rubbing her hands to heat up and watching Aqua carefully. She's done the introductory schpiel a few times now -- the new arrivals are usually shell-shocked and confused, but this mixture of weariness and knowledge is new. Brigitte hasn't encountered a returnee like this yet; she hadn't even known it was possible to go away and then return.

"'Welcome back' doesn't sound right."

Aqua doesn't flinch at the sudden businesslike tone that Brigitte takes. It actually helps, giving her something to focus on that isn't the mess of emotions flooding through her mind. She will probably take some time to figure out what to do with all of those new memories and experiences, but that can happen later. After she's gotten warmed up a little.

So, she follows Brigitte without complaint, forcing her body to keep moving despite the bone-deep weariness she can feel. The emotional exhaustion of the last few days, the ones she remembers anyway, is a weight that could easily crush her, if she let it. This does, of course, mean that she doesn't face it at all; instead, she lets Brigitte place her in a chair by the fire and wrap her up in a blanket and a coat.

Once her friend speaks up again, Aqua offers a small smile in response. "I guess it's the right feel," she says. "I didn't expect to be back here." A small frown crosses her face as she sifts through the memories. Some of them are jumbled, like her mind can't quite figure out a timeline between being here and being back in the Realm of Light. Days have obviously passed here, but she isn't sure how many.

"I remember being here... but I also remember a lot more of my own world."

It's true, in a slightly roundabout way. She remembers her universe and the collection of worlds she knows, but she also remembers more of the Realm of Darkness and the Land of Departure. The latter is her real home world, the place that was broken and damaged when she placed Ven in that secret chamber but became whole again when she unlocked it. Her face grows a little darker, a little more drawn and weary. So much has happened and she hasn't even begun to process it all.

"It's only been a few days," Brigitte offers, to try to help contextualise it for Aqua. Start sorting out these jumbled timelines, line it all up in a row. "Less than a week, even. I didn't know it was possible to come back through the fountain. Did you... try to swim through it, or something?" She knew that was impossible -- people had tried -- but perhaps once in a blue moon, it worked?

She hunkers down slightly in front of Aqua, and with a "May I?" she checks her pulse. Tips a hand against Aqua's chin, looks into her eyes, wishes she had a flashlight to shine into them. Crisp and cursory medical checks to see if the girl is alright.

It looks like shock, but then again, she doesn't blame her.

"What's the last thing you remember? From either place."

Having something of a timeline does help and Aqua is grateful to Brigitte for starting there. It probably hadn't been that long for Aqua at home, though it was impossible to tell how much time had really passed while she was in the Realm of Darkness. Still, she'd gotten back and a few days had passed then. Right...?

She gives a slow shake of her head at the first question. "No, I didn't. I don't think I was anywhere near the fountain last time I was here. If I really disappeared here and remember more of home... maybe that means it was real. Everything I saw, everything that happened-"

Aqua cuts herself off, doing her best to hold in her emotions. She manages to nod her agreement to Brigitte's physical exam, using the time offered as a way to regroup and gather herself to talk again. Her emotions feel like they've been strung up and pulled taut, like she's about to break apart for the third time since Sora had rescued her. Physically, she's fine. None of the fights left any lasting damage on her. Emotionally is another case entirely.

"Here it was... a normal day, I think. It was after Cissie and I got back from our scavenging mission." That's the biggest point that she remembers now, mostly because the day-to-day pieces are being blocked off by the memories of home. "At home we... Sora defeated Xehanort. Terra-"

Again, her voice cuts off, but this time it's on a choked sob, halfway to letting out the emotions she just doesn't want to show. She clamps down on that and forces it back. "We got Terra back. I remember being at home with Terra and Ven for the first time since our Mark of Mastery exam. It was like old times... except the Master isn't with us any longer." She honestly has so many complicated feelings about everything that it's little wonder she doesn't really know where to even begin coping with it all. The tangled web of her experiences and emotions has to be unraveled before she'll be in any way able to deal with it.

