Triple Terrific Party Time! [OPEN]

[sailorlaughter]

Characters: Pinkie Pie, open
Content: So many things to celebrate, so little time!
Location: The recreation deck
Warnings: Zidane may not be genocidal anymore, but he does have a certain karaoke machine...

[Pinkie's announcement after Discord's defeat wasn't just hot air. As soon as five minutes after the chaos god's last cry echoed throughout the ship, there's already music blaring out the open doors of the recreation deck. As if in defiance of Discord's attack on her there, Pinkie's filled the place with even MORE balloons than typical for one of her parties. Above the main refreshment table - which is clearly the one with the biggest cake on it - there's a few banners. The topmost one reads SO LONG DISCORD! Right below it is a smaller one saying SORRY FOR BEING A MEANIE. The bottom one is a little larger and written in a different color HAPPY LATE HEARTS AND HOOVES DAY! In all the chaos, she'd completely FORGOTTEN a holiday; could you believe it? But she was totally going to make it up now, with a party to beat all parties!]

Comments

[salvagedlight]

One day he would ask. For now, it's time to have fun.

"Okay... Umm, let's give this a shot, then."

Ven went ahead and grabbed a plate, offering one to Xion as well in case she wanted it. And, just for the sake of trying different things, he started picking up one of everything on the table - he didn't recognize most of it, so there was no harm in giving it a shot, right?

[skysmirror]

Xion accepted the plate and followed, picking a few things she hadn't tried yet. Trying new foods was always tricky. She'd picked up a few things she hadn't ended up liking so much; at least, she was pretty sure they weren't her kind of food. Maybe she should wait until she tried another cook's version.

"What kind of food do you normally like?"

[salvagedlight]

"Ummm... I don't really know, I like most things." Ven actually had to stop and consider that one, because up until leaving Land of Departure, he'd pretty much only been exposed to one type of food, the Master's. "Master Eraqus made sure we all ate healthy, so we didn't get to have junk food all that much. I don't think I like it all that much anyway, most of it's too sweet for me. Except ice cream, that stuff's good, especially the stuff they make in Disney Town."

[skysmirror]

"Master Eraqus? Was he like your boss?" She'd never had any teachers to speak of, at least, not in the way her knowledge of Sora's memories caused her to think of the word.

If he liked ice cream, though, they were sure to get along. She smiled. "Have you ever tried sea-salt ice cream? They make it in Twilight Town, and it's really good."

[salvagedlight]

And Ven's face fell just a bit. He couldn't forget what the Master tried to do to him... it still hurt so much. But he made himself answer Xion's question as normally as he could. "Yeah, he trained us all, me and Aqua and Terra. We all lived together in a big castle in the Land of Departure. That's why we've all got these things." And he tapped the emblem on his chest. "It's the mark of the Keyblade Masters."

Fortunately her next question distracted him some from unpleasant memories. "Twilight Town? I don't think I've ever been there."

[skysmirror]

Xion caught the change in expression before he rallied, so she simply nodded to acknowledge his explanation regarding Eraqus. She was too curious to keep silent about a few other things he mentioned, though. "Training? Keyblade Masters? So you can use a keyblade, too?"

The symbol was interesting, and she was going to ask about that, but then he asked about Twilight Town. Her expression brightened at being asked about one of her favorite places. "It's really nice. My friends and I used to go there all the time after missions."

[salvagedlight]

If she asked, he'd answer. But only if she asked.

"Yeah, so can Terra and Aqua. We were all training together, and then Aqua was made a Master - Terra should be one, too, but the exam went wrong." It was easier to say it that way than explain the whole thing. But Ven's feelings on the matter were still clear. "Once we all get back and he can take that exam again, he'll pass, I know he will."

[skysmirror]

"I'm sure he will, too." Xion smiled. She didn't know Terra well, but he seemed like the type to take that sort of thing seriously and try his best. "But there are Keyblade Masters? And you take an exam?"

She hadn't known about that.

