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flowering-darkness · 27 days ago

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dream interludes: an unintended exchange (Clio/Aria)

After teaming up with an eclectic mix of characters to figure out why the worlds are in disarray, Clio and co. learn that the scattered Jamba Hearts may play a role - and the three mage sisters of Jambandra, plus their apparent subordinate “Rogue”, are hunting the hearts for evil purposes.

One night, just after the party successfully recover their first one, Clio seems to dream of the very foe who has opposed her and the others at every turn so far - but this nightmare doesn’t play out how she expected it to.. (2158 words)

Here is the first of what will be a series of scenes from Origins, an RP I’m part of that features both Aria (my self-insert) and Clio (my KHUX OC)! I am very grateful to @mark-seins for allowing me to be so self-indulgent here.. but it’s also something with fun potential for later plot points, so =3

This is technically very pre-relationship, and the particular version of arilio for this story is going to be very much enemies-to-lovers, but.. it still felt like something I could post here as well, so I hope it’s alright that I do. I’m happy to explain any part of it if anyone wants me to ^-^

Comments and/or reblogs are always appreciated, but never a requirement. Thank you to anyone and everyone who decides to read what I write!~

Document transcript below the readmore (in case the link doesn’t work):

The events of the last few days weighed heavily on Clio’s consciousness, and she knew as she settled down for bed that they would lead to a difficult night for her even *after* she had tried to clear her mind of actively thinking about them.

Indeed, once she had finally gone off to sleep, her mind’s eye did not take long to place her in a disorienting situation - she began to dream of being trapped inside a dark corridor, while a massive Heartless loomed above her.

“Right, come on, we can do this..” she was saying - though no-one else was around to assist her in this fight. Her dreams were consistently dangerous enough that she’d honestly gotten used to being in them to some extent, even if she didn’t often remember them when she woke up.

She ran forwards to strike at the foe with her Keyblade, trying to leap up and get to its weaker points above her. The Heartless itself, a towering Assault Dragon, lunged for her with a mechanical roar as the Shadows in its core writhed angrily - but she was just about able to dodge in time, slashing away at the gears on its side. The very air around her seemed to glow as the dragon hissed out a jet of smoke and started to charge a beam of energy in its mouth. It was all she could do to try and twist it into itself, rooted to the ground as it seemed to be - but the whole thing rocked sideways with a groan of metal parts creaking together, and although the blast missed her, it also didn’t hit itself either.

“I could *really* have done with that working, y’know!” she yelled with a tut - but she was able to use her agility to her advantage, diving back around to start attacking from a new place on the body. She couldn’t really tell how long the battle had gone on for, but eventually, the scrapes and damages she had inflicted to the Heartless’ metal skeleton seemed to win out, as a final decisive blow caused the whole structure to collapse, and the Heartless to dissipate into Lux which then quickly faded.

“Phew.. There we go..” she said to the air, though a part of her almost knew that was probably only the beginning. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she looked around at the dark corridor she seemed to be in, but couldn’t make out any of its details.

Then she sensed something move behind her.

Turning around as quickly as she could, nothing seemed to be there, but she started running towards the source of the sensation. Though there was no indication of where she was from her surroundings, she found herself able to move what *felt* like forwards in the cavernous darkness, and with the light of her Keyblade still shining in her hands, she eventually managed to find an exit.

She kept going through the exit, and found herself standing in what could have been the square around the fountain in Daybreak Town; it seemed reminiscent of where she used to meet up with her fellow Keyblade wielders. Despite it being the middle of the night, the air seemed surprisingly mild in temperature, which gave the environment an odd though not unwelcome feel.

As she approached the central fountain, the same sensation arose again, and she instinctively whipped her head around to try and see its source - but, just like before, there was nothing in her view to see. She opened her mouth to speak, but found that her voice had unexpectedly disappeared. Frowning, she instead turned back towards the fountain - she could hear the quiet splashing of its water, and so thought that a drink might help free up her throat, as well as calm her nerves; she must have still been tense from the sudden fighting earlier.

When she reached the fountain’s edge at last, the way the water was agitated meant she couldn’t make out any details of her reflection in its surface - but this was quite normal. She was used to the weary feeling of being in a dream by now, and after so long of having to experience such similar events, she could even start piecing together some of the reasons behind what she went through each night - not that there were always reasons to be fathomed out, of course, but occasionally there would be something she could at least find a potential explanation for, and while she didn’t feel a need to understand every single aspect of her subconscious, the straws she was sometimes able to grasp at did nevertheless bring her some form of solace in the face of her more persistent nightmares.

(Tonight’s encounter with a massive draconic Heartless, for example, made sense in the wake of the dragon-like form taken by Ren’s Shadow, which she was so recently forced to face; while she had had a large group of allies alongside her in however close a Palace came to reality, the world of her dreams offered no such support or companionship for her now, though.)

