It is the first day of the cruise - Alderon is ready to set sail, and passengers board the ship with passports, tickets, and luggage in hand. Organization XIII has just arrived, with their tickets distributed nonchalantly by their leader before they are permitted to go through the boarding process. With security checks and ticket verification, the whole process takes about an hour before they are able to reach their rooms. Each member was granted their own individual room with a balcony view - their leader had really gone all-out for this trip. Perhaps it was his strange way of motivating them from the recent lack of progress? Whatever the case, their luggage was now deposited in their rooms and all of the members were free to explore the ship at their own leisure.

Namine flops down onto her bed with a sigh, gazing up at the stark-white ceiling. This whole trip felt like a disaster waiting to happen, with this bunch, and she could not feel more stressed. It wasn't exactly her job to keep them out of trouble, but she knew things were worse for her when they caused trouble. Especially when many of them seemed to disregard her, as it was. She wasn't one to be terribly fond of just relaxing, anyway - some might call it high strung but she called it sensible. Might as well unpack... That was her first task, and she meticulously set out at work. They would be there for a week, so she didn't want to lose anything along the way.

Zexion simply placed his unpacked duffel bag in his room before going to explore the ship. He was not one to be in crowded places, but he would rather be alone away from the hallway full of their organization members. Now would be a good chance to see what all was in this place before he bumped into one of them at every corner. There also weren't too many people wandering about as they were still boarding the ship and getting their rooms organized. It was an enjoyable walk, and though he was not very expressive he did quite enjoy all of the bright lights and shops. The on-board pool seemed nice, as well, even if it would be crowded with people the minute the boat left the dock.

Axel strode past the check-in, wanting to get past the crowd as quickly as possible. Back in the Castle That Never Was, everything was just so spacy and serene. Here? It. Was. Packed. The Flurry of Dancing Flames sought his own private quarters (Room 808). Of course, that didn't mean he wouldn't branch out a little. He passed the buffet section where food was being delivered one tray after another. He couldn't resist. Axel helped himself to an entire plate of smoked salmon (his favourite) and then promptly disappeared into a black portal. The ship staff were bewildered when they came back to find a large serving plate missing.

Back in his room, Axel had changed into a red and black shirt with "Flamin' Hot" printed on it and a nice pair of board shorts. He had checked out the bathroom to find that it had been stocked with very tiny bottles of hair products - it wouldn't be enough to keep his hair up. Looks like he would have to raid more from the others' rooms then.

Having finished half of the plate, Axel found that he was getting quite thirsty. He headed back into the hallway, but couldn't see any food or drink cart. Eh, whatever. Were the others here yet? Hmm... Namine might have some hair products that she might not be using. Heading over to her door, Axel knocked on it.

"Heya, want some?" he said offering the plate to her. "By the way, got any of those tiny bottles you're not using?" Axel didn't have much in terms of social manners, but he supposed this would do.

Axel

"Eh, suit yourself" Axel said with a light shrug as he ate another piece of salmon. The smoky flavour was just too irresistible. Was Namine always like this? Axel couldn't exactly pinpoint where exactly, but she was a a bit different. More interesting, so to say. She seemed a bit bolder with her words, even teasing him a little. Good for her. The last thing the Organisation needed was another mute.

"Well, I wouldn't want those bottles go to waste" Axel replied, though he didn't admit that yes, sooner or later he would be out of them. Oh and he always carried a bottle in his pocket. And who knows, if the other Organisation members needed hair products, then they would have to come to him. Hahaha. "Thanks Namine" he added with an evil grin.

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Xigbar

"Welp, looks like I'm not the only one who doesn't want to be on this oversized boat" Xigbar commented as he casually inspected Saix's papers, some of which was probably confidential. See, information was valuable to him. It appeared that Xigbar had invited himself in via one of his portals, not caring that he was breaching Saix's personal space. "Don't know why you're bringing all this work on board, Fluffy. Unless we turn everyone on board into a Heartless, there's nothin' we could harvest"

Xigbar stared at Xemnas's signature, his face turning into a frown. If they were all here on this blasted ship, what was Xemnas doing? It was something that for once, Xigbar didn't have an answer to. Was he replacing them? Conducting experiments without them? It would use too much power, even for him, to teleport back. Xigbar continued to sift through the papers... "Ever wondered what Xemnas is doin' right now?"

