networkinthenight | text; @bacura

[She wishes that hour will pass swiftly.]

okay.
I'll be waiting for you

I believe in you Sora

[ Masaomi? Names to remember. Anyway... Jason has a point. Sora didn't realize so many people would show up just to make sure he was okay. ]

i live at the landmark right
i think that might be the school behind them?
i'll go slowly and make sure that the parade's not around before i get closer
i think i can get there the fastest out of everyone who lives here

[ Well... Carmilla could probably get there faster, but she also probably would be in the peanut gallery with Vanitas down there. ]

i'm not gonna start anything i promise
i just need to know if he's okay

[ Even if he doesn't know a thing about him. Sora is. Definitely! Just like this! (He might be a little overinvested, actually.) ]

I need a favor then.

Two actually, but it's kind of a two for one.

1. Text me when you're back to the Landmark.
2. Text me what you find out about Masaomi.

It doesn't have to be here. You can just send it to my inbox. But if I don't get a text from you in one hour I'm coming out there.

Edited 2020-02-06 04:01 (UTC)

I am.

My name is Naminé.
I only just arrived.

[ Sora's almost there! He's just stopped for any last minute replies to this thread. Here's one he can promise easily. ]

promise and promise.

[ It wasn't an initial part of the plan, but the little group of friends who've reached out to him here have successfully changed his mind. He won't try anything, even if he happens to see Masaomi among them. ]

man you guys really do care what happens to me huh
thanks

Did no one tell him circuses are absolutely horrible?

Did you?

[Link doesn't answer but after a while Sora might notice the bobbing of a lantern in the distance.

At one point, just over a building's length away it stops and a figure surges towards him through the darkness. Once in range of his own light it reveals itself to be a large, black wolf and it is definitely leaping right at him.]

[ Sora's observation studies with the soldier have been going well, but the soldier's lessons haven't covered mid-flight observation technique. (It might just be because they can't fly. Sora isn't sure if that would necessarily stop them.)

Anyway, he spots the wolf too late, and had also landed a bit in a particularly hard to navigate tangle of trees, making him particularly easy to tackle. He may have been able to continue gliding if he wasn't so intent on getting somewhere, but that plus his still rather potent fear of being alone in these woods was kneecapping him. He'd already had an echo coming in and it was not comforting. At least he'd had friends wherever those dark woods were. At least there was light.

He's going to have a moment to turn and get an arm up so the wolf doesn't get at his eyes, but he'll go down hard, his head thunking against the ground and the wolf falling heavily on top of him. Is this a spirit? Is this how it ends?

In his blind panic, he does the only thing that he's prepared to do - soldier training. He gets a hand onto the knife on the back of his belt and frees it, trying to get the blade between him and the wolf. It's too close for the keyblade, anyway, and he's not thinking in the moment enough for magic. Knife or nothing. ]

[Link can feel Sora squirming in panic beneath him. He lifts himself up and places one large paw on Sora's back.

..Then the knife comes out.

He grabs the knife-wielding hand by the wrist in his jaws but doesn't bite down hard enough to cause any damage. Instead, he removes his paw and shifts his teeth to the sleeve so he can more comfortably start dragging Sora backwards.

Oh, the lantern.

He stops, keeping his teeth sunk into the cloth and waits for Sora to make sure his lantern is secure. He feels bad enough about scaring the metaphorical day light out of the kid, he certainly doesn't want to actually harm him.]

[ Wrist caught, he immediately tries to both jerk away, squirming around until he can get his other arm unpinned from under him. Switching hands. Keep a firm grip. Do not let yourself be disarmed unless you have a plan for what happens next.

Well, it is the plan until the spirit starts tugging him backward. It. Almost feels like a dog pulling at him? He's still holding that knife in his hand, his knuckles white and hand shaking, but he does risk a look at it now that it's clear that he's not getting mauled. That's when it just. Stops. Still with its teeth in his sleeve, still feeling a little dangerous in Sora's mind, but not out to harm him right away.

What does he do now? His lantern, still bumping at his hip, is almost the last thing on his mind. Eventually, he goes for his second instinct.

He whistles in the spirit's language. It's nervous, trembly, but perfectly understandable. Hello. Friend? ]

Not particularly. Should've picked him as one who'd enjoy a circus.

Are you his friend?

[Link feels for a moment like his mind is going to split open.

Hello. Friend?

He knows the language, it's the tongue of the spirits, a language he can understand quite well in his current form even if he's powerless to actually speak it.

Slowly, he releases Sora's sleeve, hoping he's not opening himself up to be instantly gutted.

He steps around into the lantern light, wagging his tail, then grabs him by the sleeve again and starts urgently tugging him towards the twinkling light hanging in a nearby grove of trees.]

