Scene #6708: Castle Oblivion

Owner	Pose
Roxas	Previously, Roxas had agreed to have an associate of his -- one Xemnas -- look at the book that Lilian Rook had retrieved from the clock tower of Daybreak Town. Today is the time of that meeting, and Roxas has walked the worlds collecting the people who were involved in that process. "We've gotta hurry. The Corridors aren't very safe." He said. Those of you who were present in the journey into the UG of Galbadia's underground will recognize the Corridors, a little. Rocky black arteries wind their way across a landscape of purples and blues, with a swirling field of black occasionally disrupted by the distant twinkling of what are, perhaps, stars. Some great light source is ever-present at a great distance, like a hazy moon in the night sky. The paths Roxas takes opens out onto CASTLE OBLIVION.
Roxas	CASTLE OBLIVION is a crossroads. It might be THE crossroads. A great yellow-brown castle with teal and blue roofing upon a hill -- it is a hill for a certainty, not a mountain, though it is large enough from this perspective that one would be forgiven for thinking it a mountain -- that looks out on several distinct landscapes. One of them is familiar, the rest are not. From the front gates the EAST, WEST, and SOUTH are visible. NORTH is occluded from the front gate. To the EAST is Daybreak Town, though it has a hazy and flickering quality to it, as if it is not quite certain what location it truly wants to be. Blue buildings oscillate back and forth with brilliant white. The sky there is a lightening blue, the clouds a hazy pink. Its dominant appearance is from here is white-and-gold. To the WEST is Traverse Town, where the sun has set forever. It is a twin to Daybreak Town, and even from here they resemble each other more than passingly. Beyond it is deeper Darkness, which -- although it is geographically nonsensical -- you can't help but get the feeling you just emerged from. To the SOUTH is the Keyblade Graveyard, a blasted wasteland of high plateaus and dead weapons of old magic. The darkness that had been building there has been dispersed, but it is still a cloudy, gloomy place.
Roxas	The interior of Castle Oblivion is a place of white-on-white, with the occasional greys and blue-greys to break up the monotony of it. Much like the exterior UG, it has a nonsensical layout and although Roxas leads the way it isn't uncommon for the doors you pass through to literally disappear behind you as you go. Eventually you arrive in a room that has clearly been repurposed. High, broad walls with windows spread throughout have been lined with bookshelves and equipment of various kinds. There are several people here. XEMNAS is a tall man wearing a white button-down shirt with a purple tie, black slacks and shoes, and a closed labcoat with a red scarf. He is blonde-haired, with a goatee and a mullet. He has a stern feel to him, but he's not an easy person to read on the surface. He sits behind a desk, with a bank of monitors behind him. Standing to the right side of his desk is an ARMORED FIGURE. Gold, red, and black mix with a tan-backed and black-lined cape. A bulky gold-toothed keyblade rests with its teeth against the ground, both of the figure's hands rested atop it. It does not move. It does not even seem to breathe. Examining a virtual projection of the BOOK OF PROPHECIES is ZEXION, a diminuitive silver-haired young man with an asymmetrical haircut. "Welcome. Roxas has spoken much of you all. I am Xemnas, head of Organization XIII and its chief occult researcher. This..." He gestures to the armored figure, "... is Terra, who I doubt very much will see fit to speak. The young man is my protege, Zexion. We've spent a little time with the document that you gave us, and already we have a few answers for you." "The language itself," Xemnas raises his hands and sweeps them open, prompting a projector on the ceiling to come to life and display several pages of the PDF of the book, "is a proto-language that precedes the era we know as the Age of the Gods. It is not a common language to encounter, but it is known because its most immediate descendants can be found in the journals of the first Merlin of the Council." "We have not been able to complete a full translation. But there is a bestiary of Heartless, most of which we are familiar with..." He swipes a hand through the air to show the fat soldier-type Heartless that several of you encountered in Galbadia's sewers, "... And some that we do not believe existed until recently at all." Another swipe. Jenova appears, pictured in fine detail, about three quarters of the way through the book. The page itself is untranslated. "The chief contents of the earliest part of this tome," Xemnas continues, "concern the aversion of a calamity of Light. It is not fully translated, but we believe it clarifies certain matters of the event known to us as the Keyblade War. But this is a closed chapter. It covers events that have already long since come, and gone. The following chapters appear to contain information on events yet to come..." Another swipe. The pages turn back to about halfway through the book, not quite to the bestiary entry with Jenova. A passage is highlighted, "This says: 'On that land shall darkness prevail and light expire.'." "I have... forgive me, Ms. Rook... utilized the scanned document as a sympathetic link to remotely examine the magical properties of the tome in your possession, and found that it is quite active. What's more, the sympathy that the document possesses with the original is rapidly fading. Fundamentally, the book is drifting away from the copy at a rapid pace." Xemnas folds his hands in front of him, "What do you make of that?"
