Halloween Town, First Visit:
In Which There Is Coal and Cruelty
Perhaps it was the fault of Sora's half-remembered memories, but Halloween Town seemed considerably more plausible than Christmas Town. Still, it was hard to argue with Jack that a place he said he'd been to didn't exist; and it was even harder to argue with him when he was this excited, beaming wide and marching ahead in his red Santa suit, leading them to the tree that would allegedly take them to this other town.
"So what do we think compassion looks like?" Roxas asked dryly.
"The opposite of me?" Axel suggested with a smirk.
Namine murmured, "That's a given, but it's probably not going to be as simple as you with different color hair." Axel shot a suspicious glance at her, as if to verify that she was in fact making fun of him, and she looked innocently off to the side, apparently very distracted by something in the gray forest.
Turning back to face front, Axel muttered, "Well, then let's figure out what else it could look like and get out of this freakshow. This place isn't totally boring, but it can't possibly be as much fun as the full-scale world-destruction that could be going down in Hollow Bastion right now."
His tail was lashing back and forth. Roxas fell back a pace to watch it, and pointed out, "This place doesn't seem to be boring you all that much." Axel glanced back at him, blank. Roxas reached out and grabbed the wagging tail, and the redhead jumped half out of his skin -- fur -- something, and gave him a wounded look.
"That's attached to me, you know."
"I'm aware." Roxas let it go, but it rapidly resumed its treacherous wagging, and he watched it. Something about that made him happy in a weird way. He couldn't really explain it. Maybe he should look into getting a dog when Hollow Bastion was safe.
"You're a brat," the redhead said, in his most long-suffering tones. "You know that?"
"Pretty sure you've told me before," Roxas said blithely.
Namine murmured, "Not to ruin the fun, but shouldn't we be thinking about the list?"
"Guys!" Jack was just ahead of them, waving enthusiastically. "This is it! Here we'll find the path to Christmas Town~!"
Namine and Axel both paused, hesitating for whatever reason. Roxas strode forward past them. He didn't see any signs that the trees by Jack were anything out of the ordinary, but either way, he wasn't about to hesitate now. He was ready for anything from Heartless to Nobodies, but he had the distinct feeling that the most menacing thing they were likely to encounter was a toppling evergreen intended for someone's living room.
The trees ended as Roxas passed Jack and entered a strange, silent clearing, more white than gray, the air very still; he was filled with the inexplicable sense that he had come to a crossroads, a different place, not of Halloween Town. As he turned, curious, he noticed that the thick trees circling the clearing were marked -- each one with a different colorful symbol.
"They're doors," Jack said from beside him, his soft voice not hiding his excitement. "Guess which one leads to Christmas Town!"
"The one with the Christmas tree on it?" Roxas guessed, taking a few steps closer.
It was small, for a door, and when he found the knob and pulled it open, there was nothing but darkness inside. Here goes nothing, he thought, stepping all the way in.
His hoof came down in three inches of snow. Roxas blinked, glancing down at the pristine expanse of white, and then up -- until he could see the town just below the hill where he was standing. It was exactly as he'd expected: coated in the glistening snow, red and green lights hanging from the rooftops, a giant tree in the center square...
Jack emerged behind him, unfolding his long spidery limbs through the tiny door. "Ah! It's always so wonderfully warm and festive!" he exclaimed.
Warm in one sense, definitely not in the other. Roxas hunched over slightly, watching his breath fog in the frigid air, and kicked the snow away from his hooves idly. "Is Santa's workshop the big building with the smoke?"
"Yes, that's it! Oh, I can't wait to tell him all about what I've been planning..."
The crunching of snow gave away the next person through the door. Namine emerged, but to Roxas's surprise, she wasn't a ghost any longer. She was very clearly solid, her legs encased in candy-cane striped stockings, and the ear visible around her hair was pointed. "You're an elf now," he said, astonished, and glanced down again to make certain that his feet were still hooves.
"Oh!" Namine turned her head up as if to see, lifting her hands to her ears, and then her blue gaze dropped down to Roxas again. "Well, you-- you have a halo."
