maskormenacelogs | when they finally come to destroy the earth

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when they finally come to destroy the earth

WHO: Riku and whoever he runs into. Maybe you?
WHERE: Mostly Heropa, but all imPort cities are fair game
WHEN: All November
WHAT: Catchall for Riku this month! I was planning one last month and forgot. General prompts inside, hit me up at

guriido_ if you want something specific!
WARNINGS: None as of yet, will update

1
[Riku spends a lot of time on the beach.

Maybe less than he did before he started teaching swimming at the Nonah training facility, but he's still there fairly often. Sometimes he's running, using the paths beside the beach rather than the sand, and he'll go maybe a mile up the coast and then trudge back. Sometimes he's actually swimming, then dragging himself out of the water, salt water matting his hair. And then there are days where he's there with his cat or his pig, or both, and he's sitting in the sand reading a book or texting or just sitting.

He goes to the Cape Canaveral beach so often that it's starting to become a place that he's pretty sure people think he just straight up lives there. He's not against company, though, and he's actually a little pleased if somebody he knows shows up. There's only so much silence even he can take.]

2
[If he's not on the beach then he's probably in one of the Porter cities. Riku's job, even though technically he could do most of it from home, requires him to at least go pick up the parcels he's supposed to deliver. And for big parcels he does just send them through a portal, but for the smaller ones, he likes to zoom around on his silly hover-vespa and actually deliver them by hand. Bart might think that's too slow, but really, when you don't exactly follow traffic laws (he's been known to scoot in between two lanes of traffic at stops, or pass on the right) it usually only takes him about an hour to get wherever he's going. The Porter helps with that, of course.

Today he's got a satchel slung across his chest -- it's fat and kind of lumpy, because it's full of boxes. There are a few letters in there too, but they're held together with an elastic so he doesn't squash them. When he started this job he didn't think he'd be sending mail, but really, anything that needs delivering, he doesn't mind doing. Unless it's... an animal or a person or something like that. He's not a bodyguard.

Riku pulls over so he can enter a convenience store, and when he emerges he doesn't drive off right away -- he sits on the vespa sideways with a fountain drink cup, straw in his mouth, and watches passerby. People-watching is always interesting.]

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[wildcard. Make something up, or drop me a note on plurk!]

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[Riku nods, lifting it a little. He's right handed, so he swaps to his left so he can manipulate the keychain with his right.]

Okay, then.

[He unclips the Way to the Dawn's chain -- instantly it's the simple Kingdom Key again, more of a bludgeoning weapon than a blade like his own. He sticks the keychain in his pocket, then holds it out toward him a little, hilt-guard first, so Kaneda can clip the new one on.]

[There's one last look at his keychain, and then at the hilt-guard. The Keyblade looked like a blank canvas, not too unlike the walls of his room when they'd last talked. And much like them, it needed a little something he could give--customization. Call him crazy, but that confidence is slowly coming back.

His keychain has a little claw hook--figuring it'd be easiest to attach that way. Thumb pressing down on the lever, he hooks it onto the free link that attached the Way to Dawn previously.

The change is instant, the white light surrounding the Kingdom Key immediately as Kaneda backs up to 'give it space'. And maybe to see just what it turns into. He has no frame of reference, after all. He's surprised it even worked.

When the light dissipates, the hilt has changed from a square like shape to a round one, dark grey in colour, and with grooves on it much like a tire. It seems to come in two parts meeting at the middle, with a seam in the center, where the handle runs through and the blade comes out of. The blade itself looks like a mishmoshed piece of metal artwork, shrapnel sticking mostly at the bottom, with one or two pieces rising up out of it. The shape and teeth of the blade are reminiscent of a sharper car key, with lights embedded into the top of it not unlike a stoplight: Red on top, yellow in the middle, and green below. When moved, the lights leave a trail not unlike his bike. The handle itself is bandaged up, uneven in places, with a small little red switch on the side.

...Interesting aesthetic.]

