Asch the Bloody (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bloodyashes) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
starwardbestrewn2020-08-08 12:46 am
bloodyashes) wrote in starwardbestrewn2020-08-08 12:46 am
meanwhile in arcadia
"I'm telling you, there's something weird about the new kid."
In another lifetime, you would have dismissed this as another one of Eli Pepperjack's conspiracy theories.
The thing is that that was another lifetime, and in that one, Eli had an annoying tendency to be right. It was another lifetime, unless it's a collective delusion that affects most of your close friends and also Steve Palchuk, which would still qualify as enough "weird shit happens in Arcadia" that you'd be inclined to believe there's at least some merit to Eli's theories.
(The thing is that it's just memories. There's no amulet, no Blinky and Aaarrrgghh, no Douxie, no aliens, no Strickler. There's nothing setting Arcadia apart from any number of other towns, no matter how many times you bang on the wall under the bridge.)
The thing is that amulet or no, you're still the Trollhunter, the last Trollhunter, and it's still your job to protect Arcadia.
That means that the least you can do is hear Eli out when he catches your attention after school. Toby's at the dentist again, and Claire's gone home early to take care of Enrique (who is just Enrique, and you can't tell if you're disappointed or relieved), so it's just you and the Creepslayerz.
And Steve is well, being Steve and distracting Ms. Junius, the woman who fills the space of history teacher that Strickler used to hold, so that you and Eli can talk uninterrupted. You're never sure if that's intentional or not, with these two, but it works to your advantage.
"Weirder than his name?" you reply, pulling a textbook out of your locker and shoving it in your backpack.
You think it's a fair question. "Roxas" is a pretty weird name. All the weirder because the one time you saw Mr. Uhl's attendance sheet, it was hand-written in next to something scribbled out in black ink.
(But you're not about to judge someone on just their name, considering. Aaarrrgghh would be disappointed in you.)
Eli nods so enthusiastically he practically bounces up and down. "So Steve and I were out on patrol the other night," he starts, "because you can never be too sure when it comes to creepslaying - "
You nod and mmhmm, because it seems like an appropriate time to do so, to keep Eli going.
" - And we saw him! He was wearing that block hoodie with its hood up, you know the one, right?"
"Right," you say, because you do know the one. It's like a normal zip-up hoodie, except it goes all the way to Roxas' knees and the sleeves are almost long enough to cover his hands. It's the number one Weird Item in the guy's wardrobe, which is otherwise pretty normal, if a little fixated on black-and-white checkerboard accessories.
"Yeah, so he's got the hood up but it's obviously him, and this was on Saturday so it's not like it was raining or anything, and we see him heading off towards the Tarron Woods." The "Tarron Woods" is what your group calls the chunk of forest that was home to an alien spaceship converted to a house, in the other lifetime. (Other timeline? You're never sure, and wish not for the last time that Douxie was around to ask.) "So we followed him. And he goes way out there in the woods, and then he picks up this stick and starts just - "
Here, a series of gestures and sound effects that definitely conveys an Eli-flavored impression of some kind of fighting. Maybe with a sword, from the way he uses his pencil in his flailing.
"And then, ka-pow! And he swings like this - " Definitely a pencil-sword, from the way Eli holds it in both hands, bringing it down in an overhead strike on some invisible target. " - against a tree, and the stick shatters into a million pieces!"
"Really?" you drawl, raising your eyebrows. So far it doesn't sound that worrisome - weird, yes, but Arcadia's full of weird people and some guy playing at swords in the woods isn't important.
"I'm not done yet!" Eli protests. "Because after he broke the stick into - okay, don't look at me like that, it was more like three or four pieces - anyway, after that, he looked at the stick with that same kind of face he makes in geometry, and he said..."
A dramatic pause, Eli sucking in a breath and then putting on an imitation of Roxas' face and voice, which wouldn't be recognizable as Roxas if you didn't already know who it was supposed to me.
"It's no use. What's the point if I don't have a Keyblade?"
