exsiliumlogs | But I was so much older then...

Entry tags:

But I was so much older then...

Date & Time: Monday 21January and Tuesday 22January, all day
Location: Oot n aboot
Characters: Lea!Axel and YOU
Summary: Axel is now an obnoxious trolly fifteen-year-old with a heart instead of an obnoxious trolly Nobody without one. Who wants to play frisbee?
Warnings: Gratuitous use of catchphrases

It wasn't the first time he'd woken up someplace he didn't recognize, but the last time it had happened it was because he and Isa had fallen down a rocky hillside and he'd been knocked unconscious. This definitely wasn't a rocky hillside. In fact, it was kind of like a hotel room or something. What was he doing at an inn?

Lea sat up and scratched his head. No, this wasn't a hotel room, there was no TV and no little fridge and it looked a little too lived-in somehow. Was this someone's house?

With a shrug, he swung his feet over the edge of the bed and stood up, stretching his arms over his head and then letting them fall to his sides. Well, wherever he was, he sure wasn't figuring it out in here. Grabbing his frisbees and poking his head out into the hall, he headed into the hallway and for the front door.

[feel free to run into him wherever! he doesn't have any marques, so he might be hanging around food establishments peering mournfully at noms. buy the skinny kid a burger? he likes infiltrating fancy looking buildings, too, so you might find him scaling the ruins later in the afternoon. you're also just as likely to find him napping in inconvenient places. he's also always up for a friendly spar or a game of frisbee, so long as you're willing to call it a draw.

[as the day progresses and Tuesday rolls around he'll be kind of distraught cuz he has no idea where he is or where his best friend is, so if you're planning to see him later on Monday or on Tuesday you are welcome to note that.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She hadn't seen Axel all day, which was unusual enough in and of itself. But now that they were back in Exsilium, She went back to her usual routine and didn't think much of it.

It was later however, once she'd finished her training, that she returned to their apartment with Roxas in tow and walked over to his door and knocked.

"Axel?" she called.

He hadn't locked the door when he'd left, so at least he had someplace to go back to. This place was weird. And grey. And cold. And rainy! It was kind of lame and he was really confused. Sure, it rained in Radiant Garden--it even snowed once in a while!--but this place sure wasn't Garden. The buildings were all falling apart, and none of them were the right buildings anyway, so where the heck was he? Where was the castle?

Where was Isa?

Ugh, this was terrible. Lea thought to himself that the only thing to do in this kind of situation was to take a nap and hope everything was better when he woke up, and so he trudged back to the apartment where he'd woken up (803; he'd memorized it when he'd left) and poked his head back inside. Good, nobody home--this place was too big to belong to just one person, and he wasn't sure he wanted to run into anyone else right now. Slipping back into the room where he'd woken up, he flopped backward onto the bed and draped his arms over his face.

Surely when he woke up, things would be back to normal.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed when he was jerked awake by a knock at the door and the sound of a girl's voice. Disoriented and confused, Lea rubbed at the crown of his head as he sat up. Wait, this wasn't his room!

Oh, right, he was in that weird rainy city with buildings that weren't Radiant Garden's and people who weren't Isa.

What had the voice said? Axel? What the heck was an Axel?

And what was he supposed to do now?

Well, the person on the other side of the door hadn't sounded like a grownup; if it was a kid maybe he could just talk to them and find out what was going on! He couldn't get in trouble for squatting in someone's room from another kid, right?

Tugging the door open and peering out into the hallway, Lea rubbed the back of his head.

"Uh... can I help you?"

As soon as things returned to... well, Roxas wouldn't say normal, because normal would mean back home in the Castle That Never Was, but when they went back to the new normal of being in Exsilium, he struck out immediately to hunt down Axel and Xion. It seems like they kept getting separated whenever the Initiative moved them. That probably means that that's a new normal, too, but Roxas doesn't like it at all, and wonders if he can put a word in with someone about it.

He had managed to find Xion easy enough, and for that, he was grateful. But when she said she hadn't heard from him, either, Roxas hadn't been worried. He figured Axel was just napping again. It makes sense, after all; for all Roxas knows, time traveling takes a lot out of Axel, and if he wants to spend his first day back sleeping, then it's no big deal.

But the person who opens the door to Axel's room... isn't Axel. He kinda looks like Axel, a little, what with the hair and the eyes and the narrow face, but he's... well. He's their size, and he doesn't seem to know who they are.

