estoria | [ OPEN ]

Entry tags:

[ OPEN ]

Who:

lethechained and OPEN to passersby/latte lovers/coffee buffs/just about anyone, really
When: Any day (or multiple days!) between or including IC date 6/11 to 6/16
Where: A coffee shop in the Shopping District
What: Latte foam art and coffee shop AU shenanigans, mostly. Someone’s gotta keep Naminé busy at her new job, right? Feel free to request specific subjects for said art or let her think of something on her own.
Rating/Warning: None!

[ A. ]

[The shop is cute, cozy and pleasant with the smell of coffee so thick in the air that it’s nearly enough to give one a caffeine high all on its own. The sign says there's a special on lattes with a little side note about them including custom art, whatever that means, and plenty of space to sit and wait should one decide to order said beverages – or any other, for that matter. There’s a young blonde girl who can’t be much more than five feet tall bustling around behind the counter, so surely it won’t be long before--]

[Ah, there we go, she’s turned to read off the name of the owner of the most recently made drink. Her voice might be a little quiet for it, but surely one would recognize their own name, right? (Or whichever one they happened to give.)]

[ B. ]

[It’s gotten a bit slow lately, so instead of wandering around in the other part of the work area, that same blonde girl is at the register, regarding anyone who looks even remotely likely to come and order something with a passive sort of interest, whether they’re inside the shop or outside of it.]

[At least she’s attentive? Even if she might be staring a little. (A lot.)]

[ C. ]

[Everyone’s gotta take a break, right? That’s what this young lady seems to be doing – she’s still dressed for work – while sitting at one of the tables, sketchbook laid out in front of her as she draws away with a set of colored pencils. She might, in fact, happen to be sketching several of the customers. She also appears to have an only lightly sipped at drink in front of her, and it’s… actually water, ironically enough.]

[ D. WILDCARD ]
[Choose your own (coffee-related) adventure?]

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[The funny thing is, the second she'd looked at the order, the name had caught her eye. She'd immediately glanced around the room, eyes searching for a familiar figure - which she'd found, but she'd had no idea why in the world Riku, of all people, would suddenly have red hair, and she hadn't been able to get a look at his face. A few seconds had been spent regarding his back, but in the end she'd convinced herself that it must be some other Riku, and, frowning to herself, she'd gotten started making the drink with bemused eyes.]

[(It isn't something she's sure she should wish for, his being here, since she still isn't certain she believes that their worlds are really gone and he's got better things to do, surely, than be trapped in some city who-knows-how-far from home. He deserves his freedom, doesn't he? If there really is any to be had.)]

[So there's something bittersweet about calling his name when she knows it's not the right Riku. Or thinks she knows, anyway, because she recognizes that voice and her head immediately snaps his direction, eyes going wide. It's all she can do to make sure the latte is set down before her suddenly numb hands fail her and drop it. Safe, it settles with only the slightest of wobbles.]

Riku--?

[She can hardly believe it, but already she's smiling despite herself, disbelieving surprise mixing with relief as she brightens visibly.]

It's really you...!

[the hardly believing it is mutual. no mistaking it, though, this is naminé. the appearance, the voice, the familiar feeling could be no one else. seeing her, of all people, here raises some concern in the same way that roxas being here does. how is this possible? is kairi all right? is xehanort at work? the usual. the good part about having dealt with roxas also means riku knows the answers to these won't be found easily, at least not right this instant.

instead of dwelling on unanswerable questions further, he offers her a small smile. those pesky and worrisome details aside, it is nice to see naminé again. a reunion with her lacks the same chance of violence as it did with a certain other nobody that will remain nameless. she also helped him, and sora by association, out tons and riku appreciates it all. thank naminé, indeed.]

In the flesh.

[best way to start off a chat is with a small joke. the last time they'd really talked, riku had still had ansem's appearance, after all. it is so nice to wake up and look in the mirror and not seeing that creep staring right back at you.]

And looks like it's the same for you.

[which is where his concern stems from seeing that she'd merged with kairi just as roxas had with sora. that raises the question of what naminé recalls. roxas' memory ends with what happened at the world that never was so what of her? hmm... he'll ask that later. a conversation on that topic isn't made for a coffee shop.]

