Nobody's Memory's
Chapter 3 – Though perhaps Murphy takes a bit too much pleasure in his work
Falling through the sky once again, eh Solstice? As fun as it may be, myself, we really must stop meeting like this, Sky. Oh, and my vast, cavernous skull? Please note I'm aware of your illicit affairs with the ground. I know you've been seeing him behind my back! Now I have to steady my body to descend in a cone, straightening myself out and going ramrod, creating a sonic cone around me as I fall. I test my connection to the Corridors of Darkness, to the Lanes Between, and find that surprise surprise, as a Nobody, my connections weren't strong enough to pull me through in an instant without creating a portal.
I suppose I would be getting a durability test soon enough. The fact that I had twice fallen onto hard, hard land from great heights probably meant something, what with Sora and Riku crashing harmlessly into the water by the end of the second game from great heights. I would ponder my luck compared to theirs if the pool of world-crashing-from-great heights wasn't both so small, and that they had been falling onto an mostly water world. I would be more than safe, especially considering how far and hard I had been launched away from that world, taking only superficial damage. I didn't even have an headache, though if that was because I had been hit hard enough or because of some unforeseen lack of anger or annoyance, I couldn't tell.
Now, back to the entirely far, far too curious world I had just been rejected from. I had felt something living, something Primordial in nature, that had rejected me unthinkingly the moment I had tried to force myself into it; that clearly meant something was in there, or had stumbled upon a particularly powerful keyblade master's demented testing grounds. Rather unfortunately, I could only name one darkness-obsessed keyblade master. Of course, it might not even have been him because granted, that was the worst case scenario I could experience. There were... presence... had been large. Large to the degree where making up words failed to describe it, and I had just barely glimpsed its heart before it had literally tossed me across and out of the galaxy. The thing puzzling me, however, was that it had possessed a heart. A large, large heart that might as well have been that worlds keyhole (wait, might it have been? A sentient keyhole?) but a heart nontheless.
That immediately discounted two of the largest players in Kingdom Heart's lore, and that was concerning, because I definitely didn't like unknown threats. What could it have been? The Unversed, maybe, though I had known nothing about them beyond taking a quick look at Birth by Sleep before I picked it up from my friend's. I had also, by perusing the Wikipedia page, heard of another pseudo-enemy race; the Dream Eaters. I, quite unfortunately, knew nothing about them because according to my aforementioned friend, the game they came from was 'stupid and convoluted as fuck.', and been recommended to never play it. The most I knew about the Dream Eaters was that they were Cosmic is nature, or something; certainly fit the bill better than what looked like pseudo-heartless experiments gone wild.
I was also willing to admit I had overestimated the strength of the world's barrier, and steadying myself so that I would hopefully land on my feet as I finally reached the ground-
*Krthunk!*
Ah,I had landed on my head again, dislodging my hood and literally eating dirt. Good to know this would be a recurring theme in my adventures to keep myself from being bored as fuck. Standing and dusting my cloak off, unnecessary in all honesty because there wants a hit of wear, tear, or ash upon them, I look around. Yet it felt human, and that was something I acknowledged as needing, even if I could bring myself to care to for a reason beyond occupying my thoughts. A bit of food for thought, how had I had so much time to think about everything despite falling from such great heights. Simple height? Accelerated thoughts? Ah well, who knew. Right now I needed to find out exactly where I was.
...I was inside of a smoking home, with a mutilated corpse clearly eaten to the bone by a wild animal, displaying many a bite and tear mark, the home itself possessing a giant gaping hole in its roof. Huh. When did this happen?
...Not just the murder. I had legitimately not been aware I had crashed through someones home, though it didn't look like he would be caring any time soon. Ah well, a whole new probably grimdark medieval world awaited me! What to do, what to do! Well, figure out what world I was in, or if I even recognized it for one...
Goals Quest Log!
Main Quest: Whole New World
Figure out what world I have landed in, and if it is identifiable
Find and fuck with the protagonist.
Find and fuck with any characters I once liked.
Gain their trust while doing so by solving their problems or dropping backstory hints, for butterfly's.
Power testiiiiiing~!
Find chump enemies or dungeon (?) to test strength on and discover whatever unique abilities I might possess
Well, what else was I going to call it? That was pretty much exactly what I had been using this journal for so far. No point calling this section something it wasn't.
Side Quest; Graverobber
We've found a Corpse in the home we certainly didn't destroy, chewed to the bone and stripped of all its flesh. Find out what it was for further power testing
Find out if the man had any valuables or insurance on his house we can capitalize upon/ steal.
Not having any real sense of guilt or regret was fun.
