Welcome to Gaia! ::

[ ??? : Unknown Plains ]

"That was going to be a lesson in a few moments, but in summation," she spoke, her voice somewhat more melancholy than a few moments prior, if that was possible. "You must open your heart, using the utmost care not to lose yourself to the Darkness that you invite within. You call upon the more passionate emotions, such as fury, hatred, sorrow, jealousy- even love can call forth the darkness, if left unchecked."

"You can call upon the Darkness without such emotional passion, of course, and it's probably for the better; while doing so with emotional drive evokes the Darkness faster, it also can cripple the heart, making it exponentially easier for the Darkness to swallow it whole," she continued. She walked towards him slightly, holding one gentle, pale hand out, with the index finger outstretched. Encasing the tip of the index finger was a sphere of Darkness.

"This will act as an initial taint for your Heart, allowing it to know what it needs to open up to, thus making the process easier for you," she explained, poking his chest; the Darkness immediately seeped in, and he would feel an almost constricting feeling in his chest, which would soon thereafter vanish. "In essence, I am training your heart to call upon the Darkness itself. The Maester will more fully open your heart later, at which point your heart will know how to attain its greatest potential. Be wary- the Darkness' taint can be... dangerous. Addictive, even."

{Kuro Oni : The Flying Dutchman : Captain's Quarters}

Just as Kuro Oni entered the Captain's quarters where the large organ was, his attention focused on Ajora as he said he was about to do a magic trick. The dark corsair stood back as he watched the dark dragoon knight begin to pour darkness into the black and green heart that he recognized as the heart of Arabella. He had sensed that she had been destroyed or rather absorbed, that her energy signature had faded after coming back to the ship briefly. Kuro's fingers tensed into a fist for only a moment as he felt the single pulse from the heart as it began to vibrate and the energy surrounding the tainted heart began to take form.

It started as a massive bulk of energy and then began to turn gray and took on a large humanoid form, for a moment reminding the dark replica of the Gigas from Final Fantasy XI that James had once feared. However, soon the shape went beyond that as it began to look more like a demon as it sprouted a black pointed tail and bat wings on it's shoulders. Then horns erupted from it's head and the face of the demon appeared. It seemed to be made entirely of muscle and had pointed hooves for feet and dark purple gauntlets covered it's hands. Ajora's mastery of darkness and magic would truly have been frightening if the replica had such fears. He watched in a sort of twisted fascination as the creature as the massive demon took the form of a woman who bowed at them as if in respect.

"Your abilities never cease to impress Ajora, I was wondering, can you corrupt a heart like that while it is still beating in someone's chest?"

He paused for a minute, trying to best think how to word what he wanted the dark dragoon knight to try and do.

"I am not sure if you noticed during our last meeting with the pathetic originals, my weakling tapped into the power of darkness and though it granted him a boost, he lost his mind because of it, becoming a berserker. He was a fool for trying to use the darkness against us... I want to have some fun. I want to give him more darkness then he can handle and see what happens. Are you in?"

[Amy : Land of Dragons : Throne Room]

"I got him," Amy said, her tone of voice disbelieving. "Oh, I got him!" the disbelief had been replaced by joyous victory, and then, finally, as the ice barrier formed a wave of deadly spears all aimed at them, "Oh, crap, I got him."

She watched the following events with relief, thankful that Seymour had stepped in when he did, and more than a little surprised at his speed. She was half tempted to go out after them, but after running half way across the room in an attempt to follow, she realized she'd never be able to keep up, especially being as tired as she was.

Looking to her immediate right, she found herself standing next to Alan, the mage whose name she still didn't know. It felt stupid just to stand there without saying anything, but she did so. If he caught her looking at him, she would immediately switch her gaze back to the door Seymour had just exited.

[Mulan & Mushu : LoD : Throne Room]

Mulan looked up when the strange man charged up his spells. They were effective in driving the armored man away. Then Seymour went after himself. Mulan was almost tempted to go after him as well but decided against it.

Mulan put away her sword and walked over and checked on the two boys that were fighting.

"Are you okay?" the Chinese warrior asked Kichi.

Mushu was in a state of mixed joy and worry. That not only did Seymour scare off the guy but everyone seemed to be realitively safe

"Nice work there strange one," Mushu said to Alan getting back on his shoulder, "You know I am not too bad with fire if I do say so myself. The dragon leaned a little against the side of Alan's head while he pretended to clean out his claws before he glanced up at Amy, "Same goes to you Chickadee. You hit that guy pretty well. Maybe you can teach someone I know here how to aim."