[Riku holds it out a little further from his body as the light fades, and he grins as he turns it in his hand, eyebrows raised. It's not what he was expecting, but at the same time, it is -- it's reminiscent of Kaneda, in a way, and he looks over to where he's looking half-stunned.]

Looks like you.

[He turns it again, then steps away a little, so he can give it a proper swing. Once he's satisfied, he stops again, lifting it so he can look at the handle.]

What's this, though...?

[Honestly, his eyes don't even look at Riku. They're fixated on the blade as he walks towards it, like an animal testing the waters. It looked...like him. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. It was rugged, seemingly hand crafted, but with a technologic aesthetic. A heap of junk built into something, if you asked for Kaneda's words on it.

Still, there's something about it that he's...proud of? He technically made this.
His head tilts back when Riku swings it, fingers reaching up to run through the trail lights that are left behind like the tail of a kite. Hm.

But at the mention of the little switch on the handle, his brow raises.]

Beats me. I didn't install any buttons in that thing.

[He can tell Kaneda's interested and so he does the standard thing and offers it up, blade pointed down. This is something that he's pleased he doesn't need to worry about -- the nature of the Keyblade means he can basically hand it over to whoever without worrying about it getting stolen. Even if he did have to worry about that, though, he trusts Kaneda.]

Yeah, I know. Here, try it out.

[Kaneda hesitates as he reaches out, taking the Keyblade only after he has Riku's full blessing. Much like a bike, a weapon is an extension of yourself, so with it comes respect. His hand slips through the guard, taking the handle firmly and testing out the weight, getting his hand used to it.

It felt...oddly familiar and comfortable at the same time. Not that he deserved to wield it more than Riku. But the aesthetic of the specific blade--of the keychain...it was him.

This was his keyblade he gave to Riku.

But he's going to try it out as promised, looking at the little switch a moment before flicking it with his thumb. The movement's almost instantaneous, the guard flicking to life with an eerie green glow inside the 'seam'. The guard itself pops out a little more, and the blade starts to move on the seam line, like it was on a track, turning it into a one-blade shuriken.

That's a...neat trick.]

Whoa!

[Riku moves so he can check it out, settling on the couch where he'd been before Kaneda arrived. He's curious about handing it over to someone else like this, someone not a Keybearer -- what can they do with it, how well could they use it.

The Keyblade shifts -- suddenly it's a different weapon, and he leans forward, forearms against his knees. This is...]

Heh. That's not what I was expecting at all.

[He reaches for his phone -- it might as well go back in his pocket. As he lifts it he checks the time, the screen lighting back up, and then he stops and squints up at Kaneda.]

Hey.

[Kaneda's staring at the keyblade like its a bug that's decided to take up residence on his hand. How does he use this? Is he supposed to? Were the key gods going to smite him?

The blade continues to spin, at least until Kaneda remembers to flip the switch again to return it to its usual position.

What the hell was that.

It's not until Riku speaks up that he looks over, eyes wide.]

Hmm? You...want this back?

[He smiles gently, shakes his head.]

Don't worry about it, unless you're done. I can take it back whenever.

[It'll return to him when he wants it. Actually, he'd noticed the date, but... he doesn't really want to make a fuss about it. But he did speak up, so...]

I was going to say, press the button again. You look half-scared.

[Kaneda looks at the blade again, testing its weight as he spins it between his fingers, tossing it from one hand to the next. He seemed to pick up the handling on it well, at the very least, although he's definitely not schooled in fighting with it. The trail lights seem to follow the path he tosses it in, like the tail of a kite.]

Me? Scared?

It caught me off guard!

[It's not a hard weapon to use, honestly. Riku's been using one-handed weapons since he was little, so neither Soul Eater nor the Keyblade were hard for him to get used to, but even without that practice, he doesn't think it'd be difficult to learn. Kaneda doesn't seem to have an issue with it, and Riku honestly thinks of him as more of a barehanded fighter than anything.]

