Tonight's Entertainment [Emi, Furiae, Zexion]

[Slash]

Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating.[/color]

Zexion had accepted her offer quickly and had almost invited her in. She wasn't excited- couldn't be- but this was probably the most interested she could ever be in anything. What was it like? What were they like? What would she do? So many questions. She hoped that this form wasn't permanent. Being made of ice would be...troublesome, to say the least.

A new name would also be interesting. She felt no connection to her old one, after all.

She followed immediately, not looking back on the people that Zexion had spoken to. They were of no concern to her.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Speaking of hearts...
--

Emi was still a bit miffed at Castle bossing her around, but deep down inside she figured she probably deserved it. She did have to admit she listened pretty intently when Zexion was explaining what a Nobody was. It actually explained a lot but she couldn't help but feel badly. Not pity really. More like she was uncomfortable hearing this kind of stuff from someone she almost counted as a friend. It was surreal. She wondered if she should be more shocked that he and Furiae- isn't that what she had called herself?- weren't... human.

And it was only a matter of time before the morbid thoughts began. She watched the two Nobodies walk into the Corridor and Zexion's parting comment only made the thoughts more plausible. The Champion of Darkness? What was that? Somehow she made the connection and realized that must be what they were calling the mysterious man who destroyed the marketplace in Radiant Garden.

As she walked back over to join Castle, she was thinking. The pensive look on her face, under the mask, didn't match the perky bounce in her pigtails or the sound of the bells on her shoes. The Champion was after warriors of the light. Funny Zexion should warn her of that, was she a "warrior of the light" now? Somehow, Emi doubted that. But still... if she did run to this Champion and ended up losing her heart or dying or whatever...

Absently, she laid a hand on her chest.

Was she strong enough to spawn a Nobody and a Heartless? Was she even strong enough to become something more than a simple Shadow? Would she become a Nobody like Zexion and Furiae, humanoid but devoid of human emotions? For a moment, she pondered that and thought it might be nice actually. No rage. No fury. No consuming guilt, regret, grief, shame.

But no happiness, either.
No love.

And that was only if she was strong enough. More than likely, she though, she would just turn into a Shadow, damned to be slain and returned to Kingdom Hearts with no chance for salvation.

She shook her head. "Come on,[/color]" she said, moving her clawed hand from her heart to the top of Castle's head inbetween his horns. "Let's go see what we can find and then get out here. This world is depressing.[/color]"

[Castle]

Castle listened closely to Zexion's description of what a Nobody was. From what he could gather, they were what was left of a person's body when their heart was stolen. It made a lot of sense, and he wondered why it had never occurred to him before. He also wondered why he hadn't heard of Nobodies earlier, what with all the Heartless in Traverse Town a few years back. Although, Zexion did say it took a special kind of person to become one, so they must be rare.

And Zexion and Furiae were two of them. Two Nobodies, the remains of people who now had no heart or feelings at all. He suddenly saw the bookish man in a new light. Did he really feel no emotion? None at all? It was difficult to believe, even though it made perfect sense considering how Zexion acted. Guess that was why he didn't get mad when Emi hit him with a hammer...

Then, just before the two Nobodies left through a dark portal like the one Emi summoned before, the words "Champion of Darkness" were spoken in a warning. Castle watched the portal close, wondering what that meant. Suddenly, it hit him. The Champion of Darkness was somebody he'd seen before, back in Radiant Garden, when the Marketplace was attacked.

He tensed, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. He had a name, or at least a title, for that face now. It made his heart beat harder, as if the sudden anger he felt was a viscous substance being pushed through his veins. Someday. Someday, he would get back at that guy.

Emi's hand on his head caused him to flinch, interrupted from his hateful thoughts. He turned around so he was facing her.

"Sure," he said, trying to force a casual air back into his voice, "Maybe someone else around here saw your dragon guy."

He started to walk away, and then paused. He remembered the cloak Emi had that matched Zexion's, and the portal that looked just like the one she used.
"So I didn't know your little buddy was part of a cult. Are you in on that, too?" he asked.

It was doubtful that Emi was a Nobody; she was way too emotional, but that didn't mean she wasn't helping those people out with whatever they were doing.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Well, not this cult. What happens in Twilight Town, stays in Twilight Town.
--

"What? No. I'm not in on it. Can't I say I really understand what 'it' is, still. Sounds like a group of non-people trying to get their hearts back to me. Maybe... maybe that's okay?[/color]"

Of course, she didn't know the mechanics behind all that, the means to the Organization's end and honestly, the less she knew the better.