Clio dispelled her Keyblade, blinking momentarily at how much less lit-up doing so made the space around her, and reached down into the fountain to cup some water into her hands; she found it pleasantly cool to the touch, in comparison to the strangely-balmy night. As she went to drink it, there seemed to be nothing untoward about its texture or taste - however, she realised as she did so that the sound of splashing water was not the only thing she could hear; it once again seemed like something was slowly approaching her from behind. Despite sensing this, she decided to take a deep breath and try her best to feign unawareness, fighting against the curiosity and concern rising up inside her just to see if that perhaps might let her spot the answer.

The sensation slowly increased in intensity, like a long shadow looming over her as her back was turned, but it eventually stopped increasing as the almost-silent footsteps on the stones behind her stilled. Clio could tell from listening out for their pace that they *were* footsteps, but had not seen any change in the lighting around her as she finished her drink from the fountain, so she surmised that their owner had stopped further away from her than the looming dread now hanging over her would indicate.

There was a pause, but in the end, her instincts refused to let her stay vulnerable any longer.

She turned around.

And saw a familiar cat-eared figure with long black wings.

Instantly, her eyes widened and she let out a cry, taking a step back to position herself properly and nearly falling backwards into the fountain in the process.

“Wh- You’re that Rogue girl!”

Clio’s voice rang loudly off the stone of the plaza, enough to make “Rogue”’s own eyes widen in return.

“Y-You- You saw me, then?” she(?) asked, as if confused. Her(?) ears were flattened against her(?) head.

“*Yes*, I saw you, or- see you now, at the very least!” she exclaimed. Her heart was now frantically pounding from being so startled, even if she had quite deliberately put herself in such a situation, having not known what was creeping up on her.

“What do you want?!” she then asked, defensively.

“That.. is not your concern.” she(?) replied, her(?) voice terse but not forceful. “I cannot say this has gone how it should have..”

It was now Clio’s turn to frown as her adversary’s expression - or what was visible of it, anyway - became contemplative, like she(?) was lost in her(?) own thoughts.

Something about her(?) presence seemed wrong, but she had to assume that was due to this being the first time she had seen her(?) with her(?) hood down, and could properly see her(?) head and newly-visible flowered hairpiece in full.

..Could dreams fill in details like that?

“What do you mean?” she then asked her(?), more tentatively.

At that, “Rogue” looked up at her from beneath her(?) messy, dark blonde hair.

“I didn’t expect you to take notice of me here.” she(?) then admitted, after a pause. “Such a factor can still be advantageous, I suppose, but it does complicate things..”

Clio’s frown deepened. “So I’m not supposed to be able to see you? But, of course I can see you, this is my dream!”

“That this dream is yours is true enough, but to think yourself its master is quite another.” she(?) replied. “Were that the case, you would surely have the strength to free yourself from the nightmares you suffer, yes?”

She was taken aback by that. “W-Well.. not exactly! I’ve heard of people who can make themselves dream whatever they want, and- sure, if I had that power it might let me have a decent night’s sleep for once, but-“

“So the sudden appearance of your battle before was not new to you, then. I suppose I should have known from how aptly you handled it.”

“Huh??”

By this stage, Clio was quite sure she wouldn’t have been able to keep up with Rogue’s deductions had this conversation been happening in the waking world, let alone with her feeling as exhausted as she tended to in her dreams.

“_Look_, I still don’t understand- why you’re here.” she began, trying to climb her way back to confidence. “Especially not like this. I was expecting us to just.. fight again.”

“Is that the usual course of your dreams, then?” she(?) then asked, tilting her(?) head to one side. “An endless stream of constant conflict?”

There was a pause as she then let out a grumpy sigh. “It’s either that, or I’m running for my life, or being shouted at, or some other violent scene’s playing out in front of me..”

She(?) stayed silent at that, though the silence was not a cold one.

“So, yeah, that’s why this is weird.” she continued, her expression now decidedly melancholy.

“..Wait, why am I even talking to you about this?”

Her(?) cheeks rose up behind her mask as if she(?) was smiling. “Who can say? Beyond the confines of the waking world, your heart and mind are free to express themselves as they truly would want - is that not what some believe?”

Clio frowned again. “What’s that meant to mean?!”

Her quick jump to her own defence made her sigh exasperatedly to get the rising tension out of her shoulders, but she did see how the girl(?)’s lynx-like ears had dipped downwards again from her outburst.

“..Look, you’ve been confusing me every time you’ve shown up and caused trouble.” she then began.

“First you ran circles around me and Mimi ‘til Morrigan and Kazuki arrived, but then they seemed fine with giving you Francisca back despite the fact she ordered you to kill us.

Then you set Hoa Sen off into a panic as soon as he saw you, but he also wouldn’t let anyone hurt you.

And then you corrupted Ren’s Shadow with more darkness, but didn’t even stay to finish us off.

So- who are you, Rogue? What are you trying to achieve??”

There was a long pause.

“..I am not “Rogue”, for one thing.” she(?) said quietly. “Not somewhere like here, if anywhere.”

