The Shining Maze

The Shining Maze
Date of Scene:	17 June 2013
Location:	Giza Plains
Synopsis:	A path to a new world opens... But it is not easily traversed. Nor do its occupants wish visitors...
Cast of Characters:	Riku, Mercade Alexander, Nagetta, Avira, Maira, Vespa, Sora, Minerva, Emi Dennou, Serah Farron, Alberic Lux, Alma Hyral, Karth Mason, Mewt Randell, Cid Randell, Marche Radiuju, Ritz Malheur, Malicia
Tinyplot:	Starfall

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Mercade Alexander has posed:
The Giza Plains have been the source of a great deal of mystery and upheaval as of late. Palamecia was making fortifications and functionally beginning to claim the area as it were even before what is becoming known as the 'Starfall'.

Now things are a bit more complicated. Rumors have been going around about people vanishing in the Giza Plains. Most of them had been mercantile star-hunters, so no one's really given it much thought, but now it's becoming noticable. Add to that the Clan Job put up by a Time Mage, and attention begins to be drawn back to the rainy land.

The rolling hills and contours of the Giza Plains are green right now, due to it being the rainy season. The natural flow of the swift, violent waters creates natural rivers that alternate between being flooded with water and barren culverts. The people who live here work around the problems with small bridges and other means of transportation.

More importantly, the rumor is that the river is the source of the problem in some way. But how? Investigations bring people to the twisting riverbanks, wherein answers are sought for the cause of the disappearing people. Magical (and SCIENTTIFIC) senses seem to be drawing people to a moving point that it rolling along the riverbank like a slow wave... But what is it?

Even now, more tiny star fragments fall from the sky, though it has become an occasional thing at this point, the tiny blocklike objects 'boinging' slightly as they rebound off the ground on impact in blatant defiance of physics.

Avira has posed:
Rumors of the MYSTERY of the Giza Plains has certainly made their way to VALKYRI. On top of that, there was a mark put out by a Time Mage. Meaning that if they went to hunt the mark, they could investigate these disappearances at the same time. TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE! Perfect.

Avira had actually been out of touch for the past few days. Recently, she's spoken in a much more subdued manner with the bulk of her usual manic energy in the face of adventure simply not present. Her mannerisms are also quite different-much more jumpy, perhaps even along the lines of 'paranoid.' Though most noticably, there is a streak of white about an inch thick through her usually dark-brown hair. It starts over her right eye and disappears into the usual braid she binds her hair into.

"Keep your eyes peeled. Some pretty nasty beasts turn up during the rainy season." she warns her fellow VALKYRI, weapon already in hand. Narrowed eyes search along the banks, frowning.

Nearby star fragments that fall are quickly scooped up by the scarred woman.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Well why else would an astronomer be here?

She'd meant to come here to ascertain the truth behind the night of shooting stars for some time now. She had initially thought it'd been a simple meteor shower until she heard some more indepth accounts of the properties of the supposed star bits. That didn't exactly fit the geological composition of what she'd expect to be in a meteorite piece.. so what were they dealing with, a new element, or something else entirely?

Either way, she was late to the party, as almost every other merchant and curio seeker had already found their way to the Giza Plains, by the time she'd dropped by to inspect the Palamecian fortifications with Karth, and to visit his family at their homestead. By the time she'd collected a single star fragment, and gave it her cursory inspection, the savannah had almost been picked clean, despite the intermittent showers.

More concerning were the rumors of people who sought these star bits disappearing.. and so eventually, she found her way down by the riverbanks, which were the supposed source of the disturbance. As soon as she'd arrived, she took her place behind Avira and her fellow VALKYRI. While she never took the classes on /battle formations/ she was pretty sure it was common sense for the white mage to not try and take the vanguard. She only offered a small smile, and a wave.. and although she notices the streak in Avira's hair, she doesn't call attention to it. Maybe she really was just older than she looked! It would be impolite for her to call attention to the signs of aging. "Hello Avira, Maira. It's g-good to see you both."

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron would comment about the irony of winged creatures talking about killing two birds at a time, but she's not that kind if girl. She joined up a group of 'star seekers', because it seemed more relaxing than hunting down monsters. Who knows what might happen in this odd world thought. Last time she was here, people appeared and started to talk about the law, restrictions, and destroying the world... not really relaxing subjects of conversation either.

She hops over a rock, checking around some patches of tall grass, for pieces of the stars that might have rolled there and been forgotten about. She has a bag full of various shapes and sizes of them too. They are odd, like rubbery, stretchy, but nothing seems to able to destroy them either.. not that she tried very seriously, but they already survived a fall and a crash on the planet after all.

She looks to the others gathering around, making sure she's not looking at areas that people already checked in "Lots more people suddenly... what's going on?"

Maira has posed:
Maira has come with Valkyrie upon hearing of an official mission. It would be nice to spend some times with her friends and be useful. Maybe, they could even figure out what was going on around here. With her ability to talk to ghosts and Uist still around (which he may not be much longer) perhaps Maira will be able to figure something out that otherwise would have escaped notice. Who knows, spirits in the area could have insight.

Even more important was being with Avira, who had certainly....been through something. Maira will be glued to her side to keep an eye on her and offer whatever support she can.

Maira keeps the air around her pleasantly warm, her magic ready to call. "I'll keep my eye out..." she says, though she's watching the star fragments, reaching down to pick up a couple herself. "What...is happening here?" she asks herself quietly.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa says, "I'm sure we can handle any beasts that show up Avira.",Vespa says, carring her massive axe over her shoulder. She causally walks behind Avira, looking a bit consered over her current state. Vespa think she need to take some time off. She won't press the matter but will support her as much as she can. There were alot of people that had come to check what was going on here. She not sure that a good or a bad thing..."

Minerva has posed:
Minerva had been hearing a few things alongside Valkyrie as of late about the Giza Plains. Something had been occurring here that was out of the ordinary even for the world of ruin. Then game the job offer which did pay pretty well and if they couldn't use the gear that was added on it could be sold or saved if they needed it for some other enterprise.

Minerva pauses turning to look at the falling star fragments for a second before replying to Avira. She notices her friend grabbing them and may get any she may end up missing some and there are a few she manages to get a hold of.

"I shall keep my wits about me but what are these strange bits of star dust? We should not get overconfident the world likes to keep sending new horrors our way."

Karth Mason has posed:
People disappearin' and now a bounty..

Karth is worried, worried for his family and for his home...these things always seem to happen, and the Gaza planes are becoming more and more concerning to be stuck at. He decides, however, that this is somethin' that only he can do...though he's been gatherin' the stary gummies, they kinda remind him of those fancy worms you can buy at the market nearby. Stary Gummies, that sounds like a thing to call something like this. They've been thrown into large barrels arranged by what they look like...Karth hasn't bothered running to town with them yet, they can't be too important or worth anything if they just fall out of the sky like that! No sir. Money doesn't fall out of the trees, that's what pa said.

Right now, he's moving along the raging waters of the plains, his shovel on his back, trying to track the strange disturbances along the water that people have been fallin' into...or eaten by...he's not sure which, and because he lives here he doesn't know about any adventurin' party comin' his way.

Nope...this seems pretty simple to him, some darn fancy mage saw some rapids and people were bein' stupid and fell in...maybe a monster got attracted and now he's gota go put it down to protect the family..

That has to be it.

Malicia has posed:
Malicia Malicia can't resist the temptation of shiny, pretty things. And while these so-called 'stars' certainly weren't what she was expecting, they had a certain appeal. What she didn't expect, however, was an onslaught of HUMANS. Such weird, ugly-looking creatures. Completely bald, except for the hair on their heads. She had noticed the gathering group, and the few who were plucking up remaining starbits. No, no, no, those were HERS. Growling under her breath, she decides to sidle up close. Maybe she can nab a few from these travelers...

Alberic Lux has posed:
Collecting star fragments has become a sort of pastime for Doctor Lux. He's run some tests, done some analysis, and, in fact, convinced a small child to eat one, all in the name of SCIENCE. Whether or not it is /evil/ science has yet to be determined.

However, he /has/ made some... progress.

Something is floating down-river. It looks a bit like a boat, but it isn't quite touching the surface of the water. It's a little bigger than a dinghy and multicolored, apparently made of what appear to be dozens of the little things that keep falling from the sky. On top of it, there is what looks like some kind of really big fan affixed to the back, some sort of array of fins behind it, and a couple more on the sides. They clearly are not made of the same material, and give it a sort of fish-like appearance. The design aesthetic of the extra pieces might seem familiar to Serah in particular.

Alberic sits on a chair on top of it. The chair looks like some kind of especially fancy office chair, refitted and affixed to the top of the vessel for his own comfort. There are levers and switches around him, and a couple of flat boxes to either side, with robotic arms with nets in their hands on top of them. The arms occasionally dart out and swipe one of the 'falling stars' out of the air and deposit it into the box.

Lux is humming a wordless tune to himself as he drifts towards the source of the problem. He doesn't seem to have a care in the world.

Nagetta has posed:
Nagetta heard about the mark as well. The money could always be used to buy more food. Sure, she could hunt for it, but there were some things that couldn't be found in the wild. The overcast sky meant she didn't have to worry about the sun and it was easier for her to see. She notices the growing group, it seems a lot of people were interested as well. She looks a bit uneasy with all the people present. Still she would have to overcome her shyness sometime.

Cid Randell has posed:
Cid Randell does not trust these people. He does not trust these outworlders; after at least one of their number decided to support the dangerous anarchist Marche Raidiuju, Cid made up his mind to keep his words careful, to avoid speaking too heavily of the powers that bind and protect Saint Ivalice, to avoid leaving the Prince alone in this new world, and to make certain that his powers still functioned to some degree or another. Without the magic of the Law on his side, Cid would be no more than a knight; he could hardly protect his beloved son with such inadequate power. But no; the Law cards still functioned, even if he could no longer declare control over the field of battle. That gave the Judgemaster a willingness to breathe and explore that he might not otherwise have, were he lacking in power.

And so it is that they have returned here, again, to the fields of Giza. Today Cid does not ride a chocobo; today, he walks, his gleaming silver armor and bright red cape shining even in the rain. He holds a wide umbrella over his head and his son's, sticking close to Mewt - both to protect him from danger, and to protect him from the rain. If his son acquired some illness in this alien world, Cid may never be able to save him.

Something percolates in the back of his mind; the thought of illness, and failure, prick Cid's senses, and the taste of alcohol runs across his tongue unbidden. Then he shakes his head and surveys the scene.

His voice augmented by magical Prince Mewt Randell has arrived. Those who would do him harm - beware.</span>"

Cid puts his hand on Mewt's shoulder. "Here we are again. Do you really believe he would return here?"

Riku has posed:
Apparantly starblocks make a little 'boing' noise when they hit something.

Sadly, this appears to be correct when they almost rebound off your head. Riku has put himself out there in the same way that he buried his problems in earlier times.

Namely, by finding someone elses problems and fixing them because he can't solve his own very well.

It's an Emo Ham thing.

The silvery block sproings next to his boots and he laughs in startlement and chases after it, snatching it up and looking up at the rainy sky as if confused as to where the silvery blob of material came from. He looks at the block speculatively and then shakes his head, putting it away in a pocket as he takes a look around. He shields his eyes with a hand, squinting out into the rainy terrain as he tries to make out what is going on in the area.

He moves towards the source of the red text, because from adventuring, you always move in the direction of the red text. It usually means trouble. And usually -- trouble means problems he can solve. Hopefully by hitting something repeatedly, but he's also open to the ever popular 'Snark' option of diplomacy.

Sora has posed:
It's only natural that any sort of rumor involving any world that causes this much chaos and interest draws Sora's attention. With his luck, something either got broken or another Princess got kidnapped and/or captured, not that he wants that.

*knocks on wood*

He finds a single star fragment, and curls it up into his palm for a few minutes. Hmm. This is so strange. Sora is here to fix problems, /everyone's/ problems, because sometimes he just can't figure out how to solve his own.

Ritz Malheur has posed:
VALKYRI soon finds itself to be in competition for fallen star pieces.

A team of viera women are sweeping across the Giza Plains in a line formation. Even with the hoods drawn over their heads to keep back the rain, one can easily tell that the dozen or so women are viera due to the long ears that peek out from underneath their hoods.

The group moves forwards at speed, their long legs covering ground quickly and their sharp eyes allowing them to search while keeping up a good head of speed. In short, the viera cheat like gorram elves. It helps them that they're in a spread line formation, with a good six paces between each of them. Suddenly, the ladies of VALKYRI have competition for their star hunting. Fierce competition.

A pair of women move in the wake of the advancing line; one of them is clearly a viera, but the other is much shorter and seems to lack bunny ears. A hume? The two seem to be in command of the group as they're not doing any of the searching personally, but are talking amongest themselves and occasionally shouting an order or making a gesture that sweeps the line this way or that.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi and Umi are in line behind Avira and Maira, every so often they pump their fist into the air, indicating that they are part of the PARTY. Imi, of course, is not around. Emi is doing a bit better lately, hench her actually going outside for a notable length of time and for an actual mission.

"Oh hey Alma--" Umi says, waving a hand at her. "Sup yo?"

Emi blinks and looks over towards AVira's hair. She hasn't commented on it yet but she does say, "Avira," after a moment. "If you need to--"

...talk to us? Can she honestly offer that in good faith?

"--we will support you." She says instead.

