Under a Bridge [Open]

[Troll]

"Urgh." What was this place? She'd been wandering around for hours, ending up in the same place she had been hours before, leaving a toast-winged butterfly - oh. Ha. Hahaha. She got it. Shuffling around with a slump in her posture, white fangs covered her bottom lip in a striped fashion. Irritated from being hungry, she saw a rather peculiar flower, one shaped like a cupcake, and wandered forward, sniffing at curiously. It smelled sweet, unlike a usual diet of meat and grungy plant life. The greyed skin of her nose scrunched up and she snorted, shifting her weight onto her left leg as she came up to the frosted treat.

Reaching forward with a clawed hand, she gave a gagging noise as it opened up and revealed a flopping pink tongue. Oh damn. She couldn't eat that. It was disgusting! Shuddering, a little green in the face, she shuffled back to the butterfly and ripped it's wings off - as it was dead anyways... Stuffing the pieces of bread in her mouth, she gagged at it's sweet texture. Gross. Gross. Gross. EW. "DISGUSTING. What would make this? WHO WOULD MAKE THIS?"

Bellowing out in distaste, she spit the rest out - other than the bit she swallowed, and scraped her tongue until it bled, noticing that instead of the traditional blue, it was an icy, almost cotton-candy-like blue. Concerned, Troll squeaked and stared with her red eyes, fiddling with her fingers, and a few droplets fell from the appendages.

Creepiest thing. They turned into mosquito-sized blue birds. The bridge-dwelling female watched them wander off, and with curious eyes - both frowned and smiled...topsy-turvy, she supposed. Something she hadn't done before. A noise met her right ear and she turned to that side, eyes wide. She hoped it wasn't that cat again. He drove her absolutely bonkers!

[elken27]

As always, instinct won over intelligence. Wait a minute that wasn't right. He didn't care what Vexen said, relying on his gut didn't mean he was stupid, he was always prepared. Where was the frigid bastard by the way? Since coming back the Freeshooter had only made contact with two of the other members, and that hadn't lasted long. He was eager to find answers, rather than just live up his return to non-existence. So he did what he always did, went with the first thing that came to mind. Following his instincts had led him to Radiant Garden and the office and labs of Ansem the Wise. While accessing the computer proved futile due to a change in the OS (apparently they had installed something call Tron), Xigbar had been able to find some documents mentioning Castle Oblivion, and if you want to find something that's been lost to memory, why not start there?

The robed nobody delicately tucked his ponytail back into his hood, the long silver.black hair falling past the collar to rest inside his coat. Resetting his hood over his face, he checked a nearby mirror to make sure his features were completely covered before casting a hand out parallel to the floor. Focusing on a point a foot in front of his hand he summoned the dark energies passing through the world to that point. A pool of blackness coalesced on the ground, and black tendrils shot up from it. They wrapped around themselves, and more appeared to layer onto each other. Quickly enough, a doorway large enough for Xigbar to walk through had fully formed. With a smirk the nobody stepped through the Doorway, expecting to appear at Castle Oblivion in second.

Apparently the Darkness had other plans. Mere seconds after stepping into the Corridor it lurched, and with a not so gentle thud, excreted Xigbar into a bright, colorful, strangely smelling world. This was not Castle Oblivion. With a groan and grumble, he picked himself off the ground and dusted his coat off. Curious as to where he had been deposited, he took a tentative step forward only to be bombarded with a chorus of lovely song. It was the flowers. The flowers were singing at him. His single eye dropped into a glare, Wonderland. Why Wonderland? With a sigh Xigbar looked to the treetops and in the blink of an eye had warped to them. Out of range of the flowers the singing stopped, and for a moment, the Nobody could think.