[salvagedlight]

"Yeah, Masters take in apprentices and train them until they can become Masters themselves. Like me, I'm an apprentice. Aqua's a Master, and now Terra's going to be, but I need a little more experience first. We all lived together in the Land of Departure, where we trained together."

...One thing Ven didn't know was how their world was gone, now. He knew Master Eraqus was gone, but not that home was, too.

[skysmirror]

Xion hadn't known about that; she and Roxas had just practiced with the keyblade, making things up as they went along. "Wow. It would have been nice to have a teacher. I don't think we ever went to the Land of Departure, though. How do you get to be a Master?"

Xion doesn't know what happened to Ven's home, either, so she's not telling.

[salvagedlight]

When Ven had first heard from Sora and Roxas that they didn't have masters, he'd been very shocked. How could any of this work if you didn't have a master? He wasn't any closer to answering that question, but he wasn't arguing about it, either.

"Well... like that. A master finds you, and they can sort of sense if you can use the Keyblade, because most people can't. And then they perform the Ceremony on you so the Keyblade is passed on, and after that they take you in and start training you. And after enough training, you take the Mark of Mastery Exam, and if you pass that then you're a Master." And he smiled, remembering sitting on the window sill in Cinderella's room, talking about his dreams with Jaq. "That's gonna be all three of us someday."

[skysmirror]

For Xion, finding out that traditionally one studied with a Master until they reached a certain level was surprising. To her, you could either use a Keyblade or you couldn't; if you could, you trained to find the best fighting style for you.

She managed a smile, though. "I'm sure you'll all get to be Masters." Then her expression turned thoughtful. "There was no ceremony for us, though. We just realized we could use the Keyblade; actually, we said that it chose us."

She remembered how happy she'd been the day she realized she could use the Keyblade.

[salvagedlight]

"That's what Sora said, too - I don't know how that worked, but somehow it must have." Actually, they had a pretty decent hypothesis about why that happened - given that he and Roxas were physically identical, that hypothesis was more than likely right. But Ven wasn't going to bring it up without the permission of the other two. "And you guys are all nice - there's certainly been a lot worse people with Keyblades."

Oh hello Master Xehanort.

[skysmirror]

"Worse people?" So not only were there more people than just her, Roxas, and Sora that could use Keyblades, but they weren't all working towards the same goal. Xion was reminded once again exactly how little she really knew about Keyblades.

She didn't know that much about people either, but that was a subject for another conversation.

[salvagedlight]

"Yeah - there's Keyblades of Light, which is what we've got and what I'm pretty sure you all've got, and Keyblades of Darkness. Using a Keyblade means you have to have a really great strength of heart, and sometimes... sometimes those hearts aren't so nice."

His expression went a little far-off, as if he was remembering something, and it probably wasn't something filled with sunshine and rainbows.

"We saw a whole graveyard of Keyblades, both Light and Dark, whose wielders fought and killed each other back before we can even remember. Hundreds or even thousands of them, all in one spot - and all gone after that."

[skysmirror]

Xion's eyes widened. "So there are different kinds of Keyblades, and a lot of people could use them? And there was a fight?"

Later on she'd feel bad that she was possibly bringing up bad memories for Ven. Right now her mind was too busy trying to wrap itself around the concepts he was introducing. She and Roxas had been told that as Keyblade wielders, they were special. To find out that there had once been so many others...the idea took some getting used to.

[salvagedlight]

"Yeah, but when it was... I don't know. A long time ago, so long I didn't even know about it until really recently. The world where it happened is dead and lifeless, only rocks and dust storms. As far as I can tell, even most of the legends about it have been forgotten, and probably that's the reason there aren't a lot of Keyblade users now. Before I came here, I only knew... uhh," and he starts to count on his fingers, "me, Terra, Aqua, Master Eraqus, Master Yen Sid but he's retired now, Mickey, and Master Xehanort."

