Everything went over Xara's head up to this point. There was too much dialogue and things to take in, and she was starting to get a headache from it all. So she was entirely grateful when the group with the keyblades was finally whisked away from the location and sent to another. There was no swirling mist here. And there was what it looked like- "SUN! I SEE THE SUN!" Xaras exclaimed happily as she extended her arms out with a grin on her face. "Are we in the city?! YESSSS!!! It's been SO FREAKING LONG!" Xara was near tears as she began to laugh, and then reality hit her all the sudden. This was still somewhere in the realm of Darkness, so this was an illusion or some weird deminsion. They weren't out of the woods yet. They had to do some sort of test with slim chances of survival with a partner. Remembering she wasn't alone, she lowered her arms and cleared her throat. "Ahem, s-sorry. This is, wow, this is just great." She grinned from ear to ear, looking at all the tall buildings and strange moving pictures on them. "All I saw for however long I was in there was swirling darkness and white sand rock. I'm a little crazy... crazy excited!" Xara clapped her hands together in giddy while doing a dance in place, then added a twirl to it while giggling. She couldn't wait to get started on this Reaper Game. Her brain craved for the excitement and stimulation up in the fake sunlight and cloudless day.
Zoey blushed furiously when Dana said Zoey was the best meister in the school. "No, not really," she argued quietly. She then heard the question and looked toward Zephyr and nodded. "Yeah, staff was the first thing I trained with. Wouldn't want to give a blind girl a knife to practice with first, would ya?" She chuckled at her own joke and took another bite of ice cream. "But Dana is a combination of a staff and a knife. Quaterdtaff. What about you and the Katana?" "Yeah, let's try to go the other way," Mikio spoke up, somewhat relieved that they didn't run into anything yet.
Finally! It was starting to make sense now. She smiled in gratitude to the Dreamer for making things more clear and mouthed a silent 'Thank you' as more explanations were being laid out. When she heard Yue speak about the trials, Xara perked up and listened intently. The girl still had doubts about herself and how capable she was with the keyblade versed everyone else standing around, but if this trial was the only way out and was guarenteed to make her stronger... yeah, she didn't want to stay in the realm of darkness anymore. She was done with it. Two already spoke up and gave moving speeches. Xara's hand shot up and she waved enthusiastically. "Me three! I mean, aha, count me in for the Master Exams." She heard a blond boy speak up and glanced over at him. He was hesitant too about the whole thing. Xara scooted over to AJ and gave him a friendly smile. "Join us! We're all gonna be here together, and we get partners! I think..." The tween then nudged him in the shoulder. "Hey, if someone like me who got stuck in the Relam of Darkness for like most of the story qualifies to take the Mastery Exam, then I bet you're qualified too." Xara glanced over at the other group who was comforting the girl who was stuck in the bubble. She heard bits and pieces of the conversation, enough to understand they all kinda had options. "Or if you want, I think they're trying to set up a search party over there to find people in this icky place.... either way, you're needed in one group or the other."
Xara stood with her mouth agape when Aisleen spouted something off about being heroes. Confusion settled on the purple haired's eyebrows. "Wait, what...?" And then Kaida stepped in, seeming to put the other in her place super quick. Lots of blinking was happening today, yet Xara blinked a few times, trying to soak it all in. She raised her hand hesitantly, feeling more apprehensive being with this group than ever before. Maybe she was in the wrong crowd. "Um... I just had a question?" She piped up. She then lowered her hand and started fiddling with her fingers while mumbling under her breath, "Itwasagoodquestion. Noyelling. Wheredidthayevencomefrom? AmIevenintherightgroup? Geesthisisgettingalittleawkwardandweird."
Xara was utterly dumbfounded as so much dialogue was happening. Most of it went over her head, but the tween tried to take in as much as possible. It seemed like they had beef with this Yue chick, but the Lea guy seemed to keep the peace between everyone. One question was eating her though, and she had to say it. She knew this wasn't about her, but she had to know. Everyone had been through so much. And her? "E-Excuse me," she started with a quiet voice, raising her hand. "I kinda got placed in the Relam of Darkness for the majority of the events..." She swallowed, feeling uncomfortable to speak to the Dreamer as well as Yue-chick. Yue seemed unforgiving and super annoyed with everything and everyone. Xara sighed and decided to spit it out. "So, am I still qualified for this Mark of Mastery exam even though I don't have the experience like everyone else?" She kicked the ground below her while placing her hands behind her back. "Is this Reaper's Game the only way out of this place?"
Xara blinked when the whole freaking castle disappeared after the witch was defeated. "Whoa..." She saw the girl in the orb be released and seemed to be fine... ish? And then this Dreamer guy asked a very important question with yet and obvious answer. "Uh...." Xara waved around her where the castle was. "I guess the screaming with a whole fortress disappearing and a weird light show happening means that this witch has been defeated... at least I believe so." Xara scratched her head as she still held her keyblade in one hand. "Does this kind of stuff happen all the time? Wait, and what do you mean by "absence"? How long were we gone?"
Zoey smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "It's okay, although we hadn't hanged out at school much." She felt someone's eyes looking at her blindfold, even though it was brief, and felt a twinge bit uncomfortable. It was odd, but she had a know-how of when people looked at her. Instead of dwelling on it, she took another bite of ice cream with the spoon that was now detached from her nose. "We just got back from a second mission... it didn't go so great, so we're getting ice cream before we go looking again." Zoey gave Dana a reassuring nudge, and raised her empty spoon up, pointing to the boys. "How about you guys? How are things going for you?"
