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[ Kyle ; Sora : Caribbean : Pearl's Lower Decks ]

As Noelle spoke up about Prote, Kyle paused in his thoughts a moment, scolding himself. Prote, despite Kyle's constant reminders to himself, seemed as human as they did at times, if one simply thought of him as a person who buried his emotions. But he wasn't a human- he was another entity entirely, so it made sense he might not need oxygen. That fact was validated by the Geist's response as he entered.

Before he mentioned anything else, Joe and Sayrike responded, and the woman began talking to Dawn. Kyle took the opportunity to respond to Joe; "Better to ask and seem a fool than presume and be proved one."

"As for you, Prote, we were deciding who was going to come down with us to Atlantica and Atlantis. I'd forgotten to invite you- I apologize," he explained, nodding. "Once Prote's voiced where he plans to go, we'll have a pretty balanced headcount; mostly split down the middle, except for Anthony, who hasn't really decided yet. Anything else on our agenda?"

[[Louis : Caribbean Sea : Black Pearl - Lower Decks]]

Listening intently to everyone's comments, questions, and concerns, Louis stayed silent and kept his thoughts to himself aside from a few nods here and there. His eyes drifting over everyone that spoke, observing them with care before finally speaking when an opportunity arose, "Yeah, I have a question..." Louis paused glancing at Dawn then back to Kyle, "What about James? If he's really under the replicas' control it's inevitable they'll use him as a tool, even have him fight against us. What are we supposed to do if we encounter him? Do we fight him? Talk to him? Do we try to save him? Do we know how they're controlling him? Do we have anything capable of saving him?" Louis paused, "... Will there even be anything left to save?"

Louis gave Dawn a short sympathetic gaze out of the corner of his eye before continuing, "I want everything to be considered... and if we do encounter him... what is our unified plan? We can't have everyone with their own individual intentions. We need to be in agreement or we'll just be caught with our pants around our ankles, unable to actually act appropriately."

Sayrike::The Black Pearl::Lower Decks

"Well, okay then," Sayrike responded to Dawn's assurance. She offered a small smile that quickly grew into a large grin as Anthony half-hugged the other girl and made his decision. "Haha, well, I'm sure with you around, Dawn will be in some fairly heroic hands," Sayrike laughed, thinking about his selfless dive into the ocean a little earlier. Something about Anthony made Sayrike cheer up a bit; even earlier, he was a lot of fun to talk with, and he had a good heart. She was sure that he and Dawn would work well together. Not that they wouldn't have lots of help--Louis, Auron, Kuja...now that they knew there was going to be a battle, they could be a bit more prepared. But, Anthony could also keep an eye on whatever developments might come about with Dawn's hand which, hopefully, would be nothing.

She didn't have anything to say to Louis' comments, though they were important ones. It's just that...well, she wasn't close to James. Besides their initial conversation on the train, they hadn't talked much. She didn't have the right to decide how they should treat him in battle, but whatever course they agreed upon, she'd follow.

Jacob ll The Black Pearl

"So then, we knock him out, bind his arms and legs, hog-tie 'em, and take him back here blindfolded until we can figure out what else to do! Oh, I have a question! Any chance of capturing the negator and getting someone like Dr. Fink to reprogram it to null the Replicas or Nobodies? Howabout bio-chemical warfare or some s**t? Make caustic lye bombs to horribly mangle everything in the vicinity? Makeshift cloride gas and bomb the replicas? Y'know, fun presents to let them know we care. And we have our own special brand of dark magic from Earth." Jacob said smugly. He didn't care if Kyle would shoot it down, Jacob's head was filled with junk that had to be expelled every now and then.

((As was made apparent on skype, there seems to be confusion about the pronounciation of Prote and Elleon's names. Let's fix this, shall we? XD; Prote is pronounced "proat"--the e is silent and the o makes an "oh" sound. As for Elleon, it's "eh-LAY-un", so it's less . . . french sounding? So there we go. Fixed. XD))

[The Black Pearl ~ Lower Decks]

Prote looked around at all who was going down to Atlantica and those who were staying above the water. On average the people going for a swim were of lower strength. Those who were of higher strength were unable to go, with the exception of himself. To go would be a risk--the water was colder than the surrounding air, and if he were to actively seek heat he ran the risk of freezing the surrounding water. But to stay meant that those going below were short of his strength. However, when the topic of James came up, Prote began to lean towards remaining with the air breathers. There was great trouble with that situation, and if it came to none of the earthlings being able to make a good decision because of their attatchment, it might be left up to him to be the decisive one.

