revenance_rpg | Sleeping is Giving In, No Matter what the Time is

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Sleeping is Giving In, No Matter what the Time is

Characters: Roxas and whoever he encounters
Content: One Nobody arrives in the dream world with a lot to think about.
Location: Traverse Town
Time: Early evening
Warnings: Crabby Roxas.

As he faded away into Sora, Roxas hadn't really be sure what to expect.

When he opened his eyes and saw the town around him, Roxas was pretty sure that this wasn't it.

He knew the town, at least, he knew it through Sora's eyes. But he figured that if Sora's heart was anything it was the island he'd grown up on, not Traverse Town. Though the place held a lot of memories for Sora, but none for Roxas. This was his first time here, and it was weird how much he knew about the town. It bothered him.

Although, it looked like that guy in red's plan hadn't worked. He was still here. Not Sora, but Roxas. At least, he was pretty sure he was still himself. He felt like himself. Maybe something had gone wrong, or they'd decided to let him go, but that seemed unlikely with how determined they'd been. It was more likely that this was just another simulated world and he was trapped again. He clenched his hand, feeling his anger rise again. He was so done with all of this and he just wanted to get away. Why couldn't they just leave him alone?

He was about to run off, and at least try and find an exit. That big door behind him seemed like a good start, but it was blocked by a moogle, who floated over and started talking enthusiastically. Roxas tried to escape, but the moogle was very insistent, launching into a long lecture about what was happening here. Roxas missed about three quarters of it and was left standing in the road with a dog...thing staring up at him expectantly. Roxas went to ask the moogle but the creature had disappeared. He sighed, anger subsiding into frustration.

Roxas glared down at the spirit, who whined and rolled over on his back.

What was he supposed to do with this thing?

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Sighing and also annoyed, Sora plucked the bat out of the air as he had a few times before and held onto the little trouble maker, "You keep acting up like this and you're not getting anymore candy, Bruce."

Bruce shut up in a hurry with that threat and settled on squirming in seeming discomfort in Sora's arms. Sora knew the bratty bat was just trying to get sympathy points. He seemed to have missed the fact that he was also annoying the newcomer from whom he was seeking sympathy. It didn't help that there were some serious things going on. Truthfully, Sora would answer as many of questions as he could, both about their current situation and about the deeper issues he knew they needed to discuss. But one thing at a time.

Normally, Sora would be a little annoyed about people brushing off the Moogles since they ended up missing out on some relatively important information that way. Normally, the newcomers ignoring the Moogles had stupid reasons for doing so. Roxas didn't, so Sora couldn't really be annoyed with him for it. He didn't want to sound like he didn't care, but the information about the current situation was a safety issue as much as being useful information. The Nightmares could be dangerous for anyone if they were unprepared.

"Okay. Well, they usually explain that we're in the realm of dreams and talk a little bit about these guys." Sora poked Bruce in the side of his head for emphasis. Bruce responded with an indignant squeak. Sora let him go, but gave him a warning look before continuing to explain, "They're called Dream Eaters."

Bruce flapped over to land by Jelly Bean and grump about being manhandled for didn't seem to him to be a good reason.

"And they really expect people to believe them right away?"

Roxas was still skeptical, but at the same time, he didn't really have any other choice but to take Sora's word for it. Something he wasn't sure he was comfortable doing, even if it felt like the right thing to do.

He looked down at his Meow wow, who was still pawing expectantly at his leg.

"So this thing is a Dream eater? What's it do?"

Besides act dopey and play games with other dream eaters.

"Not right away. It is kind of out there, especially for people from worlds that don't have magic or any notion of dreams beyond stuff your brain does when you sleep."

Sora couldn't blame Roxas for being skeptical. If not for his own travels and his first introduction to dreams involving people he trusted, he might have had some issues with it too.

Jelly Bean nudged at at Sora, deciding that he wanted some attention from his person too.

"Well, there's two main kinds of Dream Eaters. There's the Spirits, which are the friendly ones like these guys." He patted Jelly Bean for the emphasis this time, mostly because he was a better example of friendly than Bruce was. "They eat bad dreams to make way for good dreams. And there's the Nightmares. They eat good dreams and actively plant bad dreams. They'll also attack on sight. Spirits can help you fight them off."

Roxas nodded. He must have been plagued by nightmares, since he couldn't remember the last time he'd had a good dream. He looked down at the Meow Wow.

"It fights? It doesn't even have claws or anything like that?"

The Meow Wow woofed up at him. It didn't really seem like a fighter, and Roxas was having a hard time seeing it as anything other than a dopey dog.