The emotional turmoil is obvious, practically roiling off Aqua in seething waves. Whatever happened, it seems enormous, upsetting. Brigitte's hand flits out unthinkingly, about to seek out some bare skin to brush against, to comfort her with her empathic powers in the easiest and most automatic way she knows how-- But then she pulls herself back. Not yet. As much as it aches to see her friend hurting, she's not going to rob Aqua of these feelings before she's even had time to process them.

"You got your friend back?" she repeats, latching onto the detail that seems most significant.

Aqua had been tight-lipped about her circumstances back home: mentioned her friends, that she had to save them, and left it at that. And now she's almost choking on the relief, the mingled emotions. It seems good. It must be a good thing. Right?

"It sounds like... Xehanort, was it a good thing that he was defeated? Whoever he was?"

She's automatically pulled up a chair, so she can drop herself into it and still sit at eye-level with the other girl.

It's a long, long story and honestly not even Aqua knows the whole thing. Mickey, Sora, or Riku would know better, as would Master Yen Sid. But she'll try to explain what she knows and how it affected her, even beyond the flood of emotions threatening to overwhelm her. Still, having Brigitte here is helping. Her friend is acting like an anchor to her, holding her steady in this world's reality.

She takes a breath and nods once, an answer to both of those questions. "The last time I saw Terra before all of this, he'd been possessed. Someone else was in control of his body. I didn't know until later that it was Xehanort, that he wanted to recreate the Keyblade War. He also helped end Master Eraqus' life, the man who has raised all three of us and taught us everything we knew about being a keyblade wielder and a protector of the light."

Somehow she makes it through that part without choking again. She has a feeling that is due entirely to Brigitte's comforting presence. Aqua still looks like she's been punched in her stomach, but she's managing to get through part of the story.

"I guess before he was killed Master Eraqus sent his heart into Terra's body, too, so he was protecting Terra all this time, helping him fight Xehanort's hold on his body. From what I was told, Xehanort was responsible for a lot of worlds falling to darkness." She had seen three of those worlds in the Realm of Darkness with her, pangs of painful familiarity in a realm devoid of light. "It's a long story, but I can try to explain it." Maybe laying it all out for Brigitte will help Aqua wrap her head around it, too.

Brigitte has caught onto Aqua's sleeve while the other woman talks, but is still careful not to brush against bare skin; just a steadying touch, a hand against her forearm.

The hearts and bodies and surface-level details don't make a lot of sense, at first. It's a more mystical, magical background than the world Brigitte came from, but she's also heard Rinoa's tales of possession, too, and so she feels like she's starting to understand a bit. And: The man who raised all three of us and taught us everything we knew. That part is clear-cut enough, at least: a father figure was murdered. A man killed another man, tried to stir people into war rather than peace, and destroy worlds rather than rebuild them.

"Only if you feel ready to talk about it. And if you take it slowly," Brig says, with a flash of a smile. Both for Aqua to pace herself, and for Brig to wrap her head around it. "It sounds like it's... a lot. Our wars were simpler."

(Not from every angle, but. At least to her.)

It's a lot to take in and Aqua has to remember that most people here don't understand concepts that exist in all the worlds she knows. Or maybe they just don't understand the terms. Remembering how she had tried to explain it to Seifer when she'd first arrived, she gathers her thoughts to try again now.

"I'll have to start from the beginning," she says softly. Even though she isn't usually a very tactile person, she doesn't shrug off Brigitte's touch. She'd spent so much of her life training and working to keep herself strong that she doesn't exactly know how to process emotions like this. They aren't weakness and she is open and accepting of the fact that she is a woman. Still, she got used to being her own strength and not needing to rely on anyone else for support, not even Terra or Ven, as much as she has always loved them.

Then again, her two friends and their Master are the only subjects that truly pull pure emotional responses from her. So, she takes time to gather herself and think through what she has to say.

