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]

.... 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.

[cloak]

I see... So we both must have forgotten.

[And if they hadn't, they might know why they share a face and a name. But things are as they are, and he accepts it]

Why would someone want praise for being annoyed?

[missingache]

I guess. I feel bad, but everyone says not to worry about it or think about it. It's hard not to...

[Likely the only thing that'll get confusing is that they have the same name if they ever introduce themselves.]

She was telling me she was a great god, and all this other stuff. She just seemed full of herself, and got annoyed when she didn't get the reaction she wanted.

[cloak]

I don't think I'd be impressed either.

[Maybe if someone did something, but just bragging...]

Doesn't seem like there's anything we can do about our memories. It might make other people worry, if they can tell it bothers you.

[missingache]

She's really loud, so easy to avoid.

[Who knows if Hibiki has ever done anything productive.]

I was told it's bad if someone told us, but they won't tell me bad how. Just that it's bad.

[cloak]

I'll watch out.

[He doubts he's ever looked impressed, after all]

It must be part of the system...not that it seems that useful.

[missingache]

[Nod nod good one more person warned about Hibiki.]

I don't like it. How are we supposed to know what we can ask about that won't hurt us? I know asking about being dead is bad, but why is everything else bad, too?

[cloak]

It doesn't make sense to me either. Maybe they think they're sparing us from some kind of pain.

[He couldn't say why he thinks this, but...]

But forgetting something doesn't mean it's gone.

[missingache]

[Sparing from pain? For who? The gods or the shinki? Roxas knows all about stinging gods, but that seems a little selfish if the gods were not telling them things only to spare themselves pain.]

Huh? But... if you can't remember it, how can you know it's there?

[cloak]

[A moment of silence as he considers how to explain something that he intuitively understands to be true, without needing to question its verity]

If you had a book and you forgot you had it, it wouldn't just vanish, would it? We can't pick up or hold memories, but for some reason... I know they have to be there.

[missingache]

That... [Makes sense? In some weird way that he can't explain at all. Other Roxas is a lot smarter than he is.]

So they're there but we can't remember them, but maybe we can remember them in the future?

[cloak]

I think it's possible.

[He glances around, ensuring they're not being gawked at, before he tugs a luminescent azure crystal from his pocket. Its light ripples over him, changing the appearance of his clothing, casting it in blue, white, and gold.

Even its structure appears different, something fantastical and ornate, but it's only seeming. Only the light of the stone in his hand]

Ain gave me this, a while back. He told me he was blue, once... I think he remembered, and this was connected to it.

[He carefully holds the stone out for the other boy to see]

[missingache]

[That... is such a weird thing to watch. Cool, but weird.]

Did it just show up one day?

[Or was it something that this Ain person always had?]

[cloak]

That's what it sounded like. He gave it to me because the light hurt him.

[He tucks the crystal away with care following his reply, not wanting to push his luck where going unnoticed by others around them is concerned]

[missingache]

It hurt him? Why not just lock it away then? It could fall out of your pocket.

[Unless it only hurts Ain when it's visible and can throw off light.]

[cloak]

I'm keeping it safe for him.

[Because Ain entrusted it to him, he wants to ensure that it's somewhere close at hand]

Holding it hurts him, but not me.

[missingache]

[A nod as Roxas mulls this over.]

That's nice of you. I would do that too if someone needs me to.