Hi and happy November! In the notes of the last chapter, I mentioned that I had some unfinished parts and I did say I may put it up. Well, I finally got around to cleaning up some of those unfinished parts for Grandpa Ven! This one will be focusing on the POV of Axel a.k.a. Lea, who's also beginning to join in on adding to the list of strange exchange between Ven and Chirithy. So, let me leave you to it, and enjoy!

Title: Grandpa Ven - Part 2

Type: Story

Summary: Ventus may not remember everything, but ever since Chirithy came into his life again, he's been slowly recalling stuff. But his words don't sound all new to his friends, if anything, he's starting to sound like a grandpa.

Idea: "Back when I can remember, we didn't have the fancy Keyblade Armor to keep us safe… Back in the day, we had to walk through the corridors, we didn't have keyblade gliders to help us to the next world." (Not exact dialogue, but that's the idea I'm basing this around.)

Sub-Ideas: Lea | Axel's POV -Look for the rest at the bottom.

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Date: November 25, 2023

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Grandpa Ven Part 2: The Oddities Of Ven & Chirithy

"It's strange, back to when I can remember, we use to do this thing with our Keyblades where…"

"Ven… You're sounding like an old Gramps again."

"Huh?" He blinked before looking back at Lea, embarrassment painting his cheeks with a tint of red.

"Ah, don't sweat it buddy. I know you've been out of touch with the new stuff for more than a decade now. You'll catch up."

"Yeah… Thanks."

Lea or Axel, depending on who you ask, noticed these little oddities in Ven sometimes. One moment, he's talking about the new discoveries he found in the Realm Of Darkness or from a quick stop on another world he visited with Terra and Aqua, then the next, he gets this faraway, nostalgic look as he seamlessly shifts into rambling on about a past he remembers differently. Lea never really put too much stock into those memories when they hung out, but after seeing the reactions from Terra and Aqua due to Roxas' info drop, he quickly caught on that these ideas weren't exactly familiar with them either. He learned from them that Ven, even after his long sleep that rivals Sora's, still didn't remember his past. But he didn't realize all that information his buddy spouted about the "good ol' days" was beyond even them. Roxas' comment didn't help out either, considering the claims that Ven was mixing up reality with ancient pre-keyblade war days fiction, Ven still asserts it is real. He already thought he got everything memorized about his friends and their life stories, he's really thankful for Jiminy's journaling and for its quick access through the Gummi Phone, but it seems that new memorization techniques were needed in order to unravel the mystery that is, what he now has taken to calling, Grandpa Ven.

What made his memories believe all that ancient fiction stuff was actually real?

This called for some good old fashioned reconnaissance missions, just like his days in the organization… Did he just think of those days as fond memories? Yikes. Well, anyway, this time it would be different. There wouldn't be so much sneaking but rather more causal observing of the main targets Ventus and Chirithy, maybe. Since it seemed that the little dream eater's reaction was the most suspicious and curious, that was probably the best place to start.

So that's what he did, starting his casual observations on the interactions between Ventus and Chirithy. Whenever they visited, he still acted like his usual self, but gradually, he changed his routine and redirected their hangout activities to more causal events. Those things involved watching a movie at the outdoor theatre, having lunch at Little Chef's Bistro, or spending the day just exploring Twilight Town. It was a good excuse to hang out with them more because even though they now lived there, they still didn't know every nook and cranny of this town. They haven't even taken the train out of town to visit the beach to buy pretzels and watermelons. With those opportunities available, he began to take notes.

On most days, Ven was seemingly normal, just talking and having fun with everyone. But now that he was watching carefully now, when he got that strange look in his eyes, it was often for the strangest reasons. Things that set him off have been random, words such as starlight or snowman, foods such as sea-salt ice cream, the color purple or the absence of the colors of the dawn in the skies of Twilight Town, They seemingly didn't have a common theme, as far as he was aware at least. But what they did share is that for those moments, Ven's eyes were vacant, his gaze transfixed at a specific point, but his mind probably projecting a different sight that only he alone could see. Then, he begins to share strange knowledge or stories, his voice unwavering and cadence so natural as he talks of things he believes to be true. When he finishes and returns to reality, mostly after a teasing comment from one of them, him included, Chirithy's cute voice soon chimes in. Instead of dismissing his claims, the little dream eater simply replies passively with responses starting with, "Oh it could be," or, "I suppose that can happen," and many more passively avoidant answers to his stories, that Ven is certain is the truth. It was so consistent with what they all witnessed on the day he shared his memory about attaching medals to make his keyblade attacks stronger.

There had to be a pattern or correlation in this somewhere, right?

But after nearly week of hangouts, he truly struggled to glean truth to help settle this strange debate of whether Ven is spouting true fact or fiction.

Would any of them ever truly get an answer? And if so, then when?

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Sub-Ideas:

-Lea has always noticed Ven's ideas were weird, but he blames it on the ten year long nap.

-After Roxas tells them that he's read it in old fiction books, Lea begins to get curious.

-Recon on Ventus and Chirithy while downplaying it as a casual hangout day around Twilight Town.

-After a week, he concludes this is more difficult than it seemed.

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You can probably see why I cut this out originally from the first chapter. It really didn't fit in with the POV of Aqua. But yeah, here we have Lea a.k.a. Axel, carefree and just as laid back as ever now presented with the mystery of his buddy Ven. Since it's just so strange, he just can't leave it be and soon his old habits of doing some Recon missions comes back into play. Unfortunately, he couldn't get too far with his search for clues and can't come to build a solid deduction.

Overall, this is still kind of incomplete since, when I first typed this out, I never finished my thoughts for how his observations would end. So, unless I decide to come back and add an additional part onto this or a new chapter, it will remain general and open ended.

For now, this is it! Thank you again for reading another little story idea! See you next time when a new chapter is up!