In a cataclysm known as the Nightfall, the worlds were almost completely destroyed by a harrowing surge of darkness.
In the shadows of the ensuing chaos a new group has taken shape. Led by an Aegyl named Kalos, the 11th Hour touts an esoteric knowledge of how to combat the darkness and restore the worlds. They might be the worlds’ best chance at survival; but nobody really knows enough about them to confirm or deny their claims.
On the brink of collapse, the universe holds its breath in anticipation. Of restoration? Of destruction? It is up to individuals like yourself to decide.
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In truth, Marmadue's home was never the kind of place Jin could be for long. It was cramped by the comings and goings of the usual visitors and the fair share of injured who waltzed in looking for a potion or a place to rest after the Heartless destroyed yet another home, and that meant it was equally flooded with thoughts and emotions.
Those had gotten a lot quieter these days, actually.
There was no point in trying to weave an elaborate story to explain this away. His powers weren't in remission to help his arm recover. He wasn't slow to recover because he wasn't on Tamnia. He was just losing control over the lightning, that's all there was to it.
The scars that the Chaos Hide had left on him ran deep. Soul deep. He'd pushed himself too far - demanded too much out of both that shattered materia and his own body for either to keep up. He was an idiot to not expect lasting damage.
So, since he wasn't sick, he'd left. Era had been kind, and Marmadue had done him the courtesy of at least leaving him to his own devices, but he couldn't return those kindnesses forever. Negativity like his was a miasma; it leaked out, touching and infecting the people around him with his own foul mood. With no real mental energy left to hide it, he'd taken off to the one place people didn't really seem to want to be.
And that's how he'd wound up in the underground.
The Heartless, for their part, seemed to be leaving him alone. The Light had faded from his injuries days ago, so perhaps it was just that they had nothing to sniff out. It was like he'd always said: there wasn't any Light or Darkness in him, just a spark and a lot of fight. And now that spark was on the verge of going out entirely, it seemed.
The hunger was the worst of it. Even when he'd been hungry in the past, he'd never been hungry. His electricity had been all he needed to survive for a long period of time back on Tamnia, but with his powers fading and the gardens Kali had helped create only so large in scale there weren't many options to turn to.
With no powers to speak of and no affinity for magic, what use was he to the people here? What use was he back on Tamnia? He couldn't fight at a tenth the capacity he was capable of before; he'd be no match against an untrained squad of Perothun troops now, let alone his brother.
Still, he could feel the small chunk of Tamnian crystal against his chest. The small piece of home that he'd somehow wound up with on his trip here was enough to keep pulling him back. He'd give anything for just a glance at the horizon over Levitara again; to see his sister and his student and give them a proper goodbye.
Dreams like that seemed to get further away than the faded stars with each passing day.
He sighed, reaching a dead end at what he thought might as well be the deepest point in the tunnels beneath Twilight Town. Nobody was going to find him here - not unless they had a reason and means to look for him. The walk down had been tiring. He needed a nap.
She'd spent the better part of two days looking for him already, and Aqua wasn't about to leave the underground empty-handed.
If she was going to be leaving for Castle Oblivion soon, she had some tough decisions to make. Who would she take along with her to wake up Ven and potentially confront Xehanort, and who would she leave behind to protect Twilight Town from the Heartless? In order to decide that, she needed to know which of the denizens of Twilight Town had the strength to fight - keyblade or no.
While she hadn't bothered to write the names down in any order, the man who nearly rended the Chaos Hide in two would have made the top ten if she did. For that reason, she'd scoured Twilight Town for whatever trace of him she could find. When he hadn't been at Marmadue's house - and hadn't been since before the meeting to determine their next course of action, according to the woman she'd spoken to - she had taken to the Sandlot.
That had led her nowhere, and for a few hours she'd almost given up hope. It was pure chance that she'd overheard a conversation happening between two of the other citizens of Twilight Town regarding a heavily bandaged figure skulking towards the Underground.
The torches here had long gone out, so a flickering Fira spell in the palm of her hand was all Aqua had to rely on for a light source. Lighting up the walls would be a waste of mana - she didn't plan to be here long.
Aqua didn't know much about Jin. In fact, it seemed no one around town did. From what she'd picked up, he kept to himself, hardly ate, liked to fight, and occasionally made swords for aspiring young fighters.
And, she recalled with a frown, absolutely hated it when people got hurt trying to protect him. So much so that he was willing to blow himself apart with power he couldn't control to put a stop to it.
It was an hour of navigating the twists and turns, poking her head around every corner and into every dead end, and ducking out of the way of frightened creatures dashing away from her approach before she finally stumbled across him. His eyes were shut, the swords that were usually affixed to his waist were leaned against the wall next to him, and his breathing was low and even.
His face was so peaceful compared to when they were fighting the Chaos Hide.
Eyeing the swords strangely, she approached him with careful, quiet steps. A nearby sconce became the target of her Fira spell, the flame holding fast and flickering brightly as it illuminated a larger area of the Underground.
Leaning against the wall next to Jin and dropping to the ground, Aqua glanced to the swords that sat between them. She'd never seen anything quite like them before. With nothing better to do until Jin woke up, Aqua reached out and wrapped a hand around the hilt of the lighter of the two. It was hardly theft, she rationalized. Just simple curiosity.
Th-thump. Th-thump.
The pulsations of energy that hit her hand and jolted through Aqua's body, and her hand ripped away from the blade without a second thought.
Did all swords where he came from have heartbeats like that? She couldn't help but wonder.
Dreaming had never been something Jin did. Sleep was hard enough to come by back home, and the times he had been able to let himself rest had almost always ended with some sort of wake-up call rude enough to keep whatever pictures his mind had decided to play to him out of his memories. Still, no matter how far away he got from Tamnia or how long it had been since he'd returned to them, the forests that he grew up in had dug their roots deeply into his soul.
