Avolition [Open]

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Buttons is hungry.
--

The street lamp made a distinct buzzing sound. That was part of the reason Loru liked this particular street lamp. She stood in the light it threw on the ground and stared up into the light. She's been standing like that for about an hour now, wringing her hands. She looked worried about something. She did this most every night. The woman wasn't satisfied until she was sure the light was okay. It was her favorite lamp.

Satisfied, she finally looked down.

HuNgRy, Luluuuu...

She shook her head. "Hungry hungry hungry. Hungry Buttons, [/color]" she muttered to herself. Made perfect sense to her.

There was no one else on the street. It was late, most everyone was in bed asleep. Loru only slept during the day, if she slept at all. So far, she'd been a full three days without sleep.

Obviously, the hallucinations were growing worse. Because now, right in front of her, some kind of mysterious portal was opening. She made no movement to greet the red haired man that appeared out of it, just shook her head.

Red. Red red red. Red hair, just like mine. He must be a friend.

[Axel]

Well, This is Unexpected

When Axel stepped out of the Corridor of Darkness, he didn't expect it to be this dark. Thoughts of this place usually evoked images of bright blue skies and sunny beaches. Instead, it was now night, and the street he ended up on looked deserted, lit only by a sparse few street lamps.

Destiny Islands had been the first logical stop in his search for Riku. After all, this was his homeworld. Axel would just have to avoid running into Sora. There would plenty of time for catching up with him later.

Oho? Looks like I'm not as alone as I thought.

A woman in very tattered and mismatched clothing was standing nearby and staring at him. One of his eyebrows arched as he noticed her bright red hair and green eyes that mirrored his. That was...interesting. She had made no move to approach him, even though she had clearly just watched him enter the street through a way that was not naturally occurring. While he was capable of being "friendly" with people, he was not quite sure what to do in this situation. He could say something to her, or he could ignore her and walk away. She didn't concern him, whoever she was. Either way, though, it seemed awkward.

What the hell? He wasn't in too much of a hurry, and he wouldn't be unless that Dusk Zexion had mentioned showed up to hound him along. He crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head to the side, watching her curiously. "You know, if you stare at something for too long, you might ruin your eyes."

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Buttons wants you to touch it.
--

She wasn't listening to him. She was too enraptured by his hair. Slowly, she took a step towards him and outstretched her hand. Her sleeve fell back and revealed one shaking hand.

HaVe to ToUcH iT, Luluuuuu....

"Touch it, touch it, touch it,[/color]" she said. "Lulu has to touch it![/color]"

She walked towards him in that weird little shuffling way she had, a pretty smile spreading across her face. She was consumed by the compulsion to touch Axel's red hair, spurred on by the whispers in her ear that told her she must touch it. She needed to.

The look on her face suddenly changed.

KiLL hiM iF hE wOn'T lEt you tOuCh it. KiLL hiM, Lulu.

She sprang forward with a shrill little cry, arms outstretched and jumped. She tackled Axel to the ground and grabbed a handful of his hair. She shrieked in delight, sounding like a child on Christmas morning, and buried her face into the spikes. She ignored his protests and attempts to throw her off.

GoOd, yOu doN't hAvE to kiLL hiM yEt, Lulu.

"Did you hear that, mister? I don't have to kill you after all.[/color]"

[Axel]

And I Thought Normal Women Were Crazy

There was something really strange about this woman. For starters, she wasn't quite looking at him, at least not in his eyes. And she either didn't seem to hear him or chose to ignore him. Axel watched her take a step forward and expose a hand. Was that a trick of the lamplight, or was her hand actually trembling?

She began to shuffle forward and muttered something over and over, which Axel couldn't quite make out at first. Wait. What did she want to touch? He started to take a step backward when he saw the look on her face change.

What. The. Hell?!

Suddenly, he was on the ground, anchored there by the squealing woman on top of him. Unfortunately, she was a lot stronger than her appearance suggested. Oh. Oh, just great. She was almost painfully clutching at his hair, pulling him toward her so she could bury her face in it. This was beyond awkward. This was a violation of his personal space. And he wasn't going to stand for it.

He gripped both of her arms and rolled her over so he was on top of her. The higher advantage allowed him to quickly jump out of her reach. "Woah, woah, woah. I don't appreciate being tackled and then having someone's face smothered in my hair." He self-consciously ran a few fingers through it, attempting to straighten out the spikes again. "If you really wanted to touch it that badly, you should ask first." Not that he would have agreed to something like that, anyway. But a polite request, no matter how bizarre it might be, was preferable to being assaulted by a complete stranger.

