I-I guess....
Take was shocked just how quickly Scroop seemed to move. He thought he'd gotten the jump on him, thinking Scroop wouldn't think they would lunge for an attack. But he was wrong, apparently, and the pirate got the upperhand as a result. Take felt his keyblade disappear the instant he hit the floor. And while it hurt his head, he managed to somehow not feel the choking. Everything was going black by that point, and the last thing he saw was Choma step in before he was out. Spoiler: Episode Takehiko Part 2 Atmos held out a blindfold in her hand towards Take. "Put this on. Your training for today will be to leave this library. Yes, it's that simple." It had been two days since the boy's arrival and it appeared that little had changed. He seemed to...acclimate to his surroundings but she wouldn't have called him comfortable with them. Or even with her. She knew things like this took time but she already had a feeling that he would be one of her more difficult students. It wasn't Take's fault of course but she knew he would have probably felt more comfortable with a teacher who was more structured and direct. Atmos on the other hand, was anything but direct. The second Take would put on the blindfold she would leave the room and magically move the door somewhere else. Somewhere on top of the bookshelves. The library was large and it would be easy enough to get lost in especially without one's sight. It was only one floor but the bookshelves sprawled out in every direction making hallways that led, in many cases, to dead ends and some paths circled around right back to where they started. It was a mess of a maze. If Take couldn't see then it was unlikely he'd ever leave. And that was the point. At some moment in time he would have to figure out that the test was unfair, remove his blindfold, and see that he had been cheated to learn a lesson. Take stared a bit at the blindfold, interested a bit in the idea of the test and said, "Can't just be that simple. I assume there must be a catch. Is there?" Take's progress on questions wasn't necessarily better, but because this was instructional to what he considered orders, he didn't find problems with it as much as he found it clarification. Atmos smiled faintly and shook her head. "No catch. The lesson will be over as soon as you make your exit. Unless you think that's too difficult for you." She teased. Take gave her a look and said, "Not difficult. I can do it." and he moved and placed the blindfold on his face. Once she was gone, he started his motion towards the exit. Mostly going off what he remembered, he avoided touching walls and edges unless he could help it, like for corners. Then he got to the point he knew the door should have been based on, not familiar landmarks but enough for him to know but... he couldn't find it. Takehiko actually spent quite a bit of time along that wall because he could have sworn that was where it was. But when he couldn't, he backed away and thought for a moment... perhaps he took the wrong turn? Then the maze began. Take walked the edges of the library, and seemed to follow the natural patterns, this time keeping his hand on the wall and walking. He could not figure it out, and he didn't cue into anything. But he didn't think Atmos would pull a trick on him, so he was fully convinced it was his own fault. Once he let go of the wall to go and find another area when he found a dead end, he was a goner. But Take wouldn't give up on it either. He was at it for hours, with no seeming determination to stop, if anything he got more frantic about it the longer he went on. He even got to a point where he started just going over everything twice before he finally stopped at the wall where the door was supposed to be and he slammed the wall and finally, for the first time in hours voiced out, "What am I doing wrong? This is ridiculous. Did I manage to turn into a different room? Does this library have multiple rooms?" Take kept on going, he didn't seem to catch onto the fact the test was unfair, and that was because of his faith in those superior. Take couldn't possibly believe she would put him in this test with the intention to fail. At this point, it was far too long, and he was started to get exhausted and a bit dehydrated, but he wouldn't stop. Several hours had passed and even though Atmos had something to keep herself occupied, a silly novel about the notion that a magical nanny could float down from the sky on an umbrella and fix a dysfunctional family, she was growing impatient. Did Take figure it out and just leave her to figure out that he learned his lesson and she was now having to learn to question him? It would have been an interesting turn of events and as she thought it over that was what must have happened. Surely this child could not have spent this long in the library. Or perhaps he had taken off his blindfold only to read because he had already seen through her plot. Both ideas made her proud. Atmos stood up and placed the book down as she made her way to return to the library. With a simple wave of her hand the door returned to its original position and she entered. She looked around and didn't see Take at first. She smiled. And then she saw the boy bumping his way around a corner and into her line of sight still wearing the blindfold. Her smile faded and her heart sank. "You can take that off." She called out towards Take. Take stopped and turned in the direction of Atmos' voice and heard her tell him to take off the blindfold and Take sighed and reached up and took it off, "I failed then, huh?" Take took off the blindfold and blinked a second, the light hurting just a bit before he readjusted and he turned and saw the door and walked over towards it and