Welcome to Gaia! ::

The glowing eyes hadn't initially alarmed her—she'd seen weirder things by now, and while worrisome she'd seen something similar with Kyla's eyes, not to mention more pronounced forms in numerous photographs of animals and small children—but the black tendrils coming out of her own hand and creating Louis's new outfit kind of freaked her out a bit. Between that and the change in expression to mildly psychotic, and she started to regret accepting his offer for a dance. Her hand twitched in his, starting to pull away, but he'd already pulled her in.

Her face flushed a painful red when he complimented her on her dancing. Something about this new world had certainly improved her coordination; previously, when she didn't know the steps to a dance, she would just kind of trod on toes, sometimes not even the toes of someone in the dance.

Natural? Ha! I'm a klutz! Why do people lie when they're trying to be flattering?

"Don't be," she responded to his comment of jealousy, only half paying attention to what she was saying. Most of her was focusing on the dance, and the weird way they seemed to move in sync. "We're in my heart; I kind of have the home field advant—eep!" She cut off as he dipped her, and she reflexively gripped his hand and shoulder. Even in her own heart the sensation of falling sent a spike of adrenaline through her system. Before he pulled her back up, she caught a glimpse of the endless black abyss surrounding her station. The darkness out there didn't terrify her as much as the abrupt vertigo did. She barely had any time to sit on her phobia and squash it before he picked her up and spun her. If it was possible to bruise a spirit, the grip she had on his shoulders by the time he set her down again would have left a perfect imprint of her hand for at least a week without the use of a Cure spell. And if she had ever let her nails grow out, she'd have probably left bloody claw prints to boot.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, and please don't do that again," she said shakily, loosening a hand and holding up her index finger in slight admonishment. "The dipping and lifting things, I mean. I don't take free-fall very well. And actually, while I try to convince my stomach that the world isn't going to drop out from beneath my feet again, can we talk? I have questions, and I'm sure you do, too."

She didn't like the dark tendrils receding any more than she had liked them emerging. They sent an atavistic shudder down her spine, but she managed a weak smile for him nevertheless. Of course, her stomach still doing parkour off of her spine after being dipped and subsequently picked up did not help, and kept her smile from widening to a grin.

"Taking turns it is," she agreed. She briefly considered sitting, but she wasn't even remotely uncomfortable standing, so instead she crossed her arms and stood hip-shot. Her head tilted to the right a little, and a small smirk tugged at her lips. "First and foremost, what's with the throne? Little ostentatious, don't you think?"

Bobbi chuckled a little and shook her head, but didn't join in the somewhat lightened mood.

"I'm actually kind of serious about that. I mean it's some pretty heavy symbology going on under your butt there," she said, shaking her head a little. "Like, was it a conscious or a subconscious decision to have the throne appear that way? And if subconscious, from whose, mine or yours?"

Bobbi rolled her eyes when Louis tried to pull the "someone behind you" trick. She hadn't fallen for it once in her life, and she wasn't about to start now. Not in her own heart, not when she was in a world with Disney magic enhancing her natural empathic senses. She would have felt anyone else back there first, never mind heard them. It had to be impossible to walk silently on the stained glass mosaic. Unless one was barefoot, she supposed, but still, no alternate presence back there.

As he went on about the ruling thing, she balked a little, and shook her head. Ruling was the last thing she wanted; too much responsibility, too much power, and not enough knowledge or skill to do anything with either. No, she'd make a terrible ruler, and she'd much rather just live her life in peace and freedom, responsible only to herself and the people she loved.

"Pretty sure it's a metaphysical manifestation, conjured by you for the sake of convenience and making an impression, at least on a subconscious level. I don't want it here, it clashes with the decor. But that does give me an interesting insight into your crazed little head, my friend." She began pacing, orbiting the throne Louis was sitting on, always keeping it in the corner of her vision as she walked. "It seems to match up with what little I know of you, though admittedly most of it is hearsay. Of course, I could also be totally wrong, and there could be some other specter in my head who is identical to you in every way, right down to your aura, but I highly doubt it."

[gdi I blame Rhiko for everything, including being late with this post. THAT'S RIGHT, FEEL BAD, RHIKO, YOU MADE ME STAY UP LATE.]



