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[Noelle ~ The Black Pearl ~ Upper Deck]

Noelle was startled by Dawn's sudden shout and looked to see what happened. When she realized that Michelle was just tickling her, the agromancer sighed and went back to looking out on the water, chin resting on her hand. Before she was interrupted Dawn had shook her head and said the two words "I can't." Noelle's frustration flared up as her mind began drawing conclusions. She tried not to jump the gun, but couldn't help preparing herself to be disappointed. The blonde would ignore the two until Dawn gave her a more complete answer. She knew that Michelle wasn't aware that they were having a serious conversation, so she wasn't going to be angry--but that didn't help her impatience.

[[Louis : Black Pearl : Below Deck]]

The arcanist opened his eyes and looked at Anthony with a warm smile of gratitude, "Ah, thanks for the update. I must have dozed off." Louis pressed off the wall with a shift of his weight and strolled forward, "By the way, in case I forgot to earlier, thanks again for keeping guard over Dawn and I when I was dealing with that little irritation." Louis chuckled a little at how lightly he'd described the situation.

"There's no knowing what might have happened if anyone had gotten up and arms and moved us, or worse separated us. And if I know this group well enough, at least one of them would have tried. I have this feeling, if anyone had moved my body in that state away from Dawn I might have never woken up. So in a way, I'm in your debt."

The boy stopped in front of the other, "You know, I'm not even sure we've been properly introduced. I don't even remember when you joined our little rag tag group of do-gooders, my apologies. My name is Louis, an Arcadian from Ivalice. I know it's late, but it's a pleasure to meet you, I hope we'll get along well."

[ Ajora ; Seymour : Hawaii : Beach ]

The Maester had long since returned to the group's side, though he preferred to remain in the shade of the palms. It wasn't that he got hot, or needed to cool himself off- he felt nothing. Merely that, from the shadows, he could keep an eye on things while remaining out of the ready view of those around him. His staff leaned against the side of the tree while he sat on the ground, his back leaned against it as well, one leg stretched out while the other pulled closer, knee bent vertically. His long hair lay carelessly in the sand beside him.

When he first returned, he'd been tempted to simply blast Ajora then and there. Not because he disliked the Replica; on the contrary, he was proving to be one of the few 'successful' failures, alongside Elleon. However, it would have been in character to do so, helping his 'allies'; he restrained when he saw the group ignoring him, for the most part. A pleasurable surprise; he would not have to destroy a useful entity after all.

Nicholas, however, had seemed a bit... friendly with the Replica, playing catch with him. Undoubtedly, the other Earthlings were already suspicious. Nicholas wouldn't last much longer in the group. He simply wasn't espionage material; with an aeon like Chaos, the Maester wasn't surprised. So long as the boy left no ties to him, he didn't care what happened. Perhaps he'd be better off with Ajora, anyway.

Ajora yawned, having almost fallen into a nice heat-induced nap. He'd lost interest in frisbee long ago, having resorted to a number of other things, like backflip contests and scouring the beach for anything of interest. At this particular moment, he seemed to be tanning, lying chest down on a beach towel with his head resting on his hands in front of him, his Command Seals still blatantly visible. He glanced over to the side, at the now lowering sun.

"Damn, is it that time already?" he groaned, slowly sitting up while stretching, his spine popping as he did so; his eye twitched at the sound. He couldn't stand that. "Guess I need to get back to work... ugh."

[Dawn : Black Pearl : Above Deck]

"Well sorry for needing to vent," Dawn mumbled with a slight pout as she took Michelle's hand, "Well you got your revenge, happy?" Dawn poked Michelle on the forehead to as a way to get her back. She loved Michelle but she could have some of the worse timing with the tickling.

She soon turned to Noelle, feeling bad about the situation. She wanted to give her a proper answer. She knew that it wasn't the answer the girl wanted to hear, but she couldn't lie to her or make a promise to Noelle or herself that she knew she couldn't keep.

"I am sorry, Noelle," Dawn finally said apologizing for both Michelle's disruption and the answer she was about to give, "I can't do it. I know it is stupid for me to say and it could cause more trouble than good, but I cannot do it. I have always been a person to listen to my heart. It is something I cannot, will not, ignore. It is my greatest weakness, but it is also my greatest strength... I hope you understand...."

Dawn looked away from both Noelle and Michelle (if she was still there). She stood there waiting for a reply from either one of them.

[ Pseudo-Ajora : Below Deck ]

"Anthony, hmm?" Ajora muttered; not loud enough to disturb Louis' own thoughts at the time, but 'out loud' enough that if he cared to hear him, he could. Ajora remained at Anthony's side, giving him a look over. That was quickly cut off when Anthony asked (after stuttering a bit) Louis to teach him to use the Darkness.

Ajora's jaw dropped and his eyes went wide. He slowly craned his neck so that he was facing Louis; the image of shock was rather humorous on the dragoon. Though his mouth remained wide open for a bit, his eyebrows raised slightly, showing that the surprise was a joyous one.

"Dude, you have to!" he said, looking absolutely enthralled, a mixture of excitement and hilarity added to his tone and expression. "That's just so perfect! Hell, I might not even need to make a Replica of these people if they come flocking to you so easily!"

