paixaorpg | Making an entrance! [Active]

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Making an entrance! [Active]

Character(s): Duo Maxwell, open to anyone else nearby
Content: Duo arrives in Paixao.
Setting: Muspelheim Gate
Time: Late evening
Warnings: None

Duo had only been planning for a week on Earth at the very most. Hilde, who always liked a challenge, had been attempting to keep track of the other pilots. Two were accounted for; Quatre was busy easing into his father's position as a man of prominence, and Trowa had just left the colony.
A rumor of two certain pilots who liked working by themselves being sighted on Earth working with the Preventers was what had brought him down to the ground again.
The shuttle had arrived into the station without a hitch. As Duo headed toward the exit with his duffel bag, everything was normal. People were shouting and shoving in the organized chaos, and he shoved back with the best of them every time he nearly got bowled over.
Then he stood in the large entrance way, and felt the air around him changing. For a minute, it felt like the artificial air in the colonies--dry and pure.

Then it changed into something he couldn't name, and he was through, into a much quieter building. Duo gawked at the relatively small line of people before whirling, staring at golden gates. Golden gates that were firmly shut.

"Damn," Duo muttered, turning back and pulling his duffel bag off of his shoulder, balancing it on his knees as he rummaged through the contents. He pulled out a worn black baseball cap before zipping the bag up again, readjusting. He plopped the hat onto his head as he strode forward, getting in line. 'They're all blonds,' he thought in slight disbelief and amusement, trying to distract himself from the immediate question of where he was.

It was only after he received a strange looking communicator and a brochure with the name Paixao on the cover that he began to be concerned. He pulled the cap farther down and looked around, clutching the communicator.

"Well, now what do I do?"

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Yorda had mostly been wandering the city since her arrival. She slept when she was tired and ate when she was hungry, and did a lot of this outside of where she was staying - she hadn't liked being locked in the castle and she still didn't like the idea of being kept. The city was beautiful, however, and all too easily kept the glowing princess' interest.

And so it was that Yorda saw the strange figure dressed all in black. So many people here wore color - save for Hamel - and the boy at the gate was only the second person Yorda had seen to wear all black. So she approached him, staring at him and the strange thing he had on his head, a delicate hand reaching inquisitively for the hat. "Hello."

Yorda was about to see yet another person dressed in entirely black, though Death tended to stand out from the crowd for more than just that reason. Death had taken to staying near the gates; oftentimes the most intriguing of events happened here, and even on boring days there was always the chance that somebody interesting would walk in.

Which was exactly why the boy in the black hat had his attention. Death had met him before, though something seemed different now. No matter.

DUO, he intoned, breaking easily through the crowd. I WAS NOT EXPECTING YOU TO RETURN.

Duo edged backwards even as he smiled at the strange-looking girl, about to reply when he heard someone calling his name. He turned his head ever so slightly, unconsciously slumping his shoulders in as he caught sight of the tall figure in black.

"Death," Duo said flatly. It took him a moment to recover, and he consciously straightened, attempting a grin. "Return? Didn't I just avoid you last month?" The teenager gripped the strap of his duffel bag, pulling off his hat and holding it out to the girl. "Nearly got killed by an overly large pile of scrap heap." Duo turned his attention to the girl, smiling. "Mind helping a guy out? I'll let you look at my hat if you do." He felt the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, and it was all he could do to keep calm in Death's presence.. 'It's a while, hasn't it?'

Yorda tilted her head. Why was this person backing away? Her thoughts stopped, however, at yet another strange person coming up to them. Death? Yorda had heard her mother speak of it (in soft, sibilant, disgusted and fearful tones), but she had never met him. "Hello," she greeted him, innocently wide-eyed.

"Help?" the glowing girl repeated, blinking at Duo. She held out her hand, as the boy had done to her in the castle, as though she expected Duo to take it and run with her (but there were no shadows here, no Queen; Yorda's mother had, strangely enough, disappeared). "I will help you."

AVOID? NOT QUITE, Death replied. 'DISAPPEARED' WOULD BE THE MORE ACCURATE TERM. AND YES, IT HAS. Of course, it was entirely possible Duo had no memories of his time in the city. According to the message board, that happened with some frequency. THOUGH I ASSUME YOU DO NOT REMEMBER OUR LAST MEETING, OR ANYTHING ABOUT THIS CITY FOR THAT MATTER. May as well cover all of his bases now.

He nodded to the girl, noting a name over her. DON'T WORRY, YORDA. I WILL NOT HARM HIM. The statement was meant to reassure both her and Duo.

