diatu | A Disorganization Of Introductions

She tried to stay between them, while also trying to not get closer to Atem. Neat trick, or would be if she was any good at it.

"He used his floating spell thing to steal me and drag me where he wanted to be. I won't let him do that to you!"

Lea put a hand on Xion's shoulder, a less subtle signal for her to stay put. "I appreciate you trying to protect me, but after sparring with Xigbar a few times, I think I can handle a little floating," he said.

He then turned his gaze to the wild-haired teen. "Is that true?", he asked. He really didn't want to cause any more of a scene than they probably already were, but if this guy had done something to Xion...

Oh, phrasing. This wasn't getting any better, and Atem was momentarily dumbfounded by it all. How could his efforts to prevent her from harming herself or finding someone else to do the same be so misconstrued? The implications were dark at best and malevolent at worst. "Now wait just a minute-" He tried to interject as the two began to talk among themselves. The irony was, that he knew of an item that could subvert a person's will and force them to do as the wielder commanded which would have been worse than a simple levitation ability, however the Millennium Rod had not followed him here nor would he use it for that purpose.

At least her male companion sounded as if he were willing to listen. Taking a deep breath he exhaled than tried to add details to that less then complete account the girl had already stated.

"While it is true that I with the aide of my familiar did bring her to the school against her wishes I believe the context is important." Maybe he should't have lead with that, but Atem also didn't think it wise to flat out accuse Xion of slander either. There was a small.... smallllllll... minuscule grain of truth to her tale. That was the portion he had already admitted to. "I had no ulterior motives, or thoughts of some recompense for my involvement. The weather was foul, and she wouldn't see reason in why she should seek shelter from it." His eyes flitted to Xion briefly before looking back to the red-haired fellow. How much should he reveal? If this boy was her friend he might already know the girl's ambitions- or.... he might not. Was it really Atem's place to reveal something that seemed so personal?

This subject was serious though, her friend should be told if he did not already know that she was trying to erase herself from existence and everyone's memories.. . but it looked like they were already drawing an audience. It's the only thing that stayed his tongue from going further.

Edited 2019-03-10 03:10 (UTC)

Lea frowned at the story the young man related. It sounded... unfortunately very plausible, and if true, confirmed what he'd been concerned about regarding Xion. He nodded to the wild haired teen, to show that he understood.

He then turned back to Xion. "Alright, is that true?", he said. In a situation like this, a lot could depend on one's point of view and Xion's he knew to be a bit... skewed, about certain things.

"I thought the spell hadn't worked," she said. Axel would understand. She knew he would. "And we were trained to AVOID people, not go where there were more of them! I made it clear that I did not want to go to the school, that I wanted to go and finish what I started." That she had wanted to save Roxas, save everyone, and for the first time in her short non-existence, do the right thing.

"It was one thing when you didn't want me killing myself," she said to Axel flatly. "You and Roxas and me..." We're best friends...

"But a random Somebody who decided that what he wanted was more important? I thought I had to save Roxas still. And going inside and being seen and remembered by more people was only going to put him in danger! I don't belong to the Organization anymore. I don't want to belong to him either!"

She closed her eyes and looked down. "I might be a failed experiment, a broken puppet... but I was trying.... to make the right choice for once. To try and make up for all I had done."

She shook her head.

"But he isn't a friend. Which meant that the only reason he would bother with something like me is if he had a use for me, or had orders!"

Which... could tell Atem just how warped her experiences in the past had been.

But she wasn't so much concerned with Atem, so long as he didn't harm Axel or try and steal her again. Her focus was on Axel. And she knew, without a doubt, that he would understand.

Oh, Lea understood. Just not quite the way that Xion thought he would. He face-palmed for a moment, then looked back up at her. "I get how you could think that, given the Organization's... everything," he said. "But now's a good a time as any to learn that the world isn't divided into 'friends' and 'jerks'. Sometimes people who don't know you will want to help you or do stuff for you just because they're nice people or because it's the right thing to do."

"And in this case I'm glad he did," he said. "Because if he hadn't then I would have never found you."