All Roxas can do is stand there and stare blankly at the kid standing in Axel's room. "Who are you?"

Maybe he kind of blurts the words. They just fall right out of his mouth before he could stop them, and, really, in two-second-later-hindsight, Roxas isn't even sure if he should've said something else. Because. Well. Seriously, who is this guy? And why is he in Axel's room?

Roxas had just about said everything that was going on in her head, as soon as the door had opened. As a matter of fact she took an abrupt step back, because... who was this person and what were they doing in her best friend's room? What had happened?

And yet... there's a faint pause too while she scrutinizes his face and... definitely sees something familiar there. The hair is the same, but shorter. The eyes and the face are really similar too. He looked a lot like Axel, but...

"You're not Axel..." she said, tentatively, "...are you?"

Lea blinked at the two figures in the doorway. They were both wearing long black coats, and one of them--the one with the girl's voice--had her hood up so he couldn't see her face. The other one, though, as soon as he saw the blond boy's face a big grin split his expression.

"Ven!" he exclaimed, throwing the door open and taking him by the shoulders. "Whaddaya mean who am I? Have you forgotten our perfectly evenly matched duel from the other day?"

Really; he would have thought more people would memorize these things.

He shook his head at the girl in the hood then.

"No, I dunno any Axel," he said, thrusting his hand out toward her, "but any friend of Ven's is a friend of mine. I'm Lea; what's your name?"

And why did they both look so baffled?

"Ven?" Roxas echoes, visibly becoming only more confused. "Who's Ven? I've never met you before in my life!"

He has a sudden urge to move in front of Xion, which is ridiculous, because there isn't anything to protect her from. ... Right? This Lea person is just offering to shake Xion's hand. Still, his scowl deepens. What is this guy's deal?

Xion meanwhile, was staring at Lea's hand like she had no idea what to do with it. Which. She didn't. She'd never done the whole formal introduction sort of thing in the Organization before. That, on top of this person thinking he recognized Roxas but calling him a different name entirely...

What was going on?

Still, guided by some kind of instinct, she mirrors the gesture, holding out her hand to him. But not taking his.

"Xion," she replied, her voice very unsure.

Still... maybe... maybe she should try to figure out what happened. "Um..." she stammered, "There's.. someone who lives in that room, or at least he's supposed to. His name's Axel, and... he's our friend. Have you seen him?"

Edited 2013-01-30 07:34 (UTC)

Lea blew a raspberry and grinned impishly at Ventus.

"Gimme a break," he said; "like I'd forget your face. I told you we're friends now, so you're gonna have to try harder than that to get rid of me." Gosh, he didn't remember Ven being such a grumpface. Maybe he was having a bad day.

He blinked when the girl stuck her hand out, then tilted his head to try and peer beneath the hood. He couldn't quite make out a face, but her eyes looked kind of blue.

"Xion," he echoed, and then made a grand point of slowly closing his fingers around her smaller hand and shaking it with slightly exaggerated movements. "It's nice to meet you! How long have you known Ven? I only met him once, the other day; I didn't know he was such a kidder!"

And then he quirked his mouth and shook his head.

"Oh, this is your friend's room?" he asked, and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, I haven't seen anybody. I woke up and I was in this place and I had no idea how I got there. What's he look like? Maybe I can help you find him! I guess I should at least say sorry for accidentally breaking into his room."

Roxas' eye twitches.

"I told you, my name isn't Ven," he says, more loudly than he maybe intends. "I'm not joking round! My name's Roxas."

Not only does this guy have his ears plugged, apparently, but he's acting weird about Xion, too. Why is he tilting his head like that? What's with the way he's shaking Xion's hand? It's like he's making fun of her, or something.

Frodo could count the last hour as a success. Already he had raided a good several of restaurants, liberating them of a few choice pastries and pies slices here and there. Only small amounts, as much as he could carry without a mess, and without too much notice. And besides, if he took too much, others wouldn't have any. Even if he felt like he was starving half the time; they really didn't know how to eat like most hobbits did, and not nearly often enough.

Frodo had just come away with his last success when he found a gangly lad, taller than he, staring at the restaurant he'd just come from. One of the Big Folk, with hair that was either the color of fire or a carrot.

"Hullo?" Frodo said at his elbow. What was he doing there? He hadn't seen him slip out of the kitchens, had he?

