voidtreckerexpress | these days have opened up my eyes; [Open Post]

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these days have opened up my eyes; [Open Post]

Who: Ken and whomever wants to encounter him.
Where: Kitchen, training gym, games car. (And wildcard option.)
When: Between February platform and the healing/time reversal plot.
What: Ken's getting used to train life... and also makes A Mistake.
Warnings: Training prompt has suicidal imagery (thanks Persona 3) and the closed prompt has severe depression warnings.

[Kitchen Duty]

Ken is on red team, despite the orange hoodie he's wearing, and that means apparently one of his chores is to make food for other people. It might not be the prettiest, but he'll do what he can. He doesn't bother much with the avocado though, instead serving up a couple of plates of omurice to set out for whoever drifts past. It takes him a little bit to start working on some of the other things - the pasta is boiling away and he's wandering around trying to familiarize himself with where everything is.

Sometimes he's poking around looking for storage containers or having to climb up onto the counter to reach things, but he's always careful to clean off the counter afterwards.

[Training] (cw: suicidal imagery)

Ken is no slouch when it comes to training, and he's found the climbing ropes. He scales the large structure easily, rolling off of it onto a mat and springing up, miming stabbing a spear into something. He can easily be found doing handstands or practicing rolling or doing all manner of gymnastic-like exercises.

When no one's looking, he takes out his Evoker and presses it to his head, pulling the trigger and letting Nemesis take some shots at a training dummy with lightning. He presses a hand to his chest when she manifests a spear and stabs the dummy herself. It hurts, but it's the only spear he has right now.

[Games]

He can't practice forever. Once he settles down a little bit he heads into the game car on occasion. He's not all that hard to find - occasionally he's on one of the VR games, but more often he's playing solitaire or looking at the Duel Monster cards. He's studied the notes left nearby carefully, so all that remains is to try to build a deck.

... Somehow.

[Wildcard]

While he's found a few cars to frequent, he's still exploring. It's easy to find him in practically any car.

[Field Trip to the Darkness] (closed to Vexen) (cw: severe depression)

Vexen is not a hard person to find. He's very tall and the black cloak makes it easy to pick him out, even from behind. He's about to call out to the man to say hello, but suddenly a dark-colored portal opens up and the man disappears into it. Frowning, Ken runs in after him.

That was a mistake.

It's dark, so dark, everything is dark. He can feel something cold gripping onto him, Nemesis' whirring getting louder and louder, somehow sinister. What is he doing here? What is he trying to prove? There's nothing he can do to make anything right. There's no point in him continuing to pretend like he's innocent at all - he hasn't been for a long time. He can't rely on anyone here.

Better to just be alone, or just be nothing at all.

He suddenly stumbles out into brightness, a black-coated individual in front of him, but he's not really seeing Vexen. He's trembling, suddenly freezing and pale. His knees hit the floor, followed by his arms and head right after.

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Ken whirled around at the sound of someone moving swiftly towards him, a sudden black cloak between himself and his Persona. The cloak and the height difference between this person and Vexen made him pause for a second too long. The figure rushed at Nemesis, some kind of weird key in her hands -

- And made contact, to his immense surprise. It was a solid hit, too - and as Nemesis faded away, not because of the attack but because she couldn't manifest for too long Ken jerked back, holding his head in one hands with his Evoker held lightly in the other. "Ow, fuck! Why'd you do that?"

He understood why - she wasn't normally not visible to people who didn't either have persona or the potential to have them and she did look really strange - but he was too annoyed to take that into account.

No heart. She vanquished it, too easily for its size, really, but thee was no heart. She was so confused. And more confused by the question. She spun quickly to face him. She wanted to flee but... She lifted her Keyblade. "Curaga!" she called, sending the green healing magic spiraling down her Keylade and towards him.

Now she could leave, right?