For whatever reason, the Corridor had taken him to Wonderland rather than Castle Oblivion, it could be he was slipping but he didn't think so, ever. No, for whatever reason, he needed to be here. There was a reason, his gut said so. He was here, no harm in looking around. "Oh man, whatever brought me here better make it quick. To much freakin' ~" Xigbar paused, the sounds of someone shouting breaking past the normal cacophony of sounds of this wonder-filled land. Peering over his tree to the ground below he saw, well, probably a girl, gray skinned, small horns, and metal plates patched across her body. Apparently she had found the food disagreeable. Amusing. "Well well little girl," he mused to himself, "You don't seem to fit in here."

"You can say that again," the tree he sat on mused back.

"Shut it tree."

With a smirk, the one-eyed sniper warped down to the forest. He suspended himself upside down in the air not a foot to the right of the girl, "Hey there Ironsides."

[Troll]

Ironsides? What. What the hell. What. Was that? Blinking, the red eyed young lady looked over to the one who called out her name, staring, bleeding tongue stuck out between her menacing looking teeth. What the hell. What a jerk-off. Fingers twitched in irritation, caked in the flesh of her tongue, and the blood that was slowly turning into feathers as it hit the ground. She looked....rather deranged. Of course, who was he to call her Ironsides? However. One comment irked her more.

More than Ironsides. Hell, she didn't mind Ironsides compared to this one. "Little?" She was not little. Depending on what context he meant it, she'd flip out more. If he meant little as in young, she'd be so mad she could burst! Blinking at him rapidly, she looked to the tree and almost felt as if she should shove past the taller man and stab the tree. Or claw at it...or drag her teeth on it's bark. It could talk, but it never questioned if she was lost, or gave her directions, or even a word telling her she was going the same way she came. What. A. Jerk.

A thought seemed to register from earlier. "Of course I don't fit in wherever I am. I'm lost, and I'd much rather be back where I was. I'm sure you aren't the most popular person around here EITHER. YOU KNOW?! I think I do. I think. Yeah. You don't LOOK like you should be here AT ALL!" The stress building began to make her shout a few words to emphasize them. Great. Just great. Now she was really beginning to freak out. At least she wasn't the only one to have scars on her body. Grinning, she leaned forward, that ruddy blue hair falling over her shoulders, a cute expression upon her greyed face.

"Wanna see something gross?" Surprisingly, the most insecure of most shoved down her leg warmer and pulled off one of the detachable plates on her body, showing a scar that left a very sheer bundle of nerves over the pearly white of her bone. Waving the metal plate around, she wiggled in place. Then as soon as it was shown, she placed it back, eyes glittering with curiosity and anger, "Wellll? Did you find it absolutely DISGUSTING? BECAUSE you're not all that GOOD LOOKING yourself!"

And now...the insults would probably start flying. Congratulations Troll, on hitting a new level of stupid. "I'm TERRIBLY sorry, I have TROUBLE controlling my mouth sometimes. It's so STUPID!" She grinned, quite similar to the Cheshire Cat, lips spread thin with the force of her wide grin. Hands went behind her back, sleeves draping over them as they had normally, had the woman-creature calmed down? Perhaps.

Just for now.

[elken27]

"As if pipsqueak. Alrhough, you gotta helluva mouth on you," Xigbar laughed. Whoever this girl was, she was a firecracker, unpredictable, and guaranteed to be loads of fun. While all those factors would lend themselves to any denizen of Wonderland, she was not such, and apparently quite distraught over it. She didn't even know she was IN wonderland. It would've been a sad predicament, but Xigbar merely found it entertaining, he wasn't big on sympathy these days, for obvious reasons.

The Nobody watched as the range of emotions swept across this girl's face. Anger, happiness, fear, remorse, all in the span of a single rant. A void in his chest twinged with pain. She didn't know what she had, how lucky she was. He could remember when he did that, when he felt. But to her, it was as regular as breathing. He could end her, right there, end all those feelings, and she'd be a part of the oblivion, like he had been up till recently. By why spoil a good thing, he had no doubt she was the reason he had arrived on Wonderland instead of his intended world. A girl, filled with emotions, mostly what seemed like anger and hate, lost in a world she had no way to leave. Even if this wasn't why he was here, he was sticking with it.

