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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Roxas closed his eyes, shaking his head from side to side.

"Okay. I'm convinced. This is a dream."

A dream or a joke or something, but he'd seen everything so he was going to wake up now, right? Wake up in Twilight Town and it would all be back to normal and he could go to the Usual Spot and enjoy his last day of summer vacation properly.

Of course when he opened his eyes, he was still staring at Ven, so that threw that out the window.

"Who are you?" Roxas finally demanded.

While Roxas was... processing all of that, Ven was coming to grips with it himself. He'd heard the story, not all the exact details but the basic outline. He'd been called Roxas more times than he could remember, at least seven- wait, eight people mistaking him for the Nobody. But just because he was prepared for it didn't mean it wasn't incredibly weird.

But still, once he got over the shock, he knew what he had to do, at least in general terms. While he didn't know what timeframe Roxas came from, it was obvious he really wasn't having a good day from the way he was behaving more like a skittish animal than he probably realized, which meant that Ven himself had to be under control. And, if what Sora had said about the Organization was true, then Roxas probably didn't know much anyway and would appreciate someone being straightforward with him. Basically all he could do was start talking and hope Roxas would stick around and listen.

To that end, Ven forced himself to relax, breathing in deeply and slowly letting it out, trying to wipe the surprise off his face and, for the most part, succeeding. "It's kind of a dream, yeah, but not like you're thinking. I'm Ventus - you have to be Roxas. I've heard a lot about you, from people that thought I was you."

The name didn't ring any bells. This person didn't seem familiar in the least, aside from how he looked. Roxas knew he needed answers, but the questions were piling up inside his head and he didn't know where to start.

"What have you heard, exactly?

He was scared. If people were talking about him, did that mean they were planning something for him? Was he walking into a trap?

Ven was more than willing to answer any questions. It was more or less finding a place to start that was difficult, and it was probably better to let Roxas steer the conversation.

For the most part. "Sora. He told me a lot about you... because me and him, we both have... others that look like each other, and not us, and we wanted to figure out why. And Naminé and Riku and Kairi and a lot of others all thought I was you, too, so it took awhile for everyone to realize I wasn't."

Linka lets out a happy burble as she bounces on the back of the new Meow Wow - it's like having your own personal trampoline! And Wheeler seems to be trying to wash the newcomer's face with his long lizard tongue, whether or not the cat-dog wants it or not.

"Do you want to go sit down somewhere? We can talk about all this and you can ask me any questions you want to."

"I...I don't know. I guess I can sit down. I have a lot to think about and today's already been long."

His anger was starting to dissipate, leaving behind exhaustion and a lot of questions that Roxas wasn't sure he had the ability to ask, or think about. But he had to learn something, and hopefully that could provide some peace of mind.

The Meow Wow isn't sure what to do. He's not overly fond of being used as a trampoline, but he doesn't want to be mean. He lets out a little whine.

"Linka." Yeah, Ven wasn't having that. He reached out with both hands, grabbing the bat by her fluffy yellow body and dragging her away from the Meow Wow, holding her against his chest. "You know you can't do that, we've talked about stuff like this." The bat wiggled in his grip, angling her face up to look at him and giving a forlorn kind of cheep, but he stood firm, shaking his head at whatever she was trying to say. "No. Now either play nice, or I'm going to leave you in the apartment again, got it? You too, Wheeler, you know better than that."

The Hebby Repp at least had the grace to look sheepish and leave off the poor Meow Wow, chittering what could have been an apology at it and taking a step away from the other Spirit. Ven gave Linka one last look, then let her go; fortunately she listened to her daddy, settling into the air over his shoulder as he looked back at Roxas.

"Come on, there's a place to sit down over that way - you look pretty wiped out." Not that Ven could really blame him for that. And the thought was enough to remind him of something else, and Ven immediately started digging in one of his pockets. "Oh, right - I picked this up at home, but you look like you need it more than I do." There it was; he held out the thing wrapped in a paper napkin to his... mirror image, which turned out to be an apple. A quick little snack to hopefully get him back on his feet a little, because it really did look like he could use the help.

The Meow Wow looked a little relieved, now that it wasn't being crowded. He liked to play, but it was easier if it was a game like tag or something like that.