The sky was clear, the air was cold and fresh, and the sound of the river running wove into the assorted calls of birds and rustling branches in the background. Fall was approaching, and it would be there and gone before anyone had a chance to enjoy the cooler temperatures. Before long, the snow would blow in and coat the entire place in a blanket of silence and white.
"You look cold."
He turned his head to look behind him, taking in the sight of the young woman approaching. The fringes of purple bangs crept out from underneath the knit beanie, eyes of the same hue gazing at him with an amused glint, and the ghost of a smile playing on her lips.
"Never really been bothered by the cold," he responded, shifting the rest of himself around to meet her as she approached. "Then again, that's changing these days."
He didn't even need to break eye contact to suddenly feel the tight restriction of the bandages around his right arm. How much longer that would last was another question, given the gradual loss in feeling he'd been coming to terms with on top of his dwindling power.
Lithe, nimble fingers danced across the wrappings that covered the wound. They trailed their way to his wrist before wrapping around in and bringing the limb up, to which he offered no resistance. Her touch was inquisitive, her lips pursing as she pulled back at one of the layers and frowned at the resistance it offered.
"Like I said," she sighed. "You're kind of an idiot. Here."
She released his arm, and he let it drop back to his side as she reached into the courier satchel at her hip, pulling out a charcoal grey jacket that Jin was more than happy to accept. Truth be told, he had been feeling the chill in the air more than he would have cared to until she came along.
Taking it from her grasp, he ran his hands over the smooth, soft fabric that made up the majority of it. Long sleeves had never really been his thing, though Jin could appreciate them now. The lining on the inside was thick, seemingly made of some sort of water resistant material as well. He didn't hesitate to pull it on.
"Well, it fits," he commented, shifting his shoulders as he adjusted the sleeves. The material was thick; probably a little too thick for the current weather, but perfect for roughing through the winter if he had to. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it," she replied. "The last thing you need is to get hypothermia in a dream. I'm not even sure how that would work, to be honest."
A dream?
The details started to snap back into place. Exactly where he'd been when his arm got hurt, and exactly how it happened. The people in Twilight Town, the keyblade wielders, the talk about potentially sealing the keyhole.
The name of the girl in front of him, and how he'd come to learn it.
He had every confidence that this - the forest he was currently standing in - was the real Tamnia; the real Levitara. Even if this was a dream, this place was real. And if this world was still real, then this girl he'd never seen before in his life would have to be as well. But dreams and reality were hardly the same thing, so where did that put him?
"Korra," he asked quietly. "Just who in the world are you?"
The smirk on her face turned sad at the question, almost like the question itself was unpleasant.
"I'm...A friend from back home," she responded. "Like a pen pal, I guess. Minus the cost for postage."
"A what?"
"You know, someone you stay in touch with even though you've gone somewhere far away," she elaborated. "And every now and then, you send each other letters about things like friends, family. Weather," she remarked, looking up to the sun in the sky. The steady beat of sunlight against his skin had for too long been something Jin was denied, and as he turned to look back at the cloudless blue he felt Korra's eyes drift back to his arm. "...Injuries."
Jin's eyes dropped back to Korra's, and the way she bit her lower lip combined with her nervous refusal to let her stare leave his bandaged limb did something to him. What, he wasn't quite sure. But he didn't like it.
Just as he was about to say something, another figured flashed to life at his side. Blue hair, blue eyes, and a shocked expression on her face as she stared down at the hand she'd wrapped gently around the hilt of one of his swords. Just as soon as Aqua appeared, she vanished.
"It looks like you have company. I guess that's your cue to wake up?" Korra asked.
With a breath, Jin shook his head and sighed.
"Keyblade wielders," he said. "Too nosey for their own good sometimes, I swear."
"Don't give her too hard of a time," Korra smirked. "Maybe she just thinks you're interesting."
"Yeah, that's it," he retorted with already closed eyes. If this was a dream, all he had to do was wake up.
"Hey," Korra interrupted, squeezing lightly at his unbandaged hand with hers. He opened his eyes, looking back towards the girl and meeting the soft, genuine smile that spread across her features. "Write soon."
He almost laughed, a smirk painting itself across his face before he shut his eyes again.
"Okay. Soon."
In a breath, he was back in the underground of Twilight Town. At his side was the blue haired keyblade master that had assisted them in their battle against the Chaos Hide. For that much, she had his trust. Maybe not enough to let her invade his personal space and lay hands on his weapons, but enough to not be too angry about it when she did.
"I was having a really nice dream, you know. Then you had to go and ruin it by waking me up."
He stood, dusting the dirt off his pants and reattaching the swords to his side with the one free hand he had. The sling was something he was able to escape in his dreams, but it just wasn't going to be that way in reality.
It may have been the dim lighting from the sconce at their side, but Aqua could swear that Jin’s complexion had taken a turn for the worse since the last time she’d seen him. His eyes were bloodshot and bagged, and his skin was paler than she remembered by a shade or two. The way he shambled to his feet, and how his hand trembled as he fixed the swords to his belt, they both screamed that he wasn’t well.
Was he not eating? People had said he never ate much. Maybe recovering from that wound was taking too much out of him. Or maybe the injury itself was worse than he’d let on initially.
Had he come down here to die?
“There’s…”
She paused, not sure if she wanted to continue. Even without the ability to sense him by his Light or Darkness as she could with the others, she could tell that Jin’s strength had left him. This was not the man that had stood against the Chaos Hide in the sandlot scant weeks ago. This wasn’t the man who had demanded she go protect the others while he charged their enemy with wanton destruction and abandon at his heels.
“I’ve been looking for fighters,” she continued. “Some of the others and I are leaving for a place called Castle Oblivion, and a Heartless dragon has been spotted above ground. It attacked a girl named Avari. I remembered you from before, and I thought it would be worth asking you to stay behind and help defend the town while some of us were gone.”