Arthur Lowell	The Corridors are something Arthur can be familiar with, in the sense that a civil engineer can recognize the types of roads that might exist in a multitude of cities and cross-country environs. "YEAH, dawg, ain't gotta TELL ME TWICE. Shit's SPACE-WEIRD on the MAX." He says, heading through. He looks to Daybreak Town and the Keyblade Graveyard, recognizing the nature of this place as a kind of nexus. The sort of place where one accumulates shopkeepers after quests, he thinks? "Damn, homie, this place must have some good STAIN-CLEARING REGIMEN." He mutters, looking at the whiteness. It's when they get to the study that he finally stops swaggering quite so intensely. He tones it back to maybe 60%. "YO, what up Xe?" He immediately assault's the man's hands with a series of cool handshake maneuvers that barely threaten to exceed his page-turning powers. "Lemme get that GOOD LOOK." He takes in the information. His eyes widen slightly at the bestiary. His foot taps a bit, and he ponders. It takes him a while to arrive at what he says. "I wrote some shit like that once." He eventually says. "And, see-- Would be real stupid to expect ages-long taxonomic stuff to stay the same, unless you were dealing with /one specific thing/. And, fuckin' sympathies too, even, right? The thing is, I think it's weighed down with being all singular for a good reason. The thing's focused on pretty much one specific line through events, so-- Way I see it, I'm pretty sure this shit is time shit. Considering the clocktower we found it in, it's gotta be a nexus of some time shit, which means I'm bettin' there's some future shit in there too." He looks really closely at the distribution of paragraphs, the display, even looking if he can see anything about a table of contents. "If I'm guessin' right," He says, nodding firmly. "What you're looking at is like a walkthrough."
Lilian Rook	"Most likely that the original is changing." seems to be Lilian's answer to the first question posed to her. The trip here, going through the Corridors Roxas and Xion especially kept talking about before, almost puts into perspective why those kids are kind of weird. For lack of anything overtly unnatural or harmful about it the whole way through, Lilian has resigned to take it as 'a particularly surreal natural formation' of which good use is beng made, but the look of taking it in stride is a constructed facade, the likes of which are used to aggressively pretend nothing is wrong when in the company of petty rich people. Most often, it's a talent cultivated in the presence of real shitty old money degenerates, but the only person here who appears to qualify as degenerate in an obvious capacity is the statue in a cape that Lilian assertively ignores. "A common aspect of supposed books of prophecies are that they mention no specific dates or sequences, but lay out a list of events that will 'eventually' come to pass, and allow readers of the future to check them off themselves, until one day they're correct. It's the vast majority of prophecies written by ungifted, or barely talented, human beings, either cold reading at the future, or working off a singular vision or premonition they accessed once." "If we assume the book is guaranteed to be an artifact of genuine divination, and if there is both a closed, verified accurate, chapter about events that old, and more chapters still active into the immediate future, then the most likely possibilities are that the book is is exerting a selection process of its own, or that the book is still being 'written to' as circumstances change, filling in its details as to how it's arriving at its conclusions."
Riku	Riku comes along to find out what's up with this mysterious Organization. It keeps coming up and the black-coated members just seem to keep getting involved in things he's involved in. He needs to establish how he's going to be interacting with them. Also, there's the matter of the original copy of the book. He has some suspicions about the entire arrangement. Arriving at Castle Oblivion is enough of a trick, the positioning in the Darkness something that the Heartbrand is going to have to keep note of in the future. He moves along with them silently as they progress through the castle. It's when they get to the study that Riku freezes. Sure, Xemnas is right there, but it's not Xemnas that Riku is staring at. It's the figure next to him. His gaze seems locked onto the Keyblade-bearing armor suit for several seconds, his face a mix of emotion before he masters himself once again and straightens up. His jaw flexes a bit as he tries to pay attention to the information being given... And ends up coming to the conclusion that he was expecting. "It means that the book is connected to something that the copies can't reproduce. The original book is recording from something. Arthur seems like he's got it covered." He gestures, then. "But there's some other things that we should probably go over first." His gaze falls upon Xemnas. "Who are you guys? I've never heard of an Organization XIII until Roxas and Axel mentioned it. What are you doing and how did you get set up /here/?" He gestures at the room around them. "And also..." He looks to Terra, focusing on the presumed man in the armor. "What are /you/ doing here, Terra?" He says with a mix of, perhaps, relief and anger.
