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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2015 19:23:09 GMT
 I WILL GRAB MY FREEDOM WITH MY OWN HANDS. So Radiant Garden wasn't that bad of a place. At least in looks. There were actual people living and working here, unlike Traverse town which automatically made it way more interesting in Neku's opinion. It made earning Munny much easier so he had to wonder why he'd spent so much time elsewhere. He'd almost starved wandering around Traverse. There had been a few nightmares to keep him occupied but little else. Neku tugged on his bangs and eyed the shops around him. Of course a bigger place meant one thing... it was a lot easier to get lost and his pride kept the teen from asking for proper directions. Well he could wander around a bit more and maybe end up outside the town and find some sort of trouble to clear up for some extra muuny. Or... end up at the bottom of a pit or on the loosing end of something sharp. "So which way back to the square?" Neku muttered, shoving his headphones down to hang around his neck. All the buildings looked the same with their grey stone and brown wood doors... It was probably built like that on purpose just to confuse him. Neku gave a derisive snort and turned in some random direction and jumped onto the nearest roof. Well there were a couple of open spaces that could be the main shopping district. There was a large bulletin board there that the community pinned notes to when they were in need of help both temporary and permanent. Tapping his foot in irritation Neku tried to decide the best course of action. He did have the Top Gear pin so he could just teleport all over the place but then there was the wait time for the pin to recharge. Even if it was short, he could still walk around just as fast. Not to mention he'd gotten scolded by several pedestrians the last time when he'd startled them with his sudden appearance. Neku tugged at his hair again and glared, allowing himself a few moments of self pity. MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2015 1:06:41 GMT
Some people tended to get genuinely lost, but Sora had his own...unique way of going around. Even after having spent more than a few days helping out with the restoration committee, the unchosen one still couldn’t seem to tell the residential areas apart. Naturally, this didn’t worry Sora; he just wandered around until he found the thing. And if he didn’t find the thing? He’d keep looking. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d gone on frantic searches, that was for sure.
Today, the brunet happened to be coming back from dispatching a couple of Heartless down by the crystal. The infestation wasn’t a rare occurance by any means; Radiant Garden just had its own way of being more pestersome than other worlds. Wasn’t the Heartless factory in here somewhere?
As he rounded the corner, Sora’s attention skittered to an unruly sight. Not for the first time, he’d found somebody he knew without even looking.
Sora remembered Neku as well as he remembered his entire journey throughout the dream world. He remembered the struggle Neku and his friends were going through. He even remembered the good times they all shared. But the question to ask was, would Neku remember him?
...Nah. Couldn’t be. They met in a dream, after all. Most things that happened in the dream didn’t register in real life.
Still, this Neku looked awfully distraught. Sora hoofed it not a second later.
Neku would be lucky in being intercepted by a rather ecstatic brunet with a smile taking up roughly 90% of his face. Of course when it came to Sora, lucky was a relative term.
“Hello! You look awfully lost. D’ya need some help getting around?”
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2015 4:33:56 GMT
I WILL GRAB MY FREEDOM WITH MY OWN HANDS. Neku reached into his pocket to pull out Top Gear. The pin's shiny surface glinted in the light but didn't offer him any answers. Deciding against teleporting, Neku stuffed the pin back in his pocket and resigned himself for another wasted chunk of the day spent wandering. He was about to jump to the next roof top and then make his way down the long gap that led to a walk way when he heard the sounds of pounding feet. He certainly wasn't expecting to see a familiar face. That unruly brown hair bright blue eyes and giant shoes could only belong to one person. "Sora?" Neku jumped down off the roof to stare at his friend. They had been friends during his last visit to Traverse Town at least. He assumed they still were... of course that had been during the game and Joshua had a bad habit of resetting all the work Neku had done during that week. "What're you doing here?" He tilted his head a little to get a better look. Itcertainly looked like the Sora he knew and the grinning goof was acting like the the Sora he knew. "I mean don't you live in Traverse Town or something?" What did he actually know about Sora though? He hadn't even thought about that before. He didn't have a clue where he lived, where he was from. Just that he was a do gooder that was way to trusting and forgiving. MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2015 13:17:59 GMT
Come to think of it, Neku looked like always did, with his headphones and purple attire and semi-reserved attitude...the only catch was that he may have gotten a little...shorter? Huh. Either way, Sora could have expected anything out of the real-life Neku - anything except for his own name.
"No way!" he gasped. "You remember me?"
Now, how did that work? He was sure where they’d met was the dream world. Could dreams really come true? Apparently! But while surprising at first, this new revelation didn’t bother Sora in the slightest and only added to his enthusiasm; not only was Neku okay, but he even remembered him back!
