Seeking the connections in the cracks

She squints tiredly, a little concerned. She’d only meant to take a short nap, but... How long had she been asleep for? She had no idea, and that was a little bothersome. (Too much like Before, when she slept for years --)

“...Stairs,” she decided after another look down. Pushing away from the window, she zipped down the hall and around a corner, tumbling backwards as she slammed into someone leaving one of the other rooms.

Vanitas sad nothing, just shook his head and clutched the rabbit thing in his arms tighter. One of the blue things skittered away from the pile, looking up at Ventus defiantly.

These ones will not leave. The words formed into both Vanitas’ and Ven’s heads in a strange voice. Mind need these ones. These ones will protect mind. Protect mind from missing one and hurtstick. It hissed at the thing in Ven’s hands and stood its ground. It would not be moved, and if it was destroyed another would simply take its place as if the first had never vanished at all.

Vanitas just quietly stared, saying nothing. It was… in his head…?

Ven jerked in surprise, alarm flicking across her face. It was intelligent? No, that couldn’t be right -- “You’re the danger here!” That was the only reason she had her hurtst -- keyblade out. If they were gone, she wouldn’t need it.

Mind? Missing one? What did any of that even mean, anyway? She was starting to feel overwhelmed by them as it was; too many in such a small space, and flitting at the edges of her thoughts were hazy memories: the blues ones holding her down, someone saying they were going to merge now -- no.

Less yelling. Better. Still yelling. Not better. The yellow ones bobbed and weaved around in the air, trying to stay out of the range of the thing that Ven was holding. Vanitas, very slowly, tried to dry his eyes, look at the creatures around him. There was a sudden feeling of sickness in the pit of his stomach, hatred and revulsion and… some sort of weal calm all at once.

“I…” Hurt. Why was the person helping him yelling? He hugged the rabbit thing in his arms like it was some kind of security blanket. “Don’t…” Please, no hurt. That… that thing in her hands was… no… no… he was shaking worse now. “Please…” Hurt pain bad things, no memories just… uncontrollable shaking, fear… more yellow things appeared and he didn’t know why.

“Vanitas, get away from them.”

Ven shifted her grip on her blade, eyes flicking between all of the creatures. “They’re dangerous --” Weren’t they? Why weren’t they doing anything? Stepping back, away from them, she shuddered. She didn’t like this.

Vanias just stood there, trying not to shake. This was bad. Loud. He just… sat down, head in his hands. Hurt. Loud. Bad.

“…Please…” Please no. No… One of the rabbit-like things, one different than the one on his shoulder, jumped into his lap, snuggling up to his chest. The rest of the rabbits piled on him, making soft noises. A few of the odd blue ones appeared, piling into a… pile of sorts, purring away. Purring…

Purring was… good… even if he didn’t know what was going on. What was purring? Why was there yelling? Why?

Ventus reached out and smacked the communictor off, cutting off Aqua’s yelling; Lost Memory appeared in her hand before she’d really thought about it, and Ven held it in front of herself defensively, though she didn’t move. The creatures ducked away, preferring to pile onto Vanitas instead, leaving the blonde concerned and uneasy.

“Get off him!” This wasn’t right? Something about this -- they were supposed to be attacking her, she was certain. (Why? Why do I know that’s what they should be doing?) This... this cuddle pile was all wrong.

Vanitas let out a soft, startled noise, hiding behind Ven. Why was there yelling? Why? Loud. Loud was bad. He shivered, huddling close to the other.

Why was there yelling? Why? He was starting to shake and all around him, creatures were popping up, even if he couldn’t see them. They backed off, trying to get away, skittering out under doors if they could press themselves flat or trying to move away and go unnoticed. Yellow flying ones fluttered away, one of the rabbit-like ones hopped up and wrapped its long ears around Vanitas’ shoulder. He didn’t notice it there, all he noticed was an oddly familiar weight.

He’d… tried to kill people before? No… no way…

Aqua’s yelling increased in volume as creatures began appearing in the room, and Ven instinctively shied away from the ones she could see. The one on Vanitas’ shoulder was the worst, and she ducked away and down, making a noise of half surprise, half fear.