"Yeah. Mostly tackling things and bouncing on them really hard or... somehow that tiny horn is useful too. They can also use magic." Sora was speaking from his experiences with Nightmare Meow Wows about the horns.

Jelly Bean barked too, a bit indignantly. Of course Meow Wows could fight! Not that there was anything around to fight now, but that was a good thing. Still, Nightmares could attack at any moment. It was better to be alert... which, now that Jelly Bean thought it, their people were a little too involved in their conversation. That meant the Spirits had to stay alert to any possible Nightmare attacks.

"That's so weird," Roxas muttered. "So is that all there is to do here? Fight with dream eaters?"

Was that going to be his life now? It didn't sound that bad, but at the same time, there had to be more. That couldn't be the only reason they were here.

"Well, there's that and try to find out how to... to get back to the waking world. We haven't got any leads besides some anonymous guy that seemed a little annoyed about us being here and even though he seems to want us to leave, he's not helping with that."

That sad part was that Sora could see, sort of, how the current situation might be better than what awaited Roxas when he got back. He was right about there being more, though. The trick was just finding it.

"Anyway, if there's anything you want to know, you can ask me. I'll answer if I can."

Roxas nodded. It was a lot of information to take in.

"Maybe later. I need to think about everything else first."

He didn't really know where he could do that just yet, but there had to be a quiet place where he could be on his own, not having to worry about dream eaters or moogles or anything else.

"Actually, I do have a question. How much...do you know about me?"

There was a bit to learn, but it tended to be easier when someone was willing to lend a friendly hand. Sora intended to do that for Roxas.

"Okay. I'm usually around town somewhere and the communicators can send private messages, too."

He was going to offer to show Roxas how to use the communicator, but that question gives him a good reason to stop and think. The short answer is just about everything. The idea of lying about any of it didn't feel right.

"I know... a lot actually." It did occur to him that maybe he shouldn't mention Xion just yet. She's probably find Roxas as soon as she knew he was in town anyway. But perhaps it was fine to discuss everything else.

Roxas eyed the communicator suspiciously. The moogle had just sort of handed it to hi, without really explaining anything. So it was a way of communicating with other people? Admittedly, that wasn't the first thing on Roxas's mind.

"What exactly is a lot? Because I could say I have a lot of your memories to."

Not that he really wanted any of them.

Sora was starting to think it had been a particularly lazy or indifferent Moogle that had greeted Roxas. The wary look at the communicator certainly suggested it. That could be covered later.

"Possibly... just about everything. At least, a lot of important things. We'd be here for a long while if you wanted to hear it all."

Of course, that wouldn't stop him from sharing. Roxas had a right to know this stuff if he wanted to know it.

Whatever kind of moogle it was, it had had to deal with a confused, angry, tired Roxas, so it's understandable if it flew through the explanation.

"Everything, huh? So you know about the guy in red and all that?"

He supposed it made sense. He must know everything about Sora after all.

The Moogles varied just like humans did. Sora was pretty sure his own arrival had been handled by a fairly lazy Moogle given the little fuzzball's relief that he knew a bit about the Spirits already.

"Guy in red... I guess you mean DiZ. Yeah. His real name is Ansem the Wise. The things he said and did weren't right, but he did feel bad about it later." Thinking of that wasn't really pleasant. As far as he knew, Ansem the Wise was dead.

Roxas's hand clenched into a fist.

"Feeling bad about it later doesn't change the fact that he was a jerk!"

His voice still echoed in his head, about how he wasn't supposed to exist, that he was nothing, a nobody.

"He didn't even give me a chance."

Ordinarily, Sora blurting out something like that was a mistake on his part. This time, it wasn't. He really thought Roxas should know that, whether it made things better or not. It probably could have been worded better, though.

"No, it doesn't. And it's probably a little more appropriate to say he realized he was wrong. I think he would have tried to make it up to you if he could, but he... died doing something that put a major hold on the Organization's plans. One of the last things he had to say was that he was sorry."

Sora had those memories. He knew how that had made Roxas feel and he doubted he would have felt any different under the same circumstances. It hadn't been right or fair and knowing why it had happened didn't make anything better. Knowing that Ansem had felt bad about it after he realized he was wrong really only helped a little bit.

"I know it isn't right and it's frustrating and upsetting. It's up to you whether or not you'd want to accept his apology. I can't make you and I won't even try. I don't think I can even ask to consider it when what he did is so recent from your point of view."

