Kingdom Hearts : Heartfelt Adventure {Day 8 ; Invite Only}

[fractalJester]

[ Kyle ; Yen Sid ; Merlin : Disney : Hall of the Cornerstone ]

After a short period of wait (and a bit of awkward silence; Kyle fiddled around, Yen Sid kept his gaze on him), Kyle turned to see Joe and Merlin reappear in a buff of blue magic dust, grinning at Joe--and noticing the odd lack of focus and tension in the older man. "Oh, good, you made it," he said, smiling--

--just as Kyla and Bobbi made their way down the stairs into the Hall. Since it was Bobbi's first time seeing Kyle since that afternoon, she might have immediately noticed that the dark markings on his left arm had completely vanished, and he no longer kept it wrapped. "And you both, good, good. How's everyone's evening been?"

Yen Sid cleared his throat, raising a brow, but said nothing, while Merlin walked up beside the wizard and watched as well.

[[ Hope you don't mind I just GMed you two to arrival ]]  

[Enji_Chou]

[Kyla: Disney: Library>Hall of the Cornerstone]
( no worries Kyle^^))
She wanted to say thank you to Queen Elsa before leaving but there too much to say in the moments she had before having to depart- the best she could do was bow her head, thankfully, and apologetically, promising to speak to her properly in person again.
The rest of the way to the hall was unusual. What was there to say- Her heart had been bared to some degree to the person beside her. Kyla felt raw, a bit shaken, extremely fatigued- Her back hurt, but at least now she knew it wasn’t a danger to anyone else anymore- and over time this wound would heal.
It would probably feel better the longer she was in the presence of the Cornerstone, so perhaps it was all for the best. She’d have to talk with James again later about everything-
Kyla hadn’t realized she absently took hold of Bobbi’s arm from behind, perhaps finding the girl sturdier then herself. The closer they came to the hall thought she felt surer of her feet.
Eventually they were welcome by the sound of Kyle’s voice- and the tone was quite the shocker for her.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs and staring down the length of the hall where the massive glowing stone waited by what appeared to be, Merlin, Kyle, Joe and Yen sid- Kyla swallowed, before answering at length-

“- it’s been...erm... Interesting- a bit tiring, but very interesting.” The party was fun she had to admit. More fun than she was prepared for, but in the presence of some, Kyla wasn’t sure she should look like she was enjoying herself.
“I see you’re up. Obvious comment- is obvious but still- did you have a good sleep?”
 

[fractalJester]

[ Kyle ; Yen Sid ; Merlin : Disney : Hall of the Cornerstone ]

"Haaaaaaaa," he said, leaving his mouth open for a second as he let out the bashful laugh, gazing off into nowhere for a second with a exasperated look. He could feel Louis on his shoulder even now.

'This is gonna be an... interesting conversation,' he thought, mentally directing it toward Louis' shard. 'I just want you to keep in mind that any frustration they might have for the physical "Louis" is not meant for you. Remember, you're you, he's him, et cetera, we talked about this.'

"Pretty much the main reason I called you guys here. I'm well-rested, though, so that's what counts," he said, raising a small brow and grinning. "Let me take a guess, though--you never actually got some rest, did you?"  

[RhikoDemson]

[[ Louis? : Disney : Inside Kyle - Hall of the Cornerstone ]]

The small angelic boy nodded, and in a flash he was gone, reappeared at his side, full size, black and silver wings settling on the floor behind him like the tails of a coat several sizes too large, "Don't worry, they can insult that idiot all they want. I'm not him. If anything, I want to kick his a** too, he's the one responsible for everything after all, right? So, let them speak their mind, I'm right there with them."  

[Enji_Chou]

[Kyla: Disney: Hall of the Cornerstone]

Likewise, Kyla’s own version or rather, fractured piece of Louis followed along beside the two girls quietly watching, always present, always close, but unable to offer physical support. Despite that, he was a great deal of help to the event that transpired moments ago, so made a point to never lose sight of him.
The way he looked at her now, it seemed crestfallen, he wanted to help, she could tell.
Kyla hoped her silence didn’t hurt his feelings-

~ She wants you to know. She didn't speak to you out loud, because she wants to protect you.~ Came Carbuncles helpful insight, directed to the figment adopting part of her being.
‘… I hope you didn’t think I didn’t see you, or that I was ignoring you.all through that before...it's embarasing.. but for your help- thank you.’