[ Sora will allow the wolf to let go, then sit up as it walks around his lantern. Tail... wagging? (Also, aren't spirits supposed to have masks?) That seems... hopeful? He'll jump a little as the wolf comes back to bite into his sleeve, but he'll allow himself to be guided, looking up as he gets onto his knee, then on his feet. Thankfully, he does not drop his knife.

That's someone else's lantern out there in the woods. Or at least a torch? Sora looks at the wolf. It responded rather favorably to his whistling, he guesses. That's all he ever needed. No stabbings here. Sora is quick to trust.

He checks on his lantern - it doesn't seem cracked or damaged, thankfully - then he lifts it high, letting the wolf pull him along. Okay. He trusts you. Lead. ]

[Link continues to tug on the sleeve until the glow of the lantern in the distance is reflected in his eyes...

Then a lot happens at once.

Black shadows engulf his lupine body and surge upwards, pulling him erect along with them and he's forced to part his teeth. Link's now human hand grips Sora and he tugs him towards his lantern a bit more violently than he means to in his desperation to return to his light. Once his lantern is in reach he, without thinking and in a moment of urgency, performs a martial full-point shoulder throw and tosses Sora into the snow.

Then he falls to his knees.

His body convulses as he vomits up dark bile from the physical trauma of the transformation and the separation from his lantern.]

[ Sora is yote, summarily, but here's what happens before and after.

He's perfectly comfortable getting tugged along by his new friend, wondering who it is (and maybe trying to see if they could lead him to wherever Masaomi's gone) before looking at its back and jumping back as it stands up. Is that jaws on his wrist or a hand? Sora gets one second to look down to check, the swirl of shadows both puzzling and alarming, before he's tugged over and upside-down.

Ugh. The soldier is gonna have his head if they find out that he's been that off his guard twice in the same handful of minutes.

He falls on his back in the thankfully forgiving snow, but he's already scrabbling onto his front and onto a knee. (Pause: He actually trips a little as another echo hits. He's not sure what this one is, but if he doesn't remember anything new, it's something he's going to have to remember next time he's prone and in the air.) this time his Keyblade forming in one hand and his knife in another, only to find. Um. He knows those ears. ]

Link?

[ He lets the key dematerialize and stumbles a little trying to get back over to Link, his hands patting at his belt to put his knife back. That's not great! That's not good!

Oh, he caught him first. (Hey, Sora! Not important right now!) ]

I can tell you right now that whatever this is wasn't worth stopping me. [ He gets on a knee at Link's side. Is patting okay? This isn't exactly 3 am on a Saturday morning, him on a knee in some rich kid's house as a fellow jock barfs into a toilet. He's going to try. He's not sure what else to do besides wait with him. ]

[Link remains hunched over until he's sure his body has adjusted to being human and back in the light, then he wheels on Sora.]

People have been telling me about this parade! When you hear it you can't help following it and I'm guessing after that nothing good happens, right!?

[He reaches out and grips Sora's shoulder.]

It's dangerous to go alone!

I had a plan! I have a plan! [ Sora isn't sure if Link has seen the friends who reached out and effectively talked him down from a solo mission. ] I mean, I want to see if he's okay, and I'd like to just rescue him if I can, but I can't.

[ His voice doesn't exactly break on that, but he doesn't exactly look pleased with the situation either. He's made his accommodations! He's trying! No matter how unworthy and stupid he feels for making his friends worry in the first place, he's grateful that they're at least giving him a shot, but what he really wanted to do was just grab this network stranger from certain death and take him somewhere where nothing could hurt him. It kills him to think that he'd just break more hearts if he lost his own life on the way. ]

I'm not going to - Link, what was that? [ He means the wolf. ] Why all of that just for this?

I'm faster on four legs than two and you had a head start. If I'd called out to you, you might have ignored me!

[Slowly, he lets go and sits back.]

The way people were talking it sounded like anyone who crossed paths with this thing was good as dead. I couldn't lose you.

So many people here rely on you, right? As their friend.

Let me handle stuff like this. This is what I do. I'll find him.

[His voice deepens slightly, thickening with intensity.

It's not just the desire to protect everyone, though that's certainly there, as it always is...

There's something else as well.... The black shell of something dark within him that had manifested as a shadow and voices when his lantern turned green.

Arrogance.

Nobody else is chosen by the Gods to be a Hero. He was, though. As the Hero he needs to do heroic things... Otherwise what is he? Who is he? Would he go back to being his old self again? That poor, lone swordsman from the desert who howled and cried in fear and felt haunted his entire life?

He never wants to be that person again. That person was a coward who hid from danger and kept his head down. He couldn't protect anyone. He'd never accomplished anything but destruction. He was nothing.

He'll be that person again if he lets anyone be harmed doing something he feels only he is equipped to do.]

Please...

No, I'm not.

This moron probably won't think so highly of that parade after he comes back. You can probably ask him about why he thought it was so great in the first place.

