Welcome to Gaia! ::

[Kichi :: LoD :: Tea Shop]

Kichi watched as Seymour and Nicholas came in, with Beatrix and Maggie. "I see..." He said, as Seymour offered a recap of the end of the chase.

"Alan and Riku most certainly have a point...that guy was strong, and he'll only be stronger next time, if he's serious, and he must have some sort of plan. We should be prepared, as best we can, for whatever he's got."

"As for Hawaii...We'll have to see. From what I know, it's a peaceful area...but with current events included, who knows what's happened. Let's be cautious." Kichi hated being so serious...he had taken note of John's outburst, and the general serious, almost ominous aura about the room.

He looked at Kyla as she was walking outside, just a glance, then to Alan...the double took back to Kyla. "You-" He noticed her dress sphere had changed. He was going to compliment her, then realized the situation would make that totally....weird. He shook his head. "Nevermind." He said, and smiled slightly, as she disappeared around the corner of the door. 'I REALLY hope she doesn't get the wrong idea, and think I was going to say something mean.'

In the end, he decided the best idea might to start moving again. Sitting still wasn't doing any good. "Why don't we get going. I...I think it might do our minds a little good to keep active."

[Alan : LoD : Tea Shop]

Alan's piece spoken, he fell silent. Even with his attention focused on Seymour and Nicholas, he could hear part of Amy and John's conversation. They both said some interesting things. Were they dead? It seemed as likely as anything. Punishment for playing too many video games? Maybe. A test of the human spirit? Quite likely. Alan wasn't sure whether it was appropriate to ascribe teleological intent to particulars of the situation, but it seemed right. Still, part of him wondered if he was being like those ancient humans who saw lightning and presumed the work of a god. Sometimes the blind machinations of nature are just the blind machinations of nature. Maybe. Alan wasn't sure anymore, not even of the one thing he thought he knew.

Alan politely excused himself, and turned toward the pair.

Smiling half-jokingly, Alan put a hand on John's shoulder. "Look at it this way," he said, "if we're dead, it means that there definitely is an afterlife. And if not, then there's still hope for the Earth. If this is a test, we just gotta do our best to pass it, right? And if it isn't, then we should do our best anyway, for everyones' sake. It could even be that the Earth's still out there, spinning merrily away. This could be an illusion, it seems as likely as anything. And if it isn't, then we learned an important truth about the universe. I guess what I'm trying to say is . . . one way or another, we'll get through this. For better or for worse, we're alive, at least sort of, and I, at least, intend to keep it that way." He could only hope that he could comfort John at least a little. Show that he cared, too. Something like that.

But the thought of this as a test intrigued him. It had occurred to him before, of course, wandering in the wilderness. Perhaps the Earthlings who were being tested, or perhaps all of humanity was being tested through them as proxies. If that was the case, then the question was, who were the testers, and what did they want to see?

For his part, Alan resolved to continue searching for the truth.

[[Louis : Train : Dining Car]]

As Louis finished the last of his pizza, he replied with a shake of his head, "No brothers, no sisters. I'm an only child. Probably why my parents were always so hard on me to be successful. Well, not really sure what they'd say to me now with my current occupation... or lack there of. But, I hope to be someone they can be proud of regardless."

Louis shifted slightly in his seat as he thought of what to ask next, leaving a small moment of silence to hang between them, "Um, about earlier..." Louis paused and sighed, "I'm sorry. I guess I was kind of hard on you and James. I'm just pretty serious about that sorta thing. Working as a team and all... I don't want to see anyone else get hurt... or worse... captured by those evil twins of yours."

[Cory .:. Hook's Ship .:. Deck]

Cory stared at the Heartless before him, a defeated look on his face as he thought, That's right... I've never even tried using Heartless before... However- Cory summoned the Revblade and fired off a Windslash at the pirate Heartless. The attack wasn't powerful to destroy them, but still held enough force behind it to blow the enemies away. If I'm going to use Heartless, I'm going to summon my own!

