James watched as the Dream Rod and then immediately after the the remaining item, the predominantly red and black dream shield disappeared as well. The pedestals above which the items hovered disappeared as well. It was at that moment that James felt it, a surge of unexpected power coursed and burned through his veins. The sensation didn't hurt, it felt much like drinking a warm drink as it washed down one's throat, only the feeling coursed throughout his entire body. To say that the sensation was invigorating would definitely be an understatement. It was obvious to the young man what had just transpired, he had established a connection to the magic that flowed through the Kingdom Hearts Universe.
In his mind's eye he could see flashes of three familiar symbols. These symbols were comprised of a straight line that angled to create a triangular shape and were immediately recognizable as three of the five Signs of Power from the Witcher games. James had spent countless hours watching the trailers, and game play footage of the latest game. However, he had never played the games themselves due to lack of systems to play them on. He had even built the sword hilt and cross guard for Ciri's sword named Zireael for none other than the youtube musician Taylor Davis.
'A Witcher in the Kingdom Hearts Universe... my mind would,' He thought to himself with a slight chuckle as he remembered the signs.
The three signs that he had seen were Aard, A telekinetic blast of energy that would stagger opponents, tantamount to "Fus" from Skyrim. Igni, which was a basic burst of fire and Quen, which was a basic shield. Axii, and Yrden were the remaining two, that much he could remember. However, they had not been present.
'Simple, yet elegant. I'll be able to have some fun with these. Now then, if this is now the same as the other dives...,'
He turned away from where the pedestal that held the staff he had discarded had been and turned to face the darkened portion of the platform where the last pedestal had disappeared from. He focused on it, he remembered all too well what was coming so it didn't really surprise him when the dark part of the platform began to move. Nor did it surprise him when two clawed hands emerged from it, pulling the Shadow Heartless' form out with it. The small, yellow-eyed creature was all too familiar to James. It's bobbing motion, causing it's long crooked antennae to bounce as it honed in on James' heart. Those pupil-less yellow eyes focused on him and only him. Without warning as soon as the creature got close enough it lunged at him, claws bared as it attempted to strike. Shadows had always been easy to read in terms of their attack, the only annoying part was when they decided to sink back into the shadow. The young man wasn't terribly worried about this starting battle though.
James barely managed to hop back to avoid the oncoming attack and held out his hand to call his Dream Sword back to him. Immediately he noticed the change, as if transforming because of his imagination? Or perhaps to fill the role that the young man's mind had decided to cast on himself? He couldn't say for sure. Regardless the sword's form had changed. The leaf shaped blade was now a long, straight blade that gently tapered from the cross guard all the way to the point. The handle had become longer, providing more room to accommodate both hands. And the cross guard had now become thin and narrow tines that protruded from the hilt at an angle. This was a Witcher's sword, a long sword with greater reach than the short sword, and even though James had never used a real sword in a sparring match, he had held and even swung the swords in his personal collection enough times to feel comfortable with the weight and feel.
He had evaded the Heartless' attack. Thus, now was the time to counter-attack. A flash of orange light coursed over James' body as he cast the warding sign Quen in preparation for the Heartless' next attempt if it managed to survive his attack. With that ward in place he felt much better about going in for an attack. Without any further hesitation James pressed on stepping into a powerful two-handed swing hoping to deal as much damage as possible if not end the Heartless outright as he followed through with the swing.
'This dream is getting ridiculous, in the good way' He thought, impressed that his mind had somehow conjured up this wonderful fantasy for this night. If he could have this dream more often he would have been really happy. Despite the odd feeling of weight that his decisions that he had made thus far had, he was finding this quite fun.
The desert continued to shift and take on a much clearer appearance the longer she stared at it without moving; dunes, rocks, cacti, the occasional tree, even the sand itself became much more vivid. Or perhaps she was imagining it? Whatever the case, Luna did not notice anything out of place in the image for a few minutes, displaying surprising patience given her earlier temper tantrum regarding the numbers. Soon enough an object came into view that she had not noticed before, it was small, cube-shaped, and almost entirely black, with a red outline of sorts weaving through the cube in some sort of pattern she did not recognize. Stepping closer to the cube, Luna sent out more ripples across the strange surface of the image once again, waiting until they dispersed so she could get a better look at the cube shown.