Mewt Randell has posed:
As was typical when Cid did the whole resounding declaration thing, Mewt ducked a tiny bit and looked fairly embarrassed. "Truly Father... that is not necessary. I can only imagine you are drawing more attention than is necessary if you said nothing." Though his eyes did glance towards the Viera in the distance, cocking his head. "...huh." Don't see that too often. But everyone did seem to be gathering things.

Including him, though more by accident as he blinked and stepped back to pick up something that was on the ground. A red piece of /something/. Or was it orange? It was some shade similar at least. "I wonder what these are. They are rather gummy."

No armor for Mewt, though. Just the strange attire he typically wore. Bright colors, poofy clothing, yellow orange red and spikes.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
The Giza Plains seem to be more peaceful than usual at the moment, thankfully, probably because of the influx of heavily armed bodyguards of late. Most of the wildlife appears to have gone to ground in the strange disturbences.

Most of those present are here for the blocks. Others are here for the mystery and the mark.



All might find a little more than they bargained for. As the people gather, another strange rolling pulse of distortion appears to grow along the riverbanks, coming to a flowing confluence of power. Space twists and pulses as space... changes along the bank, a hole tearing open with the sound of thunder and inrushing air.

All of a sudden, those nearby feel a powerful force drawing them in towards the crackling hole. Through it, gleaming pieces of light can be seen to twist and swirl along a black backdrop. Many more of the tiny blocks can be seen floating within as well.

This seems to answer some questions, at least.

Maira has posed:
When a mild Alma appears, Maira turns and smiles to her lightly. "Oh, hey Alma. It's good to see you too. Come to investigate huh? Not surprised with your love of astronomy and stuff," she comments.

Maira greets Emi and Umi then as well, smiling, her usual enthusiasm significantly dulled. She seems tired and subdued. "Emi, Umi, always good to see you," she replies, then looks back to Avira, reaching over to place her hand on her friend's shoulder for a moment. "I'll...see if I can send Uist to look for the mark," she says, unable to hide the sadness in her eyes. Soon enough, likely she would not be able to do that anymore. Maira's eyes drift toward the Viera, frowning gently. They're looking for the mark too, no doubt. And they are Viera and Maira is just not feeling terribly forgiving of scantily clad bunny girls with impossible long legs right now.

When a man in armor and a red cape shows up, announcing the presence of a prince, Maira's eyes widen slightly as she looks toward them. Uh, well. She drops a curtsy?

Maira shudders suddenly as something in the air changes drastically, her hair prickling as she turns to see the hole in space rip open. Maira gasps, grabbing onto Avira as she feels the force pulling them toward it. "That is very bad!"

Karth Mason has posed:
Karth is standing near the end of the water...

Hmmm...

"Just like I thought...nothing. Just some darn smart folk not knowin' what they ar-"

Something shimmers, and Karth's shovel is out...okay this is...

Space twists and flows, pulsing catches him by surprise...something is going on and he frowns...what is even going on?

Then something TEARS through reality, the whole in reality opening, darkness starting to swallow him whole...

Karth slams his shovel into the ground, holding onto it for DEAR life. "OH GAWD! JUST LIKE THE ONE THAT SWALLOWED PA UP! OH CRAP! DON'T FAIL ME NOW SHOVEL!"

SNAP.

"SON OF A B-" poof.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa says, "Who the hell is Prince Mewt Randell??", Vespa ask looking in the direction where the booming voice came from. Royalty she doesn't care for them too much always think they are more imporant than everyone else.

She picks up a star fragment, now odd. She looks at her axe. "No I'm not going to eat it Al!"

Her ears suddenly pop as a hole opesn and starts pulling her in. "This isn't good!", she swings her axe into the groud imbedding it there and holds on for her dear life!"

Alma Hyral has posed:
Well at least Umi wasn't in a cheerleader outfit this time..

Alma just smiles at her, and offers back, "H-Hey Umi, Maira. Uh.. sup? I'm just, trying to see if I need to i-incorporate falling star pieces into my r-research."

Her head already was starting to hurt as it tried to wrap its mind around the fact that these star bits went /SPROING/ when they hit the ground. So far the verdict on whether they needed to be a focus of her research was: No, most likely not, despite being fun! But even so, she was curious enough to try and figure out their composition. Maybe it could be tracked back to a specific world..

Oh and there's Riku, just beyond the herald in the Judge...Armor? Well it didn't look exactly like Archadian Judge Armor, and he was defending some Prince that wasn't likely to be Archadian, especially given that the Judge was his /Father/. But she was still quite curious. And so she broke ranks from VALKYRI to meander over towards the Judge-Cadet when.. she caught sight of Alberic Lux. This led to the disconcerting moment where she literally froze in her step, her gaze following him on his advanced hover craft with her mouth open.. wide.

It wasn't every day that you saw a /horror/ riverboating idly towards some warp in what was possibly the fabric of space/time? All thoughts of greeting Riku though, and perhaps warning him of this man were cut short by the fact that she was sucked right into the /tear/.

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron wonders about that craft that Alberic is riding down the river... Well, it shouldn't be that surprising either, considering Eden is in this world... The mismashs of various levels of technologies and magic is very odd to say the least. She tugs her raincoat a bit better over her head, since its still pouring. She has to make sure the starpieces bag isn't getting flooded either, closing a flap over it everytime.

She walks over to some of the other people present. Lots of people looking for star pieces. She got herself a bag full at least. "What did you figure out from them up to now?" She wonders, talking about Alma's research there. She noted the white haired girl among hte Vieras too. Considering her own hair color is pink, she's not that surprised, but its not something you see often on young girls either. It gets attention in the middle of the gray-ish plains because of the constant downpour.

Avira has posed:
"Oh, with this big a group, no doubt." Avira muses to Vespa, reflecting on her early days in Clan Dagda. Namely, how much she sucked even though she was in a group that ganged up on a single creature. Those days felt so long ago. So very...very long ago.

Lifting a hand, she puts it on top of Maira's and looks to her. There's something in Avira's eyes-a haunted look, betraying the fact that she's seen things she did not want to see.

Avira walks along the bank of the river, trying to suss out the source of the disturbance, only coming up with the sight of Alberic Lux floating down the river on something that looks like it came out of a Dr. Seuss illustation. She watches this, blankly, for a few moments before giving him a cautious wave.

She looks away, spotting the swift viera moving over the plains. It wasn't just that they were scooping up the star pieces (but not bopping them on the heads for they had no heads to bop), but given their formation and outfits, Avira's quick to peg this little group as a legit clan. It's no clan she recognizes herself, but that didn't matter. What mattered was they were probably out for the mark too. "...we need to get moving." she says to the likes of Maira, Minerva, Vespa, and guest healer Alma.

When the Judgemaster makes his presence known, Avira reacts with a measured nod. "WE DON'T MEAN YOUR PRINCE ANY HARM!" she calls back out to him, "WE HAVE NO QUARREL WITH YOU!"

Anything further she might have said is interrupted by what looks to be a frickin' Black Hole opening up in the middle of the plains. A panicked look immediately settles upon Avira's face and she jabs the length of the Spine into the dirt beneath her feet, clutching onto the weapon. As she clings, she stares into the abyss, terrified at first but with a slowly dawning realization settling upon her. "Hold on to something!" she calls out, seeing it was...more or less for naught because Alma just got sucked in. "Damn it!"

Nagetta has posed:
Nagetta notices Emi and Umi before making her way over to the girls, there was at least someone else she knows here. "Hello..." She greets them before hearing the sound of thunder. The lamia cringes and coils up a bit taking a defensive stance. She then notices the distortion wondering what it was doing here. Did it have something to do with the mark? Suddenly she watches as a girl gets sucked inside of it. The lamia quickly coils around a fallen tree close by.

Minerva has posed:
Minerva pauses for a second at Cid he kinda of reminds her of the judges from Archades for a moment but he seems to be different. She does size the man up he does seem to have some skill from how he carries himself but who is this Prince Mewt Randell? She knows that's not the name of anyone in line for her nation's ruler-ship and is pretty sure someone else now rules Archades. So who the heck is this? The icy looking woman pauses as she notices Karth for a moment she doesn't think too much of it at least for now. Legion and Alma get a notice as she asks a question of the network. "Is she a friend of yours?"

Back to the mysterious Mewt Randell is sized up tis a strange lad for sure she?ll have to find out more but something is starting feel strange here it feels like a portal.

"Something is not right with it... it's pulling .... everything to it."

She digs her heels in and watches as Alma get sucked in and there's nought she can do.

"Blast...! It's going to consume everything around it!" Minerva digs her hands into the ground and attempts to hold herself in place. She's being pulled pretty hard her body is at an angle as it's pulling people through...

Emi Dennou has posed:
"What?" Umi says.

AND THEN SUDDENLY BLACK HOLE OF WHATEVER?

"Woah! Alma!!" Umi says. "Hold on! I'll save you!"

"Don't jump into the black hole, Umi." Emi says, reaching out to try and grab at the ground, keep herself from tumbling in.

"I'm jumping into the black hole!" Umi shouts as she dives on in.

"..urggh." Emi says.

Malicia has posed:
Malicia sneers at the shouting Cid. "If you don't want any harm to befall your Prince, then why loudly announce his presence to every living being in the area?"
But her attention is pulled away from him -- quite literally. In fact, her whole body is pulling away alongside the rest of the group. She flails wildly, her claws trying to catch on to the nearest solid object. With one final screech she vanishes into the void.

Maira has posed:
Maira is not very strong. Even holding onto Avira as she is, she is slipping. She watches Umi to off after Alma, her eyes widening in horror! "I can't hold on!" she says to Avira.

Maybe she should just let go.

Ritz Malheur has posed:
The swift-moving viera clan keeps moving as Prince Mewt's exsistance is announced. At a word from the lone viera behind the formation, the entire group shifts, swinging around the Judges and their charge. They give the royals a wide berth, at that. The green coated viera touches two fingers to her head in respectful salute as she passes; the young hume woman lingers for a moment, staring beneath her hood, before taking after the clan at a trot again.

The group comes to a halt as reality starts to invert and turn into a black hole; no command was needed to tell them to get down. They hunker down and it buys VALKYRI a little time to hunt down stars... provided that they're not doing the same for their own safety. And then a girl gets sucked into the void.

The hume girl takes several steps forwards before her viera partner grabs her by the arm. The viera is shrugged off and the young girl runs forwards, drawing the rapier from her hip. The violence of the motion throws her hood back, revealing her (naturally) pink hair to the world. The young woman leaps into the air, powering into the void face first as she closes the distance with the various helpless people that are being sucked into oblivion.

Avira has posed:
"Yes you can!" Avira barks, releasing one hand from the Spine so she can hold onto Maira too. Despite the serrated edges of the weapon, it starts to move through the dirt and mud. VALKYRI is clearly in no position to pick up star pieces right now.

There's a look of anger on her face. Why, it's as if Avira is not all that keen on jumping into mysterious portals right now for some mysterious reason.

Alberic Lux has posed:
Horrors need to relax sometimes, too, y'know.

Alberic lazily waves back at Avira. He doesn't have any problem with her or hers. He idly observes the incoming viera and the oddly colorful boy accompanied by an armored man. There's all sorts of interesting people around. Alberic kicks his feet up on the edge of one of the boxes, pulling out an electronic gadget from his coat and waving it vaguely through the air. He spots Alma out of the corner of his eye, turning his head towards her a little and just kind of smiling.

Then the black hole opens. The gummicraft wobbles dangerously. Lux tucks the gadget back into his pocket and starts wrenching levers to and fro, stabilizing it. He /could/ stop himself from going in...

Lux shrugs his shoulders. "Meh. FOR SCIENCE!" he bellows, throwing a switch. The fan kicks on high, with a THRUMMMMM noise that propels it straight into the rip in space and time.

It turns out it fits, too.

Mewt Randell has posed:
Of course, right about the point that he was inspecting the gummi piece, it was sucked out of his hand towards something that just opened up. Mewt's eyes went wide and he started to step back, but various things began to happen at once. One or two people went flying towards it and things, including little blocks, began to as well. Even though they were on the other side as well, it's as if no one here was responsible for it.

"Father, run! It must be --" then he trailed off the moment he saw it. Pink hair. His head snapped towards it and he saw Ritz as she had just got grabbed by the Viera. It was pretty hard to mistake that shade of hair, let alone the general features that came aong with it(high forehead, etc). "Ritz... NO!"

He'd only found one of his friends since coming to the knew world, one person he knew that he wasn't related to. One person since Manhattan had caved under to the Heartless. Marche had betrayed him, but Ritz... she was alive! And he wasn't about to see her get sucked into this portal! Normally Mewt wasn't a very athletic person, and even now he's not... but he's good at running. And taking rock-filled snowballs to the head. You get used to running when you're bullied. In a quick motion he ducked down and began to run as fast as he can towards it, hoping that as he stretched out his staff and shouted, "Book!", it might collide with Ritz and somehow knock her away from the entrance of the portal. Hopefully if she was beside it, or at a different angle, she wouldn't get sucked in!

Of course, that also meant he was too close and that moment of 'not thinking' means now Mewt is caught in the suction and quite easily sucked right off his feet towards it.

Riku has posed:
@emit This is the sort of thing that they don't prepare you for.

Your parents try to teach you right from wrong and those you look up to and your friends usually fill in a lot of the gaps when dealing with social situations.

However. Consider the following.