He had always been a fan of sweet things, and the smell of the freshly baked breads and pies wafting out of the nearby bakery was reminding Lea that he hadn't had anything to eat today. Paused in front of the tall glass window, he gazed mournfully at the racks of bread and beautiful boxed cakes within. His stomach growled angrily at him, and Lea sighed, sort of sagging against the window. What kind of store didn't take munny? He had a handful in his pocket, but when he'd tried to pay for a sandwich with it the shopkeep had looked at him like a criminal and shooed him away.

Well, fine, he hadn't wanted that stinking sandwich anyway!

His stomach growled again. Gosh, he sure would have liked a loaf of that bread, though.

With a heavy sigh, Lea turned away from the window, then glanced down when he heard a voice. And then he glanced a bit further down. There was a small boy standing near him, with a shock of curly dark hair and big bright eyes. And an armful of decidedly delicious looking pastries. Lea lifted his eyebrows inquiringly.

"Hi," he said. "Are... you lost or somethin'?"

This kid looked way too small to just be wandering around on his own. Maybe if he helped him find his mom or something he'd share one of those pastries!

Frodo shifted the pastries in hand, renewing his grip, for he had been mere seconds away from dropping one or all on the ground. After the work he had put into getting them, even losing one would be too much.

"No," Frodo then, after thinking it over, said quickly, "Yes, I suppose. I know how to get to my room from here but not how to get home."

The hobbit looked from where the lad was hovering and where he had been looking. Really, what was he doing?

"What are you doing around here anyway? If you are thinking of lifting some cakes from here, I wouldn't bother if I were you. This kitchen watches them too closely."

He sort of flinched when the littler boy shifted his grip and nearly lost a few of the pastries, sort of reaching out as if to help, but he didn't want him to think he was trying to take them from him (much as he would have liked to help lighten his load).

"I dunno how to get home either," Lea admitted, folding his arms. "I'm not even sure how I got here." He frowned at him, furrowing his brow a bit. "Lift? You mean steal?" Lea pursed his lips. "I'd thought about it," he admitted. "I tried to pay, but they wouldn't take my money..."

He sighed and curled one arm around his midsection.

"Man I'm hungry, though," he complained. "Even if I did steal something, though, my friend would prolly scold me when I found him."

Stupid Isa. Maybe if he stole something the jerk would show up to yell at him so he could stop looking fruitlessly for him.

Rika, was standing by one of the hybrid fruit stands, just as hungry as Lea and lacking marques. What she doesn't know is that money was required to buy the food. She can't just grab anything for free like back home! The four-year-old girl snatches up some fruit and starts biting into it. Luckily, the shopkeeper hasn't seen the tiny child. At least, not yet.

When she spots Lea nearby staring at the food, she totters right up to him and holds out some fruit. It's stolen fruit! ...She doesn't seem to know that though.

Growing up in a world full of gardens means Lea appreciates fresh produce almost as much as he likes sweets. But the guy at the fruit stand won't take his munny either. What kind of screwy city is this, anyway, where the people won't take perfectly good munny?

Lingering nearby with a hand on his chin in thought, Lea attempts to come up with a plan. Maybe if he offers to do some sort of work in return for the food? If they won't take his money, maybe he can work for a tab? Ugh, but working is so lame, they should just take the munny he has!

He glances down when movement catches his eye, and his jaw slides ajar when he sees a little girl standing at his feet, her arms outstretched. She's got some fruit in her tiny hands, holding it out to him, and Lea just sort of blinks at her. He likes kids, and she's awful cute, but who does she belong to?

Dropping to a crouch, he holds his hand out to accept the offered fruit, smiling at her.

"Hi there," he says jovially. "Where'd you come from?"

And where had she gotten the fruit from? Did her parents buy it for her? Maybe if he brought her back to them they would buy him something too!

She drops the fruit in his hands. He's smiling now! Did she cheer him up? Seeing that makes Rika smile even brighter, feeling proud.

"Mii. Nipa~☆" She beams happily. Those little noises are going to come from her often. It sounds like words she made up herself.

As for where she came from, the question brings her a look of confusion. Turning in circles, she tries to recognize the area she's in. Somehow, she wandered too far off from the makeshift daycare she was staying at.

Her smile quickly fades once she begins to realize how lost she is. "I don't know how I got here..."