Only after he had finished paying attention to his hair did her other words register. "...Kill me?" He blinked. "Why would you have to kill me?" She seemed independent of anyone who would want him dead. Last time he checked, Organization members weren't in the business of hiring outside...crazy women...to do their killing for them. And he couldn't think of any other group's hit list he could be on.

[Slash]

Lost

Soren looked around, trying to figure out exactly where he was. This place was a little different than Twilight and Traverse Town, and he had gotten too enamored with the scenery to notice that nighttime was coming.

He sucked at night flying. So, he had to land.

He turned a corner just in time to see two red-haired people, a girl and a guy. The girl approached the guy and then...jumped on him and...grabbed his hair or...what?

What the hell?

The guy didn't take too kindly to this and threw her off.

"Um, you okay?" he asked the girl. "Why did you...grab his hair..." He looked at the guy. "And are you okay?"

He was probably going to regret getting into this. Is she going to grab onto my wings? Please let her not grab onto my wings.

And what was all this about killing? He considered flying up on the streetlamp and talking from there, but a winged person was probably a weird enough sight without him perching above their heads. Chances were they'd never seen an Aysurian either.

It was times like these that he wished the wings weren't too big to hide. Flying was nice, but man did they make introductions awkward.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Buttons grows weary.
--

For the longest time, Loru lay down on the ground, panting. Slowly though, she turned over onto her stomach and pushed herself onto her knees. Back turned to the two males, talking to her as if she could actually hear them. No, the other voices were too loud. Buttons was gone for the time being.

Th Other Voices had started as whispers, undertones to Buttons' tenor. They quickly grew louder, drowning out everything else. Loru stared unblinking at the cement under her fingers. Slowly, she stood up and turned to face Soren and Axel. To them, it would seem that Loru was just standing there under the light of a street lamp, arms swinging back and forth like a child.

But to her, there were shadows everywhere. Unnatural shadows, creeping along the concrete like vines, taking over even the light from the street lamp. They grew over her bare feet even as the seductive whispers in her ear became louder and angrier. She looked up and smiled sweetly, with a tilt of her head.

In that moment, the shadows around her shattered like glass and each shard grew and morphed into silhouettes of people. Winged people. Loru had never seen the wings before, on any of the souls she spoke with.

Her eyes focused on Soren.

"Just like you,[/color]" she murmured, the sound of her own voice deafening in her ear. But to Soren and Axel, it was barely a whisper.

OnE oF uS.... oNe oF Us...

"Oh, so I was right then! He is one of you! I love reunions![/color]" she shouted, throwing her hands into the air. The Other Voices called out a name. Loru repeated it. The words felt strange and foreign on her lips, words that should not even have been said in the first place. She pointed to Soren, looking over her shoulder at one of the spirits.

"That's you, isn't it?[/color]" she asked. She was talking to Soren, but looking at the spirits.

[Slash]

How Did She Know...

At first, Soren had just dismissed her as a raving lunatic. But then she said...she said his birth name. In the traditional Aysurian language.

That was impossible. The traditional language of Aysur was known only to its people. It was near-impossible for non-Aysurians to speak it, and since the destruction of his planet it had been lost to everyone but him. And yet this girl spoke it- with a rather bad accent, yes, but she spoke it. There were no scholars of that language, he was almost sure.

Maybe...maybe she was an exiled Aysurian? There were old stories of Aysurians, guilty of the most heinous crimes, cast from the planet with their wings cut off. It was the worst punishment one could give, and such a loss would certainly account for her insanity...but if she was Aysurian, what had she done? And how did she know his name?

Tentatively, he spoke back to her, struggling to recall the finer points of a language he had not spoken in a while. To any non-Aysurian, it sounded like a very strange, alien combination of syllables and consonants, vaguely musical in nature.

To an Aysurian, however, it would have been the message, "I am. What is your name, forsaken one? And why have you come to be here?"[/i][/size]

[Axel]

Let Me Check That Address Again...

A third person joined this little party, though it looked like he was just as odd as the woman was. Wings? Really? Was this Destiny Islands or not? No wonder Sora was always running off to save the universe. He was probably afraid of coming back to this inverse paradise.

The winged guy made an attempt to talk to the woman, which of course, went unheeded. And when he asked Axel if he was okay, the Flame just waved it off. "Yeah, sure. No lasting harm done."