Now then *Snap!* How shall I go about this? There was a certain methodology that went with pillaging everything a man had owned in life. First, investigate. Cabinets, shelves above his bed in a room to the right and by the door, a bookshelf filled not with books but varying trinkets, burlap sacks probably filled with food, seeds, or some other bulk item, a few crates… surprisingly well-stocked for a guy I presumed to live in the middle of nowhere if I couldn't hear any screaming or curious whispers. Of course, everyone else might also be dead, slain by whatever it was that had gnawed this man to the bone, but y'know. Not to mention the fact that the dirty glass windows really didn't do the place, nor my currently lacking theories, any favors. Ignoring the fact the door was torn off its hinges to reveal a sunny day, the door itself laying in splinters just in front of the frame.
So then, priority targets, the chests. The trinkets could probably be pawned off if need be, so I could take them. The shelves had a few books, which I would use to find some kind of context to exactly where I was, or simply throw away. Food? Did I even need food? I'd neither felt nor seen any signs of needing sustenance, had craved nothing, and suffered no physical drawbacks thus far, so... maybe not. I knew I could eat, yes, considering article A; Sea Salt Ice Cream, but I wouldn't enjoy it. Objectively, I knew why Roxas, Axel, and Xion had done so - to feel more human. To act, even in their thoughts, like they had emotion, to help ignore the lack of feeling, like I was now, even in my mind.
I now knew from experience that it didn't lessen the feeling. It certainly helped distract me from it.
There was also the fact that the majority of the people I had just mentioned had hearts... maybe? Probably.
So then, what I had to do was boiled down to looting everything shiny, and skimming the pages of a few books. I should probably check out the corpse as well, see how long it had been here. Sniffing the air, there was only the mildest hint of rot and decay, hell, a candle was even burning over on a windowsill. So, that meant that the murder had both been recent if the house hadn't burnt down nor smell, and more importantly, that whatever had done it was still around. It also meant I had no weapon... beyond my amazingly strong fists. So probably not a problem.
Moving for the first time since landing, I set about my business, pillaging the poor mans home of everything I can find; Golden coins hidden in bags and bins emboldened with the symbol of a crown, a surprisingly large and existent uncut emerald located at the bottom of a barrel full of potatoes, candle holders, silverware, a stone that had tingled with energy atop a shelf - they all disappeared into a messily dyed bright-blue bag I had 'commandeered', formerly also filled with potatoes, and herbs of some kind - a bright white flower with long petals, what might've been mistletoe, and leaves that reminded me of Parsley leaves my mother occasionally used as seasoning, were it not for vague differences that only a bored teenager who had chosen them as the topic of several hours recent sketching would care to notice. Overall? Mixed messages, especially once I had reached the books. One of them was a steamy vampire romance novel that name dropped absolutely nothing I could recognize, and another was a book of Herbs. It was either outdated or secondhand, too;yellowed pages and dogged edges, a chapped cover...It was certainly going into the newly christened lootbag, don't get me wrong, but still. Poorly kept books always had been something to grate on my nerves.
The fact that even one of my biggest triggers did nothing is what gave me pause. The one time I had ever come to blows with a kid had been when he had threatened one of my books in elementary school - I had literally sent him sprawling after he tried pouring water on it to get me off a swing. Expected, but yet I digress.
Finally checking out the last interesting thing in the dead man's bedroom - a chest under his bed which had contained yet more coins I gladly took and half-written love letters -, I rose up from my knees and kicked the chest back under the bed, silvery robes flowing at the movement. I had looted everything I could; time to go poking a pile of bones. I had been putting it off for long enough, what with my hour long noisy search of the already somewhat torn apart room; now it looked like a hurricane had come through.
Dropping the sack, I bent down over the bones and began to truly investigate them; leather and wool clothing, clearly worn and having seen better days, was torn to shreds save for the toughest, most sun-died sections, mostly pouches. Checking them revealed nothing but tools, amongst them a well-kept Knife, the likes of which I gladly claimed as my own. A few internal organs remained, mushy and eaten, in a much better condition than the rest of his bones, chewed until they looked as though they had the consistency of wet tissue paper or outright broken open and sucked dry of their marrow. I took note of his right hand's fingers, which he was clutching his left; shoving it aside revealed a bloody hunk of flesh remained. On his one particularly well-kept hand he wore a ring, completely plain and silver, yet clearly valuable to him.
Yoink.
It even looked like whatever had done this to him hadn't spared his head; his hair had been torn off in chunks, each eaten to the skin with tiny hints of meat remaining, covered in a greenish slime and slobber. An all around bleak, grim, and disturbing picture. I examined the ring, carefully and slowly turning it while clutching it between two fingers. In contrast to its rather plain sides and top, on its underside was an engraving that I actually couldn't read, despite being able to understand everything else I had found in the house and knowing it wasn't English. Interesting. Perhaps it had been enchanted? Sliding it onto my own finger, I decide its time to leave, taking one final look at the body.