Cory held his free hand out in front of him, bending the darkness to his will as he summoned a group of Soldier Heartless. Just need to remember that darkness is not power... Darkness is a tool. The tool I'm using to sculpt my own personal guard... He closed his hand into a fist, attempting to change the Soldiers' shapes. But this isn't good enough. The Soldiers began to bend over, folding inwards on themselves as their bodies twisted and contorted in a new form. Now before Cory was a trio of Heartless wearing straw hats and random piece of azure samurai armor. "Yo, Timmy! Check it out, I made my own Heartless! I call'em 'ronins'. Why don't you give it a shot?"

[Cloud : Land of Dragons : Fireworks Yard]

Cross Strike had three swings. The overhead, side swipe, and another side swipe from the opposite direction. Anyone could pick up a sword and make those movements. It took years of practice and determination–and not a small bit of obsession–to make them look like one attack, to blend them together flawlessly with such power behind each movement.

The movements were fast and sure, but they didn't appear as a blur. Between each swing, Cloud would pause, ever so briefly, as if to gather power. You could see the sword, see the movements, take note of the control behind them, and realize, in that instant, that your opponent knew exactly what he was doing. Battle was fast paced; it only took that one moment to understand you needed to block, or get cut in half.

And yet Leon lowered his blade.

Cloud stopped. The last swing of the Cross Slash had already been started, and the buster sword was mere inches from making impact. A sickening feeling threatened to descend on Cloud, and not for the first time today. He pushed it all away. The current feeling was one of panic. Did he really just attack another friend?

He certainly did. This time, however . . . this time . . .

Cloud lowered his blade. "I can't stay here," he said, simply. His respect for Leon was such that he added a further explanation. "With the group. With him." He didn't even glance at Axel as he said it.

He returned his sword to his back, and began to leave. Leon would likely be thoroughly confused; Axel couldn't possibly comprehend; and Demyx went entirely ignored for all Cloud cared.

[ Ajora ; Kefka : ??? : Dark Tower ]

"Nothing from you," Ajora said, immediately turning his gaze to the clown that they'd been ignoring for the past few minutes. Kefka seemed giddy over something he was watching, practically bursting at the seems with giggles every few seconds. "Kefka, one last thing-"

"Yes, no, chocolate, and 42," Kefka said, shooing away Ajora with a bored wave of his hand after spitting out random answers. This only seemed to mildly irritate the Replica, who cleared his throat. "Oh, what is it?!"

"Their Geist- I'm not sure the Negator will properly cancel him out, as his 'mana' is his own heat-energy," Ajora declared somewhat bluntly, his tone revealing a bit of the accumulated annoyance of the past few minutes. "None of us have any sort of ice magic to drain him in place, and the only Replica with ice magic is an ignorant peon who refuses to work with us. Got anything that could-"

"Ugh, you kids are so useless without me," Kefka groaned, staring up at the ceiling for a moment before glancing back at his basin of water. "I'll send something when the time comes. Just get out of here already- I hate hate HATE interruptions!"

With a click of his tongue to signal his annoyance, Ajora vanished into a Corridor of Darkness, leaving the scene.

[Jenny :: Dining Car]

"Goodnight Kyle," Jenny said as the Swallow wielder exited the car, trying to keep a straight face despite Sora's antics. She covered her mouth with her hand and looked to her remaining bite before feeling her eyes drift to look outside the window. The mage never thought about it before but sleeping when there weren't any stars in the sky was going to be awkward. She was so used to plopping her head down on her pillow back at home and looking out the window to see the stars dancing in the night sky but she was probably going to be so tired that it wouldn't matter here anyways. Jenny absentmindedly nibbled at the remaining chunk of pizza, feeling like the atmosphere in the car was thick... like a jug of popcorn butter was doused all over them. Thank goodness for Sora's burp, without the keyblader she'd probably feel needlessly awkward. If only she could be that oblivious with her surroundings.

"I should probably go shower, as clean as these clothes feel... it's still strange when you know you're going without a rinse," The flutist said to James with the best smile she could muster, which admittedly, probably looked a little goofy. She ducked her head just slightly and maybe a little too quickly before tossing her plate and dashing out of the car. Yeah, warm water running through her hair would definitely do her some good.