Aqua (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aguidingkey) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sixthiterationlogs2019-03-12 09:08 pm
aguidingkey) wrote in sixthiterationlogs2019-03-12 09:08 pm
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
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.
no subject
"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."
no subject
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.
no subject
"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.
no subject
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.)
no subject
"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.
no subject
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.
no subject
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.
yours to close? I LOVED THIS
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."
ME TOO. SO GOOD - wrap :D
"Okay," she says simply, letting Brigitte lead her away and feeling intensely grateful that she isn't alone here.