diatu | [OPEN] If I don't move

[OPEN] If I don't move

Who: Eleven and OPEN
What: El being irresponsible
Where: Places
When: June, anytime
Warnings: Woops, angst and tragic backtories happened.
TW: mentions of: murder; abuse; suicide
Notes: Action or prose is fine!

A. Any library

[Humans, enslaved by dragonkind. Since hearing of it, an odd, morbid curiosity has taken hold until the thought of it wouldn't leave him.

But why? What would dragonkind need from humans?

It's enough to pull him from Raida's temple to seek more information in Diatu and Anastara's greater libraries.

He doesn't have as much time to devote to the research as he'd like, but still he crams in time to read the most relevant and interesting passages in the various tomes he can find. They're largely ancient history books to offset the class he isn't taking- focused on that particular period of time, how it came about, and how it ended- to an extended curiosity about the breadth of the race of dragonkind itself.

Already loaded down with an armful of books he doesn't really need, Eleven catches a glimpse of an eye-catching binding set with runes and his fingers itch for it]

Maybe if I skip training today, I could still have time to study..

B. Somewhere Open

He did it once, in a burst of wild anger, summoned lightning through his veins and threw it out of his fist in a blow meant to blister. Not again since.

Eleven turned his wrist over, staring at the mark of light tattooed on the back of his hand. It had yet to glow once since arriving, but now as storm clouds loomed, darkening with the setting sun and getting closer, his arm stretched out to greet them- as though he might grasp them when finally they arrived.

Afire with nervous anticipation, a word to a spell on his lips, he threw his hand skyward.

"Zap!"

Lightning flashed and flickered in a nearby cloud, but failed to strike anything in particular. No strong scent of ozone played on the breeze.

..Coincidence, he wondered- or simply the wrong word?

C. Edge of Anastara

The Sword of Light.

Lain across his lap, Eleven decided that sitting on the edge of a floating island was a lot like sitting on the edge of the world. His feet hung suspended over an abyss of sky and low-flying clouds. Eyes on the horizon, he would occasionally glance down for that low-swooping feeling in his chest. A breeze pulled at him- at once encouragement and warning.

A tiny part of his heart wanted to throw the fabled weapon out into the endless sky and never gaze upon it again, but his hands held it fast as though afraid of that very impulse.

He still wasn't used to staring out across a clear sky in all directions, unable to make out even the silhouette of one particular floating tree. Right now, he only wished to see it in order to feel like he was being heard.

"I'll do it!" Eleven snapped at nothing in particular, dropping back into the grass only to glare and yell at the empty sky above. "I never said I wouldn't! I just wanted to be normal for awhile!"

His arm dropped to shadow his face on a sigh as he pulled the sword of light to lay at his side. "..But it looks like that doesn't matter at all."

D. Wildcard!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Lea couldn't help but smile slightly at the way Eleven blushed, but had the good graces to not do more than that as he took a seat in the grass next to his friend. "Well given that you were yelling, it was kinda hard not to," he said.

"And lemme guess, your new-found desire to yell at clouds has something to do with the whole 'Luminary' thing, right?", he said. "And maybe with your frankly really cool looking new sword?" Lea knew that 'Luminary' was a title that Eleven apparently held and that it bothered him, so it was about even odds that if he was brooding about something, that was probably involved. But beyond that and a few vague details about El's world, he wasn't really sure what that title entailed and was kind of hoping that El would be willing to elaborate on the subject a bit.

Eleven's head snapped over to Lea, eyes going a little wide as his heart picked up speed. He'd forgotten that he knew about that. He reached a hand out for the Sword of Light and touched it briefly as if to assure himself that it was still there.

Looking at him and reminded of just how good a friend Lea has been to him, Eleven decided it wasn't important to keep him in the dark about it. But. Where to start without going on too long about everything?

"..So the Luminary is someone that's born to banish darkness from the world. That's what the mark means. I.." he winced. "Well, I failed to do that, so now darkness has covered my world."

He breathed a steady sigh. "So I didn't want to think about it too much when I came here. Only now, the Sword of Light has appeared to me, so I don't think I can do that anymore. I.. I am the Luminary, I just.. want to be myself, too."