Roxas, on the other hand, looked at the apple suspiciously. It had been a while since he'd eaten something, and he hadn't really felt hungry. He looked at Ven, trying to figure out how much he could trust him. He doubted anything had been done to the apple, but you could never be too sure.

Reluctantly, he finally accepted it, inspecting it quickly.

If there was one major difference between the two of them, it was that Ven had a lot of trouble hiding his emotions most of the time. Roxas had gotten pretty good at the "stone face," or at least looking angry enough that most people wouldn't bother to ask; Ven's feelings were just all out there for public viewing. And his expression at the moment was mostly concern, slightly anxious, and completely devoid of any sort of plotting. Ven was terrible at plotting.

"Go ahead, you're okay here. Or there's still stuff that you have to fight here, but at least it's all out in the open and you know what to focus on. All of these guys-" he gestured to the Spirits milling around them "-have, well, 'evil doubles' that show up and try and attack people, but your Spirits will fight with you and they're really not that bad." Better than the Unversed, for him at least. But that came with a lot of baggage that could be explained later. "Come on, you can take a rest right over here." Ven tapped Linka on the back to get her to start moving with him, Wheeler following behind, half-jogging over to the little alley behind the shop that the ducklings used to occupy, back when this world was still "awake." It had a few boxes they could sit on, but more importantly it was private and got Roxas out of the public eye. He looked like he needed a break from something.

Enemies showing up out of no where had become a familiar sight to Roxas over the past week, and as his memories returned, it seemed they were a constant even before then.

He followed Ven slowly, and a bit unsteadily. His Meow Wow walked beside him, hoping to keep him upright, not that there was any danger of Roxas falling over. He wasn't that tired.

He slumped onto one of the boxes, and took a small bite of the apple. It was quiet back here, and dark. He could relax a little.

Yeah, getting him away from the place where more people could see him seemed like a good idea. Ven let out a small, silent sigh of relief when Roxas collapsed onto one of the boxes; he knew he wouldn't have done that himself if he didn't feel safer, at least, and if they were anything alike, Roxas wouldn't have, either. And at the very least, it kept others from seeing the doppelgangers together and getting absolutely freaked.

Ven gently pushed Wheeler off another box and took a seat himself; the Hebby Repp jumped right back up and arranged himself over Ven's legs, one of his favorite poses. Linka once again bounced over to the Meow Wow, but kept more of her distance this time as she sort of flittered lightly around him, chirping at him. Hopefully that would keep her occupied.

"Ummm..." There just wasn't any good place to start with this. But, at the same time, Ven probably needed some more information to know how much Roxas didn't need explained to him. "What happened... just before you came here?"

Roxas looked away from Ven, his eyes narrowing back into a glare. He wasn't sure how to answer, or even if he should. It's not like it was any of his business what had happened.

"I was told that I wasn't anything important, and that I never should have existed, and that they'd taken my life away from me twice, and that all I was good for was waking Sora up, so I didn't really have a choice in anything! I was just a pawn that people were moving around!"

Once he started, it was like the dam broke. He didn't really care if he was making any sense, it just rushed out of him. And that had just been in the past day or so.

No, it wasn't any of his business, really. But he felt he had... some sort of responsibility towards this unexpected double, even if he'd really had no clue something like this would happen. They looked the same, but Ven had more experience... which was a frightening thought, actually, considering how limited his experience was. At the very least he could listen to Roxas and not judge him or punish him for being what he was.

But that last bit... Well, the stuff before it wasn't good at all, but part of him could see how, yeah, what was good for the universe wasn't good for Roxas himself. It had been kind of the same way with him, after all, just in reverse; as long as he existed, he was a threat to the peace of the worlds. Roxas, too, was in the same boat, because Sora needed to be awake, but it just... wasn't fair it had happened that way, basically. It wasn't fair to either of them. Neither of them had asked for that, had wanted that, had wanted to lose what they knew of a normal life. Ven could literally feel his heart going out to his new acquaintance, and Wheeler raised his head and cheeped a little at the feeling of sympathy from his daddy.