Once they did clear and Luna had returned to standing almost perfectly still, she analyzed the cube much more thoroughly. The red lines were glowing, neon or some sort of energy powering the cube, the pattern now clearly revealed as a diamond with an x-shape in the middle of the diamond on every side she could see except the top and bottom. It was futuristic looking and rather out of place for most of the worlds encountered in the Kingdom Hearts series, but otherwise wouldn't stand out too much in a world like Space Paranoids. "Well, I can't reach it...so what exactly is the point in showing me this thing? And what might be inside it, I wonder."
Luna scratched her head in confusion and turned to face the numbers next, accidentally scraping something with the the metallic bottom of her left boot as she did so. Glancing down at her feet, she discovered the fact that a Keyhole was smack dab in the middle of the image. "Finally! Something that I can make a little sense of on this stupid platform." She celebrated the discovery with a quick cheer, poking around at the Keyhole with her hand as if she could suddenly unlock it by touch alone.Of course it didn't and Luna lacked a Keyblade to pop open the door sized keyhole, which meant she had to find a key somewhere, probably something in relation to the numbers encircling the platform.
"Sketchy though, this being in the Dive. What is it? A door to unlock darkness, seal it away? Or maybe it's just a pathway into that desert down there. These things always are rather vague. Guess I'll burn that bridge when I get to it or whatever. That's how that saying went right?" She sighed at that and went back to the numbers, no sudden discoveries interrupting her this time as she decided upon which number to try first. Thirteen was the most obvious decision in her mind, being a key number in the Kingdom Hearts universe, albeit one usually associated with villains.
Stepping forward towards the glowing number thirteen, Luna took a deep breath and waited for something to happen, hoping her heart wouldn't be stolen or something by whatever being commanded this place. "Well voice, what do you have for me? It better be good, or I'll find you and hurt you."
Combat Information Ability Active: Currently Charging: Enemy Attack: Defense Roll: Attack Roll:
The desert image shifts as you look at it, and you become aware that there is a keyhole in the very center of this platform. It's hard to notice, unless you take a few minutes to look, because the size of it is normal door size, small enough to easily be overlooked, especially with all the ripples that appear when you move.
You see another item within the image that was not there a moment ago. It's a cube. _______________________________________________________________
- Describe the cube, if you want. The keyhole is plot related, but the cube will have no impact on the story. I'll reveal it's purpose later. It can be any size, made of any material, made of multiple materials, look like anything, resemble anything.
Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2015 3:47 pm
[ Kyle | Station of Reflection | Number 8 ]
The number glows brightly before disappearing. Beyond it there is nothing but the black of the abyss, a sheer drop into darkness. Nothing appears to have changed. No new path forms.
This path has already been opened.
The voice is audible, a distinctly female voice. It's impossible to tell where it's coming from.
The shadow avoided the first attack by suddenly going to ground. It immediately popped back up, only to be swiped by the rod as Song charged. It wasn't a square hit, and it didn't slow the shadow. The creature grabbed at Song's back as she passed; it would cling to her if it could. ____________________________________________________
Attack STR: 20 If successful, the shadow is clinging to you. Attached.
[ James | Station of Awakening ]
The creature took a terrible hit, and was pushed back a bit by the blow. Pain wasn't something that bothered it, and its primary impulse continued to control it, driving it to swipe again at James' heart. ____________________________________________________
Damage to shadow: 37 - 15 = 22 Attack STR: 15
Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2015 4:14 pm
[ Joe - Luna | Station of Reflection | Number 13 ]
As you approach the number 13, you can see Joseph in the distance. He's audible as well. He flickers in and out of sight, reappearing every 20 seconds or so, and staying visible for 20 seconds.
The path you seek Is incomplete Open this path?
Previously the voice was vague and generic, if heard at all. Now it was clearly audible: a mysterious female voice. The number 13 remains glowing before you as the voice awaits you answer.
A keyhole... Difficult to see and, were it not for the ripples emanating from her every step, Ahria might have found it much sooner. "And where there's a lock, there's always a key. But of course, now..."
