RIKU → first dawn || video

[resipiscent]

[There's a long-haired boy on the video, glancing around as he walks. He's checking out the city streets, but his brightly-coloured eyes keep flicking up to the sky -- it's been a while since he's seen a real one.]

Uh, can someone tell me where this is?

[One hand comes up to rub at a black collar on a scarred throat -- the hand is made of some kind of silvery metal, and the scar on his throat is horizontal, like it was slit.]

Not F3 or something stupid like that?

Comments

[charmedbymemories]

[Oh Light. It's like she's seeing ghosts. Naminé's hand goes up to her throat to touch her own black collar, a twin to this Riku's, and suddenly her mouth goes dry. It's her and Kairi's Riku, there's no doubt about that. But it's so soon after all of their other friends have gone. She hasn't had time to recover from the loss...and yet, here he is, like a delivered apology and a prescribed balm for the suffering she and Kairi are going through.

She can't help but laugh a little helplessly at the thought. Hinoto-Ri sure likes to keep its guests on their toes. It's like an emotional roller-coaster, one she can't ever get off of.

(Oh Light, he just missed Sora. He just missed Sora.)]

Riku...welcome to Hinoto-Ri.

[resipiscent]

[Naminé. Another body burned, another person looking back at him through these unnatural glasses. His arms are at his sides now, standing against the wall of a shop waiting for Kairi to find him.]

That's... what this place is?

[He twists the ring around the finger on his left hand quietly, not sure what to say after that. He rubs at his collar again, a small frown on his face.]

... you're alive, too. I'm... really glad, Naminé.

[charmedbymemories]

[Naminé gives him a small smile. She can't say she blames him for being quiet in the face of seeing her again. That's just the way he always was. Observing and calculating the situation before reacting. Judging by his expression, he is either shocked at seeing her again, or thinks its another Facility experiment. Or both.]

Yes, you're safe here. And yes, I am. We're really glad to see you again. We have so much to tell you about this place.

[She laughs faintly.]

Though, Kairi's already on her way to see you, isn't she?

[resipiscent]

[He's just... it's amazing. He never thought... to see her again. The thought that he really might not have hits him like a brick, and for a moment his frown deepens.]

Yeah, she is.

[He isn't sure what to say. On one hand he's so, so glad to see her, but on the other, it feels almost unnatural.]

Naminé, you and Kairi and the others... it's just amazing that you're... alive.

[charmedbymemories]

We thought the same thing.

[She shakes her head, recalling the day she woke up in Hinoto-Ri.]

I don't know how much time has passed for you, but when I arrived here, it was like I'd just gone into a coma and woken up in a new place.

So...I can't even imagine how hard it must have been after I'd gone, and seeing me now. But Kairi and I-- we are real. Please believe us.

[resipiscent]

Yeah.

[He can't help but smile.]

I asked Kairi that, even.

This place... yeah, it was me and Sora left, back then. But I only remember a month or so passing... so I must have gone after you. I don't know what happened to him.

[His mind catches up with his words after a moment -- he doesn't know what happened to Sora.]

... shit, I...

[charmedbymemories]

[Oh Light. She'd been hoping he wouldn't wonder this early on about Sora, but this is Facility's Riku. Her and Kairi's Riku. Of course he would ask about Sora-- more than any other Riku she's known in her time in Hinoto-Ri. She bites her lip, mind racing with half-starts of consolation and explanations. None would ever be appropriate or good enough of an answer for him.]

He-- he was here, not too long ago.

[resipiscent]

... Was he?

[The sensation that washes over his heart is cold. He hadn't realized... that something like this was possible. Sometimes, though... the world has other plans, it seems. He wonders idly whether he did something to inflict karma on himself.]

... how was he?

[charmedbymemories]

You know him. His usual self. He missed you so much though. He tried to get along with the other Rikus here but I think it was too strange for him without you.

[resipiscent]

It would have been. It's strange for me, even just not having him around. Was there more than one me?

[charmedbymemories]

Yes. There was a younger you, right after you left Destiny Island, and an older you, one that knew Master Aqua.

[She looks down at her hands.]

I'm sorry, Riku.