Forever Twilight [OPEN]

[Naminé]

Twilight Town. It was where a lot of her prior time as an individual was spent, as well as the place of several events. For one, it was where she had restored Sora's memories. In the Old Mansion, where he slept for a year in the pod, along with his friends, Donald and Goofy. Roxas, Axel, and Xion spent time here as well, in their ritual of ice cream after missions. Lastly, Roxas spent a lot of his time here as well. Sure, it had been a mere digital version, and none of it was real, but it was the setting no less, so it had to count for something. Be it real or not. With all of these memories and times spent here, it wasn't a surprise that it was also the site Namine visited first. Or, at least, first since she separated from Kairi yet again. Aside from Castle Oblivion and the World that Never Was, it was actually the only other world she'd been to. Well, actually, there was also Destiny Islands, but she was fused with Kairi then, which meant that she hadn't had the freedom to explore on her own.

Walking through the streets, Namine found that they were mostly deserted. She didn't mind too much, as she did like solitude as much as being in the company of others. Looking up and left and right and, well in all directions, she simply observed the town and her surroundings. Most of her time spent here was actually in the Old Mansion, and she'd never gotten to freely take a calm walk through it. Not being bound by duties or under anyone else's watch was very peaceful, and she enjoyed it. Somewhat unconsciously, she thought on and off about a destination. She could always visit the Old Mansion again, although with all the time that passed, she could only guess that it was overgrown by now. Other than that, there weren't any other landmarks she knew of. Except one. Not even suppressing the urge to laugh at herself, Namine's mind was brought to the Clock Tower. There was Sea Salt ice cream there, and while it wasn't particularly hot out, she didn't need a blistering hot sun to want the frozen treat.

Breaking into a light jog, the blonde Nobody navigated her way through Twilight Town and towards the Central Station Plaza. There, she would find the Sunset Clock Tower, and the place to get her ice cream. Arriving there in about ten minutes or so, at her pace, she hadn't worked herself to a sweat. Her breathing stayed constant and even, and she couldn't wait to get her ice cream! Walking up to the counter, she placed her order. She actually had some munny with her, and it was enough for one cone (or is it stick?). Pausing for a moment after receiving her treat, she debated whether to go to the top of the clock tower, of back into town.

It was always Twilight in Twilight Town, as its name suggested. So the sun never moved. Its position always made it a nice place to look out on, and Namine could easily return later and watch the same sight in the sky. Yet, by then, she probably would have eaten her ice cream already. Glancing at the blue treat she held, she made the quick decision to enjoy the sun/view and her ice cream. And hopefully, before it melted!

Making her way up to the stairs (I'm assuming there's stairs since how else do you get to the top?), she start the trek upwards. It actually took a good five to ten minutes, and in that time, she'd taken a few bites of her ice cream. By the time she reached the top, half of it was gone. But it was okay. Half was enough to enjoy while she sat up here. Approaching the edge, Namine swung her legs over and sat down. Taking another bite, she simply stared out onto the town, forever in twilight.

[Ven]

Something scratchy and wet scraped Ven's cheek.

He didn't bother to react at first, only making a weak noise and scrunching his eyebrows in protest, but when the feeling came again his eyes flickered and opened. "Hmnnh...?"

The stray that had discovered him nuzzled his ear.

"Heh...this is kind of a weird dream," he mumbled, and started to drift off again.

"AWRH.[/b]"

"Whuh--wha-oa!" The bark was right in his ear and made him start violently and fall over with a pained "ungh!" The dog went skittering away, the pads of its feet sharp against the road. Ven watched it go, bringing a hand up to rub his head, and with a shift of fabric and clap of rubber and flesh against the brick he got to his feet. "Hey, where am I?" he wondered aloud, looking from one end of the unfamiliar street to the other. "Ugh, man..."

It didn't look like anywhere he'd ever been before. But, now that he thought about it, Ven couldn't really remember being anywhere else in particular. Something tugged at his memories, something important, but he couldn't remember now what it was. Where did he come from? Who was important to him?

What was his name?

"Ventus."