Neku’s questions enticed a light laugh out of the Keyblader. “Actually, the only reason I was in Traverse Town in the first place was because…” He stopped himself there. Like many things, Sora tended to forget that Joshua’s knowledge wasn’t the party’s knowledge; if Joshua knew they were in a dream at the time, it didn’t mean Neku and the others did. It did kinda make sense though, right? Neku and company were too busy focusing on winning their game to be paying attention to anything else.
So, what did Neku think about where here was? Or did he always think he was in the...real...world--
This was a mess.
“A-Anyway!” Sora happily shoved those thoughts off a cliff for the moment being. “Are you looking for your game partner, Neku?”
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2015 19:30:01 GMT
I WILL GRAB MY FREEDOM WITH MY OWN HANDS. Neku frowned for moment. Why was Sora so excited that he remembered him? If erasing his memories had been an option there were a few others things he would've preferred to forget but Sora wasn't one of them. Joshua had screwed with his memories more than once so it was entirely possible that the memories Neku did have weren't totally true. "Uh...yeah?" He raised an eyebrow, "You're pretty hard to forget I'd imagine." Sora's laugh brought a small smile to Neku's face. It was a relief to finally meet someone he knew and he could feel his irritation melting away. Had he really been that lonely or was Sora's cheerfulness catching? The lack of a proper answer to his question confused Neku but the other probably had his own reasons for being where he was and they could be personal so he let it slide. "My game partner?" Shaking his head Neku held out his left hand palm side up to show Sora the lack of a red countdown. "No I won the game, which means I should be back home and not here." And wasn't that a worrying little fact. Neku tried not to think about it, but it was entirely possible he wasn't ever going to make it back to Shibuya. Taking a breath he shoved that train of thought far away. Neku stepped closer to Sora to punch him lightly in the shoulder. "Speaking of which I thought the next time we were going to meet was going to be in Shibuya. What gives?" MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2015 21:52:29 GMT
That...couldn’t be good. it sounded like Neku wasn’t quite where he wanted to be yet. The Keyblader tended to get pretty cosy with all the world-hopping that he did, so sometimes he found it a little hard to remember that most people weren’t like him. Where Sora and his friends wanted to travel the outside worlds, others just genuinely wanted to go home. Neku was one of those people.
At least the other teen didn’t seem so beat up about it that he wanted to dampen the mood. Sora’s cheer rekindled at the light punch he received, a gloved sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. “...Yeah. I promised that, didn’t I? Well, it’s still a promise, Neku! We’ll still meet in Shibuya. It might just take a while now, that’s all.”
Gathering what he knew about Neku’s previous situation with the reapers (which really wasn’t much; he kept spacing out when Joshua talked about...well...the everything) and taking into account Neku’s winning of the game, he really should have been home by now. But there were certain conditions about your world that prevented you from going back to them, and one of those conditions was not a good one.
Sora pressed his lips together to some measure of doubt. “Uh...don’t freak out, but there was one time I couldn’t go back to the Destiny Islands - my home. And that was because it was pretty much taken over by darkness.”
There was literally no better way to say that.
“I’m not saying that that could have happened to your world!” Sora quickly amended, “B-But it’s just a thought! Y’know? Worlds don’t just keep you from going into them, and it sounds like your world is.”
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Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2015 2:49:08 GMT
 I WILL GRAB MY FREEDOM WITH MY OWN HANDS. "Good. I still have a bunch of stuff I want to show you." Namely all the CAT murals that Neku had gotten attached too. Probably the more touristy things too like the Hachi statue but there was always huge crowds of people and he was pretty sure the story behind the statue would have Sora crying in a heartbeat. Of course this was if he could find his way back home. Don't get him wrong these worlds were okay. The people were nice if perhaps just a tad to happy considering, but it wasn't home. The fact he'd already been gone so long worried him. Had time passed or would he go back the same day he'd died? Most importantly he wanted to make sure Shiki, Beat, Rhyme and Joshua were all okay. They were his friends and each day spent here just made the fear and worry worse. When someone started their sentence with don't freak out but- it was rarely anything good. This time was no different as Neku froze at the impact of just what Sora was implying sunk in. Darkness... his whole world could have been taken over by it? Destroyed or just in need of rescuing because Neku could do that. He'd already done it a few times, not that he knew how. Certainly Shibuya wouldn't have been completely destroyed while he'd been playing the game. Joshua and the reapers would've been destroyed to and the game would've ended and killed everyone. He was dead. Right. Supposedly he'd been brought back to life after winning the game but this wasn't Shibuya so was he still dead? The others too? Neku's head was starting to throb painfully as he tried to wrap his mind around the all the implications this could have. "Darkness? Like the man in the black coat from last time? That's not possible... is it?" The last part was spoken more to himself than Sora. Neku's pulse kicked up a few notches as he thought of something else. "What about the others? Would they have been kept out like me or if they were already back could they be... gone?" His voice cracked on the last word as if he could barely bring himself to say it. "I need to find them... I have to find them. I have to know they're okay." Neku turned his focus to Sora, pleading for help. He didn't know what to do or even how to go about looking for people in all the different worlds. Fear and worry were overflowing and his anxiety was rising. There was the need to move and work off some of this building negative energy but he couldn't just take off running he had to form a plan somehow. Neku shook his head, getting his emotions back under control... mostly. Panic wouldn't help. MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2015 22:12:52 GMT
Boy was Neku not wrong.