said, "Wait... I walked by this just a minute ago... how did..." Take held his hand out towards the door and motioned around before backing his hand up and asking, "Am I that inept?" he actually sounded hurt when he asked that question. Atmos shook her head. "No. You aren't. I just moved the door. The test was meant to frustrate you to the point where you'd take the blindfold off, realize that I moved the door, and realize that the test itself was unfair." She folded her arms. "Sometimes you'll encounter problems you can't brute force your way through or find that those in positions of authority cannot always be trusted. You must be able trust in your own judgment, Take." Take's eyes shifted to the door and then back towards Atmos as he spoke, "But... I don't have good judgement. That's why I follow and other's lead. Trusting my own judgement would just result in me still running around in circles in a library even longer... that's why there's people in authority and people to support... You gave me a task and I simply failed to follow it... unless you're implying I shouldn't trust you which seems... odd to establish." there wasn't a hint of conflict in his tone, but it was clear from the words he said that he was just confused, and he didn't get it. He wasn't even asking questions about it. Atmos placed her hands on her hips as she looked at Take. "The point is to make you independent. You can trust me but what if you couldn't? Placing too much faith in those of positions of power can be a very dangerous thing. When I met you, you were too willing to obey without questioning. You're still the same but you have improved during your time here." She realized that this meant changing Take think differently than how he was taught on his homeworld but this was necessary. "Keyblade wielders hold a great deal of power and if one were to be mislead to misuse their power it would be, needless to say, terrible." The Keyblade War came to mind but that history lesson was one for another time. "You must develop yourself so that, when the time comes, you may be able to trust your own judgment, Take." Takehiko stood confused and for the first time during this, asked a question, "But why would someone with authority abuse that power, they already have the most in that level, why would they need more?" he was nervous asking that question, he didn't look nervous, but his body language may have indicated the trouble in asking that, and he didn't look at Atmos when he asked, "People already put trust in those in authority. What's the point in abusing that trust?" Take felt himself grip his wrist, and the more he tried to process it, the most he strengthened his grip and his monotone broke temporarily as admitted, "I-I don't... I don't... understand...?" he finally looked at Atmos and he looked unbelievably confused, "Master, I... I don't understand..." "Sometimes people in positions of power are afraid of losing that power. Or sometimes it's still not enough. People can be cruel, Take." Atmos placed her hand on Take's shoulder and smiled. "Even though evil exists in the Realm of Light that doesn't mean we should abandon the ability to see the good in others." She spoke softly and confidently. She had been young and naive once. Wait. She was still young. She had been naive once and had known the pain of finding of learning that people sometimes did terrible things for little reason other than because they wanted to and sometimes life would just kick you while you were down. It hurt. But it was worth it to see those who chose to do the right thing even when they had every reason not to do so. Take felt her hand on his shoulder and nearly shrunk back at it but kept himself under control about it. When she spoke the reasons why someone may do those things out of fear of losing power, he understood that. Then Atmos mentioned the second part. Take looked away and said, "But... I've... always seen the good in others..." he then looked back at Atmos and said, "I've never thought of people as evil with bits of good in them... I've always thought of people as good... with evil parts." Take brought his hand up to his chest and said, "Is that not how it is? Is there that much dishonesty that I need a lesson to learn about that?" this made the questions pour out. Take's eyes seemed to just look everywhere while he was trying to process it. Finally, Take just seemed to calm down as his hand fell and he asked, his voice quiet and sounding like something clicked into place, "Is... that what they were doing at home?" the boy sounded like he almost didn't want to hear the answer. Atmos was glad to hear this side of Take, knowing that it had been there buried underneath all the conditioning of his homeworld all along. "You cannot allow yourself to become blind to those in power. As for your homeworld, it is up for you to decide whether they had abused your faith in those in charge or not. I cannot make that decision for you. You will have to make peace with whatever decision you reach." If she began telling him how to feel she would have been no different than those who conditioned him. If Take was to grow he would have to develop his own sense of self. Take looked a bit relieved at the answer Atmos gave, after a pause of silence Take nodded at her and said, "Thank you... I will learn from this lesson and grow from it." he took a bit to breath before asking, "Um, am I able to go and get food and water? I uh... I'm getting hungry." he rubbed the back of his head and said, "Probably should have guessed by the point I was hungry that this wasn't going to end well but I just don't know when to give up sometimes." there was a moment where the boy looked like he was about to smile, but pulled back before he could.
