The Masked Keyblade Wielder

The Masked Keyblade Wielder
Date of Scene:	21 March 2014
Location:	Port Royal
Synopsis:	Deelel encounters a woman dressed as a wolf guarding Port Royal.
Cast of Characters:	Deelel, Aura

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Aura has posed:
Port Royal. As hard as the soldiers of the guard may try to keep the place in line, it has become a breeding ground for the criminal element. Pirates, rogues, and scoundrels from all over the various worlds come here. And, where darkness goes, the Heartless tend to follow.

Things are quiet for now, but it isn't uncommon for Heartless to prowl the streets on nights like this, waiting in the shadows for unsuspecting victims. There have been dark ships of Heartless pirates on the waves, and people have claimed to see increased activity as far out as the Serpent's Trench.

Maybe it is her presense that is keeping them at bay, tonight. Or perhaps they are simply amassing a large enough force to take on a keyblade wielder. Whatever the case, she crouches on one of the stone walls that runs near the tavern. It's noisy, but it's a place where she listen and pick up tidbits of information. Information is what she needs right now.

The woman in question is donned nearly head to foot in some sort of strange get-up. She's got huge furred boots and gloves, a long cloak, a helmet which covers most of her features, and a wolf-tail which seems to be real as it moves of it's own accord. It's the sort of disguise worn by someone who doesn't want their real identity exposed.

For now, she lurks, waiting for something, but what?

Deelel has posed:
Deelel has been looking for someone, when she's had the time. Things have gone bad on her world of the GRID, other things have gone wrong for friends and allie as wlel. Still she's not forgot what she's been looking for, Port Royal? It was a strange chaotic world which she took to poking to from time to time. She also did come here at times to try and keep the local heartless numbers in check. Well for all the good her weapons would do that is.

She's clad in long sailor's shirt, vest, banda witha small grinning green demon on it rather than a jolly roger, long leather cloves and generally does look the part fo tthe most part though her strange Tattoos? Are visbale here and there where her skin is exposed as she's heading for the Tavern, prehaps to catch wind of where there might be problems at the moment? Or is she meeting someone?

Aura has posed:
Just at the moment when Deelel seems to get close to the Tavern, there is an outcry from somewhere inside. The doors crash open and a man is tossed unceremoniously out on his butt. The man in question looks to be some sort of lacky of someone or other - certainly not one of those 'big name' villians.

He shakes a fist as he gets to his feet, rubbing his behind. It's only when the moonlight catches him that it becomes clear that this 'man' isn't even human. He's got a long muzzle and a black nose and his red shirt and a green hat. He's even got one of those silly robber masks. "Yous guys betta learn some respect, you hear me? I've got powers man. Powers!"

There is laughter from the few people even bothering to pay attention to him. Shaking with anger, the beagle boy seems to be trying to focus, although it looks more like he's really, really badly constipated. Then, out of the shadows... pops a Heartless. Just one. A puny, low-level shadow.

"Hah, see that! I'm bad-ass. Now yous guys are gonna pay! Get them!" The Heartless seems to wobble between actually obeying, and just skittering back off into the darkness. Clearly, we are not dealing with someone who is any real threat here.

That's when the wolf-armored woman reaches up and touches a pendant at her throat. A second later, and her keyblade appears in her hand where the pendant had been a moment before. While the beagle boy is still trying to talk the Heartless into dealing with his problems, she neatly dispatches the Shadow.

"Come on, you gotta go in there and... Uh oh." His face falls as he looks up at the armored woman. "Uh... Hi there... nothin to see here, really. Bye!" ZOOOOM. He races off so fast there is a cartoon dust trail behind him.

The woman turns, briefly regarding Deelel, the wolfish face mask tilting to the side slightly. Nope, she doesn't say anything. All she does is stare through the slits of the armored mask.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is quite good picking up things and listening. She hears something going on and there's clearly someone being launched out on his butt. She has to wonder about this. She looks at him for a moment and tilts her head a little bit.

