text @username

[dualikey]

hi guys! uhhhh i hope i'm doing this right

my name's sora and some friends and me are trying to build a boat!


we finished a raft first cause it was easier, but i've only seen hand tools laying around so getting the wood and shaping it and stuff sure is taking awhile. we've made a couple before so even though we don't have anything fancy it'll probably just take a few days, but it'd sure go a lot faster with help.

and maybe sandpaper, i only found a little bit.

anyway, is anyone else used to building stuff?
even if you just wanna help out that'd be great! i guess i don't really have a way to pay you or anything, but i'll let you name the boat! that's fair, right? or if we get lots of help we could probably make more than one.

a skiff should be just enough to get around and i figure to hold 2 people it'd have to be like..... 8 feet long, and for 3 maybe at least 12. it's gonna take awhile though! even with my dad and all his stuff back home it was almost 3 whole weeks. i kinda figured if we got lots of hands that we could make up for not having any of the special gadgets. like i heard you can sand wood down by just using rocks inside a shirt! i already have lots of blisters


oh! and riku said it'd be cool to see if anybody knows how to uhhh what was it

make a lens? so we could use
a torch as a spotlight?

i think that part'll be a little further off


[local islander seeks diy enthusiasts and carpenters of dubious skills to build boat and possibly create tiny fleet. he also enjoys long walks on the beach and cakes with fruit inside, not to be confused with fruitcake.]

Comments

[equinoctials]

sounds like you're not objecting, master chef.

[itsaname]

you could think of it as the fire helping you live here. [ As much as they "live" at all. ] i don't know about you, but my stomach still hurts if i get too hungry.

[ As for his neighbors? ]

i've seen one of them around. he has some unusual pets.

[ "Unusual pets." That's one way to put it. ]

[dualikey]

[in his defense, you might still be a bandit. people have layers.]

did he say when?

i kinda figured there'd be more cause of the way it's been talked about
i also thought maybe i'd try and follow it

the ferry

[dualikey]

RIKU

[dualikey]

i guess that's true...

maybe

i'll think about it!

i've never really felt guilty about using fire before. but i don't really know how all the electric stuff at the invincible works either. do you have some in your room?



and uh
that's vanitas

sorry about him in advance he's just kinda always a jerk

[equinoctials]

not up to the challenge? come on, Sora, you get to choose. what's not to like?

[itsaname]

yeah, there's a little kitchen. i can teach you how to use the appliances if you want.

[ He wonders if Sora is from a world or time without electricity, but he doesn't ask just yet. ]

it's fine. i'm used to jerks. and you don't have to apologize for someone else.

[dualikey]

oh! that might be nice

i didn't really look around at that kind of stuff in the hotel
to be honest i kinda expected it to be old fashioned??


but i'll apologize for him anyway. he's not going to. and besides we're kinda
uh [somehow... he's not sure that the people he meets here will really take to the idea of holding a bunch of other people's hearts in his heart, and one of those hearts being part of another person's heart that got broken, and being made up of darkness but still being connected, and how that makes them have the same face.

actually
its a lot even for him]

related


why're you used to jerks? you seem really nice

[dualikey]

[Sora spends so much of his time on the shore these days. It wasn't really on purpose- first he'd been trying to carve out a little niche. In the absence of rooms at the Invincible he and his friends had settled on hanging hammocks and patching up the ceiling inside the boathouse, not a new home, but a place to call their own at least. And after that they'd started on the raft. After that the more ambitious process of figuing out a boat.

It takes a little time for him to make it up the hill and follow the path towards town square. The bonfire becomes a kind of light at the end of the tunnel and Sora doesn't pass anyone along the way, but he hears voices and the unmistakable signs of life that come with a small town. People inside the bar or wandering through the square.] Uh-

[It only occurs to him now that he's closing in on the fire itself that he doesn't really know who he's looking for. And they don't know him either. The tell-tale uncertainty announces itself in the way his gait slows- the way his footfalls even out and he looks from one unfamiliar expanse of courtyard to the other. Until he spots a figure standing by the fire, smoke wafting from a cigarette.]

Hello?

[preseance]

Not that I recall, though it doesn't mean he hasn't said it to someone else.

Hard to say whether we'll have a boat done in time for that. Just make sure you watch your Lantern. Ain't no tellin' what'll happen if'n you get it wet.

