seaofhearts | Be brave enough to burn

Be brave enough to burn

Who: All the Alices (and Ankh, his name is Ankh)
What: Just a mysterious castle built on top of a restaurant. What could possibly go wrong?
Where: World Two – Wings to the Sky
Warnings: Who even knows? Will update as necessary.

Ankh wakes up at the edge of the water, his arm draped over a rock and his face cushioned by a bed of sand and seaweed as the edges of waves wash over his body. The first thing he notices upon waking is that it's uncomfortable. The second, upon lifting his head and starting to pull himself out of the water is that it's familiar. Awareness dawning, he scrambles to his feet and looks around wide-eyed half expecting Eiji to be there somewhere. Of course he isn't.

But this... this is his last memory. For a moment he wonders if somehow this whole thing came to an end and he wound up back home, but that's wishful thinking. No, this is just his world. His heart, as the guides like to call it. It's only more obvious that this isn't real as he scans the horizon and finds Cous Coussier where it shouldn't be. And then on top of it... that's-

His eyes widen, and then narrow. He's not sure what to expect out of this other than nothing good.

But, after wringing the water out of his clothes as best he can, he makes his way to the restaurant and curiously to the freezer, where he finds the ice pops he expects to be there. Pulling one out, he gives it a skeptical look for a moment—does he dare assume it's really the same or even safe to eat?--but ultimately pops it into his mouth and discovers it tastes exactly like he expects. That much is something he can appreciate. But as for the rest of this...

With popsicle in hand, he continues exploring.

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[...So if Cheshire can be trusted on this, it was because despite appearances Ankh really isn't human. Considering some of what Ankh's done and said... yeah, that's believable. Still, he breathes a sigh of relief when Ankh stops struggling.]

...Yeah. That's true. There are monsters in the mines back home, and they don't care if they kill either.

[There's a second or two where he's trying to sort out his thoughts.]

The difference is that he doesn't attack just because he can. He can be reasoned with. [...Well...] Kind of.

[Sure, he's pretty cold and calculating. And he'd probably kill them all again, given a reason... but that was the thing. He seemed to need a reason. Whatever had been taken from Ankh had given him a reason to attack Cheshire.

But some of the others here were more inclined to violence. More like the monsters he was used to. Ankh wasn't all that dangerous compared to them. Or maybe it was more accurate to say it was a different sort of dangerous... at any rate, it had begun to become predictable. In a way safer.]

[ The Cat blinks when Sebastian speaks. Oh. Oh this is amusing and rich. ]

...You're sticking up for him? After he's killed you in cold blood how many times? What a riot!

[The claim that Ankh has killed Sebastian an undue number of times here is unfair, but by this point, Ankh is finally starting to recognise the cat's jabs for the useless needling they are. He hasn't forgiven him--far from it--but maybe he's a bit less likely to give into the probably futile urge to murder him. With the way he's poking the both of them, it's probably what the cat wants.

That doesn't make the core of his point any less valid, though. Why is Sebastian sticking up for him?

...but then, why did Eiji?]

Heh. [There's an odd sort of smirk as Ankh folds his arms under him. He doesn't need to hear Sebastian's reply to that accusation to know what it's likely to be. If the goal was getting him to attack--or getting Sebastian to let him--then the cat just lost. It's almost as satisfying as if he'd managed to get a hit in.]

...Twice, actually. Once here, once in Alice's heart - where I also killed him. Where Alice and Otoha also killed me. And it's seeming very likely that I'll end up killing all of them.

[In all truth... he's beginning to get used to the fact that they're all going to die, come back, and die again. It's looking more and more like that's a fact of this place, so no matter how much it makes his heart race he'd better get used to it.]

This is all going to have been an interesting adventure by the time I get to leave, dream or no dream. And that means no one dies for real.

[He's trying to convince himself, sure. But he's always wanted an adventure away from Pelican Town, right? And this is more of that than he's ever gotten before. It's closer to his fantasy books than anything he could have gotten back home. He always played one of the magic-users, and he also always ran the game. If this was like a campaign put into reality, he was going to do his best to make sure he won.]

...Does it, Alice? Does it really mean no one dies for real? 'Cause there was an Alice before who didn't obey the rules, and many Alices before that... Who never got to wake up.

[ Oh, his smile is dangerous now. He's treading on dangerous ground by revealing this and he knows it. ]

[Ankh has been content for a little while now to let them talk to each other while he sorts his own thoughts. Up until very recently those thoughts were just violent but now? Now, he's listening. And he's been listening, the same way Sebastian must have been to call him out on what he'd said about being human. He pushes himself up with the renewed intention of getting out of Sebastian's grasp; now that he's not acting so wild, maybe Sebastian will let him. As he does, he looks toward the cat, far calmer than he has been.]

Is that what happened to you?

[When Ankh starts trying to get up this time, Sebastian stands up and moves to the side - close enough that he can grab Ankh again if he has to. He narrows his eyes at the cat's words, but he doesn't respond. Ankh's question is more important than anything he could say right now.

Anyway, he'll deal with that when he gets to it, Fluffy.]

Nope! I died a different death, a long time ago. A good one, I'd think.

