wrfmlogsarchive | Pondering a problem...

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Pondering a problem...

Who: Roxas, Ren and Aria
What: Roxas has a small problem...
Where: Aria's ship
When: Shortly after his rescue from Blackbeard's ship and immediately after this post
Status: Ongoing

The shower felt good. This was not surprising. It usually did feel good to get washed up after going without bathing for a while. That was all that was feeling good at the moment. As he toweled off, he was thinking of a bit of a problem he had. When he'd said "Define permanent" to Aria a few days ago, he hadn't been talking about scars or maiming, though he knew that was what she'd been talking about. The problem was a little more complicated than that and as angry as he was about it, he knew they couldn't go and meddle further than they already had.

When he'd found out there was another movie detailing that pirate insanity of Port Royal, he'd looked up a synopsis. The prophetic games and movies from the Refugees world were one thing to screw around with, but when the world had its own real prophecies, meddling in them was a big NO on so many levels. So, as much as he did actually want to sink the bastard's ship, he let it go. Blackbeard would meet his fate as long as no one meddled on his behalf. Still... what he'd done...

----

The fight with the pirates at the tavern had been one thing. Why they'd opted to pick on a the smallish young man with the strange clothes and stranger weapon was anyone's guess, but they'd paid for their trouble, or so Roxas thought. He certainly wasn't expecting them to have the gall to jump him in his room at the inn, but they'd managed it with enough of an element of surprise that they'd been able to beat him senseless and smuggle him onto their ship.

Blackbeard was intrigued by his strange weapon and equally strange variety of magic. Which was probably the only reason he didn't kill the lad when he had the chance. Instead, he made a voodoo doll and when Roxas had come to and flat out refused to be of any help or use to him, he had demonstrated his own brand of magic, cutting an image of a broken skeleton key into the doll and from that, into Roxas's side. He made it very clear to Roxas that he could make his life miserable or even kill him with that doll and put him to work on the ship.

It was only when making his escape days later that Roxas discovered another problem...

----

Sighing, Roxas settled the towel he'd been drying his hair with on his shoulders and reached out his right hand, calling forth Oblivion. There was no difficulty in summoning the blade. It's weight and balance were right and familiar. But it's power was notably diminished and it looked battered and neglected, dull in both its edges and its luster. Like the Keyblades left lying at the Keyblade Graveyard.

Practically snarling, Roxas angrily dismissed the blade. That was the reason he'd been unable to leave without the doll. Not only was he concerned with what Blackbeard could do to him with it, but he was pretty sure that he needed it to lift whatever the bastard had done to his power. He doubted he could just destroy it, though. The kind of magic involved meant that any harm that befell the doll befell the one whose image it was made in. Also, such things called for something from the person they represented. In this case, it had some of his hair in it.

Grumbling under his breath, he dressed in the clothes Aria had loaned him and headed out to the kitchen/dining room/living room to see about that meal she'd promised him. He knew it was probably obvious that something was wrong, but what could he do about it besides say that he didn't want to talk about it?

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Aria was still cooking when he got out but, there was a bowl of fruit, a pot of tea and some cups on the table. She only looked up for a second.

"This'll be a few minutes. Hope you like citrus soy stir-fry with noodles." She stopped talking to stir up the stuff in the pan for a second. "Have some tea or something."

Honestly, she was still a bit worried about him. And it wasn't just because he'd obviously not eaten properly for a while. She wasn't really sure what it was though.

Ren had been alternating between jotting down random fragments of disjointed dialogue for one of her story ideas and surfing the Internet when she noticed a new video post on the community. She clicked "Play," and her eyebrows immediately shot up when she realized just where the video came from and what was on it.

"Okay, little Onion, I'm really starting to worry about this secret video-making habit of yours," Ren thought dryly. Even though spending time together on Aria's ship had turned privacy and modesty into luxuries, Ren still moved her mouse to close the video. Then she spotted the new scar decorating Roxas' torso and cringed. "Dang, that had to have hurt."

Roxas' footsteps echoed outside her bunk, and Ren panicked and quickly closed out of the window. Instinct told her to respect his personal space and not start prying, which meant staying in her bunk for the next few hours to avoid running into him. Great plan, except for the fact that Ren's stomach chose that moment to start gurgling with hunger. With a sigh, Ren got up and soon joined Roxas and Aria in the tiny little "galley."

"Uh, hey."

As had been suggested, Roxas was helping himself to some of the fruit in the bowl and some tea while waiting for the meal to be finished.

