Swallowed. [Open]

[Cinnamon]

Disgusting, to add to the constant revolt.

Zexion sneered as Axel seemed to ignore the situation, not enjoying the torrent of bile that launched at Marluxia and himself in the least. Sighing loudly, he pushed his grimy hair away from his face and watched the innards of the whale dissolve where the cat's putrid liquid landed. It was a ridiculous thought that the whale would be happy with this. A loud squeal filled the air and then, the whale's mouth opened, salt water and fish gushing in quickly. Zexion waved a few books out to Marluxia to hop onto, and left Axel to fend for his own as he offered no help what so ever.

Getting onto two books like roller skates, he floated above the water as it rushed in and swirled about. Sometimes his Lexicon was very, very handy. Of course...panic soon showed shortly after. His spell was breaking apart because of the bile! The Superior surely sent the three of them there to die. To ensure nothing wrong would happen again. Narrowing his eyes with broken trust, he set a stepping stone route of books to the feline in three directions, one that would kindly lure Axel into fighting the cat if he was wanting to get out of this place. Mouth closed and the water stayed in, mixing with the cat's putrid bile. Another whine from the whale and light turbulence were on the flight today, best keep your seat belts on unless a dunk in bile-water sounded pleasant.

Snorting at the narration in his head, he heard the voice, clear as day again.

What's going on in there?! Am I dying!

No, you're not dying. You'd know if you were dying. Even in that brief moment where the Riku Replica killed him, he knew what it felt like to be dying. It was terrifying, something clutching, silencing him. It made eyes wide and...if he had a heart. He was sure it would have stopped then and there. Grumbling, he moved over towards the feline and crouched as it's jaws opened up again, hearing the gurgling from within the sack hanging above the orb. Oh...he'd have to risk getting his hands severely burned. Even melted to the bone.

Goody.

Owowowow! This really hurts! I need to wash out! Freezing, Zexion looked up at the whale, then to the others, pursing his lips and began to advance closer to the feline at a crouch, not wanting to be caught by surprise. However, that wasn't the cat's intentions as it's one eye glimmered devilishly. In a flash, it was over to him, paw rising up from the bile. With one incredible smack, he was sent against the side of the whale, embedded within it's flesh. "Ergh..."

Rather painful, but at least organs cushioned his fall. Face spattered in pink, hair and backside too, he could only roll to the side against the wall lined with mucus as the cat swiped again. And in one incredible push off of the wall, he launched into the open side of the feline, feet squelching against guts in a disgusting manner that made him feel the intense urge to keel over and lose anything he ate. A hiss rose up and stomach began to boil and gurgle loudly, the cat turning to the other Organization members. Incoming.

With that, the Illusionist began to investigate how to get the green orb out from underneath the bag-of-bile.

Owwwwwwwwwwwww.[/i] A high pitched whine from the whale made Zexion cringe and look up at the trembling, pain-filled walls of the whale. Now, he really wished he couldn't hear what this animal was thinking. It was driving him absolutely crazy. Though, maybe he was crazy.

[axie]

Not only was Axel in no position to be fighting, but he'd derped right into the best place to hide. The seawater rocked the boat but didn't dislodge it, and the bile was diluted enough that it didn't eat away at the wood much faster than seawater alone normally would. It did drench the deck and send Axel stumbling into a few neat shelves with a curse and a few heavy thuds, but compared to getting submerged he'd gotten off easy. He even considered moving back up to avoid any more water, but that meant dealing with the whale bucking and heaving, and if the water was any indication they may be at Monstro's home world already.

As the seawater receded, Axel poked his head out to see how the fighting was going and make sure he wouldn't have to run away from that cat anytime soon. From the look of it, Zexion had just gotten smacked one. Somehow this only intensified Axel's urge to cheer sarcastically, but he didn't think Zexion and Marluxia--and the cat, for that matter--really needed that kinda distraction.