Turning back to the wild-haired teen, he said, "While from the sound of things it could have been handled better, I really appreciate you bringing her in from the cold. Though can I get your word that you won't do the... floating thing you did before to either of us again without permission?" The request was mostly meant for Xion's benefit; if she accepted that he wasn't about to attack or kidnap them, maybe she'd calm down a bit.

"I didn't have the spell yet," she said softly. "And I stayed out in the cold plenty after that..." but she was focused on trying tio figure out that whole people wanting to help her part, so there was no power to her words. She was still turning all of that over, and then she asked Axel something very like what she had once asked Riku.

"How... does someone know what the right thing to do is....?"

The tall red-haired stranger was acting as a sufficient intermediary, letting both have their say before coming to any conclusions himself. Since that was so, Atem kept his interjections to a minimum. He should appear just as reasonable, and truth be told he was.

As he listened to Xion's account he felt uneasy, the implications of just what sort of life she had led up til now were not lost on him. The words he wanted to convey stuck in his throat. She didn't need to hear them from him, but from this person she trusted. Anything Atem said would be instantly discarded, as it had been before. For someone used to giving speeches on such subjects, it was difficult to remain silent as he awaited being addressed once more.

"That's something we all can agree on.." He said in response to 'it could have been handled better'... though at the time he hadn't managed to find that option. Nodding to the mention of gratitude, he hadn't really been looking for any. Then things took a bit of a turn, but he would answer as diplomatically and honestly as he could. "You're asking for something I can not guarantee..." Then he went on to explain. "I would like to say yes, believe me I would but if a similar scenario occurred I would not ... could not stand by and watch someone attempt to destroy themself." It would have been so easy to just agree to it to appease them both, and use a different method if his hand was forced in the future but he wasn't going to. "Under normal circumstances I will not instruct Capricius to lift either one of you without permission." It's as good as they were getting.

".... For what it is worth," Turning to Xion,"What your friend is saying here is correct. There are more kinds of people in the world than just friends and enemies. There isn't anything I desire from you, please try to understand." He paused for a moment then added. "I know you think that the only way you can benefit others is through your own destruction, but I'm not sure that you understand that there is something different about this world.... I can't explain what that is, but I just have a feeling about it, and my intuition rarely lets me down. There might be more you can do here than throwing your life away needlessly."

She stared at him from under her hood for a long time, then she shook her head. "I didn't know it before.... but I succeeded. Axel told me. I arrived here after. But they forgot me, and I ceased, and it worked. Sora was able to wake up. I served my purpose already. All that is left is to help stop Xemnas, to make up for helping him."

Of course on the off chance that she somehow survived that which she doubted. Well... then she had no clue what came next. She'd probably break into bits and float away again or something. After all, she never had a heart. she never was a Somebody. There had to be some limit to how long a broken puppet could persist.

Besides, she wasn't sure yet if she and Roxas could even co-exist without hurting him.... No, probably best for Roxas if she didn't survive the fight with Xemnas, so long as they took him out. But that.... was not a thought that she was going to share with anyone that might repeat it to Axel, and so very much not something she would say IN FRONT of him. NOPE.

Lea nodded his acceptance of the wild-haired teen's terms. "I'll make sure that you don't have to do it for Xion again, at least," he said. "Now that I'm here, I'll always be there to bring my friends back when they need it." Hopefully it wouldn't be needed now, but if it was? He wouldn't hesitate.

Xion's quiet question required a bit more thought though. "Well, some of it depends on what you're taught," he said. "Different worlds have different ideas about whether certain things are right or wrong. But a lot of it comes from you. Either things you learn through experience, or things you just... know. Just like you realizing that helping Xemnas create his Kingdom Hearts was wrong. No one straight up told you it was, you just... figured it out."

He rubbed the back of his head a bit sheepishly. "Sorry," he said. "I know that's probably not all that helpful. But really that's a question people have been asking since long before I was born, and will probably still be asking long after I'm gone, and I don't think there'll ever be an easy way to answer it."

"Actually... Riku sort of did," she said, softly. "I worked a lot of it out from what he told me. He was the imposter we were told to watch out for..." she said softly. "He found me... he was the one who realized that I needed to return to Sora. And he was the one who told me I had to make the right choice... I just... I didn't know how, for a while. Or what the right choice was."