"Long ago, every world was connected in the Realm of Light and the people lived together in harmony, cherishing and protecting the light. But some people wanted to keep the light for themselves and so darkness was born in their hearts. The protectors of light and the wielders of darkness clashed in what was called the Keyblade War, fighting for control of the light. The end result was that every world was separated, isolated, and the light was almost extinguished. But the light lived on in the hearts of children."

It's a classic good and evil story, one she remembers vividly from meeting Kairi so long ago. Even if the terms aren't familiar to Brigitte, the concepts should be.

"They say now that every world is a light in the night sky, forever separated. Terra, Ven, and I trained as keyblade apprentices under Master Eraqus for a long time. As keyblade wielders, we are tasked with protecting the worlds against darkness. I'm..." Aqua pauses here, on the edge of her full rank and title. She isn't prone to bragging, but if she really is going to explain the full weight of what had happened to her, and the burden her Master placed on her shoulders, then she needs to add this on. "I was named a Keyblade Master during the Mark of Mastery exam. Terra and I took the exam together, but Master Eraqus and Xehanort only named me as Master."

Whether the darkness in Terra had been born out of jealousy of her title or something else, Aqua will never know. The point was that it had come into existence and it was the reason he had been denied his dream; it was the first wedge between them. She pauses again here, to let Brigitte digest the beginning and ask any questions she has so far.

Brigitte is listening, quietly and attentively as she absorbs it all. It's frankly mythological, folkloric. Myth made literal. Because one tends to think of good-fighting-evil and light-fighting-darkness figuratively, but darkness the way Aqua describes it... well, it sounds far more real. Tangible.

"So a keyblade is like a kind of special weapon, then?" she asks. (Of course Brigitte, the daughter of a weaponsmith, would have honed in on this aspect of it first.) "Sounds a bit like Seifer's gunblade. What does becoming a Master mean?"

"Mm," Aqua says in agreement, nodding once. The keyblade is very special to all of them and for Aqua, it symbolizes so much of her life. She doesn't have access to her keyblade, hasn't for over a decade, and here she doesn't even have the master's keyblade at her call anymore. It feels like her arm has been severed in a way, more so now after everything she's just been through.

"It means responsibility," she answers softly. "It means secrets and hidden knowledge. All three of us have always wanted to become keyblade masters, to have the ability to protect people and worlds against the darkness. We keep the balance between light and darkness."

There's more, of course, all those secrets and hidden knowledge that she isn't sure she can say, even now and even to someone she has come to trust as much as Brigitte. She'll tell Terra and Ven someday, because she's tired of keeping so many secrets from them and as far as she's concerned, they have been through too much as a direct result of those secrets. But that's all for later. For now, she takes a deep breath to figure out where to go from there.

"A lot of things happened after that. Terra and I were sent to investigate a new threat to the worlds. Ven ran away from home to follow Terra. The Master sent me to watch over Terra and bring him back if he showed signs of darkness, but he also wanted me to bring Ven back home. I didn't know why then; I just knew that I had to." Her fingers curl around the cup in her hands, knuckles turning white briefly. "But I couldn't do it. The more I said to both of them, the more they pushed me away. And what I thought I was seeing of Terra's doings... it looked more and more like he was turning to the darkness, not fighting it. In the end, I couldn't save either of them. Ven lost his heart and fell into a deep sleep and Terra disappeared. I took Ven somewhere safe, locked him away where no one but me could find him. Then I went to find Terra. But when I found him... he wasn't himself. He wasn't Terra. We fought and then a gateway into the realm of darkness appeared under him. It would have swallowed him up, but I couldn't allow that. So I went in after him. I sent him back with my keyblade as a way to guide him back to the realm of light and that's why I was in the realm of darkness when I first came here. I couldn't save us both, so I saved him."