Something bumped his foot, and Axel looked down to see that an oil lamp had fallen and broken. He frowned. Oh--right, those things were lit, and...crap. Either someone left this one on or there was a spark when it hit the metal clasp of a chest on its way down, because the ship's cabin flickered with heat. "Oh hey, no--!" Containing the fire only worked as long as he could control it, and with all this mostly dry wood around--and oil--and there might've even been gunpowder and he should probably make a break for it--the flames were quickly beyond him, even after he shrank them to nothing with the last of his power.

With Monstro already agitated and the smoke rising now in a billowing black cloud, Axel leapt onto one of the rickety wood platforms and felt it start to give under him as Monstro twitched once in what was about to be a sneeze.

Wuh-oh.

[Marluxia]

It seemed convenient that Zexion had allowed Marluxia the use of his spell to stay place on a couple of books. After all, where would he have been if he had needed to find a way to keep out of the bile-water? Probably far too distracted to notice the cat. Or Zexion's failure and disgusting slap into the side of the whale.

Ew.

A fire caught the corner of his eyes, but ignored it. He could only hope that Axel had spontaneously combusted into flames and would no longer be among them afterward.

As the spell began to fade, the assassin flicked his hand, dark vines forming beneath his feet. And here, people thought that plants were useless. He would have given an offer to assist Zexion with them, as well, but he knew that if his mind left what he stood on, they would die and crumble beneath his weight. Then do the same to the other. Then they would be quite useless. He didn't fancy a bath in this stuff.

Eyes flickering to the side, he heard the cat gagging. A trail of vines, just thick enough for one foot at a time, began to grow in front of him, to allow him to move ahead, though the second his foot left a portion, it would fade to nothingness. Moving quickly along it, he made sure that he would be out of the line of vomit, but instead, the cat's head turned down, into the murky water at it's paws, emitting it's putrid bile, combined with gurgling yowls of displeasure.

Huffing, the man took notice of something. As the cat rose it's head, a portion of it's jaw was clearly missing, where the bile had been dripping down it's decaying flesh. "It's vomit is eating it, as well," he uttered, lowly and almost thoughtfully.

If they just let it sit in it's own bile, there would be no problem. But there was a low likeliness that something such as that would be so simple.

Especially with the sound that forced the man to freeze. The whale was making a sound, as if to sneeze. "No," he seemed to command, but clearly to no avail, as the giant being jerked to let out a sneeze.

Looking toward Axel and the horrendous amount of smoke about them, he let out a sigh. "Do you really always have to make things more difficult?" the man spoke in an exasperated tone, placing fingers to his forehead for a split second, as he waited for the bile to fly into the air and the whale to continue it's action.

Flower petals gave their frail attempt to shield the man from the oncoming event. Oh, he did enjoy being in the Organization so much at times like this.

[Cinnamon]

No.

Zexion heard the sneeze coming and felt his spine tingle with worry...or was that bile? Or mucus rubbing against it? He could care less. Feeling awkward, he looked around from the inside of the whale. A burning ship. Smoke made people sneeze. Whales sneeze. Glaring over at Axel, he made a madman's dash to the stomach of the cat. He had to get that orb before the whale sneezed!

Ohhhhhh! Ahhhhh! I f-f-f-eel like!

Do not sneeze. You hear me? Of course you do. Do not sneeze. Zexion almost scolded the whale in his mind, feeling it cringe at his words, and try to hold the sneeze in, walls trembling and the muscles around the inside tightening. As he approached the cat, it seemed to notice him, but it fell to it's side in the water, hacking and wheezing as if it was trying to produce more bile, but couldn't. Sighing in relief, Zexion realized it's stomach was out of bile. So much for an enchanted creature, this meant it was safe for just a few moments. He could retrieve the last item!

Smirking, the literate Organization member leaned over, balancing on two heavily degraded books, and reached in, grabbing the orb. The cat seemed none too pleased, and reached a drenched paw up from the water to swipe, but as soon as it rose up, it fell back down, a pitiful mew eliciting from it. Somehow, in the back of his mind, Zexion knew if the cat had actually been cute, he would have felt bad, but refrained from feeling that way. It wasn't the cat he was after.