1 - You are on an adventure to get away from the people you just recognized as being in the same area.
2 - You JUST saw this guy in a machine just ambling down a river that has started to bend around into itself out of nowhere.
3 - You appear to have had the same thought as a lot of people and so your quiet and peaceful introspection while figuring out other people's problems by punching them has become seriously crowded by both people you don't know, and more troublesome, by PEOPLE YOU DO.
4 - You are just out of the range of the reality warping effect that is tearing up the landscape and possibly responsible for the strange blocks and the strange disappearances. Thus leading to something you can possibly punch.

What is a deuteragonist to do here?

A) Jump into the distortion as your friend (or girlfriend or crazed associate.. you are not sure which-- come on. Give him a break, it's a whole nother problem) just disappeared there.
B) Try to find some manual in which to look up the appropriate response that doesn't involve grinding gears and or smoke.
C) Say Screw-It-ALL, allow other people to handle this nonsense and go get some Ice Cream.

Player Choice: (Sigh) --A (Player grumbles "Damnit. I wanted some ice cream.")

Riku jumps into the distortion.

Sora has posed:
Sora watches Riku jump into the black hole.

"Uh."

"..."

Then he selflessly (?) follows him.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Everybody who jumps into the portal for science like morons: +1 Rep with Feige Abramson.

"...Really?" Emi asks by the time Sora jumps in to. "Is this happening?"

Cid Randell has posed:
Run? Cid Randell? Ha ha ha ha, that's a funny joke, Mewt.

Mewt goes running towards Ritz; as Cid processes this, he immediately realizes that his son is in great danger. Any other thoughts - self-preservation, safet, anything else - is literally immediately purged from his mind. He doesn't care; he doesn't think, he doesn't process. He just runs - surprisingly fast in that big, heavy armor - straight for Mewt. Anyone who just spoke directly to Cid might notice that his face is hardcore focused on running right now.

Cid reaches for Mewt. He won't fail. He will not fail. He is not capable of failing. He *will not*, *can not*, *must not* fail-

-...again?

The thought jolts through Cid's mind as he grabs for Mewt's fingers.

He misses.

Another flash runs through his mind, an unfamiliar memory racing up unbidden. An alleyway; the smell of cheap booze; the outside of a bar; a sense of failure and dismay. What were these thoughts?

It is at this moment that Cid's attention refocuses on the black hole that he just went running towards.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
The star fragment does look kind of candy-like. Kind of like SCIENCE CANDY.

The powerful pull of the hole in space (and time?!) begins to fall off, the pressure between inside and out beginning to stabilize. Some people seem to care. Some don't. Some people are sucked in. Some hold on for their lives. Thankfully, most of the people who found something to grab onto are going to be safe...

But what about the people who were sucked in? They are pulled into the distortion, falling between sheets of light and vanishing into the darkness.

The events for those who have fallen in are considerably stranger. They find themselves standing (or piloting a small craft) on nothing at all. Looking up or down creates a dizzying sense of vertigo as you look into what seems to be infinity, cut with sparkling points of light and broken by what seems to be an impossibly curving, shifting wall of gleaming crystal.

That same wall is around them, slabs of gleaming material creating an enclosure of sorts. Many of these slabs have jagged, ragged edges, as if many of them were broken into pieces of some kind, or were once part of a greater whole.

And then, with a hissing noise, the walls /move/. Slabs move in three dimensions, whipping through the air to reconfigure an enclosure around the area.

Several holes in the slabs allow further passage forward, however, should one dare..

Ritz Malheur has posed:
Ritz slides along the ground like a ball player trying to steal home plate, digging her rapier into the ground to slow herself and maintain an anchor point from which to pull back from the brink of oblivion. Her off hand forms a flaming whip as magic coalesces in her palm. Ritz reaches back, prepared to lash out and draw someone back. And then--

Mewt goes bouncing past.

"Oh come /on/." Ritz complains under her breath, rolling her eyes. "The world is swallowed by darkness and I've still got to..." But Ritz dutifully rips her sword out of the ground an allows herself to get sucked into oblivion because someone needs to save Mewt from himself. "Gawd." She comes sliding up along the 'prince's' side, rolling to her feet in the darkling space. She brushes herself off briefly, then offers a hand to help Mewt up. "Hey. Are you okay?" The more things change, the more...

Alma Hyral has posed:
So, Alma just had her entire form sucked, distorted, and warped through an itty bitty little space, then her atoms got flung across to a different dimension before she was reincorporated... You know what, DIMENSIONAL TEARS SUCK!

...and then she landed right smack on top of Lux's hoverboat which careened out of the tear right beneath her. At first she was stunned by the sickening thud as she landed atop the cold unfeeling metal. And then she looked up, and was stunned by an entirely different sight.

There was a Alberic Lux, right in front of her... sitting in what looked to be an amazingly comfortable chair. Her thoughts came in this order.

1. /OW/.

2. /That is an amazing chair, I'd like one of my own/.

3. /SWEETCOSMATHEREISANELDRITCHHORROROFTHELIGHTSITTINGINIT/!

Alright Alma, don't panic. Don't panic. I'm sure he is a very reasonable albeit ghastly individual, just open your mouth and say something suitably witty. And so she smiled that million gil smile, which was probably more like a a ten munny smile. She propped herself up..

Opened her mouth...

"KYAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!" Yeah, there was a lot more screaming where that came from as she immediately tried to scramble off his hovercraft. Which led to a lot of stumbling and klutziness.

Once she made it to the edge of the boat, she found herself in the disconcerting position of seeing that there was just what appeared to be a great yawning abyss beneath her. Her rational mind told her that it had to be solid, given that the hovercraft was.. on something solid, as was everyone else here. But her currently panicked mind told her that she didn't exactly want to climb off at the moment. Instead she looked with wild eyes upon the slabs of gleaming crystal, watching them contort and form passages forward.

She took one look back at Alberic Lux. Then one look forward, and yeah she jumped right off the ship.

She was grateful that she did /not/ fall further, as she tried to get far far away from him.

Karth Mason has posed:
Karth lands on the hard ground? like stuff.

"Ow..that dun hu-OOF.." Followed by being landed on by a little girl. Karth quickly rolls to the side before less cute things fall on him. Slowly, he stands, rubbing his head... "Well...don't that beat all.." he says, looking down. "I can see foreeeeeever..." He starts walking foward until he SLAMS right into a barrier. "Ow." He rubs his nose, looking and touching the shimmering barrier. Slowly, trying to follow it a-

THEN SUDDENLY TRAPPED. Followed by Alma screamin' and trying to get away from somewhere...

Or someone...

"Uh...you know...maybe.." he mutters, and he just shrugs following Alma. "Hey wait a minute hon! Don't get lost in this here fancy prison' thing! We can find our way out..." Right? Did Pa fall into a place like this? Did he make it out...where is out?

He is afraid, but he doesn't show it. Instead, he puts a hand on his sword... He does not draw it yet.

Serah Farron has posed:
In Serah's case, she just completly missed the black hole because she had her back turned to it. Which turned to be... bad for her. She thought it was the wind picking up at first, but after a few moments... it become more of a PULL, and only getting stronger. She was trying to talk about the star pieces when it all happened, and with the wetness of her coat and grass, she ends up on her back, and sliding toward the black hope, with a shrill "EEEEEEEEEEEEEE" trying to slow her slide, but not finding a grip.

What saves her is how she gets her head KONKing against a large rock on the way, just in time for the black hole to lose most of its pull, leaving her dazed but safe. She turns around and lets her legs atop of the rock, looking into the black hole. She's not sure she wants to jump in there either... She's been rather... weary of the darkness since she got here. "What's going on? What's this all about!" She's worried about the people that actually jumped in too.

Mewt Randell has posed:
"Mmm..."

Mewt was face down on nothing, and when he opens his eyes, it looks like he's staring up. But it felt like he was laying on his face. "Huh? Wha..." then he squeals out a quick panicked sound and begins to flail before he realizes there's something beneath him. Something. Not sure what, but it was solid enough to push himself up on.

"..." But, there was someone there. Someone offering him a question of being okay. He turned and saw who it was before falling momentarily back into how he used to be back home. "Ah... yeah." he mumbled softly and took the offered help up. "I tried to protect you, but, um... I suppose you wound up helping me again."

Fidget.

Shuffle.

Yeah, he's not making eye contact, or even eye to general body contact. His attention and gaze is /firmly/ on his own feet right now. Even if he felt a tiny bit dizzy. "...sorry." came a softer-yet mumble of an apology.

Avira has posed:
The suction finally ends and, with a groan, Avira lets go of both the Spine and Maira, flopping limply to the ground. "Ugh, I'm going to feel that in the morning..." she mutters, tenderly poking her arm muscles. After a moment she yanks the Spine out of the ground and turns to Maira, offering her a hand to stand.

Avira looks up, surprised to see that the tear is still there, existing as an abberation in time and space. Cautiously, she walks over and looks through it, trying to spot any sign of those that had disappeared within.

Equally cautiously, she reaches out with the Spine to poke the dimensional anomaly.

"...Maira, hold onto me for a moment." Oh dear. Famous last words. Provided Maira does, Avira then attempts to lean her head through the rip in space time, shouting into it. "IS ANYBODY IN THERE? HELLOOOOOOO?"

Vespa has posed:
"I'm not going to let go Al"!, Vespa says holding on tightly to her axe, it thankfully is stuck deep into the groud. She watches a few people get sucked into the black hole. "Oh that can be good." Did someone just go in on purpose? She sighs not much she can do unless she goes into the hole, which she doesn't want to do. "Do we got any rope?"

Minerva has posed:
Minerva pauses for a moment as more people are being pulled in, she sees Riku actually run head first into it and just kinda stares for a moment. She's not certain to be sure if he's brave, foolish or both? She really doesn't know but the force of the portal is something dangerous to behold as she watches others get pulled... and there goes one of network. Okay that's it she's going to do something foolish. She lets go and is starting to be pulled towards it. Even as the portal pulls lessens she takers a moment and now leaps into the portal after everyone else.

Foolish, brave and suicidal all apply to the monk at this point as she comes to on the other side she looks about for a moment and staggers not thinking about anything else other than this place is trippy and just doesn't feel right even for the darkness she rises up staggering

"It seems we all still live..."

She pauses at Karth's accent she knows it well, she knows it very well is this someone from the same part of Ivalice as she was from. She calls out to Karth,

"You there I think it would be wise if we try to keep together in a place such as this!"

Also Alma is screaming? No good can come of this...

Maira has posed:
Maira collapses too, tired. She'll be feeling it too. She had been clinging for dear life!

When the suction calms down, Maira accepts the help to her feet and looks Avira over to make sure she's alright. Satisfied, she'll follow her over to check out the portal, taking her arm as Avira leans forward to call to the people inside.

"Is everyone okay?" she asks, looking around to see if anyone was hurt and needed some quick healer attention.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Umi finds herself tumbling through the air and landing face first on Lux's gummi raft. "Ouch!" She says, standing herself up, eyes wide as she hears Avira's shouting through the darkness.

"Well, well..." She says. "Looks like we're trapped in infinity! Looks like we'll have to have a temporary truce in order to get through this." She clenches her fist tightly. "Also you have a raft and I don't so..."

...
...
...

"So!" She says, nodding once more as she slides on an eyepatch. "Just call me Captain Umi, This One demands."

Emi walks forward to try and poke her head in as well, that seems a lot safer now that it's not pulling people in.

MEANWHILE, IN THE RIVER.

"Ahhh... I'm gonna let my tentacle out to dry." Ultros says, flopping one out near the bank.

Emi walks right over it, slipping on the tentacle as she goes crashing into Avira from behind.

"Oops." Emi says.

Vespa has posed:
"I'm not going to let go Al"!, Vespa says holding on tightly to her axe, it thankfully is stuck deep into the ground.. She watches as few people get sucked into the black hole. "Oh that can be good." Did she just see someone just go in on purpose? Thankfully the suction has died down. "Good job Al.", she takes her Axe out of the ground brushing the dirt off of it as she walks over to Avria and Maira.

Nagetta has posed:
The pull finally stops and Nagetta lets go of the tree. She's fully stretched out and it takes a moment for her to get up. "Ouch..." She cringes a bit, not caring for having her tail pulled on. Did some of them go in willingly? Humans were strange some time. She hears Vespa mention rope before looking down at her. She quickly does her best to conceal it.

Ritz Malheur has posed:
Ritz folds her arms, her face screwing up into a cross between annoyance and stern disapproval. It's the sort of look she gives before giving a particularly scalding lecture. But, after a moment, she sighs. "...it's alright." She puts her hands on her hips, turning to look around at the vast expanse that surrounds them. "You shouldn't look down at nothing like that, you'll get dizzy." Ever the bossy one, she Ritz takes charge and starts giving orders. Even though Mewt has somehow been elevated to royalty. "Come on. We need to find out where the others landed and find a way out of here."

Ritz starts walking off, leaving Mewt to keep up or fall behind. There's a few quiet, slightly awkward moments. "So." Ritz states after a few moments. "'Prince'?"

Marche Radiuju has posed:
These have been an interesting couple of weeks since the arrival in this world. Cut off from his friends, stripped of his title, Marche had been staying at Traverse Town trying to figure out what he is going to do. There was a bit of distraught over his current situation and the fact of how far his actions had carried him. He had done soul searching within the Bodhum beach, where he would not encounter anyone for a while. There has been even thought of perhaps handing that book back and allowing the Law to handle this.

However, Marche cannot, in good conscience, had the book back to them and hope for the best. That very book, however, resonating, drawing him back to the Giza Plains.