Mora wasn't 100% sure "what now?" entailed but she knew a general assumption of where exactly they needed to go. It didn't take long for the darkballs to be handled at the very least. Mora looked around and pointed in a direction and said, "This way!" and she began running to the left. She ran a decent while until a large patch of grass got in the way. Mora climbed her way through, trying to keep the others in view so she didn't get too far ahead. Once she was through to the other side. She jumped out and walked into the patch of dirt in front of her and turned towards the rest of them, "Here we are." They were back in front of the cave where it all started and Mora spoke up and rubbed her hands together, "I'm not that strong but I think it's best to start movin' some rocks."
Takehiko was upset that his part of the plan was caught. Perhaps he should have been more subtle about it, or faster about it. But it seemed that wasn't going to work out for him. When Silver held out the gun, he knew the best option was to probably go along with the plan but it seemed at this rate that was a no go. But the way Scroop seemed to just have darkness evaporate off of him bothered Take immensely. But once the second gun was out and they seemed to still be having trouble with being in agreement with each other, Take pulled out his keyblade and quickly charged at Scroop. He saw it as the safer bet over the one with two guns, but also because he felt oddly compelled to do so. It had been the first time he hadn't checked in with an authority figure at this point to see if his plan of attack was alright, he had yet to know if he'd regret it.
Take hadn't even noticed the ship stopped, he really hadn't noticed the background noise of the ship moving after a while. He made a mental note to himself to always pay a mind to consistent noises like that in case that kind of thing ever came into play in the future. Take took a couple steps back to look around before asking, "Should we go to the deck then? I imagine they aren't killing us at this point but I'd prefer to be... nearby to the others if they do anything... ya know?" he sounded unsure but quickly pulled back into the more monotone state and said, "Or at least, if you don't, I still feel it'd be worse for us to stick on the ship."
Takehiko was glad he ran into Choma as soon as he did, finding slight amusement by the way he presented the fact that he sabotaged the armory. The boy nodded when Choma had asked about whether or not he accomplished his task. Not really directly saying so outright, but assuming the nod got the job done. Take listened to Choma explain the plan, replying back at a low whisper as well, "So basically... we have to help them catch the others? That's... interesting. Unless you're saying we just stand in the back and watch it all playout which... I don't know how comfortable I feel about that. So... the treasure is the endgame of it then? That's fine by me. It sounds kind of cool, actually. Not... not the fighting. The idea of seeing treasure. If there's such a fuss about it I'm sure it's huge and that's cool just to imagine." Take never considered himself someone who was in love with the idea of material possession but was fascinated when others were so fixated. He almost wished he was just as passionate about something so seemingly meaningless. Though he remembered his brother's rock and... made an exception for it in his head.
Another semester, another... iunno something good or bad? "Another day another dollar" or something? Whatever.
Takehiko had been trying to meticulously analyze where exactly each wire connected to. He was hoping perhaps there would be some indication of weaponry or something. But after thinking he was taking a little too long, Take reached up and whispered, "Please, please don't make the ship plummet if I pull you." Take pulled the wire was silent a moment and the lights turned out. He stared into the dark and said, "Well, turning off the lights... that could have been worse." It didn't take long for a whirring sound to occur and the backup lights turned on. Glowing a red color. Take looked up at them a second before mumbling, "Let's not do that.... okay... how about..." Take pulled another one expecting the worst and he ended up getting nothing at all. He sighed and plugged it back in and looked to the one right next to it, having a pretty good feeling about that one. As Take reached for it, a voice boomed behind him causing him to straighten up out of surprise. "What are you doing in here? Where is the usual guy?" Takehiko continued staring at the wire box, trying to process what exactly to say, before it came to him what the easiest explanation could be. Take turned his head to go and speak but was taken aback by the appearance of this particular alien and he stood there with his mouth open a second before saying in a high pitched voice, "The captain-" he stopped and cleared his throat and continued, "The uh, the captain told me to take over temporarily while he took a break. I didn't question it. 'Less you wanna question him?" The head looked at the body a moment before looking at Take and saying, "Then why are you messing around with the wires?" "O-Oh that? The lights went out so I was trying to fix it. Is um. Is this the one?" Take reached over towards one wire and the pirate walked over and slapped him upside the head, "Are you daft? That's the artificial gravity! Don't you know how this works?" "I was uh. Thrown in at last second, ya know?" The torso laughed a little at the comment and the head said, "Well, that's the gravity. You don't need to touch any of these. The alarm, the thrusters, the gravity, the weaponry. Just this one here for the lights." and he pulled the wire and put it back in to readjust and said, "Don't touch anything else. Got it, squirt?" Takehiko was offended by someone referring to him as short but he hid it as best as he could as he stared at the wires, "Yes sir." and the strangely combined pirate walked away murmuring something about a "dumb kid". The boy looked at the door and waited for the footsteps to go away. Once they were distant enough he turned around and pulled the wire for the weaponry out and shut the box again and let out a sigh. He leaned back and waited for the slug pirate to return before he gave him a lazy salute and walked away out of the room to look for Choma murmuring, "That freakshow didn't have the right to call me a squirt..."
