Ninth Breeze

[salvagedlight]

Wait... we're back to - YES!

[Considering he'd gone to sleep with leaves for ears and woken up with hands, Ven could probably be forgiven for celebrating being back in his own body. Sure he could handle being in others, but this was his, and he started to climb out of bed-]

Whooooaaaaaaaa!

[-only to fall over the edge of the bed. He only saved himself from going splat on the ground by grabbing onto the blankets and clinging like crazy. It works, but he's danging above the ground, three inches tall and in his PJs (which, fortunately, are covering enough to function as street clothes), and he's only got one thought on his mind.]

Not again!

Comments

It really is.

[colorbymemory]

['Dumb' is not a nice word, but apt sometimes.]

Everyone's had so many adventures. It'd be nice to hear about all of them someday.

[She might be sounding kind of wistful there.]

[salvagedlight]

[In this case, it's very apt. And he's good at picking up odd nuances in voices, so he turns to look at her - and realizes he's so close to her face that he can't see her expression. Okay, that's a new one.]

What is it? You sound kind of... sad.

[colorbymemory]

[Well, technically speaking Nobodies can't be sad--no heart to feel sadness with. Still, they can have people they like to see, and want adventures of their own.

She takes advantage of needing to deal with the elevator buttons as a moment to think of a response.]

It's nothing, just; I couldn't go with everybody, so I didn't always know what was happening.

[salvagedlight]

[That counts. He still doesn't know Nams is a Nobody, but he wouldn't buy the "feel no emotions" thing about her, or Roxas - they're way too human. Even if they aren't like their Somebodies. Certainly spontaneous laughter of enjoyment (not sadism) really isn't something that someone who doesn't have emotions can do.]

[And, more importantly, Ven knows what that feels like.]

You felt left out... Like you should be doing something to help, but you couldn't figure out how to.

[colorbymemory]

[Nami herself has been having thoughts about how "heartless" Nobodies really are--they have their memories after all. Not to mention that Axel, Roxas, and Xion had all become friends, and Axel had missed Roxas (felt lonely without his best friend there).]

There were things I could do, but it was too dangerous for me to help in other ways.

[salvagedlight]

And you wanted to help more than you could. I just met you here, and I know that you want to help everyone as much as you can. It's great that there's someone around like you in case people need it.

[He's trying to reassure her and cheer her up. No getting caught in a funk now, Nami.]

[colorbymemory]

[It helps, really. If he could see her expression better, he'd see how the compliments are making her blush.]

It's nice to be able to help.

[Especially when some of her first actions had done so much harm.]

[salvagedlight]

[Unfortunately his size and positioning don't exactly lend themselves to seeing her face. He'd be happy to know that she was happier, though.]

Uh-huh - it's great to see people feel better from something bad happening.

[C'mon Naminé, smile?]

[colorbymemory]

[She does smile at that.]

It is.

[And here they are on the theatrical deck~]

So, exactly what are we looking for?

[salvagedlight]

[Yay one smile! He'll work on more later, right now there's work to be done.]

Anything, really - I can't be the only one this happened to, so we need to figure out ways for people to get anywhere they need to, like to the food cabinets and stuff. Being small can be a real pain.

[...Experience is not a kind mistress here.]

[colorbymemory]

Hmmm...

[She sets him gently on a table close to the cupboards, then goes to pull out some string and popsicle sticks]

How about using these for ladders?

[salvagedlight]

[He looks up from trying to pull open one of the cabinet doors to see what she's got, grinning when he recognizes it.]

That's a great idea! We can make a bunch of those and hang them up everywhere.

[colorbymemory]

[Namine smiles and opens the cabinet so he can rummage.]

Okay. Anything else you can think of? You wanted shoes, too, right?

[salvagedlight]

I'm going to need them - the floors are a lot rougher at this size.

[it's true; all the little imperfections are so much more apparent when one is small. Ven eventually pulls out a bundle of twist ties as tall as he is, hauling it carefully past all the other impediments.]

We can use these to tie things up too.

[colorbymemory]

Okay, then we'll look for those next.

[She accepts the twist ties.]

Good idea. Anything else you can think of?

[salvagedlight]

Hmm... Maybe something long to poke buttons with? Like on the food machines and stuff like that.

[Yeah, eating is going to be something of a challenge for awhile.]

[colorbymemory]

[She nods.]

So something long, but light enough for someone your size right now to lift, right?

[That might be a challenge, but she's looking through things like unsharpened pencils and paintbrushes. Maybe they could make a ladder to help Ven get up high enough to use one of those to poke a button.]

[salvagedlight]

[Well the good news is, proportionally he's a lot stronger now than he was at full size. Obviously he can't lift boulders or anything, but things that might seem too heavy for him at this size might not be.]

How about a paintbrush? One of the really small ones, where the handle isn't so big.

[colorbymemory]

[She hands him a shorter, thin paintbrush--the kind used for fiddly little details.]

This might work.

[salvagedlight]

[And he takes it, his expression brightening.]

Yeah! That should work great!

[colorbymemory]

[She smiles.]

Good. Then you can keep to it until you're back to your old size.

[Now to hunt for shoes. She heads over to the costumes.]

[salvagedlight]

[Ven, meanwhile, heads over in the direction of a dollhouse he sees. He's small enough, right? Maybe there'll be clothes in there.]

Hey Naminé - what do you think they're doing to us this week, if they're shrinking some of us?

[colorbymemory]

[Good idea.

At the question, Nami looks up from the pile of costumes.]

I'm not sure--I know it must have something to do with the riff, or be connected to the other strange things happening, but that's about all I can guess.

[salvagedlight]

It all seems so random, though. I mean, nothing seems connected.

[And he'll dive into the dollhouse to look.]

[colorbymemory]

I think sometimes we don't see the connections, but some of the others do. Harvey knew that what we turned into last week were called Pokemon, right?

[Found some tiny clothes! Aside from shoes, she brings over a couple of different outfits in case he wants to wear something besides pajamas.]