Unless they really smashed up his lantern, but then nothing of value was really lost.

[ Point and point. Sora tries not to flinch at that. He does have a tendency to ignore his friends when he's too lost in his own desperate need to fix things. If Link has anything about him figured out, it's that.

Sora sinks onto the ground in sort of a cut string sit, his legs out to the side. He's not sure how to respond to the desperation there. Link's a hero. He inherited this. He inherited a need to fix things, and this is a thing to fix. He's a person to protect.

This is so much thinking for what amounts to simple recon mission, Sora realizes in a strange place in the back of his head. But it sort of built up to it, didn't it? Reincarnation, expectations, who you are if you failed to do what you were supposed to. If you failed to be what you were supposed to be. The imminent danger just made it snowball.

It's very lonely, he supposes. Even with all of the friends in the world at your back. He doesn't know how Link is faring, friendwise, but he thinks he might feel something like that too. ]

You know, I was just thinking? If I went alone, and if something happened to me, at least a real hero would still be here. Someone who knew what he was doing, who could do more than just be friends with everybody. Who was better at this whole reincarnation thing. [ .... He laughs, but it's shuddering a little. ] Do you think it's weird for me to be a little jealous of you?

Sora...

[Link crawls forward through the snow and curls up next to him, his blue eyes wide as if he's just been struck.]

I'm not worth being jealous of. I mean, I'm strong but...

...But I have no idea what I'm doing! Things just...happen to me and I react. I know what I have to but not why, exactly.

[He looks down at the toes of his boots.

He doesn't know the context for most things. Midna or the gods themselves point him in a direction and he goes. It makes his stomach cramp, he'd always wanted to be his own man and carve his own path.

Does his death, too, mean something? Was he brought to Beacon for a reason? It feels like he must have been...]

If I am a reincarnation or whatever nobody ever told me where I left off last time. So I just fight.

Honestly, I'm a little jealous of you. I'm not very good at making friends. I mean...there are people who like but...

[He shrugs and scratches the back of his neck.]

It's nice to chat with you Naminé and thanks for telling me about what Sora was up to -- I told him if he doesn't stay out of trouble or contact me after he finds Masaomi that I'll go after him.

You're my friend. We're patrol partners and each other's wing man. So, yeah, of course I do.

[ Sora sits next to him, listening carefully, overwhelmed himself. Link had always seemed like he'd at least done things that confirmed that he was the right person for the job - he'd gotten his powers, went on his journey, known the purpose of his quest from beginning to end and even what to say when Sora had felt down on himself. Sora has always just been trying, even back in Locke City. No universe quest, no Keyholes to light the way. Not even a heart of a world to seal away. Just struggling uphill in a way he isn't sure that he had in the past. Unsure if he'd been born the right way, with the right heart.

The universe had given him, or Sora, or the remnants of whoever he was, one last chance to do something to save the world, and he'd botched it back in Locke City. Knowing for certain that he'd never be the friend Riku remembered was just the terrible window-dressing that death decided to leave on his lap. Just another incomplete Sora with too few memories inside to be of use to anyone and bonds that ended up kind of worthless, in the end. Honestly, no matter how many friends who've told him that he was all right the way he is, that all he needs to do is be himself and go slowly, he sometimes even wished Vanitas thought he was worth his time. At least both he and Riku were up front about how badly he'd failed them. It was something to work toward, at least.

(Also, that last bit gives Sora pause, his eyes blanking out for a few seconds as he goes absolutely still. After all, no one's ever told him that they were jealous of him before while sitting in a world of complete darkness. The last time this happened in front of Link, Sora was bleeding out on a couch. He feels like he'd misunderstood why Link was distraught at the time.)

He closes his eyes after the echo, trying to play that moment normally. Naminé likes who he is. She's waiting for him at the bonfire. She must be cold. That's something to start with. ]

I like you for you. I think that no matter who you were, or are, with or without the reincarnation stuff, that wouldn't change. Even if that means I just like someone who only knows how to fight.

[ Sora laughs awkwardly. ]

Maybe I'm just desperate? I don't even know if, like, friendship means anything here, sometimes. Maybe me trying to help you feel better is just whatever's left of Sora trying to make the best of me dying too early. I just want us making connections to mean something, or else there's nothing but a bunch of people in the dark, afraid and alone. I don't want that. That's too scary. [ And the sheer weight of wanting something to be true is enough for him, a lot of the time. The alternatives are just too big and scary to think about. ]

So... Maybe we should just go together. [ A cramped amount of space in his lungs makes this hard to say. ] To make you feel like you're the person you were supposed to be, and to make me feel like stuff like friendship and light matters. I wanna think that'll make it real. Somehow.

text; @bacura

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there's a bit of a delay with this one, like jason sat and thought about it for a bit.

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@kol

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action!

action forever

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cw: vomit

cw: less graphic descriptions but still vomit

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