A Relaxing Vacation [Zack, Lanying, Loru]

[Aerith]

Insomnia

Lanying had to resist the very strong temptation to punch Raen in the face when he brought up her swimming escapade. He was never going to let her live that down, was he? However, she managed to keep the blood from rising in her cheeks long enough for the moment to pass. And he soon moved on to other topics, such as calling to Zack about their rooms. It turned out that Zack had decided he had had enough exercise for the day, so the three of them gathered their things and made their way back to the inn. After saying goodnight, to each other, they went to their separate rooms.

* * * * *

The moon was high in the sky when Lanying finally rose from her bed. She had only managed to weave in and out of sleep for the last few hours, achieving nothing close to what she would call adequate rest. Insomnia had taken hold, and it was not letting her go for the time being. Through her open window, she could hear the sound of the waves lapping against the shore. Slipping her boots on, she made her way outside, drawn by the water's movement.

The beach was perhaps even more beautiful at night. She could see the moon, a watery disc of silver, mirrored in the sea. The breeze carrying the commingling scents of salt and sweet fruit was almost intoxicating. Silence was broken only by the waves and the occasional call of nocturnal insects. Lanying simply stood on the beach for a moment, basking in all this natural wonder.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Buttons wants a new plaything.
--

I hAvE a VeRy ImPoRtAnT MiSsIoN FoR yOu, Lulu.
"I'm listening,[/color]" Loru replied, quietly. Curled up in her crate, she lowered her eyes.
YoU NeeD a CoMpanIon...
"I have you! And all the others![/color]"
gO tO tHe BeAcH. FiNd sOmEoNe tHeRe. bRiNg tHeM bAcK HeRe.

Loru grasped the side of the crate and pulled herself up and over, wordlessly. She flipped out of the box, rolled around in the dirt for a few minutes and rolled over onto her hands and knees. With her dress and coat dragging behind her, she crawled to the end of the alleyway and stood up.

"How will I get them back here, Buttons? No one ever wants to come with Lulu. Everytime Lulu meets someone nice, they run away. Lulu never meets nice people anymore, only people with Them,[/color]" she asked. Buttons didn't even have to answer her, because she suddenly got an idea. "I bet that restaurant on main has some big potato sacks I can use. Will a person fit in a potato sack? I think so. Maybe I can find a child. If not, I guess I can just rip them into little pieces so that they fit in the bag![/color]"

She took off running down the street, giggling to herself. She reached the restaurant and sneaked around to the back. After a few moments of rummaging, she found what she was looking for: a rather large potato sack. She clutched it to her chest and looked up sharply just as someone opened the back door. She took off running, the cook screaming in her direction and waving a broom at her.

She ran towards the beach, and when she reached it she saw exactly what she was looking for. A small person, looked female to Loru. "Perfect,[/color]" she said, a creepy smile spreading across her face.

She could be quite quiet when she wanted to be, and like a predator on the hunt, she came up behind Lanying, holding the bag open.

[Zack]

Zack had been doing squats the whole time Raen and Lanying were gone, not having even moved from the spot where he was on the beach. Nothing particularly exciting had happened, the ship was fine and he had lost track of how many squats he had done at this point. Raen and Lanying came back in what seemed like no time at all to him, having been entirely focused on his squats. Raen asked him if he wanted to head in and Zack stopped turn to him and gave him a thumbs up. "Yeah, sure sounds like a good idea to me," he told him.

He hadn't had much problems falling asleep and would have been asleep the whole night, had he not gotten a sudden craving for something. "Alright stomach I get it...." he mumbled as he woke up with a yawn. As he got up to go get something, he saw Lanying go past and watched curiously. "Why is she up this late....?" he wondered aloud to himself.

He thought about it for a moment and decided to follow after her. He knew she could take care of herself, but he wanted to see if she was feeling okay. He followed her all the way up to the beach and hung back, just watching for a moment. It looked like she was fine and he was about to go away, until he saw something approach her from behind. IT looked it was about to attack her or something so he started rushing over and yelled "Lanying! Look out!" He knew he wasn't going to be able to make it in time to save her, so he hoped the warning would give her enough time to dodge whatever the person was going to do.

[Aerith]

What the--?!

If she had not been so distracted by the serenity around her, Lanying might have been able to notice the person sneaking up behind her long before she heard Zack shout a warning. Of course, suddenly hearing Zack shout at her was jarring in and of itself, since she had not expected him to be out here at this time of night. She spun around only to be confronted by the gaping void of what she guessed was a sack that suddenly engulfed her. Her cry of surprise was muffled by the tight confines of her new prison.