Roxas	Xemnas is Anime Old at best and has /great/ difficulty following what Arthur is trying to do with his hands. He gives it his best attempt though, which is about the most that you can expect from a man who has the demeanor of a 40 year old 'strict' school teacher. "It resets itself periodically," he explains Castle Oblivion, "we believe that it has been 'locked' in some way that has yet to be undone. Finding the key has been of some interest to us, but those that we possess have proven..." He looks towards Terra's weapon, "Inadequate." Folding his hands behind his back, he nods at Arthur, "That is along the lines of what I suspect as well. Which is problematic. You see, although it is technically possible to swim against the rivers of time... one way or the other... it is a strictly forbidden affair. For reasons that I imagine you are already aware of." "Tampering with time can have considerably dire consequences. Establishing future events in this way is a violation of one of the Laws of Magic. But, I suppose that is a complication for another time..." He gestures at Arthur, "You obtained something during your outing, did you not?" The pages of the copy flip to the front of the book, where a bestiary-style entry displays a blue-and-white star that matches the appearance of the Grist type that Arthur collected. "It is called Lux," Xemnas explains, "and it is a form of material Light. According to the earliest sections of the book it was being collected by the Keyblade Knights of that era. This should offer you some inkling of an idea as to what it might be used for." Checking the book for a page of contents DOES reveal several. The numbers are a bit arcane... as for the titles of things though, they're... /Childishly/ long, like whoever wrote it was grabbing desperately for attention with each of them. The younger man steps forward to speaking with Zexion, "Although I'm still working on translation, I'd like to comment on some of your observations-- from what I can tell, the writer used a bit of both clear sequences and vague implications. Some of the events in the book are so long ago that it's effectively unverifiable. The UG and the RG were a lot closer together back then, and this place probably had more of a presence in the 'real' world. All the same, they are fairly precise." "But the writer is, er... they had a flair for the dramatic. A lot of things like what Master Xemnas just told you. 'Darkness shall prevail, and light expire.' With that being said, the guide to Heartless is accurate and useful, and the entity that emerged from the darkfont in Galbadia was..." Zexion frowns, "It was unique. Heartless are wild hearts running free and trying to get more of themselves out in the world. This one seemed to be more interested in getting more of itself 'in' people in the world, if you catch my meaning. It's very irregular, and those darkfonts... we're not sure if they're natural or induced. There is /one/ in the world known to be natural, but it was the only one until this incident." Xemnas turns his attention towards Riku, smiling faintly and nodding, "Organization XIII is an association of those outcast from the ordinary societies of the RG and UG. Among our number are those who have fallen between the cracks and barely exist in the RG, the sorcerously damaged, cursed, abandoned, and sometimes hunted." "I," he says, "am Xemnas, former member of the Council and metaphysical researcher. I am afraid that I have long since cast aside my stole, or I would present it to you for proof." The suit of armor identified as Terra moves, ever so slightly. Its head twitches towards Riku, but only when it's prompted. Only when it is called out in particular. It stares at him. It doesn't /speak/. Not really. A noise like dozens of soft chimes echoes through the room. ... Being. The suit of armor looks away from Riku and inclines its head, staring at the floor.
Riku	Riku's expression contorts for a moment as Terra moves, barely. It's clear Riku is about to deliver another series of questions, ones more pointed, perhaps more accusatory. That dies as he hears that noise, that vague attempt at a voice. Rage becomes an expression of horror as Riku takes a step backward. The questions he might have asked, the accusations he might have hurled were answered in a single non-word. Instead, he asks, "What... happened to you?" He looks to Xemnas. "What happened to him?" But the leader does kindly answer his question in a manner of speaking. "I'll take your word for it. " He says when the point of the stole is brought up. "I don't want to deal with the Council any more than you do." He goes quiet for a moment as he looks away, rubbing a hand throug his hair. "So a bunch of outcasts and misfits holed up in a castle that doesn't really exist properly. Sounds about right... But there's the mutual protection thing. I get that. Are you guys trying to do anything? I keep seeing your people show up in places I'm going. Now that you have this book, what are you going to do with it?" The magical sciencing, meanwhile, mostly blows past Riku in a blob of Darkness Darkness UG Light Keyblade Keyblade Light. He's not dumb, but he's in a room full of geniuses and it shows.
Arthur Lowell	"Huh, OUTCASTS in the middle of SPACE-NOWHERE with GIANT RESIDENCE? Yeah, I lived that LIFE, yo. That's the REAL OLDSCHOOL." Arthur says, nodding and grinning, moving as if to some kind of beat. "LUX." Arthur says, reaffirming. "GOTCHA." His GRIST CACHE pops up, with the mysterious missing Grist filling in. His display of it is also clear. He seems more fascinated by the composition though. "Yeah. Time shit is tough. The thing is, though, if you're dealing with time shit -- you know, immutable laws. Tee-bee-aych, I don't know anything about how time works, I know only space stuff, and, speaking of that, mad respect for Castle Crossroads here." He paces a bit. "Anyway, the thing is, though, if you're dealing with time shit, the last thing you want is prophecy. The first thing you want is a walkthrough. When you're making a walkthrough, hell, even if it's mad dramatic, you want the key shit. And that shit is, 'what are the rules?', And 'how do I make the best of this?'" He gestures around. "See, the idea is, okay, let's say some bad thing's gonna happen. I dunno, maybe Princess over there," He gestures to Lilian. "Secretly has a bomb in her neck or something, and it's gonna go off in the future, and that's real bad. Well, sure, that's a rule -- time says that's gonna happen, so it will. But, that's a rule, and that meaks you can work throuigh that system of rules better if you know them. So it doesn't even need to tell you that it's gonna happen, or when, it just needs to tell you what to do if someone's neck-bomb goes off, so you can deal with it." "This..." He gestures to the book, tapping a foot in a fidgety way. "It's probably the best you can get. I kinda wound up writing something like this way way way back when, long-ass time ago. And, drama or no drama, it's not about 'I told you so' for anything, it's just trying to make the best of some shit. Which tells you, you've got some bad shit you need to make the best of. That's my guess." He scratches his head a bit, contemplatively. "Gut feeling says we either put this in a designated spot, or we start taking it with us on the adventures -- kinda how time-shit goes, but also the best way to make the most of whatever it does.