As she settles in to listen to this (feeling a bit like a child agog around a campfire), Brigitte struggles to picture Aqua going through all these things, a tale more fit for legend. And yet. That haggard exhaustion in her face reads to it being true -- Aqua looks so young, and yet also as if she carries the weight of the world on her shoulders, far older than her years. Brig has her chin tipped against her hand, all her attention riveted to this conversation.

And that detail at the end gives her pause. Strikes something, some sharp twist in her chest as she suddenly realises what her friend had done.

"You put yourself into something literally called the realm of darkness so that your friend wouldn't be," she says, softly. Repeating it for clarification, even as she knows she understood correctly the first time.

Aqua has already heard that sort of disbelief from other people since the time she first arrived on this world. The people who saw the memory of her fight with possessed-Terra saw it firsthand and they had expressed concern and disbelief that she had sacrificed herself for someone who had clearly tried to kill her moments before. Hearing Brigitte echo that again brings it all back. Aqua nods once, feeling herself reliving pieces of her time in the realm of darkness.

"That's right," she confirms, though she knows just as well that Brigitte understood the first time. "It was... awful." There's no real use in trying to downplay how truly terrible being lost in that realm was for her. Brigitte can probably guess by now. "When a world is lost to darkness, it falls into the realm of darkness. I saw so many worlds that I recognized. The people weren't there, but the worlds were and I didn't know why. Time doesn't flow there, so I didn't know how much time had really passed in the realm of light. And I didn't know if I would ever get out. I almost lost myself so many times, caught in memories of the past as the darkness pressed in all around me."

She doesn't put any of that really to words, but the sadness in her eyes speaks enough to it. The thoughts that started pushing into her mind back then, preying on the weaknesses in her heart.

You're nothing.
You failed them.
Can you even call yourself a Master?
Just fade into the darkness.

"After a long, long time of wandering, I found a friend lost in the darkness with me. Mickey told me some of what happened, that ten years had passed in the realm of light and that the worlds had nearly been lost to darkness because of someone named Ansem. And that he and Riku were trying to close the door into the realm of darkness to stop that from happening. I wanted to help them, but..." She lets out a soft breath, her weary sigh speaking to yet another loss, yet another sacrifice. "I fought a wave of heartless, creatures of darkness, so they wouldn't be able to stop Riku and Mickey. Those creatures took me deeper into the darkness and I was separated from Mickey and Riku. I was lost. I didn't even have Master Eraqus' keyblade anymore and mine was still with Terra. I really thought that would be the end for me."

Obviously, it wasn't, though it was a very near thing for Aqua. If it hadn't been for Sora, she probably would have been lost forever, nothing but a shadow of the person she once was, the phantom version of herself forever accusing everyone of abandoning her.

"But it wasn't. Riku, Mickey, and their friend Sora pulled me out. Sora was the boy who had saved all of the worlds. Time and again, I was told he kept the worlds from falling to darkness. He brought me out of the darkness, too, gave me a second chance to save Ven and Terra."

She glances over at Brigitte again, a small smile curling around her face and tears pricking the edges of her eyes. Aqua has always been a woman of internal strength, someone who rarely shed tears for anything. But she can still feel the overwhelming relief and hope that coursed through her when Sora and Riku told her she was home. Tears had fallen then and they're close to doing the same now. Hope had been lost to her for so long. Having it returned so suddenly, and without any darkness to keep it out of her reach, nearly bowled her over. But it was a good thing. It meant she was home. And she wasn't alone anymore.

When Aqua’s eyes start glistening with tears, there’s a sympathetic ache in Brigitte’s chest, her own eyes pricking and her hand tightening comfortingly on Aqua’s arm — and it isn’t her powers, even, but just the sight of that emotion. The knowledge of what she went through. Ten years, most of them completely alone and lonely.

It’s absolutely fucking unthinkable, for Brigitte. She’s a creature of community, who gravitates to other people. Derives her strength from them.