She paused, spotting something else in the desert image. It was a block. An incredibly ordinary block and entirely too generic to actually stand out in any way, were it not for its brownish color. It was actually easy to find among the sand, but it's plainness made it deceptively difficult to find.
"A box? ... No, its simply colored brown, and there's no visible opening on it. Hmmm..."
Ahria spent a moment pondering its placement and importance, but eventually gave up to consider her ways forward.
As she turned back to the numbers, no one of them seemed worth trying. She knew from the game that 13 was the total number of darknesses needed to match the 7 lights, but the closest number was 8. And while claiming the number of darkness seemed enticing, she wasn't willing to give in so easily.
Eventually, after much debate and deliberation over her choices, she settled on 19. And who knows... It might even lead her to the X-blade.
Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2015 2:35 am
Song Yi Kim : The Dark Path : Falling from the Station of Awakening HP: 97/100 | ATK: 10 | DEF: 10
The physical strike came down and it met little resistance. The rod's head only glanced off of the Shadow's form. Although, Song, in her experience, hoped that the lack of resistance meant that it was a clean strike. Given a little more time, she would have doubted that she had the strength to just cleanly cut through the Heartless like butter. Not to mention that a blunt object like the Rod shouldn't be able to cut. She didn't have that time, though. The rest of her body followed through with the force of the strike, charging past the Heartless. Song saw the colorful floor of the station pass beneath the eyes. The patterned borders that framed the circular platform blurred past until all Song saw was the darkness of the abyss. Her mind had only enough time to register that something wasn't right before a cold, sustained grab made her stomach clench and her body shiver. The freezing pain she had come to associate with a heartless attack gripped her for what felt like an eternity as her stomach lurched to signal the beginning of her descent into the unknown. Past that moment in an eternity, the pain continued to grip her. The Heartless had a firm grip on Song's person.
Yelping as she fell into the dark abyss, Song tried to twist and claw the Heartless off. The Dream Rod vanished to free her hands to deal with the Heartless, but her struggles were to no avail. The Heartless did not release its grip, not even when one of the holes in Song's tanktop ripped open wide with the force she was using to pull the clinging Heartless off. The little beastie remained latched to the woman's back, claws dug into her flesh and feeling like they were trying to go even deeper. Song saw no blood, but she felt wounded all the same. She realized then, amidst the chaos, the reason for the chill she felt with each of the Heartless's attacks. It wasn't the cold of ice she was feeling. It was the Heartless trying to rip away her heart, so the chill associated with emptiness.
By this point, Song had come to realize that she was in free fall. Her charge had not been stopped by an invisible wall like she had expected. She had made a very, very, very, incredibly, horrible, ridiculously bad mistake. Her response to this was limited, however, her mind more concerned with the more immediate threat of the Heartless.
her mind, in the first minute of the descent, was filled with a million thoughts per second as it registered the Heartless's clutch, her own descent into the unknown, and the sinking realization of everything she had done wrong immediately after sealing the action, It was sort of amazing, in a sad way, how many useless things Song was capable of thinking of all at once. There certainly was a lot more to think of during this fall than the previous one. Before, she only had to worry about dying. Now, she had that plus her stupid mistakes and the painful Heartless that combined to form a whole melting pot of emotions ranging from fear to regret to anger.
She would be no hypocrite, though, and just as she always wished that her dad would stop bringing up a past that she could not change, Song would not forget that she was still alive and could do something. There was little Song could do now to make up for her past mistakes. Casting Haste was about the only thing she could do now because she certainly couldn't not fall now that she was falling and prying off the Heartless proved to be a hopeless situation so far. The claws of the Heartless had embedded themselves into her back, placing the target out of easy reach. It was taking all Song had to just stretch and reach for it, much less whack at it. What she could think to do, though, was cast Esuna on herself and… and… that was it. Song couldn't think of anything else that could remotely help her out of this situation. At least, not at this moment, but that was probably because she was still busy adjusting to the pain and the possibility of death.
The Power of the Guardian. Kindness to Aid Friends. A Shield to Repel All.
