heartswillbeone (
heartswillbeone) wrote in
allsoend2013-12-15 06:18 pm
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A day with family remembered
Who: Kairi and Ven, but more can appear
What: The first memory in the next chain...where does it lead?
Where: Memory chains
Warnings: Nothing thusfar
There are seven new sparks of light remaining in the darkness along with the others at the end of Sora’s last available memory. When touched, the light of this memory opens up onto a bright, warm place that no one present would recognize. It doesn’t appear to look like any world anyone would have visited before, while at the same time feeling strangely familiar.
The scene actually starts from a bird’s eye view before those visiting find themselves suddenly swept to the ground. From above can be seen a wide lake fed by two waterfalls, with a vast forest hugging sloping mountains on one side, and a large town spreading out on the other. Up the hill from the town is a castle, although it’s not recognizable.
When brought down to the ground, those visiting will find themselves in an open-air plaza, situated right next to a garden overflowing with gorgeous flowers. A couple small clusters of people are talking or enjoying lunch in the plaza; there looks to be a bakery nearby. The two will find themselves closest to a father and son sitting at a table right next to the garden’s entrance. The father, looking to be in his late thirties, sports dark skin, black hair and blue eyes, while his son is a squirrely six-year-old with brown eyes. The boy apparently has a beloved pet with him: a blue beta fish with yellow-edged fins swimming around in a small fish bowl. The father is attempting to get the boy to sit down and eat the sandwiches just purchased, but the boy is too busy fussing over the fish or getting up to look at the gardens closer.
There is one thing distinct about this place: it seems to be overflowing with light. Everything here feels happy and at peace.
What: The first memory in the next chain...where does it lead?
Where: Memory chains
Warnings: Nothing thusfar
There are seven new sparks of light remaining in the darkness along with the others at the end of Sora’s last available memory. When touched, the light of this memory opens up onto a bright, warm place that no one present would recognize. It doesn’t appear to look like any world anyone would have visited before, while at the same time feeling strangely familiar.
The scene actually starts from a bird’s eye view before those visiting find themselves suddenly swept to the ground. From above can be seen a wide lake fed by two waterfalls, with a vast forest hugging sloping mountains on one side, and a large town spreading out on the other. Up the hill from the town is a castle, although it’s not recognizable.
When brought down to the ground, those visiting will find themselves in an open-air plaza, situated right next to a garden overflowing with gorgeous flowers. A couple small clusters of people are talking or enjoying lunch in the plaza; there looks to be a bakery nearby. The two will find themselves closest to a father and son sitting at a table right next to the garden’s entrance. The father, looking to be in his late thirties, sports dark skin, black hair and blue eyes, while his son is a squirrely six-year-old with brown eyes. The boy apparently has a beloved pet with him: a blue beta fish with yellow-edged fins swimming around in a small fish bowl. The father is attempting to get the boy to sit down and eat the sandwiches just purchased, but the boy is too busy fussing over the fish or getting up to look at the gardens closer.
There is one thing distinct about this place: it seems to be overflowing with light. Everything here feels happy and at peace.
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"Just as many," he asserted, still smirking. Riku wasn't really lazy, and he remembered well how he caught Kairi hanging with Sora instead of working on the raft. He hadn't hesitated to call her out on it then.
Riku doubted they'd find any Heartless either. This place was far too at ease. Why DO they have munny anyway? Not like they need it. Then again, it didn't seem fair that hearts held by darkness could carry it and here they were, pure hearts, and they couldn't even carry a facsimile of it with them. It was a shame they couldn't open up a tab... right?
Riku briefly wondered if there was such a thing as a collective memory.
Yeah. It really didn't make sense, and Riku knew it. He resumed watching the scene unfold, listening to Toshi and his father and watching the couple.
