video/action

[sos_pilot]

[Video]

[ Della's face pops up looking... well, like everyone else - exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally. She smacks her beak a bit, before speaking. ]

... So. That sucked.

[ Fully aware that's the understatement of the century, Della draws a breath, and tries again. ]

I think we could all use a nice, long breather after everything... and, gosh darn it, as Train Mom, that is my sacred duty. Hugs? Head on the lap? Head-pats telling you that you did a good job? A shoulder to cry on? Venting out all your feelings without judgement? I'm right here.

[ She slaps her chest, then slaps a small sign on on the sports/gym car. It reads

EXHAUST PILE WITHIN

But as she does this, Tidus enters the scene - Della jumps, surprised, almost forgetting his presence.

He just smiles, holding up two cups with steam coming off them, then addresses the video feed as well. ]

We're also making big batches of cocoa too. Any of you that're gonna stress bake? There's room for that room - s'long as you don't need a nap first.

[ It's a small chide though, his smile small but sympathetic. ]

I've gotten out some incense pots from the supplies - you guys who got your head thrown into a blender by that aash-- uh, that jerk, [ he takes a swift glance at Della, then back ] --it'll help you relax. Just some, but better than nothin'. I'll set some off in Momma Duck's air nest, but if you're not doing great and you think you need a pot? Tell me. Raven made a lot of good stuff for good nights sleep if you need any in the medcar, too.

... So, yes. Cocoa. Incense. Hugging. And if you want to sleep with friends for a couple nights, we got air beds and extra pillows in here. Nobody has to get up and go until they feel ready.

And if that's not enough, that's fine too. Maybe next month we do something a little more organized, if you have any suggestions - movie night, sleepover night, big eat night, whatever, I'm listening. And I'm here for you.

[ Action ]

And inside the sports gym, the pair can be found. They have a few airbeds blown up, but there's more that still need airing up if you pop in straight after their message. There's also a tremendous amount of pillows. If you want to help, get blowing, and make these airbeds look nice and comfy!

The transgate from the standard coach has mysteriously been moved to the sports gym's outer hallway. Who did that? But it makes it easier to bring in the cups of hot chocolate from the kitchens, and for anyone who wants to bring snacks to do so. Take a seat, remember to bring your sleeping bag and whatever else you want. Plushes, your own musical instrument to offer some de-stress medication of your own with a melody.

And there's an area where small incense pots burn away, a gentle mist rising up. It won't heal the mind completely, but it will offer it some peace. And if you're worried about nightmares, a few of Raven's sachets and teas are available.

So come get a mom hug. Come and offer hugs. Just come and get something out of the company, whatever it is. Tidus and Della - and others - will be here to give a hand.

The life you had might've been fake, but the people around you aren't.

((OOC: consider this a mingling post, where everyone is free to tag everyone else! be the comforter, the one offering comfort, both, whatever!))

Comments

[melodiouspacifist]

The sight of Xehanort in the gym almost made Demyx flee again.

Their little cooperation on the mission meant nothing, not when he knew...

He exhaled. This was a small train. He couldn't avoid him forever. He wasn't thrilled the train brought him here, not at all.

What was done couldn't be fixed, no, but they were going to have to find some way to coexist.

If it went south, he still had an escape route. Just to be sure, he pulled his coat on over his ugly orange t-shirt, but left it open, only the tiniest concession.

"Hey." Demyx greeted, albeit a decent several steps back, out of reach of the man who was seated. He would not be. "I don't like you...but we've both got to be on this train together."

[mustknow]

With the slowness of the bone-weary, Xehanort looks up to regard Damon with a silent, unblinking gaze.

Not Damon.

Damon was the illusion, this wasn't a renowned hero known for an uncanny knack for finding out secrets that should never have been brought to light. No master of invisibility, obviously.

Murphy claimed that the illusion didn't make people into something they weren't already ... so how much was real?

"Damon. I have no idea at all who you really are," is the quiet response, barely audible over the hum of the rest of the train's occupants. "I assume you're another one of my future victims, or a friend of one of them. Let me tell you a helpful secret, if this is so."