"How can you hear--" Duo started, before shaking his head and shifting, crossing his arms. "Never mind." There was another part of the given information that was bothering him.

"What do you mean when you say our last meeting, and the city? I was actually here before?" Without missing a beat the teenager turned, making sure to include the girl in the conversation.

"Your name is Yorda? Nice to meet you. I'm Duo Maxwell." Duo smiled again. "Glad to hear I'm getting some help. Who knows what could've happened if I had been left alone with this guy!" He lifted his hand from where it was resting near his elbow and motioned at Death, sighing. "He's always on my tail."

Yorda started when she heard her name. "How do you know who I am?" she asked, looking curiously at Death. SHe had never heard of a personification of Death before, had only ever known that her mother had spoken ill of it and the boy had seemed afraid of it - though Yorda didn't speak the same language as the boy, she had been able to tell.

Yorda smiled brilliantly at the human boy. "It is nice to meet you, Duo Maxwell." She had never heard a surname before, and she thought upon the strangeness of having such a long name. Perhaps it was common where he came from. At the mention of a tail, however, the princess' interest peaked. "You have a tail?" The girl circled around Duo, looking for one. "Where is it? Do you keep it hidden? The boy had horns, but I have never met someone with a tail before."

YOU HAVE. While the simplest route wasn't always the best, it was usually just as advertised: simple. EVIDENTLY MEMORIES OF THIS CITY ARE LOST WHEN PEOPLE LEAVE. YOUR LACK OF MEMORY IS UNSURPRISING.

Death's reply to Yorda was also simple, one he'd used quite a few times in this city. I CAN SEE IT. Oftentimes the simplicity of this answer caused more questions in turn, but from his limited observations Death believed Yorda to be the kind of person who, instead of demanding more information, would simply attempt to see her own name herself. It wouldn't work, of course, but the sheer willingness most people had to believe something they'd never seen just because one other person professed to seeing it never failed to intrigue Death.

Duo's commentary, however, did not amuse Death. The implications were unwarranted and bordering on outright rude. WE WOULD LIKELY HAVE HAD A CONVERSATION, came the flat reply.

"Oh," Duo said, tempted to ask more questions. The only thing that stopped him was an even larger lack of intonation in the other's voice, and even then he barely resisted.

"No, I don't have a tail," Duo said a moment later to Yorda, uncrossing his arms and fidgeting slightly. "It's just a saying. Means that he's always close by." After a moment he remembered his hat was still in his hand, placing it back on his head before turning to Death.

"You know, shouldn't you of all--people--remember that I like to mock things? I didn't realize Death was so easily miffed."

Yorda blinked. Death could see Yorda's name? She looked all around herself, above and below, in an attempt to find where her name was written. Failing to find it, the glowing girl proceeded to examine herself, wondering if, perhaps, her own name was written on her person. After a few minutes of fruitless search, however, Yorda settled for giving Death a confused look.

"Close by?" Yorda repeated, wondering why the taller boy hadn't simply said so. She watched the conversation between the other two, however, mostly silent after that.

After watching Yorda's movements - he'd predicted that one - Death finally commented. ABOVE YOU, he explained, THOUGH NONE BUT I CAN SEE IT.

NOT MIFFED, he corrected Duo. DISPLEASED. There was indeed a difference.

"Yes," Duo replied automatically, noting that he'd probably have to explain the saying to Yorda later on to avoid a search for his tail.

"Well, I guess you would know!" Duo said, barely able to keep himself from rolling his eyes. Death really needed to lighten up. "Forgive me, Death, for clearly I have gone too far."

"Why can only you see it?" inquired the princess innocently. Her mother had never mentioned finding a name either. Having asked Death, she continued to look around for Duo's tail, still not understanding. But then, Yorda had lived all of her life on the island where the castle-fortress had been, and knew nothing of the outside world. There was only her mother, and the shadows, and herself.

And the boy, who had horns, whose name she had never been able to learn. Yorda didn't regret that, but she wished that she knew where the boy was now, if he had survived or died. Her intention at the end, after all, had been to save him.

Lost in thought as she was, Yorda still paid attention to the exchange between Death and Duo. She didn't like it when people argued (at least, she thought she didn't; this was only the second disagreement she had ever seen), and thought of saying something, but for now the girl remained silent.

BECAUSE I AM DEATH, was Death's reply. There was a long-winded and rather complicated explanation about being an anthropomorphic personification of an abstract concept and therefore having access to information that no living being could see, but if Yorda was the type to look for her name, she wouldn't likely understand any of it. He'd opted for the simple explanation for a reason.

