So Let's Chat About All This Weird Stuff (Open)

[shadearchivist]

Characters: Anyone, everyone
Content: Discussing all the weird stuff that's been going on in town.
Location: Traverse Town, 4th District, Tea Shop
Time of Day: Evening (Morning)
Warnings: None


Ienzo was taking a moment to set up his communicator on the counter; it would be unlikely that it could capture everyone's movements, but it would be worth it to at least record the discussion for anyone who arrived later, as well as for review.

There were already a few people who had wandered in. There would likely be more, so Ienzo refrained from really speaking up; it wouldn't do them much good to begin discussions before everyone was there. It would lengthen the recording, but the devices didn't seem to have a particular hard limit. Ienzo nodded to Ziva and York; it was unsurprising that they'd be here, and early.

He turned to the communicator. "We're meeting to discuss some of the strange occurrences that have occurred here. I am recording this in order to post it to the network later, for the edification of others."

Comments

[defrostedpride]

Even looked as though he hadn't slept much, but no more so than usual. He had acquired a cup of coffee, which he hunched over with dragon-like possessiveness.

"If they really wanted to be edified, they would be here," he grumbled, more out of habit than any actual objection. Privately, he thought that if it turned out to be a discussion worth the name, the tumult would make the recording less than useless at the critical moments, but it was worth a try.

[earthshatter]

If you asked Aeleus, Even generally appeared as if he hadn't had much sleep. He was, however, gratified to see that it only appeared to be the general sort of sleep deprivation. Besides, given the dreams that he'd been having, he supposed a certain level of tiredness was acceptable.

(Not to say that he wouldn't keep an eye on Even in general. He simply wouldn't fault him for looking a little tired when he himself was feeling similarly.)

"Do we have enough room for all the current inhabitants?"

[defrostedpride]

"Possibly. That depends on how many inhabitants there currently are, a number which changes by the hour."

Even looked up from his coffee. Aeleus looked far better rested than Even ever did, but that owed more to nature than to circumstance. He suspected that Aeleus was not enjoying the relatively innocuous dreams, mysterious or not, as they deserved.

"Sit down," he snapped. "Before you fall down. I'm sure we don't have room for you to pass out."

[4letters4ninja]

Ziva sat at one of the tables, stirring a mug of tea. The caffeine hit was needed, as her sleep schedule had been completely destroyed by the strange dreams she'd been having. Granted, she'd had worse.

Leaning her back against the chair, she waited for others to arrive. It was going to be an interesting meeting.

(yes, he currently has his helmet on)

[allfunandgamesuntil]

York headed over to the table with a cup of coffee in his hand. "This spot taken?" He'd wanted to get an early start, but he hadn't expected so few people to be there.

[4letters4ninja]

"Not yet. It is all yours." She pushed the chair out with her foot, taking a drink of the tea. Ienzo could probably make a killing right now, with all the insomniacs.

[brodakota]

North wasn't really sure what to expect with this meeting, or how it was going to go. While Sora had suggested it, he didn't seem like the type to lead a discussion. Still, they needed to figure out what was going on, so it seemed a good place to start.

He arrived at the cafe in his armour, not making the mistake of going out without it again. So much for downtime.

He took a place along the counter and watched everyone come in.

[hiptobe_eraqus]

Eraqus wasn't sure what to expect either, but he was just hoping they'd be able to gather some ideas as to the meaning behind those nightmares...both the Dream Eater kind, and the "normal" sort. The sooner they could move forward to some answers, the better. But knowing such things, they would likely just be left with more questions.

He nodded to North as he entered, and found a seat. "Good to see you again. You fought well the other night."

[brodakota]

North nodded back.

"Thank you. I did what I could considering I was under equipped. I should be thanking you for the save."

There were a couple of close calls in the fight. And North had learned his lesson about not wearing armour when there were creatures everywhere that wanted to attack you.

[dork_of_keys]

Sora and repeatedly interrupted sleep didn't go together very well. Especially when the interruption was a dream that left him too unsettled to get back to sleep. If he did manage to get back to sleep, usually worse dreams followed. One or two night in a row wasn't that bad, but this had been more than one or two nights.