"Powers then how did you get kicked out of the ... bar?"

That's when the heartless come and she goes for her disc, it hums to life and she makes an rather unhappy sound. That's when someone else with a keyblade shows up, that gets a look of shock from the program before she's now going into the fight or the mystery woman could deal with it.

"...did he just summon a single heartless? Idiot he's going to get himself devoured."

She takes a moment to look at the mysterious keyblader and tilts her head a little bit.

"A Keyblade Knight of some sort, curious. I thought I had accounted for all the remaining ones."

Deelel lowers her weapon and powers it down showing she's not looking for a fight with this mysterious woman.

Aura has posed:
"Many of those with darkness in their hearts get tempted to use it, especially these days." The wolf-woman replies, even if Deelel's question wasn't directly aimed at her. She shakes her head from side to side. There is something odd about her voice. It's like a tickle at the back of a person's thoughts, familiar, but wrong somehow. Maybe it's just a trick of the imagination.

When the program lowers her disk, so too does the knight lower her keyblade. The hilt of the blade seems to be a dark wolf's head, with it's jaw clamped around the sun. The bade itself is an extention of the sun's rays focused into flame in the shape of a key. Maybe, at some point, Deelel might have heard Skoll speaking about having to catch the sun and that he was looking for his Golden Wolf. Oddly enough, it seems that this woman is dressed in shades of gold. Coincidence? We think not.

"I'm a bit of a recent addition, I suppose. I wouldn't call myself a knight, though. Squire, maybe." The wolf-woman shrugs her shoulders, her head swiveling around as if she were checking for more Heartless. Where one is, sometimes others follow.

"You aren't from this world." She states this as if it were fact. "What brings you to this of all places?" Her tail swishes once behind her.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks to the woman for a moment.

"It's like a viral infection, and you go too far it may be little that can be done for them."

She tilts her head a little bit and looks at the wolf-woman seemingly sizing her up at this point her disc is returned to it's dock on the back of her mostly local looking outfit. She nods at the woman's words.

"I see, it seemed to be the best term given what information I have on such or a Squire perhaps? A knight in training, that seems to fit as well."

If her voice wasn't a give away the style of her clothing and such while localish was another give away. Along with she was likely far cleaner than most locals were?

"What brings me here was to make sure the heartless population was not massing again. It has been problematic here and few from off world who can do something about it come this way."

She looks at the keyblade user for a moment longer.

"It seems I'm not the only one with such an idea in mind. However if your recent hummm curious..."

Deelel trails off thinking

Aura has posed:
"I try not to give up hope, even on those who walk the edge of that chasm. Some manage to come back, but often times it takes more than just offering out a helping hand." The lupine head shakes from side to send, sending the longer set of hair that hangs down her back moving in unison. It must be attached to the helmet somehow.

The woman offers another shrug of fur-covered shoulders. "I'm not sure, myself. It's not as if there are organized lessons for people like us. In fact, the only Keyblade master I've had any real experience with has been up here." She taps at her forehead. "Unless you count Sheriden, and I don't." Folding her arms, the wolf just seems thoughtful.

"As for the Heartless... yes. I've been trying to look into their numbers around here. The seem greatest closer to the Serpent's Trench, and that concerns me. I've been trying to track down the reason for it, but so far I've come up empty. I may need to gather some others and head down there, see what we can find." Her tail sways.

She watches Deelel with that same mild interest for a moment, head tilted. "Curious?"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "Some can be dragged back, please forgive me. Some things where I am from are quite yes or no. With no middle ground. Things are sometimers pretty alien to me here I must admit."

She pauses for a moment ponering as she looks to Aura thinking over her words. Yes the only keyblade master she's aware of was also in a dream though later she found hard proof Aqua was indeed real.

"Sounds like the source would be that way and it would be a good idea. As for curious just thinking on some things I'm aware of regarding some of the more recent Keyblade that have found people to use them. It was triggered by someone who likely did not have any of the subjects well being in mind. I presume you were one of the others he pulled into it."

