thenextlife | Holly Heights IC Mailbox ✉

[Roxas's relief if stunted immediately. Either Lea would have remembered him, or this might've been some new Lea entirely. It's the old one, it sounds like, but what Lea had just said-]

You were at the Landlord's mansion?

[That answers his question. So Roxas really hadn't been trapped by himself somewhere in the mansion, as Lea had feared.

It hasn't yet occurred to him that Roxas could be worried he got sent home and brought back during those ten days.]

Yeah, me and everyone else from our world—Isa, Riku, Sora, Ventus, even the Riku Replica—we all woke up there. None of us knew where you were. I guess the purpose was to meet the Landlord, but I think it was really an excuse to treat us like lab experiments. [Elaboration can wait. More importantly:] So nothing happened to you?

[This is a lot to process. Excuse him a moment while he sieves out his questions and answers.]

I-... Nothing happened to me, except you guys weren't in the contacts anymore. A lot of people suddenly weren't. The whole place was emptier than usual.

[He shakes his head, though Lea can't see.] I'm fine, but you were really in his house? How do you know? Did you get to meet him?

That's exactly how it was for us. We couldn't contact anyone outside of our group. [This hopefully explains the panic that was in his voice when he asked where Roxas has been. He sounds considerably calmer at present.]

I'm pretty sure it was his house, but it didn't seem like it's been lived in. He gave us these weird tasks every day. At the start, there were these green pills with a note that said if we trust him, we'll take them. Some of us did just to see what they'd do. They were to curb hunger, I guess, because food wasn't always available. I didn't notice any other effects.

Then we had to find books, connect word blocks, make pudding... a lot of pointless stuff. [He huffs out a breath, a frustrated sound.] We didn't even meet him, he only communicated through note cards, and at the very end he talked to us through an intercom.

[(Subject to retconning if they actually do meet him later in the thread, naturally.)]

Pudding? [This sounds just as wacky as the Landlord would make it, though. He's not surprised. Roxas sighs through his nose.]

When Riku's team won the paintball tournament back then, I told him I thought this would be a fluke. I wanted to be wrong about it. Sorry you guys had to go through all that. I'm guessing you didn't really find any clues or something that could help us out.

Pudding. First we had to find the recipe card, the next day we had to make what was on it. [Annoying in retrospect, but his voice is amused when he adds:] At least it tasted pretty good.

The things from his house that I... sort of pocketed, he let me keep. I'd thought they might be useful. I'll show them to you later if you want.

Before we talked to the Landlord, there was someone who called herself a secretary. She said something about how she was "murdered that one time." Is that a clue? I don't know what she meant.

She was murdered? [Thinking a moment.] I only remember residents getting murdered last Halloween. I don't remember anything about a secretary being one of them. I can try asking Ema about it later.

Can we meet up later today and get ice cream? Then you can show me everything. What'd you grab?

She said... [Trying to recall the exact wording. He has a good memory for details, particularly conversations. It's something of a requisite for playing a double agent.] She's kind of like Barbie, all kinds of jobs. So I don't think she's really a secretary, but she must work for the Landlord.

Ice cream sounds good. There was nothing too unusual in his house—paperclips, a pen, a lighter, magnets, those sorts of things. I still have the items I found during the search for the recipe card, too, those are a lot more random. But they're things he must've hid on purpose.

[A pause.] Did people really die last Halloween...?

[At least the Landlord has a few more things in his house other than office supplies. More importantly,]

Yeah. A few people that the Landlord brought in, as far as I know. Their murders were broadcasted on TV in the middle of the night. He made a post on the Network with pictures of blood, like it was some kind of game.

[Roxas sounds uneasy. He lets out a deep breath.]

You're saying she works for the Landlord, but she got murdered somehow too? Did she give you any other info?

Edited 2014-07-29 06:22 (UTC)

I can understand why some people don't like the guy.

[Lea makes a face, unseen, at the news. There had been mentions of something like that in some of the old reports filed at the LEU. Maybe they warrant a second look, in light of recent events.]

The so-called secretary didn't sound upset about it, like it was a game for her too. She wanted to book our appointment with the Landlord, and wondered why we were interested in meeting him. That was all.

Makes sense that the Landlord has employees... allies... whatever they may be. Running this place full time would be a lot of work for one person.

[But is the Landlord really a person? He'd sounded perfectly normal, but that isn't saying much.]

The part that really bothers me is the way you were kept separate. What do you think that could mean?

I don't know. He and I got into an argument before when he posted to the network, but that was just because he wasn't giving me any real answers. If you guys didn't get any from there either, I dunno what the point of leaving me out was. He could've just put me in there to mess with me, like he usually does to everyone.

[He sighs through his nose. There's a pause.]

Maybe he really isn't the only person running this? Maybe there's more than one Landlord? Quistis and I talked about there being some kind of council before. ...I dunno what's going on. I wish I did.

Anyway, you guys are all safe, right?

[Either way, the Landlord is surely messing with Roxas. And messing with Roxas = messing with Lea, so he isn't going to let this one go so easily.]

Maybe we'll find out one of these days. Who knows, digging up some of his secrets might be what makes him send us all home. [And Lea doesn't sound pleased at the prospect, but something closer to a carefully forced neutrality. Here, Roxas is his own person... has his own heart. Here, Isa is about as safe from Xehanort as he could be. There's no guarantees that any of them will even remember their time in Holly Heights once they're no longer there. Hopefully Lea can be forgiven for his conflicted feelings regarding their return home.]

Everyone made it out in one piece. It was kinda boring. [His smile can be heard in his voice.] I even made cookies for everyone on the day we woke up in a kitchen.

Meet you at the fountain in a while? There's about a week's worth of dirty dishes piled up here that I'm trying to avoid.

[That gets Roxas to smile. He's already told Lea before: no matter how adamant he might have been about returning to Sora and how frustrated he is about the Landlord's antics, there are people here that make his stay entirely worth it, Lea included. If he's going to be kept in this box, he may as well make it worth it.]

Hope the cookies turned out okay. [He remembers the ones from the bake sale being surprisingly good.] And hopefully that means you're gonna get those dishes done before we meet up. How's an hour sound?

Edited 2014-08-04 16:04 (UTC)

Holly Heights IC Mailbox ✉

yes!

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sorry i must've accidentally deleted the notif for this when i was cleaning my inbox :(

no problem!

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