Or at least, so far there had been no lasting harm done. Apparently, the oddness of the woman didn't stop with an obsession to touch people's hair. Now, she was standing in the light of the streetlamp with a distant expression on her face, as though listening to something. Then, she started talking to bird man, comparing him to...something Axel couldn't see and then mentioning something about reunions.

Well, if crazy lady knows this guy, I think I can make a hasty exit.

Oh, hell. He must have been in some kind of weird dream. They were talking to each other in a language he couldn't understand. Or at least, he assumed they were talking. This was definitely trippy, but it was getting boring fast.

"Uh...yeah...you two have fun. I've got...places to go, people to see, information to get...that kind of thing." He eyed the two for a few more seconds before turning to leave with a shake of his head.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Buttons wants you to stay.
--

The spirits around her told him what he had said. She answered "Buttons calls me Lulu, which isn't my name because my name is Loru, and it's not my brother's name either 'cause his name is Shaddix, his name isn't Lulu or Loru, it's Shaddix 'cause he's a boy...[/color]"

The words came quickly, but she didn't really care if Soren couldn't follow her. Her answer was not in Asyurian this time. The spirits around her milled about, and some part of Loru was thankful that they weren't asking her to do things. Most of the time, that's what happened. But these spirits were just hanging out.

Loru wrinkled her nose. There was something bothering her. That boy with the wings like The Other Voices had asked her more questions, but they hovered just out of reach.

"Uhhh.... uh, um... I'm here because.... there was the lady on the corner, yeah? On the house with the blue shutters, yeah. I'm here because she's there and she wanted me to take Buttons with me, so I did. Buttons... where are you Buttons?[/color]"

Suddenly alarmed, she put her hands up to her mouth and shrieked. "Buttons is gone, and the man with hair like mine is trying to leave too![/color]"

To Axel, it might have seemed like she wasn't even paying attention to the fact he was leaving, but she had noticed after all. She looked down and Buttons had returned, circling around her feet. She reached down and patted him on the head, to the rest of the world seeming like she was petting an invisible cat.

DoN'T lEt HiM go, Luluuuuu. He HaS to sTaY wiTh yoU. ReD, reD, REd, jUsT liKe yOu. He is NoT OnE oF tHeM, hE is JuSt lIkE you, Luluuu....

"Sorry, mister, but Buttons says you have to stay with Lulu,[/color]" Loru replied, looking up. All around her, the spirits dissolved into smoke, vanishing on the currents of the wind. She started walking towards Axel.

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

Should have brought a sea chart or something..

A small white boat with a matching white sail floated steadily towards the island paradise, using the converging waves the boat reached the docks and inertly scrapped against the shallow waters going in. The night was coming fast, and with the exception of the people that stood out around the bend, it was quiet.

Ain, a loosely dressed man wearing red and white hopped onto the docks and looked around. As peaceful as it was, he didn't really care because it didn't look like a place he could easily restock his boat in. His tanned skin made him harder to see as night approached, but a dull expression could faintly be seen along with eyes that stared ahead without a blink. Making a check check of his leather gauntlet, he adjusted the straps, meanwhile a minor commotion took place between Axel and his friends that he ignored.

Tieing down the sail, he then moved to tie the boat to the docks so it didn't float away on him. Turning again, his expression unchanged from a minute ago, he checked his necklace which was a yin-yang though it was broken noticeably. After a moment he hopped down and through the sand and walked through the center of the group with the intent to just ignore them...

[Axel]

Four's a Crowd

The woman wasn't going to let him leave so easily, was she? Axel heard her approaching him from behind, saying something about Buttons telling her he needed to stay. He turned around quickly, wary of her tackling him to the ground again. No matter how out of her mind she might be, if she touched him like that again, she might end up with a few burns.

"Buttons says I have to stay with you, huh? And why is that?" His eyes searched her face, which didn't offer him that great of a read. He still didn't sense any open hostility from her, so he supposed that she must just be lonely. Or was it the other way around? He was the lonely one, wasn't he?

Any further thoughts were interrupted by yet another stranger walking straight up to their group, looking for all the world like he was just going to ignore them. The guy smelled like salt, and he could probably be mistaken for a pirate if he wasn't already one. He just needed to borrow Xigbar's eye patch to fully pull that look off. Since Axel was already finding it hard to slip away from two people, he was not about to draw another person into this situation. Hopefully, the other two would choose to do the same. Though, somehow, he doubted it.

[Slash]

You Ever Get The Feeling That Everyone Thinks You're Weird Just Because You Have Wings?