As for Duo...

NO, he intoned, YOU'LL KNOW WHEN YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR. BELIEVE ME.

Duo paused for a moment, temptation warring with his usual common sense concerning Yorda. "I really don't have a tail," he repeated. "Unless you count my braid, I guess." He glanced at Death seconds later, his amusement fading.

"Oh, I believe you," Duo said, tone serious. "But that really isn't the issue at hand here." The teenager shifted again, his shoulders starting to feel stiff. "I want to know what's going on. Why are you here where I can actually, you know, see you?"

Yorda was about to ask Death yet another question when Duo repeated himself. Blinking at him, Yorda went up to him and promptly caught ahold of his braid, examining it in her hand. What a strange tail this was! Then again, The only tails she had seen had been on the shadows, creatures of oily black smoke and sad, ominous voices that echoed even when they shouldn't have.

"Why should we not see Death?" Yorda asked the boy, holding the other's braid in front of her face so she could look at it more closely. She traced the fingertips of one hand over it, fascinated.

It seemed Yorda had moved on to other points of interests, so Death turned his attention to Duo's questions. NOBODY KNOWS HOW OR WHY THEY ARRIVE, AND I HAVE YET TO DISCOVER JUST WHY I AM VISIBLE HERE. He paused for a moment to consider what he'd just said. AN EXCELLENT QUESTION, THOUGH IT LACKS AN EXCELLENT ANSWER.

Duo felt a sharp jerk on his braid, and slowly did a half-turn, unsurprised to see Yorda studying it. He made another note to himself to never use figurative language around her unless he braced himself.

"I see," Duo said to Death, trying to push aside the strange sensation of having someone playing with his braid. "Is there anything else I should know? Any dangerous things around?"

Yorda, curious still, gave Duo's braid another tug, trying to see how this "tail" worked. She bit her lip softly, then turned it around, trying to see how it was woven together. Her own hair was too short for such things; Yorda preferred it that way. She never knew why, it was just the way she was.

"There are many dangerous things," Yorda interrupted in a murmur, unaware of the rudeness of it. "Many. Shadows come." The shadows, the shadows that were somehow so like the ones in the castle which had been her world for so many years and yet weren't. The shadow which had taken the form of the glowing child's own mother. Yorda had finally had the sense to run, for once, and the pale girl shivered at the memory of the empty thing that had chased after her.

INDEED. Death paused at Yorda's input, then nodded and looked to Duo again. BOTH THE DARK CREATURES AND THE WHITE CREATURES HAVE PROVEN TO BE DANGEROUS. THE ORGANIZATION, HOWEVER, IS WORSE THAN BOTH KINDS OF CREATURES COMBINED, AS THEY BOTH LOOK AND SOUND HUMAN. He paused, leaving a moment for that information to sink in, before continuing. BE CAREFUL, ESPECIALLY OF THE ONE CALLED LARXENE.

"Dark and white creatures," Duo repeated, mulling the concepts over. The tugs had started to lessen, and the teenager allowed himself to relax slightly. "Got names for them?" He asked, automatically starting to move a little and feeling a sharper tug, wincing. "And the Organization; watching out for them and someone named Larxene, specifically. Got it."

"The shadows are not the same as they were on my island," Yorda interjected quietly, inquisitively stroking Duo's braid one last time before releasing it and walking over to death. She looked up at the looming figure with innocent curiosity, and tugged on his sleeve as if making certain he was real. She was not frightened of him, or of Duo; Yorda's fear was usually reserved for the shadows , whether of her world or this one.

She looked up, remembering what everyone told her about Larxene, and bit her lip. Timon had mentioned that Cora was not as she said; how were so many people against this 'Larxene'? What had she done?

Death's attention was drawn to Yorda's statement. Perhaps she would have some information on the dark creatures that had appeared in the city, little as it may be. DIFFERENT? he questioned. IN WHAT WAY?

He returned to Duo's question. I HAVE HEARD THEM CALLED HEARTLESS AND NOBODIES, RESPECTIVELY. All he could offer to Duo's assessment of the Organization was a grave nod.

"Wait, these shadows are actually common?" Duo asked both of them in shock, wondering what kind of fantasy land he had just stepped into. "What's the big deal about them, anyway?"

Yorda released Death's sleeve in order to look up at him. "The shadows there had horns," she replied simply, "and they were not as solid as the shadows here." The shadows here seemed starker and were intent on killing Yorda. "The shadows on the island were not after my life."

She tilted her head curiously at Duo. "They are not common where you are from?" That was strange.

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Making an entrance! [Active]

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