Hah. Yeah, honestly, I felt like that too. What a weird feature. I'd be scared to hit myself with it.

[With a few more tosses, Kaneda tests the weight, letting it bounce in his hands naturally before gripping it by the 'blade' of the key, holding the hilt out to Riku.]

Let's not play with that just yet, huh? Seems like its 'hard mode'.

[He tilts his head a little at the physical offer, instead opening his hand and calling it back. He supposes he has to cut him a little slack -- almost nobody else does the magical-weapon stuff.]

Really, though.

[He sets it across his lap, lifting his palm up under the keychain again to examine it.]

When did you decide to do this?

...That depends.

When did I start? After our trip to the hardware store.

I guess, yeah. Since you got the stuff you needed at that point. What made you... decide to make something, though? [For him, that is. Not make something in general.]

First it was just a--well, you told me about the keychains, right? They take on the--look of the world.

[His conversation with Tadashi rings in his head. About how he was just a character in a story in his world. Someone to watch, someone to read. He insisted that he was real, and that everything he knew was something that actually happened. Neo Tokyo was a real place, despite no one else knowing about it.

The keychain proved it. There's no way it could capture the aesthetic of something fake. Of a story that was just a fairytale. His world was as real as the rest of the ones Riku had visited. This proved it more than anything.]

Guess I was curious.

Yeah. This one's like... a memento of your homeworld, I guess.

[Riku had this problem, too, though -- countless instances of dropping Mickey's name without thinking and people looking at him funny. He's curious, though, how can something that's real in one world be imagined down to the most minute details by someone in another world?]

Yeah?

[He raises an eyebrow, meeting Kaneda's gaze. Something about the way he said that makes him even more curious.]

...So if it makes the keyblade...do this.

The world's real, right? It's a real place?

That's the only way it can do this, right?

[A bit of an odd question, but there's not even a joking tone in his voice. Whatever he's asking? He's serious on it.]

[He shifts a little in his seat, eyes on Kaneda's face. He has a feeling he knows what he's asking.]

Yeah, I think so. Besides, how could a place that wasn't real produce a person that is?

[From Kaneda's face, you'd think Riku'd just smacked him.

Of course, Riku would have no idea of the talk he had with Tadashi. Of course he'd have no idea what the context of his statements and questions were. That was all in private.

But that didn't stop Riku from sounding so damn sure of that. And as much as Kaneda believed he was real, proof, and support were what he needed.

He doesn't even have an answer for a few seconds, hand going up to rub the back of his neck.]

Well.

You got me there.

[Riku lets out a breath, content. Looks like that was the right answer. He nods, then sobers, looking thoughtful again.]

I... think everything has to be real, in some universe. Like... as an example, I told you about my friend Mickey. But half the people I've spoken to about him think he's a cartoon character. He's not real to them. But... I know he is, I'd be dead without him. So it's either one or the other.

[He leans his chin into his hand, elbow pressed into the arm of the couch.]

It's not just that that makes me think that. [His Replica comes to mind, flat on his back, dying. His body dissolving into the darkness.] But that's one of the main things.

....

[His head tilts up, thinking about that. Riku spoke of Micky a few times, and how much he owed his life to the guy. He seemed like a pretty powerful person, so to imagine him as a cartoon character in other worlds is...jarring, to say the least. Did that mean Riku had the same problem? That he might run the risk of not being real?

If he did, he didn't show it, and he seemed confident enough.]

Guess we're like...legends, right? You know...like old myths and stuff.

[He's definitely thought about it. Riku hasn't come across anyone who's told him they've seen him in something, but he can't talk about the people he's met in other worlds almost at all without people giving him funny looks. So it's possible he, too, is just someone's imagination, in some world.]

That's one way to put it. I don't get it, though, you know? How can someone... come up with a story that's down to the tiniest details the same as something real? I wonder if some people have the power to see across worlds, but they think they're just... imagining.

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when they finally come to destroy the earth

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