When Take had gotten enough away from Gero, he noticed Chrono out of the corner of his eye. He stopped by him and looked at Chrono, "Was that overdramatic?" he asked that flatly, almost detecting the irony in it himself. He looked like he wanted to keep walking further away from Gero though and didn't know how much Chrono would want to talk about. He felt like if Chrono did talk about it, it would be focused more on Take's response. But all the boy could think about was how vague Gero was. He was feeling immediately grateful at this point that he ended up being taught by Atmos versus whoever this guy thought he was.
Mora was glad that this hunch turned out to be worthwhile. She grabbed at her side more and everyone was asking about her being in pain. Mora shook her head, "I'm not... hurting. I feel weaker." Mora held her side tighter and said, "It hurts cause of the spot but... I feel tired. Unnaturally tired." she didn't quite know how to explain it. She stood up a bit, wobbling slightly before saying, "I can lead us back to the cave though... i-if you're ready."
After Gero gave them permission to say goodbye to their masters. Take went to go and walk until Gero suddenly mentioned wanting to speak to Take. The boy was thrown off for a moment, but went in quickly. Getting up the stairs in no time at all to give Atmos a very basic goodbye. Letting her know he was alright considering the last place they'd left. He kind of wished they hadn't run so far. The short run was fine for him, but probably not for anyone else at that point and he hoped they weren't too exhausted. When Take had gotten back from giving Atmos a quick and uneventful goodbye. He finally got to Gero, who had already separated himself from the rest of the group so they could speak privately. When he finally got there, Take just kind of looked at the old man for a long moment before crossing his arms and saying, "Hey." "I am sorry we could not speak sooner but it is good to see that you are doing well, Takehiko." Gero spoke with a small smile. "I'm... glad you're not... dead?" Take wasn't exactly sure how to reply to that. The boy shifted a bit and looked up at Gero, he sighed and let his arms uncross as he asked, "You're the one that gave me the keyblade... aren't you?" "Yes. Yes I am. I knew you would be worthy, child." Take was trying very hard to stay distant. But it didn't really last long. The boy smiled one of his small smiles before saying, meaning it as a joke although it was delivered flatly, "You didn't make a point to see if I would be very long." "I do not need to see rain fall to know that the ground will be wet or a moon rise to know night has come. You were worthy. You just needed to find that out yourself." "I..." Take closed his eyes and gave up on attempting humor at that point and asked, "Why... were you there that day?" "You needed to find a higher calling. You were destined to be more than another soldier on the frontlines, Takehiko." Takehiko stopped for a moment and looked back up at Gero and he didn't realize it, but he started smiling, though it was a sad smile this time, "But I still am another soldier on the frontlines. It's just a different weapon and a different enemy now. That just seems to be the card dealt no matter where you place me." "Are you telling me that is all you have done on this journey? Have you not made bonds so far?" Take was quiet at his response before saying, "I bonded with other soldiers on the battlefield at home. I don't think it changes the endgame here..." he felt himself getting angry, and he didn't know why this was building up again. "Bonds change everything. Perhaps you need more time to explore that." Take tightened his fist and finally the anger bubbled up, "It doesn't change the fact that I'm gonna end up probably dying out there on the field while you and all of your masters sit comfortably here waiting for the point you have to do something. I've played this game before Master Gero and I'm more than willing to just let this be my role if that's all it is but with a different color of paint this time." the boy turned away and said, "I don't need to hear more of your vague lessons. It's not like they're helpful anyway." Takehiko walked away, he paused a minute and looked back, feeling guilt for a moment over snapping like that, before he shook it off and kept walking.
YEAH I KNOW MAN EVERYONE KNOWS IT'S OWEN WILSON THAT LOOKS LIKE THE STATUE OF MONA LISA peasants!
Takehiko had a pretty great time getting that run in. Despite the fact some people by the end were needing a lot more rest. He snacked on something small with the picnic since others seemed to grab at that desperately. The boy enjoyed having the company of everyone around after everything. It felt nice. But when Gero showed up telling them they had a new group leader, Thallasa (who Take was surprised to see was still alive), he just kind of sat there quietly a second to process before sighing and standing up, "Alright. I guess we're moving on then. But would you mind if we gave gave our masters a quick goodbye before we ran off?" Take wasn't even looking at Gero or acknowledging him at this point, "If anything happens I don't want it to be on poor or unresolved terms."
Take scratched the back of his head when Illiana asked what brought about the run, Boreas explained it fairly well but he said to Illiana, "Yeaaah, I guess I might have gotten a little excited and asked everyone else, but most people seem to be interested in this sort of thing." When Qamar asked about leaving a basket somewhere we were meeting up, Take was surprised to see she had packed a picnic lunch. Mainly because he wasn't expecting anyone to put that kind of care into this spur of the moment run (well spur of the moment to everyone but Boreas). "Yeah um, maybe just leaving it here until we get back. It'd still be a picanic outside of the castle. Ya know?" Take didn't need to respond to Glyde's question, but was nonetheless glad he had joined them. When everyone who seemed to be going had arrived, Take clapped his hands together excitedly. Then immediately regretted it as he said, "Cool. I didn't think everyone was gonna wanna do this. This'll be exciting. Well, maybe. Some of you may be lost along the way. I'll carry you to freedom though."