Lilian Rook	"Sorry, but if I may ask, you've mentioned the Council twice now." Lilian interjects, with an exact and precise emphasis on the cpital C. "For that matter, Light and Darkness as well. I wouldn't question it in the strictly metaphorical sense, but if they're material substances now, which can be collected and used, or gathered up to spawn infectious abberrants, I assume they have a literal connotation." Lilian waits about as long as is necessary to get at least some kind of half-assed explanations of either of those things before continuing. She gives off the patient psychiatrist sort of air of 'take your time, but meeting can't go anywhere until you say something' to it. "I'd like to think that one the Graveyard was induced, since it has a clear connection to a manmade event and was cleanly removed by application of countermagic." Well, videogame bullshit, but Lilian just uses the terms she knows. She only really considers what Zexion has to add for a second, mostly because it sounds like what she'd expect "Well, when prophets start being clear and plain with their language, they stop being special." she replies, the facetiousness almost subtle enoguh to pass unnoticed for a moment. "The book is absolutely the genuine article, not a Nostradamus rag. The fact that its sympathy is altering at all is evidence that it has power, and there'd be no reason for power to be present in a book of prophecy that doesn't prophecize anything --not one that doesn't contain a trap anyways." She gives Arthur A Look at the neck bomb analogy, and then seems to be unimpressed not by the obvious aspect, but by the one highlighted with "That movie is older than everyone in this room put together, nonsense excused." She looks grossed out in the same sense as if Arthur had tried to compare contemporary politics to Star Wars. Moving on from that, she boldly and confidently states "The book is a temporally displaced entity. I don't know enough about either town to compare it in any way, but I've already confirmed that its temporal dimensions have been intentionally crafted or altered. I couldn't tell you for sure whether someone came along later and bent it into a loop to 'seal' it, or whether it's waiting for trigger conditions, or whether it's writing a prophecy causally, in reverse, and 'resets' each time it becomes impossible with that sequence of events and starts over. There are a lot of possibilities, but it's obviously not working with its full functionality. There are limited ways I can test it myself."
Roxas	Xemnas moves to stand next to Terra, raising a hand to touch his helmet. The armored figure doesn't react, "It is difficult to say precisely what happened to Terra. I found him a little over a year ago now, wandering the worlds in a daze. His spiritual architecture is /quite/ damaged. More damaged than I have ever seen, even in the most pitiful Nobody. He's usually quite nonverbal, but he has been improving." "I am sorry if you were acquainted, but I doubt very much that he knows enough of the tale to tell it to you yet. On occasion he has been stirred to fight, and that much he seems to remember. But he is precisely the sort of being that our fellowship caters to." Zexion clears his throat and interjects, "To answer your questions, one of our primary goals is to mend those who are as broken as Terra. Each of us has our own interests and supernatural specialties. I am a student of biothaumaturgy and spiritual architecture. I'm afraid to say that occult researchers have a bad habit of falling into the traps that draws someone into our Organization to begin with." "But," he says, "the book belongs to Ms. Rook. We'll continue to translate the copy for you, but it doesn't directly pertain to all of us. Except..." Roxas, who has been lingering in the corner, chimes in, "I think... that the place it came from has something to do with me. But I'm not sure. I get these feelings about things, but... they're just feelings. There's no memories to connect to them. That 'Lux' stuff... that feels so /familiar/, but it's..." He sighs, deflating, "It's just not." To Arthur, Xemnas replies, "It is not ours. It was abandoned during the Sorceress War, and we have simply moved in for the time being. At some point we will move on. It is, as you have observed, rather exposed. But it's not hard to imagine what someone would want with a place like this, is it?" In response to Lilian's inquiries, Zexion replies, "Dark and Light are metaphysical forces that maintain a certain equilibrium with one another. They are naturally present in nearly all beings from this world, and some have the ability to tap them for power. Neither is strictly 'evil', but an excess of either is usually bad news. The prime darkfont is what you might call the natural entrance to deepest darkness, while the darkfont you encountered is -- as you observe -- most likely an artificial portal to the same." "The Council is a council of Wizards. The White Council, I think, they like to call themselves sometimes. We don't, it's a P.R. move. At any rate, they do their best to regulate mortal magic. Sometimes for good reasons, but often enough just for control." "Regarding the town you visited..." "If you drew a map of the U.G.," Zexion pulls up a display with a castle in the center, "Castle Oblivion would be broadly in the center, or heart of it. There are a lot of hearts of the underground, but Castle Oblivion is one of them. There are four fixed points. To the north is Twilight Town, to the west is Traverse Town, to the east is Daybreak Town, and to the south is the Keyblade Graveyard." "Daybreak Town is the least accessible of the bunch under ordinary circumstances," he adds, "But all three of those towns exist in what is effectively a fixed temporal position. It is always twilight in twilight town, always night in traverse town, and always just after dawn in daybreak town."
Roxas	"Er," Zexion coughs and smiles thinly, adding, "to be clear, I'm simply indicating that Daybreak Town isn't completely unique, but we're not entirely certain why these locations exist either. But they /are/ all crossroads realms that are easy to stumble into."