Lea looks at the fruit that has been deposited in his hands and then gives the girl a slightly puzzled look. Well, that was easy, but he's not sure it's okay to just take it. Had someone bought it for her? He can't just take a kid's food, even if she did give it to him.

He tilts his head then. "Nipa... is that your name?" he asks. "My name's Lea, it's nice to meet you!"

Rising to his feet again as she peers around, Lea frowns a bit as she puzzles. Well, she does look pretty young, it'd be understandable if she'd gotten lost. He looks down at the fruit a moment. He really wants to eat it, but... no, he has to at least help this girl first.

"Were you with your ma?" he asks, leaning forward. "What does she look like? Maybe I can help you find her."

"My name isn't Nipa..." Rika shakes her head. After he introduces himself, she follows up with her own introduction and dipping herself into a polite bow. She's going along with the Japanese etiquette that she was taught growing up. "It's Rika! Furude Rika. It's nice to meet you too, Lea-oniichan."

She frowns sadly. There were already a few that offered to help her, but it was useless for them to try.

"With Mama? I was with my friend, Hanyuu. But, I'm the only one that can see her." With the way she explains it, it sounds like she's speaking of an imaginary friend that only she can see. She always thought there were four people in her family, despite her mother's protests.

He makes a bit of a face at the suffix she adds to his name, but she seems to have a bit of a funny way of talking anyway, so he doesn't think too much of it.

"Oh, a friend only you can see, huh?" He grins a bit, then leans forward and cups a hand by his mouth. "I've had a few of those myself," he admits in a stage whisper, "so I know how it is."

Well it's true. He had an imaginary friend up until he was about this girl's age, actually, so he can't really make fun of her for it. He grew out of it, sure, and found himself a pretty awesome friend in Isa, which is way better than an imaginary one anyway. She'll probably do the same. In the meantime, though, he isn't quite sure how he can help her find someone only she can see.

Straightening again, he puts a hand on his chin.

"Do you live around here?" he asks then. If he can't help her find her friend, he can at least try and take her home or something. Kids shouldn't wander around by themselves in a place like this, he has to think.

Hearing that he had similar kinds of friends gets another little smile out of her head. It makes her glad she's not the only one! At his question though, she shakes her head. Returning her home is going to be tough. "Mii... I don't know this place."

Then, a man's voice calls out towards the two... "Hey, you kids! Did you pay for that?" It's coming from one of the shopkeepers at the food stall filled with fruit. He doesn't look too happy.

Paying? The fruit was just sitting out in a basket! Rika thought it was free for the taking. The people from her village never seemed to mind whenever she grabbed some snacks from their store. Turning towards the voice, she only stares in confusion. She still has some of the stolen fruit left in her hands...

Wait, if she doesn't know this place either, had she just shown up here like him? Lea supposes that part of him is glad to know he wasn't the only one, but she's so little! How could somebody just kidnap her and bring her to this weird place?

Before he really has a chance to think about it, an angry voice breaks through his contemplation and he snaps his head up. What? Pay? Had she stolen this fruit? He quickly drops to a crouch in front of her again and meets her eye.

"Did you just take this fruit?" he asks, then smiles a bit. "It's okay if you did--I don't think anybody expects you to have any money." It's not like he's never stolen anything before. He doesn't make a habit of it, but nobody's perfect.

The guy sounds really mad, though, and so Lea gets back to his feet and steps between the advancing man and Rika and holds his hands up placatingly.

"Oh! Hey, I am so sorry about this," he says, putting a hand over his heart. "Boy, am I glad you found us--I would have felt just awful knowing she'd stolen from someone and I didn't know who to take this stuff back to." Turning to look at her again, he put his hands on his hips. "Now give the man back the fruit you took; you know we can't just take things without permission..."

And then he gives her a wink so she knows he's not actually angry. He only hopes she'll play along so they don't both wind up in trouble...

The situation had become less certain for Gwendolyn since the return from the spagetti western adventure.

For one thing, she hadn't really understood the point of the objectives. 'Voting' was more than simply a foreign concept: voting for new leadership simply isn't done in Ragnanival - Power is Power, the Demon Lord is King, his word is Law and that's all there was to it.

Now, the Initiative's choice in warriors for this war of theirs (one she had yet to really see) seemed to have a disturbing trend: children. Many far too young to comprehend the dangers here, let alone wield a weapon! That They have not talked about the influx at all is upsetting - though truth be told, if they had mentioned it on the network, she likely missed it (still a bit too proud to ask for help with the newfangled tablet, even from her pleasant mehk-ahn-ik roommate).

