Riku

Riku
Age	15
Species	Human
Sex	Male
Height	5' 10"
Weight	175
Background
Series	Kingdom Hearts
Combat Styles	Quickstrike, Dark Valor
Hometown	Destiny Island
Group	Shadow Lords
Occupation/Job	Wanderer
Force:	Forces of Ruin
Theme Song	Treasure Planet - I'm Still Here
Quote
“Giving up already? C'mon.. I thought you were stronger than that.”
Recent Events
Turned up in Hollow Bastion after the storm that consumed Destiny Island and was taken in by Maleficent.

Profile: A calm and collected boy with a wry sense of humor, Riku is a wanderer from a tranquil world and both piece and player in a far reaching game between multiple evils. He keeps his own council and has been many things; A rival, a storyteller and manipulator, a chosen one no longer chosen, a friend searching the far horizons for familiar faces. He is a knight whose heart has slipped over the edge of dusk, an adventurer searching the worlds for those he cares for at any cost, blinded to the consequences of his actions. Whatever path he chooses, it never quite seems to plunge into the deepest darkness, or even wind back towards the light he left behind.

Skills: Never Piss off the Deuteragonist, I will Fear No Darkness, Self-Justification for Fun and Profit, Dark is not Evil, Power Corrupts, Ultimate Power is Pretty Nifty, Save Vs Will, Broken Ace, Suspicious Minds, Jumped at The Call, but It Refused Him, Snark Knight, Surrounded By A Thirty Xanatos Pileup, Takes Notes, Mysterious Big Brother Instinct, Also Aloof Parkour Guy, Shops At Faustian Bargains Warehouse, Multiple Boss Fight Mileage Card, Well Intentioned Extremist,

==

Destiny.

A big word for a small place. Riku grew up in the isolated community of Destiny Island. In this isolation there is safety, but it is also a small land. Riku, a boy with a fascination for stories and secrets, would find very little that would be surprising to him after the first years of discovery. That inability to find more, to discover more, left an ache in his heart. He drew others to him who sought places beyond the horizon, up in the sea of stars where the stories say all worlds are connected. They talked and argued and a thousand plans flew across the years like falling leaves.

Then a stranger came to the island. Strangers are few, and rumors many, and there were many rumors about the girl who appeared on the night of the falling stars. Kairi, the mayor's daughter, was from a place outside Destiny Island. The idea that someone could make the journey, had already made the journey even if she did not remember it, became larger and so important as to crowd the thoughts in his head when Terra came to the islands.

The questing warrior spoke to Riku, seeing in him an echo of things to come, and he passed to him a spell he must keep secret. It was a spell that would allow him to protect those he cared for, had he the strength to do so. It would allow him to someday leave this world bounded by ocean, and no force would constrain him again. His time would come. He need only be ready.

The secret burned in resentful doubt as time passed. Destiny Island has an unchanging rhythm, the land a soothing backwater in which thorns of insecurity grew. Riku kept practicing, he was obsessed with the idea of being the best. He became frustrated when other children couldn't keep up, drawing away from them and keeping his own counsel, keeping the painful secret close to his heart. He kept drawing, kept telling the stories of imagination as replacement for worlds he couldn’t travel. Years passed. An angry and silent desperation crept into his thoughts, feeding the dark dreams that descended like a shroud.

He told his parents of these dreams but they had no experience with manipulation or dark whispers. There is a downside to having a home so safe and sheltered. Riku was tormented even awake by a voice he could not easily remember. Grim thoughts poisoned every plan he put together. Ansem, a seeker of darkness reaching out to snare this world, used his resentful thoughts and anger against him. Just as Riku could not leave without opening the door, Ansem, and his heartless, could not get in.

Riku found his breaking point in the raft. A few days before they were to assemble it, he had been plagued by images of a door and the voice mocking them. The voice sneered. They were three little children unable to even get lost.

Those that go outside must first open a door. Shouldn't children know this? They had been warned. Tidus had warned them. He had swum out into the until he couldn’t go any farther. No one had listened. Unless the door was open, that would be them. Three kids inside a box going nowhere. Forever going nowhere. Saddled with a meaningless secret. It had all been a lie. The type of lie an adult tells a little kid because little kids will believe anything.

Riku knew there was something wrong, but for as wild his imagination, he was still a sheltered and isolated teenager. He knew nothing but peace, even if it brought him boredom. He knew nothing of active malice, and so had no defense against it. His parents had said it was only a nightmare. They had not been able to help him because they had not known there was something he needed help against.

While his mind screamed warning, Riku had been needled and needled, poked and prodded and mocked by the voice. All the forgotten resentment and anger, all the darkness he had been ignoring and pushing farther and farther down now spilled forth. He no longer cared about what would happen. He could escape. For this flickering instant, this crushing prison could burst apart and be swallowed by the ocean for all he cared—

Riku opened the door, and it was too late to go back.

After the storm and the coming of the darkness, Riku found himself stranded and alone in unfamiliar territory. This world had gone, replaced by a new one, and already the echoes of Ansem's voice driving him were fading. Soon, however-- he met another voice while wandering the strange surroundings. A sorceress, her name Maleficient, who promised to help him find his friends and welcomed him into her home. The sorceress treated him as if he had been abandoned. She told him that he might want to rethink looking for his friends eventually, just in case they had already replaced him.

==

Riku is a keyblade wielder, having been officially chosen by Terra to be his successor when he was five. However, when he opened his heart to darkness and Destiny Island fell, the keyblade went to Sora in his time of need and Riku would have to struggle for his own. He is an actively athletic teenager with a quick wit and a powerful will driven by single minded stubbornness. He has a great but not inexhaustible supply of self control and keeps a journal of drawings and notes about his stories and experiences. He practiced obsessively to be the best swordsman of his island. Sora provided intermittent competition, making up for in enthusiasm what he does not always have in strength.

Riku is strong, fast and flexible, a strong swimmer coming from an island world and an adept climber over rough surfaces and terrain. His habit of hanging out with the wrong end of the alignment spectrum has taught him various tricks, many of them nasty and magical in nature. He struggles with these powers of darkness often, though he tries not to show it. His ‘benefactor’ in many of these nasty things is initially Maleficent, though he’s willing to learn from anyone as long as he can become strong enough to complete his objectives.