~ Kingdom Hearts ~

An Odd Mission – Chapter One

Demyx started the day the same way he did every other. That is, he awoke and promptly found that his ever present need to consume something hot and buttery was, indeed, still ever present. Today, this 'something hot and buttery' took the form of waffles, or perhaps pancakes. He was even about to settle for thoughts of French Toast when Demyx was greeted with the faint realisation that something wasn't quite right in his room within The Castle That Never Was. As Demyx yawned loudly he realised just what this disturbance in was. He had gone to bed fully clothed. Again.

Rolling his eyes in exasperation, Demyx swung himself out of bed and drifted across the room to stare out the massive window. It had a direct view of the makeshift-moon-slash-Kingdom-Hearts hovering eternally above the castle. It was kind of pretty, really, in the otherwise empty night sky. The fact that every other Organization member's bedroom also had one of these giant windows directly facing the pseudo-moon seemed a tad obsessive to Demyx - but hey, that was Xemnas for you. Obsessive was the nice way to put it.

Barely suppressing another yawn, Demyx sleepily glanced over his shoulder at the mirror hanging on his wall. He seemed, unsurprisingly, exactly the same as he had been when he'd gone to sleep. Tall thin stature; blond hair in a lengthy unkempt almost-mullet; long sleek Organization robes that had that distinct Matrix feel to them ... yeah, that seemed about right. Just the same as yesterday.

Demyx lazily cast his eyes around the room as he crawled through the lengthy moments that existed between waking up and actually being awake. His room was just the way it had been the night before as well– if you could still make the day/night distinction in a sky that never changed. The walls and ceiling still all had that greyish-whitish tinge, and those elaborately designed patterns still covered the visible sides of every piece of furniture. The walls in particular were still riddled with their haphazard sections of very finely organised cords, wires, blinking lights and air vents. To Demyx's past dismay, none of these had provided an explosion or loud beep of any kind whatsoever when repeatedly poked or kicked. Apparently the castle was built of something more solid than Demyx's boot. Either that or they were completely fake altogether. In either eventuality, the room wasn't utterly unpleasing to the eye, yet it couldn't quite be called interesting either. It gave the distinct impression that anything notable in the room could be seen within a single glance; an impression Demyx assumed was specifically tailored to motivate the nobodies to spend more time out doing missions than lazing around the castle. Not that it worked on Demyx, oh no, he was far too smart for that.

Once Demyx gathered that he was more awake than asleep he assumed it was safe to attempt his stealthy morning walk to the kitchen. He had discovered through experience that the very wisest way to achieve this was to be awake enough to avoid the distinct members of Organization XIII who were most likely to react negatively when approached during their pre-conscious stumble to find coffee – which was mostof them. One could only be set on fire so many times before avoiding people altogether at this hour seemed the best option.

Yet, as Demyx began the valiant journey through the land of his doorway he noticed something else unusual about his room – a large pink note was stuck on his door. He dismissed it as some 'highly important' mission that could clearly wait till AFTER waffles before noting with far more interest there was a smaller black note just to left of it. The black ones were usually from Zexion. He plucked it off happily and read it as he mindlessly navigated the castle corridors – the threat of sleepy Axels already forgotten.

Demyx

I want to wish you good luck for your task today. It may seem daunting, but I have full confidence in your abilities. The Emperor's Gorge is completely uninhabited, precisely why it was chosen for the task at hand, so don't hold back. Once you retrieve the item at the centre of the gorge you can safely return without being disqualified. Fortitudo Demyx.

-Zexion

...Well, it seemed like a mission notice. Only, you know, without any use of the words "mission" and "you are on a". Demyx was baffled as to where the mission parameters usually outlined at the start could have fled to. They were usually quite useful things, saying things like which world in the entire universe it was on for a start.