Have you been here long?

[She's concerned about her own being here, truthfully, and asks herself - has asked herself many times already - those same questions. But she is also just as well acquainted with the futility of those wonderings, and instead allows herself to be momentarily... relieved. Perhaps that's the word for it, or would be if she had any cause to give it one.]

[It's written into the way she exhales, all the same, the upturn lingering at the corners of her mouth as her shoulders lower, body relaxing subtly. He is a known quantity, an ally already proven, and he's the first such person she's found - maybe the only one that exists, in actuality, because he is the only person who remembers her and what she has done and has never caused her to suffer for it, one way or another.]

[And no matter how complicated the situation might still be, she can't help her tiny breath of a laugh at his words. Humor deserves the favor returned in kind, and so she tries to keep her voice light when she says,]

I'm as surprised as you are.

[Not that it isn't true. That much shows in the expression that comes after, in the way that she sobers, the way her hands come together to clasp each other as her expression grows serious.]

No, not long at all. Only a few days.

[There is one question, however, that seems to be more pressing to her than any other. Pausing, she gives him a long look, as if trying to find the right words. Then, at last, she appears to find them, and carefully, she opens her mouth to ask--]

What is...?

[Hand lifting, she gestures vaguely in the direction of her own head.]

[What in all the worlds happened to his hair?]

[only a couple days, huh? riku makes a note to help fill her in on the workings of the city later on. helping her out here feels about the least he could do after everything. not only had she helped him out tons (god knows castle oblivion would've won against him if it weren't for her), but he'd hurt her in some ways, as well. maybe they never made namine suffer to the degree that roxas ended up suffering, but riku still feels as though he failed her in a way, too.

just like roxas, namine had --has-- a heart. instead of treating her like someone with one, the organization and then diz, as well as himself, used her. diz even wanted to dispose of her. riku flat out ignored that order, but it all ended the same way: she rejoined kairi. another nobody who existed at the same time as the person they came from losing their chance to live...

further dwelling on the past and his screw ups takes a backseat when that weird gesturing happens. riku blinks. what is she talking about?? something with his head... OH right, he's still a redhead at the moment. a small grin comes in reply.]

Don't worry, I know red isn't my color. It's a wig.

[he'd take it off and show her the usual silvery hair underneath but getting chewed out by the wardrobe guys again isn't worth it. those guys are way too sensitive about a single hair getting out of place, riku's learned this the hard way.]

I work as a stunt-double and wearing the most uncomfortable wigs ever made is part of the gig.

[no such thing as a comfortable wig exists. if anyone says otherwise then they're either lying or lost all sensation in their head.]

[Maybe the saddest part of it is that, even if he did allow her to be hurt, even if he failed her - though she would maintain that he didn't - he's still been far kinder to her, if only by not actively trying to cause her harm, than most other people in her life.]

[And she has a certain faith in him, knowing as much about him as she does through Sora's memories and his and having spent that year allied with him, so to speak, regardless of how often that involved or did not involve actually seeing much of each other. He spared her, for better or for worse; even if she didn't know anything about him, that would be enough for her. No matter what happened afterward, no matter whether her life was already forfeit - he is worthy, she believes, of her trust, inasmuch as anyone is.]

['It really isn't,' she wants to say, but holds back in favor of giving him a puzzled look, at first, as she tries to determine what possible cause he could have for wearing a wig. Then he elaborates and her mouth shapes an almost soundless little 'oh,' her hands falling to clasp each other, head still tilted and expression still a touch perplexed.]

That sounds like-- [Her pause is just long enough to express how generous she is being with her word choice when she says,] ... an... interesting job? [And given the appearance of said wig, she's almost inclined to think that it might have something to do with some form of comedy.] ... What's a stunt double?

[She might be able to dig it up out of secondhand memories, but... she can just ask him instead, for once. Pardon her for taking the novel route.]