She looked down at her gloves. "Every time you beat me and brought me back," which was going to sound so wrong to Atem, and didn't realize it, "I thought that meant that leaving was the wrong choice. You won because... because you knew the right choice. By the end... that last battle..." she whispered, looking away... "I went in thinking I was going to win because I finally knew the right choice, but by the end... I knew that the battles... had nothing to do with being right or wrong." she reached up and pinched the edge of his sleeve. "I'm sorry I put you through that, Axel. I'll appologize to Roxas too, when we bring him back, but... I think... that was much worse on you, than anyone."

"You succeeded?" Atem questioned a little bewildered by it at first but as she explained it then it dawned on him. It was just like his own situation. Wasn't he also here post his mortal end? Eerily he could still draw parallels to the first time he had defeated the dark presence that had threatened his own world and what she described. When he was sealed in the puzzle afterwards, his name was lost to history, and those who knew him as it played a pivotal role in the magic that had sealed the dark one away. They had to forget then.

Turning his attention to the taller male, "Thank you, for your understanding once again. I'm just relieved that there is someone here to look out for her that she knows and trusts."

As the redhead expanded on what was right and wrong, Atem was silent. Normally, he might tell someone to search their heart for the answer but in this case it would be highly inappropriate. If Xion were truly lacking that part of her soul then there was little wonder that she struggled with the concept. Even those with hearts had trouble making critical choices in life.

Beat me and brought me back....... oh that does sound wrong. If the descriptions Xion had shared about Atem's actions were not fresh on his mind he might have been more leery. There was just something about the way she spoke that tended to be more inflammatory than reality. It made it difficult to know which parts to take issue with and which parts to let slide. This looked as if he was intruding on to a private conversation that needed to be held between the two.

"Yeah, being able to beat someone in a fight never had much to do with either person being right or wrong," Lea said. "Even if some people like to paint it that way to make themselves look good."

"And you don't have to apologize," he said. "It was an icky situation all around, and none of that was your fault. It just took me a lot longer to wise up to that fact than it probably should have."

Turning back to the wild haired teen, Lea nodded. "Yeah, that's one good thing to come out of this whole 'magical kidnapping' business at least," he said. "Anyway, I don't think I've introduced myself; my name's Lea. Got it memorized?"

Now beating someone in a card-game based duel..... ~~cough~~. "Sometimes all it proves is who is the more proficient fighter." Atem offered up in defense of the redhead's words, while thinking back to a certain friend of his that was always finding himself in altercations of the physical variety.

Ideally some of this conversation would stick with the girl.

"The first of many, I hope." Atem was still optimistic that Anastara still held promise for each of the people drawn to it's floating shores. "No, we really hadn't the chance to exchange names before." Clearing up all the misunderstandings had taken precedence. "I think I can handle remembering a name such as that." Smiling a bit since it wasn't really a complicated one. Then again, neither was his. "Mine is Atem."

She reached up and took a pinch of Axel's sleeve in her fingers and just held on. she wasn't sure why, but for a moment there she was afraid that if she didn't he would just.... vanish into the air and she'd never see him again.

Lea smiled too, and when he felt Xion's gentle tug on his sleeve, shifted his hand to casually rest on her shoulder, understanding the need for that physical connection. "Nice to meet you, Atem," he said with a nod. "And this, by the way, is Xion, since I doubt she'd have introduced herself before either under the circumstances." And likely might still not, because... Xion.

"And one thing I gotta say; I'm liking the hairdo," he said. "It's not often I find someone with hair even wilder than mine."

She shifted a drop closer so that his arm could rest more comfortable. Not that she needed to worry, his limbs as long as they were, she could be halfway cross campus and he could still lean on her. But she was willing to let him introduce her, willing to stay quiet and not speak.

Until Axel said the thing about the hair. Her head shot up and she stared at Axel in something akin to shock at just the absurdity of the comment. If it had been Roxas there, not Atem... she might have made a small joke. As it was, it took effort to keep quiet and not quip about how Axel did not need his hair up that much more to make him any taller, thanks.

A Disorganization Of Introductions - OTA

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