"Huh. But...why would someone kill Vexen? I mean, he made the replicas, right? So wouldn't his research and knowledge be valuable to...whatever dark forces are out there? Did someone want him to regain his heart and make it inside Disney? How did he even get here? Er, I mean, uh...sorry, there goes my mouth again," Sayrike added apologetically, scratching the back of her neck. Sometimes she just mused aloud too much. Doing an excellent job on those first impressions. She shifted from one foot to the other, trying to start again. "Do you mean to wake him here, right now?"

"Next," he repeated, his voice trailing off as he looked around, the mist still so thick he could barely see the abyss beyond it. Sometimes, when he focused on the iridescent colors, he could swear he saw flashes. Visions of something familiar, like a split-second memory replay. Sometimes, they were his own. Sometimes, they were Ajora's.

And they were starting to seem less distinguishable.

"I should probably completely wake up," he said. "I have a lot to fill in the others about. And hopefully I can get this stuff settled, too. It's a stretch, but maybe..."

His voice trailed off again before he shrugged. "I'll catch'y'around, boyo. If you talk to me while I'm up, don't be insulted if I don't immediately respond," he said, grinning apologetically at the other man. "I'm just really bad at multi-tasking when it comes to conversations. Like... makes me lock up. So if you could wait until there's a pause, I'd really, really appreciate it, because I don't want to get snappy at you or anyone else."

"Until then," he said, and with a small wave, he closed his eyes, took a calm breath--and vanished into small flecks of golden dust that rose into the endless black sky.

The Dark One watched eagerly as she focused, patiently biding his time, leering and waiting--and then she began to move, and he gave a barely-withheld giggle of excitement.

When she pulled the dark seed away from her, he flicked his hand suddenly, and with the simple motion, it flew from her grasp and onto the ground. Another small flick of his hand, and it suddenly erupted into a column of white-gold fire. The darkness screeched and wailed, writhing about with tendrils that grew smaller and smaller until finally... there was only ash.

"Splendid!" he said, still sneering triumphantly down at the seed's remains. After a moment, he finally turned back to her, smiling and holding out the bottle, gripping the base with both hands. "Now for payment, and we can finish our deal. Just place your hand on the bottle and say that you give your three wishes over to me."

Assuming she did that (and, if she had any questions, he would then answer them), he brought the lamp back to himself, smiling. "And now, before we get started, I should let you know your options. The way this works is that your heart will fill in all the missing blanks from your previous life--but then everything before the moment you woke up in this place will be stripped from your heart's memory--" he pointed a finger to her chest. "--and preserved in your mind." He lifted his finger to point to her head. "The process breaks you down, and then puts you back together as a unique, one-of-a-kind whole. You will know everything she knew, but it will not affect you any more than if you'd read it in some old dusty tome."

"In this process, however, you would normally lose access to those powers you retained from her heart--the spear and your gifts with nature, if I remember correctly," he said, giving a mock frown before suddenly 'perking up'. "However~! This is where your options come in, with how I work the witchery. You can keep the weapon, or trade it for another; the same can be said for your flowery fluency--take it, or get something else."

"Your spirit--Titan, yes?--will remain, unless you wish him gone. However, he'll probably change, just like your heart," he explained, his tenor maintaining its know-it-all tone. "With a new, unique heart replacing the fake copy, the same will happen to the spirit, since it has no means of restricting its form. Of course, if you'd like to keep him as he is, say the word."

"And so, in summar~ry~," he said, flourishing a finger in the air as if to call attention back to himself--he had been rambling. "Keep the spear, or get something new. Keep the plants, orr~r get something new. Keep the summon, or maybe get something new. What'll it be?"

"It's the best one-word description for what you are in here, really," Bobbi said, still pacing around the throne. "You aren't physical, you're metaphysical. And, well, I have a lot of theories about why you're here, but neither of us are likely to get answers to them if you don't even know who you are." She had paced around to the front of the throne, well within his line of sight, and shrugged, offering a lopsided grin.

"I'm not saying you're not real, by the way. I'm just saying that your body is out there somewhere," she waved vaguely, indicating somewhere in the real world outside of her station, "while your consciousness, or at least a part of it, has decided to wedge itself in the cracks of my heart." She was passing over one of those cracks at the moment, and tapped her heel against the edge of it as she walked by.