[being worthy of trust goes both ways. who could possibly not trust someone who aided them so much? naminé helped far more than words could ever thank her for. without her, both sora and himself would be in far less pleasant places. his feelings of having failed her and so many other people won't change, but nor will that feeling of trust. how much he trusts her mirrors the trust held for his closest friends and not simply because of whose nobody she is.

subtle body language signs convey the trust, too. maybe riku allows a kinder expression to her than most people get. maybe his shoulders aren't as tense as he sips at the latte (which tastes pretty good, he has to admit). maybe seeing her here puts him a little more at ease than he's been in months prior. is he concerned about kairi's well-being with naminé here? of course. is he going to lose his head over it after dong that song and dance with roxas? nah. they can talk things out, see what naminé knows and go from there. nice and simple.

what a... genuine statement. it gets a small eyebrow raise, if one quickly replaced by an expression of understanding. ah right, she wouldn't know what that entails. the mansion didn't really have cable. riku COULD explain, sure, but explaining hardly does it justice. it's also not nearly as much fun.]

If you don't mind ducking out of work for a bit, I could show you.

[baristas get breaks, right? what better way to spend one than by watching someone do some stunts? plus, chatting'd be easier without impatient customers waiting for drinks.]

[He's not the only one whose demeanor suggests trust. Everything about her is more relaxed, more comfortable, her attention entirely his, body turned fully his way and weight ever so slightly forward. There's a quiet sort of tension that's been living somewhere in the lines of her body - that's always there, truly, for it can be no other way when she's lived as she has, but has taken on a different tone since she's been brought to a strange new place - that is eased somewhat by his comfortable familiarity. She feels safer for his presence, no matter the circumstances.]

[(And she's more pleased, more truly and honestly heartened than she knows how to express that he still remembers her. Roxas didn't, and that was hard enough. It could only get worse if Riku forgot her, too.)]

[Funny, how nice it is to see that understanding dawn on his face, because that's just a little more proof that he knows her, that he's aware enough to recognize why she asked. There are a lot of things that she's been able to pick up through the memories of others, but only a tiny fraction of that sees any real use; her actual life experience is lacking, and many of the more mundane things have never really been on her radar, so to speak.]

[At his offer, she pauses with her lips already parted, halfway to an answer. Her natural reaction is of course to agree, to unhesitatingly see to it that they find somewhere else to talk and for him to show her whatever it is he has cause to, but a second later she remembers herself and hesitates, glancing around her work area as if in search of anyone who might have something to say to prohibit her from leaving. (Force of habit.) Ah, now that she thinks of it-- looking back at him,]

I have a break coming up. I suppose I can... take it now.

[mutual being at ease makes this a really pleasant reunion. it blows the one between him and roxas out of the water. then again, topping their initial animosity would be hard to do. maybe things will get less pleasant soon enough when they start to chat about more serious topics, but this momentary niceness beats none at all.

her hesitating doesn't bother riku at all. the hesitation makes sense since she probably can't just run off without talking to someone first. being at work means communicating with superiors. the last thing she needs is a reprimand from walking off with some weirdo in a wig (red really is not his color. really).]

All right. I'll be by the door whenever you're ready.

[true to that word, riku makes his way over to the exit while sipping at his latte. he'll stand off to the side so not to block the exit. rude may be his middle name, but even that rudeness has its limits.]

[Less pleasant things might be, should the topic change, but that will do nothing to negate her feelings - or whatever word she might see fit to replace that with - about his presence. It won't be the first time they've had to discuss a hard subject.]

[And the last thing she needs is a reprimand, indeed, which is why she nods at his words, a slightly relieved smile flickering on her lips. Her eyes follow him part of his walk to the door before she pulls them away; even now, there's some part of her that can't quite believe he's really here, that she is really so lucky as to be less alone than she thought. Stepping back from the counter, she goes in search of her supervisor.]

[It isn't long before she finds her way toward where he's standing, having received leave and made use of it. All over again she has to get used to the strangeness of his wig, but the humor of it is not lost on her, and it adds just a little fuel to the smile she offers with her,]

Shall we?