Actions - Ability:
Haste (10+n/a+10(charge)=20) > Song
[ The user gives extra actions to any number of targets for three rounds. The total number of extra actions that may be given is the number of points invested into Haste divided by 10. E.g. At 10 points, the user may only give one target on extra action but at 20 points, the user may give one target two extra actions or two targets one extra action each. Haste cannot be stacked and recasting Haste on a target that is already affected by a Haste buff replaces the old buff with the new buff. ]
Esuna (10+n/a=10) > Song
[ The user heals a single target, which could be herself, for a percentage of total HP equal to the level of this ability. There is also a percentage chance of curing minor status effects that is equal to the level of this ability. If Song wants, she can freely lower the effectiveness of Esuna, such as healing for only 5% when she could heal for 10%. Upon reaching certain points in its level growth, Esuna becomes even more potent and flexible. ]
Attack:
n/a (10+1=11) > Heartless
Charge:
Esuna (1 charge)
[ The user heals a single target, which could be herself, for a percentage of total HP equal to the level of this ability. There is also a percentage chance of curing minor status effects that is equal to the level of this ability. If Song wants, she can freely lower the effectiveness of Esuna, such as healing for only 5% when she could heal for 10%. Upon reaching certain points in its level growth, Esuna becomes even more potent and flexible. ]
Defend:
Basic (10+1=11) > Heartless Attack (20)
Passives Plot Armor ~ Important NPC
[ Being knocked to 0 hit points or lower doesn't make Song keel over. She rises back on her next post with a vengeance, or would if she wasn't so cowardly and passive, at 1 hp and in perfectly normal condition (no status effects, buffs, debuffs, etc.). After being activated, plot armor goes on cooldown until Song manages to heal back up to at least a quarter of her health. ]
Upon finding nothing but darkness beyond the number, with nothing gained or revealed, Kyle pulled his head back slightly with narrowed eyes, a confused expression plastered on his face. Nothing? What was the point of the numbers if nothing—
He jumped slightly at the sudden voice echoing from everywhere. He knew better, but instinctively he looked around for a source, his body tensing. Of course there was no one there. It was only after taking a few seconds of calming breaths did he really digest the words that had come from on high (or down below, whatever the case). And as a result, his confused expression became one of disdain.
”Well, ******** you, too,” he said, beginning to walk back to the center of the platform. Already, he had a second number in mind, going with the next most likely option. But he didn’t approach it yet—no, for now, he stood in the middle, chewing on his cheek and snarling somewhat in contemplation. Already opened?
“If it was already ******** opened, then why did you present it to me?!” he shouted back now, looking up and spinning around as if trying to look a stadium’s crowd in the eyes. ”Don’t waste my time or I’ll start wasting yours.”
Admittedly, he was fuming a bit. All that stress over a choice and it amounted to nothing? Sure, he got some new tidbits of interesting information, but he himself couldn’t progress, he couldn’t move forward, he was still stuck on this stupid spread of numbers.
Deserted.
His eyes narrowed, and he stared down at the platform once again, looking at the shifting sands. That couldn’t be the message, right? That was too stupid. No, he refused to believe that was the implication behind the imagery. Still, to quell the growing sense of anger building up in his chest, he reached out with his hand and ripped away at the fabric of reality where the eight had once been--a momentary vacuum roared to life before silencing almost instantly thereafter, and orbs of light rush from the spot into his body, healing him for what small harm he'd been dealt by the Shadow before. The absorption of life force helped to calm his nerves, if only a little, and it was nice to feel back to one hundred percent, as it were.
If only that seemed to matter.
Shaking his head, he looked toward the giant glowing two. So, these were “paths”? And there were other people here—other people opening paths, or had already opened a path. So what, was it like musical chairs? Don’t pick fast enough, lose a chance? That was equally stupid. He’d jump into the abyss before he gave in to such arbitrary demands, before he rushed into something without considering the consequences.
Whatever the case was, he was getting nowhere. Eight was no longer an option—even if it had been presented as one, and if he ever found the source of the female voice, he’d probably smack her—and he’d expended a great amount of stress already just narrowing it down to that lost cause. As a result, he’d reached that typical zen when his stress amounted to nothing: no more would he stress because no more would he care.