Kaida didn't exactly get enough time to respond to Ananta before she was heading towards the portal and she said, "Wait, Ananta. I'm sorry for overreacting. It... ended up a lot better than I thought. And I took it out on you... I'm sorry." When Ananta had focused towards the portal, Aux started responding to Kaida and turned back over to Aux to listen. She smiled a little bit and was going to reply then and there, but jumped a bit at Hikaru's reaction. She watched the two in a bit of amusement and eventually began to laugh a little saying, "Oh come on. You don't have to be like that." Kaida jumped up and grabbed Aux, pulling him back to throw him off balance a bit just to pull him in for a hug and reached out towards Hikaru and pulled him in as well, "If it's the last chance I get at a hug. I'll take it. So hug it out, fuddy duddy."
Kaida had been so excited over the fact that she was now a master, there wasn't anything that was going to kill her mood at this point. When Aux addressed her, she was still smiling a bit, though less so as she was reminded of the scenario they were in. She looked around for Hikaru for a second before she turned back to Aux, "Yue's probably outside waiting for us. She probably doesn't wanna congratulate me." she was joking mostly. The looked towards the portal back and stared at it a minute before looking back to Aux, "So... our entrance fee is gonna be returned. I... assume that's going to mean you're getting your memory back." Kaida took a deep breath in before asking, "I hope you remember what's happened here, with the mark of mastery... and it doesn't bring you back to what you were with a disregard for us." she turned away and said, "Cause it's not that I don't want to be your friend... it's that I don't think you really want to be mine anymore." she crossed her arms and said, "If you turn on us after we go out there, I won't forgive you. But if you don't... I'm... sorry I've been so cold."
The idea of going for a run definitely hyped up Take a bit. He stretched a little more and said, "That sounds great, actually. I think other people might need that too. So I'm just gonna... run around and find people." he gave Chrono a pat on the shoulder and said, "If you don't wanna go you don't have to or anything." Take began a quick jogging pace as he ran around the castle. Everyone he could find, he greeted and said, "Hey, some of us are going for a quick run. If you would like to join us we're leaving soon." and he continued on towards the next person. Once there, he was jogging in place saying, "Well I'm not sweating yet, that's a good sign. Others said they'd be on the way. I told them not to take too long if they were coming."
I already know I like-whored posts in the rpa. It was like a rep-circle but worse. I don't cringe. I just stare blankly into the void.
Takehiko was struggling to take any meaning from what the two of them were saying. Sure, he knew they wouldn't shun him for feeling emotions, but he was shunning himself for feeling them. It was a constant struggle he had for years before his last training session with them finally worked. And he knew they were trying to offer up assurance that it was okay. The Gero part, he understood that part and took note about it somewhere. But he processed it as them encouraging him to show emotion off the battlefield. He couldn't do that. His homeworld was a constant battlefield, he couldn't allow himself the mindset of a break. They're outsiders. They wouldn't understand. Hearing that thought break through everything else snapped him out of it. If there was anything he didn't want, it was to have that mentality going further into his training and mission with all of them. He finally sighed, and smiled a bit at Chrono, "Thank you." he looked over at Boreass after that and continued, "Both of you. I appreciate it." the boy backed away from Chrono's hand to look over at the mountains again and he crossed his arms and said, "Kind of wish those mountains were closer. I kind of wanna just... run up one right now. Though I'm probably horrendously out of shape to do so." he sighed and looked at Chrono, "Do you remember Atmos' first week of training where for the first three days she just didn't show up at all and I started just running around the castle? I haven't exactly been able to do any running like that since. Atmos made me soft." he shook his fist mouthing 'curses'.
A door A door A door? A door! A door~ A door The door The door? The door?! Get the door! Get the door! GET THE DOOR GET THE DOOR The door must suffer for it's transgressions It allowed entry The door Get the door Get the door It knocks. It knocks. We knock We knock. We knock. Knock knock knock knock knock. Who's there? Who's There? W h o ' s xx t h e r e ? Welcome! Welcome my friend! Well, you might not be my friend. I don't know who you are in this moment. You are meerly a hypothetical. As I imagine the door slowly creak open and watch your nonexistent face peer in. Possibly out of concern. Possibly not. Perhaps this is exactly what you expected. Perhaps you didn't know what to expect. But welcome! I don't exactly have anything planned today. I don't normally get visitors. Well, that's not true. My brother constantly has people over. But no visitors here for me. So I don't plan anything in advance. Or cook. Or anything like that. As far as I am aware you just kind of walked over and into the door without permission. Actually that isn't true either. You may have thought I gave permission. I didn't. I simply welcomed the stranger into my hypothetical since you were otherwise curious enough to keep going. It's fine. It's all fine really. We'll all be fine. Well, maybe not. Some of us might not be fine. It's hard to create strawmen that are accurate, it's why you shouldn't use strawmen for anything other than chasing away crows. And I don't even know if that works. It may. It might be the same reason why they used to leave fake coyotes out on the baseball fields in my hometown to keep birds from eating seeds or staying away from the grass. Grass. Grass. I ate grass when I was a kid. Because someone told me dandelions were edible so I ate grass. My mom said humans can't digest grass properly because we don't have multiple stomachs. Then someone told me that it really messes with your teeth. Well, that might be true. I mean, I have to get my teeth removed. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 I remembered the numbers a little while. One was actually 26. Or was in 28? I don't remember and that causes problems. Not remembering always causes problems. Problems. Problems. So many problems. The world is filled with problems. But I'm bad at math so who knows how well I'll solve them. I can't solve the world's problems. But I think I can solve my train of thought problem now. x x Yep. Yep yep. That worked after all.
This is your third message.
N-No dear. You're MORE than good enough for me. no but seriously this was fun. i'd love to try this again with more people