"Nice little setup you got goin' on there, the whole metal patchwork cover-up job. Can't say I would've done the same," he smirked, lifitng up his eyepatch to reveal a gaping hole, "Then again, I just had the one hole to cover." Covering his missing eye again, he leaned back then, cocking an eyebrow and sizing up the horned wonder. She must've been in her late teens, not the most friendly of people, and extremely sensitive. One wrong word would send her off the deep end, not that he much cared at this point. Half the fun would be seeing how many buttons she had to push.

"Now I was thinkin' of gettin' off this toonish hell, but I found myself with a reason to stay. So what do you say to bein' a good girl, and tellin' me ya name eh?"

[Troll]

Pipsqueak. She had to dig her wedges into the ground to keep from flailing, hooking her thumbs in the blue fabric of her rather inappropriate shorts. A loud sigh escaped and she turned away, trying to recollect herself. Perhaps he was just giving her a nickname because he didn't know her name. And soon enough, a slight compliment - hidden, of course - that she was interesting flooded the air, and a pale purple tint flooded her cheeks. Eh, she wasn't used to compliments. Troll would rather take a lot of insult to them, rather than accept them. He hadn't done anything wrong other than call her little though...

She could let it slide, right? Those large reds blinked, the caved in greys around it showing even more, before she opened and saw the empty eye socket. She couldn't imagine losing an eye. No no no. She simply couldn't imagine it. Of course, she could imagine getting half of your face ripped off, your body torn up, and having yourself left to bleed out in the middle of nowhere. That she could understand completely. The young woman could also understand the feeling of loneliness and shame it created. Perhaps he felt that way too? Taking a few scoots closer to the tall man, she wrinkled her nose in thought. Being wise with words would never hurt anyone, in her opinion.

"Urm... Okay..." Muttering to herself, that was alright, wasn't it? She was sure a lot of people did it, even the not-so-crazy individuals of the world talked to themselves. Reassurance was one of the biggest pawns in any relationship. If a stranger couldn't support you, how could one support their own self? The question was asked and her one ear perked up from underneath the bush of hair she had around her head. Pointy, with a tasseled bit of blue fuzz on the end. Actually, she could recall what it was like to lose something important. She couldn't hear out of one ear. It was similar to going blind...

She pushed her hair aside, showing off how far the metal plate on her face went, and tapped the spot where her ear was supposed to be, covered in metal, "My name is Troll, I KIND OF u-understand. Just a bit." She muttered, kicking the ground lightly. Did the grass just scream? Was it even grass? Looking up to the black-clad man, she gave a weak smile before brushing it away, scoffing, and swinging her arms back and forth. Ah, a lovely little show she had just displayed. Even more emotions to make him envy her existence. Not that she knew anything about it.

[elken27]

How quickly the little explosive defused. Xigbar had been hoping to incite another outburst, he was trying to push buttons, not get this girl to warm up to him. Well at least he wasn't trying that yet. Still though, moments ago he thought he could say a few things and watch her explode, but this was wrong. She was, what was she doing? Was that...affection? Trying to be cute? The nobody cherished strong emotions, but this? He felt his lip curl into a disgusted sneer. This was not what he had in mind. Even in life he didn't like cute. He wasn't one to get up in arms about, no reason whining about things you can't change, but he still had preferences. Maybe it was something he said? As she moved closer, he took a half step back. He crossed his arms, she was practically staring at him.

But no sooner had he been disgusted with how she was acting, when the thoughts passed. He let himself return to a smirk and cocked eyebrow. Who was he to judge how one felt when he had so long been without emotions of his own. Still though, he couldn't put his finger on this girl. He watched her, indifferent to her lost ear, it was like every other part of her that was missing. The Freeshooter could have fun with it though, whisper into her missing ear and watch her obliviousness. But his antics would have to wait for another time. She was...being sporadic again. And now swinging her arms about, nerves maybe? It was getting to him again.

