high_seas | A Morning Meeting

Entry tags:

A Morning Meeting

Who: Natsuno, Elissa, Sora, Riku
When: The morning after arrival
Where: Shipyard
What: Natsuno is interested in hiring Elissa for a job.
Warnings: Discussion of death/killing. Possibly more warnings to come.
Open or Closed: Closed, sorry.

Natsuno was waiting at the entrance to the shipyards, standing against a tree. His arms were crossed, he looked nonchalant. He was keeping his eyes open for a woman in blue armor.

Most notably about Natsuno, aside from his terrible taste in fashion, was the fact he was only sixteen years old. His eyes were darting around, keeping an eye open for anything out of place. He'd met Sora previously and had said he would go off with him, but this, this is what he had been waiting for.

Despite his outward appearance, he couldn't completely quell his nervousness. He swallowed a few times and waited for Elissa.

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The Grey Warden's face remained impassive as she let them work things out, but the appearance of the boy's 'new' teeth and the change in his eyes certainly got her attention as her look changed to one of surprise. Nonetheless, she remained silent as she let each male plead his case to the other.

Sora tightened his hand into a fist, before flinging it outward in an angry manner. With everything he had seen in his life, so far, fangs and red eyes were nothing. In his opinion, Yuuki was doing nothing more than giving up... and making up an excuse to do so. He was quick to make that known.

"You're just making an excuse to not have to try! It's easy to just give up!"

His eyes moved back to the woman, narrowing firmly as the hand out by his side tensed. Suddenly, a blade in the form of a key appeared. He pointed it at his friend, a firm expression planted on his face.

"Well, I'm not letting you give up, that easily!"

Edited 2013-09-09 22:22 (UTC)

This was turning into something of a mess. Natsuno sighed softly. He took out some of his money, about a quarter of it, and offered it to Elissa. It clearly wasn't going to happen then and he looked at her, speaking low enough for Sora not to hear him. "I'll contact you when this is resolved. Sorry."

"Are you certain you wish to pay me?" she murmured in reply to the teen. "It seems your friend may do it for you." She gave a nod toward the blade that Sora had manifested.

Still, she accepted the payment. If he wanted to give his money away, so be it. Zevran would have laughed at her for not doing so.

So Riku is super late to this party, but only because he'd gotten a little distracted eyeing up all the various ships that are docked in the harbor. He and Sora had planned to meet up here, though—and come to think of it, where was Sora? Shouldn't he have been here by now?

Not sure if he should be concerned or not, Riku finally tore himself away from the ships and headed back toward the entrance of the shipyard. He was almost there when he started hearing voices, one of them...familiar, to say the least. He sped up a little, and soon after spotted the group of three up ahead. When he saw that Sora had his Keyblade out, he had to debate whether or not he should be worried all over again.

"Hey! Sora!"

Riku pulled up short a few feet away, taking in the scene warily. His hand twitched by his side, ready to summon his own Keyblade if necessary.

"What's going on here?"

Sora was about to yell at them for ignoring him, again; as well as something else about how rude it is to whisper. Instead, he is blinking at his friend. Thank goodness he's here. In spite of looking relieved, he has a serious expression.

"Riku!"

He turns back towards Yuuki and the stranger, before he clenches his teeth. When he explains what's happening to Riku, he is quite obviously upset over all of this. He is pointing his keyblade at the purple-haired guy as he speaks.

"Yuuki... wants this woman to kill him!"

With his business concluded, at least for now, Natsuno turned his attention back to Sora.

"I'm not giving up. I already lost the fight a month ago. If I hadn't come here, I would have died already. I had wanted to take one of the others with me but...I'm here."

It was ironic, that his dream to leave the village had come true at the last, and worst possible moment.

"I've already died. I know, I felt it. I suffered through it. It tore apart my family. This is...I'm one of them now."

Elissa tucked the money that was given to her into her belt and paused to offer Natsano a sympathetic smile. "Contact me again, if you need," she offered to him as she tried to give his nearest hand a squeeze.

A nod was given to Sora and Riku before she crossed her wrists over her heart and gave a short bow to Natsano.

"Yuuki?"

Oh, so this was Yuuki. Sora had mentioned him a couple times. Riku frowned, listening to what he had to say.

"What do you mean, you've already died? You seem pretty not dead to me."

He returned Elissa's nod, mostly out of habit and to be polite, since he still wasn't actually sure what was going on here. Was she getting ready to leave? No killing of the other guy, then?

Sora was still confused, as well, here. He sent his keyblade away and gave Yuuki a firm stare, for a moment.

"You're still here, right? You're standing here, right in front of us. You could do something with that, but... instead, you're just gonna let someone kill you?!"