"Plus, you know, I'm pretty sure that club is exclusive. Zexion never asked me to join but he pretty much jumped on the chance to ask that Furiae chick..[/color]" she said as they cross the square. "Guess it's because she's a Nobody and I'm not.[/color]"

She turned to face him, walking up a long set of steps backwards as she spoke. "I told you. The cloak was a gift. It's supposed to protect me when we're going in and out of corridors.[/color]" She hoped he wouldn't be mad that she was being protected and he wasn't.

She turned around and jogged up the last few stairs to knock on the door. But before she could even reach over, the door opened and... and something jumped out of her. She wasn't sure what it was or what it looked like because she was too busy being startled and screaming.

She backpedaled backwards a bit too fast, slipped on the first step and then proceeded to back flip down a few steps, slide down on her back a few more before flipping heels over head again and landing on her skinny butt in the dirt. Swearing all the way down.

She sat up, pigtails and mask askew.

"REAL FUNNY,[/color]" she screamed, looking up at the house. She rubbed the back of her head. "That really hurt.[/color]"

She growled and picked herself up. Now, she was mad.

[Castle]

So Emi definitely wasn't a part of that "Organization XIII." Why was that a relief? Maybe it was because the idea of Nobodies was so darn depressing, and even though Emi wasn't one, the thought of her hanging out with them all the time was really somber. Of course, Nobodies apparently couldn't feel enough to suffer in their situation... right? He decided not to think about it any more. It was giving him a headache.

She mentioned that the cloak was to protect her from the "corridors." Was that what those portals were called? Cool.

He waited at the bottom of the steps while she went up to knock on the door. He glanced around. Emi said this world was depressing, but it was actually kind of neat in a dark, creepy way. He wondered what kind of people would live here...

Just as he thought that, something jumped out at Emi that was too fast to see. It sent her tumbling down the steps until she landed on her butt at the very bottom. She didn't break her neck, thankfully, but she was angry.

Castle had to laugh. He just had to. Maybe it was all the jingling (that would never get old), but something about it was just funny as heck.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

I think I hate this world more than I hated Deep Jungle... oh wait, wrong RP.
--

Emi squinted at her purple-haired companion and stomped past him. She grabbed him by a horn on the way past, dragging him off his feet and away from the stair case. "Shut your stupid mouth, you midget,[/color]" she shouted, gesturing with her free hand as she dragged Castle away. "We stumbled onto this world by accident so its highly unlikely Arc is here anyway, so let's just go before I kill somebody. I do not want to end up in prison in a town like this.[/color]"

The gummi ship was not far away. She pulled Castle along back through the square, past the fountain and up to the ship. But then something hit her.

"...where are our old clothes? I'm not wearing this forever and I want my coat back,[/color]" she asked, suddenly nervous. She picked at her miniskirt. "Should we... take these off? Is there an office or something we have to visit? Oh screw it. I'm not stripping down in a place like this, let's just go.[/color]"

It was true. She wasn't going to get any kind of naked in this town... who knows what kind of creeps lived here?

[Castle]

Laughing was a bad idea, like he knew it would be. What he didn't know was that he would soon find himself being dragged across the town square by the horns. He struggled to stay on his feet and ended up scuffling along beside her, his demonic tail twitching like that of an angry cat.

"Ow! Hey! You're gonna rip my skull out! Hey!" he complained.

Emi was pretty eager to leave. She pulled him over to the gummi ship, but stopped, worried about their clothes.
"Well changing clothes won't help me much, anyway, and you nearly pulled out one of the reasons why!" he said, glad to finally have a chance to regain his balance. He then smiled up at her impishly. "Though if you really want to get that outfit off, you could always strip in the gummi ship."

Despite his joking attitude, he was a little concerned about the matter as well. What if he was stuck with horns, wings and a tail forever? That would be a tough one to explain to mom...

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Only for you...
--

Emi's mood changed suddenly. Not a good sign. She smiled coyly and lowered her eyes. Grasping the hem of her shirt, she tilted her head teasingly and asked "Is that what you want?"

She lifted her shirt just enough to show a tiny bit of dark skin- less than what she showed on a daily basis in her regular shirt, but it was more the way she did it than how much skin was actually revealed.