Valkyrie do not sulk over such matters, however ~~except when they do~~: instead, Gwendolyn opted to head out further from the city's center into the ruins, and perhaps run through some spear drill patterns (if only because the indoor gym has been commandeered for baby herding).

She wasn't expecting to find someone else already there before her, though. She regarded the gangly redheaded figure with a mix of disdain and trepidation. What was he even /doing/?

Well the stuff outside this city was way more interesting than the stuff in it, that was for sure. At least the buildings that were falling apart out here looked cooler. Lea had always liked exploring, and so when he spied a crumbling structure on the outskirts of town he made a beeline for it, hoping maybe he'd find something interesting within.

It wasn't long before he realized he wasn't alone, however, and paused where he had been attempting to scale a high wall to regard the figure that emerged from the shadows. It was a girl, with silver hair and a rather disapproving look on her face. Well gosh, what was her problem? It wasn't like these were her ruins or anything.

... Were they?

Lea shoved his hands in his pockets, leaning against the wall.

"Photo'd be easier to memorize," he said with a cheeky grin.

Cooler was a matter of degrees. Literal and figurative, of course.

These were not the sort of ruins that Gwendolyn was familiar, and possessed an ugliness that was shared with the general cityscape. It was off-putting. But it was also quiet, and few people appeared to come out this way.

Apparently she wasn't the only one to have such an idea, however.

That wasn't a very impressive attempt at wall climbing - well, it /looked/ like hard work on his part, certainly, but the redhead hadn't made much progress up to the point he'd spotted her. The disapproval seemed to fade, though the frown did not, Gwendolyn mindful not to show too much wariness when he turned such a bright grin in her direction.

"..what is a foe-toe?" Or maybe that was just confusion keeping that frown fixed in place.

Well it would have been easier if he could find a good foothold, but the wall was mostly flat-faced and so he kept slipping! But that wasn't important right now. This girl looked really interesting--was she wearing armor? How cool was that??

"You know, a photograph," he said, holding his hands up in front of his face to pantomime a camera. "Like a still picture. You've never seen one?"

"No." Gwendolyn genuinely could not tell if he was mocking her, and her eyes narrowed slightly in confusion. "You mean, a painting?"

Her armor clinked slightly as she approached, still a little wary, even as her gaze flickered between the redhead and the wall. Once closer, she came to a stop, and let the point of her spear dig into the cracked asphalt. She quirked her head slightly to one side. She judged herself at least 3 or 4 years the boy's senior, though the excessive hand motions made him seem far more youthful.

Wait, she'd really never seen a photo before? Wow, talk about living under a rock. ... Actually she kind of looked like she'd stepped out of a storybook, to be honest, with the armor and the spear and stuff. Had Lea been a bit less trusting and a bit more world-weary, he might have been apprehensive about talking to an armed stranger... but he was neither mistrustful nor jaded (yet) and so when she stepped closer he hopped down from the ledge he'd been perched on.

"Wowwww," he breathed, dropping to a crouch where she'd stabbed the spear into the ground to admire it. "Neat! Is this a real spear? You know how to use it?" He grinned excitedly up at her. "Man, that's so neat! I always wanted to learn how to use a real sword or something, but my ma said I'd put somebody's eye out."

Back to the subject at hand.

"But... well, I guess a photo's kinda like a painting," he said, rubbing his chin in thought. "Except it's like a painting of real life. Uhm... and not done with paint."

Which sort of negated it being a painting in the first place, but he wasn't really sure how else to explain.

'Stepping out of a storybook' was closer to the truth than Lea might ever know - certainly, there were no knights dressed quite like this in regular history texts! Both his approach and his relaxed attitude earned him a continued frown of silver brow, lips remaining pursed in confusion.

But as she listened to him speak, his obvious youthful enthusiasm for both her weapon and battle in general softened something in her expression, and she allowed herself to relax. A little. It was only when Lea mentions his mother (and her likely accurate summation of Lea's would-be weapons training intentions) that a small smile finally emerged - briefly, but still a smile. "Tis called the Psypher Spear, and it has brought down many foes in many battles." Not all by her hand, admittedly, but she would never deny Griselda's past triumphs. "I have trained as a Valkyrie since I was far younger than you."

