halfdarkened | Where are we, anyway?

Beings of light, huh? Are you really sure about that? What's the difference? Or are you just going off of humans?

I never knew humans were capable of doing that kind of thing.

No. You're not obsessive compulsive over darkness and you can talk. That rules out you being a Heartless. More than just Humans can be turned into those things.

What kind of thing? Having special powers or turning into a Heartless and Nobody?

Heh... Maybe not, but I'm not one of those goody-goody angels, either.

Messing with their hearts. Although I don't think I've ever seen a demon completely take theirs out before.

...Whatever. I'm guessing you have dark powers. You don't have to be a Heartless to use darkness.

It usually takes a special tool to do it. If I tried to take my heart out with my bare hands I'd kill myself. Sora... He had a strange Keyblade that'd been made... And who knows what Xehanort's Heartl-- Well, "Ansem," had. Probably some machine.

Of course I do. What kind of demon doesn't? We're practically born with it.

Hmmm.. A magical tool or a machine... Sounds possible. I never did ask what the attendant at the Heart Bank used.

Guess demon hearts are strong enough to keep their hearts from getting too eroded.

[Loooong pause and then a reply of disbelief.] Heart bank?

"Eroded?"

Heart Bank. A place where memories and secrets are stored. It also allows us to go within our hearts and take care of things as we please.

Yeah. Darkness erodes the heart if you're not careful, until you become a Heartless.

...You can store memories outside your heart?! And... You can go into your own heart?

Erodes the... There's a way to stop it, right? A way to reverse it? How does it happen? How do you know it's happening? What kind of side effects are there? How long does it take?!

Yes, yes, it's just basic stuff and I'll answer that later, just answer the questions above!

I thought it just be locked away... I could... Those things!

[There's a pause. After a moment comes a thoughtful reply.]

...The stopping is easy. Just don't use darkness. The reversing... I don't know. I... I don't know any of that. [His attempts to hide his concern are weak.] There's still a lot about hearts we don't know.

I... I still use darkness, even almost becoming a Heartless. Just not the same way. So the heart has to be healing...

Tch, that's easy for you to say. Maybe... Maybe... How can you tell what kind of darkness is taking over? Is it the kind used in magic or... Or some other kind? Some kind of... other power.

Kind of darkness? ...Where I'm from, all darkness you use comes from your heart. Same goes for light. So if you use dark magic, you'd be using your heart's darkness, probably. It's how it goes where I'm from.

But where I'm from, you can't store memories outside your heart. If all my memories were taken out, my heart would collapse. And I'd be a Heartless just from that.

Maybe it's different for you.

...Probably.

There's different magic. It's more complicated than just that. ...Maybe we're talking about different types. [there are a lot of maybes there and how much of this is him trying to make himself feel better, he doesn't know. Seriously. He probably doesn't even recognize the latter reason]

You don't take out all of your memories. Why the hell would you do that? You'd just end up useless. It's just the kind that people can take advantage of.

There's different magics for us, too.

How do you do that? [Voice grows a little more serious.] Who else can undo the links of someone's memory?

I don't know exactly how it works. I'll have to ask the attendant a few questions when I get back. What do you mean by "links."

Memories are formed in chains. You remember one thing, which leads to another and another. Ever almost forgot someone's name? But remembered the first letter? And then you finally figured out what the name was? That name was a link in your chain of memories that was falling into the darkness of your heart, which means you can't remember it. Sometimes links get tangled, or, sometimes they might come apart. Links don't come undone too often by themselves, but they'll just dip into darkness.

But I knew someone who could undo those links and rearrange memories.

Mm. I think I know what you're talking about. So forgetting is linked to darkness, too.

How?

Yeah. You forget things, but never really lose your memories. That's why things are familiar sometimes when you can't remember them.

Couldn't tell you. She could only do it to people Sora was connected to. Me included.

...Oh.

Seems like a pretty useless power to me, if it only works on a handful of people like that.

Useless? That ended up being used against us at one point. But she also could have used it to lock up A-- ...To lock up the darkness in my heart, too. I never was one to take the easy way out, though.

[pingping] She can lock up that kind of darkness? Permanently?

I... Mine was a little different. Guess you could say I had a lot extra.

Edited 2010-09-06 07:30 (UTC)

...How much. [it's almost more of a demand than an answer, and yet it's said with a certain amount of understanding]

Enough I almost lost it all. [That reply came very quickly and very bluntly.]

[there's a silence on Mao's end as he takes that in. He'd expected to give a response quickly, yet... And now with all these weird emotions bubbling up inside him that he doesn't understand... Is that... fear?]

A nagging feeling telling you to give in... Waiting and watching for a moment of weakness... But it actually can?

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