He got no useful information out of the girl. Either she had forgotten her Aysurian name, or never had one. She was either an Aysurian gone mad from exile or a mad girl who knew some Aysurian. Either way, weird.

The red-haired guy seemed to want to get out of there fast. He seemed to be under the impression that Soren was just as crazy and weird as the Loru girl. It was probably his language that did it. And his wings.

He was beginning to get sick of that. Everybody always stared at the wings. He was always the freak in a group just because of those. So his species had developed analogous structures to those seen in birds. So that never happened on any other known planet. So what? How was that horribly weird? He was walking amongst a bunch of people damned to have their souls trapped in their bodies for all eternity, and you didn't see him pointing it out. Yeesh. Ground-dwellers had no manners.

Well, screw it. He'd be as weird as he wanted to be and Mr. High-And-Mighty No-Wings would have to live with it.

But he didn't like how the other girl was trying to keep him around. He obviously wanted to leave. Soren decided to help him while simultaneously making the situation weirder. He did what he had planned earlier not to do- he flew up, landed on the top of the street lamp, crouched down and balanced himself. Then he flapped a wing in front of the light a couple of times, effectively getting their attention.

"Why not just let him go, Loru? God forbid we should get in his way or something." He tapped a couple of fingers on the top of the street lamp and looked almost sympathetically at Axel.

"I'd help you get out of here, but I'd hate for this to be even more awkward for you." Of course, if the crazy girl got violent, he'd still help the red-haired guy out. No doubt about it. But there wasn't really any immediate danger.

He had noticed the other guy, but he didn't want to drag someone else into this. It was already embarassing and weird enough as it was.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Buttons wants blood.
--

A testament to how preoccupied with Axel she was, Loru paid no attention to the flying boy. She just kept walking towards Axel, eyes focused on his hair, arms outstretched.

Soren's words reached her ear. Buttons was not pleased. Loru stopped and cocked her head, listening.

ThE aNgEL iS oNe of ThEm, Luluuuu.... KiLL tHe aNgEL, kiLL KILL KILL the anGel! hE iS tRyiNg tO tAke ReD aWaY fRoM yOu, KILL THE ANGEL, Luluuuuu...!

"Kill, kill, kill the angel![/color]" she repeated, her voice a shout. "Trying to take Red away![/color]"

She went off course, turning on one heel and racing arms outstretched towards the street lamp. Her favorite street lamp. The Angel had desecrated her favorite street lamp by touching it, now they would both have to be destroyed. She ran past Ain on her way over, shoulders brushing.

When she reached the lamp post, she wrapped her hands around it. One on top of the other, like she was holding a baseball bat. Without any sign that she was exerting even the tiniest bit of strength, she pulled the lamp right out of the ground. For her, it was easy, like pulling a tooth pick out of a marshmallow.

KiLL the AnGeL, kNoCk rEd doWn so hE Won'T leAvE YoU, Lulu.

"Okay, Buttons![/color]" she said, a smile spreading across her face once again. "Kill the Angel, knock down Red so he'll stay with me! Just like you said![/color]"

And she swung the street lamp like a baseball bat, aiming to take out Axel. Ain, too, if he didn't move out of the way.

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

I can't believe I was involved in this...

Ain who would have just kept walking was now being attacked, or rather he was in attack range of street lamp that was being swung. His head turned to get a better grasp of the area and the swings speed before flexibility ducking backwards to avoid the hit, the second he was clear however he pulled himself back up. His expression was unchanged from before, dull as a board despite nearly being hit by a street lamp as if he just didn't care and obviously not caring much if Axel got hit.

Looking at Loru he paid quick attention to the strength that the weird girl was exhibiting, he recalled stories of people with great strength enough to do things like this with only Hercules coming to mind. With a quick spin he changed to ready stance and brought his leather gauntlet in front of him. "Stop at once." he said simply.

[Slash]

Super-strong crazy woman. Fantastic.

Soren jumped angrily off the lamp. Yeah, she wasn't from Aysur. Aysurians were never this messed up. Even the exiled ones.

"I'm not an angel, you crazy whore! Filthy, stinking hellbound dirt-loving groveling little-" This went on for a while. Birds really hate being knocked off of a comfortable perch. So did Soren.

He took the spear that had been strapped to his back. His main priority was to keep the others from being whacked. He wasn't really worried. He had wings, after all. He could fly away if he needed to.

What would get her attention...? She talked about someone named Buttons, like she was following its orders or something.

"Have you ever considered not listening to Buttons?"