Gisk

Kingdom Hearts: Unity of Keychains

That's the sort of thing I was thinking.

Though I might scratch that. My other idea, especially since he has a low rubric score and will learn abilities slower, is that his abilities will instead be different sword styles. In which case Id switch it up and give him the shield instead of the rod.

Maybe the first one would be gun+blade combat learned from Leon.

What do you think?

Kingdom Hearts: Unity of Keychains

Markus won't be much of a spellcaster. He didn't so much choose to keep the rod, as it was incidentally left over.

What magic he does learn will be heavily centered on swordsmanship. Auras around his blade, I want to give him gravity to pull flying enemies into his reach. Things like that.

Kingdom Hearts: Unity of Keychains

Markus did as the voice asked and woke up, but there was no one for the voice to belong to. There were three weapons, and as he approached them, a voice spoke aloud. He whirled around to look for the voice but found no one.

Apprehensive, he knew he must take up a weapon right now. He put his hand around the hilt of the sword, the obvious choice.

Choose two? And what had the voices said? Warrior, guardian, mystic? He didn't think of himself as any of these. Even if he had already chosen the sword.

So which to give up? Well, he reasoned, he had never needed a shield to deflect blows before. He could parry with his sword, or dance out of the way. He pushed the shield gently away, and turned to grab the rod. He didn't know what to do with it, and began looking around for the voice.

"Hello?"

Kingdom Hearts: Unity of Keychains

The emotions from the heart staggered Markus. The despair and the loneliness were things he had never felt at this magnitude before, even after the apparent demise of his crew. He was close to giving in when he felt Asha's heart(he didn't even know her name, but he knew her so intimately now) joined him in the void.

Then another, and another. The two boys he had met outside, and several others from the group at the jeweler's. As the void filled, it defined itself into a room, and then a courtyard full of frozen people. And as the haze lessened, so did the horrible emotions that had threatened to consume him when he had entered this void alone.

There was a boy in the center of the courtyard, and the voice gave them the same ultimatum it had made moments ago. And just as before, Markus' companions defied it. Markus recovered his composure and his stoic facade, and joined them.

"I must agree," he intoned, stepping confidently toward the shadow. Though it seemed weak, he knew there was more to it, having seen the creature outside of this strange little world. "We've all seen that we can fight the darkness." He stood to Nero's left and pointed his keyblade at the pitiful thing before them. He didn't even waste his effort with a fencing stance.

"Why risk letting something consume us when we have the power to destroy it?"

Kingdom Hearts: Unity of Keychains

Markus is like

"It's not about making money saving hearts, it's about taking money hearts."

Kingdom Hearts: Unity of Keychains

"I don't know what the voice meant," Markus grunted, straining at his keyblade, "But if the darkness wants this heart, I will keep it from it."

Kingdom Hearts: Unity of Keychains

The offer of power was tempting, but Markus had seen someone he knew let the darkness in, and he certainly hadn't seemed in control. Maybe some day, but today that dark portal in the sky only looked like the black hole he had narrowly avoided back in his own world. The black hole, with its keyhole. Markus thought back to that, when he had unlocked it. That man, Leon Nero had called him, said that his keyblade could unseal any lock.

"Nero," Markus called across to him, "Akira. All of you, do as I do," he commanded, as he lifted his keyblade to point at the heart. He imagined it as the keyhole, and willed his keyblade to emit that same beam of light. He hoped the others would heed his orders, as he didn't think he had enough power on his own.

Titans Among the Stars

It was a really good post, man.

Kingdom Hearts: Unity of Keychains

I don't think there's anything wrong with the rubric itself. Just that the rubric was applied a little early.

Kingdom Hearts: Unity of Keychains

Everyone did really good with character portraying.

The only way I would criticize the rubric is something that you already said yourself: It's a bit early to judge everyone. We've only got a couple of posts in each, and some of us haven't done much at all in that time.