[at least all she has to deal with is looking at the wig in question. riku's the one that needs to deal with the discomfort of wearing the thing. maybe he picks at it once or twice while sipping at his latte. not even fleas compare to how itchy a wig can be. ugh, please let the hours fly by so he could take it off as soon as possible.

any picking at the wig stops as soon as namine approaches. the small amusement in the smile isn't lost on him. riku's dealt with kairi's little 'oh i'm not laughing... except i completely am' smile before. he knows what to look for, doubly so when dealing with her nobody.

instead of irking him or even getting some snide commentary, that smile only further puts him at ease. it's been a while since he's been at the receiving end of one and it's... nice. a nice, if unexpected reminder of home. it makes him smile lightly in turn.]

Let's.

[ever the gentleman (for once), riku holds open the door. hey, miracles and the occasional lack of rudeness does happen.]

It's about a block away, so you shouldn't get an earfull for coming back late.

[Naminé has the good fortune of not having any familiarity with wearing wigs, itchy or otherwise, and would count herself all the luckier for it if she knew the full measure of his discomfort. (She might, however, have some inkling of its unpleasantness, because she probably caught him messing with the wig one of those times. Goodness knows she was glancing over her shoulder at him every now and again just to make sure he was still there and she wasn't experiencing some cruel hallucination as part of someone's idea of a joke.)]

[But yes, that's precisely the smile she wears when she reaches him. It eases into something a bit softer as he opens the door, and she gives him a nod with her quiet,] Thank you.

[Stepping through, she casts one quick glance for each direction the street stretches in and then looks back at him, now assured that she's not going to bump into anyone if she lets him keep her attention for the moment.]

That close? [The irony of it isn't lost on her. For them both to be in the city and be totally unaware of it - it's one thing when it's the whole place, but to have been such a short distance apart...! And maybe she'd have known it if she'd chosen to use her magic more often, but she's been making an effort not to fall back into that kind of thinking. This is a new place, where no one knows who she is or what she can do, and that last bit is something she'd like to keep as it is. (Only, he knows, doesn't he? That's a fact that, despite the odds, she actually takes a certain comfort in all over again every time it occurs to her.)] That's really funny...! [And to think--] You could have gone the other direction and we'd never have found each other.

[Which-- actually is not funny, because it's sad, but that only sobers her by a small degree. The relief she feels at their having bumped into each other has yet to wear off, and that buoys her mood more or less indiscriminately.]

[it's true that the set for today definitely did help in bringing them together. well, the need for some caffeine to keep his attention while waiting around for his part did. waiting around during takes and re-takes gets real dull real fast. no worrying about what ifs come from his end. if not one thing then another probably would've brought them together. this big city really isn't all that big.]

I never thought picking up a caffeine habit [just a habit, it's not an addiction. yet.] could be called lucky.

[a comment said with a joking tone to it. speaking of the caffeine... he takes another sip of his drink before speaking again.]

Good job with this, too, it tastes great.

[her working at a coffee shop... fits. a nice, if lively job where she doesn't have to be cooped up alone. namine, of all people, deserves it. similarly, she deserves no one else having to know the details of her past. unless she opts to share it herself, no one'll know since riku plans on keeping that little secret to himself.]

[The city feels a lot bigger to her than it probably actually is. Perspective makes it so, because her world, despite how many memories of other lives she had access to, has always been so small. At its largest, it may as well have been only a few rooms put together and a handful of people, and the rest of the universe, though she recognized its vastness and the responsibilities she had to it, may as well have existed only in theory. It really is good for her to work somewhere that she can see more new and familiar faces every day, somewhere she can meet people without pressure or undue stress.]

[That, and she does make a darn good latte. To be told as much, though, seems to catch her pleasantly off-guard, and she tucks her chin slightly, smiling.]

Does it? I'm glad. I don't drink them, myself.

[No caffeine addiction for her - unless it gets absorbed through her skin. (She's going to smell like coffee for a while now, she suspects.) And truthfully, she trusts him to keep mum about her... situation. Enough so that she doesn't naturally think to ask him to, because she's sufficiently comfortable in her assessment of him to presume that they've something of an understanding; she'll not go telling on him, either.]

But I guess it is lucky, this time. [Or she feels awfully lucky, anyway, and that's not a common experience for her.] I was afraid I was the only one here who came from our worlds and still-- [Now she sobers a little further.] -- still remembered everything.