So it was that Sora was sitting there with tea and some baked snacks, looking like he'd much rather be elsewhere, preferably sleeping. Nibbling absentmindedly on a muffin, he looked around to see who else had arrived. He wasn't sure who all would show up. Whether everyone who was having these dreams had replied to his (or was it Bruce's?) post the night before, he didn't know. What he did know was that enough people were seeing the same important thing in their dreams that it needed discussing. If it was a clue, they needed to work out what it was a clue to. But, problem solving wasn't his forte and he knew it.

He had toyed with just poking Riku about this since it seemed likely that the hint was exactly what it looked like: they needed to do something with the Keyhole and not necessarily find it. He was pretty sure he knew where it was. Or at least two possible places for it... Unless it had moved again. If that was the case, there was a strong hint as to where it had moved. Had he not encountered two unusually large hordes of Nightmares in the Post Office? He'd never seen any such situation before. And in the most recent case, everyone present at that battle had been lured there by a mystery person. Sora had more than his fair share of such tricks.

[raisethemoon]

Luna was still trying to get her sleep schedule synched up with everyone else in the town; normally, she would have been in bed about now. Fortunately, the princess of nighttime itself didn't need a great amount of sleep to get by anyway. She looked plenty perky as she wandered up to Sora, a cup of coffee hovering along beside her.

"Sora! Good evening! Art thou feeling better?"

[dork_of_keys]

Good... evening? Well, given her duties lay with watching over nighttime, from what he heard, this probably was normally evening for her. He decided not to comment on it. And maybe it was better not to comment on how she seemed to be fairly energetic, all things considered. Although, she did have a cup of coffee with her...

"Hey. Um, I'm okay, I guess."

[nightmaresfear]

"Hey, sleepyhead. What did we say about you not being the grumpy one?"

Sora, wake up and look sharp because you're getting a light punch on the shoulder. Then Riku moved to sit down next to him, smirking. Despite the teasing, though, he was a little worried about his best friend. He looked like he hadn't gotten much sleep, which wasn't like him at all. Riku had had the same dreams, but nothing enough to disrupt his sleep too seriously. Or maybe waking up in the middle of the night just didn't make him cranky the way it did for Sora.

Either way, he was looking at his friend with some concern. "Everything okay?"

[dork_of_keys]

Oh Sora was fine. Just grumpy from lack of sleep. As such, he responded to Riku's comment by sticking out his tongue. Paragon of maturity, he was not.

"I'm fine, I guess. Just tired." And cranky, but that was probably obvious just from looking at him, "How about you?"

He was starting to wonder if he was the only one whose dreams were bringing any level of violence with them. Maybe he'd find out once they started discussing them.

[trademark_skull]

Emizel had arrived a little bit late and looked a little roughed up, presumably either had a bad run in with some more Nightmares or he had to case Moxie all across town again. Speaking of which the Meow Wow was currently following right behind him as usual, being the demon's own personal shadow practically whenever it was not terrified. Though it was a bit nervous to enter the shop, what with no other Spirits to be seen at the moment, and carefully watched its step the best a Meow Wow could.

Come to think of it this was Emizel's first real time dealing with many of the town's 'non-residents' in person. Talking to some of them over the network didn't exactly count, but it did at least help in recognizing a most of them. Hopefully there will be something very useful about this meeting. Being around so many humans still was a pretty awkward thing to deal with on a normal basis, if not even slightly uncomfortable.

[usedrapidspin]

"Are you okay?"

Tails hadn't yet met Emizel, but noticed he look just a little worse for wear. That was an especially good reason to speak to him, making sure he wasn't badly injured or anything.

Likewise Blaze had spotted the rather timid-looking Meow Wpw and wanted to do something. That something involved the Hebby Repp taking a pastry he hadn't yet eaten and walking over to offer it to the other Spirit.

[colorbymemory]

Namine had been making sure there were enough baked goods for everyone and helping serve tea, coffee, and snacks. So she was busy behind the counter when most everyone came in, but she was happy to greet them and help provide refreshments. Last night had been one of interrupted sleep, though, so she couldn't help a few yawns that she did her best to hide.

During a slight lull, she caught sight of Xion slipping in. Normally the other girl would buy something, but it looked like the crowd made her a bit shy today. Instead of stopping by the counter, she went straight for her favorite table in the corner.

[shadearchivist]

Ienzo scooped up Xion's regular drink and headed over to the table. "Here you are. Good morning, Xion."