The tiredness is etched into every word; there's no menace to it, no malevolent cruelty, no vicious humor at what seems to be fear in someone else, just a dull and distant unhappiness. He'd rather be on that world, illusory though it is, contending with the alarming habits of Damon than this unknown. "I will treat you exactly as you treat me. If you don't want an enemy, don't make one."

[melodiouspacifist]

"Demyx." He crossed his arms. "That's my name. That's the name you gave me."

He stared at him a moment, looking grim.

"That is really convenient for you. You've never known who I am. You've never cared, actually. Destroying other people's lives has never been something you worried about. I don't think charitably you can call me a victim, exactly, or anyone else."

He couldn't pretend he didn't cooperate, regardless of how coerced he was to do so.

[mustknow]

"It doesn't matter what other people call you. What matters is what you choose to respond to."

And apparently, he chose to respond to Demyx! Which was entirely and wholly on Demyx himself, as far as Xehanort is concerned. No one on the train was forcing him to respond to that name, and he's not taking responsibility for it.

Or the rest.

"It seems to me if you truly wished anonymity and staying out of each other's way you would never have said anything." His tone remains the same. Is this what he was supposed to be fighting to prevent? To save people like this? Trying to save their lives, so they can continue to ruin his? "So get it over with. Bare your fangs and claws, pull out a weapon and strike, or strut around and make threats, tell me you'll kill me if I step out of line like all the rest have. Then you can pat yourself on the back about how you told off the horrible evil threat and leave feeling better about yourself."

[melodiouspacifist]

"I would love to use my actual name." Demyx responded instead. "Except it was stolen from me, by you. Along with my past, so what's left behind is exactly what you wanted." He retorted.

"The 'x' is the sigil you magically marked me with. So you could find me and track me, no matter where I went. If I strayed you could hunt me down and destroy me."

He stared at him a moment and snorted. "This isn't at all satisfying and if you did know anything about me, none of that sounds like something I would do. I'm not much into threats or fighting, thanks. I'm a musician. An artist. A performer."

Demyx was considering what the best move was here, not moving closer, but also not threatening. Calculating. A rare open look at his intelligence.

"It's not really going to work to keep running from you. It's kinda annoying, actually, I didn't really believe Lea about you being from the past but..." He sighed and dropped his hands.

[mustknow]

"Then take it back. Here I am." He sets down his pencil and spreads his hands wide, the faint tremor of exhaustion hidden as best he can.

By degrees, his tone darkens towards bitterness and dull anger. "You and yours, denouncing actions I have yet to take, certainly seem intent on causing the very future you complain about." He looks back up, a short, sharp jerk. "But I will not be bullied and badgered about things I haven't done. So as Braig says it, put up or shut up."

And the opportunity is there, even if Demyx is just a musician and performer. Xehanort is unarmed, and visibly too tired to resist even someone who's not a skilled combatant. If he wants vengeance, there's a perfect opportunity for retribution for years of trouble and unhappiness and worse.

[melodiouspacifist]

"How can I? You just said it yourself, you don't know."

Demyx sighed heavily. "I don't really want to bully you either. I can't forgive you...the future you. But I'm not stupid, you're not that person yet."

He finally stepped closer.

"I don't want to waste my time being angry or scared." He frowned grimly and stepped forward again now and held out a hand.

"I don't want to be friends, but I don't want an enemy either."

[mustknow]

He straightens as best he can while sitting against a wall, shoulders tight, unable to hold the open-armed position for much longer and letting his arms drop to his sides. As Demyx steps closer, Xehanort heaves himself to his feet; it's neither steady nor graceful, and if it wasn't for the wall right there he'd probably have fallen over.

He should have weighed the cost of being an anchor a little more. This was pathetic, he couldn't even stand there and put on a decent front.

"No."

It's etched in harsh resentment, that one short, sharp word.