And then Eli exhales and finishes, "And then we left because Steve had to get me home before curfew, but he was still there looking sad at his hand when we left."
And... Okay, it's got more meat to it than Eli's usual conspiracies, you'll give it that. "Keyblade..." you repeat thoughtfully. "Sounds like some kind of... magic thing."
"Yeah, that's what I thought too!" Eli says. "Well, not magic, but it definitely sounds weird. Like, a sword that unlocks some secret vault, or - "
"I'll talk to Claire about it," you say quickly, cutting Eli off before his imagination can run wild. "Without Douxie or the trolls, she's the only one who really knows anything about magic. If there's something weird going on, we'll find out."
Eli nods, apparently finding this acceptable, and gives you a Creepslayerz salute before sprinting away from you at top speed.
You sigh and slump against the bank of lockers, rubbing the side of your neck. A Trollhunter's work is never done.
In another lifetime, you would have dismissed this as another one of Eli Pepperjack's conspiracy theories.
The thing is that that was another lifetime, and in that one, Eli had an annoying tendency to be right. It was another lifetime, unless it's a collective delusion that affects most of your close friends and also Steve Palchuk, which would still qualify as enough "weird shit happens in Arcadia" that you'd be inclined to believe there's at least some merit to Eli's theories.
(The thing is that it's just memories. There's no amulet, no Blinky and Aaarrrgghh, no Douxie, no aliens, no Strickler. There's nothing setting Arcadia apart from any number of other towns, no matter how many times you bang on the wall under the bridge.)
The thing is that amulet or no, you're still the Trollhunter, the last Trollhunter, and it's still your job to protect Arcadia.
That means that the least you can do is hear Eli out when he catches your attention after school. Toby's at the dentist again, and Claire's gone home early to take care of Enrique (who is just Enrique, and you can't tell if you're disappointed or relieved), so it's just you and the Creepslayerz.
And Steve is well, being Steve and distracting Ms. Junius, the woman who fills the space of history teacher that Strickler used to hold, so that you and Eli can talk uninterrupted. You're never sure if that's intentional or not, with these two, but it works to your advantage.
"Weirder than his name?" you reply, pulling a textbook out of your locker and shoving it in your backpack.
You think it's a fair question. "Roxas" is a pretty weird name. All the weirder because the one time you saw Mr. Uhl's attendance sheet, it was hand-written in next to something scribbled out in black ink.
(But you're not about to judge someone on just their name, considering. Aaarrrgghh would be disappointed in you.)
Eli nods so enthusiastically he practically bounces up and down. "So Steve and I were out on patrol the other night," he starts, "because you can never be too sure when it comes to creepslaying - "
You nod and mmhmm, because it seems like an appropriate time to do so, to keep Eli going.
" - And we saw him! He was wearing that block hoodie with its hood up, you know the one, right?"
"Right," you say, because you do know the one. It's like a normal zip-up hoodie, except it goes all the way to Roxas' knees and the sleeves are almost long enough to cover his hands. It's the number one Weird Item in the guy's wardrobe, which is otherwise pretty normal, if a little fixated on black-and-white checkerboard accessories.
"Yeah, so he's got the hood up but it's obviously him, and this was on Saturday so it's not like it was raining or anything, and we see him heading off towards the Tarron Woods." The "Tarron Woods" is what your group calls the chunk of forest that was home to an alien spaceship converted to a house, in the other lifetime. (Other timeline? You're never sure, and wish not for the last time that Douxie was around to ask.) "So we followed him. And he goes way out there in the woods, and then he picks up this stick and starts just - "
Here, a series of gestures and sound effects that definitely conveys an Eli-flavored impression of some kind of fighting. Maybe with a sword, from the way he uses his pencil in his flailing.
"And then, ka-pow! And he swings like this - " Definitely a pencil-sword, from the way Eli holds it in both hands, bringing it down in an overhead strike on some invisible target. " - against a tree, and the stick shatters into a million pieces!"