"A what?" he said, frowning. The girl hopped up to him and stood on tiptoe, lifting an arm to run her hand over his head. He didn't feel anything. "I have a halo?"
Namine said, "It's resting on your horns," hushed, but from the way her lips were twitching she was struggling not to giggle.
Roxas wasn't sure if he wanted to scowl at her or burst out laughing, so he settled for glancing back at Axel as he finally emerged from the door, and cursed sharply.
"Fuck, I knew it," the redhead said, wrapping his arms tightly around himself even though his brown fur had morphed into a thick brown coat and he had a white scarf. He directed half a glance at Roxas and Namine, who was admiring her stockings, then said dryly, "Awww, a sweet little Christmas elf and an adorable tree ornament angel."
"Not a very good one," Roxas argued, stomping his hoof in demonstration. "All this shape-shifting certainly keeps us on our -- toes." As they say. He turned, looking for Jack, and realized that the skeleton had already made his way into town and was peering through a window on Santa's workshop.
"What are you supposed to be, anyway...?" Namine asked Axel thoughtfully.
The redhead was also looking down at the town, although with more distaste. "Considering that I'm the only one of us properly dressed, maybe I'm someone who doesn't enjoy going out in the snow."
"It doesn't bite, you know," Roxas told him, starting down the path. "You could melt it all if you really wanted to."
"But then he might get in trouble with Santa."
"Oh, I'm not sure he could live with that."
"Ha ha ha," Axel said witheringly, and finally Roxas could hear him starting to move, following behind them. "Does anyone else smell gingerbread?"
Roxas lifted his head, taking in the scent. Just one more sign of Christmas Town in the air.
They quickly descended into the town, by which time Jack had already moved on and knocked on the door, perhaps having forgotten that he had come here for a reason. A very short, very round man in Santa's red was standing in the doorway, hands on -- perhaps not his hips, but hands braced aggressively on his bulk, looking less than pleased. He turned to peer at them as they came hurrying up behind Jack. "You all are..." he said.
"Off-worlders," Axel said with a jaunty grin. "We're here looking for presents."
Roxas was prepared to turn and scowl at him, but before he could make it Santa said direly, "Oh, I doubt that very much, Axel. And Roxas, and Namine."
Stunned to be addressed by name, Roxas glanced around at the others. He wasn't quite sure that he'd accepted that there was really a man in a red suit who delivered presents to children. A man called Santa Claus, sure. But probably a man, like Jack, who stayed in this town and planned for a holiday and never really did anything outside his little place in the multiverse.
"You-- You know us?" Namine asked politely, suddenly standing up much straighter than she had been before.
"Naturally," Santa said, puffing himself up proudly. "I know who everyone is, or else how could I know who's been naughty or nice!"
Namine's gaze met Roxas, distressed and surprised. Axel was the only one who found words, saying wryly, "So what you're saying is that we don't get any presents?"
Santa gave him a lingering stare, and then turned around and walked into his workshop without a word. He didn't shut the door behind himself and Jack quickly followed him inside, so with one last confused look, they trailed in behind them. Santa ducked down in front of the fireplace and reached in ponderously with his short arms to pluck out a piece of coal, then returned to present it to Axel. "This is all that I have for you," he said fussily. "I'm afraid that none of you have been very good this year -- and I believe you all know why."
He gave each of them a long look in turn. Namine couldn't meet his gaze, features crumbling briefly. No doubt she was thinking of Sora. Roxas thought back on the worlds he'd destroyed in the last year, the people who'd died because of him and the armies at his command... And Axel was just Axel.
Yeah, we're definitely not getting presents this year, Roxas thought, bemused.
"Don't be discouraged," Santa added. "You can earn better presents next year."
"What about me?" Jack asked, hopeful. "I don't suppose you have anything better for me?"
Santa straightened, dusting off his gloves. "Only a reminder that Christmas is once a year, just like Halloween. Not every week." He gave the skeleton a stern look.
"Is this what Sally meant by going to bother someone?" Namine murmured.