“You know what? I really don’t think I would have been strong enough to go through all that. Being trapped there for that long, with no way out. No one to talk to. How did you even—” How did she even stay sane? But Brig cuts herself off, amends: “I am so, so glad they got you out. I mean, I know you were here, before, but at least that they got you out back there.”

(And there, too, is the nagging knowledge that Aqua had been given such a happy reunion and a chance to go home… and then it had been snatched away from her. And she was back, here, on the island and trapped with them. Again.)

How did she keep from losing herself to the darkness? It's a fair question. Honestly, Aqua did lose herself at the end, but only because someone else pushed her into the deepest darkness. She had kept herself until then, kept her light going as long as possible. Being thrown into that deepest darkness had cracked her finally, created the darkness version out of herself and that version had fought with such strength and power.

"You abandoned me!" she had screamed at Riku and Mickey. Aqua remembers that all too well. She had fought Sora down there, too, but Sora had defeated her darkness and pulled her back to the Realm of Light. Sora, the boy who held so much light inside him, had saved her.

"I had my wayfinder back then, the good luck charm I made for all three of us before the Mark of Mastery exam. Mine was blue, Terra's was yellow, and Ven's was green. It was... a symbol of our friendship and it reminded me that I had to keep fighting." She misses that almost as much as she misses her keyblade. "I also got to talk to Terra once while I was lost in the darkness. The real Terra, not Xehanort possessing him. He told me some things about what happened to him and I knew I had to get back to help him... and to wake up Ven. I made a promise to both of them that I would save them. I couldn't abandon them."

She lets out a soft breath at that, remembering the sight of Ven sleeping so soundly, his heart lost somewhere no one could reach. No one except Sora, it would seem.

"Before I was lost in the darkness, Ven lost his heart and he fell into a deep sleep. Nothing could wake him, so I made sure no one but me could find him. I locked him away and turned our home into his shelter. After Sora pulled me out of the darkness, he and I went to wake Ven and returned his heart. I got Ven back and the next day, we fought Terra and broke Xehanort's hold on him. After that, Sora beat Xehanort for good. The last thing I remember is being with Ven and Terra, our home restored and no longer lost to the darkness."

Did she forget to mention that last time she'd been home, it was pretty much destroyed and lost to darkness because of Xehanort? Whoops.

"And now I'm here. I miss them, I miss being home, but... having friends here means I'm not alone. In any world." Not being alone, not being lost in the darkness anymore, means more to her than words can say. Lifting one hand, she wipes at her eyes, brushing away the wet traces of her emotions. She values her friendship with Brigitte and will be forever grateful to her for being there when Aqua needed her the most.

That last admission unclenches something in Brigitte's chest. She'd thought perhaps Aqua would have been gutted, grief-stricken furious at finding herself back here and yanked away from Ven and Terra.

But maybe it's not as bad as all that.

She finally can't hold it back; Brigitte leans over from where her chair is dragged up right next to Aqua's, and catches her friend in a bone-crushing wordless hug, her arms wrapped around her shoulders. The other girl's blue hair is still damp from the fountain, her whole body still a little chilled even under that blanket -- Brig's embrace has the benefit of being warm besides, but most of all it's human touch, human contact, a gesture of affection.

Aqua has never been a very tactile person. She always held herself high and proud, even if she sometimes wore her emotions on her sleeve. She had to keep up with Terra and then she had to hoist the mantel of Keyblade Master and keep that held over her shoulders, over her head. In most respects, she has always been hardest on herself.

The last time she actually hugged someone was when she, Terra, and Ven got to say goodbye to Master Eraqus. The time before that, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey practically tackled her after Sora pulled her out of the Realm of Darkness. That was a welcome home she hadn't expected.

The time before that... well... she doesn't honestly remember. But Brigitte's embrace now is far from unwanted. Something inside Aqua releases, tension fading to relief as she leans into the hug and wraps her arms around her friend in turn. For a few long minutes, Aqua just closes her eyes and breathes, letting Brigitte's presence and the feel of her friend's hug be more of a comfort to her than she has had in a long, long time.