Gripping on grimy gold, he pulled it out quickly, seeing the stomach sever and a bit more bile spill out onto the other side of the orb. Holding the rather large orb, the other two deposited into his pocket, he summoned more books and peered to the others, nodding and made a move to head 'home' again. Shooting over to the others, he opted to give thanks to Marluxia, a light smile covering his face, and looked to Axel, giving a bit of a glare before he let the darkness engulf him.

Oh joy, there was no revolting lurch back onto the whale, meaning that it had worked rather well. It seemed that the Superior had somehow tagged their missions, so they couldn't leave until they got all of the items. That would be troublesome if they came upon a swarm of good-hearted individuals who knew who they were. As he sifted through the darkness, he thought to himself. Those two were as lazy as ever, only wishing to do what they wanted, and not what the Superior wanted. That was the first sign that they were going to get in trouble rather quickly.

Zexion hoped that they'd refrain from doing anything stupid in the future. It wasn't what they needed under the eyes of their leader. Especially after their previous flubs.

Zexion leaves the thread! Because he cannnn!

[axie]

The fire was not responding anymore. Axel didn't really expect it to at this distance, but it still felt draining, to know that he was too weak--again--to keep the fire from burning anything. Even himself. That revelation threatened to unravel everything again, and maybe it was his imagination but he thought he felt blackness starting to slip up from his shoulders and away.

Axel clenched his fist over an empty chest and thought of Roxas.

That's why.

It finally occurred to him, oblivion or not, to check on the cat thing. It looked mostly defeated, and--yep, Zexion had gotten whatever he wanted from it, if the portal was any indication. Maybe it would work now, maybe it wouldn't, maybe Axel didn't care, but he didn't have time to offer a sarcastic salute or perhaps a finger at Zexion's glare before the Schemer was gone. Oh well. The important thing now was not Zexion's resentment but his own survival, and while he couldn't feel himself fading anymore he didn't like how fragile his ribcage felt when he breathed--like the bones were made of glass.

There was a low groan and a rush of wind past him and Axel tottered and dropped to keep from falling off the already rickety structure. "Wh...!"

Dammit, the smoke! It was straight up hitting the roof of the whale's mouth, and Axel didn't necessarily expect a sneeze of all things--did whales do that?--but he couldn't ignore the fact that something was about to happen. At this point, all he could do was hunker down and hope for the best, so he crouched and seized the planks because he could already feel the whale shifting up--and back--and just when he thought he'd lose his grip--

"AAAAAAA--CHOO!"[/i][/size]

A sneeze?! was all Axel had time to think before he and a wave of saliva flew forward and through the cage of teeth and out into the stars beyond.

-

Axel out.

[Marluxia]

For a moment, it was questionable on if the whale was going to sneeze. For some reason, it hadn't yet. But something to Zexion's actions implied that he understood why it hadn't. There was no point in questioning him on it, even if he wasn't seeming to be ready to leave,

After all. That would be an unnecessary conversation. And a relatively stupid question, at that. Yes. 'Do you know why the whale stopped sneezing?'

What kind of question was that?

When Zexion had left, the Graceful Assassin took a glance to Axel. It seemed so easy, at this second, to just... destroy him. It was a tempting thought, too. But would bring little to no satisfaction. Even Marluxia knew that killing him while he held such a pitiful amount of energy wasn't quite right. It wouldn't be as pleasing as beating him down into nothingness, either.

Having seen the smaller Organization member leave, via portal, he realized that his own may finally work. Hearing the monstrous beast around him readying itself to sneeze, Marluxia hurried to test it, creating a portal.

To his luck, it worked, as he stepped through it, smirking at his last glance at Axel. Then, he could hear the release of what the beast had been holding in, just as the corridor closed.

Maybe, he wouldn't really care if the other man drowned in the whale's saliva.

And then, Marluxia disappeared from the thread.