At least he remembered that much. Ventus felt too long to him, though, maybe he'd let people shorten it. Vent, mayb--no, Ven. Yeah, that sounded right, and a little familiar actually. That gave him a little confidence that made him smile with a soft hum of satisfaction. Wherever his missing memories were, he was sure he could find them. At least he was up and about now, right? Better than just sitting there up against the wall. But he couldn't sure how long he'd been asleep there, and something felt wrong about being here in the first place. Looking around just didn't jog any memories at all, and made him think that maybe he really hadn't been here before--but that also scared him a little. What if he found out it was the most important place to him?

Worrying about that didn't get him anywhere, so Ven set off to see the rest of the town, hoping something would ring a few bells or at least give him a sense of deja vu. He did find a tattered blanket hiding what looked like a secret hideout, which made him curious, but he didn't want to get caught snooping in someone else's place. Much as he wanted to stick around and see who showed up to play there, from the moment he woke up he'd spotted the clock tower on the horizon, so he'd been heading there even before he ran across the hideout.

When he finally found the Station Heights, he was almost tempted to hop on a train--or at least go look at some of the locations for anything familiar. But he felt drawn to the clock tower for a reason he couldn't put his finger on. It wasn't quite a memory, just a feeling. It wasn't a feeling of Ven's, he didn't think--it gave him the crazy thought that it was a feeling belonging to someone else--but it was all he had to go on at the moment, so he climbed the stairs out of curiosity. About halfway up he almost gave up, not because he couldn't make it but it was just taking too long and he didn't want to miss every train, but he stuck with it stubbornly. You're halfway there anyway, might as well finish what you started, was the sentiment, but he couldn't remember who might have given him that kind of advice.

Once he reached the top, he realized he wasn't alone.

She was small and pale, sitting so dangerously close to the edge that Ven kind of wanted to do something about it, and she had what was obviously ice cream at her lips. That, too, struck Ven with a surge of distant familiarity--as did seeing her in the first place--but it left him just as frustrated as before.

"Uhh, excuse me," he said as he approached, not wanting to startle her enough that he might make her fall off the edge. "I'm, uh." He chuckled ruefully, scratching his cheek. "I think I'm a little lost."

[Naminé]

The ice cream was yummy. After only a few minutes, Namine was sure that her decision was the right one. Enjoying the view with the frozen treat was much better than without. Taking another bite and then pausing, she turned her attention back to the sky. The sun was still in the same position, as ways, however somehow, it was still beautiful. You'd think that an everlasting sky would get boring or rather bland after a set amount of time, yet Namine disagreed. If the site was enjoyable, even if you'd seen it countless times, it wouldn't necessarily lose it merit.

"Uhh, excuse me,"

The voice grabbed Namine's attention, and she slightly jumped at the suddenness of the noise. However, she turned around nonetheless to see who was approaching her.

"I'm, uh, I think I'm a little lost."

The blonde Nobody's eyes widened as she saw who was here. Was that- It couldn't be! No... But it looked just like-

"Roxas?" Her voice came out at first as a rather disbelieving whisper. However, staring at the boy again, she squinted. The boy looked a lot like Roxas, but there were differences. For one, his outfit had changed. He wasn't wearing his Organization cloak or his more common attire. Instead, he had on some armor like clothing instead. Why would he be wearing that? "Maybe he thought he needed to change his clothes? Everyone wants a change sometime..." she thought. However, she continued to inspect the differences Roxas had from when she last saw him. His voice was similar, but yet different. And his height...Did he grow taller?

Among all of these differences, there were some things that were the same. For instance, his eyes. They were still the same sky blue that he shared with Sora. And well, her and Kairi as well, sort of. Plus, his haired was the same. The same golden blonde spiked up hair style that was undeniably Roxas.

But still, it seemed a bit unreal. Maybe she shouldn't be as shocked, since if she separated from Kairi, why couldn't Roxas have separates from Sora? It made sense... But it was still rather odd.

"You...are Roxas...right?"