And then a blink. "An...unpainted portrait?" Was she following that correctly? Surely not. "Might that be some sort of enchantment, then?" How else might some one create an image without paint? "Or more of this, technology, that the Initiative possess?"

"Psypher? That sounds pretty awesome," he said, his hands sort of hovering near the bladed head without actually touching it. Oh, he wanted to, but he wasn't going to touch it without permission. Lifting his eyes he grinned brightly at her. "Wow, what's a Valkyrie? Are you a superhero or something?" He supposed that all things considered, meeting a superhero after everything else that had happened today wouldn't be the strangest thing he could think of.

He made a 'hmm' sound and sat back on his haunches then, teetering a moment before tumbling onto his backside and leaning back on his hands.

"Technology," he said, "not magic or anything. You use a camera!" He sat forward and held up both hands then, pantomiming the device. "You can look through a lensy thing," he explained, and then made a clicking noise with his tongue as he pinched the fingers of one hand together as if pressing the shutter, "and then push a button, and it makes a photo of what the lens could see." He leaned back on his hands again and gave her a slightly apologetic look. "I... don't really know how it works, though."

You are most definitely not getting permission for that one, Lea.

The blue crystal seemed to glow a little brighter when his hands shifted near the 'blade', reflecting the red head's features in its facets. Gwendolyn rested one hand on the butt of her spear, mindful of the boy's enthusiasm, even as he teered and tottered over completely. Not the best of balance, it would seem.

She did her best not to sigh, and settled for shaking her head at his question. "I am a warrior, from the kingdom Ragnanival." Yup, definitely sounds like something from a storybook.

After listening, her head shakes. No, none of these are familiar to her at all, and her smile was perhap equally apologetic. "I know not what this 'cam-rah' is. Such images you speak of would seem a fanciful tale to me, were it not for this world and its oddities."

It was the weekend which meant Taicea was returning from her weekly trip to get groceries. As ~~Axel~~Lea was making his way toward the front door Taice was entering.

The sylvari stopped once in the lobby and gave a little bounce to warm herself back up. It was still much too cold outside, and despite her many layers of clothing she still nearly froze even when going on simple errands.

Axel's hair wasn't hard to miss, even if he looked different, and it was something that stuck in Taicea's mind even if she didn't remember his name. She smiled brightly and waved to him with her free hand.

"Hello!" By now she's aware of what's been going on around Exsilium so she's not even going to bother asking if he remembers her.

He really hadn't been prepared for the weather when he'd stepped outside. Lea had always preferred warm weather to cold, even if he didn't particularly dislike wintertime, but wherever he was it was definitely hovering somewhere near freezing outside, and he hadn't been afforded a coat! His shirt didn't even have sleeves!

Lea had finally gotten fed up and hoofed it back to the strange apartment he'd woken up in again and rummaged through the chest of drawers. All the clothes he found were too big, but whoever this guy was he liked his style. A sweatshirt would do. Tugging it over his head and then raking both hands back through his hair to realign the spikes, Lea bounded back down to the lobby. There was still a lot of this place left to see, and he hadn't found Isa yet so he wasn't ready to call it a day.

As he headed for the doors again, though, he slowed his steps when someone approached him and his eyes widened. Wow, who was this person? What was this person? The figure before him wasn't like any creature he'd ever seen before!

They spoke brightly then, a female voice, and Lea grinned.

"Hi!" he said, threading his hands together and resting them atop his hair. "Wow, are you from this place? I'm... not. But I've never seen anybody that looks like you before. I like your ears!"

Well, no one ever accused Lea of having any delicacy.

Taice gave a little chuckle and shook her head. "No. I'm not from here either. And thank you! I like them as well, they work well for hearing."

She paused for a moment before smiling brightly. "I like your hair. It's so red!"

He laughed. "Well that's good; it'd be a problem if they didn't!" And then he unthreaded his fingers and tweaked at a spike of his hair. "Thanks! It's... good for... well it makes a good cushion whenever I knock my head into anything. Which happens more than you might think." He rapped his knuckles against his head then and shoved his hands into the front pocket of the sweatshirt, smiling broadly. "My name's Lea, what's yours? Have you been here long? I dunno how I got here, but I lost my best friend so I'm looking for him now."

She snickered and gave a nod. "Yup."

