It was, frankly, a ridiculous practice. Vanitas sighed, gazing out over the dancers, resisting the urge to reach up and scratch under the mask he wore. Everyone else wore masks as well, of course - that was the whole point of the event. Vanitas didn’t really understand the practice, since it was easy enough to tell who everyone was, or at least tell their status - the fancier the mask, the richer they were. Case in point, his own elegantly made mask, resembling a wolf’s face - set with thin lines of silver and tiny pearls.

Vanitas wouldn’t even have bothered attending, frankly, but his father insisted. He knew his father was just trying to find him someone to marry, after he’d rejected several potential candidates already, but the effort would likely go to waste. He had no investment in finding someone, frankly. He knew it was supposed to be his duty as prince, but he simply wasn’t interested in marriage.

     Journalism wasn’t on the long list of things Roxas was considering taking as a major, but the class seemed interesting, and this year it had a guest lecturer. So Roxas had decided to give it a shot. Only to be hit over the head with how familiar the damn teacher looked.

Vanitas smiled slightly, shyly. He didn’t really know if he was doing this right… he’d never done anything like this, after all. It was kind of hard to know how to act sometimes, but Xehanort had told him that saying what he felt was a good place to start.

“That’s good.” He liked hearing that Xehanort liked him. No one else did, so the reassurance was nice. 

     Everything felt so wrong... 

     He had steeled himself well, he thought. Swallowing his anger, his pain... anything that would have been seen as a sign of weakness amongst the other vessels. The conditioning had turned him into the perfect pawn - loyal to his master, unflinching when a hand was raised... all to appease his future self. 

     But on the inside... he was an emotional bomb that was ready to go off. 

     The old man knew how to break him. He knew all too well. It only took four words to make the mental walls he had so meticulously crafted to come crashing down. 

          ‘You are a failure’. 

     He couldn’t make it to his quarters, instead, collapsing in the hall as an anguished cry escaped his throat; tears threatening to burn him came cascading down his reddened cheeks. For the first time in... Gods knew how long, he felt small... inferior - the voice of his twin did little to comfort him. 

The Keyblade Graveyard. It was a place Vanitas had hoped never to return to - everything about it was wrong, and he’d already been forced to spend far too long there. He had especially hoped never to have to show Xehanort this place. He didn’t need to see the place the Master had kept him all those years.

Vanitas hadn’t thought today was going to be anything special. Wake up, try to get out of the house without waking his dad up (success on that front), spend the rest of the day doing whatever he wanted. It was the weekend, so there was nowhere he needed to be. It wasn’t like things were great - when were they ever - but this weekend wasn’t bad at all.

What he hadn’t expected was a pickup truck coming out of nowhere, ramming into the car in front of him. Before he could even start to break or turn the front wheel of his motorcycle was ramming into the car’s fender and he was launched over the handlebars. The next thing he knew he was on the ground, his arm hurt like hell, and the whole world felt fuzzy and distant. Sounds came to him as though filtered through water, and suddenly the only thing he wanted to do was sleep... .

He blacked out on the side of the road, most people too preoccupied with the two cars to notice him.

------

There was a moment of confusion as he woke up again, in a place he didn’t recognize with too-bright lights glaring down at him. Everything felt kind of numb - everything looked too white, smelled too clean, and was just too quiet. He tried to sit up, but his body felt too heavy, and he couldn’t move his arm - what was happening?

It was only then that he noticed the other person in the room - a boy, maybe a little older than him, in a nice black blazer, silvery hair just touching his shoulders. Vanitas swallowed - he felt thirsty, but there wasn’t much he could do about that... .

Send ☭ for a vs. battle quote to your muse (FIRE EMBLEM EDITION)

Battle Theme: Vanity Judge (Roar) (Fire Emblem Fates)Battle intro: “I see... . So that’s how it is.”

Victory: “Hmph. Too bad.”

Defeat: “I’m... sorry... .”

Taunt: “No holding back now!”

Reacting to Taunt: “Shut up and fight!”

Flee: “Ugh - no, we can’t... fight like this.”

Reaction to Flee: “Fine then. Another time.”

Tie: “Ah... were you... testing me?”

Perfect Victory: “Why did you... ?”

Finishing Move: “I’ll make this quick.”

- - TAG TEAM QUOTES - -

Assist: “Look at them - this’ll be easy!”

Your muse down during Assist: “Xehanort? Come on, you’re better than this!”

Using an item on your muse: “Just for you.”

Healing/Buffing your muse: “Can’t let you go down.”