[unrecovered]

Wash had long since gotten used to interrupted sleep, or very little sleep, or no sleep thanks to the memories stuck in his head, so he knew how to function without it. Admittedly, his coping method of choice included copious amounts of coffee, and it had made his week and possibly his ongoing life when the tea shop had finally started serving it.

He headed in the door, as ready for the meeting as he could be when he had absolutely zero answers as to what was going on, and stopped at the counter. "Hey, Namine."

[nightmaresfear]

Naminé had a visitor in the form of Riku. He wasn't at ease with this many people around, but he did manage a friendly smile to her.

"Hey. Looks like I finally made it here," he said, looking somewhat sheepish. He'd been meaning to check out the tea shop for a while, but for one reason or another had never gotten around to it. Naminé looked happy and well -- if a little tired like the others -- and that much at least was a good sign.

[nightmaresfear]

Riku was nursing an ice tea to one side -- coffee and other hot drinks weren't his thing, having grown up on tropical islands -- and watched the proceedings. Benevolent though they claimed their intentions were, Riku did not like the idea of former members of Organization XIII all crowded into one space, least of all with Sora around. And, as far as he was concerned, the discussion was a moot point. The secrets of the Keyhole were something that had to be kept closely guarded, and he wasn't about to share what information he had with the group at large.

So he did what he always did, keeping his head down out of the spotlight and keeping watch. He'd contribute if he had anything to say about the other topics that were bound to crop up, but otherwise, he was keeping quiet. He wouldn't refuse any company that came to him, though.

[usedrapidspin]

Tails made his way over after a time, noticing Riku sitting alone. But that seemed to be intentional so he hadn't come over immediately because he'd wondered if it might bother him.

But it had occurred to him that Sora seemed to know a lot about Traverse Town and if he and Riku both knew a lot about the Dream Eaters then Riku might as well. If he was going to be here awhile then he really wanted to learn more about the the things to know here. Not just for himself, but so he could help others.

"Hi. Can I join you?"

[unrecovered]

Wash was accustomed to having answers - too many answers, actually, too much information crowding him out of his own mind - so being thrown into a situation where he had none was unsettling, to say the least. That made getting those missing answers priority one.

He'd caught sight of Riku on the way in, noting that he was quiet and away from the middle of the room. It was an observational position - odd, given that aside from Sora, Riku was the only other person Wash knew of who'd been to this dream world before and therefore had more information on it than anyone else. Keeping quiet and out of the way likely meant he didn't want to share what he knew, or he couldn't. While Wash understood both of those positions, it didn't mean he was going to respect them - not when information about this place and possible answers regarding odd dreams and disappearing exits and a possible way out were at stake.

He brought his coffee over from the counter, setting it on Riku's table and taking a seat. "Hey."

>Even: Be impatient

[defrostedpride]

Even's tolerance for loud, inefficient crowds was limited at best. The more people in the room he actively wanted to avoid ever seeing again, the shorter his tolerance got. There was only so long he felt comfortable, or even acceptably uncomfortable, sitting around in the coffee shop and chatting instead of accomplishing what he was here for so he could leave.

He set his empty coffee cup down on the table with an emphatic click that was, unfortunately, somewhat lost in the surrounding cacophony. "As vastly entertaining as this little get-together is, I was under the impression that we were here for a reason. Or was I misinformed?"

Unlike the coffee cup, Even's voice had a certain penetrating quality, particularly when he was complaining.

[dork_of_keys]

Sora had been thinking it might be time to start on the actual discussion, though he hesitated because some of the information he had and his guesses about the dreams might reveal things that not everyone needed to know. He felt bad about even thinking that because he knew it was kind of upsetting and not helpful to be left out of the loop. And the fact of the matter at the moment was that he and Riku were the ones with the information this time. Not all of it, but more than the others.

He was pulled from his internal debate about how to start the discussion by Even's whining. 'Whining' really was the only term he could think of. The man had the sort of tone that suggested he was pretty much never happy about anything.

"Yeah, we are here for a reason," he replied, rising from his seat. Since they weren't all sitting at the same table (there were just too many people for that), he figured he ought to be standing, "We've all been having strange dreams and we want to try to figure out what the one thing we're all seeing in our dreams might mean."

On the other hand, given the Organization's interest in the Keyblade, it seemed unlikely that any of its former members was clueless about the meaning of the Keyhole. It was pretty much everyone else that needed to be filled in, though Sora wasn't sure how much they actually needed to know.