Okay. Healing spell. Sure. And from the vague feel of it, about as strong as his own. "... Mm. I keep forgetting people can see her here - most people at home can't." He rolls his shoulders a little bit, still stinging slightly but not bad enough to mention. "She's not a monster. She's a part of me I can summon to help me fight."

He'd ask about the cloak in a minute.

Oh. So his weapon... looked like a heartless? That was... new. Wasn't it? Her Keyblade vanished and she stood there awkwardly, trying to decide if she could get away with just leaving or if he would attack her since she had unknowingly sort of attacked him. She didn't want to hurt anyone on the train, but she also wasn't going to let herself be destroyed. Not after everything. Not like this.

But maybe if he saw her weapon was gone, he'd just let her leave without attacking, and she'd know to avid him in the future? Maybe?

Oh. He knew that awkward stance. He'd done it himself more than once. "... Do you know Vexen? He has the same kind of coat as you."

Hopefully this wasn't going to end up with some kind of factional thing, because he was already dealing with factional stuff at home.

She had been shaking her head at the name, but as soon as he mentioned the coat she froze.

Was this about the former Organization member that just came on the train that she met? Had someone else shown up and she missed them? Or was this someone who kn ew them from before the train? She was paler than she had been before, what little of her shown, and stiff now with tension.

She had to find Axel. He would know the name, and if it wasn't the one who kept referring to her like she was an actual person... then he would know who it was and what they needed to do about it.

But what if admitting she didn't know or running away was proof she was a traitor? If he was with the Organization... but he couldn't be, no coat.

Back and forth she went with herself, her head spiking with pain. She gave a small involuntary cry and put a gloved hand to her head over the hood. She hadn't had one of these headaches in a while, which somehow made it worse. She struggled to stay upright, to keep an eye on him.

(Her hood is still up, I just never get to use her headache icons anymore.)

"Hey, hey." Oh, great. He'd made her head hurt. He wasn't sure why... "Uh. Tall guy? Really tall. Blond hair? Talks like he swallowed a thesaurus and a dictionary when he gets going? ... Please tell me there isn't some kind of Strega versus SEES divide..."

Hmn... "Do you need me to heal you?"

She staggered back, shaking her head at the offer. The information was doing more for the headache than a healing spell could, since it was from overload in a way. "Him," she said, finally when she could talk. Her voice didn't have any seeming emotion behind it. Mostly because she thought she didn't have any and didn't know what she thought about him yet. She nodded after that, since it was easier. She didn't know what Strega Vs seas or whatever was. But one hand slipped into her pocket, her fingers curling around a shell.

Because, yes, she thinks he says seas as in ocean.

To be fair, it sounded like that. "... Look. I don't know what happened in your world. Worlds? I just know that he's been nice to me. ... He's been looking out for me more than most adults would ever even consider. He's actually listened to me and taken me seriously. If there's a reason to kick his ass I'll do it, but I just know what I've seen."

The people in his group didn't stay alive by not being prepared to be backstabbed.

"I... don't know him yet," she finally said. But knowing he had been nice to a Somebody... she wasn't sure why he had been, but then nice was still a concept she was trying to understand in general.

Axel knew him. She needed to talk to Axel but... Axel would also lie to protect her. Maybe what she needed... was to do recon? But how could she do that without being seen, when he was also a former member of the Organization and the train lacked sufficient shadows to lurk in? She wasn't sure.

"But you know of him." Given that she reacted to his description... he sighed. "I... don't trust people easy, though you have no reason to believe me. I trust adults even less. If I do spot him doing something awful I'm first going to tell him to stop it and second stick a spear or electrical bolt where it'll hurt. Adults lie more than kids do."

He couldn't tell exactly how old this person was, but definitely not an adult.

She nodded to the first. The rest.... she considered. Adults lied more than kids? Se was still a bit foggy on what made someone an adult and what made them a kid, and that guy trying to explain it to her talking about growing and being born... hadn't helped. What decided who was which?

"How can you tell, if he is lying?" she asked instead. Because that was probably the more pressing question. She'd get back to the adult and kid thing after, if she could.

"... Usually if people change what they say about something from one conversation to the next without a good reason behind it. Or if his actions don't match up with his words. If he says he's a nice person but then starts yelling at someone for no good reason, for example. Or if he promises he isn't going to hurt someone and then he does. I know he said he did bad things in the past and is trying to make up for them, but..."

He was still processing the person in his life who'd done something like that. He'd come back to that thought later.

"I... if someone did hurt other people on the train, they'd be stupid to do it. There's too many people here who would likely attack that person back for it." He glanced at the training dummy and back to her. "Outside of like... sparring or something."

Those were... a lot of examples for her to take in all at once but she was trying. "So if he has a good reason for lying it isn't really a lie?" she asked, confused. So... Axel... hadn't lied to them? Since he had a good reason?

"It's not... hm. It's still a lie, which is still bad, but it's at least less bad than if someone lied for no reason at all, if that makes some kind of sense?" This was not what he expected to be doing today.

She didn't realize she should have said that she jumped people with her "he". But she nodded. That was what she had thought, at least. "Why do adults lie more?" What makes someone an adult? Does lying do it? Was that the difference, once you lied a certain amount people called you an adult? Could you be an adult and a child at the same time?

"I don't... really know. Maybe because they've been lied to enough to think that it's okay. Maybe because things seem to get more complicated? Or because they think kids won't understand. I just know that it happens... and that they don't take kids as seriously as they should since they think kids don't really know anything."

Roxas said that Axel didn't like complicated things. Did that mean Axel wasn't an adult then? Or was he and that was why he didn't like them? Either way at least she knew she wasn't complicated, since Axel liked her. They were best friends, after all. Her, Axel, Roxas.

"So kids and adults are... different?" she asked, to be sure. Because she very much wasn't.

... Different worlds. He had to remember that. "... Usually, yeah. Different c - uh. Different places consider people adults at different times. Where I'm from you're sort of an adult at around seventeen or eighteen years old, and officially an adult when you're twenty years old. I'm eleven years old."

"Oh. So it is based on how old you are?" she asked. Whhile that was confusing, it was less confusing than all that talk about being born and babies and growing and stuff. "What if you don't remember to count?"

Roxas was the one who counted, usually. But she was pretty sure she knew about how old she was. Maybe? Axel... would probably know? Right?

"Like you don't know how to count numbers, or you don't know how many years you've been around? I can help you with the first one... the second one I... can't. You'd have to ask someone who's older than you who's known you a while, maybe?"

Hm. "Though to me you... it's hard to tell with your hood down. But you sound like you're maybe between me and my friends in age, at least to me. Two of them are sixteen or seventeen, I'm not sure. The other one is I think a year or two older."

Hey, she knew how to count!

"I don't know how many days for sure," she said, frowning a bit. "I think... about three years? Maybe?" She wasn't sure how long she had been at Daitu before Axel showed up, but he was with her for the rest so he would know for sure. She could ask him. If it mattered.

... Huh. "Just around the number is fine. Three year olds in my world are a lot smaller? And they don't talk all that well. But if you're that young that explains why you don't know a lot of stuff." Wait. No. That was insulting. "I mean the kinds of stuff we've been talking about."

"Around... the number?" she knew how to go around something in the road or around the sofa. How does someone go around a number? And why did everyone keep talking about size like she was too big or too small or would become bigger. She was what she was created to be. And she knew that was less than human, and she'd never be as good as an actual human, but she was a person now, right? So she was allowed to be what she was, wasn't she?

She might have missed the insult as her mind had gone elsewhere...

"... Around meaning 'about' or 'approximately'. Close to that number. Not exactly that number." He was getting the sense there was a lot this person hadn't had explained to her.

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Warning: death mentions, heavy topics

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