"Troll huh. I like it, simple, easy to remember," he remarked, throwing his hood off all the way. Reach back he pulled out his ponytail and let it fall across his back, before glancing back at the girl. She was...odd to listen to talk. Practically shouting words at him, then whispering others. Where he attempting anything covert he would have to gag the girl, something he was sure she would dislike greatly. But the thought of doing so and watching her blow up brought a grin to his face. "Hehe, right. So kiddo, what're you doin' here? Besides not fitting in and all that?"

"Eating our butterflies," the tree that had previously been told to shut it said.

"I said shut it," Xigbar replied, throwing an arrow bullet from with in his sleeve at the tree. It landed square between the tree's eyes, who then scoffed and "turned" away. He looked back at Troll, her arms still swinging. As the came forward his hands shot out and grabbed her by the wrists. "And you, enough of that. I'm tryin' to get a handle here, not watch ye dance."

[Troll]

Well he was pushing buttons, there was no denying that. She simply couldn't contain some, and others she could contain. Huffing, she crossed her arms and puffed up her cheeks, stomping the ground with a small crack. Once again, it seemed that the ground was screaming. How disturbing! She couldn't handle much more of this place! Blinking eyes slid to the left, then to the right, and her spiky blue hair fluttered in the comfortable breeze.

There wasn't a breeze before, and that concerned her. Nose wrinkled in thought and she looked to her left. Nothing. Right? Nada. Down? Nope... Behind her? Nah. It seemed as if she had looked in each possible direction by the time she was done, rather than up... Blanching a bit, she peered up in apprehension and cringed. Ew. What was that? It was large, and foot-like. A foot? "OH FAWHHHHHHHH!" She shrieked loudly, scrambling out of the way, into the forest.

The opposite direction of the foot, and Xigbar. Not that she had known his name, or anything about him at all other than his missing eye. Could people physically live without one eye? She assumed so, as she had lived without an ear. Running, she remembered his questions, and darted back as soon as possible, wheezing and breathing like a scared rabbit. "Well. Sorry. I thought I saw a big foot. Apparently everything is crazy here. I don't really like it. I'd rather be the only crazy person."

"I don't KNOW how I got here. I just WOKE UP and met face to face to this DISGUSTING place." Troll snorted, cute demeanor diminished within seconds of it surfacing. It seemed she was only nice to test people, see how much they would relax, and since he didn't relax, she'd be best off being her normal, angry self.

"And a handle of what, the absurdities that surround us? Or the FREAK SHOW known as Troll? Personally, I'm tired of being here. I'm tired of singing flowers and dogs with brushes for faces. It knocks me right off. Completely." Off of what? Her rocker? Had she even obtained her rocker in her life? Ever? Or had she always been off of it? A strong mental debate flooded her and the young woman leaned against one of the trees, hearing it giggle, blush, and smack her with a pink-petaled branch.

Fury crossed her face and she turned around, smacking the tree with a roundhouse kick, and surprisingly, it uprooted and scampered away. Drugs. Drugs. It had to be drugs. A dream induced by it, how else could she explain being in a different place? She was in a coma, in a never ending dream, and no matter how much she wanted to wake up, she couldn't. That was it.

All of her minuscule answers were solved right there. She could die right now and feel completely secure! No, she was lying, did anyone really believe that? Troll certainly didn't believe anything that she said. Staring at Xigbar, something crossed her mind, staring 'through' him. "Not giving your name is RUDE! You should, otherwise I will be MAD!"

[elken27]

Maybe it was the air, or maybe it was just an effect the world had on people, but whenever someone came to Wonderland, they seemed to become as loopy as the scene surrounding. Xigbar figured his lack of existence exempted him from the effect, but this Troll, whether this was normal for her, or it was the world, was as bad as the tree and flowers. He needed to leave this world. It was then the Nobody heard a crashing sound, but ignored it, attributing it to just the forest being itself. Instead he watched the mini temper tantrum the child threw before they both felt a sudden stir of wind.