Overhearing, Santa assured her darkly, "Jack is an old hand at bothering me." But his expression cleared quickly, and he looked around at them, matter-of-fact. "I'm very busy. If you only came here for a social visit..."
Namine nudged Roxas, and he started upright. He'd been so thrown out of sorts by the man's knowing their names and their histories that he'd almost forgotten about it. "Actually, we have this list, and we were wondering if you could help us find some of the items on it."
"A list?"
"It's a piece of paper with items on it, usually organized," Axel contributed helpfully. "Shouldn't you be the expert on those, Sandy Claws?"
Unfortunately, Jack ruined his sarcasm somewhat by adding, very sincerely, "The doctor needs the ingredients on it in order to construct an extra heart for Roxas!"
Santa nodded sagely, stroking his beard. "Ahhh-- the keyblade problem. I was wondering if that would come up. Hmm... Not a bad way of getting around it, I suppose..." He nodded to himself again and stepped closer. "Let me see this list."
That was even more unexpected, and it made Roxas freeze, uncooperative, for a long beat. "You -- you knew about this? Does that mean it's not just me?"
"You're not the first keyblade master to have found it a problem, oh no." Santa Claus chuckled.
The tension in his chest felt unbearable for a brief moment. So he wasn't the only keyblade master ever to wield two keyblades... and he wasn't the only one to ever experience this problem. It wasn't a flaw in his heart; it was something unavoidable. Roxas sighed, forcing himself to let go of that anxiety. He dug the list out of his pocket and handed it over.
Santa took it with great importance, and dug up a tiny pair of spectacles to place gingerly on his nose. He squinted anyway as he read over the paper. "Hmm," he said, thoughtfully. "I see. Well, some of these ingredients you certainly won't find here. But... Oh, hope! We have plenty of hope here." He waved towards a door in the corner of the room. "Follow me!"
Roxas could hardly believe that anyone outside of Halloween Town had been able to interpret the contents of that list. He followed quick on the portly man's heels, his hooves making a loud clatter as they left the carpeted floor and entered a less residential area. The factory was a large, cavernous room criss-crossed with conveyor belts, carrying gifts in various stages of being wrapped. A dozen elves dressed just like Namine tended to them as they passed by.
"So you manufacture hope now," Roxas said, and then rubbed his nose. This place smelled very strongly of gingerbread -- it was making him hungry.
Santa shook a finger at him. "You're not to ask any questions," he said scoldingly. "Now stay here."
He took off across the floor to a conveyor belt carrying only fully wrapped presents, Jack in his wake, apparently not included in that command. An elf was attaching nametags to each present as it went by, and he paused the conveyor to turn to Santa and speak quietly with him, both oblivious to or unconcerned with Jack looming over them.
Roxas watched them thoughtfully until he felt a tug at the back of his coat and whirled around, alarmed. He hadn't heard anyone approach, and at first he didn't see anyone either; it took a moment before he glanced down and caught sight of a tiny elfin girl, even smaller than the other elves, and they already barely came up to his thigh. She was clutching a bear to her chest so that her enormous blue eyes seemed to rise straight above its fuzzy ears, and her hair was a cascade of silver curls around her.
"What's your name?" she whispered.
Roxas frowned at Namine and Axel. "What's yours?" the redhead countered for him.
"Merry Snowflake," she whispered.
"Merry--" Roxas started automatically, and then clamped his lips shut, more restrained than Axel, who was laughing. She clearly didn't think her name was at all amusing. She was so... tiny, and serious. "I'm Roxas," he said with dignity.
"Hello, Roxas."
Even Namine was snickering a little now. Roxas glared at both of them.
"What are you, Roxas?" Merry asked, still quiet, as if she couldn't speak louder than a whisper.
"What am-- Oh, these." Roxas gazed at his hooves and his claws. He probably looked very foreign and strange to the child, and she probably wouldn't understand what it meant if he said he was from off-world, unlike Jack and Santa. He settled for, "I'm a visitor. We all are. We don't look like you because we're not from here." He waved at Axel and Namine -- although neither of them were visibly odd, like he was.