“What --” They’re Heartless? No, no they’re not they’re -- get them away --  Something about them was familiar, but she didn’t know what, only that she wanted them gone. And whatever they were, he was doing it.

Vanitas tried to stay quiet as he went through the bag of food. And… ooh, sweets. The box full of cookies was his now, or at least the one he’d gotten out and was currently munching on was now his. He might not remember much, but he liked sweets, so he knew that about himself now at least.

“…Sure?” Who was Aqua? The name sounded… vaguely familiar, but not concretely so. He set the cookies down and wiped the crumbs off his face and cautiously shuffled over into view of the communicator. He didn’t recognize the face in the screen in front of him, so he said nothing, just stared quietly.

Ven was as surprised as Vanitas when Aqua gave an angry shriek, pointing. “Vanitas -- Ven, get away from him!” Eyes wide, she looked from the screen to Vanitas.

“Aqua -- Aqua, why?”

“He tried to kill you!”

“H-Haunted?” As in ghosts and stuff? Was he…? No, that would be silly, he was perfectly human and perfectly alive. He’d be all see-through if he wasn’t anyway because ghosts were a bit see-through if he was right about that. “I… don’t know.” Old house. He didn’t remember an old house.

Food. Food food food… he didn’t remember eating at all, so he must have been hungry, even if he didn’t feel like it. So while Ven did whatever she was going to do, he’d have a look through the bags, see if he could find something small just to have something in his system.

Ven smiled slightly before turning her attention completely to the communicator and placing the call to Sora. “Hi! Yeah, uh -- hey, don’t suppose you know anyone named Vanitas? No -- hi Aqua? What? Um --”

Vanitas followed, albeit cautiously. He’d been told where they were going but… he didn’t know where they were going in terms of location. And how did she…? No, she must have just guessed, based on his word choice or something.

He hoped she was just guessing.

“…Not sure. Everything’s… blurry.” He’d stumbled around in a half conscious daze for awhile, he knew that much. “I… think I was in the woods.” It had been green, lots of trees, that surely counted, right? And he cautiously slipped inside of the hotel when she opened the door for him. Windows, doors, people were there… why was he instinctively checking for exists anyway? Everything he did on reflex seemed so strange to him.

“The woods?” She turned her head reflexively to look in that direction. Didn’t it lead to the mansion...? “Did you come from the house there? Supposedly it’s haunted, though no one seems to know for sure.”

Hotel? Communicator? Yes, he knew what those things were. He still remembered what words meant at least, so that was good. At least he understood what a communicator must be, electronic, used to talk across large distances.

That name… he remembered that name. Very clearly. But it wasn’t the same person he remembered, surely, otherwise they would have recognized it. But hearing someone say that name was theirs… made it easier to pick out which name was his that he could remember.

“I’m… Vanitas.” No nicknames that he could remember. But this ‘Ven’ they… seemed okay. No, she seemed okay. He needed to get that into his head, why was he just thinking of her as a ‘they.’ Weird.

“Vanitas? Nice to meet you, then. Come on.” She stepped back out of the alley and moved in the direction of the hotel she was staying in. “Do you have a room yourself? And what’s the last thing you remember?” She was only assuming that her conclusion of memory loss was right, but it was looking more and more likely so...

“…Twilight Town.” He repeated the name, turning it over in his mind. No familiarity, at all. He was lost in his own thoughts, not even noticing when his arm was released as it dropped back to his side. Nothing, not a single glimmer of familiarity. Yet this person… there was a faint nagging sensation in the back of his head. Perhaps he once met them.

“So… ra?” Another check of his empty memories. Nothing, no bells, no sudden memories. “I… don’t think so.” It was possible. Did he have friends? Family? The suggestion to move on, though, made him uneasy though… he didn’t know why.

“…Alright.” Where would they go?

“I’ve got a room at the hotel over there,” she explained, pointing. “We can use my communicator to call Sora and see if he’s ever met you. You look a lot like him, so even if he hasn’t met you, you might be related anyway.” She offered him a small smile.

“I’m Ventus! You can call me Ven, though. What’s your name?”