"Hey," he muttered, not even looking her way when Ren entered the kitchen. He had his own things to think of, though among them was the curious phenomenon of the Onion being awfully well behaved at the moment. That usually means mischief, but Roxas just doesn't care at the moment.

When the food was done a couple minutes later Aria dished out three helpings and set them on the table. She didn't sit down to eat right away though. First she went to the cockpit to check the gummi radar for hazards then she went to go grab her computer to check the community for news.

Although if you go by AOL's little 'You've got mail' thingy she decided to check her e-mail first.

"Why is he sending e-mail when he can barely type?" she muttered, frowning at the screen. Her frown shifted to Roxas when she got around to checking the community. She didn't say anything though. Maybe after he finished eating. She didn't want to possibly chase him away from his much needed food.

"Gracias," Ren said distractedly as Aria handed out the stir-fry. She poked at her dish a little before deciding that no one would call her out for poor manners if she didn't wait for Aria to finish checking her email before she started eating.

"Any news?" she asked Aria a few bites later, giving Roxas a wary look out of the corner of her eye.

Aria's decision to wait until after Roxas ate to point out that the Onion had filmed him again (or to ask him about that key shaped scar) was probably a wise one. While he was concerned about something, it wasn't bad enough to deter him from the much needed meal. In fact, one wouldn't know from the way he dug into the stir-fry that he was even worried about anything at all.

He chuckled softly around a mouthful of noodles when he heard Aria whining about Seph sending her E-mail at the moment. Experience had taught him that he was better off not bothering when in a form lacking thumbs, though the car thing and having his computer automatically voice post for him had been... odd. In any case, he contented himself with the food for the moment.

Aria thought it was a bit too quiet. Still too soon to talk about the video though.

"I wonder if what we end up on some worlds is supposed to mean something," she said randomly. Well... maybe not so randomly. She kinda hoped Seph being a squirrel didn't mean anything. She'd seen those critters portrayed as crazy enough times to not like the implications.

Ren slurped up a noodle as she considered Aria's question. "Probably some deeply personal and symbolic representation of our heart and soul." She paused for a moment. "And I will be good and not say that it means Roxas was a VW Beetle in Radiator Springs because he's such a teeny little shrimpling or anything like that," she added cheerfully.

That remark had Roxas almost choking on a mouthful of noodles.

"Wh-what?!" He calmed down quickly, though, recalling her recent situation, "Well, what does that say about you ending up as a rabbit, then?"

"I really hope it doesn't mean anything. Seph has tentacles in Atlantica." Aria was kinda avoiding the subject of the crazy squirrel stereotype. She didn't like to think that Seph was just really good at hiding insanity. Thinking he may be a pervert is much easier to deal with.

Ren sputtered at Roxas' retort, instantly thinking of the popular conception of rabbits and their mating habits. "It means I'm fluffy and adorable," she gritted out with a forced smile before wincing at Aria's comment.

"It... could be worse," she said, trying to be supportive. "He could be a jellyfish or something over there. Tentacles AND stinging venom. I mean, if you're into that sort of thing, then okay, otherwise, probably best to run for the hills..."

"Okay then..." Roxas finished up his meal, amused at his own fortitude in still having an appetite despite the mildly squicky topic of conversation. Then again, as long as the conversation didn't get around to that which he did not want to discuss, he was fine. His plan was to maybe see Merlin or Master Yen Sid as soon as was possible. Preferably Yen Sid, seeing as he was a Keyblade Master and might better understand just what this spell had done to Roxas's Keyblade.

He was hoping to get the issue resolved without anyone but whichever wizard he went to finding out. Given that he did need some rest, that seemed like it might justify staying on Aria's ship until they got to wherever he chose to get off.

Aria sighed. There really was no good way to bring up the video. Right to the point it was.

"Your onion friend should be a spy," she muttered, turning her computer so that he could see the screen. It was paused near the beginning but, Roxas should be able to figure out what was going on. She kinda wanted to tell him to give her a good reason not to go back and sink the ship but, wasn't really going to go there.

Ren sucked in a quiet breath and fiddled awkwardly with her fork. She didn't say anything, not knowing if there was anything to say that could possibly make things any less awkward right now. This was really going to suck...

Ordinarily, knowing that Shrek had filmed him again would just have Roxas rolling his eyes and lecturing the little Mandragora again as to how inappropriate it was. Ordinarily, he wasn't trying to hide that he'd been mildly brutalized and had a new scar or two to show for it. Granted, he hadn't intended to keep it a secret forever. Only until he'd straightened out the other problem attached to it.