"No. You don't get to turn up a stranger, tell me you don't like me out of the wild blue, deride me for things I haven't done repeatedly after I offer peace, accuse and attempt to shame me for actions I have not taken, and then claim 'I'm not that person' and hold out a hand as if you'd come to offer nothing but a truce!" He levies a finger at the Nobody; it's just as unsteady as the rest of him. "If you meant any of it you would have taken my offer when I made it, but you had to get your piece of hate out first, didn't you? And now that I've refused out of the hurt and insult you've offered you can go play the innocent who 'tried to make peace', isn't that right?"

Xehanort is learning, as much as he didn't want to. Every event since he's arrived on that platform has been a clear and ongoing lesson, and finally it's beginning to stick.

[melodiouspacifist]

"I haven't said nearly as much as I could. I haven't even said anything hateful." Demyx breathed.

"I didn't come here to offer a truce, no. I wanted to confront you but it's not worth it. You don't even know anything, so what's the point?" He wasn't going to deny it.

"Who am I gonna play innocent to? Lea?" He snorted. "Please. We're friends but he has his own beef with Xehanort and I don't know that he cares about mine." Demyx was never sure about that.

"I don't want the last eight years or so of my life to be all I am. If you don't want a truce, then that's fine. Ignore me. Most people do." It was exceptionally good for blending into the background.

[mustknow]

"What you do with your life is up to you. Stop trying to blame anyone else for it." Himself especially, since he hasn't done anything yet. "If you don't like your name, pick another one instead of complaining about how it was 'taken'." But he's rapidly beginning to understand why his future-self took the actions he did.

Whatever Kingdom Hearts was, it had to offer something better than this ongoing parade of misery and pain. Where do you go when everyone around you makes it perfectly clear you don't belong there? What do you do? "You don't want to live in fear and anger? Then don't. Worried about being tracked and hunted down? Then take a page out of Damon's book. He wasn't afraid, and knew how to avoid being tracked."

He can, for a few moments, look less like a weakened and exhausted twentyish year old and more like he could put up a decent fight if he had to. But it only lasts long enough for him to snatch up his notebook and tablet, pencil left behind.

"I told you I'd treat you as you treat me. I will hold to it."

Xehanort wasn't going to find the rest and recovery they were promised here, that much is clear. It's time to be elsewhere.

[melodiouspacifist]

"I really don't need life advice from you." Demyx responded. "I'm already doing it."

It was his choice, after all, and he was working on making choices and living for himself. This Xehanort could never understand and he didn't seem open to talking about it.

He could probably thank the others for that.

It was a different thing on the world, in that illusion. It had been a pretty good one too, except it cast him as the villain again. He didn't want that.

"You don't have to go." He offered. "I'll leave you alone if you want to stay, but I won't leave the car." That was a concession.

Demyx did not feel bad for Xehanort, but he knew at least that coming after him wasn't going to be fair, not until the future. He'd never get that anyway.

[mustknow]

No-one felt bad for Xehanort. He got exactly what he deserved - or would earn through considerable hard work and effort in a few short months of returning home! World after world destroyed, countless lives ruined, it would be an ongoing decade long parade of horror.

It's going to happen, sooner or later, and he'd have a grand time doing all of it.

"I don't belong here." His tone is disgusted, expression barely schooled into something like neutrality, though whether it's about Demyx himself or something else is really hard to tell, and Xehanort himself isn't clarifying. "Enjoy your victory."

There's nothing more to be said, as far as Xehanort believes. One of those 'transgates' was set up just outside, and he heads for it as steadily as he can manage, every single ounce of exhaustion buried as best he can to at least maintain some illusion of dignity or poise. It's only going to last until he's out of sight, but until then!

[melodiouspacifist]

Victory was not what Demyx would call it.

He didn't gain anything out of the conversation, or the approach to Xehanort and he finally let animosity drip through his expression in full as he glared at his back.

Well. If nothing else, Xehanort wasn't going to decide to try and exert some kind of control over him.

He did not offer a parting shot, nor another olive branch when the others had been so easily broken and discarded. Hmph. He wasn't going to dwell on it though, but what he would do was keep an eye on Xehanort and he'd likely never know about it, but that was fine. He and his illusion counterpart weren't as different as one might think.