Riku	Riku watches as Xemnas moves to touch Terra, and the way Terra simply... Doesn't react. The expanation brings a grim look to Riku's face, and he nods to Xemnas, then turns to Zexion. "All right. So you guys are helping him, then." He gestures. "If there's anything I can do to help you restore him, let me know." It's not like he doesn't do plenty of freelance work anyway. He grimaces as Zexion says the book belongs to Lilian, but he doesn't bring that argument up again. He turns to Roxas then as he brings up his half-remembered feelings. "I guess that explains why you're here. You're a big jumble in the head, aren't you. Hope they find a way to fix you up, you always sound like you're about to say something important and then forget how." He grunts. "You're not the only one I know who's like that though. Maybe that's just how you are." The Council is brought up again, and he grunts. "Careful with the Council. They like to enforce by killing you if you get out of line." He might be exaggerating. OR IS HE?
Arthur Lowell	"I'm OLDSCHOOL, DAWG." Arthur says, giving fingerguns and a wink to Lilian. Riku... gets a weird look, like he's said something that frankly surprises Arthur, getting the boy blinking and kind of astounded, but he doesn't do the silly thing and explain in detail why he reacted that way. He tries to shift over to Roxas. "Oh, caught a hint? So," He snaps, summoning up the Grist Cahce, and taps his chin. "Yeah, I kinda get a familiar feel off it too, but only a system parallels kinda feel. This Lux shit is probably worth looking into. We found a bunch of it in chests, and if Keyblade Knights were using it for something, maybe we can find it too? Whatever big machine or whatever the fuck they put it in." He nods firmly. "So, my thinking is, let's look around for what the Lux gets used for, maybe get all microscope on the stuff, and then we can trail back, see if maybe your memories and past and stuff get jostled a little better, huh? I mean, it's the only real lead you got, isn't it? Might as well." He's diving right into helping out with that. "Hey, Xe, ya said the earlier bits of the book said it was collected. We know any, like... I dunno, hub areas or whatever for keyblade dudes? Maybe we can figure out what this shit goes into."
Lilian Rook	Lilian, finally, only drops her polite ignorance of Terra's existence and indicates paying attention when Xemnas goes over and essentially pokes him. "Oh. A burnout case, huh? Or an exposure one. They're similar. I'm surprised he can handle that much if he's lost the ability to even speak. Who knows what it's like inside that head, though? The first that goes when you sustain that kind of damage is your subjective experience." she says, in a clinical but not totally unsympathetic way --someone whose aunt's sister had Alzheimers talking about the condition. She absorbs the explanation of Light and Dark keywords about as well as can be expected, hands clasped behind her back, then twists her lip in a mildly scrutinizing way, and settles on "A little nonspecific, but there are plenty of things that seem to exist for little other reason than get imbalanced. Hun and Po, Yin and Yang, Karma, the four Humours, four Miasmas, the seven Chakras. The universe having them sounds exactly like what a precursor superculture would develop to the point of being interested in, and exactly like something that'd cause problems later down the line if they did." She concludes. Lilian barely spares an amused huff for the White Council bit, blowing a lock of hair out of her face and then twirling it with a finger. "That's usually how it is. Trying to tell magical traditions how to go about their business without offering them anything compelling in return is the exact same kind of idiot thinking that got Ext- normal people the U.N. No Enlightened practitioner worth shit will work under rules set out by a body that doesn't have the guts to bring them on." After a moment's consideration, she turns and takes a half seat on the edge of a convenient desk-level prop. "I concur with most of Lowell's ambitions. There's no point in just letting this sit and moving on with our lives. Regarding the book though, like I said, I have limited ways to test it. I haven't tried several of them. I'm going to keep hold of it. My family has a . . . history with these kinds of things, so I'd like to try my own methods on it, which necessitate having it with me when I encounter event threads that might be relevant to its loop." she says. "If I can't get anything out of it out of it after trying what I know, you can have it. It's not something that needs locking up in some Sanctum Sanctorum somewhere; more accurately, I doubt we have a reason to hang onto it at home."
Roxas	"We are trying to help him, yes." Xemnas replies to Riku, drawing away from the armored figure, "If it assuages your concerns at all, I do not think that we could stop him from leaving. In spite of the state that he is in he is quite powerful in battle. That keyblade is hollow, but it does not need to function as a keyblade to function as a weapon. I saw him turn it into a cannon, once." Roxas shrugs loosely from his corner, "The Organization found me in Twilight Town, and I guess I was basically acting like a zombie at the time. I don't remember my first week or so at all, and there's nothing before that at all. I mean, I know how to do stuff, and I was pretty okay at fighting even from the start. But it's all feelings, no information. I don't know where I came from, or who my parents are, or..." He shakes his head, "You get the idea. I think I'd be okay with it, now, if... I don't know, if I didn't have these feelings all the time." Xemnas nods towards Riku, "I am quite aware. A few of our number are sourced from those who have damaged themselves with law-breaking magic. Innocent uses of mental magic that were allowed to fester. It is one of the reasons that I have elected not to pursue a continued relationship with them." "It's not that loose for me. It's like..." Roxas looks at the floor, then back up at Arthur, "It's sort of like when you recognize somebody, but it turns out not to be really the person you expected it to be, but you already started talking to them like they WERE that person." "Or... " Xemnas interjects across Roxas to explain, "You are standing in the last bastion of the Keyblade Knights, Mr. Lowell. It was called the Land of Departures, before the Sorceress War finally wiped them all out. We think that the Knights of old had some ties with each of the three towns near Castle Oblivion. Differing geographical loyalties would certainly explain the war, since to our understanding they were otherwise in cooperation... but we all thought the same of the last of the Keyblade Knights, as well." Terra makes another noise, but the noise doesn't resolve into a clear statement. It seems to just be a grunt. In answer to Lilian's complaint that his explanation was a little nonspecific, Zexion explains, "The Light and Dark typically represent specific emotional or philosophical spectrums as-defined by collective humanity. It's speculated that without this influence they would still exist in some form, but exactly what that form might take is unclear since it would require the metaphysics of our world to be completely different. Dark is primal, and selfish. Associations are... hm, things like vampires, which possess an overbearing supernatural urge. Passion, impulsive anger, hate, and despair all typically fall under its heading-- though there is overlap between the two." "The Light is a bit more ambiguous," he admits, "partially because of how frequently it is associated with 'good', despite also being an indifferent and primal force. Purity, stillness, and lingering anger all fall beneath its umbrella. I hope that helps a little more than the bare basics." "If you are interested in pursuing the matter of Lux," Xemnas says, "you are welcome to explore Castle Oblivion, and if you can safely reach it again, Daybreak Town. I will warn you that Castle Oblivion's deeper secrets were locked during the Sorceress War, and we have been unable to penetrate too deeply inside. Unless the key that locked it in the first place is found, it may be lost forever." "I am content with the /copy/ of the book," Xemnas adds, "but I will not refuse it if you decide you do not desire it anymore. I imagine that Zexion would enjoy dissecting the physical copy much more than a PDF. There is just something about paper, you see."