...Here he is, at the place where people have disappeared. As the boy entered, he held his sword with the other hand, still keeping the book protected. Maybe. Just maybe, he will find some of his friends around.

His movements are slow and delibrate, but he looks head to see a commotion ahead.

"..Huh?!"

Marche is on the move to investigate.

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron climbs back up the small hill toward Maira, wanting to put some distance between herself and that black hole "... What do you think its all about? I'm worried about the people inside... think we could try tying a rope around someone's waist and diving in?" She's having simple ideas, but she doesn't even know if someone inside is still alive...

But the rope idea sticks, and she goes to get one, tying it around a nearby tree, and then throwing the other end of it through the black home, after tying it to a rock. As long as noone's on the receiving side of a rock!

Malicia has posed:
Malicia looks a little green around her feathers. "Ulp." She groans. This topsy-turvy dimension is making her a bit nauseated.

"We need to get out of here." She doesn't even care if the beings she is trapped with are good or evil. At this point, it didn't matter.

Mewt Randell has posed:
"Ah - you did not know? Marche found out - on... subject of Marche." he started, following along in something of a scuttling manner at first before finally deciding to just focus on watching /her/ and not the area around. Somehow that felt comfortable anyways, even if a bit reminescent of back home. "He is a traitor. Our new world, he has sided with an Anarchist and has decided that if the Heartless are going to destroy it, in his opinion... he'll do it first."

Mewt was never one to lie. In fact, he'd always been quite upfront and honest with Ritz when it came to things. "And yes, I am the Prince of Ivalice... Father is the Judgemaster. ...and mother is alive." he added that last bit softly before asking in a half begging manner, "Please... please stay away from Marche. He has been renounced from the Clan system, fully, until such a time as he renounces his insanity. Do not get caught up in his madness... please."

Yes, he was begging. It was blunt. He was being a bit more up front than necessary. He also kind of didn't want to have what happened to Marche happen to Ritz.

Alberic Lux has posed:
Lux is only vaguely disoriented as the gummicraft drops into the abyss. This all feels vaguely familiar, somehow. He looks around at the odd things that slide around, the weird slabs and the people drifting in the nothingness. "Is this..." His voice is hushed; he's almost awed. "...no. No, it couldn't be. A pity." He sighs, shaking his head a little to nothing in particular.

Alma promptly lands on the hover-raft. Umi follows. Lux peers at the two of them, smiling in a generally friendly kind of way. Alma may find it entirely unsettling. He starts to open his mouth to say something, but is cut off by Alma's scream of ultimate suffering (or maybe just utter terror) and watching her scramble to the side of the ship, stumble over one of the retracted robot arms, and fling herself over the side. He /almost/ has the roboclaw grab her in the net, but decides against it.

Instead, he turns back to Umi. He looks "Well /I'm/ not trapped," he says, putting a hand to his chest. "However, there is plenty of room if you would like to explore the width and breadth of infinity!" Lux beams. He loves exploring things that don't have a defineable boundary!

There's a pause. He eyes Umi for a long moment, consideringly.

"You may only claim the rank of captain," Alberic says slowly yet firmly, "if you possess the appropriate hat."

He turns the gummicraft towards one of the holes at random and starts puttering it further into the depths of whatever this is. You don't pioneer innovations in evil science by being a wuss and a layabout.

Riku has posed:
Should have went with Option C.

Riku looks down at his feet, contemplating the tips of his worn boots because looking PAST his feet into the dizzying infinity sparking just underneath goes really well with the blinding headache that comes of 'Hey! This place is REALLY WRONG. Have fun with that.'

Riku closes his eyes very tightly but the sense of wrong, like spinning around too fast and having his eyes closed wasn't making it any better. So instead he looked out instead of either up or down, looking at the gleaming and shifting walls and looking for Alma in the confusion. ---

Cue KYYYYAGGH.

"There we go." he says grumpily as he quickly jogs towards her position. Out of self-preservation he just sort of ignores what is going on around him otherwise. "..Alma. Alma!" he waves to get her attention, seeming somewhat oblivious to there being a Sora behind him as well. He draws a line across the nothingness to the hoverboat and then to the Kyyyaarrrgh and-- whatever judgements he makes, he keeps to himself focusing on Alma as one of the more pleasant things that give him a headache right now.

Avira has posed:
Avira informs her fellow VALKYRI that she does indeed have some rope herself! There is a nice coil of it attached to one of Avira's belts. Anyone who would dare venture a hand near the woman's butt can feel free to claim it. "Never go on an adventure without rope." she reiterates, poking her head through the dimensional tear. "IS EVERYONE OKAAAAAY?" she calls in.

Not paying attention, Emi rams into Avira from behind and sends the petite woman pitching forward. "WAAARRRGH<GOOSEHONK>! MOTHER<GOOSEHONK>!!!" Avira flails, trying to grab backwards at Maira but missing.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
To all senses, this place seems to be sort of like one of the Portals that leads between worlds... .But all wrong. The paths in portals take one quickly and directly to another place. This...

This feels like something terrible happened to create it. But at least there's little star fragments floating around! That's a consolation, right?

Not really. The area feels unstable. The gleaming walls shift and change, merging and separating almost as if... Nah, that'd be impossible, right?

A faint voice echoes through the glittering maze, inhuman sibilances forming quiet words.

who are you

Moments later, a bank of walls open, flipping away to create a larger, more open space. At that point, some have a more familiar feeling wash over them.

This is because within that space, a thousand golden eyes look back. Heartless.

The mass of Shadows and Gargoyles rush forward, sensing Hearts to consume.

If people want to back their friends up who got stuck in there, now's a good time to be a hero.

Sora has posed:
Well, no one ever told /Sora/ that jumping through black holes after Riku was a bad idea. This /is/ Sora, the guy that tried to help him in the black darkness back on Destiny Island.

"Huh." Sora says, mildly excited.

Then he starts wandering around.

Ritz Malheur has posed:
Ritz remains a pillar of stability in an increasingly instable world and is, as always, someone that Mewt can lean on for support as everything goes wrong around him. Despite her armor, she is the same Ritz that Mewt is used to. Same proud, confident stance. Same flowing pink hair. Though if Mewt is looking particularly hard he might pick up on the fact that her roots are the same color as the rest; recent dye job?

"Wait, he what?" Ritz asks, half-turning to look back at Mewt. She reaches out and pulls him a step forwards as the walls shuffle themselves around him. "That doesn't... sound like something he'd do?" Ritz huffs in exhasperation. She's forced to admit she didn't know Marche all that well, he was still pretty new in town, but... "So that must be why Clan Nutsy was stricken from the lists... huh." Ritz tosses her hair back over her shoulder. "Well, I can't promise to stay away from him, but don't worry. I'll straighten him out."

And then suddenly, the Heartless come rushing out of the void. "Get behind me, Mewt!" As a shadow leaps upon her, Ritz looks at it with /such/ stern disapproval that it explodes in a blast of darkness. But Ritz only has two eyes and there are dozens of Heartless. She can only stare them down so fast. Her rapier flashes about, piercing at the Heartless that attempt to surround them from all sides!

Mewt Randell has posed:
"I'm not weak anymore! I have magic now! I can protect you instead of being protected! Just watch!" He stands aside and gets ready to retort... only to be bowled over by a heartless.

*.*

He may or may not be laid out with starry eyes and a few birdies swirling over his head for a moment.

Ritz Malheur has posed:
Ritz can not /help/ but to sigh heavily. "Oh, /Mewt/."

Karth Mason has posed:
Karth is trying to find Alma...

Something shifts, Karth goes on edge...there was an instinct, something intuitive to the nature of his training...danger was something he was always ready for...but..

Oh god. Heartless, hundreds...all of them taking the shapes of things...familar things, and whatever Gargoyles are. Suddenly, the OLD TRUSTY SHOVEL, falls out of the abyss, smashing into a heartless that gets too close to him! "Oh hey! Doesn't that beat a-Argh!" and then heartless claw at him, biting and raking him. It hurts, and he reals back, grabbing the shovel! "ALMA! GET BEHIND M-" he pauses, looking at Riku, "You know Miss Hyral too? Not to meetcha, I'm Karth Maso-" Suddenly he swings the shovel towards another heartless. PIIIIIING. "Mason." he holds a hand out...

Shake or not, Karth jumps immediately at the heartless swarm, aiming to get infront of Alma and starts SWINGING the thing. He doesn't even give a <GOOSEHONK>. The shovel swings, aiming to do some...

Heartless Gardening.

Avira has posed:
Through the tear, Avira collides with a flying Gargoyle on the way down. The pair snarl and snap at each other, Avira using her bulk to basically "ride" it down to "crash" into the ground, though not without personal harm to herself. When she disentangles herself from the creature, she's already bleeding and bruised.

But there is also a crazed look in her eyes. She tears free the Spine and without any hint of fear, leaps into the Heartless masses. With a mighty upward swing of the Spine, she sends a shockwave of ice-encrusted force slamming out before her. Spinning the weapon in her grip over her hand, she inverts the blade and slams it before her feet.

Jagged ice crystals shoot up from the ground into towering formations.

"Sorry for the delay." she mutters, "If I had known..."

Maira has posed:
Maira is reaching for the rope on Avira's belt when Avira gets knocked through the portal. As it is apparently not immediately fatal, Maira doesn't freak out.

She does, however, make another bad decision in a line of bad decisions. She follows.

"Avira!" she calls as she tosses the rope behind her to Minerva or Vespa, launching after Avira while still holding an end of the rope.

For a while, everything is incredibly disorienting. When her eyes finally clear, she finds that there are Heartless /everywhere/. As being chased by these things was king of THING lately, Maira looks very alarmed. "Oh no...Oohh this is bad..." she says, her magic igniting around her. She takes a few steps away from Avira before she accidentally burns her best friend. Another trend she doesn't wish to continue. "We've got to get everyone out of here!"

It would appear Avira has already entered battle, gung ho as she is. Well, alright. Time for some protections. Maira gestures toward her friend, the green halo of flame that is her protection magic surrounding herself, Avira, and Umi.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi tumbles down with Avira. She manages to do this in a nonplussed manner. At least until a gargoyle crashes into her and sends her sprawling, a thin trickle of electricity rippling out from her as she spins through SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE.

"You're not trapped?" Umi asks, scratching at her head. Darn supervillains, always have those powers that let them appear out of nowhere in order to taunt you and stuff, maybe this is how they do that! But Umi is going to have to remain firm on one thing.

"I DO have a hat!" She stomps her feet. "This one has a hat...back home!" She points a finger at Lux. "This one wasn't aware she would be on a raft today!"

She looks down at the gummicracft then up at Lux. "It is a raft right?" She turns her head up to look at the Heartless and shoots lightning at them.

"Are you exploring infinity too? Well, I was supposed to save--"

She pauses. "Where'd she go anyway?"

Alma Hyral has posed:
He really should have gone with Option C.

Riku get's Alma's attention almost immediately, which had her turning in her flight towards him instead, the scream becoming more of a plaintive sound in her throat as she attempts to compose herself.

Now she had a few options of her own.

1. Cue Riku in what exactly had frightened her. This might lead to a lot of verbal snark and possibly provocation, but hopefully just general wariness.

2. Not cue him in, which while.. it may spare a lot of pain initially, it may leave him oblivious to the quite possible INEVITABLE BETRAYAL by Evil Science and general loss of trust later.

You have chosen Option 1. Luckily Alma has a headache cure built into her cure spells, unless it's a hangover, don't ask how she discovered that one.

And so, as she calms down her breathing just enough that she wouldn't pass out, she walked just within whisper range of Riku, and then in a sort of panicked panting manages to get out breathlessly, "Feige's partner, him. Don't..provoke!"

And then there is a sort of background buzz, a noise which manages to eek out the meaning in an alien manner questioning their identity. She was even tempted to answer. And then a mass of shadows, and Gargoyle heartless apparated out of that open space... and surged forward. She looked speechlessly at it for a moment before a brilliant yellow Aureole appeared over her. And what was the appropriate response? To try and spiral upwards

Only it didn't quite work. As soon as her feet left the ground, a heartless Gargoyle pounced right at her, and managed to get a good grasp of her by the foot. It responded to her evasion attempt by just literally slamming her right to the ground while other heartless swarmed over her. For a moment she disappeared within the swarm, despite Karth's best efforts to rescue her.

And then all of a sudden a yellow blur suddenly surged out from beneath mass of Heartless, moving sideways rather than upwards, before coming to a stop behind Riku's position. Her left ankle was a mangled mess already, and there were several gouge marks across her robes which were slick with blood. A cry of pain burbled forth, but she choked it down after a few seconds, instead allowing a white glow to wash over herself and Karth, trying to close any wounds which might have resulted from the initial onslaught. She considered briefly trying to heal Riku instead but... she was afraid, she was scared of what might happen if her healing light interacted with the tangled mess his soul had become as of late, and so she trusted him to take care of business without the initial boost.

Vespa has posed:
"Maira!", she says holidng onto the rope now. <GOOSEHONK!>' Now what do I do??", she ties the rope around herself and her axe then shoving the axe into the ground. "Worked the first time.."

Cid Randell has posed:
Of course it would be Heartless. Of course it was Heartless. It was always Heartless. It was always Heartless, or Radiuju. Those were the two biggest problems in Cid Randell's life; the things trying to consume his world, to destroy it, to end it.

FLASH

"If the world ends," Remidi says quietly, clinging to Cid's chest, "I don't...know that I would survive it."

FLASH

"I love you, Cid. I'll never leave you."