I wondered if I would be able to introduce whatever had done this to the might of a Nobody.
Tying the bag up tightly, slinging it up and around my shoulder as I move to depart from the home, I sigh. Reaching the doors, I squinted in the sunlight, taking in a forested hillside, a dirt path stretching far and wide in front of the house; there were gardens on either side of the house as well. The sun rested high in the sky, looking as though it were ready to begin its descent. An otherwise nice well, I suppose it had been too much to ask for anything interesting to happen. Taking one more step forward, I reacted amazingly well to the fact that two dead, fleshy corpses suddenly leapt at me from the treeline, snarling in an angry hunger.
Or, I thought, Slapping one aside and to the ground, stomping on its head and crushing its skull, I jumped back from the others claw-like grip , as my Sister's favorite pair of pajamas's would say; 'Hangry.' Throwing the sack behind me, I took a fighting stance, fists ready; lets see, remembering my somewhat pathetic lessons from years ago, slide one foot back like this, stay on my toes, circle the enemy...
The undead corpse, apparently taking a note from The Lifestealers book, was crawling across the floor, head facing me as it also cautiously circled around me: odd, aside from the obvious Lifestealer parrallels, why did this thing look so familiar to me? Eyeing the first one, its body twitching while its head remained firmly broken in and partially buried, made no movements to help its comrade.
The second stopped moving, looking as though it were about to tense before outright skipping that step and leaping at me. It was... pathetically slow, really. It appeared Enhanced Perception was to be added to my power list then. That'd certainly explain how I had gotten bored so fast...
An untrained punch lashed out, tearing through the monsters chest, stopping it in its tracks. It roared in pain, struggling to free itself from my arm, tearing and biting at my arm as I continued to hold it out, not at all put off by the squirming, rotten smelling undead corpse hanging off my arm.
A right tenacious little bastard he was, though.
Observing my arm, I was able to satisfacotirally note that it couldnt even harm me, its scratches and bites failed to even fkrce my cloak to bend, andmy skin barely even noted the prescence of the long, sharp, blackened claws it possesed.
"I suppose you've just answered a lot of my questions, havent you?" I ask it, chuckling. " Care to help me answer one more?" I continue, grabbing its head and pulling it off my arm, holding it out and up. It dangled, feeting dragging across the ground, as I took a stance memory demanded baseball pitchers took.
"How far can I throw a roughly human shaped creature, one weighing about the same as a human male, who I this far have not struggled to hold?" I finish, winding up my arm, tossing it as hard and far diwn the path as I could. Up it went, rising and rising...
...and rising...
...huh.
The answer is "Tean Rocket is blasting off again!". I could even see the daimond shaped twinkle in the distance. Well, I suppose I had been underestimating my strength... in heaps and bounds. I shouldve been heading down the road, seeking out a village or something, but to be honest I was having a hard time processing exactly what had just happened.
Well, it looked like I could still sense peoples hearts... there were a few villages in each direction, the nearest a few hours walk. I tugged at the Corridors of Darkness, considering just teleporting over, but... where would be the fun in that?
Setting off along the path to the nearest village, I looked closer with my senses; I could sense peoples hearts, yes, but not within a very large distance. Not to a degree that mattered. Everything last a certain point blurred together, indistinct and warped, images of Light and Darkness.
And oh so mucb darkness there was, too... A soul-crushing ammount in most hearts I could sense, dulling life itself, the Light inside each heart not overwhelmed or defeated, simply... resigned. And if I looked closely enough? In certain places, there were cracks nonsensically placed that I could look through, and if hard enough I looked, I could sense hearts... hearts located very, very far away. Gateways to other worlds, tenuous connections between the realms? A closed loop, I should imagine, considering this world wasnt overrun by heartless.
Sighing, I realized these thoughts werent particularly result-weilding, and that they wouldnt be until I learned more.
Walking along, sun beating down upon me, I might've frowned if it meant something. It was slightly concerning, actually; I still had no idea what world I was on, and while i doubted anything here could truly threaten me unless it was overwhelmingly powerful or could pin me down for others to finish me off, it wouldn't be even noteworthy, not if those Lifestealer knock-off's had been any indication of what to expect here. I doubted they were very high end, and it wasnt as though I were stuck here. Regardless, what could go wrong?
...did I really just say that? Clouds pass over the sky, blotting out the light and covering me in shade for a moment; there was a rather large settlement over… that way, their hearts coated in darkness yet still striving on in light. Probably my best bet for now, regardless of Murphy-tempting. I mean, what was the worst he coul- wait, why was the cloud following me? Were those wingbea-
"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Mother fu-"
That would be when a large, green, scaled creature weighing several tons fell on top of me from the sky, a screaming bundle of fury and violence.