onepassingnight | ○ 01 ○ Familiar Places

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○ 01 ○ Familiar Places

[At first, everything is dark. There's nothing but black and empty space...yet, somehow, this isn't scary at all. Maybe because there's something nearby - something warm and inviting. Safe.

A bright light in the distance.

But maybe not so far away after all. Soon there's solid ground. It's a circular platform that looks like stained glass, but doesn't feel fragile. It's brightly colored, and covered in pictures...pictures that must come from somewhere.

Maybe they mean something to the child on the other side of the platform. The boy is walking around, looking a little confused...and with good reason. He had just been here a few hours ago, hadn't he? The person he had been talking to before was sleeping. So why was he back here? Was this a dream?

That's when he turns around, finally noticing that he's not alone. In a confused, but friendly tone, he asks-]

How'd you get here?

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[He doesn't notice her avoidance of the paopu image, but his attention is immediately drawn to the picture she's talking about. He walks closer to it, taking a good look - after all, it's his first time really paying attention. He wants to take a good close look at them.]

It's a mask! There's this one shop that sells a bunch of them, and my mom takes me there a lot.

But...this isn't the island. At least, I don't think it is.

[But...what is it? He doesn't know. Or...he does. Maybe He just doesn't know the words for it yet.

Instead of trying to, though, he just turns around again, smiling at the girl.]

Who are you, anyway?

[A mask?

From his mother. Her heart beats. Nothing's lessened that bond.]

It's after Halloween now. [She points this out reasonably, as if it's a natural concern regarding a mask.] Are you still wearing masks?

[Right now, he doesn't seem to be, of course. That'd be a pretty amazing mask, to look so natural!]

Edited 2011-11-07 04:33 (UTC)

[He tilts his head a little, a small glimpse of concern sneaking into his expression. What was so weird about the mask, anyway?]

No one wears them. It's just decoration. I've got one in my room.

Well, I mean...you could wear it, if you want. I guess.

[Masks are amazing. They let you take on another self, someone different than you normally are, someone more comfortable to live as.]

If we don't know where we are, we should look around and find out.

Look around? But there's nothing else here.

[Still, Sora was never one to say no to exploring...]

[She has only one more thing to say, tossed back over her shoulder after a quick turn starts her walking away already.]

Then we'll go outside here! I don't want to just stay in once place forever.

Outside here? You aren't gonna...

[The only other thing here besides the platform was...well, whatever was there when you jumped off of it. Something told Sora that he really wasn't supposed to find out what that was. He couldn't tell what - it was just one of those feelings, the kind that told you not to do something really, really bad.

He follows her, trying to keep up.]

But there's really nothing else around here! I know it.

[Ami stops short. She stares at Sora blankly.]

Nowhere else?

[Suddenly it seems a bit small, a bit confining, to the girl who hasn't had freedom in four years. She firms up her mind and decides, at least, to believe Sora - and not to show that nervousness, though she gives the edge of the platform an uncertain look.]

Nah. I guess there's not much to do here, huh?

[He laughs, hoping that might cheer the girl up. He hopes something will, anyway. She doesn't seem all that happy.]

If I knew how to get there, I'd show you my island! Then there would be lots of places to go.

Where's your island? [Curiosity overcomes shyness and nervousness at once, apparently, as she looks back to Sora and steps closer to him.]

It's on my world. [He doesn't even think before he says this - for some reason, he just assumes the girl is from a different world. He doesn't recognize her, so she has to be. Right?] There's the big main island where everyone lives, and then there's the smaller island where my friend Riku and I go all the time. We know everything about it!

Oh. If I ever go there, show me.

[She's... a bit imperious even at this apparent age, evidently.]

Hey, since we can't go there, let's play a game here.

Yeah, I can do that.

[Thankfully, he doesn't really notice the tone - he can be a little oblivious to that sort of thing. Besides, taking someone on a tour of the island sounds kind of fun!]

Sure. What kind of game?