FLASH

"Judgemaster! The Heartless are making their way into the city! We need reinforcements!"

Memories flood into the Judgemaster's mind as the Heartless swarm towards him. They race at him, their chittering noises almost completely overwhelming him as the smell of alcohol races across his tongue unbidden once again. His hand goes to his head as the Heartless begin to race across him, slashing at his body, at his face, at his beard and his armor. Their claws rake at him. He wants to run.

NO.

No. He will not run. The Law Card flicks into Cid's hand; light explodes through the darkness as the Judgemaster Sword emerges from the card, the ultimate arbiter summoning his ultimate weapon. He slashes at the Heartless, transforming his confusion into righteous anger, his fear into protective fury. His son was lost in the darkness; his prince was in danger. He couldn't look Remidi in the eye again if he ran away again.

...again?

No time to puzzle that strange thought. With the Judgemaster Sword in hand, another Law Card leaps to Cid's aid unbidden. He flings it into the air.

His magical voice echoes through the darkness. BY THE ORDER OF JUDGEMASTER CID RANDELL OF IVALICE

RECOMMENDED: PROTECT MEWT RANDELL

FORBIDDEN: AIDING MARCHE RADIUJU

Cid releases the magical power into the void, flinging it as far as his might will take him as the Law Card bursts into flames. Perhaps...perhaps, if he was lucky, the Heartless would consume Marche, he could recover the Gran Grimoire, and all of this could be over in no time.

And Remidi and Mewt would be safe.

Cid resumes slashing his way through the monsters, moving towards where he is reasonably sure Marche is. He would find the boy. Remidi would guide the way.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Umi also realizes there's green fire rippling around her. "WOAH!! THIS IS AWESOME!" She says. "Unfortunately, the Captain holds all rights to having spooky green fire spinning around her." She bobs her head. "You can call this my hat if you'd like."

Ritz Malheur has posed:
Ritz instantly gains +1 JP, though she knows not why.

Sora has posed:
Sora wanders off so hard the Heartless completely miss him because he just walked /away/ the instant they tried to attack him.

Then he hears noise and turns around. "Huh?"

Malicia has posed:
Malicia snarls. She is surrounded by Heartless, having foolishly kept back from the rest of the group. "HEY! DO /NOT/ TOUCH THE HAIR!" She screeches at a swooping Gargoyle.

Losing what little patience she had to begin with, the she-duck begins hurling fire in all directions.

Minerva has posed:
Minerva seems to have got lost in the chaos of heartless appearing so far as things go with Karth, there's no bad blood there's a freaking swarm of heartless coming here. It had to be heartless didn't it even as she sees Avira slam into one of the beasts. She yells, "See we're all right AVIRA!"

Okay this is still stupid that jumped in here but here she goes launching herself at the heartless attempting to set them all on fire, then lighting and ice! Her fists are enveloped by each of the elements and rapidly change with each strike as she launches herself into them full force. She'll even start using the heartless a stepping stones to get to their friends.

"Avira! Vespa! Who ever fells the least buys dinner!"

Marche Radiuju has posed:
There is the presence of danger erupting in the area. In fact, as Marche is approaching the site, he is coming closer to the source. Those inhuman sibilences form and the walls open to create that open space

...Heartless emerge.

They are the creatures responsible for the strife of New Ivalice. With the dangers of Ivalice spreading to the world, Marche's eyes widen and he quickly shuts the book, hiding it within his backpack.

He sucks in a breath.

People are in danger.

And then, Marche arrives just in time to the instable area to find that Mewt is in danger and---wait, Ritz?!

"Ritz?!" Marche yelps. However, there is a cold tense, she is likely convinced by Mewt that he is insane by now. This isn't good.

..And seeing that Mewt is bowled over by the Heartless, well...

Marche grits his teeth and he musters up his courage for the charge.

"No!"

And of course, Cid has placed the Law against him. No matter. Even though Marche is considered a Heretic and an Outlaw.

He is not a bad person. He will not let his friends become harmed.

"Hey, ugly!"

He picks up a rock, and he tosses it in his hand. With a winding pitch, the stone is flung towards the Heartless's head that bowled Mewt over. "You want someone to fight, come and get me!" He points the sword at the Heartless about.

In fact, the boy rushes full-bore, preparing to dispense justice. "Aaarggghhhhhh!!!" Even if Mewt and Cid are against him, Marche will still protect his younger friend.

He swings the blade outward at the Heartless's head, a glow of the sword radiates a red aura. The contact with the blade will release a force of magic to shatter it's strength. And to top it off, he seeks to deliver a SPARTAN KICK!

Riku has posed:
Oh.

Heartless.

Now this? He at least partially understood.

Riku gives a cheerful smile to Alma that has nothing to do with humor. "One moment." he raises a hand in a gesture of that same 'Uno Momento' and unsheathes the arcadian steel at his side as a hoard of shadows descend, peppered liberally with gargoyle heartless to taste.

"Riku." he calls after the one with the.. "Hey. Is that a shovel?" he asks incredulously as he slices through several heartless as is pushed back by the sheer volume, getting a few scratches from the bargain.

Between the two of them -- they might as well trim down the heartless in the surrounding area. After all. There was no hedging around them. He keeps close to Alma, mostly taking a defensive stance and fending off as many of them as possible. "YO! /SORA/" he calls at Sora. He growls as he slams the blade into a gargoyle and pushing away several shadows with a wave of force. "Feel free to join at any time."

There is a really, really strange vibe from the Law card and burning magic of the.. wait. Judgemaster?

More judges?

God. Most of the problems and solutions to life's problems.

Sigh. /SLICE/

Alberic Lux has posed:
Alberic has basically dismissed Alma's existence from his mind for the moment. He has less screamy people to deal with. "Well, of course. So long as there are human beings here, I may leave at my leisure." Alberic doesn't expound on that any further. He does, however, seem unimpressed by the lack of hats. He folds his arms across his chest. "And it is a hovercraft, not a... raft. I built it out of the so-called 'falling stars'. There are none that provide a method of steering that I've yet come across, and thus..." He nods at the fan and the levers.

Heartless come out of nowhere, following an odd voice. Lux murmurs, "Damocles," and the object on his back drifts off it, hovering in front of him. He takes it in one hand, the rudder in the other. Damocles seems to bend where the grip meets the edgeless blade, splitting down the middle with a crackle of white lightning that runs up what is certainly now some kind of barrel. He eyes Umi's odd flames for a moment.

"Well, Captain Umi," Alberic says politely, "I recommend we prepare to repel boarders."

The gummicraft turns ninety degrees and slides almost up to a wall. As it slides, Lux fires past Umi, pulses of white light travelling down his arm, into the weapon called Damocles, and lashing out in solid beams of the same luminescent energy. Amidst the volley, he launches a ball of it, a tiny sun exploding in an expanding wave of pure light amidst the Heartless swarm. Two leap onto the deck of the tiny ship, and he shoots them off, but not before one takes a chunk out of the hull, and the second takes a swing at his legs.

Alberic looks for the source of the laws for a moment. He marks those names down mentally for future reference, and then shrugs, speeding off deeper into the maze. "Now, it seems as though the walls are changing. If I can just puzzle out a pattern..."

Nagetta has posed:
"What's going on in there?!" Nagetta does her best to speak up loud enough to be heard on the other side. She can't hear anything going on the other side. Should she go inside? There's no telling if she'll be able to get out. Plus, they might need someone on the other side to rescue them.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa is really tempted to follow the rest of VALKRI into the portal but then how would everyone else get out? She sighs to herself. "I bet there beating up some monsters or heartless.", she sits down with the rope still around her and waits...

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron has tossed a rope and rock inside, but nothing happened. The rope did get stretched though. Maybe its some height up? She tugs the rope back, to see if things can go both ways at least. Let's hope that what goes in can come out.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
The Heartless assault continues, massively. Ritz manages to kill one with a /look/ (and some more with her rapier). Shoveling follows, as Karth strikes into the horde. Umi, Avira, and Malicia unleash lightning, ice and fire. It roars through the space-maze, consuming incoming Heartless as elemental wrath crashes into the wave to break it apart.

They don't want your hair, Malicia. They want your heart, as black as it is. It's delicious. Like licorice.

Minerva leaps into the fray, dealing powerful elemental blows with her fists as well, even as Marche joins the fray to protect his friend. Riku slashes forth, his deadly speed cleaving into the mass, and Lux unleashes a tiny sun into the middle of the battle.

The fight is going well. The problem, however, isn't killing one Heartless. It never is.

It's killing a thousand. Two thousand. Three. More. More. More. Minor Heartless, lacking much more than the capacity to throw themselves at their chosen food, rush forward in a mass of clambering gnawing, slashing pain.

why are you here

The walls rearrange, blocking some areas off while opening others. The battleground becomes a running fight through an ever-shifting maze that appears to rearrange itself at will, walls dropping and raising, rotating around. Behind every wall is more Heartless, surging forward. The more perceptive might notice farther walls rippling, moving Heartless forward in a channel towards them.

Ritz Malheur has posed:
"Marche!" Ritz declares between a wave of heartless, the tone of her voice making the boy's name sound more like an accusation then a greeting. "What's this I hear about you trying to destroy the world!?" Her foot taps impatiently as she waits for an answer, arms folded in such a way that her rapier is askance at her side like a small weathervane. She waits for a few moments, expectantly demanding.

Unfortunately the Heartless force the issue. "Ugh. We'll talk!" Ritz declares as she lashes out with her weapon. But the coming tide is heavy and the nature of the walls leave them coming from unexpected angles. "Ugh." A gargoyle comes from behind Ritz as a wall slides open, throwing her into the air, where a pack of them make high-speed passes at her. She blocks as best she can with her sword, but it becomes appearent that this is a long-term losing proposition.

A casting of Heavy Dust provides a rock for her to ride to the ground, where Ritz impacts into a cluster of Shadows to send them scattering. A quick followup of sliprain sends blasts of water radiating outwards from the girl, pressure-smashing the Heartless that don't move fast enough against the walls. "Are you okay, Mewt?"

Alma Hyral has posed:
The Heartless continue to come forward in an endless tide, and Alma finds herself sorely pressed, again. What's the appropriate response when more Gargoyles and Shadows begin to cover her and literally maul her? She goes up again. This time, they take a good chunk of flesh with it, as she literally tears herself away from them at a high velocity.

She doesn't even take a look at herself, she doesn't want to /think/ about what sort of wounds were inflicted upon her during her desperate flight. She just begins to cover herself and Riku with a soft, white light which covers a wide breadth of possible injuries. Each one more horrible than the last..

And then she takes a peak down at herself, and she grimaces at the thought of what they looked like /before/ she began to heal them. All that she emits from her throat is a sort of muted whimpering as she tries to focus on the healing rather than the endless /PAIN/.

Mewt Randell has posed:
"Mmph..."

Mewt goes to stand just in time to hear Cid in the background. Huh... that's reassuring. But Heartless don't care about that. Then, wait, "...Marche..."

Yeah, he was here to. "No! There's nothing to talk about! That idiot stole the book and is planning to destroy the world before the Heartless do! If it's both of us, we can pin him down and get the book from him here and now!"

But the heartless... well, there were so many others fighting the heartless, surely he could trust them to -- OOMPH. Mewt is tackled once more by a normal Shadow before he skids along nothing and stands with a grunt. "Damn... stupid Heartless. GO AWAY!" Mewt pulled out his staff and swung it around at the various Heartless before saying, "Give me the book, Marche! Now! Before I - I - before I do something to make you!" There, that's about as 'tough' as Mewt is ever going to get.

Malicia has posed:
Malicia "Stupid little creatures, don't you know who you're dealing with?!" The demonness swipes through a crowd of Heartless. She laughs confidently as she sets them aflame, only to realize she is slowly moving up, up, up.

"Let go of me you little--"

Avira has posed:
Judging by the fierce look on Avira's face, she is absolutely ready to kill a thousand Heartless. She throws herself at the hordes, silvery-colored light peeling off her body in her wake. For each she cuts down, another appears to block her way. She flings Heartless against the walls as they move to corral their numbers.

"I'll take that bet." Avira hisses, clasping a hand to her chest as she forces healing into herself. Peeling her hand away, she looks to that Mewt kid, lifting a hand, but hesitating. What could would that bring?

Her attention turns to Lux of all people, after confirming that Maira is fortunately in good condition, and unleashes the extra energy upon him.

"Yes, what IS all this nonsense about destroying the world." she pauses, "...what? Who said that?"

The frantic look of paranoia returns as she hears the voices. There were voices before. She heard them constantly in the corridors of darkness. Taunting. Goading. Begging. Questioning. Her eye twitches, "No, why are YOU here!!!" she snaps at the voice. "Why are you in Ivalice!?"

Karth Mason has posed:
Karth goes flying, he swings the shovel wildly as heartless swarm him, trying to beat them off of him...but there were always more, and they /all kept talkin' at him in that creepy speak. He hates creepy speak...it's all 'you hear it in your head' kinda thing, instead of actually hearing it. "WE'RE HERE CUZ YOU SUCKED US IN YOU BLASTED VARMITS!" he shouts, annoyed at this kinda trickery. He aims to soar back to the ground, and starts drops the shovel...

He pulls out the sword. The flames of the sword start to cover him, starting to swirl around him like bondfire to try and hold back the darkness...it was going to be now or never, it seems.

The Flametongue and it's everburning flame start to swell, as Karth starts to focus it's power, ready to fight...there might even be a small light, nearly overshadowed from the strange trinket he wares as a medallion over his chest.