"I will stay above." Prote said finally, "Though if there is a certain location I am needed otherwise, I would respect your wishes."

Noelle's temper flared at Jacob's words about James. She felt her face grow warm as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. It was clear that she felt a lot of stress about the topic, and for Jacob to suggest that they "hog-tie" him didn't make matters any better.

"Don't just talk so lightly about stuff like that!" She snapped, shoulders raising up in frustration, "Oh yeah, so simple, just throw him in a few chains and the problem's solved! This is our friend you're talking about."

The agromancer let out a breath and rubbed her face with her hands. She was worried out of her mind to say the least. The only thing she could think was an echo of Louis' question. Will there be anything left to save?

"Just to be useless and state the obvious," Noelle mumbled, massaging her eyes with her fingertips, "We need to know more about James' situation before we can come up with a difinitive answer to the 'what do we do?' question. For all we know, he could have some sort of . . . time limit before . . . whatever." She looked up, face a little red from rubbing it, and glanced at Kyle. "Your best guess is as good as any. Ajora is your . . . other."

[Alan :: Village Outskirts : Clearing]

Thinking quickly, Alan used counterspell to destroy one of the glowing swords, which shattered like glass. Alan dove into the gap left by its sudden disappearance, escaping unharmed. Good thing, too. Those look like they'd hurt.

"Don't be ridiculous!," Alan said his voice surprisingly level. "Those are my friends you're talking about. Their fight is my fight."

Alan held out his right hand and began chanting. As he did, his gauntlet began to glow red.

[ Kyle ; Sora : Caribbean : Pearl's Lower Decks ]

As the chattering commenced, Kyle remained quiet at the side, listening to the main question and the inevitable reactions. He didn't voice anything- not yet- and merely remained a shadow, which is what he preferred to do when it came to group activities of... well, pretty much any sort. This whole 'fighting as a family' thing was new, and he was adapting, but stuff like this still put him more on edge than the battles.

When Noelle brought him back to the center of attention, he waited for Joe to finish before semi-correcting her. "My darkness. All signs lead to him being the Darkness in my heart and nothing else, my sin manifest. Same goes for all the Replicas." he explained, his voice apathetic, almost robotic as he did so. It was easy enough to announce that; why he 'guessed' with such assured certainty would take a lot more to pry out of him.

"What we know for a fact is that Ajora injected his 'own special brand' of Darkness into James' heart. This apparently affected his mind just as much, since James walked right past us and to Ajora's side- if I had to guess, he's become en extension of Ajora's will," he continued, his arms crossed and his eyes down on the floor in the center of their little circle. "It's how I'd try to do it- better to have a slave than a mindless barbarian, ala Clayton of Deep Jungle when he fought with the Chameleon Heartless."

"There's a problem with that, however, going purely off the theoretical metaphysics of this world. Since it's specifically Ajora's Darkness rather than the unbiased Darkness of the universe, it's not an actual stain so much as it's a grip. His heart is corrupted, but it wasn't done willingly, so the heart is liable to refute the Darkness... if given the chance."

"The corruption is obviously laid on too thickly at the moment. Should either of our groups find themselves against James, the only real option is to sedate him or knock him unconscious and, yes, hog-tie him or restrain him to the best of our abilities," he explained, finally raiding his gaze up to glance at the group- specifically, Dawn and Noelle. "If there's a time limit, it's likely going to be too long for us to wait due to the sheer amount of tampering Ajora did, and it's likely he may have done something more. And I find it even less likely that distancing him from Ajora will help, either, since the Darkness will still be there. If we're to cure him, we'll have to... I dunno, help the internal fight somehow. Hell, might have to pull a Cloud-Tifa-Sephiroth thing, regardless of how absolutely cliché it is."

"As for Jacob's questions, the Replicas and Nobodies would destroy it themselves before they allowed us to have it, and that still requires we somehow do it while it's active," he responded, turning to Jacob with a nonchalant shrug. "As for the chemical warfare, I'll have no part in it. Defeats the purpose of being good guys, especially the part where it kills any innocent bystanders. If you want something like that, you're hanging with the wrong people."



[[GIANT KYLE RETURN POST. And now, to try and post as Seymour, even though nothing is happening. We're at a total stand still, guys. The sooner they get back to the beach, the sooner you guys can relax and have just character development and... well, relaxation.]]