More comfort than she has allowed to be, as well.

Eventually, she pulls back, doing her best to pull herself together again. She has never put the full story of her life into words like this before, but somehow laying it all out like that for someone who has never experienced any part of it has helped her feel more in control of herself. Maybe even more in control of her emotional responses. She has been through so much in such a short amount of time. But even after all of that, all of the darkness and trauma, she and her two best friends got some measure of closure... and that is just as important. Being able to finally say goodbye to Master Eraqus was so important to her, to all three of them. Maybe that's why she isn't doing as badly as she could be. She got Ven and Terra back and she got to see her master, mentor, and father figure one last time. Things really are a lot better now.

"Thank you," she finally says, managing a small and watery smile. "For listening... and for being a friend I can trust."

Aqua is here for a while now and the most important part is that she isn't alone. She has friends here who will help her through anything that gets thrown at them, new memories or new experiences alike. Just like she would do for them.

"Anytime." When that smile comes, Brigitte feels that soothing little jolt of relief she experiences whenever she's able to help a friend. Like an unclenching of tension, seeing that it worked.

And perhaps the biggest victory of all: she didn't even use her ability. Didn't fall back on the crutch of her light grey powers, to absorb and transfer the aching bittersweet emotion to herself. Instead she's just helped improve the mood alone.

It's better. It's a better alternative, she's realising, and she can't help but remember Nida's wariness about her abilities, his assertion that hers were the most devastating of anyone's.

So she did it without them.

She rubs Aqua's shoulder absentmindedly; while Aqua isn't tactile, the engineer-blacksmith absolutely is, with casual touch always the way she expresses affection, anchors herself to someone else. Her friend is almost dry by now, but: "Come on. Your clothes are still damp -- let's go get you a change of outfit. You can borrow some of my clothes upstairs, too, so you don't have to step outside."

From someone she likes and trusts as much as Brigitte, Aqua doesn't mind the touches. She still isn't quite used to them from anyone but Terra and Ven, but she finds she doesn't mind the contact from Brigitte, either. So she nods at the casual touch and the suggestion, her small smile still in place. Prying herself up from the chair and disentangling herself from the blanket, she gets to her feet.

"Okay," she says simply, letting Brigitte lead her away and feeling intensely grateful that she isn't alone here.

"My assumption has been that we're technically on an island. Maybe the size of the big island in Hawaii, or even getting up to Japan's size. Would explain a lot of that water theme, as you put it."

The voice comes from behind her, standing a few feet away. It's not that he's being paranoid, or even hopeful, but he's gotten into a habit of coming by, seeing if anyone new arrived.

Specifically six certain anyones, up to and including Luther and Vanya. Having his family there might help him work through this place.

Honestly, Aqua probably should have expected someone else to be around. It isn't that small a village. Someone is always walking around or outside doing something. They don't seem to congregate by the fountain unless someone is getting pulled out. Or unless someone is like Aqua and watching it for her own reasons.

She turns to see the person who spoke, offering a slightly apologetic look. "I don't actually know what those places are," she says. "Are they other worlds?"

The idea of being on a large island does have merit, though. Small and enclosed to keep them contained, but big enough that they wouldn't easily make a trip around.

"Islands in another world. One is a state, and the other a country," he says, not sure now if those words will clear anything up or not. "I'm not really sure where we are in general. I know about traveling through time but the way some talk about this place..."

He shake his head. Maybe other worlds are something that Five has dealt with but it's not anything that Diego is familiar with. He's still wrapping his head around a damn corporation that oversees major events and what happens between one timeline and the next. All of it is above his pay grade, dammit.

"What's the world called where you are?"

That explanation really doesn't help her a whole lot. She understands the idea of a country, given that Cinderella's world was a kingdom of sorts. But the state part could mean a lot of things and she doesn't really think that her understanding of it is what he means.