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She raised an eyebrow at Riku again. Do you mean the people in the memory, or them back when this happened? I'm sure people needed to make a living even in a place like this. She heard of very few worlds that didn't use munny in some capacity. I guess we could always leave before having to pay a bill. Not like they'd find us, anyway! She joked. Although she was not-so-secretly thinking it wouldn't be fair to stiff a waiter, even in a memory.
Kairi caught on that kind of thinking, and continued it a little further. It would explain some of what they were feeling here...but then, how collective of a memory could they be talking about?
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Toshi leaned forward once the drink arrived. Can I have some of the lemonade?
How about you finish one sandwich first?
Pleeeease?
The father finally smiled back at his son. Apparently he had a face that was hard to resist. Okay...just a little.
He scooted the drink closer to the center of the table so that Toshi could take a sip. However, in his leaning over, he got part of that sandwich all over his shirt, as little kids did.
Oh, Toshi... His dad groaned, and pushed the lemonade aside again to try and get his son to sit down and be neater. This unfortunately spilled some of it on the table, which got Toshi reaching for it again.
Father and son were so engrossed in the situation with the lemonade and sandwiches that both failed to notice the current situation of their third party: the beta fish in the fishbowl. The tomcat stepped up onto the wall beside the table now, and observed the fishbowl with a hungry look. It considered this opportunity for a snack, and then decided to make a move for it while the humans were distracted. The cat plunged its head straight into the bowl, grabbed the fish by the tail and pulled it out.
The splash instantly grabbed Toshi's attention, and he turned with wide eyes to find his pet in the cat's mouth. FINNY!
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No, "they" as in Heartless. Why do they have munny? If their bodies went elsewhere, why did Heartless have it? Nobodies made better sense, though they had it, too. Hmm, they wouldn't, but honestly I'd rather not cheat a memory out of paying for food we can't really eat. Not only was Riku not exactly okay with it, he also found it not worth the potential risk.
If Kingdom Hearts was collecting memories, "collective" could be every memory of that world at that time.
Riku atypically acted without so much as a thought. On sheer impulse he quickly vaulted over the wall, making a dash for the tomcat with the beta in its mouth. There's not much time!
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You know...maybe it's something we shouldn't think about. She certainly didn't want to stop and think over it too much, because the idea of Heartless was always just a little bit upsetting for her. Call it a throwback to things that happened with Sora when they were younger. Yeah. It hardly seems fair, even to memory-people!
Her thoughts were interrupted by the cat's sudden grab for the fish. Her eyes widened in shock, and her first thought was that they should try and intervene, if for nothing else than the obvious fact that the boy really loved that pet. But to her even greater surprise, Riku beat her to the punch, vaulting over the wall and going after the cat right away. That was fast, even for him!
"Riku, wait!" She called after him, and broke into a run after the cat as well.
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His father started up and made a move to grab for the cat, but just missed it. He also saw the two visitors go chasing after it, and looked a bit baffled at this whole situation. Where'd they come from, anyway? Hey, wait!
The tomcat saw straightaway that it wasn't just going to be able to sneak off with this prize. It leapt down from the wall with the fish still in its mouth, and sprinted straight into the gardens, running in a zig-zag pattern for the nearest place it could climb or hide. This could prove difficult for the two of them, as there were plenty of both such places in that garden for a cat.
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Climbing, Riku could do if the cat decided to. He'd scaled many a palm tree, and a tree with branches would be a piece of cake. However, the zig-zag pattern proved troublesome for Riku. While he was very fast, Riku was also very tall, meaning that with a higher center of gravity, those hair-pin turns forced him to slow down. That didn't deter him in the slightest, though.
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She darted down the garden rows by Riku, eventually running off to another side from him so that she could attempt to cut the cat off. Talk about trying to herd cats!
Once she thought she was close enough, she attempted a grab to get it by the scruff of the neck.
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The tomcat figured it would have to be fast if it wanted to keep its lunch. After a feline glare down at the two visitors, it threw its head back with a sharp jerk, and gulped the fish down whole. In a series of quick swallows, poor Finny was gone.