[ He'll roll his shoulders in a shrug. Ah, no, they're wrong. He knows they're wrong. He can confirm it easily. ]

Sorry. But hey. Is that really what you should be worried about, Alice?

[He quickly gets to his feet, now that Sebastian isn't pinning him down anymore. The cat denying that guess about his origins doesn't bother him overly much. Whether he was right or wrong doesn't really matter. They know more than they did before, assuming the cat isn't lying to them outright.]

Information is useful, isn't it? Which reminds me, there's another question you still haven't answered. [The one about how and why he's here when he should be dead. Maybe you remember, cat.

There's also questions about where the key is and how do they get out of this hellhole, but he'll get to that in a minute.]

[...good. Ankh's calmed down enough to be rational again. If they're playing for their lives now... fine. So be it. But they're starting to get a grasp on the rules, the rules that no one will tell them ahead of time. And "many" is not the same as "all". There's not no way out.]

...Think on it, Alice. What's something that you all have in common, regardless of bein' alive or dead?

[ And now he'll pull out that Key, twirling it on a claw. ]

You seem convinced we're all named Alice.

[He's sure that's not the answer, or if it's relevant, it's only a small piece. But he can't help it. It still annoys the hell out of him.]

[...Well, that was certainly true, but he was pretty sure that wasn't the answer. Especially with the way that Fluffy was twirling that key.]

...We all have keys in our hearts.

I know your names. Just don't care about 'em. And while you do have Keys, they weren't always there, were they? So what's something a living and a dead person can have in common?

[ Just. Twirling that key. Sorry, Ankh, he just. Doesn't care. ]

That could be a lot of things, couldn't it? Someone who's dead was alive once.

[So in that sense, it's not so different. Not nearly as different as someone who was never alive in the first place. He doesn't think that flippant comment about a name is entirely irrelevant. It's something people use to identify others, whether or not they're still alive. And the people who would use it are still important, either way. Eiji and Hina remember him being alive whether he's there or not. There are probably a lot of things that could be said in that vein.

But that doesn't explain what the cat thinks they all have in common, or how it's true that he's here when he shouldn't be. Humans might have some beliefs about some kind of soul that still exists after they die, but for him it's just energy stored in some medals, and he burned up the last of that saying goodbye. He's pretty sure he shouldn't exist at all.]

A name... a skeleton?...

[Wait, the theme of this entire place... and where they were right now. Where they'd already been.]

...A heart?...

Close, Alice. Yeah, you all have hearts but that's not what you need to be here.

[ He'll shrug, and then toss the key to the other hand. He's bored. ]

But we're not here for that, are we? Tell me, Alice. Are you really that different from the others of your kind?

[Well, that's an interesting question. Not according to the cat, if he meant what he said earlier when he was being intentionally irritating. In some ways, he'd be right. Ankh won't deny it. In others...]

Who knows? [There's a bit of a smirk to go along with that.] You'd have to ask some other people about that.

[He was alive, and he won't say that about any of the other Greeed. But it's some certain humans who decided that, not him.]

[What? What does that mean? Sebastian is incredibly curious but he's pretty damn sure that Ankh won't answer even if he asks. Since that seems to be how Ankh rolls.]

...Hey, Alice. If you could go home and be whatever you wanted... Who would you kill? What would you give up? Would you take it, no matter the price?

[That smirk grows a bit wider, a little dangerous.] So far all it's cost me is not killing you. [And he's going to let that sink in for a second.]

Anything else, I'll decide when I get there. [He's not going to speak in hypotheticals, not when he expects it might come back to bite him.] Right now, all I want is to get out of here.

[So yes, now that he's very sure he won't get any useful answers out of the cat in regard to that question, he's finally interested in that key.]

[He's never really considered anything he wants as being something he'd want to kill for. But if that was what he had to do to leave here alive - if that was what it took... He wasn't going to just let himself be killed, not permanently. He was done with dying unnecessarily. Whatever memories he'd lost... they still hadn't changed that he wanted to get out of Pelican Town. That didn't mean that he was going to just let himself die now that he'd left.

He could decide what to do when he got to that point. And he was starting to think... if he really had to, no matter how much he didn't want to...]

What he said.

...You know, Alice. You sure you should be helping someone with that attitude? I mean... Given what all's happened. Yeah, this other Alice here's naive enough to trust ya... But what about the others? Or how do you know they won't stab you right between those shoulders?

[His eyes narrow a little at that comment about being stabbed in the back. It's not just a figure of speech. The guides read minds and the cat probably knows exactly what the history of this room they're standing in is. But he shrugs off the comment just as easily. Who said anything about trust?]

Most of them probably would. [He doesn't see Sebastian or Alice as much of a threat, but the rest easily could be, and even Alice was forced by her world. But he's stuck with them all until they find a way out.] What's your point?

[...It is true that he knows even less about the others. He knows that one does whatever's most fun for her, that Otoha doesn't need much help to go completely over the edge, that the old guy's window showed him as some kind of sorcerer... and he didn't look like the good kind.

Was it naive to think that they'd all cooperate for just as long as it took to get out? Under normal circumstances Sebastian wouldn't get involved. But this was anything but normal. Didn't they all want to get back what was stolen? If the only way out was for everyone to go into hearts together, it didn't make sense to betray others. That'd just be dooming yourself.]

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