That was a lie. She’d wanted to ask him to come with her. His strength, his lack of any discernible alignment, might have been enough of a distraction to Xehanort should he appear. He could be trusted to fight off the corrupt Master or any of his pawns if push came to shove and she had to hurry to Ven.
“But I’m worried now. I heard you’d left Marmadue’s, and you’re still bandaged up. If you’re still hurt, or even sick, it’s more important to get you to a place where you can recover.”
If Jin really was struggling to recover, there had to be a reason. With magic, most people could usually spring back from wounds or illness without much trouble. This boy seemed to be a special exception to that rule, though. The way his arm had reacted to his use of that Light Materia was unsettling at best.
“I’m sure there are other methods besides magic that can be used to get you back on your feet. You don’t have to spend your time sulking down here.”
At the mention of his injuries and his departure from the makeshift hospital, a spark of anger bloomed in Jin’s chest. Why did she know he’d left the hospital? She’d been looking for him specifically, and where he came from that usually didn’t mean anything good.
Then again, maybe her concerns were legitimate.
There was another monster to slay, and honestly it was a smart move to try to get as many strong fighters together as possible to counter the new threat. It’s what the resistance back home had been trying to do; what the captives in Paladisia’s colosseum had wanted to do to escape the place. It stood to reason that a large job required many hands to do the work.
Jin just wasn’t sure his hands were fit for the task anymore.
“Look, Aqua,” he sighed. “I told you this before. When people count on me, when they try to protect me, bad things happen. I don’t understand what’s happening to me now, and nobody else does either. I’m just wasting time Marmadue and Era could be spending on others.”
It was a nicer way of putting his actual thoughts into words, but maybe it was also what he needed to say to dissuade Aqua from digging any deeper.
“The wounds are closing. Slower than they usually do, but still closing. My strength should come back eventually, but whether I’ll be able to show up for a fight with some hypothetical dragon is just up in the air.”
To be honest, the part of him that craved the fight was jumping at the idea of facing down another beast. There would always be some sliver of his consciousness that would crave another challenge. It was what had gotten him into this situation in the first place. He’d known he couldn’t have damaged the Chaos Hide without magic, and he knew that his ability to use materia came at a cost to himself, but the drive he’d felt to finish the fight had led him to do it anyway.
Breaking eye contact with Aqua for a moment to gaze back to the spot he’d been sleeping, Jin sighed and let his shoulders hang low. Maybe it was just time to sit things out for a while. He was tired in a way that had something deep underneath even his bones aching.
“For now, take your time to prepare the others as much as you can. I’ll do what I can to prepare. Just…just let me get my rest, okay? If anyone needs me, I’ll be ready.”
He turned, unfastening the knot in his belt and letting the swords at his sides fall. He leaned back, impacting the wall behind him with a soft thud and sliding down to the floor next to the discarded weapons.
“It’s just a matter of whether or not they really do, I guess.”
Post by Shaizen Latross on Jan 12, 2019 23:21:53 GMT -4
Shaizen had been rather reluctant at his first thoughts of returning to the underground to test his new Materias. He remembered his first venture into the depths of the underground ruins were rough even with another to aid him in his search. It had been a good while since then, but his memories of that day with Mikhail were still rather clear.
While they had gotten out alive, the fight was a tough one, and had a bit of a close call due to the sneaky ambitions of a Stealth Sneak that happened to be lurking within. Their fight with the beast was longer than Shaizen would have liked, one reason being the fact that he couldn’t use his own swords at the time.
In fact, his swords were the reason he had decided to go ahead with the visit to the Underground. Now that his blades were repaired back to their original state, with their natural energies restored, he was rather confident he would be able to handle any Heartless that might show up. He was actually hoping they might, or going into the Underground will be for next to nothing.
And so he set forth into the tunnels he had explored on his first day within Twilight Town. Due to the fact that he had only ventured into the Underground once before, he couldn’t quite remember the route he had taken his first day, so he wasn’t able to take the path that led to the chamber he had found the Heartless in. While he felt that the place might be full of Heartless, he would have liked to make sure he went somewhere they would be. Since he didn’t know how to get back there, he figured he would just wander around until he came across something hostile.
Upon taking his first few steps into the tunnels, he realized the lack of light within would make it very difficult, if possible at all, to see very far ahead of him. Luckily, with Lunar repaired, he had a light source that gave him plenty of visibility. And so he reached behind his back to the sheath that held the blade.
His two sword were strapped to his back in a rather unique fashion, crossed over each other so that they were upside down on his back, with the handles hanging down towards the bottom of his back. He had them this way due to the way he was trained. He himself felt that the blades could be pulled from their sheaths and swung up in a defensive manner quicker this way than with their handles pointing up. Plus he was able to rest his arms on the hilts by pushing his elbow back to lay on them.
Pulling Lunar out of its sheath, he would hold the blade in his right hand and hold it out on front of him. The blade itself was white, not due to a paint, but instead the metal itself. Made from a metal of his world known as Lunar Steel, the white blade is imbued with natural Light. This gives the blade its own natural glow, and allows the blade to cut through Darkness and creatures made from Darkness rather easily, as well as absorbing Light and using it to enhance Shaizen’s own Light. In this case, however, it would be used to light up the tunnels of the Underground.
The light from the blade would be enough to light up the hall, allowing him to see where he was going without banging against a turn or dead end. Using the light, he would walk down the barren ruin tunnels and begin his search for Heartless.
He walked for a while without seeing any Heartless, despite now being rather deep within the labyrinth that is the Underground. He turned corners slowly, making sure there were no hostiles waiting to jump at him before continuing on his way. Dead ends were plenty, whether built that way or by caved in tunnels. Forks in the path made him pause to decide which way was best before he would start walking once more.
The silence around him was a little unsettling. He still wasn’t quite use to doing things like this without some sort of group behind him. The Talons, the squad he was in charge of in Luniel, were no longer here, lost in Darkness like the rest of his world.