Perhaps the one good out of this was that Toshi wouldn’t be able to see his pet’s demise. His father, however, was still trailing after them through the garden paths. Hey!
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Just as he considered simply trying to float up there, the cat downed the fish. Riku felt strangely cold. "No..."
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She ran over to his side, keeping one eye on the cat as she did. "Riku! Are you all right?"
Kairi stooped to help him back up, but it quickly became apparent that Riku was not all right. Following Riku's gaze up to the wall, she saw the cat swallow up that poor fish, and her heart sank.
She knew that Riku of course would care about trying to help out a little kid that lost his pet, but he was definitely reacting strongly here. Then again...she felt a lot of that cold sadness, too, and an odd sense of responsibility. Why wasn't she able to stop that cat from getting away?
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By that point, the father had caught up with them, and stopped just behind the two. He stopped to catch his breath, and his face fell once he realized they'd been too late to stop the cat. Oh, no...
He put his hands on his hips and sighed with the kind of resignation dreaded by every parent: having to explain to their child what happened to their pet. He even sounded a little guilty. I shouldn't have let him bring that fish with us...
The boy in question came running up towards them too, obviously too small to keep up at that breakneck speed. He looked and sounded terribly anxious. Dad! Did you get Finny?...
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It was a parent's responsibility to explain this sort of thing. That said, Riku felt like he had a stake in this, too. There was no doubt by now he and Kairi had been noticed by the father and likely little Toshi. As such, he stood nearby, ready to offer any support he could. It wasn't his fish, and they were strangers, but he still ran after the cat. He still involved himself.
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She was more concerned about the boy approaching them. She hadn't expected them to get so involved with this memory, but there was little turning back now. She glanced back towards Riku, uncertain of what to say to him or to the father in this memory.
Well, there was at least one thing. "I'm sorry..."
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The two visitors had definitely been noticed by father and son, especially the father, who kept giving Kairi a somewhat confused look. But that quickly fell by the wayside when Toshi caught up with them. The father looked pained, but then knelt down so that he was more eye level with his son. No, Toshi. I’m sorry. We didn’t reach it in time.
F-finny’s…
The information that his friend was gone slowly sank in, and the boy’s eyes welled up with giant tears. It was clear that he wanted to go ahead and cry, but was holding it in in an effort to appear stronger to the two strangers. He choked back a sob. The father stood back up, and nodded towards Riku and Kairi. Can you say thank you? This young man got hurt trying to get Finny back.
Toshi stepped forward, snuffling and rubbing at his eyes, although there was no hiding the tear streaks on his cheeks. Th-thank you for trying to help Finny. He swallowed, and looked to the ground, scuffing his shoes. When Finny comes back I’m sure he’ll say thank you, too.
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He could only wish he were responsible, though he felt he could relate to a fish being a fighter. He couldn’t quite figure out why the father was giving Kairi an odd look, though. It was Riku with the grass clippings across the seat of his pants.
When the father said Riku’d been hurt, he simply waved a hand. He was fine. He did kneel down when Toshi stepped forward. With a bit of a sad smile, Riku replied, “It’ll be okay.” He stopped suddenly, looking to Kairi. What am I thinking? Looking back to the child, he paused, then continued in a way that made more sense. “It’s hard now, but you’re trying to pull yourself together. You’re a tough kid. Like how Finny was a tough fish.” He smiled slightly at the miserable cat still out of reach. “Or is.”
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What are you thinking? She thought back at Riku. There was no sense un-involving themselves from the whole matter now, but trying to console a sad boy was tough for anyone.
Toshi's last statement, however, left her a little confused. Did he think that his fish was going to come back somehow? Sure, it was putting up a good fight now, but that wasn't going to last forever. She debated whether she should respond to it or not, but decided too, anyway...that strange feeling of responsibility wasn't going away. "I'm sorry, but...I don't think Finny's gonna come back. That's why you have to be brave now. And I know you will be...you're being really brave right now, I can tell!" He certainly seemed to be taking it as well as a little kid possibly could.