Xion	>Lilian Rook asks Xemnas about 'no really, what's up with Dark and Light'. She can almost FEEL the chat box pop up warning her that 'several cutscenes are about to play in sequence' and that she should 'set aside time to prepare for them'. But this prompt is SHATTERINGLY INTERRUPTED as, from out of the basement door, comes a mighty black women's boot, and following it, the rest of a dark-clothed pantsleg and hem of a coat. "I'm back!" Xion proudly proclaims, hoisting up a large tray of... tall (or perhaps GRANDE) cups of cardboard-sleeved and plastic sippy topped coffees. "Am I late?" Xion looks at the screens displaying PLOT, and everyone sort of standing around in Late-Stage Cutscene Fatigue, and her expression drops. "I'm late, aren't I? I tried to take the fast way, too! I missed all the interesting stuff helping out Demyx... Did something cool happen?"
Lilian Rook	"Hollow?" Lilian asks, pressing on another highlighted word. She holds her fingers up and mock-jiggles an invisible keyring. "Like, without a keycharm? What?" She did in fact have no idea Keyblades turned into cannons, but she doesn't show it. Being too surprised just risks making you look like a rube. Even if Roxas seems bothered by his situation though, Lilian seems expressly unconcerned, affecting a calm, certain, even slightly sisterly air when she talks to him. "Feelings, at least the kind you're describing, are usually thoughts you have somewhere in your head which just haven't risen up to the surface yet. For as smart as people can be, when we turn our searchlights inside our own heads and try to look at what's there, we can only see a very limited area. Those thoughts aren't going anywhere. They'll jiggle and shift around while the rest of your mind is at work in the parts you aren't aware of, and eventually they'll fit together in a way you can look at consciously." "It does." she replies to Zexion, instantly shifting to an officious tone and raising her voice back a decibel. "A lot, actually. If nothing else, these two things represent prime vectors of psychosomatic magical transmission. It already helps contextualize that 'Jenova' thing, and whatever it was doing. Knowing already that the Underground itself is filled with mindset reactive phenomena is- oh hi Xion." Lilian swivels midway through to just kind of elbow wave at the new arrival. "I didn't know you were coming. We were just settling on plans. Lowell wants to collect star mcguffins. I'm going to be experimenting with the book's temporal loop. Riku is Riku. How're you?"
Riku	Riku looks on with disbelief as Xemnas mentions just some of what Terra seems to be capable of even in this state. "A /cannon/? That's ridiculus. I guess a Keyblade can just do basically anything." He shrugs, and on that note looks over at the other Keyblade use in the room. "Which makes me wonder how exactly you can use /two/." He says pointedly. "Oh, don't worry, I know you don't know why either, I'm just commenting." He shakes his head. "Don't give up on your feelings. If you didn't have those, what would you have? You'll sort it out eventually." Then back to Xemnas. "Considering what you have your hands in, they would have broken it themselves, probably, if they have half a chance." Riku does take a moment to cross his arms as Zexion goes over the attributes of Darkness and Light for not very mysterious reasons at all considering almost everyone here has seen him do his thing. "And since you guys obviously know how to travel the Darkness, you won't be able to bypass those locks either." Riku adds. "All you have to do is figure out which key out of the apparently thousands or so fits the lock." The last is said with not a small amount of sarcasm, considering they just had a knock down drag out fight in the Keyblade Graveyard. Xion arrives, and Riku glances over. "You're late. Mostly it's been the geniuses here talking about the book, and Lilian is trying to impress people. Hi." He summarizes. Once more back to Xemnas, however. "Though if you guys are in the business of finding and helping people like that..." He reaches into a pocket... And pulls out a pohotograph. He holds it up and shows it to the Genius Squad. "Have you see her? She's been missing for some time and I have been looking to find her." The picture is, well: https://i.imgur.com/oO3Ak4Y.png
Xion	Xion smiles, a straight line path from pleasantry to pleasedness. "I'm good! I was doing..." Xion starts ticking off on her fingers. "Some more plumbing, papercraft, a litle rewiring, printing out some pamphlets, and..." Xion taps her cheek with her fan of four fingers. "Was that it? I think that was it." If Xion's tasks sound like arbitrary jobs not worth a magical stick weilder, it's because they are, and Demyx is absolutely taking advantage of her. "You talking about the darkness? It's kind of nice, in a weird way. But also, bad for you? I think the best way that I had it explained to me..." Xion raises a finger, doing a faux twirl of a pen or stylus with thumb and index finger. "The darkness is like an eclair. Fatty, sugary, delicious in every way. You crave the taste of it, and in moderation, can give you a rush of energy. But too much, or too often, and you become jittery, hollow, awful-feeling -- or diseased. As for light, it's like going out in the sun. Wonderful, fulfilling, and even a necessary part of a healthy body. But too much, and you won't just get sun-burned: you'll gain other, awful sorts of diseases that take over your life." Xion stops mimicing the artist-girl. "Now I want to go get an eclair on the beach. Dang..." "What's a star mcguffin? Did you get it when you did the whatever wham bam monster punch in Daybreak Town?" Clearly, Xion got... ppppart of the story.