[For a given value of 'everything'. The more she learns, the more she begins to wonder.]

[smelling like coffee isn't the worst thing ever. it beats smelling like garbage, something which riku had to deal with on his first day here.

the mention of remembering gets riku to glance over at her. ah, sounds like she met up with roxas. as lucky as one of them remembering her is, having yet another person not remember can't be fun. well, it's not that roxas doesn't remember, but more that he doesn't actively know her yet. a mental note gets made to explain this. it might not make things any better, but not knowing beats having yet another person not recall her.]

My memory isn't half as bad as Sora's.

[riku says as much jokingly. though it's also true. unlike the lazy bum, he doesn't take needless long naps or forget things or all the other stuff that sora does. his expression sobers up a bit after taking another sip.]

But I'm guessing you bumped into Roxas?

[Of the two, coffee is definitely what she'd prefer. She doesn't mind the smell, really. It has some good associations for her already.]

[It clearly weighs on her, however, to have been forgotten even one more time. Perhaps understandably, there are parts of her psyche very ill-served by such a turn of events and more than one insecurity made all the worse. There's some added offense that it's Roxas, who to her knowledge would have no reason to forget, and there's at least some small portion of the back of her mind that fears, no matter how irrationally, that it's because she is just that forgettable.]

[She's dangerously close to wilting from this line of thinking when he speaks so jokingly. It shakes her out of her thoughts, her eyes raising again, and despite herself she finds the edges of her mouth are curling.]

Well, somebody's got to make sure things get done when he's too busy snoozing.

[Her answer is softer than it should be, the attempt at humor there but a little halfhearted. It ebbs away at his question, the troubled look returning to her expression. Her hands unconsciously curl together.]

... Yes. When I first came in. I tried to talk to him, but he didn't recognize me at all. [But if Riku put it that way - she turns her frown up toward him, gaze searching.] You've seen him, too?

[there we go. a small smile means his joke hit the spot, even if only a little. her attempt at lighthearted commentary back is appreciated, but definitely falls short. then again, not everyone can pull off humor during less than cheery conversation topics. potentially getting forgotten again can't be a fun thing to experience. naminé doesn't deserve dealing with it a second time, either.]

We've chatted a couple times.

[chatted... more like fought most of the times and awkwardly chatted about facts once. those details aren't important, however. what's important is why roxas initiated so many fights. riku deserves all the hate the kid has for him, but there's a good reason why it's so intense. it's the same reason he didn't remember her.]

He remembers me, but the last thing with me that he remembers is our battle in The World that Never Was, the one where I needed to use the darkness in order to win.

[in other words, it's not that he doesn't remember her, but rather that he doesn't remember anything past that moment. no twilight town, no meeting naminé, no details about sora, na-da.]

[It's probably a good sign that she can manage anything, at this point. Whether she deserves it or not is something they might disagree on, but it hurts far more than she would have expected possible to be forgotten by anyone, let alone Roxas. The quicker she receives some balm for that particular suffering the better.]

['Chatting' is a choice of words that instinctively she questions, and she eyes him as he says it with a look that doesn't quite reach incredulity but is a few steps closer to it than it could be. She has never known the two of them to not be at odds in any of their interactions, and while that's more the fault of the circumstances, in her opinion, that doesn't mean those reasons have necessarily gone away just because they're in a different world. His explanation thereafter only provides more fodder for her assumption that it was probably less civil than it sounds, but by then she's entirely too focused on the other implications of that revelation to worry about whether she's going to have to stand between them if they're ever all in the same place together.]

What? But--

[Cutting herself off, she frowns, but the gears are turning in her head already, and that much is obvious just to look at her. Her faltering silence doesn't go on for long before she's saying, with the tone of epiphany,]

So that's why it seemed like Twilight Town never happened. [Which is a bit of a bittersweet realization. At least he didn't forget her specifically, though that doesn't help the situation any.] But... why doesn't he remember anything that came after that?