Aura has posed:
"People usually aren't quite so simple to understand. We usually fall into realms of gray in between." With the Heartless gone, the woman shifts her grip, letting the blade disappear into the keychain that it had been summoned from. "I've known people on both sides and everywhere in between." She explains.

"Sheriden is the one who started it, yes." She blows air out of the nose of the mask, which sounds more like a wolfish grunt. "But I never made it to Oblivion. I followed a different path to this." She holds up the keychain, dangling off of the pendant, and then swings it over her neck.

"I assume you know something about that?" There is a brief tap of her fingers, as if the woman were thinking. "I'd be curious to know if you have any other information about Sheriden or his purposes. All I know of it is that his path isn't the only one." She glances around the dark streets.

"Walk with me? I don't like talking out here in the open." The wolf turns, heading down the alleyway where she'd just been perched and hopping over the stone wall at the end. It drops down onto a beach, lit by the moonlight. It has an eerie similarity to that other beach, although this one is not some realm in darkness, but just a trick of the light.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "When it comes to things native from my world that infect like the darkness can? It's either purify or purge, there's sadly no middle ground often for my people on anything."

She takes a moment to think further and nods.

"I'd not give up on someone who could be saved, no just many so willingly take the infection it's hard for me to understand it fully."

She listens for a moment and listens as Aura brings up her story abotu her blade.

"Yes I do, and I'm the one who helped to break his experiment. I was actually a subject as well but the price of power at the expense of someone else? Was not worth it to me. Let alone a friend. I made the only choice I could live with."

She follows Aura along now to get to hopefully a more quiet spot such as the beach and she smiles a bit.

"Worlds like this are so uncontrolled, so chaotic but so ... amazing to behold at the same time."

Aura has posed:
"It's an unfortunate thing. I've seen what the darkness can do to someone, and you're right... there are some who simply cannot be saved." With a small sigh, the wolf-woman makes her way down from the wall and onto the beach, her feet shuffling in the sand. "As for why... I suppose it's a matter of the nature of living things. We want to survive, and often times, the best way to survive is by gaining power. Rather than working for it, many people will take any quick way to seize power for themselves."

The woman looks towards the the moonlight then shakes her head again. As she turns back towards Deelel, there is some respect in the shadowed eyes of the wolf. "I was given a strange object which took me to different places. I'm not sure how to explain it, but somehow it felt like that girl, Aqua, was the one guiding me through." Reaching up a hand, she scratches behind her neck, moving the helmet ever so slightly. "Not sure if that's what Sheriden had in mind, but it certainly shows that there other ways to unlock this power than sacrificing friends or aligning yourself with some unknown force."

Even now, there are many things she doesn't know about Sheriden and what he had in mind for all of them. "Even so, regardless of how we're made, the worlds are going to need us soon enough. Worlds like this one. Maybe... there's a way for you, too." She shrugs. "I wouldn't know. I'm still trying to figure this all out, myself."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "You can't give up on everyone. If I did? I'd have taken a very evil man's offer and fed my world to the darkness to save myself."

Deelel fought even though she knew she couldn't win, it's funny how that choice effected her life.

"The quick and easy path tends to lead to a bad end I find."

T She listens to Aura for a moment and she hears the name Aqua.

"Aqua yes I know her name, I seen her fight another keyblade user with two companion in a fight like I have not seen before or since. Information, he seemed to have a drive for such when I interacted with him. Yet given my nature as Basic? I'm not sure is he was just playing to my nature. I'm strayed so far from my original purpose? I'm not sure if my own User would know me, now if I were to ever find her. I do kow there was long ago a war, a brutal war and there were once thousands more of those with keyblades and even predating that there was something else...."