Angered at having her peaceful moment interrupted, she attempted to lash out at the cloth walls, but the space was so cramped that she had no room in which to draw her sword. Now, frustration set in. If she had been bigger, she would never have fit into this sack. This would not be happening to Raen or Zack. For a moment, she stilled her thrashing and just fumed over that thought. Then, her energy was renewed, and she resumed struggling inside the bag. The air was starting to become very stale and oppressively hot. This was the only thing that kept her from shouting, however much in vain, at the top of her lungs.

[Nothingness]

A New "Nose"

Raen's mind just wouldn't shut off. He'd lost count of how many hours he'd been laying on his bed, legs crossed, one hand sandwiched between the back of his head and the pillow, the other raised a few feet over his torso. He'd been testing just how much of the darkness he could handle, and as interesting as it seemed at the start, he was getting fairly bored by this point. That being said, he had found out something interesting: whenever he started to use it, it was as if he activated some sort of sixth sense. Just like in Beast's Castle, he could sort of "smell" the emotions of those around him. The easiest for him to determine were Lanying, Zack, and the innkeeper's. At the moment, Lanying's was rather agitated--kind of like pepper. Zack's was excited like some sort of sour candy. And the innkeeper was both bored, but tired: why else would it smell warm, like a cozy fire?

"Well, that was a fun distraction." Raen muttered, swinging his legs off the side of the bed. He heard the sound of one person going down the hall and leaving, shortly followed by another. If his recently developed sense was anything to go by (not that he hadn't memorized whose room was whose), that was Lanying followed by Zack. However, both scents faded away fairly quickly. "I guess range improves with experience." Oddly enough as soon as those two left, he immediately began to feel drowsy. Yawning, he tried to mumble out, "Go'a work on...p'shin' a'ay o'her people's...ugh." Falling back onto the bed, he could barely keep his eyes open before sleep took him. As much as he would've loved to follow them, he needed sleep. And besides, it's not like either of them would be getting in much trouble, right?

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Buttons is a criminal mastermind, apparently.
--

Her prey was captured. Loru moved as quickly as she could, dragging the wriggling bag behind her, leaving a rut in the sand. Even if her foot steps were anything more than vague indentions, the trail from the bag would have covered them up.

"You're... really... heavy...[/color]" Loru grunted as they came back up to the street. Stopping under a street lamp, the red head doubled over and put her hands on her knees. "Maybe I should take that sword of yours and make you a little lighter, yeah? Maybe take off an arm? Or a leg? Probably a leg, that way you couldn't escape when I let you out to play. [/color]"

Loru grinned at Lanying, through the burlap. "We're going to have so much fun, fun, fun![/color]" she told her, with a childish giggle. She grabbed the bag again and started dragging.

There was no one on the street this late at night, except perhaps other creeps who would pay the crazy woman and her bag no notice. Even if someone had tried to stop her, they wouldn't get very far.

[Aerith]

An Attempt at Negotiation

It seemed she had been kidnapped by some crazy person, a woman, who was intent on dragging her somewhere to play with. And apparently, it did not matter in what sort of shape she arrived in. If that woman so much as tried to touch Allegretto, Lanying would make sure she would never touch anything ever again. For now, all she could do was continue to twist and turn inside the sack and try to figure out some way to bring her sword to bear.

"Who are you?" Perhaps she could talk her way out of this. She did have experience at negotiating. "If you really wanted someone to play with you, you could have just asked me instead of rudely shoving me into a bag that smells like..." Well, she was not sure what the bag smelled like. It was an unfamiliar odor to her. "If you let me out, we can speak better, and I can play with you then." This might get her somewhere, and it might not. But it was worth trying.

[Zack]

Zack was too late. He warned Lanying, but she hadn't had enough time to avoid whoever it was that was behind her. It looked like she got put into a bag of some kind. He was rushing over, but the person was already dragging her away and he was still quite a ways away. Why would someone be doing this? He still hadn't gotten a clear look at who did it and expected the worse. Could it have been a heartless? Were heartless even smart enough to do something like that? OR was it just a person and why would they do this?

He didn't know the answers to any of that, all he knew was that he needed to save Lanying. He hurried up and when he was close enough, he jumped over the person with the bag and blocked their way. "Let my friend go!" he told the person. Now that he was able to get a better look at the person, his determined look on his face changed to one of surprise. Some girl had put Lanying in the bag and he wondered what this person was up to. However, even if he didn't like the thought of possibly having to fight this girl, he'd do it to save Lanying. That's what he had to keep reminding himself anyway.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Buttons isn't going to let you get away with his prize.
--

Loru laughed haughtily and waved Lanying off.
"Don't lie to me. You wouldn't have come with me, because no one comes with Lulu.[/color]"

Their exchange was cut-off. Loru sighed. More interruptions? She just couldn't catch a break these days. She had been kneeling beside the bag but she rose to her feet and examined Zack with wide, unblinking eyes.