Xara helps with go get em
Xara attacks again cause sos chat told her to!
Xara just attacks cause this is getting very mundane!
Zoey smiled when she heard her partner laugh. There she was; the Dana she knew and admired. The girl bowed goofily, careful to keep her spoon stuck on her nose. "Mm, the pleasure is all mine, madam," she stated in a thick, rather silly accent. "Ooo! Is that sterling silver? My, my! Such expensive taste." The meister snickered and then carefully reached up and touched Dana's cheek. She let her hand carefully ghost over her partner's face, avoiding the nose where the spoon was. After a few, quiet moments, Zoey smiled a bit. "Mm, nope. Not worthless at all... I'm very pleased to have you as my weapon." The moment was interrupted by a new voice Zoey had never heard before. She took her hand from her partner's face and smiled sheepishly at the newcomer. "H-hi!" Zoey greeted with a cheerful smile. She felt the spoon loosen on her nose and quickly caught it before it fell. "Oops... um, hi again. I'm Zoey! Nice to meet you." Mikio smiled to himself with Matthew's enthusiasm. He admired it, yet he was a little bit nervous with coming face to face with the thieves. They only trained for a bit, not for long. He hoped his partner was ready for what was ahead.
Xara is finally able to do something and frees Steel!
"What, you don't believe me?" Zoey asked with a raised eyebrow towards Dana's comment about her not being worthless to Zoey. "Course not, silly. I'm just glad you've been putting up with me the way you have." The meister smiled when her partner mentioned about having to do more work. "That's why we're getting ice cream before we head to the mission's board again," Zoey said with a smile. "All work and no play makes meister and weapon a dull pair... Speaking of which." The girl turned away from her partner for a moment, snickering as she tried to adjust something on her face. "How do you like my new nose job?" She asked, turning her head to face Dana. The ice cream spoon was sticking to her nose with the handle dangling downward. She raised her eyebrows twice with a smirk on her face. "Eh? Eh? Do you think I should get a spoon for my nose? Might go with the blindfolds, you know." Mikio sighed out in relief when nothing seemed to have happened. But it sure stank in the room... yup, the lions were surely dead. A fork in the road, again. "Keep going left," Mikio suggested.
Xara Joins in the go get em shenanigans again
Xara Joins in the go get em shenanigans
Zoey only took a couple bites of ice cream before her partner started to talk. She listened and grew solemn as the conversation continued. When Dana was done, Zoey held her uneaten ice cream in her lap and stared out into space. "A sword wouldn't work for me," she said quietly. "Staffs help me feel the vibrations from the floor to my hand." She dropped her head down and stirred her melting ice cream in her cup absently. "You helped me with the Pharoh mission. When I got attacked because I wasn't paying attention, you helped me get my focus back." Zoey stopped mixing her ice cream and glanced toward Dana. "That last mission just wasn't a good match for us. It shows us what we need to work on." She smiled a bit and shrugged. "Who knows, we might get another chance at it again." Zoey took a bite of her ice cream, letting the butterscotch mixed with vanilla melt in her mouth a moment. "I'm glad you're with me, and that you're my partner."
It was a day after the mission went kabluy, to put it lightly. Zoey was feeling down in the dumps, and she could only imagine how Dana had felt. She wasn't herself after they left the mission, and it worried the girl. So, instead of feeling sorry for herself and moping around her apartment all day, she dragged herself out of her place and made Dana come with her to try ice cream again. Zoey even put on double layered blindfolds just in case so another day wouldn't be ruined. She came back to the bench where she left Dana with two cups with ice cream in them and handed one to her partner. "Ice cream as promised," she said with a slight smile. "Hot fudge and sprinkles on it, just like you said you like it."
Zoey had watched the whooooole scene unfold before her in horror. One minute, Dana seemed to be doing fine talking to the guy. Next minute, she was being booted out of the door by security. She slapped her forehead, muttering to herself as she felt her face flush in embarrassment. "On second thought, I think we're going to pull out," she said quietly to Blake. She smiled apologetically and bowed to the demon weapon. "I-I am so sorry for our intrusion. We might have made things more difficult for you in the long run... But I wish you and your partner success. If we could make it up to you in the future, we will. Now if you excuse me, I must go make a call... You two got this." The meister found herself in the shadows of the room, pulling out a hand mirror from a pocket in her dress. She put in the number for Lord Death and shakily held the mirror. She hated to do this, but there was no way to recover from what happened. They were too suspicious at this point, at least Dana was... But there was no way Zoey could pull it off all by herself at this point. She saw Lord Death and swallowed nervously. "H-hi, Lord Death? Yeah... I think we need to pull out this one... We're way over our heads." ~~ It took a moment or two, but Zoey finally found Dana coming out of the serving area. She felt her stomach drop to her feet. She didn't want to be the one to break the bad news, but... It had to be done. "Hey Dana," she said quietly. "I made a call... We're going to leave... I'll explain later. You go out the back, and I'll meet you there." With that, Zoey hung her head and walked out the front door, leaving the other team to deal with the masquerade mission on their own. Man, she felt like such a failure and a lousy partner... Mikio cringed in his weapon form when Matthew boldly opened the door without much thought. "Wait-" but it was too late. He stayed strong, listening intently in the room for anything out of the ordinary. Lions that hadn't eaten for three years seemed like the perfect answer, but he was worried it could be a trap. Hopefully it was the safest way to go in the long run.
Xara Uses Hunter Mist Limit!
Xara frees Hikaru!