Merry tilted her head, and lifted her hand to suck on her thumb uncertainly as she considered them, gaze passing only fleetingly over the other two before returning to Santa. "Did you come here to see Santa?" she hushed.
She was... so tiny. Roxas glanced back at Namine, brows drawing together. Shouldn't she be handling this? Girls were supposed to be good at dealing with kids. Or at least anyone would be better than him; he, who had up until a few weeks ago spent more time destroying worlds than dealing with their inhabitants. Namine just returned his stare with a tiny smile lurking at the corners of her lips, shamelessly unhelpful.
"Yes," he told the elf. "We wanted Santa's help."
"With what?" she asked.
"Grown-up stuff," Axel said cheerfully. "We're trying to make a heart!" He seemed to enjoy saying something so nonsensical to a small child; Namine frowned at him in spite of herself.
Merry swayed from foot to foot, unblinking. "Can you do that?"
I don't know. "We have to," Roxas told her.
"Why?"
"We need it," Axel said, a bit less amused by his own cleverness now.
"Why?"
"Well..." Roxas scowled. How did he make her stop that? It was annoying. "Because I can't fight without one."
"Why?"
"Because it hurts my heart," he said distinctly.
"Why?"
Roxas's scowl deepened. Namine leaned in and offered quietly, "I think it's kind of a game to her, Roxas."
"We could throw a stick," Axel offered pleasantly on his other side, but also low. "See if she chases it."
It was rather like having a shoulder angel and a shoulder devil. Roxas sighed. Answering her questions didn't seem to be helping, so maybe throwing a stick was the quickest way to shut her up. But still, there had to be some... kinder method.
He asked the child pointedly, "Don't you think hearts are important?"
Merry opened her mouth, closed it again, and nodded seriously.
Ha! I won. Roxas straightened, triumphant. His logic might have been slightly flawed, but the important part was that this tiny elfling had stopped asking why, and she would never know the difference anyway.
"I hope Santa can help you," Merry hushed. "Hearts are good for lots more things than fighting." She skittered off without waiting for a response, so she probably never even knew how her comment hit home, making both Axel and Namine stiffen, and the pleasure of victory fade away.
"We know," Namine murmured.
Axel folded his arms over his chest, turning away with his features unreadable. "That old man had better hurry up," he said.
Roxas went with the topic change, muttering to no one in particular, "I'm just glad I don't have to answer any more stupid questions."
"I seem to recall that's something kids like to do," Namine said, smiling.
"I didn't," Axel countered.
Namine returned politely, "You were a kid?"
Roxas felt his lips quirk up. Axel smirked and told her, "Well, I was shorter."
"Oh, that's pathetic," Roxas said, rolling his eyes. "If you're not going to let us live vicariously through you, stuff your platitudes."
Axel put his hands to his chest, dramatically wounded. "Hey, not my fault. I remember being a pretty weird kid. Shut-in, loser, you know. All that good stuff."
Roxas couldn't help asking curiously, "Oh yeah?" Namine was listening closely, too; he could tell, even though she wasn't looking directly at Axel. They were alike in many ways, and this was one of them -- he and Namine both had been born as Nobodies without the memories of the people who had created them. The memories of others were fascinating to him.
But doesn't she already...? Roxas thought uncertainly, giving her a second look.
Axel caught his attention again quickly, saying, "Definitely. Didn't think so at the time, of course." He looked distant, but refocused and grinned at Roxas smugly. "Who thinks they're a loser when they're fifteen?"
"Oh, that's hilarious," Roxas said, and yawned.
Santa returned then, a wide smile hidden in his beard. "Here we are!"
He passed a large wrapped gift over to Roxas, and Jack followed behind him to hover over Roxas's shoulder attentively as if drawn by the box. The paper was white, and the ribbon wrapped around it was striped with red and white in a festive pattern. Roxas reached for the ribbon.
"Ah-ah-ah! Don't open it, now."
Roxas frowned. "But how are we supposed to use it if we can't open it?"
"It isn't the contents that are important!" Santa said, and tapped the box with a gloved finger. "Anything could be in there. That's what's important. That's what makes it hope."