[Yuffie : Land of Dragons : Palace Gates]

"Whoa, hey, there's activity!" Yuffie exclaimed, jumping up from her spot as soon as the two monstrous doors opened. A complete stranger ran out (Louis) and the ninja, hardly one to be surprised by anything, immediately took off after him.

He's gotta be somebody we need to capture, she thought, getting caught up in the moment. Yuffie logic dictated, if a guy was running, chase after him. The two guards at her side thought the same thing, it seemed, 'cause they both jumped up and ran along after them, shouting silly things like: "Halt in the name of the emperor." Pfft. Like that'd get him to stop.

The line up went like this. First, Louis, then Yuffie, then the guards, and immediately after them came Seymour. The Guado was waaaaay faster than those slow poke guards, and passed by them quickly enough. The small ninja wasn't sure what the heck was going on, but the challenge was on.

Don't lose sight of Mr. Armor Man. A smile spread across her face. It's about time she got to get moving. And from the looks of things, she was right on his heels, too!

[Alan :: LoD :: Throne Room]

Alan brushed himself off as he took to his feet. For a while, he glanced awkwardly around the room, not sure what to do now that his foe had fled, with a much more competent fighter in pursuit. He looked around the room, surveying the damage done by the fight. No one looked too badly hurt, thank goodness, although the ceiling now looked to be in even worse shape. He thought he saw the gunner staring at him out of corner of his eyes, but when he looked, she looked away. He glanced at her, a little uncomfortably. Was she trying to avoid his gaze? Then, Alan realized that he was staring himself and quickly glanced away, carefully looking at everything other than her.

Then, Mushu piped up. Alan was a little amused to see that the dragon had not yet lost his affinity for his shoulder. "I'd expect nothing less," he said, smiling a little, as Mushu boasted of his prowess. He decided to ignore the remark about aiming. Having fought alongside these people, he somehow no longer felt like a prisoner, and no longer felt the need to be quite so deferential. Nonetheless, he felt he needed to apologize to the Emperor. "And . . . my apologies for the ceiling, Your Excellency. I didn't expect that man to be able to redirect fire like that."

Everyone here was so powerful. First this mysterious armored man, then Seymour, both had showed an aptitude with magic that far exceeded Alan's. Despite his newfound power, Alan felt weaker than he had in a long time. Funny, how things like that were relative.

But aside from a bit of bitterness at having been so outclassed and a back which still hurt from the collision, Alan felt better than he had in a while. There were friends here - well, at least Jon, though the others seemed friendly. But more importantly, now that he had encountered what appeared to be sapient lifeforms, Alan was hopeful that he would finally get some answers.

[ Ajora : The Flying Dutchman ]

"She is rather beautiful, ain't she?" he asked rhetorically, earning a rather bemused raised brow from Celia as he chuckled. "But no worries, she's so much more than that, as I'm sure you'll see sometime soon."

As Kuro spoke of James, Ajora's smile faltered somewhat. Ah, their originals. He wasn't so fond of them, to be honest- pests, the lot of them. They had desires, but what did they do but suppress them? No, he knew better. He was destined for bigger and better things. Kyle could have been, too, but the fool was too compassionate.

"An overdose of Darkness?" Ajora summarized, his smile returning to its eerily genuine quality. "Sounds right up my alley, really. They'll be coming this way soon enough- just gotta put all the pieces in place. They're probably still mourning the loss of Rachel, though, so it might be morning before they head this way."

[Azrael: The Flying Dutchman]

More than just a sex slave, eh? I'll believe it when I see it...

Azrael took a spot against the wall, leaning against it and crossing his arms across his chest, watching.

A new girl of pure darkness(even Azrael could tell that from her), Kuro Oni and his stupid obsession with original...

Originals...Azrael thought little of them, not in quality, but quantity. They had no value to him, so why think of them? They weren't fun, they weren't amusing, so why dwell on them? There are so many better things to do than--

Azrael smiled. Perhaps he could have some fun, thanks to the thought of those originals. Really, some drama could liven this place up quite well.

A board behind his back cracked, and Azrael frowned. The ship needed it, apparently. Either way, Azrael stood up straight. No good, leaning against a cracking wall.