Aura has posed:
"You're right. It's why I've been trying so hard to come to grips with all this." The woman holds her hand to the pendant, then lets it drop against her chest again. "I hide behind a mask because I'm not ready yet for people to know who I really am. Between Heartless threatening the worlds, having to learn a new set of abilities, and a werewolf who thinks I'm his true love... I've got a lot on my plate these days." With a soft laugh, Aura shrugs her shoulders again.

"I met her on a beach not unlike this one, but in a dark place." Taking a deep breath, the wolf-woman lets it out slowly. "I promised myself that I would find some way to help her. I don't even know if there is a way, but maybe that's the reason that some part of her power sought me out when I was journeying between worlds. I don't know."

Her cloak is drawn closer as she watches the program struggle with her own thoughts. "I don't know much about your world, but I would think that any User would be proud to see their program exceed it's original limits. Your world was merged with ours for a reason. Maybe part of it is so that you can be more than what you could have been if you only existed there." Her head lowers slightly, "I know that's how it feels, to me. I don't know if I would be the same person I am if it weren't for the worlds coming together like this."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "You don't wish to make yourself a target. I understand some of the wielder either were powerful to start with or already had a strong support network of allies and friends. If someonew as a lone wolf? I can understand the caution. There are many who'd want to snuff you out."

"... I ... never did. I only saw what she did for the variou worlds, I saw how close she was to her friends. They were almost family if not so."

Deelel seems sad wondering whom this might but bue she's wise to not ryin to foce it. She respects why this woman is keeping whom she is to herself. After all? Deelel does her own things.

"One of the other Keyblade users, spoke of Aqua and the beach as well. I like to think that, I just hope...I know this is stupid but I wish to meet the person who gave me life. Normally we never know what our users look like. We thought it to be beyond our understanding on Wise OS. Can't say I don't have a heart though, if I didn't I doubt that Keyblade would have even looked at me."

She grins a little bit at that.

"No had I tried to not get help? I'd never known my real home, or ... this world beyond mine."

Aura has posed:
There is a moment of consideration from the wolf woman as she steps forward a bit, leaning against the wall they had come over to get here. "I can't say that I was powerful to begin with. Since the worlds' fall, there's been a lot to learn for all of us. This is just another thing to learn, and until I feel comfortable that I won't just be a danger to my friends by attracting more Heartless than I can handle... It's probably better this way." There is some tone of doubt in her voice, though.

It had taken a while for Zia to even enter the fight against the Heartless, and once she'd made up her mind, it became a struggle to build her skills to be useful in the fight. Now, it was like having too much power, and no real idea of what to do with it.

She listens quietly and nods her head. "Have you heard of any other programs managing to find their users? Following their trail might be a good place to start." After a moment of hesitation, "As for your own quest, I'm not sure what I can suggest. I was given this strange looking star-shaped object that seemed to take me to different worlds. Maybe if you found one, it would take you where you need to be to continue your own journey without Sheriden's interference."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks at the wolf woman for a moment before she looks out at the water.

"Your thinking wisely on that. Brandishing it alone would make people a target. Also better they have no idea who you are. Just one, and it was before the world's fell. Flynn the creator of Clu came into manage the system personally with him. Other than that I never seen it before I'm afraid. It's funny, I was made to make visual art and music. I'd still not want to do anything else but I certainly expanded. It's not to common for someone to stay so far from their initial purpose without something driving you to do so. Such as ti stay alive."

She nods for a moment

"Wayfinder charm."

Deelel pauses for a moment.

"I saw it in a dream I saw Aqua make it for her companions. It's a good a chance as any. I found information on Aqua and her companions. I also may have a name for the man they were fighting but I need to gather more data before I dig into that further. With how many worlds have fallen the information I seek may be lost to the darkness. I need to look, I want to attempt to finish what was started. I'm always one who hits Retry. I also am wary if he was not speaking in falsehoods the very people we relied on for information may not be on our side. He claimed that they didn't want there to be anymore keyblade wielding. I suspect it's something to do with the graveyard I saw. He also claimed they held back information that could have stopped Manhattan's fall in the first place. I treat the information as suspect but? It's something to think on."