"So I'm supposed to believe you, that that Ansem guy, the guy who pretty much took away my life twice and told me I'm nothing important compared to you, actually apologized? He didn't seem to regret it when he was talking to me!"

Really it struck Roxas as just the opposite. Ansem considered him nothing more than a pawn, or even less than that. Never mind the fact that every interaction he had with this guy seemed to be second hand, or from another source.

Sora wasn't exactly surprised by that response. It was sore topic and he knew it. But Roxas had asked his about Ansem and he had no intentions of lying. However, he couldn't force Roxas to accept what he was saying either. "I can only tell you what I saw and heard when I met him. I know what happened and I don't blame you for being angry about it. There is some time between when you saw him and when I saw him. He must have realized during that time that he was wrong."

Frankly, Sora couldn't see it any other way either. He had access to those memories and the most painful ones were among the clearest. Mostly. There was still the blanks in anything regarding Xion and it occurred to Sora how crazy things might get once Xion or any other former members of the Organization found out Roxas was here. Sora sighed and rubbed at the back his head in thought. The craziness of the time line here meant that it was possible to get a member of the Organization from when it was still active. Which really was not a pleasant thought and there was no way Sora was going to mention it now. Still, he had to say something...

"I'm sorry. I know it's a lot to deal with and things are confusing and weird right now. I can't force you to believe that Ansem did regret his actions later and I can't make you accept his apology. I will ask you not to let anger make any choices for you, though. That never ends well."

Roxas knew that, but it was hard not to when anger was clouding everything.

"Good, because I'm not going to." Not before he got the chance to retaliate anyway, but he didn't say that to Sora.

"Look, is there anything else I should know about this place or what?"

They definitely needed to try talking after he calmed down. For now, the best thing Sora could think of to do was stick to his original plan and help him out.

He sort of expected that response regarding the apology. It was probably too soon to have brought it up.

The question was at least a little easier to deal with, "There's some stuff, yeah. The Moogle should have given you some munny too. It's only enough for one night at the hotel. That's not much, but it helps a little. The Nightmares drop munny too and there's a few places around where you could get some work. It's a little pricey to stay at the hotel long term, though."

As if Sora was one to talk. He was still staying at the hotel himself...

"I'll remember that," Roxas replied, digging out the bag of munny he'd stuffed in his pocket. It had brought back a few too many unpleasant memories rather quickly.

"So it's just living here until something happens?" he asked.

"Pretty much. Well, we just took out a giant Nightmare after everyone had been dreaming about a Keyhole for a while. Opening the Keyhole did open the way to another sleeping world, but I haven't checked it out yet." No, he'd only been too busy with getting yelled at for being traumatized, having some heavy emotional discussions trying to figure out how to even get back to the waking world. But he was pretty sure Roxas didn't want to hear about that.

Now that he thought of it, hadn't someone jumped through the door right away? He would have followed them if he hadn't promised to meet Ven to talk right afterward. "Uh, a couple people did go and look. They might put up a message on the network with what they find out."

"Net...work?" He somewhat recalled the moogle saying something about that. He reached into his pocket again, leaving the money there and pulling out the communicator.

"It has to do with this thing, right?"

Admittedly, talking to people was nothing something Roxas was interested in doing, but if he could find out information from it, he supposed there was a use.

"Yeah. It can send videos, text or voice and they can be public or private." Now was probably not the best time to mention his uncertainty of just how private the messages actually were, what with that anonymous guy potentially having access to them. Still, the feature was there and if there were only certain people Roxas wanted to see his messages, he needed to know about it.

"Um... the Spirits can figure out how to work them." Bruce squeaked an amused confirmation at that. Sora shooed the bat away and went on, "They can also manage to turn them on by accident. I don't think the Moogles took curious or clumsy Spirits into account when they designed these."

Roxas nodded, trying to take in all the information. He'd probably figure it out as he fiddled with the communicator later. He looked from the bat to the two dogs.

"How? They don't have hands."

He supposed the paws could be used, but the bat just seemed unlikely. It was a flying furball.

"Anything else?"

That response made perfect sense to Sora. Frankly, he was still trying to figure it out himself.

"I'm not sure how, but this one managed it." He poked Bruce for the emphasis, "I'm not a hundred percent sure why he was even trying to."

If Ven's bat could do it just by sitting on it, another bat could probably do it intentionally.

"I think that's about it. If you need anything, don't be afraid to ask. I'll help if I can and so far just about everyone here seems willing to help when someone needs it." Just about. Actually, the only person Sora could think of who might not be very helpful was Even...

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Sleeping is Giving In, No Matter what the Time is

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