"Hmm, I suppose hair could work as a cushion of sorts. I never had any myself." She tugged her hood and the beanie off underneath it to show her melon-like...melon. "Taicea. It's nice to meet you." She ducked her head a bit in a bow and smiled brightly. "A little while. Although not as long as some."

Taicea tilted her head and gave him a curious look, "You lost a friend? Perhaps I've seen them. If you tell me what they look like I might be able to say."

Lea's jaw dropped when she tugged her hat off to reveal a completely smooth bald head. "Whoa..." Usually girls had long hair! He had never seen a bald one before! Granted, a lack of hair was certainly not the most unusual thing about this particular girl, but it was sort of icing on the cake.

He grinned.

"Nice to meet you, too," he said, and his smile faded a bit at her question. "Well... yeah." He quirked his mouth a bit and held one hand up about level with his ear. "He's around the same height as me, with blue hair and green eyes." He made something of a waving gesture at his neck then. "And he wears a dorky turtleneck."

Taicea never much cared for having a head covered in leaves or vines. She liked it bald and with just her horns.

She gave a thoughtful hum as she tried to remember if she'd seen anyone like that lately. After a few moments she hook her head. "Cannot say I have seen anyone like that but, um, what's a turtleneck?"

What's a turtleneck indeed; he kept telling Isa they were totally out of style. He tugs at the scarf around his neck, sort of hiking up up closer to his chin.

"It's a shirt where the neck kinda comes up like this," he said. "Like how a turtle can pull its head into its shell, I guess." Dropping the scarf again, he frowned a bit. "Well, if you do see him, would you tell him Lea's looking for him?" he asked. "I mean... he prolly knows I'm looking for him--he better! What kind of best friend wouldn't be looking for their best friend, you know?"

He couldn't really hide the worry that was bleeding into his expression, though. Isa has to be around here somewhere, so why hasn't he found him yet? Shouldn't they have shown up in the same place?

Maya was prone to wandering around the city, especially where food was concerned. And so, in pursuit of a burger (maybe she'd share. Maybe.), she finds herself heading down the streets and getting a glimpse of something red and familiar.

... Well, that's someone she hadn't seen in a long time.

"Lea! Hey, Lea!"

He's feeling a little better now that he's gotten something in his belly, but he still hasn't been able to find Isa, and that worries him. If he's here, then Isa's gotta be here, too, right? So where is he? The city can't be that big!

Someone calls his name then and he turns sharply. Someone who knows him? Finally! It's not Isa's voice--actually he isn't sure he recognizes it at all--but if it's someone he knows then he'll take it. His face reflects confusion then when he sees the girl the voice belongs to. Huh. She's kinda cute, he's pretty sure he would remember her, but he... doesn't. Maybe Isa sent her looking for him? He's pretty distinctive, he thinks, so... yeah, that has to be it!

"Hi," he says, peering curiously at her. "Um, yeah I'm Lea--have we met? Did Isa send you?"

That was unmistakeably Lea. She hadn't known him all that well, but that outfit and that ridiculous hair (it made Nick's look normal!] makes him impossible to miss.

He didn't recognize her, though. Luckily, Maya had dealt with this kind of thing... quite a lot.. by now, so she threw on a grin, clasped her hands together and bowed her head briefly in greeting.

"Hey, um... I'm Maya. We met once before, but you might not remember."

Lea folds his arms and looks the girl over. Well, they must have met at some point if she knows his name, but he's pretty sure he'd remember a cute girl like this. Rubbing the crown of his head, he gave her a slightly sheepish look.

"Gosh, I must'a hit my head or something on the way here, 'cuz... I don't remember," he admits, and then grins brightly. "But it's nice to meet you again, Maya! I'll definitely make sure to have it memorized this time."

Wow, he took this a lot better than she thought he would. In fact, a lot better than anyone else had, so far. Cue Maya's own grin brightening to match his.

"You too! And don't worry, this kind of thing happens a lot, weird time shenanigans and stuff! I got your name memorized, so we're even now, right?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

But I was so much older then...

I think Mala said Roxas is here too so

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

guess what Lea, Frodo has food he'll so share with you

Lea likes food!

One of the Big Folk who fully appreciates food, finally!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

sorry for the wait!

apologies in advance if tense switching occurs >O<;;;

i suppose i can forgive tense changes, but only because i love you

ilu 2 bb <3333

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