Mora heard Daeni's comment and looked down and said, "I had practice. Hurry up!" when she reached the top she pulled herself up and turned around to reach and help the first behind her. But as the first reached for her hand, she heard a noise and turned around to see a couple of darkballs appear, making a noise as they seemed to move closer. Mora stood up and pulled out the sword and took a deep breath before lunging a bit and knocking a couple darkballs back. She hadn't done much damage though, it just seemed to irritate them more than anything. A darkball shook as four more seemed to appear beside it and tried to move so it could go down the cliff and knock the others off. Mora glared and said, "Oh no you don't!" and she knocked the darkballs back, taking a couple of hits for her trouble as she yelled, "Guys you gotta hurry. The heartless have already found us and these ones float!"
Take listened to what Choma said intently. He was a bit surprised by how much information Choma was able to get from these guys just by looking at them. Maybe he knew what signs to look for? He almost wanted to ask how so he could learn how to do that as well, but Choma had a suggestion that seemed to be more important to place immediate attention towards. Take nodded and replied just as quietly, "I'll take a look around." and he headed on off, back up the stairs. He tried to not make himself look too suspicious or anything, walking at a pretty casual pace. As he got himself up the stairs, he finally knew what the world looked like. This entire time he'd been more indoors focused so getting a look at the world had not been an option. Take walked to the side of the ship and placed his hands on the edge so he could boost himself up slightly and get a better look. He didn't find the surface of the planet below overly spectacular at first, but the longer he looked the stranger the plant life seemed. It was the most he could get from that height. What fascinated him more was just the whole picture look, with the green glowing rings circling the world. He looked at it a bit longer before he stopped leaning over and looked behind, just to make sure none of the pirates had any intention of pushing him off the ship when he wasn't paying attention. Takehiko went back down into the deck on another side. The layout of the ship was kind of unclear and didn't seem overly efficient and just seemed a bit arbitrary which was odd to him. But he had a feeling if there was a control room it was going to be lower in the ship that higher. Once he went down the stairs he ran into a long hallway that definitely looked like they were on the engineering part of the ship and he walked further down the hallway with his footsteps echoing from the open grates on the floor. He reached a point where he was absolutely sure it was the control room and he tried to get a peak inside to see and saw an weird almost slug looking alien. He backed up a moment and processed his options and thought up something before he took a breath and walked into the room and said, "Hey, captain told me to take over so you could go on break." the alien looked over at him skeptically a moment but then stopped and let out a... fart noise before moving on out of the room and Take blinked and said, "Uh... yeah... take your time..." before he shifted on in and sighed. He waited for the slugs... farting noises to fade off. He took a quick breath before murmuring to himself, "Alright... it's probably gonna be a wire of some kind... just one wire shouldn't be a probl-" As Take opened up all the control panels, he saw all the wires and stared at them a long moment before squeaking out, "Oh... fantastic. This is gonna be so much fun."
Mora looked very relieved that someone was gonna make sure Kara left okay. She was surprised more people weren't aiming to go, actually. But she nodded and said, "Thank you. Now that we're all ready..." Mora moved over to the door and began counting down from ten as she made sure everyone prepared. When Mora reached one, she slammed open the vault door to reveal... a beach. The beach was sandy, but the water of the beach was rough, slamming into rocks that were right at the edge of the water. Even if it was a nice sight to behold, it was very clear this water was not made for swimming. Mora quickly ran out and pointed, "You two run for the water, everyone else, follow me. Best of luck!" Kara limped towards the water and summoned out her keyblade to turn it into a glider. As Kara did so, an armor should have surrounded her to protect her. She got on the glider and pointed her keyblade towards the sky and a portal appeared. She looked back a moment at everyone before she began flying into the portal. She left it open so Chrys could follow with her. --- Mora began running, keeping close to the wall of the cliff. As she did so she turned around and said, "By the way, Cerdic, you could probably use that armor now. I think it was the tunnel keeping you from using it. Not you." If available for your character, you can now use keyblade armor. Mora reached a point where a rough patch of rocks were had and she looked up and said, "This is our way up. I'd recommend you not using the gliders for detection reasons, but you might be alright. I've gotta get up this way though." and Mora began climbing up the rocks, pretty quickly and in a relatively agile manner.