His thoughts of those he had once known were interrupted as he realized that he was now farther within the Underground than he had gone last time. He would stop and turn, having realized he didn’t pay attention to all the turns he had taken. For as deep as he was, getting back might take a while, since he would have to go down multiple paths until he finally found the ones leading back out.
He would turn back to the direction eh was initially heading, trying to think of the current best course of action. He had learned many times that most places had a second exit somewhere near its end, at least when it came to the bandits of Luniel. He decided to keep going, holding his sword out once more to light his way.
He would take a few steps before realizing that, somewhere ahead, some source of rather strong Light was deeper within the Underground. This confused him a little, as this place was, for all he knew, a sort of home base for Heartless. The fact that there was some source of Light within was something he found rather odd.
He quickened his pace a little as he began to head through the tunnels once more, this time trying to find the source of the Light. He was now heading even farther into the tunnels, turning corners a little quicker now that he had something to follow.
Once he sensed the Light being much closer, he started to slow his pace. His eyes would scan the halls as he tried to spot any traps that Heartless may have laid out. He was unsure still what this source of Light may be, and knew he should be on his guard as he came closer to whatever it may be.
Drawing closer to what he thought was the last corner due to how close the Light now seemed to be, he would pick up voices that seemed to come from the same location. This told him that the source of Light was more than likely another person, someone else down in the Underground. What they were doing there was something he didn’t know.
He figured he might as well see who they were, and hope that they might help him find his way out. He turned the corner slowly, keeping his gaze ahead as he saw a blue-haired woman in the hall ahead. From this angle, she seemed to be alone, though she was crouched as though looking at something. Also, she was seemingly talking to someone, making him confirm there were two voices, and someone else was on the other side of her.
He decided to play it safe, keeping a distance away from the woman and possible second person. He would stand at the corner he had turned, clearing his throat to let his presence be known, but not speaking in case they were speaking of something important. He was never the best at starting a conversation with someone he knew, never mind strangers he literally just met in a hostile underground ruin.
With pursed lips, Aqua watched Jin slide to the floor. It was hard to ignore the air of weariness that seemed to radiate off of him as he laid still against the stone surface of the cavern. The way the gentle torchlight glimmered in his pupils and off his face drew attention to the pronounced, dark bags that were forming around his eyes. He did look tired. Far too tired for someone who had supposedly been in a hospital just a day or two ago.
He was obviously struggling, but he was equally cautious of letting other people in. She understood that sort of caution. Her time in the Realm of Darkness had her accosted by illusions and delusions of her own worst nightmares made manifest. She had to admit, letting down the walls she’d tried to build around her Heart to keep the Darkness at bay would be a struggle now if she wasn’t around Ven or Terra. Even around Riku, she’d felt the need to maintain some form of composure.
With all that talk about bad things happening, Aqua imagined Jin had been burned in some similar ways before.
There was nothing to do about it, then. If she could convince him to return to the surface, she’d count it as a win. If not…Well, at least she could say she’d tried. In the end, his Heart would have to be his guiding key. She couldn’t decide his steps for him any more than she could have for her boys.
She crouched, brushing the ground off under where she chose to sit just a few moments after he’d all but collapsed. If she was going to try to set things right, she was going to have to choose her next words carefully.
“Jin,” she sighed, trying to meet his gaze. “I’m not going to try to order you around – I’ve learned from experience that doesn’t work out very often when people have made up their minds – but I don’t think stowing yourself away down here is going to help get you back on your feet.”
She spared a second glance to the swords he’d discarded laying disorganized on the ground. While he’d leaned them on the wall beside him before, now they were resting under his legs. She was still curious about what exactly they were – what they were made out of and how they’d managed to mimic what she could only imagine his heartbeat when she’d touched them. He’d woken up after that, too. Had he bonded with them somehow, like how the Keyblade bonded with it’s wielder?
But she wasn’t going to let those stray thoughts distract her from his words. He’d said he was getting better, and that he might be able to fight the Heartless dragon that had been reported on the surface, but the way he’d said it left her more concerned than reassured.
Whether or not the others needed him. Whether they were going to depend on him. He’d said it himself – he hated when people did that.
“I don’t think it’s as simple as if they need you or not,” Aqua whispered, reaching for the pouch hidden by the sash around her waist and pulling out her Wayfinder, letting memories of Terra and Ven form in her mind with a soft smile. “When you make friends with someone, it means they want you around even if they don’t need anything from you. When you make connections to others, there’s no room for keeping them at arm’s length. It’s only when you abandon hope in the people you care about that you really are beyond saving.”
It was at that point she heard the distinct sound of someone clearing their throat. The sudden noise had her ears perking upward and almost reflexively she stowed away her Wayfinder. With a flash of light, Master’s Keeper burst into being from her other hand. She pointed to the shadows in the direction of the noise with it, eyes focused and body ready to react.
“Show yourself,” Aqua commanded as she rose to her feet. “Why have you come here?”
The man at the end of the corridor had black hair and purple eyes. Whether he was friend or foe, Aqua wasn’t sure. She’d never seen him around Twilight Town, and that made him potentially dangerous. There was no room for mistakes this far underground. If a fight broke out, it might certainly attract the Heartless. Or maybe with the arrival of this man they were already here.
She spared one last glance down to Jin, eyes flickering between the newcomer and the orange haired man. Was Jin in any shape to fight if it came to that? Would she have to defend him, too?
Magic potential sparked at Aqua’s fingertips and along the Keyblade. What spell it was going to be, she didn’t know yet. She could only hope her combat sense hadn’t dulled since leaving the Realm of Darkness.
There was never just a moment to breathe, was there?
Aqua was beginning to grate on his nerves. If he gave an inch, she tried to push for more. If he pulled back, she pursued further. Her persistence might have been appreciated or admired by her close friends, but Jin was far from that. Nobody was supposed to have found him down here - the fact that Aqua had was something he may have called a miracle if it wasn't for miracles usually being a good thing.