Roxas	Roxas blinks in surprise when Xion turns up. He doesn't seem to have expected her to come here at all. He looks between her and what she's carrying. Did... somebody send her off on an errand during all of this? Why? "Oh." He says, as soon as Demyx is mentioned. Even he can't hide the dismissal in his voice. But what Lilian says to him immediately makes him perk up and smile. "I guess... that makes sense. Thanks." He says, gratefully. Xemnas nods in agreement of That Just Being Ridiculous to Riku, and then turns back to Lilian, "Terra has suffered extreme spiritual damage. Presently, he has no Heart, or if he does it is only little bits and pieces of one. That is to say, he is unable to experience higher emotion. Ordinarily this results in a much different scenario than what he has undergone. If he were even a little less determined or stubborn, I think that he would simply cease to exist." Zexion takes one look at the picture of Namine and nods, "Yes, I know that one. She wanted to get a start in biothaumaturgy. Took to the Emigrean text quite well, actually. Last I saw her she was fine, but she's a bit of a roamer. I just assumed that she was looking for something she's not comfortable talking about. I'd say it's more common than you think, but..." He glances at Terra, and then back to Riku, and shrugs with an apologetic smile that feels a bit forced. "If you'd like to leave a message, I can relay it the next time she comes sniffing for more obscure occult texts." Zexion looks towards Xion, frowning. He asks, "Didn't I ask Demyx to fetch those? There's much better things for you to be doing, Xion." The younger researcher swings back to Lilian while taking a coffee from Xion anyway, "I'm glad that I cleared it up a little." Roxas says to Xion, "Oh-- one kinda neat thing happened. Terra said a word. Well... 'said', he communicated a word." He pauses. "Let's go to Costa del Sol."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur puts a hand to his chin. "Alright, so we got light-towns. We got crystalized light. We're looking at something real familiar here. Kinda explains the shit being static. So we can figure out where this goes if we trace how this shit gets used. If we figure that out, I'm pretty sure we can get a lead on your braincase." He looks to Xemnas, pressing his lips together and sort of compressing his face. "Huh. Diving Castle Oblivion's a big-ass space-knot. Like..." He flicks a hand out, making his own projections of things. An eight-pronged whorl churns and twists in complex geometric shapes. "It's crazy shit, man. I'm the expert on dealing with stuff like this, but bare minimum I'mma need some basic readings first, so let's make sure we dive in fast." He turns to Xion as she gets in. "Aw yeah, gimmie that shit." He snatches a coffee and starts chugging. His ASPECT GAUGE amps up as he does. He clarifies Lilian's statement. "Not looking to /collect/ 'em, exactly. We got some! We gotta /spend/ 'em now. If we figure where they go, what big-ass gashapon fun stuff dispenser they fit in, we get a lead on the empty basketcase here." He clarifies by displaying his LUX CACHE, which contains a good chunk of the Lux collected. "Just gotta know where tab A fits slot B in this whole ikea cosmology."
Roxas	"A certain amount of analysis has already been conducted," Xemnas gestures oddly towards the ceiling and the COPY OF THE BOOK OF PROPHECY changes to a MAP OF A ROGUELIKE HELLSCAPE. Passages explored are marked in silver because real colors offend these people for some reason, "The ground floor is more or less stable and explored. We use it as a base of operations on and off. Xion and Roxas can reliably find their way through the basement. Xion more often than Roxas, but nobody else has a good success rate." "We have several outposts scattered throughout the deeper sections..." He highlights in white a few specified points, "... where we are able to return routinely. THIS..." About 'midway' through the mess, insofar as a midway can be identified -- it probably doesn't actually conform to a midway as Arthur understands the surroundings at all, instead just being an arbitrary waystation -- he identifies a final outpost, "Is our deepest base within the castle. Marluxia and Larxene conduct expeditions from this area, along with the rest of the Castle expeditionary force." "Being entirely truthful," Xemnas admits, "we don't know if this has been a useful exploration so far. But it is what there is to offer."
