open.

[cloak]

Who: Data-Roxas and whoever trips over him.
When: 1/18
Where: Near Shore
What: Being spooky and helpful, the usual.


A. Helping Hand
[When he isn't needed for any tasks in particular, Roxas aims to familiarize himself with his surroundings. And so for this reason, today he's wandering through a park in the living world. He happens to pass by a crying child, his mother trying to console him, and it doesn't take much to overhear that a favored toy fell into the nearby pond. The problem is straightforward, and it seems to him so is the solution.

So what does Roxas do? He vanishes in a flurry of luminescent zeroes and ones, gone from sight. It seems he's left, until he reappears abruptly several minutes later. His coat is drenched, shoulders hunched against the cold as he places a plastic truck near the child and his mother.

That's not all he found though, various objects clasped in his free hand, including a waterlogged wallet, a muddy ring, and a baseball. What to do with this junk? He has no idea]


B. Second Shadow
[Having helped out with one easily resolved problem, Roxas thinks it might not be a bad idea to see if there's anything else he can fix. Besides, moving keeps him from thinking about how cod he is, and warms him a little.

He quickly finds himself part of a recurring trend. Whenever the living do notice his assistance, they react in alarm. Whether it's an old lady who screams upon noticing him trailing after her with the purse she had forgotten, or picking up a dropped toy for an infant, the result seems fairly uniform.

And he's really not sure why.

After several such incidents, Roxas examines himself, looking at his hands and arms at different angles as he walks. Does he look that strange...? He's so distracted by trying to look himself over that he bumps right into someone. Unfortunately, he's wet. And it's cold. Fortunately (or maybe more unfortunately) his hand snaps up with mechanical precision to catch that person's arm and brace them]

Oh, sorry. I was... [Ruminating, but nevermind that] You alright?

C. Calling Backup: Closed to Ain
[After some time spent pondering why people respond to him as they do, and recalling even some other shinki have done the same, Roxas decides to seek some advice. And who better to ask than his fellow not-quite-human, with whom he's discussed matters of outside perspective before?

He's still not used to texting Ain rather than finding his limbs littered about the temple, but he'll have to adapt]

Can I ask you something?

D. Change is Hard
[The simple thing with Roxas is that no one has seen his face. He shares a name with someone, not that he's aware of it, but no one mistakes someone clad in solid black without a face for anyone else. Now, though, Roxas sits in a café with the results of his and Ain's joint clothing ventures and a cup of hot cocoa.

So for once in his existence, Roxas is dressed like anybody else. Well, sort of. He'd picked dark jeans and a black hooded jacket with a skeleton key for a zipper tab, and he's wearing the hood for comfort even now since people don't really notice him. Like this, he might pass for an average teenager, but for the way he keeps tugging the hood down as though he means to cover his face with it.

Maybe this will alarm people less (or cause confusion for anyone who knows Roxas Classic or Ventus), but he feels strangely exposed]

Comments

[missingache]

Wristbands for one, a fire cat for another.

[They're called Moomba...

!!!!!!!!!!!]

I need those!

[Sorry, other Roxas, he's going to be fidgety as he waits for this conversation to be over long enough where he can get cocoa.]

[cloak]

Fire cat...

[Like those pocket critters on tv?

Roxas tries to picture it, and that's all he comes up with]

You should get some. They even gave me extra when I asked about them.

[He tugs a small bottle of the sprinkles from his jacket pocket, shaking it a little before offering it to the other boy]

You can have these too, if you want.

[missingache]

With a fluffy mane that's all spiky looking. Or so Shiro said.

[Let's just go with that.]

Really? [Roxas blinks, looking a little confused.] But they're yours. Why give them to me if you like them?

[cloak]

[So he does turn into a pocket critter. Noted.

Roxas doesn't budge, his arm remaining entirely still. Perhaps unnaturally so]

I don't know why. Do I need a reason?

[But still, the offer remains]

[missingache]

[... okay, maybe a little creepy, but it's fine. It's fine.]

Usually? I can get myself some so you can keep those. And then we both have some to take home.

[See? A much better option.]

[cloak]

If you say so.

[He shrugs, apparently unconvinced but accepting the response, and tucks the bottle back in his pocket]

[missingache]

[Good. Good. A small victory.]

If I get a drink, you won't run away, right?

[cloak]

Why would I run?

[It's cold outside and he has cocoa.

Also he is this bad at picking up on humor. Too literal, send help]

[missingache]

[..........]

Never mind... I'll be right back.

[Gonna go get cocoa with star sprinkles now. Which thankfully doesn't take long. This Roxas comes back looking very happy.]

I got some stars to take home, too. Though they looked a little confused and thought they served me before.

[cloak]

At least we're not dressed the same.

[Although now baristas are shooting them curious looks. He doesn't pay it any mind, picking up his mug with both hands and taking a sip]

[missingache]

True. People here on the Near Shore are just weird.

[Don't mind if he sits down to drink his own cocoa.]

It's strange they can't really see us most of the time.

[cloak]

Maybe that's why they get startled so easily.

[Or it's one guess he has. Then again, he's startled other shinki before too.

But when he thinks about it, not being seen often isn't all bad]

Might be useful to go unnoticed, sometimes.

[missingache]

Maybe if we have to sneak around for prayers... it would make getting rid of ayakashi easier if the people don't notice anything.

[So there's definitely advantages.]

I'll ask one of my gods about it and see what they think we can do with that.

[cloak]

They'd probably have more ideas than us.

[After all, they have no memories but their gods do]

Ain can be all over without you noticing, and that has to come in handy.

[missingache]

[Gods are lucky like that then.]

Ain? I don't think I've met him... how does he do it?

[cloak]

It's how he is. Like he's made of shadows, sort of.

[He's constantly aware of that darkness, and it puts him on alrr in the strangest way, but he knows Ain is a good guy]

[missingache]

.... that sounds kinda scary but really cool, too. Both of my gods are just human. One of them has a cool mechanical arm, though.

[Not as cool as Ain sounds, but still kinda awesome in its own way.]

[cloak]

Ain's- he was a shinki, until recently.

[How could gods be human, he wonders.

Maybe it's that they look like humans? He'll just assume that]

We used to have the same god.

[missingache]

Shinki can become gods?

[Look, he just knows that's the species that his gods called themselves.]

How did the god you shared feel about that? Losing a shinki?

[cloak]

I guess they can. I think... So long as he doesn't disappear, it's okay.

[He recalls how broken Add seemed, when he thought he was alone. When he thought the people around him weren't real.

So long as Ain is still here, it's better than if he vanished]

Add's still got me, and Rin, and now Jakob.

[missingache]

[People disappearing... that happens? It must with how many people are convinced that Roxas was here before.

That last name makes him perk up.]

I know Jakob! He's my friend.

[cloak]

I think he knew me, in some time I don't remember.

[He doesn't know if he was a friend or not]

Can I ask you something?

[Other than that question]

[missingache]

Same here. He called me Lord and cried when I didn't remember him...

[It was... awkward? But at least Jakob seems a lot more comfortable around him.]

Sure! What's up?

[cloak]

...He did the same thing when he saw me, even though my face was covered.

[A short gesture to his hood, though this one has nothing on the blackout effect of his coat]

I was wondering if anyone reacted like that to you too... So I guess it's the same, sort of. [And so he already has his answer, but he elaborates] He cried just seeing me, so I'd wondered if it happened to anyone else.

[missingache]

[Jakob missed them both it seems. He's a really good guy.]

Nanako cried. Most of the others were just really upset, but they wanted to be friends again. Except the girl called Apollo. She seemed really annoyed with me being back, and she got mad when I didn't praise her.