Clearly, the universe thought that was too much for him to ask for as he knew immediately what he was looking at in the video. It was just a little while ago the frame the video was paused on gave a very clear view of the key shaped scar in his side.

Whether or not Roxas could salvage the situation and keep the extent of his problem from being revealed depended on how far the video went...

Roxas clearly didn't want to talk about it. Whatever his reasons Aria believed any attempt at prying it out of him would only bother him. With a sigh she closed her laptop.

"Much as I want to know what exactly happened to you, it's not really my business." She was really tempted to go sink a ship. "You should get some sleep. It'll be a while 'til we get to the next world." Because she wasn't sure whether anyone had ever tried to go from gummi ship right to keyblade glider and didn't really want to find out the hard way whether it was dangerous to do so.

"But if you do want to talk about it..." Ren added hesitatingly, "we're willing to listen." Granted, she probably shouldn't have just automatically lumped Aria in with her like that, but it was a gesture of united camaraderie she was going for here.

Right now, she was fighting the urge to just get up and give Roxas a great big hug, whether he wanted it or not.

Well this was sticking him between a rock and a hard place. He really didn't want to talk about this. But, by the same token, there was the smallish problem of the fact that with his Keyblade screwed up, his power was diminished somewhat. On top of that, he couldn't use the glider, so he would need a lift to Yen Sid's tower.

His original plan had been to say that he was uncertain of navigating the Lanes safely after that bruhaha and being exhausted banged up and to ask for a ride that way. He wasn't sure that would still work, though. They already knew he'd been nailed with some voodoo magic. That the mark on him was in the shape of a key might be telling enough that if they thought about it hard enough, they might figure out what had happened. Maybe.

It didn't changed the fact that he didn't want to discuss it. He supposed he could try for his original plan...

"I really don't want to talk about it," he grumbled, "Just... can you drop me as Master Yen Sid's tower? I'm not so sure about the lanes after that bullshit."

Aria wasn't sure she wanted to know why he wanted to see Yen Sid but, she had some ideas anyway. What he'd had to get before leaving was likely a voodoo doll. She wasn't going to drag confirmation out of him though.

"Alright." She looked like she was pondering something as she said it. "I think I'll see if the warp gummi will decide to work. It'll take a few days otherwise." And that was only if they traveled constantly. So trying the warp gummi seemed a good idea at the moment.

"There's a little washer drier thing in the storage area over there," she said, changing the subject. "You can toss your dirty clothes in there before you get some sleep. Unless of course you want one of us to wash them." That last sentence was a bit teasing. She was sure he'd much rather do it himself.

Ren couldn't remember whether or not Jack had gotten a broken key carved into his doll in the movie, so Roxas was somewhat safe on that front. She was still planning on hugging him given half a chance, though.

"Anything I can do to help?" Ren quickly asked Aria, not wanting to let an awkward silence descend upon them. Of course, there probably wasn't much she really could do to help check on the warp gummi, so chances were good that she had only managed to stave it off for a few seconds.

Roxas ran a hand through that golden mess he called his hair and thought for a moment. No, he wasn't going to ask one of them to do his laundry for him. With the reason given to excuse himself, he did so. He really did need some clothes washed, considering that he only had the outfit he'd been wearing when the world shift had occurred. On top of that, given his severe lack of knowledge of gummi ships, he couldn't exactly help with checking on the warp gummi.

There was also the matter of the Onion. Its tendency to get video of him and post it to the network was really starting to piss him off and it knew this. Admittedly, one of the times it had done so had actually been helpful, since he'd been seriously ill at the time. But since then, it preferred to do this when it was most inconvenient for him.

However, the Onion was nowhere to be seen when he collected his dirty clothes to bring them to the washer, nor when he returned to the room Aria had offered him for the trip. Grumbling, he flopped on the bed and debated between just going to sleep or checking on his messages quick. It wasn't much of a debate. He needed to see how far that video had gone. If it showed him calling his Keyblade to inspect it, then his attempt to keep the problem a secret had been a waste. If not, then he could say he was just visiting Yed Sid to find out what he could do about the voodoo doll. It wasn't a complete lie. It just wasn't the sole reason he was going.