She doesn't point that out, though, and instead focuses on his question. It's a bit of a loaded question, given that there are a lot of worlds, but she also doesn't have to keep her secret like she used to. So maybe answering it honestly won't hurt.

"It's called the Land of Departure, though I'm not sure why."

She could guess that it was because it was a special world, a place where keyblade wielders train and where some depart at some point along their journey of life. It's also where at least one keyblade master keeps the balance between light and darkness in the special world that it is. Where she will have to take up that mantel in her fallen master's place.

"If it is an island here, having so much water around would make sense. It's the most common resource available." That doesn't answer a lot of questions about where, exactly, this world is, but it's a start. And if this plot of land is an island, then their Observers would have an easier time keeping track of them.

"The Land of Departure, huh? Sounds like some ancient cultures way of referring to the afterlife," he admits, which isn't helpful. Or even kind, truth be told, though he didn't really think it through when he said it. "And it's nothing like this place? I mean, some of this looks like it could be what I've known. Just way out in the middle of nowhere. Like in Canada or something." He pauses and then adds. "Another country."

Which likely isn't clearing things up either, all things considered.

He's just wishing now that he'd asked Five more about what he's been through, and all the things he experienced with the Commission, but they had been a bit busy trying to stop the end of the world so, maybe it is cool he never thought to ask.

"And it makes keeping us trapped here easier," he points out. "Escape by boat is harder than by foot and easier to sabotage."

Aqua can guarantee it isn't the afterlife, whatever it might sound. She takes the comment in stride, though, glancing around as she tries to fit what he's saying with what she knows. Pieces of worlds. That's what she's getting out of it.

"Right," she agrees with a nod. "And if we're all in one place, or one of two places, it's easier to keep track of us. We are creatures of habit and living on this world is hard enough without having to camp in the wilderness. Almost makes me want to follow one of the rivers sometime, just to see where it goes."

And what she might find and learn when she does. She just hasn't done it yet and with everything that's been happening lately, she doubts she would get far anyway before she got transported somewhere else and lost where she was.

That makes Diego frown, enough to furrow his brow as his nose wrinkles. "And no one has ever done that? That you know of? Or just that they've never come back if they've gone that way?" Which he suspects could have happened if anyone didn't know about it. Some have mentioned that people come and go, and if that were the case then who knew what became of them if they simply never returned.

"They don't seem to have anything in place to keep you from wandering off like that? No alarms? No guards? No fences?"

"They might have," Aqua admits. "I haven't heard that anyone has." But she hasn't been around all that long, comparatively speaking, after all. A few months is nothing compared to some. "I don't know of any alarms or guards or fences. We seem perfectly able to travel anywhere we can, if we can make it past the wildlife." Some of those mean business.

"I actually woke up in a tube in the bunker my first time here," she adds on helpfully. "That's a long walk to the west of here. And I know people have been teleported to other locations around, even if we're not sure where exactly we were the last time." Maybe some people have a better idea of where they were, but she and Cissie had no clue.

He listens, his frown deepening as she talks about the things that have happened, the lack of guards on this place, but also the lack of knowledge of a way out of this place. None of it sounds good, and to him is sounding more and more like the Time Commission, which he really doesn't like.

"Yeah, I went out that way once. And I've hiked a bit, though seems some have mounts around here," he says, not sure he's calling them horses. "Surprised none have gotten a caravan together and seen how far they can get. See if they end up teleported back too," he says, figuring that's a likely chance of what is going to happen.

That's a valid point and one that has Aqua thinking. She has considered taking a long walk around, but hasn't mostly because she doesn't want to do so alone. That and he does have a point about the teleportation bit. There's really no telling when the Observers would try to teleport them back.

"I think some people might have gone exploring before, but I don't think anyone wants to risk going too far. We don't really have a way of knowing where we are on this world or how to get back if we get lost."