Take rubbed his neck a bit after he was dropped before he stood up and looked at Scroop, "Or ya know, we could throw you off the boat and lose even more dead weight." the boy shrugged and waved a bit sassily at him as the crab thing guy walked up the stairs to bring the ship down before looking over at Choma and whispering, "Um... should I have held onto the map longer? I feel like this just made the situation... worse more than better." Takehiko thought about it a minute before saying, "Actually, no. It would have been worse I suppose if they were actually killing them, now they're just... capturing them? Mmm... maybe this wasn't a good idea?" he rubbed the back of his head, "Do you have any ideas, master?"
Takehiko was surprised by the suddenness of the collar grab, but not frightened by it. When the accusations were made towards him, Take's face moved back to it's usual neutral expression and he said in an even, calm tone, "I got it from Jim. I don't know how the thing works. I assumed you were readily prepared with the knowledge you would need to activate it. If you don't, that's not my fault. However, if you never did have the knowledge to do that, why would you take control of the ship?" he looked over at Choma, he had a feeling this was going to somehow bring them back to the others, he was hoping that wasn't going to be the case, but unless there was another way around it. He didn't know. Take looked back at Silver and said, "I mean. I guess I could shortcut your problem if that orb has a keyhole... for some reason."
When the lifeboats left, Take had moved the map into his jacket pocket and held his hand there to keep it in. When the pirates surrounded, Take had shifted a big closer to Choma, more of a natural reaction to get away from any potential injury from weapons. When Silver mentioned they were going to be the bargaining chip and seemed to glare at Choma, Take finally spoke up, "We're not gonna be much of a bargaining chip. Besides, we figured the direction you were all going was much more exciting. And with the weapons we have, I'm sure you'd rather a couple of us working with you. Anyway, you don't need to worry about them anymore..." Take faked a smirk a bit, it wasn't exactly in character for him to, but it added personality to the conversation and made him look less stoic, at least in comparison to Choma. Take pulled out the orb in his hand and tossed it a little bit just to catch it in the same hand and said, "I swiped the map. I'm more than willing to give it to you without any slicing or dicing necessary. But I don't like the closeness of your men." he hoped that Silver caught the hint.
During the excitement of the scene, Take was grateful that Choma nudged him and pointed out the map. When the floor was shutting, Take was aiming to run up to pull the lever, but Choma seemed to have most stuff under control. But when Take went to look at Jim again, he saw the orb fall and saw... two of them. He watched one head down the stairs and the other seem to be drawn towards Jim. Take eyed that orb near him skeptically before he realized what was going on and he turned towards the lifeboat and said, "If I don't make it back in time, go without me!" and Take ran off down the stairs and grabbed the orb, keeping himself low and looking it over a moment confused. Nini let out a mew and quickly jumped out of the bag and sprinted up the stairs and jumped down at Aria and curled up nervously.