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Yeah, I-I know... Toshi was still struggling to hold back full tears, but was momentarily distracted from his grief for the opportunity to demonstrate his knowledge to strangers. But didn't your mom and dad tell you? When a heart has to go away from the world, Kingdom Hearts calls it back to the place where all hearts and all the light comes from. Then it stays with all the other hearts and it's happy because there's light there. He paused for another quick snuffle. Then when it's ready, Kingdom Hearts brings it back to the world and the heart turns into a new thing.
Toshi looked towards his father for approval of getting this correct, and got it with a silent, affirming nod. S-so...I know his heart will be happy and come back someday as someone new..." But finally the grief got to the boy, and he broke down sobbing. He ran back to his father and wrapped his arms around one leg. B-but I miss Finny now!
The father knelt down and gave his son a hug, giving him the safe space to cry freely for his pet. He didn't say anything, although he did keep glancing towards both Riku and Kairi with a thoughtful expression.
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As Toshi told his story, Riku's expression became serious and thoughtful as he looked to the child. Slowly he turned to Kairi with a similar expression, but still spoke to the child. "No... My parents never told me that." Slowly he looked back to the child in front of him. Those additional words left him even more thoughtful.
His eyes widened slightly when Toshi began to cry, and Kairi would get a sense of Riku trying to figure out how to comfort a sobbing child. Undoubtedly she'd also feel his relief When Toshi went back to his father.
After a moment, Riku stood and turned back to Kairi, speaking quietly. "Thanks for helping me out when I took off."
And then something came to mind and he went over to the child to kneel again. "Hey. If what you're saying is true, you know what? Maybe you and Finny will be friends next time, too. And who knows? Maybe you'll be a fish and he'll be human."
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"Oh...no, I'm sorry, mine didn't tell me that, either," she replied to Toshi's question.
That wasn't the sort of reaction Kairi was expecting, especially from a young child. Kingdom Hearts was a distant, strange thing to her and everyone she knew...or at least it had been before now. But this family seemed to talk about it as if it were common knowledge. That left a pretty big hint as to where they were now, especially since this world felt so full of light. Maybe this isn't any specific world...maybe it's the whole world, before it was broken up by the Keyblade War.
Kairi's breath caught a little bit once Toshi started crying, and her first instinct was that she needed to reach out and comfort him. But she hesitated, which was probably for the best, since the boy ran to his father instead. She was left feeling a little saddened by the whole affair, and wishing that she could do more.
She smiled back at him. "Anytime, Riku."
She didn't add on to Riku's statement to Toshi, because it was appropriate words of comfort. But she couldn't help wondering... If this really is the ancient past...then that's probably already happened for them. Maybe even multiple times.
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Toshi was too busy crying to respond much to their admittance at not hearing this about Kingdom Hearts. However, from the dad's thoughtful looks, it was clear this sort of thing was supposed to be more common knowledge. After getting out his initial crying, he tried again to snuffle it down and wipe away his tears.
He faced Riku when Riku addressed him again, hiccuping back another sob. M-maybe...although I wouldn't know it's Finny and he wouldn't know it's me... He thought over this more, trying hard to find the good in it. But it's still our hearts being friends, so it's okay, even if we don't remember.
Another series of snuffles, and he felt cried out enough to let go of his dad, at least for now. It seemed like the thought of their roles being reversed was a little strange for him, but could make sense. A-and I bet if my heart was a fish and his was a person, he'd be really strong and smart and not let any dumb old cat get me!
The cat simply ignored the jab from below, hunched up on the ivy-covered wall. It started to clean itself again, trying to act nonchalant but not completely succeeding. This fish was going to give it an ulcer at this rate.