Saix was in a semi-relaxed state. His eyes were closed and he was just enjoying the feel of the breeze and the slight wetness it brought with it from the ocean. Once the ship left port, things would become chaotic, so he was enjoying what little peace he was going to get. Despite the fact that Xemnas was the leader, a lot of duties fell into him as well. Some of which still needed taken care of, even while on this waste of a time vacation. He heard the familiar sound of a portal opening up in the room behind him, then the shuffling of papers when whoever it was started messing with things. But still he jumped slightly when he heard the voice.

Nice moment over, Saix opened his eyes and reentered the main part of his room. "Hello Xigbar. I hope you don't plan on doing this when the moon is full." He said, casually scolding the other man. He didn't really care that the Xigbar was in here, invading his space. Not like he had any back at the Castle anyway. None of the papers were confidential anyway, it was all just mission stuff. The important ones were with Xemnas. He had expected something like this to happen to him. But there was so way that one of the members would do this to Xemnas. Not if they wanted to live long enough to regain their hearts.

"I brought all this with me because if I don't do it now, it'll be waiting when we get back. Along with another stack about twice as big as this. There will always be missions to worry about, even if we aren't there to take care of them. Besides, we won't be spending two weeks on the ship, there are land stops too. Perhaps I can convince some members to hunt Heartless while they see the sights." Saix blinked when Xigbar mentioned Xemnas. They didn't know? Maybe it was because of all the time he spent with the man that he knew his habits. "He got on after we did. He's in one of the suites a level up." There was no way in hell that Saix was going to tell him which one though.



Xion was having a lot of fun already. All the sights, sounds, and smells, were so new. Her favorite thing though was probably the ocean. She hoped they got the chance to see some of the creatures that lived there. She couldn't help but wonder what types of Heartless could be found in the ocean as well. Maybe one of the other members would know. She made a mental note to ask one of them when she got the chance. There were a lot of people around, and she found it a little strange that she could be around them without having to hide. But then again, without her cloak on, she looked just like the rest of them.

She caught a glimpse of silver out of the corner of her eye and turned to look. It was Zexion, one of the quieter members of the Organization. She knew he wouldn't really like to have a conversation with her, which was okay really, but she also thought it was rude to just ignore him. So she decided to keep it brief. Xion walked up to him and smiled. "Hello Zexion! Did you see that there was a bookstore?" He liked books, right? Right, so that was a safe topic to talk to him about. But something she wouldn't ramble about until he just walked away. She hadn't actually gone in the store, so she didn't know what types of books they sold. She hoped he found something that he liked.

"Who me? Never" replied Xigbar, with an intentionally fake tone to it. Indeed he was curious to how Fluffy acts during the full moon. He wanted to witness it for his own amusement - Fluffy with a bushy tail and wolf ears - figuratively speaking anyway. Couldn't blame him, really. There was nothing to do on this ship except for staring at water. Heeey, maybe he could just shoot try to shoot Saix with tranquilisers during a full moon - that would make fun target practice.

Humour aside, Xigbar did feel a certain amount of respect for Saix. The guy was more level headed than he was (usually anyway) and he wasn't wild like Axel or as awfully timid as the other ones. That and Saix was essentially second in command. "Hey, want me to take on some of this?" he asked.

The Freeshooter froze for a moment, when it was revealed to him that Xemnas was also on the ship. "Is he now? Well, isn't that a surprise". This changed a lot of things. Yes, indeed Xigbar had his own plans, but he wasn't going to excetute them yet - at least not now. He needed to find out more about Xemnas, that's for sure. Specifically, things that he wasn't supposed to know.

Xigbar turned to Saix... "You know which room Xemnas is in, right? Tell me and I'll give you the VIP tickets to tonight's Bunny Bunny dance show. Or do you prefer to have Demyx dance in front of you? " said Xigbar with a grin. You know, he could just teleport to the suites above, but he wanted to see what made Fluffy tick. Call it personal entertainment.

"I'm serious." Saix snapped when Xigbar replied with the tone he did. "I can't be controlled when I Berserk, if you don't stay away, I might hurt you. Or worse." Killing Xigbar, because the man was being stupid, would be a huge pain. It would be one less person to deal with all the missions, when they didn't have enough people already. And, he had to admit, he did like the older man, somewhat. It was amusing to watch him annoy other people. Besides, Xemnas would punish him severely for killing another member, without being ordered to do so.

Saix was pleasantly surprised when Xigbar offered to help with the paperwork. I appreciate it, but it would take more time to show you how to do it than it would to just do it myself. There's a lot more to it than there looks." There was assigning people to missions, giving a timeframe that the missions could be done it, setting priorities, and a bunch of other stuff. It would probably take hours for him to explain everything to Xigbar. He would just have to go back over everything again anyway, make sure it was done right. But, he really did appreciate the offer. Nobody had every done that before.

