middaeg | [ open ] Growth is Painful

Entry tags:

original: ferran gallagher

[ open ] Growth is Painful

Who: Vanitas + Open
When: Throughout Jan
Where: All around
What: Quest Prompts, Event Prompts, and closed threads
Warnings: TBA

( Orphanage: Mistaken Identity )

[ Vanitas has nothing to do with the orphanage or the kids there. Really and truly, he doesn't. Now he might have been tasked to drop some donations off, but hanging around them? Playing with them? Oh no. No no no. That's not something that Vanitas can tolerate at all.

Seems like he's in a bit of a situation right now though. Looks like some of the kids are out and about when he's dropping something off. With a cry of "Sora!" one kid starts running toward him. One kid becomes two. Then there's a quite a few running up to him and asking him a million questions. What happened to your ears? and Is your hair darker?

Van is a little overwhelmed and flabbergasted. Help? ]

( Wet and Wild: Options A and B )

Back off!

[ It's not so unusual for Van to be out in the Wilde offering assistance or just working out some of his own aggression. This time he's battling some Shades while a group of people try to clean up the area. They're now evacuating and Vanitas? Eh... He might be buying time. Not for their sake, but mostly so that he doesn't have any dead weight holding him back.

He slashes at one with his weapon, Void Gear and goes to take another step. So ( a ) either help Van get people out or get ride of Shades...

OR

( b ) Unfortunately this had been taking place along the cliffside. He gets the idea to cast a spell to cause a controlled landslide to bury another Shade. Unfortunately it also makes the ground below to become unstable. One wrong step and Van is getting swept up in an additional rockslide that is going to cast him off of one of the cliffsides. ]

( Wilders Training )

[ Okay so Vanitas had originally been there for other reasons. He just so happens to come across the recruitment people and others interested in taking part. That's why he shows up at the training grounds. When someone asks if he is a new recruit? He brushes them off and says that he's just here to watch.

But if a Mirrorbound were to try to convince him... That might change things. Or he'll just watch Mirrorbound and their partners attempt to train people and scoff from the sidelines. ]

( Wild Card )

[ Either throw whatever you want at me and I'll roll with it or hit me up at

jardaan

( Event Prompts )

LINK FOR COMMENTS BELOW

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Huh? Did something happen to Sora?

[Kor sounds genuinely confused and worried here. And that worry soon turns to anger. If someone did something to his bondbrother, there's gonna be hell to pay...!]

Kidnappers better not have come after him again!

No, there haven't been any kidnappers...

[ Vanitas glares at Kor. Does he really not sense anything? ]

Something has been off in our Bond. You see, I can sense the slightest variation. Deviation.

Mmmm... Yeah, that makes sense, what with you two being involved together and all.

[Sorry, Vanitas. Kor is... exceptionably dumb.]

But if that's the case, what're you asking me for, then? Shouldn't you know if there's something wrong with him better than me?

[Vanitas was going to have to be a little more direct when it comes to Kor. He doesn't understand implied statements well at all.]

I didn't see anything wrong in his heart when I did a Spiria Link on him, if that's what you're asking.

[ More than exceptionally dumb. Vanitas just sort of glares at Kor because is this guy serious. ]

You did a what on him?

[ Does he not realize what he's said? ]

A Spiria Link.

[He says that like it's perfectly normal and Vanitas should understand what he's talking about!

....But he's been through this enough times by now to realize that no, most people don't know what he's talking about when he says that. So after a few seconds of silence, he realizes his folly and explains.]

--Oh, right. Uhh... Well, it's what I call a kind of spell I learned here, where I can connect with another person's heart, and help them explore what's deep inside.

[ Good thing Kor does explain. Vanitas had been giving him a flat stare and had been about to say something. Though hearing the explanation isn't really much better.

He glares. Hard. ]

How about you refrain from doing that without his other bondmate's permission?

[ Since Vanitas doesn't particularly care for the intrusion. ]

[Kor frowns at Vanitas' sudden combativeness. In his mind that was Sora's decision to make, nobody else. Regardless of how many people he was connected to, it was his life to do with as he pleased.]

I asked Sora if he could help me out, and he agreed. I don't think either of us expected it to go so deep on the first try.

[He's willfully ignoring Vanitas' question there.]

There's a lot he's been bottling up, you know. If you're sensing a difference in your bond with him, that's because he's managed to work through some of that now.

You think I am unaware?

[ For real, Vanitas knows. Vanitas tells Sora all the time that he should just go nuts and cause a little chaos on his own. It's why they spar and go out in the Wilde. It's why Vanitas tells him to think of himself first and be selfish...

But Kor doesn't realize one simple fact. ]

What do you really know here, huh? It's not just a "difference" in our bond, idiot. What you do to him will have a direct impact on me and therefore I should be consulted.

Then explain it to me. Explain to me what you know about all this.

[Kor's tone is low and serious, uncharacteristic of the usually jovial teen.]

Because what I know is that anything that happens to Sora will have a direct impact on me too. But I also know that I've spent my whole life training to heal and reconstruct people's hearts, so if Sora asks me to help him, then I'll do whatever I can to help him.

[There's a pause.]

...And I know that there are giant holes in his heart that he's struggling to put back together on his own.

[ Vanitas knows... He knows that there are some holes because the brat had given too much of himself away. Little bits of him had left with Roxas, Xion, and Ventus. ]

Because the brat and I were already connected the day we were born. When Ventus and I were torn apart, Sora decided before he was even fully born to help fill in the gaps that I left behind.