[riku can tell that those gears are turning, the prolonged silence and response confirming it. now she's getting it. roxas never forgot her; he never met her. the city somehow made him be from a point in time prior to twilight town.

he offers a small shrug at the follow-up question. that's one thing he wishes he could answer. knowing the details could ease some of his own worries about the situation they're in. xehanort likely isn't involved, at least. chances are he would've made a proper move by now if it were. not xehanort doesn't mean not bad news. all things considered, their benevolent saviors might be cut from the same evil cloth.]

Your guess is as good as mine. CERES either messes with people's memories or brings in people from different points in time.

[both are feasible answers.]

Someone else was here from over 10 years ago or with memories that ended 10 years ago so it isn't just Roxas that's been affected, either.

[terra remembered riku as a 5-year-old. his situation coupled with roxas' means that someone's either capable of doing what namine can but on a grander scale or that ceres can somehow manipulate time. neither says anything positive about the organization as a whole.]

[She's still trying to decide what her own guess is. While she's well aware of how she'd do things given such a situation, that doesn't mean they're employing the same tactics. Thinking about it, she'd probably prefer they were manipulating time rather than memories. Too many bad associations with the latter, not to mention some level of personal insult. It's bad enough that she can do what she can do; the worlds don't need anyone else running around doing the same and with far fewer qualms.]

I... suppose we just have to hope it's the second one. [Because memory tampering would also allow them to do all sorts of other thoroughly unpleasant things to people that she really doesn't want to think too hard about. And, you know, the whole 'crushing people's hearts' deal isn't something she'd like to see anyone else copying. Frowning though she is, she perks slightly as she considers that last point.]

Were they from our worlds?

[Because that's most informative if they were and she can recognize the name; otherwise, the circumstances might make her a bit less inclined to take it at face value.]

Edited 2016-05-24 21:15 (UTC)

I'm actually hoping it isn't choice b.

[he says as much with a small sigh. time shenanigans are way too much of a hassle. maybe the rules here with it are somehow different, but if they aren't then it can't mean anything good about ceres. the fact that they're also managing to pull in people from different worlds into one big one? yeah, memory messing with'll be his personal pick.]

Yeah, they were. I met them 10 years ago and that's where they remembered me from.

[which means no memories of them from naminé since they weren't around after that. even terra himself didn't know why. it's a mystery, if one that riku plans on attempting to solve once everything with ceres gets done and over with.]

[They are, it's true - but being brought in from a different time in a way that doesn't interfere with one's own timeline is about as uncomplicated as that kind of thing gets. Not that she's really thinking too hard about that; she just really doesn't want anyone tampering with people's minds.]

You think that would be worse?

[Legitimate question, although this is probably a matter of opinion at this point and most likely without effect. Things are the way they are regardless of what they hope. But as far as his friend... huh. Whether she could hazard a guess as to their identity or not, she doesn't act to; his word that he knew them is enough for her.]

I see. [Thoughtful,] That must have been quite a surprise. But-- doesn't it seem odd to do things that way? [On CERES' part, she means.]

Yeah, I really do.

[he says as much without missing a beat. tempering with memories is bad, don't get him wrong, but tempering with time is so much worse. dealing with 13 xehanorts happened the first time. if time's the issue again then what knows what fun surprises are waiting for them this time?]

To anyone with half a brain it probably does. Evil organizations don't use the same logic that everyone else does, though.

[see: the organization. naminé dealt with them enough to know how wonky their way of thinking is. ceres' seems to be as bad, if not worse than that. at least the organization never pretended to be anyone's savior.]

[Well, she's not disinclined to take his opinion under consideration, that much is for sure. She can certainly see how such powers would be quite abusable and especially terrifying - although it would probably hit home more completely if she knew about that whole Xehanort(s) fiasco. One was bad enough. If the use of such power is limited to drawing people from the past, however-- well, anyway.]

[She is a bit less given to writing off the logic, although she does nod.] They do seem to do some strange things, don't they? [Because yeah, she's seen plenty of crazy stuff.] Or... selfish ones.

[And yet-- the more she thinks about it,]

I can see how it might serve their purposes, though. If they're looking for something specific from us, or trying to get to us when we're weaker, or stronger... timing matters.

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