"I don't make friends easy," Jin sighed, leaning his head back against the stone wall and resting it there. The darkness of the ceiling was something easy enough to allow his vision to sink into. Not looking at the woman across from him, he found, somehow made it easier to talk. The distraction allowed him to stop looking into each and every little part of her body language and the ups and downs of her tones. "Where I'm from, it's always about the next fight. Picking sides, choosing allies and enemies, the whole thing is just one big game of loyalty and betrayal. Makes it hard to know who's actually on your side. Especially when you're used to being treated like a weapon. So I just...I don't play the game, I guess."
Moreso than the shuffling of her reaching for her Wayfinder, the sudden flickering light that signalled the appearance of her Keyblade caught his ear. He looked up, seeing Aqua standing to her feet as she commanded the figure across the hall to show himself. One glance was all it took to determine the nature of the situation. Not only was his body language almost entirely unthreatening, but the way he sheathed his swords at his sides showed that even if he thought he was a fighter, he wasn't a very experienced one.
"Relax, Aqua," he grunted, standing to his feet and affixing his sword belt back to his waist. "He's not a threat."
With slow and steady steps, Jin closed the gap between himself and the intruder. Placing himself between Aqua and the threat she'd perceived was his first priority at the moment. His mood was running foul from all the interruptions at this point, and that frustration was driving him to take some form of action.
"He's more likely to cut himself than either of us, carrying his swords like that. Begging to slash his own arms open when he pulls them out for a fight whether he crosses his arms or not to do it, I'd say."
Jin took note of the man's height - average for a Tamnian, he supposed. However, now that other worlds were thrown into the mix, whatever "average" meant probably had to be thrown out the window. Hell, Twilight Town was host to quite a few residents that Jin would call cartoon characters if he didn't know any better.
His other physical features weren't hard to size up either. Tattoos, long hair, nothing that screamed imminent threat. If he had some sort of Gift, that might be a different story. Still, confidence - and perhaps overconfidence - had always been Jin's forte.
"Then again, it's more likely he'd lose the things on the way to any fight. Gravity would probably do a better job of tossing them out of their sheathes and onto the ground than he would with an actual draw."
There was a certain bite to Jin's tone as he zeroed in on the trait that had presented itself to him most obviously in the newcomer. Part of it, if Jin was being honest with himself, was the annoyance of having a second visitor in the place he'd come to explicitly for the purpose of being alone. The other was simple pride. The skills he'd obtained had been hard-earned and mostly taught through the school of hard knocks. Such obvious flaws in the fundamentals that came with weapon use screamed of a pretender.
"If he came here for a fight, he'd be in for more than one sour surprise. So tell us. Why are there two people interrupting my nap now instead of just one?"
Jin's head cocked to one side. His eyes narrowed, taking what details he could pick up in the dim lighting of the underground tunnels. If this guy really had come looking for a fight, or even if Jin's words had pulled one out of him, he'd be ready.
Either that, or how useless he'd become would be made quickly apparent.
Post by Shaizen Latross on Jan 22, 2019 0:05:40 GMT -4
Shaizen was caught off guard by the blue-haired woman suddenly getting ready for a fight. Even more, her weapon of choice caught his attention rather quickly. A sword, no doubt. Yet, at the same time, it had the distinct look of a key. Was this one of those keyblades he had heard so much about? Is so, that meant this woman was one of the wielders. He had the strangest feeling having one of them as an enemy did not bode well for one’s health.
Noting this, he would sheath his blade, using the strap to keep it in place before holding both hands up to show he wasn’t looking to fight. One of the two people before him had lit one of the torches, making him not really need Lunar for light anymore. He kept his eyes locked onto the woman, who was obviously not very trusting. Not that he couldn’t blame her really.
He was a man she had never met, that very few had actually met in Twilight Town. And yet here he was, wandering with a ruined maze of what Twilight Town use to be. Most would tend to stay away from such a place, yet he had ventured into its deepest depths and just so happened to find the only other two people within the maze.
“Hey now, no need to go pointing weapons at me. He’s right, I’m no threat. And I get the feeling just from the look of you two that even if I wanted to be I wouldn’t be.”
He would look to the man as he stepped forward, tilting his head a little at his words. He would glance back at his sheaths, noting that when he had first decided to put them this way it was for the fact that he would only use them if needed. In Luniel, he was a peacekeeper. He only fought to make sure others were safe. His swords were used mainly against Heartless, and they were slow in Luniel. Perhaps the man had a good point. In their current position, using them against another person would be rather… difficult. Even the Heartless were stronger and faster here.
“Well hey now, no need to be so harsh about it. I know it is a rather… odd method to carry them, but there was a reason for it when I first decided it. Sure, may not be too useful now, but it takes a bit to change something you’ve grown use to. Especially when you just recently came into a world you never knew existed.”
He would slowly put his arms down to his sides once more, standing straight but remaining where he was to make sure neither of them mistook his movements for anything hostile. Hard to think that this is what his little venture into the depths would turn into. He only came down here to hunt some Heartless, test some new Materia. Looks like this day might turn out a little more interesting.
“To answer your question, I came here to hunt some Heartless, test some Materia, maybe learn these tunnels just in case. Just so happened to get lost down here. Got lost in a few thoughts. Walked farther in just because I was already here. The fact that I wound up here was due to the fact that I sensed your Light. I thought it might be some sort of materia or another person. Come to find out, it was indeed two people.”
The man’s talk of a disrupted nap struck Shaizen as rather odd. Who would want to take a nap even in the entrance of this place, never mind its deepest reaches? Kind of odd really. And the fact that the Light he sensed all came from the woman. He sensed nothing from the man. Odd. While Shaizen wasn’t sensitive to both Light and Darkness, he had always felt at least a little Light from everyone he met. This threw him off a little, but he thought nothing of it for now. He was sure there was a reason for whatever it was, and it was none of his business.