She blinked. "I'm not going to let her go. You can come with us though, we need more playmates. We can play, play, play p-play! Because, I mean, honestly, you know... I really should eat more almonds, I hear they're good for your-- what was I talking about? Oh...almonds. Almonds, almonds, almonds![/color]"

She threw her head back and laughed, and danced around in a little circle with her arms thrown up in the air. "Lulu's not gonna let her gooo, let her gooooo![/color]" she sang, and then spun around to face Zack with a serious look on her face. "Come play with me, or I can make room in the bag for you.[/color]"

[Zack]

Zack stared at the girl confused. She made no sense at all. She wasn't going to let Lanying go which made Zack just want to fight her and try to take the sack away from her. However, he didn't feel right about attacking someone who was obviously not all there or at least didn't seem to be. She was talking about playing...and almonds out of nowhere.

In fact she was acting a bit like a little kid, the way she was just singing that she wasn't going to let Lanying go. Plus the way she said her last statement and it unnerved Zack. Maybe it would be best to play along for now and when they got the chance, the could get back to the inn. "Okay, we'll play for a bit, but you have to promise to let her go after we do, alright?" he told the girl after he thought about it. He hoped Lanying could be patient and that this situation wouldn't get any worse.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Buttons knows just the game.
--

Loru slowly brought her fingers to her chin and tapped away. "That might be a good idea if I--" she started but stopped abruptly and dropped her hand. She leaned over and grabbed the bag and started to drag Lanying off again, but stumbled and then straightened back up before Zack even had time to process she was getting away.

"What do you want to play?[/color]" she asked, turning around slowly. Given the light hearted nature of the question, the serious look on her face- eyebrows drawn together, frown lines around her mouth making her look her older than she was- was a bit misplaced. She asked the question as if she were asking him to make a life or death decision.

Which really, given her history, might be true.

"Let's play.... hide and go seek,[/color]" she said, without dropping the serious look. "Me and my new friend, we'll hide. You seek.[/color]"

And then suddenly it was like her brain had been restarted or something and her face light up with a giant grin that didn't quite reach her eyes. She shook her finger at Zack, planting on hand on her hip. "Count to one hundred and no peeking![/color]"

And with that, Loru grabbed the potato sack and started running with it.

[Aerith]

I Hope He is Better at Finding Things than He is at Flying the Gummi Ship

Hearing that Zack was following after them made Lanying feel somewhat better. At least, if she ended up dying in this experience, someone would know about it. She did not, however, plan on dying. Maybe she could reach for one of her arrows and use it to tear her way out of the sack. Vainly, she tried this plan. Quarters were far too cramped for her to move.

Zack agreed to "play" with this woman as long as she released Lanying afterward. As long as this game they were going to play did not involve wanton violence, then she supposed she could agree to that. It was not as if she had a choice in the matter, anyway. The woman told Zack to count to one hundred, and then suddenly, Lanying was bouncing along in the sack as the woman--Lulu, she had called herself--broke into a run.

"Excuse me," she tried calling out to Lulu. "It is stuffy in here, and I cannot breathe very well. If you still want a playmate in the next few minutes, I suggest you let me out of here."

[Nothingness]

Dreamscape

Raen had never seen Traverse Town so empty. Walking out of the empty cafe he looked around the First District, but couldn't see anyone. Even the sky, which was usually filled with glittering stars, was a deep shade of endless blue. Not only that, but the silence surrounding everything was deafening. "Weird," he muttered to himself as he walked around absentmindedly.

Pushing the door of the item shop open, he found it completely empty, just like the cafe. The same for the accessory shop and the synthesis shop upstairs. Walking up the steps towards the Second District gate, he jumped back, heart pounding--it looked like someone was coming at him from the corner of his eye. "Oh, haha. Scared of myself." All that he saw was his reflection in a darkened window. He tapped his knuckle on the glass, and as he did the window shattered into a million pieces, causing him to jump back again. Looking around, embarrassed, he tip-toed away from the pile of glass before walking briskly into the Second District.

As he entered, he saw one rather odd sight--it was snowing. Looking back, the First District was completely normal, but here it was steadily snowing and the entire district was covered in a good five inches or so of the white fluff. The crunch of his footsteps seemed just as wildly out of place to him as the snow did. But that was to be expected, he supposed. "Well, this is a dream. I am dreaming, right?" It always seemed odd to admit that he was dreaming while in a dream. Still, as far as he knew it was, since Traverse Town never got snow, nor did it have any weather outside of clear night skies.