From stress unrewarded, there was anger. And once the anger burned out, there was apathy. He would still consider various consequences, and he still had his sense of self-preservation, but he’d lost his interest in the dream, in the game, in whatever this was. Now it was just an obstacle. And if eight was taken, the next closest thing to something being singled out was two—two and eight being the only even numbers—unless the paths themselves were labeled arbitrarily?
Oh, he’d have to smack her twice.
With a frustrated sigh, and swiftly declining interest, he approached the number two.
[__Word Count: 646__|__HP: 100__]
Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2015 5:14 pm
{James : Station of Awaking}
As James' blade made impact with the Heartless he knew that his attack was solid. The edge alignment, nigh flawless. The follow through and footwork, all of it was a lucky, near perfect first attack. Perhaps seventy-five percent luck, and twenty-five percent skill. Even that could have been considered generous on the skill portion though. The young man was not trained, he had swung each of the swords in his collection and tested their balance and what not a few times. However, aside from cutting through some seriously packed snow with his masamune replica, he had never done any real cutting tests. As far as any combat practice, the closest he had gotten was sparring with a few different friends over the years with wooden swords, some of them made out of used wooden stakes used for marking off lines and boundaries for construction sites and the like. He was a collector and enthusiast, not a swordsman. Dream or not, he would be amazed if he was able to replicate that kind of attack again.
The Heartless was knocked back slightly and if it had been made of anything other than the compressed darkness that it was the attack would have likely cleaved it in two. However, that was not the case as the Heartless immediately landed and came back in for another attack, not even seeming to react to being hit so precisely. There was no reaction or delay due to pain that would have surely effected any other living creature from that kind of hit. While James' hand-eye coordination was not horrible, he didn't trust that he would be able to block or parry the Shadow's attack effectively so he used his quickness to once again hop backwards just out of the attack's reach. The young man had never been a slow, he was always quick on his feet, especially in a fight situation. He wasn't phenomenally strong, but he often made up for that fact with his speed.
'So far I am dancing circles around this guy,' He thought as the Heartless landed after it's leap to get high enough to strike at him.
He was feeling confident, perhaps even slightly cocky. He wasn't about to let his guard down though. Letting one's guard down in combat was the best way to end up getting killed. However, Quen was still active so even if the little bugger did get lucky, the shield would be able to absorb an attack.
"What now you piece of filth," He taunted, not caring if the Heartless would respond to spoken words or not. It was a line that Geralt himself would often say to his enemies, be they monster, or human, during combat. It felt oddly good to say it and James couldn't explain why. "Time to turn up the heat!"
James focused his magic into his left hand preparing another of the spells that he had seen, the fire spell, Igni. He could feel the energy coursing into his hand as he focused on building it. When the spell was ready in true Witcher fasion he pulled his left hand up by his right ear and flung it out to his left side. From his palm a short burst of flames, sparks, and embers erupted. The spout of bright orange and red flames flew straight at the Heartless and scorched the stained glass floor of the platform, smoldering briefly until the embers faded.
However, James was not done, he wasted little time closing in the distance and unleashing another strike, hoping to finish it off with the attack. He tried his best, he really did. However, comparing his fist attack and the current attack he had a feeling it wasn't going to perform nearly as well.
It was the same mysterious female voice. The number 2 remains glowing before you as the voice awaits you answer.
[ Ahria | Station of Reflection | Number 19 ]
The path you seek Is incomplete Open this path?
Previously the voice was vague and generic, if heard at all. Now it was clearly audible: a mysterious female voice. The number 19 remains glowing before you as the voice awaits you answer.
Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2015 5:36 pm
[ James | Station of Awakening -> Station of Reflection ]
The shadow effortlessly dodged the attack from James' sword, but was not nearly so fortunate against the flames. The fire demolished it completely, even chasing away the ash as the creature was defeated.
Without warning, the station shatters. The only sight as you fall is a pillar below you, the shattered remains of the station above, and blackness all around.