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His eyes widened at the thought of this being the whole World, curiousity piqued. Then man what I'd give to be able to take a longer look. And then a thoughtful, speculative idea floated though his mind. If Kingdom Hearts was always hidden, and there's only a World instead of worlds, could Kingdom Hearts be the heart of this World?
"You know, you're right, you won't remember. But a friend of mine taught me about memories. Listen up, now it's my turn to teach you something." I owe Namine one. "Just because something's forgotten doesn't mean it's gone. If your hearts are still friends, then it won't be gone, right?"
And then there was a time to simply humor the kid. With a smile he replied, "I bet you're right. And you know what I'd bet he'd do? He'd keep you at home and use blocks to build a wall almost as tall as the bowl. He'd turn it into your very own castle. You'd be nice and safe and you'd be King Fish." Emphasis on keeping him at home.
Riku continued on Kairi's thought of their hearts having gone to new people. Does Toshi seem familiar to you? He couldn't shake the feeling, and he had a lingering suspicion he couldn't quite shake.
Having that cat up there wasn't helping things. It couldn't see Riku's scowl. He briefly considered throwing something at it, but the thought was short-lived. Vengeance didn't help anyone. ...But reality checks did. If it was gutsy enough to linger after what it did, then it deserved what was coming. Riku walked to the wall quietly, slowly reaching up to take hold of the ivy with both hands. His height came in especially handy here since it meant he could pull that much further down when he jerked back abruptly.
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I don't know...I feel like it's bigger even than the heart of a whole world. It had kept using the term 'we' instead of 'I' to describe itself. But I'm starting to wonder if this isn't why we can't pinpoint whose memory it is...
You don't think maybe that fishy would get a little bored being at home all day? She teased Riku. Even if that definitely was the safest spot for a fish. Riku's encouragements to Toshi got her to thinking about some other things, though...what happened if you did forget everything, like the hearts with Kingdom Hearts now that were completely blank? Where did those lifetimes of memories go, if they became unchained from their original heart?
Yeah, he does...but his dad feels even more familiar to me, somehow. It was almost unsettling in a way. She sensed that Riku had that lingering suspicion, and in turn shared it.
Kairi wasn't sure what Riku intended when he approached the wall with the cat on it...and while normally she probably would've scolded him for being mean to a cat, in this case she couldn't help laughing a bit under her breath. Talk about a reality check.
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He tried to perk up a little more at Riku's suggestion, letting his imagination go further. He'd build a castle big enough for both of us! he declared. And all our other friends, too.
His father crossed his arms and sighed, a small smile on his face. At least he had something else to focus on than grief over what happened.
The cat definitely wasn't expecting Riku suddenly yanking on the vines under its feet. It nearly fell off the wall with a surprised yowl, but jumped back up before it completely lost its footing. It took off running down the wall and jumped from there to another tree and then to the grounds, deeper into the gardens, growling and hissing the entire way. Before too long, it was gone.
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That's why Finny would read his fish stories he thought back in an equally teasing manner. Her thoughts mingled a bit with his. Perhaps one of those memories went to be etched in another heart as a foundation, lost in its darkness but there to forever shape it. Perhaps they were lost forever, or perhaps they were kept safe by the vastness of Kingdom Hearts itself. Maleficent herself had said that within Kingdom Hearts lay untold wisdom... Now that was a thought.
Yeah. He seems... very caring and patient. And gently teasing, I remember... And something else. Like a presence, I guess. Riku never was one to beat around the bush too long. He reminds me of you, Kairi.
Smiling, Riku shook his head. "How about making friends with anyone born after today. Finny's heart can't swim that fast."
"Maybe if he asked for his dad's help he could make a little castle fort, and his dad would show him how to build things. And he'd make a sturdy shelf by a window for you." Kairi would know well that Riku spoke from some experience. His own father had taught him how to build. While the woodwork on the play island was certainly older than Riku, he and his father were some of those who helped repair it.
Riku smirked slightly as the cat vociferously ran off. "Good riddance."
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Done?