Jumping over the side of the upper level of the District, he walked towards the plaza in front of Gizmo's. There were all sorts of snow-people. There were snowmen, snowwomen, snowkids, and snow...Lanying? A snow-Zack? Walking slowly up to another snowman, he placed his hand on its head. It was a snow-Raen. And just like the window, the snow-Raen shattered into a million pieces. "This is really strange." He said to himself, taking a few steps back, but accidentally bumping into the snow-Lanying. Wait, wasn't it further over to the right? It didn't really matter since the second he touched it it also shattered. Same for the snow-Zack that moved up behind him. Wait...were these things moving?

Turning around, he saw all of the snow-people in front of him, but much closer. "Sorry, sorry! I've got to go! Sorry!" Raen called out as he took a wide turn around them and down the alleyway into the Third District. Unfortunately, snow-guardsmen were blocking his way into it, and all of the snow-people were now behind him blocking his way out. Panicking, he instinctively went for his sword but it wasn't there. They were closing it. Now they were ice-people. He could feel one gripping his arm, another wrapping its arms around his stomach. The guards were closing in--they had spears with them. He struggled, but they were starting to weigh him down. He felt himself sinking into the snow. Was it this deep?

"Get off," he groaned. "Get off, get off, GET OFF!" He swung his arm outwards, ripping off the arms of one of the ice-men and shattering the face of the one wrapped around his waist. Lifting himself up, he kicked away the ice-guards, shattering them. Spinning around, Fimbulvetr now in his hand, he sliced all of the others clean in half before running straight towards the Third District. He was sweating, his heart was pounding. Fear was taking over.

Slamming the door of the Third District behind him, he found the District covered completely in ice. Walking gingerly over to the balcony, he looked at the fountain, seeing a massive ice-wolf standing in front of it. Its eyes were glowing yellow with black flames coming off of them. Raen didn't know why, but he had to defeat this beast, and before he knew it, he had tumbled over the short stone wall and onto the plaza. The wolf stared at him, but didn't snarl or bare its fangs. It was waiting for him. But what was it waiting for?

"Just go away." Darkness was flowing out of Raen, obscuring his form, but he was in total control of it. Taking Fimbulvetr, he plunged it into a dark portal that had formed in front of his feet. Ten blades of ice ripped up through the ground, forming a circle surrounding the wolf. It watched calmly, completely emotionless. Raen ripped the blade out of the portal, which made a large dark appear beneath the wolf that expanded until it was at the edge of the ice blades. The wolf wasn't sinking into it, but the blades were. After descending about a foot down, they all collapsed towards the center of the portal and dragged the wolf into the portal. It was completely silent for a moment, and then from the portal burst out the shape of the head of a wolf, jaw wide open. As it snapped its teeth shut it exploded, sending hunks of ice everywhere.

When the attack was over the ice-wolf was somehow still standing, looking at him sternly. Raen returned the same look, and time seemed to stop around them. It seemed as though an eternity had passed before the wolf shifted its weight, and bowed its head at Raen. As it did, the entire Third District shattered around Raen, but he didn't care. He was content with the darkness taking over. It was a part of him now.

[Zack]

Zack wasn't exactly sure how to answer the girl's question. He didn't know what to play. However, luckily enough for him the girl decided something. Unfortunately it was a game he didn't think was a good idea to play with this girl, hide and seek. She told him to seek while they would hide and Zack could tell that would not be a good idea.

Before he could state this though, she was already running off with Lanying. He wasn't going to let her get away with that. However, in case this girl was actually serious about this, he closed his eyes and covered them with his arm as he started running after her, counting to one hundred. She didn't say anything about not following her after all, just no peeking. Hopefully he'd be able to listen to her footsteps and not run into anything.

[Prythian]

Within the room where sleeping Raen lay, a figure was sitting down, back against the wall. It had appeared suddenly and without warning after he fell asleep, and had held, for a brief instant, a golden sword. The silver-robed figure was scribbling in a small, leather bound journal, using his own index finger as a pen. He repeatedly dipped a single tapered talon-like fingernail into an inkpot he'd set down earlier.

The black-skinned figure, the Tool of Darkness of rumor, was awaiting the room's other inhabitant to wake. His motives for doing so, however, were currently unknown, and he'd waited both for him to fall asleep first as well as waiting for him to be alone.

Only a sigh could be heard from the Champion as he continued writing.