Spoiler: Episode Takehiko: Part 1 Chapter 3: Crimes of Conscience There was a long pause after what Atmos said. It seemed to be in processing before there was a sheer anger in the boy's eyes that betrayed his relatively neutral demeanor. The boy shoved his way past her saying, "Akio!" and once he was in the house, he saw Akio standing there, and he looked like a deer in headlights, The boy walked up and said, "You're late for training, we're heading out." Akio shook his head and said, "No. I'm gonna see Take, and I'm gonna say goodbye." "No you're not." the boy responded, grabbing Akio's arm before the younger one pulled it away, "Yes I am, Shoji!" Shoji grabbed his arm again and said, "Are you gonna disobey the orders of the commander over the informal orders of an outsider?" "Her name is Atmos, and she's a keyblade wielder!" "I'm aware." "And she's taking Take with her to train! It'll be better for Take if I can say goodbye. Please Shoji." "This isn't about him, this is about your training, Akio." "I'm not even supposed to be training right now!" Akio screamed pulling away from him again with tears in his eyes, "Why won't you let me see Take? I want to see Take! If he has a keyblade, that means the rumors have gotta be true and Take saved you life. Don't you want to see him too?" There was a clear discomfort in the topic being brought up and Shoji spoke up, "That didn't happen. Take ran in front of one of the dragons trying to be a hero." "But why didn't you tell me?" Akio replied angrily. "Because this right here was going to happen. Where you start getting hysterical and looking up to Take when everything he's doing is wrong." "I think everything you're doing is wrong!" Akio hissed out backing away and trying to turn around to back away and eventually hide behind Atmos. "Everything Take has done is selfish. Everything I've done is to protect the village. To protect you. I've done everything perfectly." Shoji responded walking up closer. Akio's feet planted firmly as he stood just in front of Atmos, but with his back facing towards her and his face still towards Shoji. He tightened his fists and yelled, "If you're so perfect, why are Iwao and Yasushi dead? Huh?! If you're so much better at protecting than Take is, why are they dead?! I think you're just a scaredy cat who's too afraid to break the rules once in a while. You're a coward!" Almost without a second thought, Shoji reached up and slapped Akio across the face. The force of it was actually pretty heavy and Akio fell down holding his face. Akio was still for a bit of time before Shoji said in a low voice, "Go." and Akio looked up at Atmos apologetically before he ran away and out of the house. Shoji stood still for a bit, watching Akio run for a minute. There was a bit before he looked at Atmos and shrugged a bit saying, "If they were actual orders, tell the commander and I'll take full responsibility." Shoji looked at her and there was this very off energy about the boy as he said, "Besides, Take already hates me. And seeing that Take's gonna be shipped off to another world with you to train and distance himself from us even more just ticks me off. Now I'm gonna be stuck with Akio thinking he's gonna be able to do the same thing. This is why I hate it when outsiders like you get involved." Atmos's heart went out to Akio and a part of her even wished she could take him in but she knew their laws forbade such a thing. Not only that but it would have been akin to kidnapping. Atmos narrowed her eyes at Shoji, anger clear in her eyes. "Is that how you treat your brothers?" If she had any less control she would have slapped Shoji for harming his younger sibling but this wasn't her family and this wasn't her world. Her training told her that she wasn't meant to interfere and she had been doing enough interfering since her arrival to this world. "If all you can do is survive there isn't anything worth living for. On that note, treat your brothers like brothers. Otherwise there will be a day you won't be able to call them your brothers." She spoke harshly, her eyes having gone cold. Shoji listened to her and looked a bit confused, "I'm not sure what you mean by treat your brothers like brothers. I'm pretty sure I am." he started to walk away from her and stopped before the door and asked her in the direction of the door, his voice sounding almost... scared, "Can you just make sure he comes back in one piece?" he paused waiting for a response but was pretty sure he wouldn't get one before he opened the door and whispered low, almost hoping she didn't hear it, "Cause this world wouldn't." and Shoji left the house. Atmos folded her arms, her eyes intently following after the boy and even lingering on the door for some time after he left. Something was off with the people of this world and she did not like it at all. Tolerance was what her own master had preached yet some worlds just rubbed her the wrong way and she couldn't help herself. The house was quiet for quite a while, with no one really seeming to come near it and no sounds besides the occasional roar of laughter from some of the neighboring kids playing outside before they were quickly hushed. About an hour later, the door finally creaked open and a boy walked into the house. They seemed to kind of just stand still for a minute looking around a little like their eyes were taking in everything. But the boy wasn't exactly reacting.... at all. He was dressed up in a pretty standard military uniform and his hair looked recently shaved. He didn't look as though he was physically abused in any manner, he carried himself almost healthily but from the way he swayed it was clear the boy was feeling an immense amount of fatigue. The boy stopped and took a breath before he seemed to kind of walk towards the kitchen. He didn't seem to be... well... looking for anyone. Almost like he didn't even know someone