[ There will be more to that in a moment. ]

Of course he's struggling. He's had Ventus with him his entire life and now that's gone. Xion and Roxas, whom both resided in his heart as well, now have their own bodies so they don't need him.

[ Vanitas folds his arms over his chest. ]

Your bond with him would be effected, yes. However it isn't repairing your heart. It's repairing mine.

[There's a lot of this Kor already knows, Sora already having been upfront about the... unique status of his heart. About Ventus and Xion and Roxas... It had been a lot to accept that one could have so separate unique hearts inside them, but... Kor came from a position that allowed him to grasp the concept far more easily than most, knowing all too well how hearts could come to rest inside someone else's.

But what he doesn't know anything about is how Vanitas factors into all this. He can tell that Vanitas and Sora look similar, but... So did Roxas and Ventus, which led Kor to only one logical conclusion.]

Repairing your heart? Huh? What do you mean, aren't you a Nobody, like Roxas?

[ A Nobody. Vanitas just starts to laugh. It's one of those nasty laughs that sounds like it's hanging onto the edge of sanity. ]

A Nobody!? Me!? [ Another laugh. ] Oh no. No, no. I am very far removed from an empty husk of a person that thinks it's still relevant.

[ Someone hadn't been entirely truthful about what a Nobody is, hmmm? ]

What I am is half of a whole. I am the very Darkness that was ripped out of Ventus' heart. Then "we" became "him" and "I." Two fractured halves that are incomplete. That hasn't changed for me. That is what my Bonds here do for me. They fill in those spaces that Ventus once occupied.

[ Then he frowns. ]

So I would appreciate you backing off. What you mess with when it comes to Sora will also have an affect on me in a very direct way. I only have this appearance because of him.

[Kor wants to object to Vanitas' claims about Nobodies, seeing as how one of his bondmates is a Nobody, but he bites his tongue and abstains from snapping back at him for that. This isn't about Roxas, this is about Sora.

So he listens to Vanitas' explanation, and as he does so, his mixed feelings he's held towards Vanitas suddenly makes a lot more sense to him. Why he gravitated towards Vanitas even though he was quite frankly really hard to actually get along with. It wasn't just because of his connection to Sora.

His story reminds him of his own situation with Creed. Their circumstances were a little different; Vanitas was literally half a person, while Kor had been a host to Creed, but he could understand and sympathize with that feeling of incompleteness, of wanting to repair what once was. Even now he fights hard to try and repair the holes left in his Spiria by Creed's escape from it...]

Sorry. [Kor shakes his head.] But I can't do that. Not if Sora asks me to help him again. [Kor's already in this deep and has already promised him he'd see it through.]

But I'll take responsibility for my actions. So instead, I'll just have to do the same for you too, make sure your heart is healing the way you want it to be.

[ Vanitas would say that he's hard to get on with. There's no denying that. However it had been Kor that had approached him, not the other way around. So in Van's mind, all of that is on Kor. It's not like Vanitas is going to really censor himself or adjust who he is just to not step on toes. Either accept him how he is and move on or don't. Quite simple...

The rejection of the idea to just leave Sora be makes Vanitas open his mouth in protest. He won't say he's jealous, because he absolutely is. Because Kor is being told all these things and even though Vanitas knows they exist... Sora would rather go to him than Vanitas and that doesn't settle right. What stops him short is "I'll take responsibility for my actions."

It completely derails Van's train of thought. ]

You'll what...

You said that anything I do to Sora's heart affects your heart too, right? That means anything that happens to your heart, I'm responsible for. [It was a straightforward and simple answer, to say the least.]

I won't back down from helping Sora, especially now that you've told me all this, so that means I have to accept responsibility for anything that happens to him, and to you, as well. But if I can make sure that your heart is healing right too, then it shouldn't be a problem, right?

[There's a brief pause on Kor's end.]

And... If I screw that up somehow... Well, I'm responsible for that too. And I'm prepared to accept the consequences of that.

[ That attitude isn't wrong, of course. It's accurate. If something happens, then Kor is 100% responsible for it. ]

I... Suppose.

[ Squinting. ]

Why would you want to?

Why wouldn't I want to?

[Kor's response comes quick, without hesitation.]

I've got the power to help, so... I want to help. I don't really have any special reason other than "I want to do it".

[ why wouldn't he want to? Vanitas still can't understand the mindset of people that just help just *because.* There's literally nothing in it for Kor to even bother caring about what happens to Vanitas. No other reason but to help someone. ]

It really is no wonder that you get along with him. You both have such simplistic reasoning...

Of course. There's a reason we're brothers, you know.

[Kor, Vanitas was not complimenting you.]

Kor... I was teasing you. It's not meant to be taken as something to wear like a badge of honor.

[ Though there are uses for people who have such logic skills. ]

Huh? You were?

[He's... very oblivious to when he's being teased by somebody.]

Err... I mean, y-yeah, I knew that!

[No, he didn't.]

Tch. No you didn't.

[ He huffs and scratches at his cheek. It's a very Sora-like gesture. But does it come from Sora? Or is it just something that all of them seem to share due to each others' influences? ]

Whatever. I'll give you a chance. One chance only.

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[ open ] Growth is Painful

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drops back in here 84 years later

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