Sora pauses and gives a somewhat sad express, "We could really use your help, you know. Even if you've got no other reason to live on, you could try doing it for that!"

Natsuno couldn't believe their reactions frankly. He himself couldn't get over the fact that the Shiki were evil demons, needing to be exterminating.

A memory bubbled to the surface of his mind, Tohru standing before him afraid and tearful and he himself begging to save him, taking him away from the Kirishikis, and here was Sora, saying something just as heartfelt for a stranger. Someone he barely knew.

Natsuno's eyes softened a moment but he bared his fangs again for Riku's benefit.

"These aren't a decoration. I have felt the pangs of hunger that he spoke about. Just because I can push them aside, I don't know how long for. If I lost myself, I could bite you. Why would you want to associate yourself with that, when I can just solve the problem?"

He put his palm on his forehead. It wasn't like with Tohru, he'd known Tohru, and the gamble would have been worth it. They took everything from him.

"I told you. I'm a monster."

The young woman hesitated instead of taking her leave, looking between the three young men. "Cut your hand," she said to Sora. "If you wish to prove your point to him, cut your hand. He will then see that you trust him."

Elissa reached for the hunting knife upon her belt and threw it at Sora's feet where it landed, quivering, its point in the ground. She did not voice her belief that it might also prove to him that Natsuno was, indeed, the monster that he claimed to be.

Riku's eyes widened at the fangs, and then the whole exchange with the knife and telling Sora to cut himself—what?

"Whoa, wait a second."

He took a step forward, gaze narrowing as he looked at Yuuki. Forgive him, he was still playing catch-up here, but pointy teeth, calling himself a monster (and a dead one, at that), possibly being tempted to do something if blood was spilled...

"When you say you're a monster...what, exactly, do you mean?"

Sora's eyes widened at the words. Wait, she was totally kidding, right? Oh. No, she was definitely not kidding. He blinked down at the knife a moment, before he started to reach down for it. Should he?

Riku's voice stopped him and he was looking up at the other. He had been planning on consulting with his friend, anyway, so he was listening; and it seemed that Riku was just as confused.

He was quiet, for once. Riku had asked a good question, so he was waiting for the answer. He slightly tilted his head, a curious expression resting on his face.

If Natsuno had not witnessed first hand how thickheaded humans could be when threatened he might have completely lost it, but if it needed to be spelled out, well then, he supposed he could explain it.

He retracted his fangs, he'd made his point and it wasn't like he needed to bite anyone.

"I mean I'm a monster. More commonly known as a vampire, only...not quite. I'm a subspecies that doesn't have some of the usual weaknesses, but all the same, I am still an evil monster. I could kill people. I mean...it's really slow going but give me four or five days and I could kill someone!"

Natsuno grimaced a bit, that actually sounded a little pathetic.

"I don't need to suck blood, but I want to. If I was the other kind, like one of the Shiki, without it I would die. Because I'm a Jinrou I won't die, but, I still want to. Not in theory though, I have no intention of doing that, but I crave it. What if I can't stop myself? What would you do then? Being dead would do you all a favour. I didn't ask to become like this...those damn Shiki."

He balled his hands into fists, trembling at his side. "If they had never come to our town, I would be studying for my University entrance exams like a normal teenager. I don't regret the life I lived, but I died three weeks ago, to become this. That's what I mean by a monster. Someone who has died and come back to life as a killing machine."

"I understand how you feel more than you know," Elissa quietly stated from her place at Natsuno's side. "Enormous changes to one's life can be extremely unsettling, but that does not mean that death is preferable even if that is how you feel at present."

Her gloved hand drifted as if to settle upon his shoulder once again. "My entire life was shattered in a matter of hours when I was little older than you. Believe me when I say that I wanted to die. I did not choose the path that was set before me just as I did not choose to awaken in this place - but others needed me more than I needed to escape, so I did what had to be done and I lived. You, too, can do this."

She inclined her head toward Sora and Riku. "Here are two friends who wish for you to remain and to help them despite your newfound curse. Could you not at least try this new life in this new place before giving it up? I promise you - If, within a month's time, you still desire death, I shall grant it."

...Huh.

A vampire.

Okay then.

Riku tried really hard not to summon his Keyblade purely out of habit. It wasn't like Yuuki was really doing them any harm... The opposite, actually, he seemed to be worried he WOULD harm them. That meant he was, technically, not a bad guy, right? Riku could see the reasoning behind trying to get someone to kill him...a little. Still, surely it would be worth it for him to at least try to learn to control his urges? Instead of making himself permanently disappear in such a drastic way?