was in the house waiting. In the kitchen he just seemed to get himself a glass of water and start drinking it. Time passed as she was left alone with nothing better than to pace about, sit on a couch, then pace some more. Eventually, after what felt like hours, there came the sound of the door opening. In stepped a young boy with a blank expression on his face. He headed towards the kitchen carrying himself like a tipsy ...person. He should have been able to see her as he walked by but he just didn't. Atmos stepped over and knocked on the nearest wall behind the boy to get his attention. "Hello there, stranger. Who might you be? Takehiko I presume?" She spoke in a tone of half-amusement and half-intrigue. The boy almost jumped a bit at the sudden voice and turned at her, alert. He looked a bit on guard but was otherwise emotionless. The boy just seemed to scan her for a moment before saying, "Usually, strangers don't walk into strangers houses before they are familiar with them." the boy's voice was very monotone, but also slightly cracked, like it had been a very long time since he's spoken. He nodded his head at her and said, "Yes, my name is Takehiko..." he paused a bit longer before he tilted his head, "Are... you an outworlder?" he reached up and held his head a bit clearly trying to hold back a headache, and hide his exhaustion, "Who are you?" "I am Master Atmos. You wield the keyblade, do you not? I have come to take you to a place where you can learn what it is to be a keyblade wielder and, perhaps one day, become a master yourself." She raised an eyebrow, noticing that he was in some pain. "Of course, that can wait. Are you well? You look a bit...tired. What kind of training did they put you through?" She questioned, wondering if it was common for someone to come back looking so exhausted. Was he training up until this very moment or did the training cause some kind of abnormal fatigue? Takehiko listened to her words and it took him a bit to process, but there was a moment where some genuine emotion, almost a bit of... disappointment, seemed to shine for but a moment as he whispered softly, almost as if he wasn't trying to have her hear it, "You're not him..." Takehiko paused a bit and when she mentioned him being tired, he straightened himself out and said, "I'm fine." he kept his mouth shut tight about the training, in fact, he seemed to ignore the topic before saying, "We don't need to wait for anything... they actually ordered me to quickly collect my stuff to be prepared to head somewhere for a long time. I didn't know it was because of the keyblade." He hadn't questioned why he was ordered to do what he did, he just readily accepted it, without much thought on specifics. Atmos folded her arms, now suspecting something was off about this kid. He didn't look like any kind of troublemaker despite what the others have spoken about him. It was odd to say the least. And she didn't like it. "Alright spill it. What happened at that training they sent you off to? You're a completely different kid than the one I expected to meet based on what everyone's said about you. And don't tell me they're exaggerating as the people of this world don't seem to have the creativity for such a thing." She said with a tone of annoyance unbefitting a master in her voice. She wasn't a fan of having her questions being dodged and it was still something she never fully got over with her own training. "If you're going to prove yourself to be worthy of the keyblade you're going to have to start with the truth, Takehiko." Takehiko stared at her for a long moment after the sudden confrontation about him dodging the question, she seemed really intent on getting the answer, and he didn't feel comfortable explaining it. But then she brought up being worthy of the keyblade, and he took a moment, lowering his head and processing stuff before he looked up at her, and the straight face he had been maintaining broke, but the emotion in his voice didn't come back as he said, looking at her very defeated, "They put me through an accelerated training program, so I was as they put it 'ready for the outside worlds'. But... the physical training isn't what got to me..." Takehiko started playing with his hands a bit as he spoke, a little more emotion coming through, "They didn't want me to lose the mindset of a soldier... so they..." the boy looked confused, like he couldn't figure out the words to use before he slipped out, "It was... like mental torture. Trying... trying to make me..." Takehiko went still and his eyes almost looked panicked before his face molded back into it's emotionless state as he finished, "Trying to make it so I don't act on emotion... Master Hotaka said it was safer for me to not feel emotion. He said it attracts the dragons the most. But... he also said it was the best way for me to hide... I don't know what he meant by that... someone said something one night about the strongest lights being the ones unblocked... I think he meant that if I let my emotions show while others aren't... I'm painting a target but... it doesn't matter." Take reached up to his chest and put a fist over it as he said, "Good soldiers put their feelings last..." Takehiko stared off for a bit before he looked at her and said, "I.... can't imagine you feel the same way about it but... they told me the reason outsiders don't understand because they don't live with the dragons trying to kill them." Take's hand fell he looked away from Atmos before sighing and saying, "I'm not the same because... I don't.... I don't want my family to look at me like they're ashamed of me. And... I almost got myself killed because I was stupid...." Takehiko shivered a bit and asked, "Why would I repeat that?" he looked like he jolted himself scared and said, "I.... shouldn't be asking questions like that. I'm sorry. I know full well I wouldn't repeat