Kyle looked off into space a moment before responding and darn it!
Kyle and his blasted intuition struck again and the girl went pink in the face looking down at her feet like she just got caught stealing.


“I...I had a nap on the way here… besides, I can’t seem to sleep. I’m too restless.”

That wasn’t entirely true- rather she had a hard time falling asleep. So much to think about, so much to do, worry about- she was like a person with an impending deadline the next morning, who was too anxious to sleep when they could spend time working to perfect their drafts.
Though, she really did want to sleep now, she just didn’t know how. May be she could ask the three good fairies to cast a sleep spell on her later? Or ask Jenny to use her flute?
 

[phoenixianCrystallist]

{Bobbi .:. Disney Castle .:. Hall of the Cornerstone}

Bobbi patted Kyla's hand reassuringly as they entered the chamber. Her eyes flicked around as she studied the group around the cornerstone, noting Joe's… off-ness. Was he drunk? And Kyle's arm was unbandaged and clean; a very slight smile crossed her face at that sight, probably too subtle to be seen but there nonetheless.

"Pfft, sleep is for pussies," the archer snorted, tone laced with sarcasm. "Had some fun at the festival and took a little nap with Xabier trying to use me as a pillow. Let me tell you, Chocobos don't make very good lapdogs. Though I gotta admit, I'm glad you called us up, Kyle. I need to talk with you and Kyla anyway. You, you, and you, however," she pointed at Yen Sid, Merlin, and Joe, "are an unexpected bonus. Bonuses. Whatever. Glad you're here, is what I'm saying."  

[AldrickZearse]

[Joe: Disney Castle: Hall of the Cornerstone]

Joe, once in the room, just kinda scratched his head as Kyle and Kyla had what felt like, to him, an awkward conversation. Bobbi added something, and Joe just scratched his head when she pointed at him.

"So...No idea why I'm heeeeere but I'm doing good. Helps that I napped. Oh and the beer pong was fun. Did you know Scotsmen are pretty hot? They are. Here's hoping I can find one into me, eh?"

He took a moment to think a bit, then let out a small cough. "Probably almost definitely not why I'm here. Continue I guess." He was still listening, and would look at anyone who seemed to be talking to him or mentioned his name, but he was now looking around the room as if trying to find something to keep his attention while people talked.  

[Jeimuzu Kuro]

{James : Disney : Library}

James watched, fascinated as Elsa conjured her ice minion and it carried out it's task. The queen looked as though she was about to peruse through more books before she stopped and answered his question. He nodded his head in understanding regarding the help she had received to understand her power.

"We can all empathize with you in that regard. Getting used to possessing magic and learning how to wield it properly has been a pretty big challenge. We are discovering new ways to use it all of the time, at least I know I am. Where we come from, magic in this sense does not exist, this kind of power, nothing more than a fantasy," he stated pausing for a moment to consider what to say next. Of all of the Disney characters he had interacted with thus far, Elsa was one of the ones he understood the least.

"Anyway, I am glad that your people are safe. No doubt there will be many others who come here seeking sanctuary from this war... I hope that we will be able to accommodate all of them," The corsair concluded with a sigh.

War was not something the corsair had ever been fond of, he was not a soldier who lived for combat. In fact he had been one to avoid physical conflict whenever possible. To be thrown headlong into this war, was the last thing that the gunner would have wanted. They had been given the power to fight though, they had some unknown but very significant purpose to this world. To not fight, to not use their gifts, would be to betray the purpose that they still lived for in the corsair's eyes.  

[fractalJester]

[ Kyle ; Yen Sid ; Merlin : Disney : Hall of the Cornerstone ]

Though Kyle didn't verbally respond to Louis, he appreciated the other man's reply, and hoped that feeling was conveyed through their link.

He raised a brow and grinned, his expression doing all the disagreeing for him. "Guess that's why you're holding on to Bobbi to keep steady, mm?"

Bobbi's remark, though, gave him another chuckle. "Well, probably called you here for the same reason you need to talk, so that wouldn't be a surprise."

"And you, Joe," he said, turning to give the other man an amused glance. "Beer pong explains a bit. We'll have to sober you up before long, but should be good for now. You're here because you're Leader Man and, as Leader Man, you get first head's up on any critical updates. I've got, like, two or three."

He paused, staring off for a bit as if in thought, jutting his lower jaw out and scrunching his face. How, how, how...