Maira has posed:
This is a situation she knows she should stay in, but she wouldn't leave her friends, especially Avira, as she is very obviously on edge. And...talking to someone she can see. Well, here is a turn! Usually that's her thing! Aw, they must be rubbing off on each other! Maira swearing, Avira talking to invisible things...

Oh. That Voice. "I'm Maira, and I just want to get out of here!" she answers it.

The Heartless swarm, dozens of yellow eyes focusing on her, staring, hungry...she knows they see right to her heart, calling like a beacon. Maira lashes out with her magic, trying to keep them at bay.

Emi Dennou has posed:
"We're here...!" Umi stands up, throwing her fist into the air. "Because Alma fell inside a black hole and we all jumped after her for some reason even though it obviously wasn't a real black hole but it was some kind of spatial tunnel that brought us to this place where we're now being attacked by a bunch of Heartless and whatnot but we didn't come here to fight the Heartless, we just sort of stumbled in accidentally! AND NOW YOU KNOW!"

She throws a fist into the air again, punching out a nearby gargoyle Heartless. "The rest of the story! So! Mysterious voice! Lend us a hand eh?"

...
...

"Or a voice, I mean, if you don't have hands." Umi scratches at her head. "Anyway, we don't mean any harm. Probably. I guess?"

She tilts away from Lux's LAZER and then straightens up again, lashing out with a quick burst of electrical might only to get bowled over by another Heartless, hitting the ground. "Ugh! Hey! Emi! Get down here!"

She raises a hand and an electrical arc passes between her and Emi, tugging the latter in like a tractor beam. Emi hits the deck roughly, but manages to roll up and swing both arms up, unleashing a quick pulse to catch, lightly, as many Heartless as she can.

Vespa has posed:
"What is going on down there? Are they still alive?" , she know they have to be alive they woudn't die by falling in a hole.. Right right? Okay now she a bit worried. She tugs a bit on the rope. "Give me a sign or something.."

Sora has posed:
"What?!" Sora yells back at Riku -- right as he gets Heartless'd to the face.

Rather, a Gargoyle Heartless to the face. The resulting minature brawl ends up with Sora on his butt on the floor, slightly dazed, and the flying Heartless practically smirking at him.

"oy!" He protests.

However, he pops back to his feet, his hand going out to the side, the Keyblade coming to bright, utter light even as he launches himself at the Heartless, the Kingdom Key flashing silver as he moves.

Nagetta has posed:
Nagetta goes to help Serah and Vespa with the rope. Between the three of them, they should be able to get everyone out right? She's a bit concerned when there's no tugging on the other end though. Was it too short, or was something keeping them from grabbing it?

Marche Radiuju has posed:
Marche will defend Mewt, because Mewt is still his friend, even if Mewt doesn't see it this way. But then, there is that accusing voice heading his way, which earns a wince. He turns to see a very annoyed Ritz, who is demanding an explanation. With an exasperated sigh, Marche says, "Look, I'll explain the situation once we survive."

Hisause. "If we survive." Or if /HE/ survives, given the stack laid against him.

It is sudden, however, when the alls start re-arranging themselves. "Wh--what...?" Some parts of the area become open, while the other part is now shut. "What just---"

Suddenly, the Heartless attack Marche. His eyes widen with shock as he holds his sword out in front of him. "Ooof!" Unfortunately, the young boy is knocked aside to the ground. He quickly rolls himself up, using his hand to give him traction before he gets back to his feet.

"I am Marche Radiuju!" He grimaces, as he pulls himself up. "...And I seek to prevent the Heartless from destroying our Ivalice!" The young boy lifts his sword into the air, then he lowers his hand to his side to pull out his shield. He takes a harden stance, then he brings his broadsword with a single hand to the side.

"I am not afraid of you monsters!" He challenges the Heartless before him. He is ready.

Though, hearing Mewt's plan of action to take the grimoire makes the young man inwardly wince. He is more afraid of /RITZ/ than the Heartless.

Mewt Randell has posed:
"Yeah, you want to prevent them from destroying it by doing it first, you crazy... crazy person!" Mewt retorts quickly aloud regarding Marche.

Marche Radiuju has posed:
"I am trying to prevent them from destroying our world for good! If they destroy it, I don't even know if we will be able to recover it" retorts Marche.

Ritz Malheur has posed:
"Ugh." Ritz is slowly coming around to the idea that she's going to have to take Mewt's head in one hand, Marche's in the other, and knock them togather until the two start making sense. "Can you two please focus a little?" She asks, spearing a Heartless through the chest with her rapier.

Avira has posed:
"Seriously!" Avira blurts out, "You are both stuck in a Heartless-infested hell-dimension. PRIORITIES!" She lowers her voice, maybe to mutter something about 'kids these days.'

Minerva has posed:
Minerva is almost flying about at this point as she keeps using the heartless as a means to get about the battle fields. There's so many of them they just keep coming there's too many of them here. She watches as the walls shift and alter themselves even as she comes at them but did she hear a voice? Why are we here? She does not know but that's the first step to honest wisdom. To admit you don't know something, and she continues to launch her assaults upon the beasts. She flips up into the air in a arc even as she moves to knock away the latest attack.

"We are simply lost! I came seeming friend who'd been forcibly pulled here!"

She drops down like a asteroid on some of the heartless below. Spinning her fists like a tornado as she goes.

Mewt Randell has posed:
"I'd rather the book and us included get lost here than chance the fool getting out into Ivalice and destroying it because he'd rather do it than let the Heartless try!" Besides... if he could get the book, then he may just be able to banish all the heartless flat out. If his wish, their wish, to be saved from them in the first place worked... "Marche, give me the book now! If it made me Prince of Ivalice, it may be able to save all of us, including you, from the Heartless! Don't be stupid! There's too many of them! It's like that night back home before the heartless came!"

Alberic Lux has posed:
The Gummicraft zooms down the maze-like corridors. Lux keeps more of an eye on the walls than he does the things between them. He keeps going in near-circles, looping back around as the maze tries to funnel Heartless at them or them at Heartless. There are, conveniently, railings installed for Umi to hold onto, should she so choose. He made it more like an actual boat than a raft, and added modern convenience, like things that JRPG protagonists can't jump over.

"'Why?'? Lux echoes. He twists the ship -- he can't keep calling it 'the ship,' it's kind of boring. Especially after he told Rhiannon off, what with her unnamed monster that other people unoriginally dubbed 'Black Beast.' It's descriptive, sure, but not terribly thought-provoking. "Why, for science, of course! Discovery! Knowledge! Why are /you/ here?"

Suddenly, the Gummicraft slams into a wave of Heartless. Damocles rotates around the vessel like a remote weapon, floating under it and firing a cutting beam of bright light to blast them free. It launches into the air, flying higher. Damocles goes above it at Alberic's command, dropping down like a weight and pushing it back to a spot at least /near/ the ground. Lux gets banged up on the way through, a couple of them bouncing along the deck as they speed past. He feels a surge of magic and spots Avira as he zips past, raising his now-free hand to wave at her.

Something jumps out at him: a girl, familiar to him, surrounded by the monsters. Something of a protective instinct wells up in him, and he angles the ship that way, side-swiping another couple dozen small Heartless and generally running them over without a second thought. One of the robotic arms deploys with its big net, and it snaps out --

-- and nets Maira, pulling her in alongside the ship. Lux waggles his fingers at her.

"So I think that the ship needs a name," Alberic says thoughtfully. "Something with some... some /gravitas/. It feels wrong without one, and it was a terrible oversight of mine to not give it one. Hello Emi." He takes off down another corridor, trying to figure out where it is they're keeping them from going. "It is funneling the Heartless towards us, by the by," he asides. "I suppose we should do something about that."

Riku has posed:
It's never about stopping the Heartless. It's about all the times you are not able to stop them. When the aid comes too late. When the aid comes too slow. When there just isn't enough time.

Riku has a terrible moment in which Dark Manhattan returns in a rush. Where a great host of heartless are just descending on him in a crushing wave and he just stands there, the sword slack in his hand until he is literally bowled over backwards by a gargoyle. It tears into his chest and shoulder and goes flying backwards in a short arc as he kicks it straight in the face and away.

The healing magic from Alma salves the pain of the wounds as he springs up onto his feet, another swarm of heartless falling away from him as he kicks back at them. He keeps trying to reorient himself but the blinding walls and the strange angles of the maze keep him off balance and unable to react easily.

Ritz slams into the heartless, blasts of water smearing them against the walls to disappear in plumes of dark vapor but even more spill forwards, some of them trying to clamber onto the rock she was riding on in order to get her while Gargoyles swoop for her back.

Mewt is ganged up on by several Gargoyles as the shifting walls drop suddenly and channel the gargoyles in his direction, a trio of them swooping straight for him (which may or may not lead to a stooge-type BONK if unhindered)

Multiple shadows go up in flames as Malicia lashes out but there is always more. The little sneak thieves continue their assault, five of them worming up from the ground and lunging simultaniously to try and pull them down.

If there is an answer. If there is one to give, the voice does not respond. It does not give Avira the balm of an answer.

It merely answers with the hungry yellow eyes of the endless horde and the shifting maze.

Those hungry eyes swarm towards Maira, more than a double handful of shadows and gargoyles fighting eachother to reach them and bring them down. The magic lashes them. Burns them. But they fall through the smoke of their defeated brethren and continyue to chase. They spasm and twitch the closer they get to her, raking with claws and nearly hysterical.

Arcs of electrical force lash out while Sora gets Heartless'd and bonked into the conflict. The heartless evaporate as the shining arc of keyblade slides through them. Bright crystalline hearts appear and them vanish in small bright snaps of light from the trailing vapor.

And like with Maira, the heartless pile over themselves in a living swarm. Shadows gather together like a column, a sinuous rope of heartless that lashes out at the keyblade wielder, toppling onto him like a collapsing Jenga column of claws and shadow and twitching antennae.

And so the heartless come on-- and on.. and the maze continues to shift while the gummi raft the good ship 'Don't Try this at home' continues to swan through the maze, shooting at passing heartless and cleaving through the dark tides. Half a dozen gargoyles attempt to land on the boat and crash the party. Meanwhile. Parts open. Parts close. Long corridors funnel out into the distance or zag sharply to left or right. A flying tornado of fists does nothing to stop the inevitable march of the hoarde which bleeds dark vapor as parts of it are destroyed and yet continues to surge forwards like inevitability.

Do you hear that sound adventurers?

It's the sound of inevitability.

Karth Mason has posed:
Karth's sword glows with a brilliant fire. He holds it, down and defensively as the heartless regroup again, aiming to try and cleave through him and his charge. His eyes flash, the calm and happy go lucky boy is gone as he takes a step forward...fires burn around him again, not uncontrolled, but defensively...controlled...

He swings, the blade tearing through heartless that get too close, and a storm of flare burns through the ranks, causing the group to break apart, instead of challenge the flaming sword and it's weilder. More swings come, causing the heartless to go on the defensive... and then he swings it down, causing a large torrent of flame to surround him and Alma...

The flames die, "Go!" he tells her, and then...

He swings the blade in a wide arch...flame channel through it as he brings the blade back up, and points it towards the torrent of heartless... he's got one chance, one chance to break through...to give the other guys enough room to take out what is sending them all through, to stop the flow and buy them time.

The flames ignite, catching Karth in their embrace, as he dives up...and then litterally DIVES into the storm of heartless, trying to challenge barriers and litterally crash through the maze to try and tear through the torrent of darkness...but the flames will not be snuffed out here, because when he lands...

A Firestorm appears, aiming to ring out at the center of the heartless, aiming to drive through their ranks and toast any that are not quick enough to get out of the way...

"IGNITE!" he call sout, which is followed by a LARGE explosion.

Ritz Malheur has posed:
Ritz lays about with her rapier, but the swarm is too much. This is worsened when a wall opens up and unleashes a new wave of Shadows upon her. Rents start to appear in Ritz's armor, and she gives up ground. Her breathing becomes labored as hits start piling up and she shortly finds herself with her back against a wall. Sadly (fortunately?), this one does not shift on her.

Ritz casts a spell through her rapier, cursing herself for not equipping Reflex this morning... it would have been really useful today. Such is life. "I'll make you both a deal." She states, striking forwards and gaining ground again. Her wounds start to knit with each blow. "We all work togather /right now/, then /afterwards/ we sort out who's saving the world, who's destroying it, who gets what book, and who I need to give a black eye. Does that sound good to everyone?!" She strikes out, again and again, and again.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Karth was being such a great defensive lineman with those flames of his and that sword that she considered recruiting him for the Alexander Armors. And so to avoid being immolated.. she went straight up at a high speed, finally stopping suspended over the battlefield

This altitude did give her an amazing perspective and allowed her to survey the battlefield for triage with astounding accuracy.

While calling down divine wrath is great and all upon huge swarms of heartless, keeping everyone alive over that harsh din of /inevitability/ was far more important!

She had no idea who that pink-haired woman with a prominent forehead was, but she knew that she was getting mauled... but her and Sora seemed to take the worst of it... well and Lux, but screw that guy, even if Umi and Maira had seemed to take to him. Plus she had no idea if he was capturing Maira in a net for the sake of EVIL SCIENCE or not. Rubbing her hands together, she placed her palms together at the wrists, before spreading them outwards in a fan motion. She closed her eyes, and concentrated on offering a salve unto both their wounds with the light of creation.