it." but those words didn't sound like his, they sounded like they were someone elses, he was forced to repeat until he thought they were his. Atmos summoned her keyblade and held it out to aim the tip at the house's entrance. A ray of light shot forth and stopped when it hit the door, causing a radiant light to grow and shape itself to fit the door frame. It was a portal back to her castle. Takehiko's story pained her enough to wish to get him out of this terrible place and away from the people who were scarring him emotionally. He needed to get out now if he was ever going to heal. "Never apologize for asking questions." She looked at him with concern. "Being able to wield and master the keyblade requires you to tap into your emotions. It's what makes us strong. Sometimes it's the only thing keeping us sane." She motioned for Takehiko to go towards the portal. "Go on. It will take you to the castle where you will be training at. Don't worry, it's safe." Atmos was sorry she could not get the brothers to reunite but now her main concern was Take and finding a way to undo the damage that his own people did to him. Take stepped back a bit at the sudden portal of light. He had never seen anything like it before and he was worried what exactly it did. But when she explained it he was a little less on guard. When she told him to head through, there was a moment where he looked over, clearly as if towards the mantle where the picture of his family was. But he didn't say anything or really react much to it. Instead he just nodded at her and walked towards the portal. He stopped a moment as if reaching to put his hand through it, but pulled back a second before and took a deep breath and walked through it. Takehiko seemed to get to the lifeboats before anyone else did, though he was closely tailed by Choma. He figured at the very least maybe Jim would have been here by now, but this was probably a good thing. He could get Jim into the lifeboat and figure out a way to steal the map from him, hopefully naturally so they wouldn't have conflict. But he figured that would be the best. The boy looked around and sighed, "Well, I'll get them ready at least." the boy started getting the lifeboats ready to be deployed so people could jump on in and he looked over his shoulder and said, "Just gotta make sure none of the mutineers get in here and try to destroy them..."
Take nodded at Choma and said, "I can do that then." he hoped that it wasn't ruining anything for the captain, doing something like that. But if it saved their lives, it was probably better off. Take turned a bit and said, "Otherwise, I think they might try and get to the lifeboats. I'm betting that's where everyone else'll be." he looked over at Glyde and said, "So, you could either head with them. Or come with me, and join a mutiny." he put on a bit of a fake smirk before he stopped and said, "I know it sounds odd, but we're just doing this to keep people on both sides so we know what's going on." Take backed up and withdrew his keyblade and said, "Just in case..." and he ran to the stairs and up to the deck.
Take was surprised by the sudden pull to the side by Choma. It was more because of the randomness of him happening to be right there at that moment, but after a moment Take did as he was told and stayed quiet as he hid. As they spoke, he put together the fact that they were planning a mutiny before Choma spelled it out for him, but he was glad it was at the very least not just him thinking that up randomly. The boy looked to Choma and said, "And it definitely doesn't sound like a mutiny with no blood... we should probably tell the captain... though..." Take thought about it for a minute and said, "Maybe the mutiny was provoked by the darkness somehow? Hm..." Take was quiet a second before he looked at Choma, "Master, I know this is gonna sound odd but... I think it would be best if not only the group helped out the captain... but if someone stuck with the mutineers just so we have tabs on all sides." he was silent afterwards before saying, "Unless... you think that's a bad idea?"
Take had always been a light sleeper, or perhaps the term was 'alert sleeper'. When something seemed amiss he always woke up instinctually, and hearing Jim make a pained noise, in a place he was unfamiliar with, made him sit up quickly. It made Nini mewl slightly over being woken up as well. Take gave her a quick pat on the head before he tried to look for wherever Jim ran. He hoped it wasn't actually something important but, well Take was awake now so he might as well get up and grab something to eat if anything else. The boy grabbed his jacket and his bag, Nini hopped onto his shoulder before finessing her way back into the bag while Take put his jacket on as he moved to follow Jim. He rubbed his eyes and followed Jim asking, "Everything alright? I heard an 'ow' before you started running off." he yawned a little while he asked.
Melus had been pretty silent the whole time that Finlay was doing... whatever he was doing. His reactions seemed a lot more aggressive and over the top than they really needed to be. The girl strummed a bit at her recently resummoned harp and after a chord or two she asked, "So uh, is that guy just constantly overcompensating for something?" the girl strummed a bit more before replying, "Anyway, at the rate we're at. We might as well just go. Because if we sit back, we're just sitting ducks here. I'd rather get some form of a surprise advantage this time, rather than bring the fight to home and have a repeat of the events that transpired. Just... just don't let me get too close to the combat people. Casters are squishy." she played another note and said, "How are we gonna deal with Mr. Green Anarchist in the future though? Don't exactly want a guy like that taking away stealth advantages. Granted, Kiara and Arctus aren't exactly stealthy either."