It wouldn't have been anything to him, except for the shadow that accompanied the gust. His eyes followed Troll's questioning glances before following them up. Oh good, they were about to be crushed. Xigbar didn't even look back to where Troll stood, or had been standing if he had known she had scurried away. Instead, just dropped into a crouch and rolled backwards, at the same time warping into the air just above where the foot had come down. As it took off again, he watched the foot disappear once more into the sky. This world had some serious issues. Oh right, Troll had just been crushed.

Looking back at the now flatter terrain, Xigbar leapt from the tree to land lightly on a patch of flowers, eliciting a cry of terror from them. Ha, sing at that. Looking around he found no trace of the girl, until she came hurtling back from the cover of some trees. She looked frantic, probably only because of the recent threat of being crushed. It was...amusing, he had stopped worrying about his own well being for some time now, whether just overconfidence or lack of fear. The foot was never threatening, but he was sure to this girl it spelled doom. But then, this girl admitted to her own psychosis, not a symptom of Wonderland, a part of her mind. And while that cleared things up Xigbar still didn't want to deal with both types of crazy. "As if, trust me doll, I've seen worse than you. Though...you're right up there eh?" he smirked with a wink, "I'm not here to make fun, hell, I wasn't even supposed to be here. Kind of an unintentional pit stop y'know? Speaking of which..."

He still needed to go to Castle Oblivion, he didn't know what he was looking for there, but that's where he needed to go. Maybe the Corridor had misfired because he needed to pick up this girl, but the Nobody still needed to get back on track. Xigbar's gut told him to get moving, and who was he to argue? New plan: Grab the girl and go. "Hey, kiddo," he turned, breaking out of his thought process. He hadn't even been paying attention to her tree-fight, but it was over, and she was storming back to him.

The Freeshooter shrugged, "Hey, you never asked. Now come on." He threw his hand out, parallel to the ground and focused on part of the flattened area of the forest. Like before, a black pool gave way to tendrils which formed a doorway. Xigbar didn't intend to coddle the girl, so he placed his hand on Troll's shoulder, squeezed lightly, then shoved her into the portal. "Call me Xigbar," he added before watching her fall through. The Nobody turned, sneering at the colorful landscape. He really hated Wonderland. Next stop, Castle Oblivion.

[Troll]

"What." Well this was an interesting predicament. He had grabbed her and shoved her into this void, and while she flapped around in it, unsure of what was going on, she squeaked, screamed, and thrashed in pure anger. Troll was going to kill him when she got out of here. Doing something resembling a barrel roll, she waited for him to get into the portal - quite prepared to tear off his face. She'd leave nothing recognizable.

A shifting noise was heard and her already large red eyes widened in confusion, a pitiful squeak coming out as a question to whatever lay in the darkness. One thing she remembered was that her bridge was never dark. She kept a little faerie in a cage, and fed it well enough that it was happy to glow for her, and even sing for her. Shrieking in distaste at the pitch black that swallowed her, she scrambled for safety. Anywhere, somewhere with a wall. she really needed a wall! Wall, wall, wall, wall.

His name was Xigbar? That was very odd, in her opinion. Zig....bar? It made her think of those fig newton cookies. Those were some mighty fine treats - wait. What was she talking about? She hated sweets! Sneering, she crossed her arms and gave a loud huff of sorts. "Stupid Xigbar shoving me down a stupid hole. He's stupid. Absolutely stupid! I hate these things! I've never been in them before but I hate them! Hate it!" There wasn't much to say about it really, she left an empty space echoing, and then...what was that? A light? She liked lights.

Acting as a diver would, she began to plummet towards hit, hoping to find her delightful home, or someplace that didn't leave her wandering in circles the whole time. "I hope you're taking me someplace nice, otherwise I'm going to kick your scrawny-"

THUD.