Aura has posed:
"The truth will come out about it sooner rather than later. The hardest part is waiting for Skoll to decide what he wants in his heart. Is it the woman he loves, or his Golden Wolf." Clearly, she represents the later, with her golden fur and metal armor. Her tail sways, thumping against the wall. With the mask on, it's impossible to tell how she feels about either outcome.

Her own story is pushed aside for a time as she lifts her head to regard the sight of Deelel against the backdrop of the ocean. "The moment you stepped outside of your world, you became more than your programming. Living things grow, change. I'm not the person I was when the words first fell. We all change more than you know. But you're right... it's our friends and our enemies that drive us to change."

She pushes herself up from the wall then, shaking her head. "Not a Wayfinder. This was something else. Something more powerful." Holding out a hand, the wolf-woman just flexes her fingers, then lets it drop to her side again. "It vanished somewhere during the journey. It... didn't seem to take me where I wanted to go, but where I needed to be. Maybe there are other artifacts like it."

Hearing some of the same things she had been told re-iterated by the program, the wolf nods her head. "I'd heard the same thing. The truth is, even if we had the information, I'm not sure we would have known what to do with it then." She shrugs, "Or maybe we all just needed to see the power of the Shadow Lords first hand. I don't know. It's hard to guess the reasons of people who know and understand more about all this than we do."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "That it does, it just needs time. It's harder to kill the truth than one might think. Something is always missed. Be it a file or someone who knows and can no longer sleep well because of it. I see, he's been doing well I hear. "

"Basics are alive, but prehaps being removed from a system of high order might be the case. There's enough chaos here that some might not be able to keep up, a friend has been kidnapped by the Shadow Lords. A Mechanic by the name of Mara, she's a good person. If you hear anything of a teal haired woman who dresses like me please drop me word I'm easy enought to find by the Seekers or VALKYRI."

"Ah my mistake then. So prehaps look for something like that, while I contiune tracking down other information. All I know for certain right now this isn't the start of the troubles we face. This is just the lastest chapter in something that's been going on for a very long time."

She looks at the ocean thinking for a moment.

"More data is needed on this, and why they do what they do. I saw there was once likely thousands of keyblade weilders and now most of the blades seem to be in a graveyard...prehaps something dire happens when said power is abused."

Aura has posed:
"I'm in no rush. There's still so much I need to learn." The woman takes the keychain around her neck and tucks it beneath her clothing. "As for Skoll, he was well last time I saw him, but it's been a while." She admits. Both 'Aura' and Zia have been quite busy as of late, and her own mixed up emotions about the situation aren't helping matters.

"If I do run into your friend, I'll be sure to pass it along." With another sweep of her cloak, she glances back towards the wall, as if considering the sounds of the city behind them. "I can keep an eye out for anything like the star-thing that I was given before, but I'm guessing it's nothing that we can find lying around in a shop somewhere."

Her tail flicks. "I saw the graveyard, myself. I got the warning of just how dangerous this power can be. Don't worry, I don't plan on repeating their mistakes. Not of I can help it." Then again, she has no idea how that all happened or how to prevent it.

"I need to get back to my patrols. I have to find a way to get back into the tunnels around the Serpent's Trench and figure out what's going on down there." With a jump, the wolf ends up right back were she started this evening, except this time she's looking down at Deelel. "If you find any leads, pass them along to Skoll. He knows where to find me."

Dramatic cape-swish and vanish.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "Fair enough, you take care of your self. He's been busy trying to make peace with the espers he used to summoner. It's going well so far, so far as I know."

"Good, but I do think if we ever get the chance? If anything can be done for Aqua and her companions? We should do so, we owe them much."

She thinks back to the seekers words, they gave all the freedom away for others and kept none of it for themselves.

"Good luck and I'll be alert for more trouble from the Trench myself. For now though I think I just wish to enjoy the view here. Be well."