"Well, first, let's update Bobbi," he said, and swiftly heel-turned to directly face her, pointing at her with both hands like guns for a second. "Long story comically short, earlier this afternoon, Joe, Kyla, and a few others dropped into my heart and blew up the seal on my hand, purging my arm, while I kicked Seymour's a** in my heart, but in the process found out we couldn't just kick him out because it was an actual full-fledged chunk of his heart, when Ajora popped up with the Trident revealing he'd left a backup spell when the Atlantis cocoon thing grabbed me," he said, finally taking a breath--his tone utterly nonchalant. "He tried to open my heart and let the light blow up Seymour, which worked but in the process accidentally made my heart explode, when the Cornerstone laser'd me and fixed me up all Deus-Ex-Machina-like."

He stopped, looking at her for a second with his lips tucked in, his expression basically implying "Whelp, yeah, that was a thing, awkward."

"That's... one way to summarize things," Merlin said, looking slightly perplexed in the background.

"That's where things get interesting," he said, using both hands to scratch his head before linking them behind it. "Okay, so, which one to go with first... well, okay, so."

He scrunched his face again.

"Whelp. Um. Okay, so, the Ajora-spell-thing? Was a back-up spell in two ways. The first being that, when the time was right, it would help pull the light out in order to purge my heart of foreign darkness. Fairly benevolent," he said, still looking at a wall. Looking at any of them as he explained this next part would have felt even more awkward. "The second way is more literal. Once the purge happened, the "spell" was an actual back-up of Ajora. I have all of his memories up to the point of the cocoon--or the memories he wants me to think are his. But considering his reasoning, I'd wager they're fairly honest: he said that this way, in the event I got replicated again--part of him was expecting to die down there--the new replica would have all the memories Ajora had, and boy are they a ********' doozy. Definitely did not like the big bads... but yeah, so, that's a thing now. Figured Joe would need to know about that, and I'll probably explain it to everyone else that cares, too."  

[phoenixianCrystallist]

{Bobbi .:. Disney Castle .:. Hall of the Cornerstone}

The slightly mirthful expression Bobbi had been wearing started to slip away as Kyle launched into his explanation. First her smile faded, then her lips pursed and parted as if to say "wha...?" while one eyebrow tried to raise (a trick she'd never managed to perfect), until eventually her jaw simply dropped. Oh, it didn't drop much, just enough to display her perplexity.

"Oh. Okay." Bobbi took a deep breath, and reached one hand up to rub the bridge of her nose beneath her glasses. As she continued to speak, she gesticulated with that same hand, as she was unfortunately one of those people who couldn't talk without some form of hand movement. "Let me see if I got this straight, 'cause sometimes you talk way too fast for me, man. So. Seymour left a chunk of his heart in you, which caused that seal thingy you were trying so hard to hide earlier. You got that cleared up, but in order to do so, Ajora had to help? And he did so by using your heart as a backup hard drive?"

She'd touch on the rest once she made sure she got the gist of it down.  

[fractalJester]

[ Kyle ; Yen Sid ; Merlin : Disney : Hall of the Cornerstone ]

"And that," Merlin mused, hiding a small smile. "Is another way to summarize."

"Exactly!" he said to Bobbi, looking just as exasperated as she probably felt. "On the bright side, I have lots of info on what's going on, which I've already shared with Yen Sid and Merlin and will of course share with you guys if you're curious, but later. On the other side, I remember the stuff he did as if I did it, so that's mildly awkward."  

[Enji_Chou]

[Kyla: Disney: Hall of the Cornerstone]

Mildly.
Mildly didn’t even come CLOSE to how it felt for her.

Not even the presence of the cornerstone stopped the emotional impact that took her when all those moments alone with Ajora came flooding back to her. The torture he put her through.

Even if she had won in a small little way, and never gave him a scream or a sob of pity, it was still…

So he knew everything, saw everything?
The fight in the tunnel, the fight in Atlantis, their revealing talk, her pitiful attempt to buy time- and how it all still blew up in her face. Through Ajora eyes did he see everything that happened in and outside the cocoon, the blast following- just how MUCH did Kyle see?

The artists hand dropped from Bobbi’s arm to hang limply at her side as her head cast down hiding her face behind disheveled bangs and large thick glasses.

What was weird was- she didn’t know or decide if she wanted Kyle to acknowledge this... or dismiss it like it was meaningless.
Which would hurt more or less?