“Question for the sake of curiosity… why take a nap here? Not the most… optimal place for such, now is it? I mean, sure, despite the current situation there is less chance to be bothered. But then, Heartless roam this place quite a bit. It’s kinda like a base for them.”
Post by Maxwell Tendas on Jan 24, 2019 10:51:50 GMT -4
The last day had been hard on him. Ever since Lorena had triggered an episode, they had been happening more often. He’d had three since, though they were shorter than before. They had all been of memories of his time in the Drydenian Academy, training in the art of controlling water and military strategy, as well as memories of what little down time he’d had, which had mostly been spent with Wren and Donovan. Each time either of them, or Azeran forbid both, was in the memory Max almost felt like he was being punched in the gut. He couldn’t explain how or why, but somehow he knew that something bad had happened to them both, either before the Heartless had taken Grendam or after. Which it was, he didn’t know, but each returned memory of them brought a fresh wave of pain and anguish strong enough to nauseate him.
That was why he was heading into the underground, the tunnels beneath Twilight Town. There were a lot of pipes all through their walls, nearly all of them filled with water. Feeling it all around him was calming and comforting, and he could (almost) make his way through the tunnels with his eyes closed because of how many pipes there were. He slowly worked his way through the tunnels, just letting his eyes adjust to the near-pitch black, only seeing just enough to avoid running into the walls. Otherwise, he felt the water to guide him through the corridors. He just walked, slowly but steadily, feeling the flow of the water through their metal pathways. While the feel of an ocean may have been nicer, with its waves and currents and depthlessness, this served his purpose just fine. Just a few minutes in and he was already beginning to feel more at ease. He just closed his eyes, resting one hand on the pommel of Quicksilver and grabbing the back of his neck with the other, and continued along the underground corridors.
He wasn’t sure how long or how far he had walked, he had stopped paying attention to both a long while ago, but even began to hear voices. At first he thought it was just his mind playing tricks due to the sensory deprivation of the darkness around him, but he quickly ruled that out when he noticed a faint glow ahead. No, there were people down here for sure.
So much for some alone time, he thought to himself as he decided he should investigate. Leaving the one hand resting on his sword’s hilt, he made his way towards the light slowly and cautiously in case the people weren’t friendly. He found his caution to be warranted as he rounded the corner to find Aqua facing down two guys that Max didn’t recognize, and his hand immediately went to grip Quicksilver’s hilt. The one closest to him, a young man with black hair, had a pair of swords strapped upside-down and crosswise on his back. The other had orange hair and no discernible weapons on him. In fact, this one looked a lot worse for, what with all the bandages and his waxy complexion. This gave him pause, as the orange haired one didn’t really look capable of fighting right now, and based on the way he’s strapped his swords the black one was a rank amateur in swordplay and no threat to anyone but himself.
He looked back at the orange haired one, something about him nagging at the back of his mind. Just the sight of him filled Max with an inexplicable frustration. Then, he remembered what Mikhail had told him a while back about one of the stronger citizens of Twilight Town, an orange haired, sulken man by the name of Jin Hikari. Apparently, from what he’d been told, him and Max “don’t exactly get along too well.” If this was in fact the same Jin, that would explain the feelings of frustration he was getting at just the sight of the man.
“...Jin...? Jin Hikari?” He asked the orange haired man tentatively, releasing his grip on his sword and resting his hand on the pommel again...
Any attention Aqua could have paid to Jin’s words regarding how he had a hard time making friends back on his World had been disregarded with the arrival of Shaizen. Call it paranoia brought on by years spent in the Darkness, but even the smallest of surprises were enough to set her off.
Aside from the Heartless, she supposed she’d become too accustomed to the quiet of it all. Her instincts were just too on-edge; she was always waiting for the next fight. Could that have been one of the ways the Darkness had been trying to creep in.
Regardless of her own fears, Jin seemed to take the new arrival with more poise than she’d mustered. Well, if his berating comments could be considered poise, that was.
The keyblade was always ready for Aqua’s call. She never had to worry about a sheath – only her own quickness to summon it. Maybe that’s why she felt no offense of the same nature that Jin had verbalized. Still, his words did make sense…
She lowered the Master Keeper, allowing it to fizzle into dimming light. With a slow breath, Aqua spoke to their visitor.
“You say you’re not a threat,” she leveled, ignoring his defense towards Jin’s comments. “But knowing why you’re here in the first place would do a lot to ease our minds. Please. Tell us what you came down here for.”
She did her best to hear the man out – and his story made sense. She was no stranger to wandering while lost in her own thoughts. It was understandable that he’d manage to find his way here if he was simply travelling the underground aimlessly – especially if he was searching for sources of Light.
Somehow, hearing that he’d been searching for Light in hope of finding another person put her at ease. He obviously wasn’t a Heartless, and that innate need to be around other sources of Light had to mean he was walking a similar path to their – or, at least her – own.
“Well, I can’t say walking this deep into the tunnels down here was smart of you. The further you make your way down here, the more the Heartless will attack you. They swarm like predators to a fresh kill, and they won’t stop until they’ve devoured you. You should do your best to…”
In the middle of her warning, the sounds of footsteps once again caught her ears. She remembered her better senses this time, waiting to summon her keyblade until she knew whether what was coming was friend or foe.
They could only get so lucky down here, but there was no good to be found in losing hope that good people were still out there waiting to be met.
At the fringes of the torchlight, Max’s figured came into focus. The last Aqua had seen him, he’d been feeding her a slice of humble pie at the meeting to decide the town’s next course of action. Down here though, he was an ally.
“Max,” she sighed. “Better you than a swarm of Heartless. Though staying down here waiting for them to find us still isn’t he best idea. This…”
Aqua looked to Shaizen, lips pursed in thought.
“I’m sorry, I haven’t caught your name. But you’re right. The Darkness clings to the world more strongly here. It’s not safe place to rest. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell Jin.”