Before Castle could get too excited though, Emi dropped her shirt and grabbed him by the horns yet again, totally ignoring any complaints about silly things like head trauma. "Get in the ship now, you little pervert, before I boot you in the face.[/color]"

Of course, he didn't have to get in because Emi basically threw him in... she also went ahead and planted her foot on his butt and gave a little extra push for good measure. Then she hopped him after him, slamming the hatch behind them. While he recovered, she dashed to the controls.

"Where to next...[/color]" she wondered aloud, tapping her fingers on the controls. "Hopefully some place with no stupid costume change.[/color]"

Oh how wrong she was.

[Castle]

Castle's suggestive smile turned into a look of surprise when Emi actually began to lift up her shirt. It wasn't like her midriff was anything new, but the way she exposed it made all the difference. Honestly, he was rendered quite confused by the sudden change and wasn't sure what to do now. He had expected her to react with violen--

Ah. Emi practically threw him into the ship (by the horns, which was very unpleasant), with the help of a kick to his rear that made him trip over thin air and land flat on his face. He laid on the floor for a moment and experienced an uncomfortable flashback to his childhood days. If Emi wasn't a girl, he would be trying to kill her right now.

He got to his hands and knees and chuckled, shaking his head.
"Man, you're abusive. Do you always beat up on your friends?" he asked.

Now that he thought of it, Emi was the first girl to ever rough him up like that. He'd been pushed a few times, slapped if he'd just beaten up the girl's boyfriend (Those guys were usually jerks, anyway. He didn't know what those girls saw in them), but never... manhandled? And the insults she threw at him were pretty sharp, too. He usually expected that sort of thing from guys.
It sort of made him wonder how she would answer his question.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Way to go, shorty, makin' me feel bad.
--

Emi stopped tapping her fingers on the control panel for one second... then two... then resumed tapping. "No,[/color]" she finally said. "Yes. I don't know. Haven't.... haven't had any friends to not beat up.[/color]"

And the truth came out. She rubbed her face both hands and sighed. "Just... I don't want to talk about this anymore.[/color]" She pressed a few buttons on the controls and then got up and started to stomp away, muttering something about needing a cigarette. "Wake me up when the auto-pilot gets us to a new world. Don't care which one.[/color]"

The gummi ship was small, but there was a teeny tiny sleeping area. Actually, it probably would have been plenty of room for Castle, but for long-legged Emi it was an issue. She didn't care. She slammed the door behind her, trying very very hard to keep her temper under control.

Her clothes had returned to normal as soon as they had gotten on their way. She flopped down onto the bed and curled up so that her feet didn't hang off the end. Hair fell in front of her face and she stared at the wall.

Man, you're abusive. Do you always beat up on your friends?

She squeezed her eyes shut. It always came back to this. Her violent tendencies always came back to bite her in the butt. It had been so long though, since she had any kind of positive relationships that mattered so she had been ignoring it for the longest time. But now...

She didn't want to deal with this.

[Castle]

Her response caught him off guard. It was different from a few minutes ago, when she was tricking him into getting thrown into the gummi ship. This time, it was sincere. He opened his mouth to say something, but found no words, instead watching quietly as she got up and went into the little sleeping area, slamming the door behind her.

He let the breath that was supposed to be words out in a sigh. He rubbed the back of his neck and stood up, feeling the weird false-gravity kick in as the ship took off. In a minute, they were in space again, and Castle watched with some interest as his clothes and body turned back to normal. That was a relief, but for some reason, something still felt wrong.

He ended up in the pilot's seat, slouched and staring pensively at the ceiling. So Emi was lacking in the friend department, huh? His eyes narrowed, and he tapped his finger on the side of the seat.

"Guess that makes two of us," he muttered.

"Besides, are you sure these so called friends of yours return your sentiments? Perhaps you are just deluded into thinking it to be so..."

Castle grimaced and sat up, resting his elbows on his knees. The memory made him feel weird. He rubbed his forehead and tried not to think about it. The witch was wrong. Emi was rough, but that didn't necessarily mean she hated him. From what she just said, it sounded like she just wasn't used to having friends.

He got up and went over to the door Emi had gone through. He raised a fist to knock, but stopped. She was probably still in a bad mood, and waking her up if she was sleeping would be a bad idea, anyway. He lingered for a minute, sighed again, quietly, and went back to the pilot's seat.

The stars that drifted by the window looked lonely somehow.