Everyone had bad memories in their lives, even someone who couldn't remember most of it. Ven didn't mind that she'd asked about it - heck, he was curious himself. He just didn't know more to answer her with.

[skysmirror]

"I see." Xion tilted her head to one side in thought. "Too bad nobody knows that much about it." Her expression turned wistful. "If there were that many once, I wonder if it could be that way again."

Not that she wanted another fight to happen, but it was interesting to think about what it would be like if there were a lot of Keyblade wielders to meet and learn from. She only knew a few of those Ven listed. "So, Master Eraqus was your teacher, and Terra and Aqua are your friends. Who are the others?"

[salvagedlight]

And his expression turned even more somber at that, which probably startled her. But he began explaining it before she could ask, because he wants to make this clear. "I don't know if we want to know about it. That's what happened to Master Xehanort - he was Master Eraqus' best friend, they trained together under the same Master. But he started researching about those legends and found the Graveyard, and he exposed himself to Darkness, and he was corrupted by it. He turned all to Darkness - he was trying to recreate the war, so he could summon Kingdom Hearts. Me, Terra, and Aqua were fighting him and his apprentice Vanitas to stop them from succeeding, and... that's the last thing I remember before showing up here."

Unhappy memories? Yep, despite his general demeanor, Ven definitely had them.

"Master Yen Sid lives in a giant tower, and he used to be a Keyblade Master but I think he's mostly just a Sorcerer now. And Mickey's his apprentice, but he's also a King, too. They're both really good people."

[skysmirror]

Xion mulled his explanation and description of various people over for a few moments before responding. She could understand why Ven was so wary of looking into the Keyblade Wars and the history behind them, but there was one nagging thought. Even if there was a risk, wouldn't it be a good idea to learn as much as they could so they could try to prevent something like that from happening again? Or at least be reassured that they knew as much about it as Xehanort, if they had to fight him again. Given Ven's response, she wasn't going to bring that up now, but it was something to keep in mind. "Have you talked to any of the others about this? I mean, I'm sure Terra and Aqua know as much as you do, but the others...maybe we could all meet to share information."

Granted, Mickey and Yen Sid weren't here, but they could at least discuss it amongst themselves.

[salvagedlight]

"Me and Roxas and Sora've talked about it, some." Of course that conversation had also included the ever-classic discussions about 'Why does Roxas look like Ven and not Sora' and 'Who did Master Xehanort possess.' They'd kind of gotten sidetracked from other topics. "Getting together everyone from home would probably be a good idea, though. It sounds like Terra and Aqua don't remember much more than me, but at least we could try and piece everything together."

It's a good idea Xion, he doesn't object to it.

[skysmirror]

"Good. Then let's try to get everyone together to pool information." She was relieved Ven agreed with her on that. It would be good to get everyone on the same page. Though there was Isa. He really seemed to not want Lea to know too much about their future. Much as Xion thought Lea had a right to have a few things cleared up, if the others objected, or if Lea himself didn't want to know anymore...

She shook her head to clear her thoughts and tried to smile. "For now, let's enjoy the party."

[salvagedlight]

Ven would say that wasn't Isa's call, but rather Lea's. But he wasn't sure what all that was about, since he was from so early in the timeline - Lea and Isa were good guys, after all. His friends.

Ven smiled at that very slight admonishment, nodding at her. "Right. Otherwise Pinkie's gonna come over here and make us dance."

[skysmirror]

Xion would agree with Ven; it really was Lea's decision. She was mostly thinking about avoiding a potential argument if the subject came up. Lea was a friend, and she got along surprisingly well with Isa in most cases.

She smiled back at him. "And we don't know if we'll like the music she'd pick."

[salvagedlight]

"Ahh, Pinkie's got pretty good taste. And dancing's pretty easy, too." At least, for him it was. He tended to think it was easier than it really was because it was one of his talents. Of course, he didn't really know it was a talent... he'd never tried to cultivate it. "If her worst punishment is making us dance, I'd say we'd get off pretty lightly."