Inside Alexander

[tidus]

Muscles twitched for a moment, paralleling the young boy's - dream's? - memories. Things felt far too fuzzy to be real just yet. He could remember a man swinging a blade in his face, a man masked both physically and verbally as his cryptic words hid his true intentions. He remembered the frustration he'd felt, and the rough, rocky edges that scraped against his back as he fell...

...But his back was now cushioned by a plush mattress with a red velvet bedspread covering it. Above him, a pale yellow canopy hung atop the bed, seeming to shelter him from the grief he'd just engaged in. The dream himself now felt that he truly must be in someone else's dream - a beautiful chamber hidden somewhere in a castle, and bathed in soft sunlight coming from the red-draped window.

Placing an unsteady foot on the deep red carpet, Tidus blinked slowly as he formed a few words. "Where...where is this?"

In the instant that he uttered this question, a million, more important questions entered his mind. "Alexander?!" he cried to the room. "Alexander, where are you? Are you hurt? Where did that man go?!"

The room felt as if it were spinning...maybe it was his mind that was spinning. Either way, he suddenly felt incredibly vulnerable, and helpless. After all, if he was only a dream, what could he do to repair this shattered world in which everyone seemed to suddenly be thrown? There was no logic in this game that had taken hold of existence, no fairness in it, and Tidus, being a creature of pure justice and fairness, couldn't fathom how this came to be. In this moment, his innocence was clashing with the reality around him...if it could even be called reality.

This room certainly didn't feel a part of the chaos that he'd experienced so far at all. It was a respite, to be sure, but something about it felt so detached that staying here would be completely fruitless. Pulled again by his innocence and the injustices around him, Tidus felt torn between the decision to stay here and enjoy the brief pause in time, and the decision to leave here immediately to try and right the wrongness of this world.

"...Alex?" he pitifully muttered. He wasn't sure what else to do at this point. Things were too confusing to engage his mind at the moment, and so he resigned to drooping back onto the bed once more.

[Xenos]

((Tidus is so Sanguine. I love it.))

[Alexander THE GIRL]

Gears shifted through the castle in the distance, operating the machines that focused Alexander’s holy energy; attacking the creatures on the outside. Small wheels of clockwork could be seen in small glass sections of the walls, serving some unknown small function contributing to the greater purpose of causing Alexander to live.

These wheels were turned by other wheels which, themselves, were turned by other wheels which were powered by chains, and these chains were connected to distant wheels which were connected by other wheels. It went on and on like this, connecting wheel after wheel to chain after chain before reaching the spring. The spring was, as clockwork springs tend to be, wound by a key deep in Alexander’s core. This key was not stored in his head, as some might guess.

No, his brain was powered by clockwork like the rest of him; though this was much different from the rest of him. What was actually perfectly tuned microscopic clockwork — working on levels of precision normally beyond a brain of flesh — appeared to be a perfect half-sphere that generated a good deal of electricity.

No it was in his heart that the key lie. It had been wound to full aeons ago, and it would continue to wind down for aeons to come. Alexander often wondered just how long he had before he would have to be rewound, but he had yet to start slowing down. What a dreadful time that would be for him, spending his later years slowing further and further until he was unable to think or act with any grace.

This was all of little relevance to the young Blitzball player’s situation besides the fact that Alexander’s full schematics were inscribed in seven hundred and seventy-seven languages across almost every inch of his stone and steel walls. Of much more immediate concern were—among the various clicks and clanks that were dulled by the walls to make sleeping easy for the castle inhabitants—the voices coming from a room somewhere in the vast halls of the castle.

"You damn fool! Don't you understand anything I'm saying? I don't give a damn about Shinra. If you're a man... no, if you're a human being, you'll save the planet! Don't you even care?" Yelled a gruff, pleading, grizzled male voice from somewhere in the distance. He seemed angry at someone with him, but whoever it was failed to respond. The voice was followed by a soft scratching sound.

"Ultimecia lives far in the future where none of us can technically exist. There's only one way to make yourself exist in a world like that! As friends, don't forget one another! As friends, believe in one another! Believe in your friends' existence! And they'll also believe in yours. To be friends, to like one another, and to love one another... You can't do these things alone. You need somebody. Right, guys?" Spoke another voice from the same room. This voice was a middle-aged, jovial man who seemed to be giving a speech; again with no response. The two men didn’t seem to be speaking to each other, but their voices were certainly coming from the same direction. The soft scratching noise came again.

“Because it's not the end that matters! It's knowing that you have something to live for right now, at this moment! Something you've worked for... something that's worth protecting! As long as you have that...that's enough!” Sounded a female’s voice. It seemed angry and rebellious, as though she had just been asked something that disgusted her to the core. Once more there was no response, and the soft scratching continued.

“O holy guardian, hear our prayers. Darkness overshadows us once again. O holy guardian, hear our prayers. Deliver us out of darkness into light.” Chanted two women, sounding vaguely desperate for something. One was a young woman, but the other was clearly a child. Nobody spoke back to these women, and the scratching sound came a fourth time.

“Surely there is something we can do! What if they are still conscious of their being? Even if they know not of their deaths, they should not linger or they chance becoming ghouls! They deserve to pass on just as much as any other person does!” Alexander’s voice called from the same direction as the others. He had said the exact same words in Zanarkand, in the exact same tone. There was no response, and the scratching continued…

((I'm going to wait a while before I have Alexander notice Tidus is awake. Until then, I'll just give you reason to wander from place to place exploring Alexander's rooms. XD))