Jin could be stubborn, but surely now that more people were gathering he wouldn’t be able to deny her request. Not if she could get both of the others to make it with her.
Jin had struck a nerve. He could tell by the look on the newcomer’s face. It wasn’t just that he’d claimed he was outmatched – against a clearly injured fighter and a woman with a magic key of all things – but also that he’d jumped to making excuses for the taunt Jin had offered up.
“I can’t think of a single reason to carry swords like that aside from crippling yourself in any fight on purpose. Make the first move and you’re too slow to take advantage of it. Make the second and you’re putting a massive hole in your own defense. Go on. I’d love to hear what your reasoning could possibly be.”
The sarcastic bite in Jin’s words was almost immediately followed by Aqua’s request to learn more about why the newcomer was down here. Jin shook his head, turned his back to the two, and walked until he me the wall just outside the alcove he’d been trying to sleep inside. With crossed arms and his back pressed firmly against the concrete, he decided listening for now would just have to do.
The newcomer had some semi-coherent story about stumbling further and further into the underground while lost in thought until he’d been drawn towards a source of Light. Aqua’s, no doubt.
’Keyblade wielders,’ he mentally scoffed. ‘Too nosy for their own good sometimes.’
Repeating that line like a mantra, he waited through Aqua’s warning that wandering down in the underground was dangerous. The Heartless had never bothered him; he doubted they had any reason to. That meant that so long as he didn’t go looking for them that they wouldn’t come looking for him. Even if they did…
Even if it was for a different reason than before, he still didn’t particularly care if they did now.
“How about instead of questioning other people’s actions you do a good job of keeping your own in…”
Jin’s gruff reply was cut short. Someone had mumbled his name, and even though his empathy was failing him his hearing was still as sharp as ever.
His gaze shifted easily from Shaizen and onto the other newcomer.
“Max,” Jin murmured. “Haven’t seen you around lately. Looks like you’re back on your feet.”
Honestly, Jin’s last memory of the man was when he’d taken the brunt of one of the Chaos Hide’s attacks and wound up…
He had to shut his eyes at the chill that ran up his spine. A fragment of the rage that had overwhelmed his consciousness at the sight of a splintered spear and ash falling from the sky threatened to rise in his chest. Beating that down wasn’t easy.
“You’re bouncing back better than I am. Good for you.”
Aqua’s further insistence that it wasn’t safe where they were was beginning to become annoying. The fact that the Heartless didn’t seem to have interest in Jin was something he hadn’t kept a secret, but it also wasn’t the sort of thing he got a lot of questions about. He had a feeling that after the first one dropped, more would be in its wake soon after.
“You don’t need to worry about me. If you’re so adamant that the Heartless are going to attack if you stay down here too long, isn’t it better that you leave me be and get out of here? I’ve already told you I’ll fight your damn dragon if you need me to, so take my word for it.”
His frustration – however impotent it was – had started to break through whatever weak façade he’d been maintaining before the other had arrived. A scowl had rooted itself firmly in his features, and his unblinking gaze locked firmly on the blue haired woman.
“If anything, grouping up like this should be more dangerous, no?”
Post by Shaizen Latross on Jan 27, 2019 21:30:26 GMT -4
Shaizen was aware that the situation within this underground maze was becoming slightly more tense with every passing minute. The longer they stayed here the better the chance for Heartless to find them. Despite this, the two in front of him had also found their way to the deepest reaches of the ruins. The man seemed to have come down here on purpose, though his reason was one that made Shaizen question the stranger’s own experience and common sense. But, even with this, it appeared as though he was in a situation where questioning others was not a good idea.
His attention was drawn to Jin first, hearing his question about the reason behind his sheathing style. It was true, his sheathes were positioned in a way that many people even in Luniel had questioned at first. In the end, it had to do with what the Phoenix Guild was at its core. They were a militarized group, yes. But they were Peacekeepers first and foremost. That meant they only fought to protect, and did their absolute best at using weapons as a last resort.
“Well, in my world I was part of a group called the Phoenix Guild. We were kind of like the military force of the world. But before we were an army, we were Peacekeepers. We protected the citizens from Heartless and criminals alike. At the same time, however, we tried to keep bloodshed to a minimum. I know that having my blades like this risks injuring myself by unsheathing them, but that just helped me refrain from drawing them right off the bat. We weren’t at war there like we are here…”
His words cut off as his own statement made him realize that, while he was still a Tirealian, he was no longer in Luniel. There was a war here, one that required those within it to fight, attack first or risk being taken. He had been lucky so far, having been ready for the fight when it arrived with his blades already drawn. But the Heartless have proved themselves capable of sneak attacks with little to no warning. If he were caught in one of those, it would be difficult for him to defend himself properly.
“I guess… I guess I see why you doubt my own skill and experience. Back home, this made sense. But here, not so much. Guess I hadn’t quite caught on to just what was going on yet. Maybe i should thank you for that criticism, if it should be called that.”
The woman named Aqua caught his attention with her own words. Her words made sense, and it was something that he himself had realized as well. It was his mistake of allowing himself to be carried away in his own thoughts that had brought him here, and now he was being questioned by those he ran into by coincidence. Just an average day full of unscheduled events.
Speaking of, it appeared as though another visitor had just arrived. Guess the Underground was more lively than he had thought. And the newcomer seemed to be prepared for a fight at first glance. His hand was already gripping his blade, though he released the hold once he appeared to recognize the man named Jin. This recognition might not be the best though, as there appeared to be a bit of unease between the two. Jin’s reaction to the man showing up was one that Shaizen could only explain as an instance of anger. Hopefully it would stay at that and not turn into anything more.
Once again, Aqua seemed to be speaking to him. Her brief words to the man before told Shaizen his name was Max. A name he had yet to hear in the town, but one that was obviously known to at least some. Shaizen wasn’t surprised when he found Aqua questioning him about his own name. Shaizen had only just recently came to this place, and only publicly fought once, when he protected the Town against the lesser Heartless during the battle against the larger one.