((It's all good, sir! ^^ I guess I should apologize ahead of time for my length post then... o.o))

[Anthony ~.~ The Black Pearl ~.~ Lower Deck]

"Confidence...," Anthony thought, lightly chuckling, his gaze still fixated on the floor as Louis spoke. "Always comes back to confidence..."

The young man turned and followed after Louis into the cargo hold, listening intently to everything he had to say. Each word that passed his lips filled the warrior-knight with anxiety. Would he be the same care-free and joyous person afterward? What if he couldn't control the darkness and end up destroying himself in the process? What if he hurt people because of the darkness?

"Confidence... Gotta be confident."

Anthony straightened his back and lifted his eyes just as they stepped into the cargo hold, his hands curling into fists for a moment before his fingers relaxed again. Confidence--or the lack of confidence has always been the young man's problem. He has always been too meek; too soft to a point where he would allow others to walk all over him just so they would be happy. A genuine people pleaser...

The warrior-knight has always been a man of balance, except for when it came to his faith (which was all or nothing, but even then he'd still slip up). You could say, at times, he was rather obsessive compulsive when it came to keeping order--even if most of the time it was subconsciously manifested. If he chewed on one hand, he had to chew on the other. If he scratched one side of his leg, he had to scratch the other. His metaphoric glass could never be half full or half empty--always just right.

This natural need for balance made it easy for Anthony to not only acknowledge his darkness along with the part of him that wanted to tap into that power, but made it easy for him to feel that he would be capable of wielding the darkness without being consumed by it.

This gave him confidence...

Anthony sat on the wooden flood and leaned back on his hands, looking up at Louis as he sat on top of a crate. He began to share with Louis events from his past and about his personality ((which could be found in my profile... o.o)). He spent a lot of time talking about his brothers and the depression he went through because of the lifestyle they had chosen. He spent a lot more time on the anger he felt constantly boiling inside of him, awaiting for the right moment to be triggered.

"As for darkness...," Anthony began, glancing away from Louis for the first time since they walked into the cargo hold. "I feel it's a necessity. Without darkness, we wouldn't know what light is... in a sense, I feel they both need to co-exist to truly understand the two." He turned his gaze back to Louis, then continued speaking. "I've always been a man of balance... I can't live my life avoiding a part of me that plays a role in defining who I am. I have both darkness and light in me--granted the light, at this moment, is much stronger--but darkness nevertheless. Though darkness usually has a negative reputation, I feel it could be used for good. I mean, you're an example of that. You saved Dawn... and if you're willing to teach me, we could save James."

{Kyle : Hawaii : Beach

Unlike the other two in their semi-battle, Kyle had come out of it relatively clean. After all, it wasn't like the mud could actually stay on him if he didn't want it to. He was somewhat cold however. Water plus snow usually didn't equal warmth. But at least the nice Hawaiian weather was awesome. Perfect temperature, perfect beach, it was astonishingly relaxing. He'd even let his guard down a bit, having not been attacked for hours, he found himself in a rare state of peace, rare back on Earth and certainly rare here. He'd found himself laying down on the sand, comfy as could be.

He was wishing that they wouldn't have to battle more. He didn't want to have to go back to that world of constant battles and threats, but he didn't want Earth to remain gone. So he had to fight. And even if he didn't have to, he wouldn't want to stay in Hawaii for the rest of his life. Not when there was so many places to see, so much to explore. Narnia and Disney Castle were obvious places to start, and if it was as big as it had been described, there were worlds meshed in that he had wanted to see for years, but they had moved to the back of his mind.

Watching Bobbi come out of the water, he took in the sunset as well. It was absolutely beautiful, better than anything he'd seen at home or at any of the beaches he'd visited before. It was a relaxing sight and he really had no inclination to move.

[Michelle : Black Pearl : Above Deck (Walking in circles around it)]

Michelle hated being poked in the forehead as Dawn well knew but she let it go rubbing the spot till the awkward feeling went away. She wasn't dense, she realized as Dawn spoke to Noelle again, before the girl walked away, that they must have been having a rather serious conversation when she interrupted. As her brief joviality started to drain away again she felt unwanted bitterness at the fact that she couldn't even enjoy smiling for a little while.

"Don't take it that way young one, yes the timing was off, but it is still great that you were laughing again. No one wants to deign you a little levity, just because they didn't feel like joining in."

I know. She thought back with a mental sigh, and as she turned away from Dawn picking a path to walk in circles around the ship deck the urge to find a punching bag faded. I... I just miss him so much.

"I know you do little one just hang in there, we'll find him it's only a matter of time. The best gift you can give him right now is to make sure you keep it together while he is away. You know if he was here that your being depressed would only make him worry."

She had always hated, and loved, that about him. About the way they were together. Neither one could feel sad or sick or down at all without it affecting the other and bringing them into sync with the same mood. It could be so frustrating sometime when she just wanted to be aloud to cry, to let stuff out, and she dare not because she couldn't stand to cause him pain. And yet it was good in the end, she supposed, because she knew from experience that regardless of how important being aloud emotional freedom is, depression was never a positive or helpful state to be in. The way they fed off the other's mood forced them to both try and keep an optimistic attitude that was good for life. It was crazy sometimes, and it barely made sense others but then, that was love.