trainingwings | not an april fools joke just so you know

Player Name: Melissa
Are you new?: Y
Character Name: Mickey Mouse
Character Fandom: Kingdom Hearts

[Action]

[If you're out near some of the smaller trees today, you might hear a magnificent WHUMP. That's the sound a mouse makes when he falls flat on his front on the ground, from a high distance.That had to hurt. He dizzily lifts his head, trying to regain some sense of balance and consciousness.]

... Okay... So I got wings, but I can't fly. Kinda wish they came with a note sayin' so. Oof...

[He gets up, and brushes the dirt and leaves off of his clothes.]

Oh well... Long as no one saw that, things should be just fine!

[Video]

[Say hello to my little friend. Although he looks normal sized on the screen, holding the device up to take a good look at it, even though it's already on.]

Gee, it's not too different from the stuff Chip and Dale use... oh, right! Uh, hi everybody! Not sure who I'm talkin' to here, but it's real nice ta meetcha! The name's Mickey Mouse, and I was hopin' I could get a few questions answered.

But first things first... I'm lookin' for a few friends of mine. A dog named Goofy, a duck named Donald, and a bunch of humans named Sora, Riku, Kairi, and Axel.

[He pauses for a moment.]

I mean Lea. Gosh, that's gunna take some gettin' used to...

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[His eyes widen in complete and total shock. He's not even sure he heard right.]

... Ventus? Really? ... It's really really Ventus?

Yup. Really really.

[ Lea averts his eyes for a moment, scratches at his cheek, like he's a little uncomfortable. ]

We, uh... See, the thing with this world is that its time axis is completely broken. Ventus is here because he was pulled here from... something like ten or eleven years before the present. Or, my present, I guess. I tried to sit down with him and talk some stuff out about the future, put some puzzle pieces together, figure some stuff out, but I think I wound up upsetting him real bad.

[ Sigh. ] Not that I can blame him...

By the way, what's the last thing you remember?

[ Lea's fairly sure Mickey's from a point in time near his own, since he's calling him 'Lea' and all, but can't hurt to make sure. ]

[Aaand there goes his happiness. So Ventus isn't cured, or saved, he's just... before everything went to hell. He bites his lip, declining to speak for a moment. He then sighs heavily, trying his best to pay attention to what's being said.]

... I was bringin' Kairi ta Master Yensid's tower so she could start her Keyblade trainin'.

[ Lea'd thought maybe the news that it was really Ventus would cheer the King up, but it looks like no. Aw. ]

Yup, same as me. I was headed back to Hollow Bastion to check on some stuff.

[ Well. To Radiant Garden. Lea knows they've started calling it that again. But it's hard for him to think of that patched-together world as his home. The Radiant Garden that Lea grew up in was a beautiful, young world, where carved stone supported delicate flower beds, where nature and architecture went hand in hand. Not the world that's there now. The one invaded by harsh copper pipes and ugly churning machinery, patched over by wood and fragments of broken stone.

The point is moot anyway. Even if the Garden was like how it used to be, Lea couldn't consider it home anymore. He'd changed too much. He doesn't have a home now. ]

So, I'd wanted to find out what he knows, what his experience is. I wanted to get as far as telling him about... the upcoming war. Didn't get that far, though. Like I said, I kind of upset him. Poor kid...

[He looks Lea in the eyes, now getting a bit more serious. This was a very delicate area they were approaching.]

I appreciate ya tryin' ta help, but... what he went through... what he's gunna go through... He shouldn't be pushed into it. Ya know how hard it is ta lose folks ya care about, yer life turned upside down... I know it's a lot ta ask, but, please... don't go proddin' in there. At least not before ya let me know.

... We've all been through more than we deserve.

[ Lea opens his mouth to defend himself, and then hastily shuts it, so hard the click of his teeth is audible.

The King is right. He'd meant to be honest with Ventus, to try to lay his cards on the table, to be transparent with him about what was going on and what they'd need to do. He'd meant to just tell him the truth.

(Maybe there was a part of him that wanted to, somehow, make up for what he'd done to Roxas. For lying, and keeping secrets. The memory of what Axel had once spat at Roxas - The truth isn't going to make you feel better! - still hangs on his lips like poison. And maybe, even deeper down, there was a part of Lea desperate to know Ven's history, to separate him from the boy he had known, and loved before he knew he could love again. To mark him as separate.)

But he'd messed it up, said too much too fast, or too ungently, or maybe there was just no way to say it the right way at all. Maybe he had no business speaking to Ventus at all about such matters, not while he was still so clumsy with emotions. Going from feeling nothing to feeling so much in such a short span of time had warped him, maybe.

Lea is out of practice at being human.

So, he shoves down his initial defensiveness; shoves down his anger and shame at having to be reminded not to pry, like an overeager, under-tactful child. Shoves down even the strange rush of near-confusion at having someone try to empathize with him, for the first time since... probably since he lost his heart. Shoves it down and counts to ten in his head before he trusts himself to speak. ]

I understand. You're right, I made a mistake. I didn't realize exactly what I was dealing with.

[Mickey nods once, and then smiles - it's not his usual happy go lucky smile... it's definitely weary, and tired, and more than a little pained. But it's a smile none the less. Because he understands, in his own way. Had the two been talking face to face, he would have offered his hand. When it came to empathy, he practically spilled it out all the time.

Mistakes happen. He knows just as much as anyone about it. He absolutely doesn't hold it against Lea. He is, after all, only human.]

It's kinda of a new situation for all of us... But I'm sure he ain't mad at you for tryin'. I'm sure not. We just have ta take things slow, one at a time, and work together. We're all friends, connected by a strong bond in our hearts.

Hearts always have a way of healin'. That's a guarantee.

[ Hearts always have a way of healin'. Lea sure hopes that's true. He's made his peace with things like guilt, and remorse; things that are consequences to his own actions. Far better to have them than not. But sometimes he just gets sad, in an immensely useless way.

Sometimes he's not sure what he's feeling, and that's always an adventure (not the positive kind). Makes him wonder if the heart he got back was defective after all. ]

[ Lea forces a weak, tired smile of his own. Unlike Mickey's, this one looks more at home on his face. He's made this expression fairly often now. ]

Well, historically, teamwork hasn't been my forte, but you know, practice makes perfect and all.

[ Lea, that was the worst follow-up to an apology ever, go to your room. ]

not an april fools joke just so you know

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[video] sorry for the delay oof