“The name is Shaizen Latross. Friends call me Shai. Nice to meet you… Aqua, wasn’t it? And yes, I kind of figured that is what you were trying to do already. Seemed the most logical explanation anyways.”
Just after he said this, Jin made a rather good point as well. Grouping up would draw more attention from the Heartless, as there were more hearts for them to go after. Then again, Shaizen HAD come down here to hunt heartless. But perhaps smaller groups were better than the swarm that might show up at this point.
“Well, while I doubt it was anyone original plan to get together like this, it is more dangerous, yes. It is also better though. Should we be attacked, more people together means we can look out for each other. Maybe we should stick together until we find the exit once more? We would all have better odds that way, would we not?”
Post by Maxwell Tendas on Feb 6, 2019 21:02:12 GMT -4
Jin, or rather the one he assumed was Jin, cut himself off and the others there turned to look at him. Aqua was the first to address him, mentioning he was better than a swarm of Heartless. The orange haired man also greeted him, pausing in the middle and closing his eyes briefly as a pained, or possibly enraged, look crossed his face. It was fleeting, though, and gone almost as quickly as it had come. His response also left no doubt in Max's mind that this orange haired man was definitely Jin. Then the black haired man introduced himself as Shaizen Latross, a name Max had decidedly not heard mentioned before, and shared a few details about his background on his homeworld as well.
Then Jin and Aqua began arguing, apparently because Jin wanted to stay down here alone, at least for now. Aqua, on the other hand, thought it too dangerous and pressed for the injured man to return to the surface, where others could keep him safe as he healed from his injuries. It quickly became apparent that this is what was happening as Max had come upon them. Max couldn't keep the small smile from his face, as his reasons for coming down to the Underground seemed to be remarkably similar to Jin's. Sure, maybe it was dangerous down here, but from what little he'd been told about Jin, he would be more than able to hold his own against any Heartless that showed themselves down here, even wounded and crippled as he was right now.
"Master Aqua," Max said, turning his gaze to the woman and using her previously given title to adopt a much more respectful tone than what he'd had at the community meeting just a little earlier, "Jin should be able to handle himself down here. Of anyone in Twilight Town, he's probably one of the ones you need to worry about the least. As much as the sight of him pisses me off, I think credit should be given where it's due, and he's more than earned his."
He thought back to what he'd been told of the fight with the...Chaos Hide, Mikhail had called it? He had been tossed into the air, from what he'd been told, and then incinerated with some sort of magical beam attack the Heartless had used. Then he apparently came back from the dead in a brilliant flash of light. That part he remembered, though it was hard for him to process anything but the immense pain he had felt immediately after his resurrection. Those had only been the aftershocks of his incineration, and he shuddered to think at what he might have felt as the Chaos Hide's attack had washed over him.
"I think Jin deserves a little bit of rest and alone time, if he wants or needs it," he said with a shrug and a glance over to the other man, "That was a hard fight, and he came out of it worse than most."
Jin’s words may have been harsh, but Aqua had concluded that he never meant any harm to the people he spoke. That didn’t necessarily make it okay for him to treat others so brusquely, though. Shaizen was doing well in tolerating the treatment the injured swordsman was giving him. His lack of arrogance and willingness to take harsh criticism from strangers at face value may have been a mark of the experience that Jin had accused him of lacking.
Between the two suggestions, Aqua was leaning more to Shaizen’s than Max’s. Grouping up may have been dangerous, as Jin pointed out, but any Heartless they did draw to them based on the Light in their hearts could be more easily dealt with together. Despite what Jin thought, the Heartless would come after him eventually. And when they did, they wouldn’t stop. Without a keyblade he couldn’t vanquish them for good, only hold them back until the inevitable happened.
But what Max said was also true. Even as injured as Jin was, how could she be sure he still wasn’t capable of holding his own? He’d done an impressive job holding back the Chaos Hide regardless of the cost to himself. But maybe that was what bothered her. If fighting the Darkness required giving up parts of yourself in the process, was that something she was willing to subject anyone else to?
“I don’t like the idea of leaving anyone down here, Max,” Aqua sighed. “I swore to myself a long time ago that I would be the one to guide people out of the Darkness; that I’d be the wayfinder for anyone who found themselves lost.”
Her gaze turned to Jin, who still stood between her and Shaizen. His feet were steady, and the hand that wasn’t bound up in the sling he’d started wearing was steady. He wasn’t nervous; irritated, if anything. But how many times had she fooled herself into believing she was fine in the past decade? How many times had Ven and Terra needed to come to her rescue in one small way or another to give her hope that everything was going to be okay?
“If it was just the Heartless I was worried about, I’d leave you be,” Aqua said. “But Jin, it’s just going to get harder to come back the longer you stay down here. While I was trying to find you, I asked around. Most people around town don’t even know you exist. The ones that do say you show up for fights and then go off and make yourself scarce. You left the hospital before you finished healing because you didn’t want to depend on people, and you hurt yourself in the fight with the Chaos Hide because you wanted to finish the fight so people would stop depending on you.”
Her tone was growing more accusatory, and the distance between her and the man was shrinking as it did. She couldn’t help it, though. Everything about Jin ran counter to the things Master Eraqus had taught her and that she knew to be true.
“This isn’t about the dragon or your injuries or anything like that. I’m afraid that if I let you shut yourself off from everyone around you like you have been, your Light will be swallowed by the Darkness and you’ll fade to nothing, and you’re not doing anything to try to stop it. That scares me.”
Aqua had done her best to avoid making the same mistakes she had in the past over again. She’d tried to have faith in the people around her, she’d told herself she’d never betray the trust of her friends because of that lack of faith again, but if harsh words were the language Jin spoke then maybe they were what he needed to hear to snap out of this.