Lea listened to the explanation, expression thoughtful. That explained a lot really, and coupled with the bit El had mentioned once before about Yggdrasil, it began to form a basic picture of the situation in Lea's mind. That definitely sounded like a rough spot to be in, and Lea's sympathy was obvious.

"Yeah, I can definitely understand now why you didn't want to talk about it," he said. "But I think you can still be yourself even if you're the Luminary. In fact, I don't think you could be the Luminary if you weren't yourself."

Realizing that that had come out about as clear as mud, Lea continued. "What I mean is, you're the kind of guy who if they see something that's wrong or somebody in trouble, you want to help out, because that's who you are. And you'd be that way even if you'd never heard of a 'Luminary'. And that's the really important part; the fact that you help people because you want to, not just because you got magically roped into it. The title, the Sword of Light, and whatever other kind of powers that probably come with the job? All that stuff is probably really helpful, but without you being the kind of person you are? Without your heart behind it all? It's just window-dressing."

Eleven blinked, and falling quiet, simply stared at his friend. His heartbeat slowed and he swallowed past a sudden lump in his throat.

It was true, he realized. Even before he'd learned that he was the Luminary, the villlage and guidance of their church had always preached kindness. He did want to help people- enjoyed it, even.

"You might be right."

He turned his gaze back up to the sky. "..I guess I'm just worried that I'll have to become like Hendrik. Duty above all else, you know. He's sworn himself to me, and I can't get him to lighten up at all."

Lea smiled slightly at the effect he words seemed to have had then chuckled slightly at the mention of Hendrick. "Heh, yeah he seems even stiffer than Isa can get sometimes, and that's saying something," he said. "Anyway, I don't know what your other friends back home might be like, but as long as you're here, you can rest assured that if you ever show signs that you're getting that stiff, I'll drag you off to go do something silly and loosen you back up again."

"Though really, I bet even Hendrick relaxes now and then. No one can be on point 24/7, and if you try to be for too long, you tend to go a little nuts from stressing yourself out so much."

"And you know...", he said, tone becoming conspiratorial, "I've gotten pretty good at getting Isa to crack a smile over the years. Wanna team up and see if we can do it for Hendrick too?"

Eleven turned a smile up at Lea, interested despite himself.

"Yeah? I could use all the help I can get there. He's very stubborn and definitely doesn't relax around me at all."

His smile turned a little wry and he shifted around a bit. "He says trouble follows me."

"It's just a matter of finding the right method," Lea said. "I guess I could try insulting an overly aggressive pitcher plant's mother when he's around; that actually got Isa to laugh. Though that would probably take too much effort to arrange."

And his own smile turned a bit wry at Eleven's statement about trouble following him. "Yeah, that tends to happen when you stand up against the darkness," he said. "Turns out would-be evil overlords don't take kindly to folks messing with their plans. Who knew, right?"

He didn't have any idea what that sort of thing was or why it would be amusing, but he was willing to try most anything if it would get his stern protector to laugh.

"Mm, I guess they don't." Which was why Mordegon removed him before he could start, but that wasn't something he wanted to dwell on. Instead- "..Is there someone like a Luminary in your world, then?"

Lea leaned back on his hands for a moment, his expression thoughtful as he considered the question. "Given what know about what that entails, I don't think there's one person that fits the bill completely," he said. "Probably the closest thing in terms of the whole 'holding back darkness' thing would be the Princesses of Heart. They're called 'Princesses' but not all of them are actually royalty; the reason they have that title is that they're seven women and girls who are unique among everyone else in my world in that they have absolutely no darkness in their hearts. Not even the tiniest bit."

"This makes them both essential to the balance of the world, and in some ways, really powerful," he said, "but that power's a lot more passive than it sounds like yours is; more a shield than a sword. It takes some really specific circumstances for them or anyone else to consciously make use of it, so it's almost certainly not something any of them could use in a fight."

"On the other hand, covering the fighting end of things, you've got the Guardians of Light," he said. "That's not something anyone's born into though. There's seven of them too- or at least there hopefully will be, if we can get everyone want to help-, but I don't know whether there's come kind of mystical connection there, or if that's just how things fell out." Or more likely, how Xehanort had arranged things; he always seemed about five steps ahead of them.