Marche Radiuju has posed:
So, that is how Mewt feels. Marche is uncertain how he feels about giving the book back to the young prince. Even in his attempts to convince him to give up the book, Marche is uncertain. He is not trusting of the situation. In fact, he doesn't want to hand the book over. Not now.

...Not with this all going on.

He still needs people to come with him to see Ezel.

And the Heartless are ganging up on Mewt and Ritz. Both Avira and Ritz are correct, they all have to focus on the wave of Heartless if thy are to survive. Even if Mewt doesn't want his help, even if Ritz thinks he is an enemy...

"I am not giving up my stance! However, I am not going to give up on you!"

Marche charges, just as he Heartless lunges his way. The boy tightens his grip onto the broadsword, using his renewed strength to swing the massive weapon with a one handed strike down at the Heartless.

The boy charges ahead, moving with wild abandon. He can hear Ritz's deal. Work together now, then sort everything out later. Maybe prepare an ice pack in case Ritz decides to give /HIM/ a black eye.

"Sounds good to me...!"

First, he sheaths the broadsword.Reaching to his back, Marche is drawing forth a massive sword. This is not the simple broadsword that he was wielding earlier. No, this weapon is a massively, ridiculous looking sword.

It is not a mere sword.

IT IS THE PIZZA CUTTER SWORD!

He moves in close, right towards the group to help both Mewt and Ritz. As the boy lunges fom up, the young lad brings the GIANT PIZZA CUTTER into the air and he swings it down towards the gargoyle's around.

...He is even nearby Mewt.

...Which may be a bad thing, considering that he is close enough for Mewt to seize the prize.

Avira has posed:
There is no answer. Avira scowls in irritation. "Show yourself." she hisses at the voice. "Stop throwing out cowardly questions behind a wall of Heartless and SHOW YOURSELF!" With her exclaimation, a burst of force erupts from a viciously swung Spine, sending the enroaching Heartless around her scattering like ants.

Avira notices, out of the corner of her eye, the eccentric Lux scooping up Maira in one of the silly-looking oversized nets he was using to catch star pieces earlier. Bothered by this, she leaps after the ship, bouncing off one of the moving walls and vaulting onto the multicolored raft.

"Thank you for protecting Maira for the moment." she says, kneeling on the raft, placing a free palm against it. "Now let's start mowing these bastards down /faster/. Haste!"

Time magic suddenly envelopes the entirety of Lux's craft, changing the color of some of the gummi blocks contained within to red, enabling the craft to go three times as fast.

Cid Randell has posed:
Cid blows his whistle. He immediately moves through the field, time frozen around him.

He grabs the Judge Sword out of Marche's hands. "Don't do that again," he warns. The Judge Sword folds back up into a card, and then disappears. He walks back to his place, blows the whistle, and resumes combat.

MARCHE LOSES JP.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Umi is aware of Lux being an evil scientist of evil but he is the guy with the raft so she's going to be polite for the moment. Emi is not starting anything for similar reasons. He has the raft. This is a notable thing.

"Hello." Emi says neutrally. "This one slipped."

"Hmm... a name with gravitas, you say." Umi says, cupping her chin. "...I know!" She snaps her fingers. "Gravity Rider Unlosing Raft!" She nods firmly. "That's just what it's gonna have to be. GRAVITY RIDER UNLOSING RAFT!" She cries. "ESCAPE THE HEARTLESS, THE NETWORK REQUESTS"

Emi nods slowly to Lux, being a little less crazy at the moment. "We can handle this." She says. "It should buy us some time, anyway."

She reaches into her pocket and draws out a coin--she flicks it into the air and--

--it gets sucked away into infinity.

"...ghnnkk..." Emi draws out another one and just holds it up normally as a focus--

--before firing a hefty electromagnetic charge at it, propelling it forward devastatingly, the electric blast lasting out all around it even as it pierces through ranks of Heartless!

Sora has posed:
"Thanks, Alma!" Sora says, smiling at the girl.

The light invigorates him even as well, he gets Heartless'd to the face again. (He's a Keyblade Wielder, he knows this is something that is going to happen, but that doesn't mean he has to ENJOY it)

Frankly, getting heartless'd sucks.

Sora disappears back into the group of heartless again, Keyblade swinging.

Marche Radiuju has posed:
Marche stares in disbelief, "But---but...." He stares dumbfounded, after getting the sword JACKED from him. AND he lost JP!

Mewt Randell has posed:
Work together.

For now, work together.

Talk it out later.

No... that just delays it. That gives Marche a chance to try and talk her onto his side. Of course she would side with Marche. No one ever sides with him... no one but Ritz. He may just have to trust her. He wants to. But he can't take the chance. The last thing he wanted to do was fight with his friend, but this was the only chance Mewt felt he'd ever get to actually stand a chance of taking on Marche. He wasn't athletic, strong or even really magically apt. He could do things, but they weren't true combat. With all these heartless, maybe, just /maybe/ he could get the book.

And best yet? "That's right... the laws in effect." Mewt mumbled. Marche couldn't touch him even if he wanted to without breaking the law. Gripping his staff, Mewt raised it before attempting raising his staff and -- suddenly Marche's sword is gone and Cid was nearby. Perfect. "BOOK!" he yelled, head of the staff pointed right at the back of Marche's head. Screw the heartless, the book was all that mattered. Ivalice, his /mother/, was more important to Mewt than all of them. And he's pretty sure his father would agree.

Alberic Lux has posed:
Avira joins the crew!

The s^H^H^H^H^H GRAVITY RIDER UNLOSING RAFT suddenly lurches forward, abruptly accelerating. Gargoyles come down en masse, winging in to slam onto the deck of the Gummiraft. The rest of the crew -- that is to say, the Dennous, Avira, and the animated Damocles System -- start to take care of them. Lux doesn't stand, instead twisting the chair to the side to turn a painful hit into a glancing blow, and then replying by having Damocles morph into a giant hammer and flit about knocking them this way and that.

Lux is trying to navigate, but with the people in the way and the chaos on the GRAVITY RIDER UNLOSING RAFT, it looks a lot like he's trying to not crash into walls. He waves vaguely at Avira. "Of course. The poor girl looked as if she needed a helping hand. As it happens, I had two extra," he adds, nodding at the robotic arms with an impish look on his face. He abruptly swings GRAVITY RIDER UNLOSING RAFT to the side, sideswiping more Heartless and giving Emi time to fire an elecromagnetically-propelled coin. He watches her while she does that, keenly interested.

"I wondered," he says idly, as if making pleasant conversation, "if that sort of magnitude of power was commonplace among Legion nodes. Is that the largest you can propel?"

Suddenly, GRAVITY RIDER UNLOSING RAFT takes a sharp turn, pulling a U-turn amidst maze-walls. Lux makes it rise above one of the lower ones, jumping it almost blindly and coming down on top of another swarm of Heartless... and possibly also one confused-looking protagonist.

/Almost/ blindly. Alberic could maybe use some JP. He wonders if he can spend it for new spells.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Cowabunga, dude! Marche seems to have a talent for having other people's stuff land in his possession, as he cleaves through the Heartless like butter. Or pizza. The massive Judge Sword strikes out, scattering them with wide strokes and shredding them apart.

The 'air' is split, suddenly, with rampant force from the piercing destruction of the electromagnetically acceletated projectile. The blast strikes straight into the midst of the Heartless, carving a hole through them.

Meanwhile, this summer you will believe that hometown boys can fly, when Karth becomes a burning self-propelled destruction engine. Karth slams down into the HEartless horde, flames erupting in an all-consuming infernto to erase Heartless from the area. The walls are nigh-impenetrable even to this, but the walls seem to have no problem moving out of the way to allow Karth and the others to maximize their area-killing ability.

Is the maze trying to kill the heroes with HEartless?

Or is the maze trying to kill the heartless with the heroes?

Ritz's expert swordwork allows her to combine the powers of the Viera with her own natural talents, giving her the edge she needs to cleave into and through the remaining Heartless, joined by Sora, who leaps in and lashes out with his Keyblade, striking with the weapon that slays the Heartless. Where he goes, glittering Hearts rise into the air to vanish, heading to their final destination.

Alberic is not to be left out of the carnage either, as the GRAVITY RIDER UNLOSING RAFT comes smashing down on the Heartless around MArche. And Marche as well. He did it for the JP, gentlemen.

In the aftermath of the destruction, everything becomes quiet and peaceful, only the celestial sound of the alien atmosphere pervading the area intruding on what was left.

you killed them all

The walls move, shifting, becoming straight and clear, a hallway of crystal and light that ends... In a large doorway, a mystical-looking crystal lock on it.

i cannot let you pass

you are not ready

please leave

Cid Randell has posed:
Cid blows his whistle to signify the Law lifting.

XP REWARDS!
AP REWARDS!
GIL REWARDS!
QUEST ITEM: ???

Karth Mason has posed:
Karth lands...

Looking around for a long moment, he nods.

The sword shifts back into the holster, and he picks up the shovel. "That was close, ya'll." he says, nodding to Riku and looking towards Alma. She seems alright enough...

Then there was a door, with a disembodied voice speaking to them...AGAIN!

Karth tries hitting the crystal lock with a shovel. "OPEN UP YOU KARNFOUNDED CONTRAPTION! YOU JUST DON'T THROW MONSTERS AT US AND THEN HIDE THE TREASURE! MY PA TOLD ME HOW THIS WORKS!" WACK!

Ritz Malheur has posed:
Ritz continues to stab at Heartless after Heartless until the soreness in her arm travels throughout her body and makes her feel watery all over. When she thinks that she can finally stab no more, the seemingly unending tide ceases in an almost miraculous fashion. Ritz lowers her sword and exhales, aching all over. Her thoughts turn briefly back to her Clan on the other side of the portal; no, Shara will have them well in hand. Right now, she has to look after

"Marche! Mewt!" Ritz's fists ball up. They're fighting each other now? Ugh, /boys/, why do they never do things that make any sense? "What is /wrong/ with you two! You're both friends, you shouldn't be fighting like this!" Ritz reaches out, grabs at each by the back of the head, and klonks them both togather.

She does not see any irony in doing this after the statements that she made.

Sora has posed:
There is a shiny crystal lock.

Sora walks past everyone, keeping the Keyblade out, before he experimentally points it at the lock.

Avira has posed:
Lux will suddenly find a strange-looking serrated weapon stuck through his raft! Avira does this, with the Spine, so she has something to hold onto because Alberic's driving skills leave much to be desired. "Woah, hey, watch out for that kid!" Avira calls out.

Oh, oops, TOO LATE.

The disembodied voice is speaking again. Avira bristles a little. "A thank you would be nice." She says, still remaining clinging to her anchored weapon. She watches Sora step forth and falls silent.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi suspects Ritz is going to solve this problem between Marche and Mewt. That's nice, it means she doesn't have to worry about it.

"Well the voice did say please." Emi considers. "But it's a detective's job to break into places and snoop around where they aren't invited."

She crosses her arms and nods a few times.

"Well," Umi is saying to Lux. "We can usually only manage a little more than that in a single blast, like, at once. But we can do a larger area of effect if we work together, it just won't be as centralized--" Why are they even telling this to this guy?! Because he's so polite, gosh darn it. And he accepted the raft's new name.

Riku has posed:
Useless.

Riku grinds his teeth as he's swarmed under by heartless. "Get.. OFF ME." he snarls and leaps onto his feet again, throwing himself back into the fray until there are no more heartless left to destroy. He takes in a couple of steadying breaths, sheathing the sword and putting a hand to his head. There had been too much darkness here. Ah, such wonderful -- completely headache inducing darkness.

Then the voice in their minds just sets him off because he realizes..

Heroes? No. Janitorial staff. The clean up detail. There is a few moments of prickling and wounded pride before he gets a hold of himself.

He does so because he realizes he's burning a hole in Sora's back, fists spasming and he slowly relaxes his fingers and turns away to go looking for Alma again. "Hey." he says in a very carefully controlled voice. ".. you going to be alright?"

Marche Radiuju has posed:
It is really telling, when even in the midst of it all, Marche still puts his life on the line to not only help Ritz, but Mewt too. Marche had put, in good faith, that Mewt would not use the opportunity to take the book from him. He really wanted to work together in the midst of it all.

However, when Cid takes the sword away from the by, Marche is left disarmed.

This was unexpected.

And then, Marche is THACKED upside the head with books. This causes the boy to keel over and hold his head in pain. Ugh. Ow. What did Mewt hit him with.

"NO! You can't, Mewt!"

---And Ritz to the rescue. Nope. She came to beat HIM and MEWT! Oh come on! This is not fair! The heads collide together and he keels over, holding his head once more.

...Marche cannot win.

Mewt Randell has posed:
Hah! Marche has fallen! Now for the chance for Mewt to bend down, take the book back and -- wh-"OW!"

That hurt.

Mewt turns, one hand on Marche's sachel, with tears in his eyes as he looks towards Ritz.

Q.Q

"Even you! Doesn't anyone in this stupid world understand that if he gives this book to that Anarchist Ezel, that it's entirely possible all of Ivalice may be ripped apart?! You'd rather talk, or discuss! This isn't the time for that! All of Ivalice is in danger from the heartless and this idiot has let himself get sweet talked by someone who wants to throw down my mothers rule and destroy the very world itself before the heartless can!"

Though he did hear the voice telling them to leave. Ugh. He did go to stand while still trying to keep a grip on Marche's satchel. Mewt had a /good/ grip after years of getting books slapped out of his hands by bullies.