[Hmmmm.

She grins slyly, and pushes him - not hard or maliciously but just enough to set up her idea:]

Tag! You're it!

[She takes off running.]

Huh- Hey!

[He knows how to play this game, that's for sure. Even though there's not a lot of room here, he takes off running, determined to catch up with her.

As he passes over the tree in the glass, something about the dreamscape begins to change. The tree takes shape behind him...first as a 3-D glass sculpture, then finally as a real paopu tree. All kinds of similar objects start to pop up as the children run around - trees, rocks, crown-shaped walls...it grows and changes, becoming a place where they can play safely.

Sora doesn't really notice, though. He just keeps running, until finally...]

Tag!

[Something about the paopu tree. She still doesn't like it; in fact, she tends to avoid it even as they run around and among the rapidly-growing dreamscape. She tries to catch him; she turns out to be pretty fast, but nothing beyond the possibilities of the young girl she seems to be right now.

She doesn't pay any more attention than he does to the amazing changes around them. She takes them for granted, whether from the dream or the simple bright imagination of a bright child.]

Running is no use! I'll still catch you!

[She's fast, but so is Sora - he and Riku race enough for him to get plenty of practice, that's for sure. He runs around, trying to avoid the changing terrain as well as he can. Even if she catches him eventually - and she will - he can't stop trying!]

You can't catch me if I'm faster!

[Oh, those are the words to just make her run even harder. Ami starts closing the gap as she pushes her legs to go quicker, quicker, stronger, stronger.]

[She starting to catch up, and he knows it. But he can run faster! He has to. He wills his legs to keep moving, to keep this up...

...and that's when he trips over his own feet.

Oops.]

[Four years ago, Ami would have stopped immediately, given Sora a hand to help him up, asked if he was alright and quite possibly offered a band-aid if he scraped his knee. (A future doctor has to be able to take care of her friends, after all.)

Now, she simply takes advantage of it. She grins too widely, closer to a smirk, and tags him without remorse.]

Tag! I win.

[Only then does the hand come out to help him, too late to truly be called kind, perhaps nothing more than some distant, rote habit.]

Edited 2011-11-12 08:59 (UTC)

Hey, not fair!

[He frowns, and sounds offended when she tags him...but he isn't really mad. It's just a game, and it's not like he was really hurt or anything.

But even though he's frowning still, and the gesture is belated, he takes the hand to help him stand. He bounces back easily enough - like most little boys, he's no stranger to falling down every once in awhile.]

Okay, fine. I guess you win.

...hey, wanna play something else?

It is, too, fair. [She says this with more composure than might be expected. After all, she didn't break a rule. Tag doesn't have any rules about waiting if someone falls down.]

[But the lure of a new game is a strong one. She looks around for ideas, and the fantastical landscape suggests the perfect game.]

Hide and seek! I'll hide.

[He'll chase her, look for her, want to find her.]

[Hide and seek! Sora's face brightens up at the idea - he's good at finding things.]

You're on! I'll count to...

[He and Riku would usually count to 100, since they needed more time to hide on the island. But they wouldn't need THAT long here.]

...thirty!

[He turns around, covering his eyes before he begins the countdown.]

One...two...three...

[She manages to keep her near-giggle quiet so as not to give herself away as she scurries around the room. She makes an enormous leap that shouldn't be possible for her size, and manages to sit on the very top of one of the crown-shaped walls, in the valley between two of its points. She grins. He'd better look up sometime.]

Twenty-nine...Thirty! Ready or not, here I come!

[He uncovers his eyes, beginning his search right away. He checks all the obvious places first - behind walls and around trees, and in the shadows created by the rocks. Still, he finds nothing.

It's a few minutes before he stops, trying to think of what he might have missed. He'd looked on the ground, behind things, in front of things...right, left, down -

And that's when he looked up.]

Woah! [He comes closer to the wall, squinting to make sure he can really see her. Sure enough, it's not just his imagination.] How'd you get up there?

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