"...That's what happened to me, too. Not the first stuff, but... I was just supposed to be this thing that other people manipulated, and I didn't even know it. And when I found out about it, it was too late to try and find some other way out of it... It's one of the worst feelings, isn't it."

"It's like I was trapped, and no one would listen to me because I wasn't anyone important. Just the last piece of the puzzle."

It was weird to have someone to sympathize with. It was something Roxas would never have considered. Stuff like what happened to him certainly didn't happen every day, at least, he hoped they didn't. He'd thought he was completely alone. Maybe the universe just had it in for kids with blond spikey hair.

"I hated them," he admitted. "The guy in red, Sora, everyone else."

Their situations weren't exactly the same, obviously, but Ven could certainly sympathize with the generalities. Being seen as an object, a means to an end - if the universe did have it in for kids with spiky blond hair, they were due for something good to happen soon and balance things out.

"Sure you did - if you weren't being given a choice, if people weren't treating you like... a person, then of course you'd hate them." He had a problem with hate, himself: Ven didn't hate anyone, except his evil half. Not even Master Xehanort, although he came really close. But even his own master, who'd tried to kill him, he didn't hate, much less any of the villains he'd faced along his journey. But he could definitely understand why Roxas would, and doesn't think it's a bad thing. Nobody or not, he has emotions (and Ven has a pretty good idea of why that is). And he won't go into the fact that Sora wouldn't have agreed to this if he'd known; hate was very irrational, and he didn't want to trigger anything.

"Who's the guy in red? What did he do?"

"Sora said his name was Ansem. I guess he was behind everything. Finding me, putting me in a fake world, and then taking that life away from me. I only ever talked to a hologram, but he was pretty determined to make sure I knew I was nothing important."

He could still hear the laughter in his ears. He'd had a hard time believing Sora that Ansem had apologized, and even if he had, Roxas had little intention of accepting it. At least, not until he'd had a chance for some payback.

Well, maybe Ansem hadn't really apologized, or maybe he hadn't meant it, or something; Ven couldn't rightly say. He hadn't been there ~~that he'd been conscious of~~ and he wouldn't try to guess what a person would have said without either knowing them or having seen it. But he was sure that Sora didn't like that Roxas had to be sacrificed, essentially, to help him.

"But you are important. Everyone's important, even if they're different. Because everyone's important to someone else."

Now that he'd calmed down, Roxas figured that that might have been what Sora was getting at, but he'd just been too angry to see it. And he seemed to be taking Ansem's side.

Ven's statement made him wonder who he could be important to. Everyone seemed to have disappeared or left him behind. He supposed Axel, but then, he'd screwed that up pretty badly.

"I don't know about that."

"It's true." His words were insistent, but his tone was still... gentle, and maybe kind of sad a little. Ven wasn't focusing on Roxas' face, either; instead he seemed to be looking at his knees, but his eyes were slightly unfocused like he was looking at something only he could see. Or a memory...

"Even if you don't know it, you're important to someone. Even if you can't remember it - and even if you never will. And if you don't think you are right now, you have been, and you will be. So you are important, no matter how bad things seem sometimes."

Roxas wanted to believe Ven. He wanted to believe that he was important, despite everything that had happened to make him think otherwise. That he hadn't ruined things with Axel, and that maybe, he'd remember who Xion was and why she seemed so familiar.

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because... because if that wasn't true, then I don't have any reason to go home, either." Really, Ven had a lot of friends, but only two of them were deep, down-in-the-bone friends that meant the world to him. All of his friends were important to him, but he wasn't under any impression that they really missed him. He'd come into their lives quickly, spent a little time with them, and had to leave just as quickly. They might think about him sometimes, maybe wonder where he went, but they didn't really worry about him. The only one that might be otherwise for would be Mickey, but even if he was the only other one, that was still good enough for Ven.

"Being important... is making someone's life better. Doing something that helps them, or teaches them, or maybe makes them think about stuff in a different way. Being a friend, sharing the good times and the bad times, being there for them just when they need it, not because you expect something from them. Just... helping people. Making all the worlds a little better, and not worse. I haven't heard a lot about you, but... from what I have heard, you're pretty good at doing that."

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Sleeping is Giving In, No Matter what the Time is

You can almost see it breaking

I can, and it is wonderful

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