Demyx scoured the note again, even checking the back in vain. He knew of an 'Emperor's Gorge' over in The Land of Dragons, but usually these notes were far less of a guessing game and far more of a "go here, do this, don't die" deal. Though he supposed Zexion had indeed been known to leave brain teasers and what not on Demyx's door before today - crosswords and word finds and the like. Not that Demyx was particularly good at these at all, but he definitely appreciated the thought. He had a theory that he was in fact the ONLY member to get such personal notes from Zexion on their doors first thing in the morning. He had even snuck around very carefully to check. Perhaps this was Zexion's new way of giving Demyx a mental challenge? A mission without any words that actually said it was a mission? It seemed just as likely as any other explanation competing in his mind, and as this was the only one that did not include zombies or the apocalypse, he assumed it was the most likely.

Upon a third read through of the mysterious note, Demyx became very aware that he had no clue whatsoever as to what a 'fortitudo' was - and he had little desire to find out. The last time he had looked up what seemed to be a cheerfully nonsense word he had found to his dismay that Gazimbjo was actually a rather fun and engaging video game instead of the obscure frog-horse-monkey amalgamation Demyx had been hoping for. He would just assume Zexion had made the word up and it was some form of cheeseburger. There, problem solved.

In his surely admirable diligence, Demyx would normally have been very tempted to find Roxas and dump the mission on him instead - but since Zexion had requested it, Demyx would freely take the extra effort. Unlike most of the other members, Demyx actually LIKED Zexion. The guy had a sense of fun. Demyx could freely recall any number of times Zexion had put down one of those thick musty tomes to talk to him, or made the effort to say hi to him in passing, or even specifically sought him out before mission to give him pointers and advice. There was even that one time they had played Twister. All in all, Zexion acknowledged Demyx's existence - or non-existence, or whatever it was. The guy was damn cool. Demyx made a mental note to get the guy some kind of thank you gift next time he had the chance. Perhaps some intimidatingly old book. Or a list of words he could use instead of making up new ones.

Either way, Demyx pocketed the note and - after an extended period of joyfully devouring anything and everything sugar coated he could find in the kitchen- stepped through his newly summoned portal of darkness to complete his mission for the day. He wasn't quite sure what to expect, but to be fair, he never did, and that was most of the fun. He made an extra mental note to thank Zexion once he returned, just in case he lost the first one, which was only too likely knowing himself. Perhaps instead of a book he should make him waffles- that'd at least give him an excuse to open the new bottle of syrup. Not that he needed an excuse as such, but if more than one person had eaten it Saïx couldn't yell at only him when it disappeared in half a day. Oh yes, today was going to work out quite well indeed.

The distinctly familiar 'whooshing' echoed throughout the room as the five other senior members of the Organization materialized. One by one they appeared from their streams of darkness, already sitting on their ridiculously tall thrones of various heights. Xemnas was, of course, above them all, as his throne was the most ridiculously tall of them all. The manner in which he sat exuded an air utterly void of all emotion. Not even "quaintly content" or "mildly average" escaped the onslaught. It was simply nothing.

None of the other senior members ever exuded this level of extreme non-emotion. Xigbar was always seen prancing around excitedly, and Vexen was definitely guilty of finding his experiments interesting, as fiendish as that clearly was. No,Xemnas was quite alone in his uncomfortable impression of sheer emptiness. He was the perfect epitome of what it was to be a nobody – and this example would have worked rather well if the other twelve didn't constantly act to the contrary.

Once the expected six out of the thirteen available seats had been filled, Xemnas spoke.

"The preparations are now complete." He did not phrase it as a question, but the expectation of a confirmation was clear. In response, the other five members all gave a solemn nod.

"Then let it begin." With this, all six thrones were swiftly emptied as the individual members streamed off to their place of choice to watch their plans unfold. It had been a short meeting by most standards, but hey, when you could teleport and literally had the entire universe at your disposal, there wasn't exactly any need to make the most of these numerous gatherings. The important thing was that the pieces were now in place and the plan was in motion. All there was left to do was watch and wait. Interfering was against the rules, after all.