“Huh?” It dawned on her how tense the girl(?) before her had become. “As in, that’s not.. your *name*, or-?”

She(?) shook her(?) head, which Clio realised was not a particularly clear answer, but it seemed she was - however reluctantly - willing to speak further.

“Not *here*.” she(?) repeated. “It is all that the sisters will call me, but-”

Clio tried to step forward as she(?) was talking, but had to raise her arm up to shield her face instead. From the unspecified horizon in the distance, it seemed like the sun had just started to come up - and then from either side of her, a fog began to roll in.

Though her(?) sight was not turned towards the slowly-rising dawn, she(?) could sense it reach a new stage in approaching from Clio’s reaction.

“Ah.. So the waking world sees fit to reclaim you, then.” she(?) stated. “Of course..”

“Wait a second-” She tried to close the distance between the two by running forwards, but doing so only seemed to make the fog close in more quickly, and it felt like she was sinking into the ground.

“What were you going to say??” she cried.

The thin mist now filling the air between the two was growing thicker by the second, though it retained a certain brightness nevertheless.

“Perhaps another night.” she(?) declared, her(?) voice still holding melancholy. “Though, perhaps..”

She(?) gave a sigh, but it was muffled.

The last thing Clio caught before the fog engulfed her entirely was the mysterious figure looking directly towards her.

And though her(?) mouth was obscured by a mask, she(?) nevertheless said *something*-

-which sounded a bit like “Fiore”.

#heart of the void #creations from the void #my writing #selfshipping #love: crown of clovers (clio)#selfship: of flowers unchained (clio/aria)#..except not yet. still in the enemies part of the enemies to lovers. but still #self‑insert: darkness' champion (aria)#except here she’s still only known as “rogue’’ - but that will change in time =)#origins tag #I would also tag this as KHUX because that’s the version of clio I use in this (as opposed to say the FFXIV version)#but origins is like Everything crossed all together as even the names dropped in the writing will probably indicate #(don’t worry too much about them though)#comments and reblogs are okay but not required!

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xfindingtrouble · 2 years ago

Note

❛ do you trust me? ❜ (for ellis??? perhaps before they've really reconciled?????????)

" No, " the answer is quick, honest. Maybe it is a bit blunt, but he is beyond caring. But if there was one thing he knew about Astoria, it was that he could tell her the truth. Maybe this is why he felt such betrayal upon knowing she had kept so much of herself from him. Maybe he wants it to hurt when he speaks, though he cannot look at the way her gaze breaks with his answer.

He knows what it is like to trust Astoria. It feels like air, passing through his lungs. Butterflies batting against his ribcage. Weaving her curls into a perfect braid. What he felt now was much different, more akin to flies laying larvae in his brain. There was a constant buzz in the knot of his brow, invasively questioning their every step. Her every step. (Who is she, really?) When he breathes in, his breath catches.

Magic, of all things... he was fostering a recent & necessary appreciation for what it was capable of, but certain facts still stood. Magic was dangerous & he had never kept that observation or his distate to himself. This is likely why summer nights in Highever were shrouded in this half-truth. If he had known of Astoria's abilities beforehand, he would have never given himself the chance to trust her in the first place... But then they wouldn't be standing here at odds either. He may have opened his notoriously loud mouth & gotten her into trouble, gotten her sent away. He stomps the thought of in the back of his mind,unable to take it seriously for fearof moving on from this horrible high that came with anger he felt righteous in.

( What else was Astoria hiding? ) his questions often drove him to lash out, to turn his back on his friend... though he still could not help the urge to look over his shoulder, back to her. The worst part was how often he caught her lingering gaze, reminding him of the person who had once lived in his skin. The person who wanted to comfort Astoria with a yes, but knew better than to lie.

Despite it all, he knew he could still give his life for her & have no regrets. Astoria would do the same, he's sure of that. But he was hesitant he could depend on her at the moment, that he could rely on the words that fell from her lips as she spoke them. There was a strange doubt that bled from Ellis with each passing interaction. Where things had once been easy, they were now different. scary, almost.

" I don't trust you. " he reiterates, sternly. Ellis is sure she doesn't need convincing, but he does. His features do not break as he sets his jaw, stubbornly looking past her. It was more complicated than a simple ' no ' could convey & he's not sure she would want to hear it. ( maybe he knows that she would & that scares him. maybe, maybe, maybe. so many questions, so little breath to speak them. ) So he boils it down to the simplest form of the answer. No. Ellis should have been gentler with his explanation, but they were past that now.

"I won't lie to you," maybe it was an accusation. He's not sure, though he's not sure of much these days. Love was not the same as trust. though his heart felt wounded, he knew the only way to remove her from it would be to carve her out entirely... which at this point, maybe impossible. It could never be so simple as hurt feelings, it was deeper than that. Ellis tears his gaze from the tree behind her, pretending not to see her expression so that it may not draw him in, " but I can't do that right now. "