[Ven]

Seeing the girl jump made him wince with an aborted "Oh, no--I--!" But thankfully she didn't fall, so Ven let that one go. "I didn't mean to scare you," he said anyway, just as rueful as before.

Then he focused on the big blue eyes she'd turned on him. There was something familiar about them in this distant way...a way that didn't feel connected to him at all. It was like he didn't belong again, he wasn't the person who should be coming to see her, but he couldn't figure out who was.

And that wasn't even the most confusing part of it. It seemed like he'd witnessed those blue eyes in a dream, only always in different faces. The one thing that held true throughout was the fact that all of those faces were important somehow. Much as it didn't feel connected to him, Ven decided he would have to stick close to this girl and hers. Maybe she couldn't tell him who he was, but he'd at least figure out why he remembered her so indistinctly. That, or maybe this was someone important to him personally, it just seemed like if it were one of his own memories it would resonate...

Roxas?

The name she repeated in that whispery voice finally got his attention, making Ven's brows draw together and his lips part in confusion. That sounded so familiar too...but he knew it didn't belong to him either. "Oh...sorry. I'm Ventus, not...but you can call me Ven!" As if that helped matters. He self-consciously scratched his head. "I guess we look kinda similar?"

He felt bad putting her hopes down in the first place. From the look on her face, this Roxas was someone she was surprised and probably happy to see. Ven wished he could deliver on that, but he wasn't about to play pretend he was someone else. Still, it did make him wonder if "Roxas" wasn't some alias that he himself had used--the familiarity would explain it, and so would the feeling of not belonging. Because that would mean, for some reason, he spent a lot of time living a lie.

[Naminé]

Namine blinked a bit as she discovered that "Roxas" was in fact, not Roxas at all. It did make sense, and explained the differences, but it was still odd how someone, a complete stranger for the most part, looked exactly like Sora's Nobody. "This world does have its oddities, and this just might have to be one of them," she reasoned with herself, and quickly resolved her shock. No need to appear rude in front of this boy, whoever he was. Blinking a bit as he apologized, although Namine wasn't completely sure on what it was he had to be sorry for, she started to bring her feet back onto the bricks of the clock tower in a move to stand up. turning around to fully face the Roxas-lookalike, she took a few steps away from the edge before speaking.

"Oh, it's alright... I was just a bit startled by your sudden appearance is all. Nothing to be sorry for."

With the knowledge that this was indeed not Roxas, Namine could pick out a few more differences. His hair style wasn't exactly the same, and she could pick out maybe one or two differences that she wouldn't have paid attention to otherwise. Also, he did have a bit more mature air to him, so she could guess that maybe this boy was a bit older than Roxas.

Even so, the looming question of who this boy was still plagued her mind. Could he actually somehow be related to Sora and Roxas? Maybe by some odd occurrence, he was a Nobody or something of the like to one of them. "Orhe could just be a random stranger who has no idea who Sora and Roxas are. Maybe I'm overthinking this a bit..." Namine reasoned.

"Oh...sorry. I'm Ventus, not...but you can call me Ven! I guess we look kinda similar?"

Ventus... So that was this boy's name. As to not appear offensive or anything, Namine smiled and said, "It's nice to meet you, Ven. You and Roxas, a...a friend of mine, look very much alike." She hesitated a bit on whether to call Roxas a friend of hers or not. It hadn't been totally established yet, and so she wasn't sure whether the blonde boy considered her his friend or not. He was to her though, so for now, the blonde felt it was appropriate to address themselves as such. "My name's Namine."

[Ven]

Ven couldn't help being just a little envious of her calmness. He didn't know if he would take it as well, someone showing up with a friend's face...but then, he couldn't remember his friends with any distinctness, so he didn't know for sure. Dimly, he recalled a rift that existed between them. It was something consistent--he didn't think of them in the same terms as Naminé somehow. Maybe because they were boys? Or maybe they were younger than him? Older? It was frightening not to know...

Nonetheless, his eyes turned up in a smile and nod. "Naminé," he repeated, and deja vu hit when his lips formed the syllables of her name. He could swear he'd said it before at a time not unlike this one. But it was just that distant familiarity again.