Oh, Roxas thought, putting the pieces together. The gift represented hope -- receiving a gift filled you with excitement at the potential of what could be inside. That potential went away the moment the present was open and the contents were known.
"Aha, that makes sense," Axel said. "But what is in it?"
Santa leveled him with an unamused stare. Axel grimaced.
"Is it all right to just take it?" Namine said from Roxas's elbow. "Even though... Roxas isn't supposed to get a gift from Santa Claus this year?"
Recovering quickly, Santa waved her concern away. "Oh, yes, it's fine. This isn't a reward for good behavior, you see. It's much more important than that." The old man set his hands on his belt and his eyes seemed to twinkle with some private amusement. "Besides, I think that being unable to open it without ruining it rather makes up for that, hmm?"
Axel's eyebrows lifted. "You're a cruel man. ...I can respect that."
"Cruel?" Jack echoed, plucking the present out of Roxas's arms. He turned it over curiously and then shook it, listening for a rattle inside.
"That's what it's called when you give people presents and then tell them they can't know what's inside," Axel said, helpful as ever.
"Ah!" Jack smiled and offered the gift back to Roxas. "I guess Christmas Town has a different scale of cruelty than Halloween Town."
Yeah, that would make sense, Roxas thought privately, but he took the box without comment. He looked down at it, thinking. If any unopened present had the ability to be hope... finding objects representative of the other things on the list, like surprise and spark, should be relatively easy. He asked Santa, "I don't suppose you could get us two more of these? I was -- kind of hoping maybe everyone could get a heart."
Santa's expression softened slightly, and he smiled. "I think you'll find that a true heart is a lot more difficult to acquire than just putting ingredients in a vat... but a lot easier, too. Next year, if you've all been better -- much, much better--" Direly. "--maybe you'll get something nice in your stockings."
"Right. Thanks." Next year. Roxas was far too impatient to wait. He'd only been alive for a year, and it seemed like an unfairly long time to have to wait. He would keep looking for things that could be hope.
Axel murmured, "Don't worry about it."
Roxas darted a small smile at him. Trust Axel to downplay the importance of a heart.
"Now!" Santa said, and shooed them all for the door. "If that's everything, you'd best be on your way. Not all of those ingredients come in such ready supply, you know."
From the way his gaze was darting from the three of them to Jack, Roxas assumed he just wanted Jack to get out before he started molesting any more presents. But it was hard to blame him for that.
"Hey!" Axel said, startled. Roxas turned back to find him with the tiny elf girl attached to his boot. Irritable, the redhead demanded, "You again? What is it now?"
She crooked a finger solemnly, beckoning him down to her level. Axel gave Roxas a warning glance, as if telling him, Keep your mouth shut about this, and then crouched down next to her.
Namine pulled up alongside Roxas, and they exchanged a curious look. After a beat, their question was answered: Axel said, at a normal volume, "He doesn't need a stuffed animal for his heart."
"Axel," Namine said gently. He looked up, scowling, and she prompted, "You don't know that."
What could a teddy bear represent? Roxas wondered, glancing down at the list.
After a long pause, Axel said reluctantly, "Yeah. Compassion. I got it." He took the stuffed bear from the elf girl, and she hastened off almost before she could hear his half-hearted, "Well, ah, thanks. Or something."
Roxas drew up next to him and took a better look at the bear. It wasn't exactly impressive -- the fur was worn in places, and one of its bead eyes looked loose. But compassion was compassion.
"I guess she likes you," he told Axel.
"She likes you," the tall Nobody protested. "It's for you, isn't it?"
"But I'm not the one she gave it to," Roxas pointed out, smirking.
Axel paused for a few seconds, no quick retorts or sly comments like usual. He watched the little girl leave and very, very slowly, his lips curved up with a very, very small smile.
"By the way," Roxas told him, "you're a gingerbread man."
He turned and headed out into the snow, mysteriously -- despite getting two ingredients for himself and zero for Axel and Namine -- feeling pretty good about the trip.
NEXT >>> Halloween Town, First Visit (Part 3)