( he'd be concerned about him doin' it anyhow. which ain't necessarily to say it shouldn't be done — it'd be a source of valuable information, no doubt, even if that information ain't much. but he doesn't like the idea of one person goin' out alone. he ain't sure what'd happen if a boat capsized on him in the ferry's wake an' his lantern hit the water. it'd almost certainly go out, an' then what? be at the bottom of the damn lake with no way to retrieve it. sounds like death of a more certain sort to him. )

[dualikey]

nah it'll be alright

even if the boat wasn't finished we already made a raft and took it out a few times. and besides, a lake won't be rougher than the ocean. and if i get into trouble the lighthouse'll probably let me know again

[dualikey]

[He hasn't spent the time in darkness that some of his friends have- adjusting to what it means to be surrounded always by not just an endless stretch of black, but by the hopelessness and despair that comes with it. But he hasn't had the kind of training that some of the other people have had too- practicing to be skilled fighters or- ninjas or something. The idea of a skillset that's honed by those experiences isn't beyond him because he's seen the results, people who've come through the other side. But that isn't the same as cultivating a mentality around caution or measuring one's actions.

It's a transparancy that Sora carries all over, with the same readiness that keeps his heart on his sleeve. If he has any second thoughts at all about jogging across a relatively isolated beach, in near perfect darkness, towards a stranger, it's hard to know it. His gaze goes from the silhouette first to the lantern, the only thing that's really distinct at all, until they're finally near enough that he can start to pick out the details in his face. Even then, the illuminated spectre is a presence all it's own: a bat.]

Hey! [The's a clip in it turning the word into one with two syllables- like hello.] Thanks for coming all the way out here.

[His own lantern remains tucked into the bend of his elbow, but it frees him up enough that Sora's able to rub at the back of his neck- somewhere between sheepish and self-conscious.] Sorry if you were busy doing something else. I didn't even ask first.

[originallutece]

[It's entirely possible Rosalind, too, has come upon this realization, but if she has, she makes no move to correct it. And look! There he is, having found her, well done Sora you passed the first test, which is definitely a thing.]

Hello.

[She glances down at his hands.]

The boy sans gloves, I presume. Take a seat.

[preseance]

( sounds reasonable enough, even if it comes down harder on the side of optimism than a soldierin' man is strictly comfortable with. but he nods. )

All right, well. If'n you need any manner of help with that, you let me know.

[itsaname]

[ "Related" strikes a chord in Shadow. He thinks of his own newly-discovered relative. He thinks of the blood spilled in that man's name, and his response is admittedly biased. ]

you still don't have to apologize for him. you're not responsible for what your relatives do.

[ Shadow has to believe that.

As for why he's used to jerks? He considers bringing up the time he spent in prison, but he ends up going with: ]

it was an occupational hazard. i was a bodyguard for a man with a lot of enemies.

[identifier]

[ sora does approach a complete stranger with an open heart. dick feels he is a trustworthy man. even if he is not likeable. or nice. but in his opinion it's wise to trust him.

he wants to be trusted, too. ]

No problem. I wasn't busy. [ he keeps busy. but he also can put it aside. he tries to prioritize the same way.

beacon has been challenging. he's just a guy. ]

I've got supplies. There should be enough for all of you going.

[ there are enough and some. dick is always prepared. he has brought extra to help with homemade life vests too. ]

[dualikey]

yeah i know what you mean

i guess it's just kindof a... special case. it's hard to explain

[there's a space, he's started to learn, between being responsible for something and for being at fault for something. it's not vanitas's fault that he's like this. but how he treats others is his responsibility.

the trouble is- a heart can't learn to grow all on it's own.
it needs a few helping hands.]



was he your friend? the man you were bodyguarding

[itsaname]

[ Just as Sora finds it hard to explain his "relation" to Vanitas, Shadow finds it hard to explain his relationship with Wednesday. There's so much he didn't know at the time. So many things he finds himself questioning in retrospect. So many moments that have taken on new meaning, and so many things he wishes he could say.

Were they friends? Was even that much true? ]

i don't know. it was complicated.

[dualikey]

[Sora knows he isn't old or wise- he's met so many people in his travels that have taught him things. People who made him question what he believed about right and wrong or black and white. He's met good people who did bad things, and bad ones that did good.

In that way it doesn't really throw him, for Shadow to say it was complicated. Those three words include a lot. They talk about a story that has a whole lot of middle, but maybe not a clear beginning or end.

Sora nods, and finds an easy, quiet smile.]

yeah. i think i know what you mean.



did you want to be?[Friends.]

[spitefullight]

I'm fine with make multiple flags. I need something to do here if there's not some kind of monster attack every other day.