He was a little relieved that she was away from the edge now, if only because he couldn't possibly do anything to send her over now--she looked so fragile, even if something in her look told him she was strong--but there was something a little too intimate about her standing at his level and looking straight in his eyes. Ven didn't know how to define it exactly but it made his eyes flicker away from her and back a few times and he made a few self-conscious twitches like he wanted to fix himself up somehow. Maybe if he could remember anything about his past, then Ven would recall that he had very little exposure to girls his own age, but as it was he couldn't put a finger on why her gaze put butterflies in his stomach.

"Uh, so..." Oh god, how did words work again? "Roxas, huh? If I see him, I'll tell him I saw you. If I can--figure out it's him and all..." The original thought had been something distantly witty about confusing Roxas with a mirror, but the concept sounded stupid in conversation so Ven stumbled that out instead and wished he could smack palm to forehead in the aftermath. It didn't matter what he said, he sounded idiotic to himself right now. "Do--how long have you lived here, anyway?" he added finally, and congratulated himself on not totally botching the question. It had almost been "Do you live here," since Ven had the strangest sense that she didn't, but blurting that out might have been obnoxious. All in all it probably wasn't the best question to get things rolling, but he grabbed blindly for the first one that seemed related to small talk and threw it out like desperately chucking a glass of water at a forest fire.

[OOC: Sorry for taking forever here!]

[Naminé]

As Ventus repeated her name, the blonde Nobody only smiled and nodded. For some reason, his eyes kept darting back and forth; between her and...somewhere else. Her eyes slightly narrowed in confusion, she wondered why he looked so...nervous? Taking a glance around, Namine tried to spot anything that would induce such a reaction. Could there be some kind of threat looming that she didn't know about? Turning back to her companion, she asked, "Ven, is there something wrong?" If that was indeed the case, the girl had no qualms in assisting him, or at least putting forth the effort to do something. The town had been silent for quite some time, however, and Namine couldn't guess what might be lurking to cause trouble.

If she was back, then maybe the Organization was too. Perhaps Ven had met up with one of them, and was nervous they might show up. Were that to be true, Namine wanted to do what she could to defeat them. Before they had targeted Sora and his keyblade. Was it possible that they'd try and manipulate him again? If that happened...things would definitely be different this time. Now, she wasn't under their control. She wouldn't be their pawn and she would never obey their orders. If anything, the blonde nobody would make sure they didn't get close to Sora. Never would they harm him, or put him through what he'd already experienced all over again. Not if she could help it.

Focusing on Ven again, her eyes filled with a determined light, as if she were going to face a great opponent soon, she was about to question him when he spoke.

"Uh, so...Roxas, huh? If I see him, I'll tell him I saw you. If I can--figure out it's him and all..." Nodding, Namine once again thought of how much Ven and Roxas looked alike. It was only natural, she supposed, yet something tugged at the back of her mind; something that said it wasn't purely coincidental that these two boys looked almost exactly the same. But it wasn't time to mull over small, distinct feelings.

"If you do see Roxas...well, he looks exactly like you. The same hairstyle, same blue eyes," she said, listing off the two boy's similarities. Glancing down at Ven's wrist, she recognize his wristbands to be the same as Roxas's as well. Letting out a small giggle, she indicated the accessory while saying, "I think he even wears that same checker-patterned wristband too."

"Do--how long have you lived here, anyway?" At this question, Namine blinked, and simply stared for a moment. He assumed she lived here? Well, it was a plausible assumption, untrue, but plausible. Of course, maybe she did live here, in a sense. She spent a lot of time in the Old Mansion, but the Nobody couldn't really call the building "home". As Kairi, she felt Destiny Islands as more a home than anything, but as herself...could she really call the world she'd never been to as an individual home? She didn't know... Her gaze dropping to the right, somewhat focusing on the ground, the girl let out a small, almost embarrasses, laugh.

"I actually don't live here at all."

[OOC: It's okay, I don't mind waiting. Besides, it's not like I'm not head deep in replies xD]