"Really?" you drawl, raising your eyebrows. So far it doesn't sound that worrisome - weird, yes, but Arcadia's full of weird people and some guy playing at swords in the woods isn't important.
"I'm not done yet!" Eli protests. "Because after he broke the stick into - okay, don't look at me like that, it was more like three or four pieces - anyway, after that, he looked at the stick with that same kind of face he makes in geometry, and he said..."
A dramatic pause, Eli sucking in a breath and then putting on an imitation of Roxas' face and voice, which wouldn't be recognizable as Roxas if you didn't already know who it was supposed to me.
"It's no use. What's the point if I don't have a Keyblade?"
And then Eli exhales and finishes, "And then we left because Steve had to get me home before curfew, but he was still there looking sad at his hand when we left."
And... Okay, it's got more meat to it than Eli's usual conspiracies, you'll give it that. "Keyblade..." you repeat thoughtfully. "Sounds like some kind of... magic thing."
"Yeah, that's what I thought too!" Eli says. "Well, not magic, but it definitely sounds weird. Like, a sword that unlocks some secret vault, or - "
"I'll talk to Claire about it," you say quickly, cutting Eli off before his imagination can run wild. "Without Douxie or the trolls, she's the only one who really knows anything about magic. If there's something weird going on, we'll find out."
Eli nods, apparently finding this acceptable, and gives you a Creepslayerz salute before sprinting away from you at top speed.
You sigh and slump against the bank of lockers, rubbing the side of your neck. A Trollhunter's work is never done.
-> Be Roxas
You might not have noticed, if you hadn't done your share of following people around strange places, back in the Organization. And maybe you weren't the best at getting around unseen, but you were good enough that you didn't get noticed.
Watching Toby Domzalski try to tail you makes you realize that those tips also make you good at realizing when someone else is following you, especially when they're not doing it particularly well. Toby, and to a lesser extent his friends Jim and Claire, has been following you very badly.
Case in point. He's ridden past your house four times in the two hours you've been sitting in your room, doing your homework with the window open. You can tell, because one of his bike pedals is squeaky every time he pushes down on it. Once you started noticing it against the regular noises of the neighborhood, you couldn't stop.
The fifth time, you sigh and concede defeat, closing the chemistry textbook with a groan and standing up. When you look out your window, this time, Toby is with Jim, who has a reusable grocery bag hanging from the handlebars of his bike. The plume of a bunch of carrot greens sticks out of the bag, trailing over the side.
Fine. If they want to follow you that badly, you'll give them something to follow.
You wrench your window the rest of the way open and nudge the screen out before grabbing your skateboard. At least that still comes easily, and sneaking out is...
Well, sneaking out comes easily, too. Especially when you have a ground-floor room at the back of the house.
When you hit the street, you start rolling immediately, and soon enough you hear the distant sounds of a squeaky wheel turning around. You coast down a hill and let the wind flow through your hair.
Arcadia Oaks is a quiet town. Going down hills like this, with the late afternoon sun stretching the shadows, you can almost pretend it's Twilight Town, if you ignore all the trees. It isn't, but you can pretend.
When you think of it like that, something aches a little in your heart. Following the new kid around town is exactly the kind of thing you would have done, with Hayner, Pence, and Olette in the data town. Only a few days of memories, but sometimes you find yourself missing the simulation as much as you do Axel and Xion.
A long, slow curve, which you lean into easily. There's still a squeaky bike behind you. You make another turn, towards the canal bridge.
As much as you might wish otherwise, Arcadia is what's real, now. And instead of a Nobody, you're nobody. No Keyblade, a perfectly normal life...
Just another kid.
->
The edge of Arcadia feels like that. Like crossing over the bridge will take you somewhere far away, instead of just into another chunk of forest with a road running through it.
You roll to a stop in the middle of the bridge, sliding the toe of one shoe along the pavement to come to a complete stop. Toby and Jim are still behind you, but you hear them slowing down.