Lilian Rook	"Damn. I want one too now." Lilian almost whispers after Xion brings up eclairs, drumming her fingers along the inside of her arm for a few seconds before refocusing. "Ah, that's actually really helpful. Thanks." These kids are so upbeat. She can't help but smile a little when they're around. Especially when Roxas is in a good mood. Never mind the ominous robes and traversing 'Corridors of Darkness' at the behest of an organization of wizard outcasts squatting in the underworld with the unlucky number as their title; these kids are great. "Nope, can't say so." Lilian replies to Riku, obviously, because why would she have seen her. It's like she takes a coffeesip just for the sound effect after that. "That's pretty impressive on his part-" she begins gesturing at Terra "-but like scars, that means 'you should have seen what gave him it'. Is it possible to even . . . regrow, one of those?" Then she just makes a nothing hand motion at Arthur. "Sure, that's fine. Tell me when you find it. I'd like to see if this world has some worthwhile investments myself. It's been interesting so far." A look to Xemnas. "Do you expect to find anything like that here in the Castle, or is it just academic curiosity? Or maybe double checking there isn't an angry demon locked in the basement, I guess."
Arthur Lowell	"Yeah, scramble hell usually has something good at the bottom. Or the top. I gotta get a feel for it." Arthur says, shifting back and forth, like his weight's uncertain. "It's hard to say. Might take a couple tries. Fuck, might be at it a while. And there's gonna be some weird shit in it too, if I'm getting the feel of it right. Gimmie a while to sort shit out, kinda figure the feel of your local space, then I can get a good idea of where's best to start." "From there, just gotta figure where this Lux gets spent. Probably gonna need help with the run to it though, only so much gates can do." That's, of course, a kind of an offer to Lilian. And an assertion that he thinks -- maybe /knows/ in his weird, tricksty godlike way -- that this is a valuable thing to pursue.
Roxas	"The Castle was deliberately locked before the end of the Sorceress War, and we know of at least two chambers with presently uncertain special properties that are hidden somewhere within. Consider it a form of magical wonderland archeology mixed with passing convenience of usage." Zexion replies to Lilian. On the subject of Terra, Xemnas says, "With time his spiritual architecture will reinforce itself so that it does not require a Heart. He will most likely never regain what he once had, but the effort of existing will lift."
Riku	Maybe Riku would have gotten catty back at Lilian at her response, but Zexion saves the social escalation since he immediately gives spending more time catting at her a pass in favor of focusing directly on Zexion. "Wait, you /have/ seen her?" He seems actually surprised at this. Then again, how many people has he showed that picture to? He pockets the photo. "She's getting involved in biothaumaturgy? But why would she do..." He pauses, the answer apparently striking him mid-sentence. "Oh. I get it." He glances over at Terra himself, and frowns for a moment, then looks back to Zexion. "Let her know that I'm still going to help her." Whatever that means. After that, he's back to rubbing at his face, trying to deal with all the STUFF that just happened. "Well, that much is true. He's as stubborn as they get." Riku says about Terra. "So either something took his Heart or... damaged it somehow. I guess I'll have to add figuring that out to my to do list. If you get any leads or need someone to collect something, let me know. I'll see if I can check into things on my own after this. You guys all seem to have a lot of stuff to deal with." He grates at the mention of Terra existing without a Heart. "That's not going to be good enough." He says, simply. It's clear he's got his mind set on SOMETHING.
Roxas	"Our thaumaturgical interests intersect," Zexion confirms, nodding at Riku, "and Vexen doesn't accept amateur practitioners, so there's no one else around that she could talk to on that subject." Briefly, he looks disconcerted by something but says, "I'll pass the message along. I might have a return message if you come by again a little ways down the road." There's a certain measure of staring from all comers in response to Riku's last determined statement, but it doesn't last very long. The armored figure raises his head once more, but says nothing, and perhaps CAN say nothing.
Xion	Xion happily serves Zexion with his GRANDE CAPPUCHINO, which fills both aspect gauges and caffination meters to bursting. They're all triples. Organization XIII's science boys and coffee afficianados tend to like their capps strong. It's a work thing. "Scramble dungeon? Sounds great! Castle Oblivion does a lot of scrambling and a lot of dungeon, but it's pretty fine. You've just got to use your noodle." Xion thumbs back at the basement. "Also I was found in the basement, so it's pretty much my backyard. Or... ssssomething." Roxas offers Costa Del Sol, which cuts off Xion's semi-'uhhhhhhhhh' stuttering nonengagement over Riku's interrogatories on Namine. "Oh wow! Beaches and eclair! Yeahhhh, let's do Costa Del Sol! I'll tell Demyx he can fix his own ice cream machine!" Now, while that sounds awful: Remember - The ice cream machine, if improperly maintained, kills people. It's best if Demyx never even touches it. As for Riku, Xion rallies and gives him a positive thumbs-up. "I'm sure you'll find her. She's been chasing her own answers and becoming independently strong! It's kind of inspiring! I'm sure she'll show up when she's ready." Not helping, but BLAME ZEXION. "Anyway, if you guys wanna find the treasure, I'll help whenever!"