"Tch." No, he hadn't needed to see the comment from Seph. Not really. Okay, that the man was a squirrel wherever he'd ended up was amusing, but Roxas wasn't going to taunt him about it. In any case, he was relieved to see that the video had cut off before he'd even considered inspecting his Keyblade.

"Nah, we're not in that much of a hurry." Aria was debating whether to wait a while to try the warp. If it worked properly Roxas may decide to leave right away instead of sleeping and she didn't really want him to do that.

As Roxas went about getting his laundry into the washer she started to clean up the dishes. A glance at Pancake told her that the critter wasn't in a mischief mood so, she didn't need watching right now. The critter was likely to just try to curl up with Roxas if he'd let her. It wasn't uncommon for the bunny to be cuddly to someone that was feeling down.

Ren anxiously bit her lip before getting up and heading back to her bunk. Since she couldn't really do anything here, maybe it would be best if she just tried to get back to her writing and try to pass the time. Maybe she'd take a nap, too.

Hopefully, things would be better by the time they reached their destination.

Roxas didn't do much on the computer besides check messages briefly and see how far that video went. It was relief that the video didn't go as far as showing him inspecting the Keyblade, though he was still irked that the video was even there to begin with.

He wasn't surprised when Seph turned down his offer of a pet. Amused, he shot back one more reply before putting the computer away and sprawling out on the bed. If he was lucky, that warp gummi was working and he'd be at Yen Sid's tower and working on figuring out what the hell that pirate had done to him.

Come to think of it... he had checked his Keyblade. But what about his armor? He only debated a moment before deciding that he was better off waiting until he got to the tower. Besides which, it was probably safe to assume that it was in the same condition as his Keyblade and he wasn't doing himself any favors on the sleep front thinking of it now.

Grumbling under his breath, he shifted to lie on his side, wincing slightly as he did. It was bad enough they knew he'd been hurt. It was bad enough they'd seen the broken key-shaped scar. They didn't need to know the wound actually still hurt, which was of course why he was not lying on that side.

As he dozed, he halfway expected that he might find a ton of messages from Sora in his inbox as soon as the knucklehead saw that video...

Aria wasn't just going to fire up the warp and hope for the best. She checked over everything that she could from the inside of the ship. The check took about an hour but, everything seemed to be in order.

She debated whether to wake the others. There was a chance there's be a good jolt if it didn't work quite right.

Fifty fifty chance I wake them for nothing. May as well just give it a shot.

With that thought she put in the coordinates and turned on the warp...

Ren had managed to drift to sleep about half an hour ago. She rarely catnapped--once she was out, she was out, and it usually took a great deal of pestering to properly wake her up. A sudden and intense jolt brought on by a glitchy warp gummi would work just as well, though.

Ren tumbled out of bed with a startled yelp and bit back a few curses as she banged her funny bone upon landing. "What was that?!"

Roxas was just dozing before also being jolted from his bed, only to find two things: 1) he wound up landing on his sore side and, 2) the Onion. It was under the bed. For the moment, it was also off the hook, as there was a bigger concern at the moment. Roxas got up and headed for the cockpit.

"What the hell just happened?"

Aria was checking the gummi map by the time he got there.

"Warp wasn't smooth as it should have been and we overshot Twilight Town." She was paying more attention to the instruments. "We're about... eight or nine hours away." She made sure there weren't Heartless ships in the immediate area and switched to auto pilot.

"You okay?" The jolt wasn't that bad but, she felt the need to ask anyway.

Ren staggered into the cockpit, cradling her elbow and looking more than a little frazzled.

"Please tell me we're not fighting more pirates," she said as she stood on tiptoe to get a better view of the ship's scanners. "Or did someone go and break the universe again?"

Of all the... Well, at least they hadn't had something worse happen. Like crash landing on an out of the way world. That would have sucked. And it would have made it a lot harder to keep his problem a secret.

"I think we'd know if someone broke the universe again," Roxas said dryly in response to Ren's question.

"Well, I don't plan on doing anything like that again. At least not on this trip," Aria muttered tiredly.

"May as well go back to sleep. Not much else to do right now."

Ren shot Roxas a pointed look before turning back toward Aria.

"We're not going to get hit by any more turbulence on the way, are we?" she asked wearily. "Just want to make sure whether or not I need to put on my seat belt before I go back to sleep."

If Roxas noticed the pointed look, he gave no indication. Frankly, the suggestion to go back to sleep sounded like a good one.

"Let me know when we get there," he muttered, hoping he wouldn't be waking to news of getting stuck on a different world.

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Pondering a problem...

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