"Which is probably what they want. So long as we're afraid of getting lost, they never have to worry about us leaving," he points out, having seen this at work in other places. "I admit, I get why. You get lost, you die, it's over, but it seems so weird there's not even record of some trying and getting lost. You would think someone had tried."

Aqua agrees with that statement. Being trapped here does make it easier for the residents of this world to be watched. It's no surprise, really, even if it makes her uncomfortable to think about.

"They might have," she says with a light shrug. "I don't think there's much of an easy way to record things here. There isn't much paper and who knows how long things will stay on the network." She lifts her left arm, showing her magenta wristband. "Some of us have been teleported to other locations before and had to make our way back here to the villages, but it's different when you're not expecting to have to survive out in the wilderness."

Rinoa notices most of the time when someone goes missing, if she's met them before. She just has a tendency to keep private tabs on the people she cares about, and that usually includes anyone she's met in the village. She did wonder if Aqua was missing, even going by her house to check on her, but there wasn't confirmation that she knew whether it happened or not. With people being kidnapped to other locations in this place, that could also have been the answer. She feels like everyone should be on a buddy system at this point, especially people who might not know as many people.

Aqua is a very easy person to spot, there's no one with hair like hers, so when Rinoa spots her from behind her eyes widen and she smiles. "Aqua!" She hurries to catch up with her, her rings swinging from her necklace as she did. "I'm so glad to see you, I was afraid you'd gone missing."

Aqua turns at the sound of another familiar voice, this one belonging to Rinoa. She remembers Rinoa well from the young adults club Nida had invited her to. Rinoa had been kind to her and they'd had a good talk. At least now that Aqua's world is a little less depressing, she hopes they can manage something even closer to a friendship.

"Hi, Rinoa," she says calmly but warmly. "I think I was missing for a couple of days. It wasn't long, but it seems I was sent back for a while before I got pulled out of the fountain here." A lot has happened since then and to be honest, Aqua is still having trouble processing all of it. She might spend a long time processing it all and that's all right. "How have you been?"

Rinoa is astonished. "Oh wow. So you ... you did go, and you went back home, and now you are back? And you remember being here and in your world too?" That's ... fascinating. She still isn't entirely sure how it works, she knows people have experienced something similar to this before, but no one she's met has. That seems so confusing, and she's worried, because taking in all that information might be rough.

Then again Aqua does seem at least visibly centered and okay. "I'm fine. Nothing's really changed as far as I know in the past few days. I wasn't taken during the newest kidnapping, so mostly it's been same old same old." Rinoa has no idea what the purpose of that was. None of them do though. 'Are you okay?"

To be fair, Aqua has had a little time to adjust to leaving and being brought back. Not much time, admittedly, and she still has a lot left to face and cope with, but it was still time. Right now she's adjusting to being back. Maybe later she'll have a chance to really face what she's been through.

"That's right," she says. "I didn't remember being here when I was at home, but when I surfaced from the fountain, it all came back to me. A lot... a lot happened at home." She got rescued, for one thing. Sora beat Xehanort, for another. Vanitas should be gone and so many pieces of her life no longer have a hold.

But she would rather focus on the rest of what Rinoa says, a small frown creasing her face. "There was another kidnapping? Or are you talking about the time right before I left, when a lot of us were kidnapped in pairs to hunt and gather certain things for the village?" She shakes her head a little bit, sad that so many kidnappings have happened and that it seems to be a common occurrence. "I'm okay. Really."

She's trying to be okay, really she is. She is centered, mostly because that's how she always has to present herself. In her heart, she still has so much to deal with, so much to come to terms with and that will take her a while.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

a mile could you walk in my shoes ( OPEN / KH 3 SPOILERS LIKELY )

arrival ☀️

kh3 spoilers will probably be everywhere in this thread

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yours to close? I LOVED THIS

ME TOO. SO GOOD - wrap :D

The fountain

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Walk

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