You look right at them, and give a little wave, before leaning against the railing and propping your elbows over the edge. You wonder, not for the first time, how Axel made it look so easy when he leaned his back and shoulder against one wall. You could use some of that, right now.
"Hey guys," you say when they're close enough that you won't be shouting over the wind. "Something up?"
"Uh, well," Jim says, not quite meeting your eyes.
"Absolutely nothing!" Toby says, way too fast. (They're both bad liars. Toby's as bad as Sora.) "Wonderful night for a ride, isn't it? Just to roll around the town, and wind up here, of all places - "
You fold your arms and try to channel your memory of Axel's best not impressed look. (It would probably work better if Jim wasn't taller than you. Somehow, you're sure you can blame Sora, or maybe Ven, for your height even in this new world.)
Jim sighs, cutting off Toby's ramble. "Look, we heard some weird stuff about - "
Whatever he was going to say, though, is cut off by the screech of something from the woods beyond the bridge. It's not human, not animal, almost like nothing you've ever heard.
Almost.
But you've heard Heartless make cries like that, so you're on your board before Jim or Toby can say another word, kicking off down the road as fast as your wheels will take you. Even without your Keyblade, there has to be something, something you can do...
Once again, it isn't long before you hear the squeak of a bicycle behind you.
->
It's not hard to find it in other ways, though. The green of the woods shifts suddenly, strangely, to a blue-tinted scene filled with lavender-leafed trees. They're the wrong shape, and too sparse, for Arcadia's woods, even if they weren't the wrong color. Sunlight streams down through gaps in the branches, like the middle of the afternoon even though, on the other side of the boundary, it was sunset.
And the asphalt of the road comes to a sudden end, turning into a dirt path with a scattering of paving stones that look like they've seen better days. You almost lose your balance as the texture you're rolling on changes under your board, and have to jump off it in a hurry to avoid crashing.
Jim and Toby roll to a stop next to you. Their bikes do better on the uneven terrain, but they look just as bewildered as you do. Toby pulls his phone out and immediately starts snapping pictures of the trees, the old fashioned road, anything he can see.
Jim is a little more subdued. "Whoa," he says, sliding off his bike to walk beside it. "Look at the sky. You ever seen anything like that before?"
You look at the sky.
It's shimmering, glowing through the branches of the trees, and there's nothing weak about the shine. It's the colors of dawn, but in shimmering layers that just look wrong, and no dawn would be that bright. It hurts to look at, like the reverse of the ominously dark skies over the beach at the margin of the Realm of Darkness, and you look away again quickly.
"Not in any world I've ever been to," you say, meaning every word. "Not the trees, either."
"So, what, did we accidentally stumble into an alternate dimension or something?" Toby says, looking up from his phone. His mouth twists, and he holds up the screen for you and Jim to see. "No service, either."
You're not surprised, but Jim puts a hand to his jaw, looking thoughtful. "I mean, I never questioned how we had service in Trollmarket," he says, "but that never really did make sense."
"Probably some kind of magic thing," Toby says. "Which means that whatever this is, it's a different magic thing."
You clear your throat. "I'm still here, you know," you say.
"Ah, crap," Toby says. "Uh, we're talking about a LARP we used to be in?"
You look at Jim, who gestures a little helplessly, and sigh. "How about we just agree to trade answers after we get out of here?" you offer. It might break the security of the world order, but -
Well, it wouldn't be the first time. And at this point, you almost welcome the sudden transition to something that isn't the same old mundane stuff.
"Sounds good to me," Jim says. "Really wish we'd brought Claire along right now, though."
"No kidding," Toby agrees. "I don't suppose we can just... turn around?"
As one, the three of you turn back towards the direction you came. There's no sign of the road, green trees, or any part of Arcadia at all; just the edge of a lake about where the bridge and canal would be.
"So much for that," you say.
"Toto, I don't think we're in Arcadia anymore," Toby says. If he's agreeing, he sounds as unhappy about it as possible.
"Guess we have no choice," Jim says. He tightens his hands around the handlebars of his bike. "Let's go find out what made that scream."