That guy in the black coat was still very much around and still very much wanted everyone's head on a stick, Sora didn't dignify Neku's inquiry, but he didn't deny it either.
As for the others, that was a really good question. But even Sora could see now that Neku was becoming too jittery as his imagination carried his friends through all kinds of bad situations.
“Whoa, okay, calm down,” Sora asserted, holding out his hands, “we don't know any of that yet. Your friends could be safe somewhere else! We'll find them, okay? Along with your world. But you need to chill first.” and if Sora was saying that, you probably did.
After a while, Neku seemed to do just that.
Now that that the general panic was overridden (to Sora, maybe), Sora pondered the first steps he could take to fix the problem. He wasn’t one for comfort talk, but he knew he could do at least something meaningful.
“Neku, come with me!”
Luckily, Sora found the town square on the first try this time - and the first place he headed for was the ice cream stall. Apparently they were still serving sea-salt icecream...but what did this have to do with fixing Neku's problem? Absolutely nothing. That was Sora’s point. Calm down.
“So, let’s see...How do we find your world?” Sora pondered aloud. Thinking back on his own experience, he could give off several answers on how the Destiny Islands was restored - but all those answers traced back to an even bigger one. And that answer decidedly summoned itself to the hand not occupying the half-eaten ice cream.
“Well...a lot of things happened to bring my world back, but mostly it was thanks to the Keyblade.”
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2015 2:06:23 GMT
 I WILL GRAB MY FREEDOM WITH MY OWN HANDS. Being chill was the last thing Neku wanted to be right now. His friends could be out there and in potential danger. How could he just stay still when he could be out there making sure everyone was safe. Neku sparred Sora an exasperated glare. Certainly he if all people should know this. Neku didn't trust his friends intentions though his actions and opinions were hopelessly naive on a near constant basis. The flicker of irritation that welled up when happy go lucky Sora was telling him of all people to calm down, snapped Neku out of his panic. It wasn't gone completely but he had a grip on himself again. "Hey wait don't just go around grabbing people!" Neku sputtered' concentrating on not tripping over his own feet as he followed along in the wake of Sora's... Soraness. Ice cream wasn't what he expected at all. What was this sea salt flavor? Sora seemed to love it as well as plenty of the townsfolk. Neku sniffed at the blue cream bar before taking a cautious lick. The sweet saltiness was a pleasant surprise and his treat was soon almost devoured. No one has mentioned a world called Shibuya that I've found. So I'm relying on you're expertise on this one." Neku licked the stickiness off his fingers as he spoke. Sora summoning his blade startled him. The teen had forgotten about the weapon and he hadn’t seen it up close. Neku leaned over to get a better look. It was aptly named... just a giant key with a chain coming off the end. "A keyblade? Is that what you and Riku fought the nightmares with? What does that have to do with my world?" If it was darkness then why did he need a keyblade? He could just use pins or a dream eater if he could find one again. He reached out as if to touch the blade but hesitated, fingers still hovering a good few inches above. MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2015 5:22:21 GMT
To Neku, it was probably just an exaggerated Key, but to people like Sora, it was an extension of his very heart. A beacon of light, as it were.
But unfortunately, being a beacon had its downsides; it meant anything that saw the light could be drawn to it. Sora liked to think that that was how the Heartless came to devour so many worlds. They wanted every bit of that light for themselves.
Trying to explain the Keyblade's significance in all of this would probably span over ten sea-salt ice creams and an extremely bored Neku, so the hero decidedly took another route.
"Did you ever notice any funny...black things running around? Big yellow eyes, sometimes antennae on their heads? We call those the heartless. The Keyblade is the only thing that can get rid of them."
Sora willingly placed the aformentioned weapon into Neku's hand, and for a while, it seemed to linger there as if comfortable. Predictably, however, it blinked out and retreated to Sora's grip.