"The Guardians of Light uses special weapons called 'Keyblades'," he said. "I think I've told you about those before, right? Appearance wise, they're exactly what they sound like; swords that look more or less like giant keys. But they're not made like ordinary swords; they're more like... physical representations of the power of the wielder's heart. You can't just go pick one up somewhere; you're passed the potential to wield one by someone who already has one, and from there, it's mostly up to you to get your Keyblade to materialize. And if your heart's not suited to it, you're just out of luck."

"I was actually in training to be one of the Guardians before I was brought here, you know," he confessed. "Got my Keyblade passed to me from Master Yen Sid, but I'm not sure if he really thought I'd be able to manage one. I know that his jaw dropped just like everyone else's the first time I managed to materialize it."

He smiled, remembering. "Their expressions were priceless, especially Master Yen Sid's. Normally he's this serious, dignified old wizard, so seeing him standing there gaping like that? I'll never forget it."

Eleven laughed and spent a few moments digesting that information. Princesses of Heart with no evil in their hearts as some sort of barrier against darkness, and the Guardians that fight the darkness itself. They all sounded powerful- fourteen beings against darkness instead of one.

And Axel was training to be one of those guardians. Something in his heart warmed to know his friend was another ally in the fight against darkness, even if they didn't share the same world.

"I hope you become the best of them."

Lea chuckled too. "Thanks," he said. "Though if I'm being completely honest, I've got a long way to go before I get anywhere close to the level of skill with it that some of my friends have. I don't think you'll be seeing Keyblade Master Lea any time soon."

"If there's one person who could be called the best of our rag-tag little group though, it's Sora," he said. "He was actually here for a little while, but the magic that brought him here wasn't quite as stable as some, and he got sent back home by accident. Sora... I dunno. Even though he didn't quite make the grade to become a Keyblade Master, there's still something special about him. He's just... that kind of person of can connect to most anyone without even really trying. And he's always ready to do whatever he can to help others. You just... can't help but like him."

"And thanks in part to that, partly to dumb luck, and partly to Master Xehanort and his various incarnations messing around with things, Sora's wound up smack in the middle of everything going on back in my world," he said. "He's the one that connects everything and everyone involved."

His smile faded a bit, guilt weighing on his heart. He'd heard of Sora from him before- remembered Sho's wicked smile when he asked why no one had seen him. But surely, that hadn't been at the will of a student to disappear another? He was still here himself, after all. Yggdrasil's will remained.

"I don't envy him," he said honestly. "I hope he's doing all right, wherever he is. Someone like that must have a lot of demands, and perhaps the gods were aware of that. Still, I wish I'd gotten to meet him."

"You still might," Lea said. "This place's magic brought him here once, no reason it couldn't do it again.

"But yeah, I figure he's doing alright," he said. "He's pretty tough. And he's got all his friends backing him up. So he'll come through; for them if not just for himself."

It was strange, to feel so connected to someone he'd only heard about and never met. He had a feeling they'd have a lot to talk about.

Eleven nodded. "He'll make it then, so long as he has his friends. I know I wouldn't have gotten anywhere without mine."

"Heh, that's something we have in common then," Lea said. "I know I feel kinda useless without my friends sometimes."

"Oh and speaking of friends, I've got something for you," he said. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out the Thunder Trinket he'd created. "Got this and the other one all tested and it works like a charm. It's a Thunder Trinket; it gives you a bit of protection against lightning based magic."

Eleven blinked at the bracelet, eyes torn between it and Lea. The corners of his mouth twitched into something resembling a smile, but wasn't quite there.

"Did you forge this? I didn't realize you knew I had lightning magic, before. Did Hendrik tell you?"

"Actually I didn't know," Lea said. "So it's just a happy coincidence. I never would have guessed, since you're basically the total opposite of Larxene, the Thunder magic user that I used to know back home."

"But yeah, I did forge it," he said. "The other thing I made is a Fire Bangle. Basically does for fire-based magic what this does for lightning based magic."

He reached for it with a smile and turned it over in his hand. A simple design, but expertly crafted.

"Part of being the Luminary," he explained. "I could summon lightning. I've been trying to learn to adopt the spell, here. This would be good to use when I try practicing."

He slipped it on. "..Thank you."

Lea nodded, smiling a bit. "No problem," he said. "If you ever need something stronger, I could probably try and make you a Thundra or Thundaga Trinket too; basically the same function, just with more protection."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[OPEN] If I don't move

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject