Digging Continues (Open, threadjacking encouraged once again!)

[promiselisting]

[ VIP week at Sparks Golsaucia's still going on, true, but it involves a lot of loud noise and people and Futaba ain't here for that without the rest of her friends. So instead she's been working on something else. Something even the people who didn't join in can hopefully appreciate. ]

So. Got a few things for you all and a few questions in return, especially for the newbies.

First of all, I've got some notes for you all. Some of you might remember the post I made a couple months back. Been doing research since then, so I figured I'd follow up with my findings. The more this info is widely spread the better. Also if you've got anything to add from searches on your own, feel free to talk about it here or lemme know and I can add it. We may even want to have like... some kinda meeting to discuss this stuff?

I'm not organizing it though.

[ Nope. Nope. Not a chance. Putting together notes and tossing them out to the wind? That she can do. Organizing a bunch of people and talking to them and all that kind of thing? Nope. ]

Unfortunately this place doesn't have the internet, so I can't just make a website for these notes. Pretty much all I can do is make my files available for download as of right now, so I'll have to post an updated version periodically. Sucks but there's nothing I can do yet.

Anyway here's the file: file:vaikunthanotes

[ And next... ]

On that note, one of the big questions last time was about a strange little girl with blond hair who called herself Ashelia. She only turned up right after the new arrivals, and only spoke to a few people before disappearing again. Anybody happen to see her this time around? Looking at newbies especially for this one.

Also a Moogle that shouted some kind of doomsday prophecies about a "she," I guess.

[ She'll ask more questions if anybody actually happens to volunteer information. No point typing a lot up front if it turns out she wasn't even here.

And... as for the last thing. And the thing she's especially glad she's using text for. ]

Also... back on Earth, a lot of countries around the world happen to celebrate Father's Day on the third Sunday of June (sixth month). Which is... this one, I guess?

So. Happy Father's Day.

[ Especially to her own dad, even if... he isn't here... ]

Comments

[chosennobody]

i have a lot i can say about world connections. where i come from all the people i knew were aware other worlds existed. the group i was part of traveled from world to world regularly. this is possible because the hearts of all worlds are connected but i always had my abilities in those worlds and i don't here. S'reee and i were talking how worlds might exist in groupings and this might be a different group but that doesn't make sense because we had moogles and stuff back home too. i saw chocobos here and i know i heard about them back home and cactuars too.

i was in another world like this before i came here. people from all over different worlds were pulled there by evil gods but not a whole lot was the same. this place is a lot more like home than that place was.

one more thing. does anyone else think its suspicious that the center had all these empty houses and apartments just sitting around? like what were they doing with all of them before we came? seems like a waste of space.

not here; 1/2

[acceptedlife]

[hell yes roomie, YEET that world order BS.]

action;

[acceptedlife]

[So funny thing, Roxas. Your roommate was on the couch, reading the linkshell, when he recognizes the talk of other worlds and knowing they exist. And considering how tight-lipped the rest of the house is, it's... pretty obvious who's talking is either one of the blonds.

And considering he hears Demyx trying to come up with lyrics to some song he came up with, he's guessing it's the other. So, suddenly leaning against the doorframe...]

Not gonna lie, been wondering the same thing. [He's not even going to bother saying the thing on the linkshell. His stance needs to remain neutral.]

[chosennobody]

[Honestly after Ryslig, Roxas just figured there was no reason to try to hide things like the worlds being connected. And really, everyone here obviously now knew that there were other worlds out there, so what was the point of remaining tight-lipped about it?

He glanced up from his slate, expecting to get berated but pleasantly relieved when he wasn't.]

About the houses, you mean?

[acceptedlife]

[Takeshi could say the same about Animus and Crystallis. Which is why he's talked about the latter so much. Really, there shouldn't be a reason to keep quiet about it here. He's just glad someone agrees.]

Yeah. And why this world seems so much like ours. You forgot the spell types, by the way.

[Everything except maybe water...? Except the person causing the musical racket in the other room might argue about that.]

[chosennobody]

Oh yeah... I'm not much of a mage, I guess. [He shrugged. He rarely used magic back home, had none in Ryslig, and didn't use it at all here. Sure it existed, but it was beyond his reach.]

I guess I'll bring it up if they ask for more.

[A sigh, and his gaze wandered to a random point on the wall as he contemplated.]

I just feel really helpless... Like in Ryslig everything was different so it was easier to accept my fate. But here... I feel like I should just be able to hold my hand out and summon my keyblade, or make a dark portal back to the castle... [To make his point he raised one hand, holding it open in the air as if he were about to grab something, but there was nothing there and so he dropped his hand in defeat.] But I can't do any of that.

[acceptedlife]

[He sits down on his bed, and listens. Lips forming a thin line at the mention of a castle, but he doesn't say a word about it.]

It's like something's missing. Or... just out of reach. [He looks at his own right hand before explaining.] I wasn't much of a mage, myself. Someone tried to teach me, but illusions can only work so long as they last. And when I finally got some of my borrowed powers back on Crystallis, I don't know how many times I tried returning to Castle Oblivion only for nothing to manifest.

[Not to mention how using healing magic just feels... wrong to him. Like it goes against everything he was ever made to do. Yet he knows better than to bring it up.]

[chosennobody]

It's like... we're running alongside our world, and we can see it, but we can't touch it and we can't get there.

[He lay back in his bed, folding his arms under his head and watching the ceiling as though it were a sky filled with stars.]

But hey, it's not so bad being here. Nothing is trying to really kill or mutilate us so far, and we're both... y'know, alive.

[acceptedlife]

Not of our own volition, anyway.

[He sighs as his back hits the mattress with a small flop, legs still over the side as he runs a hand through his hair.

Takeshi might also slightly regret lying down, now. Yet he pretends he didn't just tense up at that, and deflect with humor.]

I dunno, that run in with the chocobo eater sure was close.

[Nailed it? ...He's almost tempted to pick of black mage for his third, but if he trains ninja more, he should be good to go for elemental coverage. Even if the ninjutsu is weaker than the black mage's spells.]

[chosennobody]

[The deflection works, to an extent, and gets a small chuckle from the nobody.]

Yeah, there was that... But we pulled through. [By sheer luck.]

I wish I could have been more help...

[Being pure freelancer isn't his idea of fun, nor was it his idea at all. He'd taken freelancer as a challenge and been stuck with it and no other abilities no matter what he tried. It seemed no matter where he was, some cosmic force was against him.]

[acceptedlife]

Takeshi stares at the ceiling for a little while, before he sighs, sitting back up.]

Hey, Roxas. [He wants to point out that, really, it'd been Miu who'd been the star of the show, that he was kind of useless himself even with his magic. But instead...]

It may not help now, but I knew a guy on Crystallis who only used Freelancer, too. In the end, he was the strongest of all of us.

[In more ways than one. He frowns, already lowkey worrying for anyone who does end up with Freelancer, but... he has to point that one out.]

[chosennobody]

[Takeshi's words made Roxas look over at the other, studying his face to see if he was just making things up to try to raise Roxas's spirits. It seemed like something Riku might do, to embellish the truth, but Takeshi... the blond didn't think so.]

Yeah? Was he a scrawny kid like me too?

[His words aren't self-depreciating so much as fondly teasing as he recalled the words of someone he'd greatly admired and appreciated back in Ryslig. Funny, he thought, that he had fonder memories of that hell than home. Maybe it was because Ryslig was recent, and he actually had a heart rather than being an echo of a person.]

[acceptedlife]

[Maybe when he was younger, but no. This really isn't something that he'd kid about. Or embellish. Besides, is anything ever really true?]

I think he was about 18 before everything went to hell in a handbasket? Maybe 19? [He shrugs.] Not really good at judging ages.

[Because what is appearing to be over 20 but only really being 8? He chuckles though, shaking his head.]

But he sure was on the scrawny side.

[chosennobody]

So... does that mean I have to wait sixteen years, or just three?

[Joking about their ages was a way Roxas had found to alleviate tension between them. They both had crappy origin stories, they were both younger than their bodies implied. It was almost a weird sort of bonding point. Their traumas might have been, but neither really opened up much about the worlds they'd been in previously.]

Good to know there's hope for me, I guess. I kinda learned how to brawl, in the last place, but I wasn't great at it, and I had wings instead of hands, so... it was different. But maybe I could learn some other sort of fighting technique that doesn't require one of these stupid jobs.

[acceptedlife]

Your guess is as good as mine. [He smirks.] I'm guessing three, though.

[Outsiders like them seemed to be on a fast track of some sort when it came to learning new skills. He'll have to ask about what they learn here, though. Freelancer, please.

He's just... really, really used to his past being out there for anyone to see if they wanted. Even if he locked the file once before. That's why he hasn't brought up that other place.]

Even if you don't, I'd be happy to help you train. [He has to work on ninja at some point, or they could have a stick-hitting contest. Either or.]

[chosennobody]

[And Roxas would rather not reminisce on the mistakes he's made and the people he's lost, so they're even.]

You would?

[That offer caused Roxas to blink owlishly in surprise and sit up, staring at his roommate with no small measure of confusion.]

Er, you realize I'm pretty much always going to be useless, so it's a lost cause... right?

[But those blue eyes still hold hope that maybe Takeshi means it and will train him in... something. Even if it's just more efficient ways to use/throw sticks.]

[acceptedlife]

Why not?

[He asks as he rubs the underside of his nose with a knuckle.]

Besides. You're talking to a guy who uses a giant, fancy stick to hit things with when they're out of mana.

[Juuuust saying.]

[chosennobody]

Heh. It is a stick, isn't it?

[And then the young nobody had an expression like he'd just been hit in the back of the head with a brick.]

Wait... do you think it counts? I mean I know most Freelancers use rocks, but I have sticks for some reason... Do you think anything wooden and stick-like could work?

[promiselisting]

It's something that definitely occurred to me too. If there were a reason for the houses before us then they're not being transparent about it. Not being transparent about a lot of things.

Also, just to clarify. You were at another world like this one, where people were just... turning up? That wasn't Crystallis?

[ That's actually almost even more alarming. Like... at least with Crystallis there was an obvious connection. ]

[chosennobody]

it was nothing like this one but yeah same situation. people from all sorts of different worlds were there. some of them are here to. there were also people i knew there that are here but were not there. it was called ryslig. at least there we knew why we were there. here i have no idea.

[promiselisting]

That's one of the things we're trying to find out, here.

[ It's a clumsy sort of attempt at reassurance: a 'don't worry you're not the only one bothered by this.' ]

So wait, Crystallis. Vaikuntha, and now Ryslig. How many of these kinds of places are there?

[chosennobody]

if i can help lmk. i wish i knew more about this place.

i know someone who was in another but i don't know the name of it and its not my place to talk about it.

[promiselisting]

Unless that place is connected to Vaikuntha somehow, the way Crystallis is, I dunno if it'd really matter anyway.

I mean if they wanna talk about I'm game and it probably can't hurt but. eh.

and can do

[chosennobody]

no idea. the guy was in crystallis to but he never said they were connected

[promiselisting]

who knows then, I guess.

I guess let him know if he changes his mind