"The heartless go around doing all sorts of bad things. There are a lot of pretty bad people, too, even if they're not heartless. Mostly, they all like to make stars go out. Stars are worlds." he tilted his head in reminisce, casting back to star-spangled nights of Traverse Town. The only other thing sadder than the ones who ended up in that place were the worlds that faded over it.
Seeing that he pretty much dowsed Neku with a little too much information, the brunet had the decency to feel a little bad about it. So after a second, he added, "It's okay if you don't understand any of what I'm talking about, Neku. Just know that I'll find your world and your friends. And then," he added with a thousand-watt grin, "we'll all go to Shibuya together. How's that sound?"
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2015 3:39:02 GMT
not just survive tonight!
Neku shifted his attention from the giant key to Sora as the other teen spoke. He was describing what most of the townsfolk seemed to considered nuisances and vermin. It shouldn't be surprising that they were more than just annoyances. Anything with glowing eyes was destined to be horrible. At least the Nightmares were kind of cute and animal like and less... outright evil looking. "I've seen a few heartless after waking up in Traverse Town. They don't seem like much fun."
He wasn't expecting for Sora to hand the keyblade to him and almost dropped it if not for quick reflexes. It didn't feel heavy at all and the grip was warm. Not only in a some one was just holding this warmth but also a peaceful, hopeful sort of way. The weapon didn't linger long and vanished back to Sora but even just those few seconds made him feel considerably happier and far less worried. If that's what sort of feeling the keyblade had Neku wouldn't mind having one of his own. He stuck his hands back in his pockets, curling them reflexively around his pins. They were his weapons and while he'd fought many battles with them and even won the game... they were just pins. There was no other feeling there, no connection.
"Those bad guys... are they like the man in the black robe?" Neku thought back to the man's promise, his betrayal and the bad guy vibe going on. No good guys that he'd meet ever wore a black coat, but he'd offered something that Neku had needed... Shaking head head a little to clear it he focused on the rest of that sentence. "Stars are worlds huh? There can't be that many out there right..." It was hard enough grasping worlds outside his own that were in fact real and not some game, let alone hundreds of thousands of those worlds. Such a fact was staggering so Neku decided to leave that for now. Bad guys he could handle.
"After all that's happened, visiting Shibuya together sounds wonderful. I get the feeling that it might not be so easy though." He buried a hand in his hair and sighed. Even if Sora was positive he could do everything he promised and Neku trusted him to do it... the reality of things bad it hard to hope. In the end he wasn't going to rescue any of the others or his own world by standing here. "I can understand bad guys and needing to defeat them to make a world a better place. If Shibuya has been swallowed by darkness I have to do something about it. It's my home, I'll do anything."
Neku dropped his arm and smiled softly. "Thank you Sora. If anyone can do it it'll be you." He'd seen this kid do some amazing stuff already. "You can count on my help, what little it's worth anyway. All I've got are these pins. I've used them to destroy the darkness but I'm assuming it's no good without a keyblade?" That would explain some of the looks he'd gotten when people asked to see what he would use to get rid of the heartless. Not that it was any of their business to look at his stuff.
Well, baby, you are all that I adore I'm an angel with a shotgun [googlefont="Oswald"][googlefont="Lobster"] |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2015 12:11:40 GMT
Neku’s pins looked powerful, though powerful was always a rocky term when it came to the heartless. A single key could take on armies and keep them down. A standard blade would just be a nifty exercise in futility. Neku’s pins probably wouldn’t do much for a permanent solution, but friends like Neku were what gave Sora - and therefore his Keyblade - strength.
Sora nodded.
“Yep. Only the keyblade can fight back against the darkness...though, it’s got a few drawbacks.” He scratched his cheek awkwardly. “...See, the heartless can sense the keyblade, and because of that, the wielders get attacked more often than anyone else. But I don’t regret it,” he rescued. “As long I’m protecting the ones important to me, the Heartless can take me on all the want! Better me than anyone else.”
Sora was pretty airy in himself, but he didn’t miss to notice the relief that had long washed over his friend, of course. It made him relieved too. “You look like you’re feeling better.” he observed. Maybe Sora’s powers of reassurance were just that good? Or maybe Neku found himself something to feel reassured about. Whatever that something was, Sora was confident the teen was going to be a-okay from here on forward.
After a light stretch, the keywielder hopped off the ledge he’d been sitting on to dust off his umbrellas for shorts. “Well, Neku. it looks like there aren't any Heartless around anymore - at least for now. It’s high time I headed on to my next mission.”
Before he would leave, he turned to Neku with another of his high-watt smiles and waved.
”Let's hang out again sometime, okay?”
TAG: @neku
NOTES: Reeeally sorry for the late! Hope this is a good stop. I'd be stoked for more Neku and Sora plotting in the future. :] |
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