You land on the pillar below without injury. It is a single surface, without the defining lines of a mosaic or stained glass piece. This one holds an image of a desert landscape. If you look at it long enough, the desert image shimmers, and you may be able to make out more shapes and images. Each step you take causes the surface to ripple. The ripples stop when you stop, and the surface clears once again when the ripples reach the edge of the platform and disappear.
Around the edges of the platform are eight glowing numbers, evenly spaced. The numbers are 2, 3, 5, 8, 11, 13, 17, 19. _______________________________________________________________
Damage to shadow: it's dead
- Please describe what type of desert you see. Dune filled, hilly desert? Flat? Yellow sand, white sand? The description is up to you. - If you stare at the image for longer than a few minutes, please stop. Something will happen, and I'll have to post a response. - If you walk up to a number, please stop. Something will happen, and I'll have to post a response.
For some godforsaken reason, a short, hairy naked man was visible in the distance, flickering in and out of site. In addition to the nudity, he had what looked like blood on him, drawn in some kind of weird symbol. Why his subconscious had decided that this was what a Kingdom Hearts dream should include he didn't know. He didn't think he wanted to know.
When Joe heard the man speak however, something clicked. He had heard that voice before. He couldn't place exactly where, but he had a feeling that this guy, crazy looking as he might be, wasn't unfriendly at the very least.
As he saw the man warp out of existence again, the voice came back.
The path you seek Is incomplete Open this path?
Now he could here the voice more clearly. It was a woman's voice, ethereal and coming from all around him, asking him about another path.
He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. So the voice wanted to know if he would like to open the path. If he did, what would happen? Would Blood-splatter No-pants fully materialize, or would he appear in front of him? He really doubted that this was the solution to the puzzle, unless his mind had really low standards for logical flow. Still, he didn't have many other options besides the numbers and this was his opportunity to take risks. He might as well go for it.
Looking up towards the darkness, he responded to the voice. "Why not? Open the path. I want to see where this goes."
It couldn't be that bad, right?
Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2015 10:01 pm
The path you seek Is incomplete
"But is any path truly finished?" Ahria mused aloud.
Having found something new about this voice gave her something to consider. But her answer wasn't it. So, in keeping with her current record, she stepped forward. The true start of her journey through this dream felt so close. She could almost taste it.
"Incomplete?" he verbally repeated, looking incredulously up at the omniscient spectator. His frustration was still down to a simmer, but that didn't mean the heat didn't just increase slightly. He closed his slacking mouth, his jaw tightening even then. "No, thanks. Why would I bother?"
An incomplete path meant one of two things. The first possibility: that once he reached the end of said path, he could not progress beyond that point. He would be stuck, having taken a path with no proper ending, a journey with no decent conclusion. His annoyance earlier came from a pretty clear source; he hated the idea of effort unrewarded. And the very concept of the journey itself being the reward was almost universally preposterous and frustrated him just as frequently. That was something those above told those below to make them feel better about not moving forward into those lofty heights.
Possibility number two? That once he reached the end of the path, he could complete it, but at some cost of effort, time, or some combination thereof. But if this mysterious voice made a point of this path being incomplete, then perhaps others were complete. Those would be preferable, particularly on the off-chance that there would be some other trials along the paths. An incomplete path with trials would more than likely, though not necessarily, be doubly difficult in comparison. True, some might argue that there was greater reward for greater risk, but life was never so absolutely simple. Why choose the risky route when there may be a path to the reward without risk at all?
Shaking his head and releasing a displeased sigh, he stepped away from the two and began to think. What, then, would he choose? The even numbers were no longer valid, either due to being already chosen or being incomplete. Did anything else stand out?
Three, the trinity, five, the paopu, eleven, unknown, thirteen, darkness, seventeen, unknown, nineteen, unknown...
Thirteen stood out as being the only innately negative number, as far as the connotations of Kingdom Hearts were considered, but he didn't even really consider it an option. Darkness lay beyond that number. He did not believe in typical superstition, per se, but it was factually a negative number in this universe. He could pick the arbitrary number that stood out to him, eleven, but he decided against it for now. Instead, he walked a few steps over and stood in front of the glowing three, wondering what message he would receive this time.
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