“Well, what matters is you’re here now, and back to normal right? All we have to do is make sure you don’t get copied again, last thing we need is two Ajora’s running around. Or do we have any other surprises to look forward to?”
Any other dire surprises or things that would make them all once again terrified they’d be losing another one of their team?

“Besides-“ she looked up, and smiled all cheery like-“He was a psychopath, and you don’t have to feel awkward about what someone else does with their time. Who cares if he could have possibly danced around in a tutu singing opera for the homeless, right?”

She folded her arms protectively and adjusting her weight to one side-“Still, I feel sorry for Seymour mother...” she trailed offm before once again switching- " Well, now we have a wealth of knowledge as ot what the big bads were up to, so there's the silver lining to look at. So what shall we do now? start going over it?" she summoned her book, cracked open it's spine till it flipped to the first blank page.


 

[AldrickZearse]

[Joe: Disney: Hall of the Cornerstone]

I came in like a wreeeeeeeeeeeeeecking ball~

As Kyle listed off what happened, Joe sang that song to himself in his head. No need to interrupt, really. Though as more stuff came out, a visible frown started to show on his face.

Ajora talk. That never went well, especially considering the direction the talk was going. And then of course Kyla switched subjects. And Joe let out a scoff. He couldn't help it.

"You should try to not feel that sorry. I'd bet twenty bucks that Seymour used that specificly as a way to ******** with us. Summons tend to do what we want them to do, after all. Pretty sure Seymour would want control over Anima and not risk any potential turnabouts." He sniffed, rubbing his nose. We are kinda in the middle of a war, after all."

He crossed his arms before just sitting on the ground, legs crossed. Honestly, it felt like he was sobering up quicker than expected, if only cause he was being 'forced' to actually think and care. Especially considering it seemed like this conversation was already taking a turn down a road he didn't like.

"So. Who else has something to add? Or we just moving on to what to do next?" With a wince, he sighed. "Sorry. I'm being crass." He really needed to work on his speechcraft or something.  

[phoenixianCrystallist]

{Bobbi .:. Disney Castle .:. Hall of the Cornerstone}

"Yeah, I imagine 'awkward' is putting it very, very lightly," Bobbi said, crossing her arms as her expression eased back into its slight smile. And she thought understatements were her besetting sin. When Kyla said her rather… nonsensical bit, Bobbi blinked a bit and rubbed her temple, wondering what the hell tutus had to do with anything.

"Getting a hangover already, Joe? I can make you an ice pack if it'll help," she offered, in all innocence, after giving Joe a "was that really necessary?" kind of look.  

[fractalJester]

[ Kyle ; Yen Sid ; Merlin : Disney : Hall of the Cornerstone ]

Merlin carefully walked over to Joe during the pause in conversation and lightly cleared his throat. "If you'd like, I can sober you up immediately," he said. "Though come the morning, you'll have more of a hangover as a consequence."

Joe simply shook his head, declining the offer, and Merlin walked back, shrugging.

Kyle held his tongue on the 'psychopath' comment. If the memories were real, then there was a unique side to Ajora that he only let a select few see--which was absolutely no surprise to the dragoon. All the same, though, he shook his head.

"Like I said, I'll share, but later. There're more pressing matters," he replied to Kyla, before carefully resisting the urge to give Joe a look. Bobbi did that for him. "For instance... Narnia."

"The Wise Ones have received reports of activity at Jadis'--the White Witch's--castle. Something's spreading, and no one else is quite sure what," he started. "What they know is that it's negating Aslan's power over that area, meaning that whatever is spread is literally claiming the domain--and it's spreading fast."

"They were going to send a small squadron to check it out and report... but that's where Ajora's memories come in," he said, looking now between Kyla and Bobbi. "It's Louis. That's where he went in the middle of our battle this morning--he claimed Jadis' Castle and has enacted some pretty heavy magic forces over the area."

"Being that it's Louis, that not only makes it our jurisdiction, so to speak," he said, glancing to Joe with a nod--that part is where being the leader came in handy--before returning his gaze to other two. "But it makes it something of a pressing matter, considering we want to try and at least reason with him."

"Whether or not that will work... we have to leave soon. As in, within the hour," he explained, once again turning to Joe, this time entirely. "The rate of spread is only increasing. If we wait until morning, countless Narnian lives will end up becoming part of that region, and we have no idea what will happen."