He nodded his head in Elissa's direction after she spoke. "Yeah, what she said. Vampire or not... Look, Sora and I can handle ourselves. You shouldn't worry about—" Accidentally killing us, biting us, drinking all our blood...? "Uh...hurting us. It's really not worth it to just give up and let someone kill you. At least try to make do with the bad cards life deals you."

Sora shifted his stance, looking at the ground quietly. He had pretty much said everything, earlier. He let out a sigh and scratched the back of his head a moment, looking quite serious. He couldn't deny the fact that he was actually feeling pretty badly for Yuuki. What kind of pain must he be in, to feel like that was the only way out?

Still, though.

What about anyone that might miss Yuuki? Yuuki had said, when they first met, that he isn't looking for anyone. That doesn't mean this guy doesn't have at least one person that would miss him, more than anything. Everyone has someone that would be sad, if they were to die.

"You're being selfish," Sora states rather bluntly, with a frown, "I'll bet you have someone that would miss you. Did you ever stop to think about how your death would make others feel? I haven't know you that long, but I know... I'd be sad if you gave up and died. Not just for you, though, but for the people you'd leave behind. Don't you have at least one person waiting for you, back home?"

At this point, everything had gone so pear-shaped, what could he really do? Elissa wasn't willing to do what he asked, Sora was screaming at him as though he were someone else and Riku was trying to rationally explain that they didn't need to be protected from him. If nothing else, a month couldn't be that hard to bear, could it?

"I suppose I don't have much of a choice." He told Elissa, because he didn't think he could manage it himself, but that did give him somewhere to go in a month's time.

Naturally he had to address his two new...friends...so he turned his attention to them, closing his eyes and sighing. They were quite persistent.

"I don't want to attack anyone." Natsuno pushed his hair out of his eyes before letting it fall back into place. "I don't feel I'm giving up, this life as you put it, isn't really being alive. I died for more than a day."

He shook his head at Sora though, his eyes a little downcast. "No, there isn't anyone to miss me, no one is waiting for me at home. What happened...you can't imagine it."

Very softly, Elissa said, "I can." She gave Natsuno's shoulder a squeeze, but said nothing more after offering that bit of truth. She could, indeed, imagine what might have happened in Natsuno's home after what had happened at Castle Cousland. "If you need to speak of such things, I am willing to listen. My name is Elissa."

It would have been prudent to remain the semi-anonymous 'EC' from the journal communications, but she was beginning to feel a form of kinship with the desperate teenaged boy.

"You're here now, though," Riku said to Yuuki. "Whether you died for more than a day or not. You just have to learn how to feel alive again. And now you've got this guy—" He jutted a thumb in Sora's direction. "—who would miss you. He'll...he can help make things better. Trust me."

Riku grinned a little.

"Also, he's stubborn. He's got that look in his eyes, so you might as well just go along with him. Us."

The brunette opened his mouth to say something, but was stopped by Riku's beating him to it. Sora blinked as he was suddenly motioned towards. The keyblade wielder couldn't help but grin sheepishly, folding his arms behind his head. A slightly embarrassed laugh escaped him as he shifted his stance, looking off to the side.

Then, he frowned at the part about him being stubborn and having a 'look in his eyes'. Sora quickly shot Riku a sideways glance, and verbalized his disapproval on his best friend's 'Sora analysis'.

"Heeey... What look?"

There was no point in arguing the part of being stubborn, though. That was true, after all. Sora looked to Yuuki for a moment, pausing before saying the next thing on his mind, "I don't know how powerful you are, but if it helps... We're definitely not push-overs," he gestured from Riku to himself, "In fact, we recently fought, and defeated, a really powerful guy!"

He then grinned, a bit, "Also, Riku's right. I am pretty stubborn," he said this with a playful, since he really just wanted to cheer this guy up.

Sora's newest goal (besides the obvious find a ship and get back home)? Make Yuuki do something besides look incredibly depressed.

Edited 2013-09-11 23:13 (UTC)

Natsuno was incredibly confused about the outpouring of support for someone they had just met, literally. It allowed him to remember things he was trying so hard not to deal with, just like he had been for awhile.

"I won't do anything right now. I don't think I can do it myself anyway. Takes a lot of force."

He put the stake back inside his jacket.

"One month, my friend. One month. Go with these two and see how you feel in one month's time. You may change your mind."

She slowly grinned. "If not, you know how to contact me."

With a shrug, and a more teasing grin as he attempted to keep the mood light, Riku just said, "You have a look. Trust me, you've had it since you were about three and decided you were going to get into your mom's cookies come hell or high water."

He glanced back at Yuuki, still somewhat wary but mostly relieved that he'd put the stake away. "It's a good choice, not going through with it." And then, after a slight pause, he kind of mutters under his breath, "And an even better choice, not doing it yourself..."

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