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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[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?

[And the moment he looks up, she drops a snowball right straight down towards him, her grin way too wide. She's enjoying this. (Where did the snowball come from?

She's Mercury.)]

I jumped! Pretty good, isn't it?

[A snowball? He definitely didn't see that coming...especially since he's never seen snow for himself before. A surprised "Woah!" escapes from the boy as the snowball hits him.]

Is that...snow?

[Because if it is, that's the coolest thing ever.]

Of course! [She grins, as if this is entirely normal. It is, to her. And then she slips right off the wall, somersaults perfectly, and lands in a slight crouch before straightening again.]

It's going to be winter soon, after all. Besides, you looked up just like you were ready to be hit!

Hey! I can find some way to get you back.

[Again, though, his words don't sound malicious - it's all in good fun, and he does want to be mean. Not that Sora would be much good at being mean, anyway. Besides...]

It's my turn to hide!

Go ahead! I'll still find you right away.

[Spoiler: She plans to cheat. Well, she doesn't see it as cheating.]

[He would frown and protest if he knew that...but, luckily for her, he would never suspect any cheating. Breaking the rules takes the fun out of the game, doesn't it?]

You're on!

Alright, no peaking.

[As a matter of fact, he's not gonna move until he sees her eyes close.]

[She closes her eyes obligingly enough. It's her computer she plans to cheat with. Even at this age, she can do something basic like track an energy signature. She makes a show of counting loudly.]

1...2...

[Computers? How do those things even work?

Completely trusting her counting, the boy runs off, making a beeline for one of the spots he saw earlier - a place situated between a tree and one of the large rocks, making a shadowy spot just big enough for him to hide in. He gets comfortable, trying to make himself as small and invisible as he can.]

[She counts properly, until she reaches]

TEN! Ready or not, I'm coming! [Something about her tone makes this a bit more of a warning than it should be for a children's game, but it's only habit.]

[Woah! He didn't expect her to stop so soon - it's a good thing he knew where he was going, or he never would've made it. Her tone does make him jump a little, though; he doesn't miss the fact that it sounds like a warning, but he does wonder if it was just his imagination.

Either way, he's settled and he isn't moving until she finds him.]

[Ami does not seem to be searching. In fact, Ami seems to be standing still. She takes out a small device, and presses a few buttons on it. There's a faint beeping sound.]

[...that sure is a weird noise.

Not that Sora has the first clue as to what it might be. He's just gonna sit still and wonder if he's hearing things.]

[Oh she's moving now. In fact, she's heading right for his spot, unerringly in the correct direction. Oh no!]

○ 01 ○ Familiar Places

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hi thar! <3

hey~ <3

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