the_isle | The Best To Come Ain't Happened Yet

Once again the cart with the TV had been wheeled out. There was less in the way of rotten vegetation on hand that here had been for the King's speech - because most of it had been eaten - but not none. The teachers had let the students know that there would be something to watch, but not what. Just when. Attendance was in no way mandatory.

The teachers all showed up however, and the tension was heavy in the air as the broadcast started.

At one point, Lady Tremaine could be heard to mutter under her breath "One last chance to prove who you really are."

But then the feed cut. Whatever the new Queen had meant to say or do was not for the likes of those on the Isle.

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Her head shot up. "You... You know another replica?!" she asked, startled. Her eyes were wide under her hood. Someone else created to be a Nobody, built for a function...out of someone else's memories?! "Did... did she have to die too?" she asked in a whisper.

"Ahh...well, I don't know if I'd call her a replica...at the very least, the way FF talks about the time she was still following the one who made her, she barely remembers any of it at all. It all just...blurred together, because she wasn't meant to feel or experience it. She..."

...that question...

What was only a little water in his eyes becomes a full fledged tear, and he looks up in shock- before turning his head down and clutching at his knees.

"...she shouldn't have...s...she shouldn't...she could have lived...we wanted her to live, but she gave up everything she had to save someone else instead, I..!"

She didn't 'Have' to.

But she did.

"She... was just like me..." she whispered looking down at her gloves. She wasn't sure what to do with that.

A hesitation and then "What.... what did others see... when they saw her?"

A sniffle. "...Technically, she took the face of someone else...but...honestly? ...we never knew that person. We never knew who that face belonged to. To us...the face she had was hers. She was 'FF'. 'Foo Fighters'."

She hunched in more. "Like... how almost no one... could see me..." she whispered. A tear rolled down her face.

Emporio is silent. What else can be said from there, or perhaps a better question, what should be said?

"...if you could be called anything... ...what name would you give yourself..?"

She gave him a very confused look from under her hood. "I... I'm Xion..." she said, not understanding the question.

"Xion..." Emporio nods. "...I never got your name before- you seemed too nervous and...I didn't really want to press. It's a neat name."

She shrugged a little, looking at her gloves. It was just a name. One that marked her as a Nobody. Like her two best friends. It was that X.

But when she had arrived in Diatu, she hadn't used her name. Not at first. Just her number. XIV. Because always that X. Always.

As someone who can read body language...well.

"...you know... ...the name I have now, I made it up actually."

He's going somewhere with this, he promises. "...Do you like that name? ...Xion?"

She shrugged a little. "It is who I am..." Changing her name... changing anything...

Xion was Axel and Roxas' friend. If she wasn't Xion any more... She couldn't bear to not be friends with them any more. Even the thought of it hurt somewhere in her chest. Like something being squeezed or torn.

"Got it. ....in that case...if it's a name you like- it's nice to meet you properly, Xion. ...I... ...if...if you want..."

He chews his lip.

"...I've never...asked someone if I can be their friend, before. ....all I ever knew were a few people...and we all had to fight the same thing, so...it just happened, at one point. ...but I don't think... ....that kind of thing probably doesn't normally happen that way. S...so...if you want..."

She looked at him, so confused. "You... know Axel?" Or Roxas maybe? After all, the only people who wanted to be her friend were people who were friends with her friends, right? That was how friendship worked, right?

Well except Webby, but Webby just made no sense to her at all. So she didn't think about her. Much.

Edited Date: 2023-02-15 02:19 am (UTC)

The boy shakes his head.

"...Aside from the others stuck with us... ...I don't know anyone, anymore. ...Everyone at home... ...t...they're gone. But...I think, if you want, I'd like to know you more at least."

"....Why....?" she asked, so confused.

Emporio blinks. "...Why not?" he asks, honest. "...Is a reason needed? ...beyond feeling some connection, talking like this... ...I think, that's more than enough to try being friends."

She was so confused. "Feeling.... connection? But... we don't have a connection, do we?" He hadn't gotten hurt when she had, had he? And she hadn't gotten any weird memories from him. And she couldn't use her magic here, so she didn't think she'd drain him... Now she was concerned.

"I think so. It's not a physical thing- or...even a magic thing, if that's what you're worried about," he laughs quietly. "Magic doesn't even work here...it's just.... ...We were able to talk about things that we both understand together. That's a connection, the kind that friendships come from, I'm pretty sure."

But honestly it's the blind leading the blind here, he's doing his best.

"I.... don't understand. Maybe we should ask Axel? He understands friend things." He knows everything, after all. He's Axel.

"We could..." Though-

"...Even with that though, if you're alright with it, I'd like to call you my friend still. ...I probably need one, honestly," he adds with a somewhat pained smile.

"You.... need.... me?" she asked, so confused.

Well, maybe not her specifically. But it occurs to him, if he says that...she might just refuse for that reason. So instead-

"...I think so, yeah. ...I think, there's ways we can both help each other, here."

"H...how? I... I can't summon my Keyblade..." she said softly, looking at her gloves again. "Or my magic. So I'm useless." Just a broken mirror.

"I can't do anything either..." he points out with a small smile. "...By that logic...I'm just as useless too. ...Maybe more, honestly. ...At home... ...All I could really do was offer shelter in a hidden room, that no one else could find. ...Now, I couldn't look for places like that if I tried."

...well.

"W...well, there's the hideaway Conan and I made, but that doesn't really count... ...Either way, being friends isn't about how useful someone is. That much, I definitely know."