Alberic Lux has posed:
Lux doesn't seem to notice the kid. He looks up at Avira for a second, as if puzzled. There's a little bump. There is /also/ railings, as previously mentioned, /Avira/. You could just grab one of those!!

"A-ha. So it /was/ unusually powerful. I hadn't had the time to examine the data," Alberic says with a shrug. He gradually slows GRAVITY RIDER UNLOSING RAFT down, though Haste means that its still zipping along at a pretty impressive pace. He cruises past the trio of Marche, Mewt and Ritz, largely because he ran Marche a little bit over, and slows long enough to listen in and give them a quizzical look all the same. "Book, hmm?" he murmurs thoughtfully.

Then, GRAVITY RIDER UNLOSING RAFT heads for the crystal-locked door. It hovers in place next to Sora. Alberic gives him and Shovel Man a friendly wave. "You know, in my experience, only /good/ things are locked behind elaborate magical locks in sub-dimensions unreachable by mortal man. And here's one now! Isn't that interesting?"

Lux pauses a moment. He looks thoughtful. "Or was that only /bad/ things..."

Cid Randell has posed:
Cid moves over and puts his hand on Marche's shoulder. He considers, for a very long moment, punching Marche Radiuju right in the face with his heavy metal gauntlet. His fist curls tight.

...but he doesn't. Instead, Cid tightens his grip on the kid's shoulder, pats it once in a reasonably comforting manner, and walks over to Mewt.

"Ms. Malheur. Thank you for your assistance in protecting my son. I would, however, prefer not to linger. There are enough people here I suspect would not be sympathetic to our cause that I do not wish to place you in any further danger." The Judgemaster holds out his hand to Ritz. "I would like to formally offer you an invitation to join us in our abode in this new world - either officially, as one of Mewt's guardians, or unofficially, should you wish for a place to stay."

Ritz Malheur has posed:
One day, Marche will learn that Ritz knows best in all matters. This will be a GOOD day for Marche. However, today is not that day, resulting in Marche's continued suffering. Mewt formerly knew this and his life was improved by it. However, he seems to have lost this knowledge somewhere along the way. Both boys get mouthy (God, why do boys do that, are they all just dumb?) and with a frown, Ritz winds back to clonk some MORE sense into the pair of them when Cid intervines.

Finally, a responcible adult.

"You're welcome, Judgemaster." Ritz replies with a curtsy (incidentally releasing Marche and Mewt from her clutches). She accept's Cid's hand briefly, but withdraws it. "I thank you for your offer, but I'm afraid I must decline. I have Clan Ritz to look after... that is my home now." She glances towards Marche and Mewt. And then sighs. "I think, in the interest of diplomacy, that I suggest that you take Mewt and I'll take Marche... with whatever this book is. I swear on my Clan's honor that if I feel it's a danger, it will be returned to you."

Alma Hyral has posed:
Useless? It didn't seem that way to her

As the tide of heartless is devastated by by the attacks from the more /warrior/ inclined of the group. Alma descends back to the ground, the yellow Corona around her fades, and she just gives Riku a concerned look. For no matter how worried he was about her physical health...

She was far more worried about his mental health. Despite the large scathing gouges on her robes which will need to be sewed up, and a few bloodstains, the wounds on her actual flesh were already fading away, and would not likely scar.

She saw that look that he gave Sora's back, as those eyes bore right through them, acting as drill bits upon him. Her voice is calm, and also carefully controlled as she walks closer, checking Riku for further wounds, as she offers a warm smile. "I'll be fine, thanks to you and Karth."

For good measure, she places a hand upon his wrist, and another measure of soft, white light washes over him, acting as a balm to his wounds. ...And Marche too, now that the jerk judge's laws were no longer in effect. He didn't seem like too terrible a person despite the accusations of causing the fall of a world. And also because that kid had totally attacked him mid-fight and that just grated on her.

Emi Dennou has posed:
"This one is a bit distrustful of judges." Emi looks over to Mewt. "Sorry, but for the moment The Network is only interested in investigative action."

She glances back on over to Lux. "You are alligned with her, aren't you? This one inquires as to the precise nature of your relationship."

"Oh I think they're just both evil scientists." Umi says.

At about this point Lux wonders to himself whether it's only good or bad things that are hidden behind magical locks in sub-dimensions unreachable by mortal man. Okay, maybe they know how he gets along so well with Feige now.

"Nevermind." Emi says instead. "Instead, how have you come to know of her?"

Cid Randell has posed:
Cid is quiet for a very, very long moment. Then he nods.

"Very well. I trust you'll understand the moment you meet Ezel Berbier exactly what sort of danger we're in."

"Come, Mewt. I don't wish to stick around for whatever new madness may be behind that lock."

Karth Mason has posed:
"HAY GUYS! I AM TRYING TO OPEN A DOOR INTO THE DARKNESS. CAN YOU HELP INSTEAD OF HURTIN' EACH OTHER AND STUFF." He pauses, "SORRY ABOUT YELLING AT YOU MISTER JUDGE MAN, THIS SEEMS IMPORTANT THAN THAT THOUGH!" Karth is a man of thing.

Sora has posed:
Sora, to Karth, pointedly -

"Keyblade user /right here/."

Minerva has posed:
Minerva isn't sure what the maze is trying to kill at this point but she's slogs through the ranks of heartless just running wild over them without much mercy She comes to a halt for a moment looking about at the walls and blinks as she sees a lock she nods for a moment and bows slightly out of respect. "Thank you for allowing us to depart without incident." She rises back up from it and turns to the others she looks to the judgmaster for a moment "Tis strange you remind me of ... some warriors I know pretell where are you from and I am known as Minerva."

She wonders about Karth he's really nit picking the back of her mind at this point.

"It is time to depart."

Why is Karth so familiar to her?

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Karth tries to smash the lock open. The problem is that the lock appears to be shovel resistant.

What it is not, however, is Keyblade-Resistant. Because a Keyblade unlocks basically everything. Even metaphorical concepts if you're trained enough. There is a burst of light, and a beam fires from the Keyblade to the door. There is a loud CLICK.

And then there is a scream, and a flash. A brief glimps of impossible, endlessly flowing hair and crimson eyes...

And the lock falls away, the wall folding down and showing what is beyond.

You stand at the edge of space, looking down upon wonder and horror. far, far below, an entire world spins, the scale tiny at this distance. Massive, gaping holes have been rent into the landmass by pools of Darkness, thin land bridges connecting the remnants that still exist. Around the world, a gleaming, crystal barrier of light encircles the area....

In the opposite direction, it has been shattered, like someone throwing a cosmic baseball through God's windowpane. But that's not the most incredible part.

What you see dwarfs the imagination. A massive, hulking triangular shape that makes the world below seem as a child's toy. It is studded with hundreds of lights, and two massive arms reach out, ending in huge spheres with four cylindrical proturbences. At the rear of the triangular shape, there is a boxlike shape, two massive golden eyes rolling back and forth.

There is a red ribbon bow on top.

All around the colossal Heartless, formations of flying Heartless streak through the Darkness, roaring through the area in search of Hearts.

This is bad.

Sora has posed:
There is the eternal moment where Sora wishes he could relock something.

"... <QUADRUPLE GOOSEHONK.>" He swears.

Marche Radiuju has posed:
A hand rests on the boy's shoulder. It is alarming, given the position that the boy is in. He is in the clutches of The Man. The Judgemaser could punh him in the face many times. Given the fact that he had been beaten a couple of times already, A PUNCH IN THE FACE WOULDN'T MEAN A THING!!!

Thankfully, Alma is coming to his aid in the form of a blessing aura. "Th--thanks." He adds, mostly to no one in particular. See, he is barely able to make sense of things. It is going to take him a bit. That balm ebbs the wounds that he received from being BACKSTABBED by Mewt and smacked by Ritz.

What is this, FFT?! ...Oh wait.

...And now, Marche is under Ritz's care.

Suddenly, March starts sweating bullets.
---Annd.... well, uhh... things go from BAD to worse.

"Wh---what?!"

Riku has posed:
Riku groans and the sound of him facepalming can be heard from space. "Sora. Thanks. Just--- thanks. "

Avira has posed:
"...Sora, don't swear, it just doesn't feel..."

Avira spaces out. A memory skirting just the very edge of her consciousness.

'Aw man. I can't swear around you. It just doesn't feel..'

"...right." Avira finishes distantly. She shakes herself out of the daze. "SORA, LOCK IT UP AGAIN!!!" This is something Avira knows he can do because he demonstrated it in Manhattan.

Sora has posed:
Sora frantically does *exactly* as ordered for once in his life.

(Once again, it is a ladies orders.)

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Sora is a smart kid. Also, it's polite to attend to ladies. Sora brings out the Keyblade and does his thing. the Keyblade fires into the nothingness, firing into an invisible keyhole where the gate once was. The wall promptly folds back up, the lock restoring itself.

There are no words of thanks.

You might want to go find some backup for this one. And a bigger boat.

Maybe a lot of bigger boats.

Malicia has posed:
Malicia reaaaaally would have preferred for there to be treasure behind that door. Or dalmatians. Pretty much anything other than THAT.

When the door closes again, the demonness shouts up into the darkness hoping the voice will hear. "I'm ready to leave, if you'd be so kind as to LET US OUT HERE!"

Riku has posed:
We are sorry. Riku.exe has crashed. Please reboot deuteragonist. The teenager stares at the place where the wall has been locked and the keyblade used and... he just stands there for a long time.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma Hyral stares into the yawning Abyss, her eyes wide, instantly haunted by the sight. And she's just murmuring, "Sora, lock it back, lock it back right now..."

Thankfully he does. Yeah she won't be unseeing that for a long time.

She glances sidelong to Riku, and stares, and stares for even longer. Then she murmurs very softly, "That's no moon...."

Trying to revive him by bad movie joke. She hopes it'll work this time.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi doesn't even apologize.

"That's good to know." Emi says. "We'll have to be properly prepared for something like that, it seems."

Umi is all agape, however, perhaps shock has been shunted off to her. She sinks down to her knees. :O

Mercade Alexander has posed:
The corridor is clear. The way back to the Giza Plains is open. Communications are reestablished.

Unless of course you want to have another look at the Heartless Space Conquest Fleet on the other side of that door.

Karth Mason has posed:
"I have no idea what a keyblade is."

Karth answers Sora.

Then Sora happens. He blinks, his eyes widen...he has NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON other then, THAT IS HUGE...

Then Sora, smartly, closes it back up.

"I still have no idea what a keyblade is."

Mewt Randell has posed:
"..."

Mewt stares off into the distance and for a moment he goes entirely limp, courage failing him as he does something he hasn't done in some time. He just quietly moves to stand behind Cid and says nothing to the otherwise. So much so that he just... let go of the book without thinking about it. THAT WAS A HEARTLESS! HOW THE HELL WERE THEY SUPPOSED TO KILL THAT THING?!

Malicia has posed:
Malicia books it out of there. She doesn't even consider looking back to see if the others are following. They can get eaten by mutant Heartless beasts for all she cares.

/sob/ All she wanted was to steal shiny rare things off of people, was that so much to ask?

Sora has posed:
Sora relocks the door, and then very resolutely holds the Keyblade up, showing it to Karth, before he swipes it and it fades out of existence.

The protaganist then makes a strangled noise, not quite like a whimper. Sora.exe has encountered an error.

Riku has posed:
Riku sighs and walks over to Sora, although he never quite looks away from that door. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

Karth Mason has posed:
"Well, the plains are safe, right? Good, lets go.."

He pauses, "What's a keyblade?"

Emi Dennou has posed:
"It's a blade that is also a key." Emi answers Karth Mason. "It unlocks things. You know. A keyblade."

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma follows after Riku and Sora, out through the corridor back to the Giza Plains.. she continues to follow them afterwards.

Ritz Malheur has posed:
Ritz grabs Marche by the back of his collar and starts to drag him off before he says/does/is anything else stupid and thus gets himself killed. She'd be at least mildly perturbed by that. "Come on, Marche. We have some catching up to do."

Karth Mason has posed:
Karth stares at Emi, "That sounds dumb." Karth says, "I mean, unless it's treasure chests it can unlock. That's less dumb."

Emi Dennou has posed:
"It can open anything as far as we're aware." Emi says. She doesn't argue about how dumb it sounds.

Karth Mason has posed:
"That's preeeeeety dumb." Karth nods once, "Needs to get a real weapon..."

Marche Radiuju has posed:
As Marche is dragged, the boy lifts a hand, "Wait! Somebody!" Catching up? ...Ritz is going to beat him up. T_T

Sora has posed:
"It /is/ dumb." Sora agrees as he gets dragged off by Riku,.

Minerva has posed:
Minerva just kinda gapes at what she saw beyond she sees she goes wide eyed at the world that's being over run and consumed aworld and the largest heartless she's ever seen in her life. Thankfully the door is closed but that monster has to be handled one way or another. It was time to go and she gets going.

Karth Mason has posed:
Karth squints at Minerva... nah, nothin'.

"I can getcha a real weapon, boy...just...gimme a few days. Maybe a pitchfork.." He muses, Looking towards Marche he squints, "Aww, puppy love, innit that cute."

Alberic Lux has posed:
"We have the same professional contacts," Lux replies vaguely to Emi. He watches the whole exchange with the lock very interestedly. There's the impression he's taking notes. GRAVITY RIDER UNLOSING RAFT rotates slowly, and starts back towards wherever the exit is. He's still got a crew to, presumably, drop off in the correct dimension.

He idly considers passing through a different one on the way there.

...nahhhh.