[elken27]

"Nice? As if. Guess it depends on your opinion though." Xigbar stepped out of the Corridor beside his new companion, giving her little more than a glance before taking in the sight before them. He didn't see how she had fallen, the portals weren't that hard to navigate, then again, he had been doing it for so long it was second nature. It was hard to take any threat of her's seriously when she was splayed out on the ground. He had no doubt she would attempt to tear him a new one, but a threat from a klutz was far from fear inspiring.

The Nobody let his vision adjust to the new setting they found themselves in, the Crossroads. and at this end, Castle Oblivion. The space around them was empty rolling hills. a single path stretched out behind them, soon to be intersected by other paths. each leading to some mysterious destination. The grass never grew, always staying a little above the heel, and appearing black in the constant night. What light existed came from unknown source. But before them, Castle Oblivion was practically a light of its own. A stark white on the bleak surroundings, its green peaks seemed particularly out of place.

Wherever this Castle had come from, it was still as mysterious as when they had discovered it. Xigbar hadn't been here since the debacle with Marluxia, and even they had only discovered a fraction of the rooms. "Come on Ironsides, pick yourself up, we're going inside," he said as he walked towards the grand double doors. Placing a hand on both doors, he pushed with all his strength and slowly they began to swing inward. As he stepped inside he felt a tug from within himself before small lights shot out of his chest.

The doors now far enough open for two shoulder spans, he dropped his hands and watched the balls of light. Oh that's right, cards. As the cards formed the images of his weapons appeared on them and he snatched them out of the air. At least he wasn't limited to world cards. Knowing the more intricate patterns of the castle helped. "Comin' kid?"

[Troll]

"Hm." Anger and embarrassment filled her as she realized she had been flailing rather dramatically on the floor...with her eyes closed. She had been hunting for him thinking she had been submerged in darkness forever, and yet... Damn, she was stupid. Pushing herself onto her feet, she glared up at the obviously taller individual known as Xigbar, and huffed, crossing arms under chest and looking away. This building looked like one of those prissy white-walled places on her old planet. She hated those, and she was starting to hate him.

She watched him push open the door, and wondered exactly how heavy it was, debating on if she - with her slightly freakish strength (sometimes her race had benefits) could have pushed it open with a bit more ease. The more her eyes trailed up though, she came to the conclusion that no, she wouldn't be able to handle it like that. It would be ludicrous. Stretching as he addressed her, she drew an extremely flat, irritated look. "I'm a young woman. Eighteen. Though you may be tons older than me, I'd still PREFER, a little more respect."

Troll then coughed into her hand a little, rubbing the back of it against the metal plate on her face. The one good thing about her metal was that it rarely got cold, she had a rather good body temperature, though a bit higher than a human...or..whatever he was. Pointed ears? Meh. Wiggling fingers danced from metal cheek to rest at the curve of her hip, and she nodded. "Even though you called me a kid, I guess I'll go."

Shuffling past him a little, she looked inside, left-to-right, and made sure that there wasn't a possible trap. She didn't like him, he probably didn't enjoy her company too much, so why wouldn't he set a million traps to crunch her ankles separate from her legs? Troll didn't appreciate the thought of dying, especially after going through all of this. He had better bring her some food while she was in there. Maybe some lettuce, slightly rotted. That was some good stuff right there. Anyways, she hated fresh, unless it was meat.

Having a mental debate on if she should lurk around and find a fridge to raid, she realized everything was absolutely clean. It seemed there was barely any dust in the air. A little irked, the red-eyed young lady peered over to Xigbar, clearing her throat, "Since you're so charming, why don't you lead the way." Loserrrrr. She was sucking up to him. What a loooossserrr she was. How annoying could she feel? How, how, how? Troll simply turned her thoughts to a dull roar for now, wedged boots clicking against the ground.