The conversation quickly changed as Xigbar tried to bribe him in order to find out which suite Xemnas was staying in. He tried to give away his ticket to some bunny show thing, and also mentioned him getting a lap dance from Demyx. He wasn't interested in either some random bunny girl or Demyx. There was only one person he would even consider getting a lap dance from, and he doubted it would ever happen. "I wouldn't tell you, even if you had something I was interested in." Saix said with a small smirk. He knew Xigbar wanted to know, about Xemnas and the type of person he was interested in. So he was going to mess with the man a little bit.



Xion was a little disappointed, but not surprised when Zexion didn't seem to want to have a conversation. She had expected as much, but had decided to try anyway, it would have been rude to just walk past him. At least, she thought so. It was okay though, not everybody had to be talkative. "I'm sure you'll be able to find some interesting books on our land stops." She said, figuring that okay actually meant the bookstore wasn't that good. She wasn't the best at reading people, especially when she didn't know them.

"Well, I have to go." She lied, to end the conversation so Zexion didn't have to stand there any longer. "I promised Namine I would meet her to plan some stuff." Still a lie, she hadn't promised to meet anyone. But it seemed believable, right? Maybe she'd explore a few shops then head back to her room. She had a lot of time to do things, so it didn't really matter. She still wanted to go swimming to, but wanted to wait until the ship actually left the dock for that to happen. "I brought a few books with me, if you get desperate, just ask. Anyway, I'll see you around!" Xion waved, then turned around to walk away.

When Namime came back with the tiny bottles, Axel had found himself one of the courtesy bags for her to deposit them in. "Haha, thanks. Nah, I won't use them all in a day. But that won't stop me from coming back tomorrow after they've been restocked". You know, it was interesting to find out that Namine brought her own (Axel himself had packed light). Now that she mentioned it he recognised her fragrance, but wasn't sure what it was called. Not that he wanted to use it for himself. Nope - just interested for some reason.

Out of the rest of the organisation, Axel found Namine to be the easiest to talk to. And more importantly, someone he could confide in. He walked deeper into her room, towards the balcony, considering whether he should go ahead with what he had in mind. There were shadows covering this side of the ship, so Axel could see his and Namine's reflection in in the balcony's glass

"Namine, you're talented. Think you could sketch me?" Axel asked, with his back still turned. "Memories can be altered, or I might forget one day. I want to at least have something to remind me who I was as a Nobody". A sketch did much more than any photo - it tends to include a message, a purpose whereas a photo was only about a certain point in time.



Xigbar frowned at the papers, upon realising that he won't be able to help much. Initially, he didn't realise that Saix was this much of a thinker and planner, what with him swinging his deadly weapon around and all. But here, it seemed that Saix being second in command, took up the roles and responsibilities, surpassing Xigbar himself and everyone else. Saix didn't seem to like it much and Xigbar almost pitied Saix for having to handle all this... stuff. Then again, was Saix not sharing because he wanted to keep his position? Xigbar dwelled on that thought for a moment, but pushed it aside. He wasn't really interested in this work anyway.

Nah, instead he was focused on prying Xemnas' room number from Saix. There had to be some way to get that information out - kind of like cracking open a safe - you just need the right combination. Of course, the simpler way would be to just dress up in a captain's outfit and teleport through each room, but it would attract attention. Plus he was bored and there was nothing else to do.


"Aw come on Saix, you scratch my back and I scratch yours" said Xigbar in a persuasive tone as he draped an arm around Fluffy. From what Saix said before, it sounded like Xigbar had the bargaining chip in his hand already. So what was it? A simple deal here would lead to more, better deals in the future.

"I can make you any weapon, maybe even improve yours. Look here, I even have shower photos of almost everyone. Larxene for example" said Xigbar as he showed Saix a revealing photo of Larxene. Steam and bubbles covered some... spots.

Apparently Larxene was just outside, trying to listen in. "Damn you Xigbar! Give me that photo!" shouted Larxene in anger. Judging Xigbar's location from his voice, she then sent daggers flying through the door (forgetting that this was Saix's room). That was easily countered by Xigbar who just remained where he was, using a hand to bring up a portal. A pained shriek could be heard outside followed by silence.

"Everyone has a price. What's yours?"

Demyx was sitting down all comfy in his room. Sitting sideways on the chair whilst playing his sitar, he notices the amount of noise everyone is making and decides to walk out.
Finding Larxene and Xigbar having what seemed to be a fight, he whistles and slowly goes away from them and out on the ship, after looking around he finds himself in a nice spot on the edge and starts playing his sitar to have fun with the ocean.