Sadu

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

The old man rubbed the back of his neck, thinking of how to explain why certain worlds were currently unreachable. "Unfortunately... the pathways that allow for travel between worlds have become shrouded in darkness. Many Heartless block the way, and it is no easy task to find your way through. And the further you travel, the more darkness there is. So attempting to bypass a world shrouded in darkness, well perilous does not even begin to describe it. You must travel to the nearest worlds, purge the darkness that grasps them, and then continue on to the next. This is, I'm afraid, the only way you may reach the world you seek, and though no map is permanent when it comes to the lanes between, currently Olympus is out of reach. It's no easy task to cleanse darkness from a world, but, for a wielder of the keyblade... you are destined to be entangled in the war between Dark and Light whether you want to be or not."

He nodded to Taivas, with a little "Perhaps not the answer you hoped for, but I trust you'll find your friends in time." before he turned to Zen-Aku.

"As for the question of her musical transformation? Well, that one is very easy." He pursed his lips a little and began to whistle an eerily familiar tune. As he did so, his body seemed to shimmer and shape itself temporarily becoming much softer and rounder in form "When time began, there was just the inkwell and when the great pen began to create us, there was naught but silence. Then when magic blew through the cosmos, sound came with it, as did music" He looked directly at the ghostly form of Dotty. "Ummm, now blast it, what was that spell again..." He pouted. He rubbed his wand against his head. "Ah, by jove, yes, that was it. SNICK, SNACK, SNORUK!" He waved the wand, before tapping Dotty on the head. She rubbed her head, but the spell didn't seem to do anything. A faint black outline appeared around her that would be visible to everyone for a few seconds, before fading. "Yes, just as i suspected. Your curse will keep you bound to that form." He sighed.

"So, why did she turn back when she was singing?"

"As i said, lad, the song did it. Your curse will keep you bound to each other, but music will weaken it, even if only temporarily. A poxy little curse like that is no match for the unbridled and incorruptible power of music from the heart. Though it cannot be fully broken, its effects disappear, so long as the magic of the curse is blinded by the dazzling light of music's magic." Merlin petted her on the head. "I have a friend like you, equally displeased with the idea of being human." He laughed.

"I just don't get how you use fingers" Dotty sighed, waggling her fingers at him. "I just miss my paws. Like, how am i supposed to scratch behind my ear?"

"Well, my friend, why not try this one on for size." He tapped his wand on the ground a few times "ACHEM!" He cleared his throat. "Higitus figitus migitus mum, Prestidigitorium." He sang a few bars. "Now try it, um, loud and clear." Dotty jumped up and down, excitedly.

"OMIGOSHIGETTODOREALMAGIC!!!" She screamed. "Higitus figitus migitus mum, Prestidigitorium." She sang as one ear transformed back into he puppy form. "Higitus figitus migitus mum, Prestidigitorium." She sang louder and more clearly, the child becoming slightly visible to the others. "Higitus figitus migitus mum, Prestidigitorium." Singing faster and louder, her entire head transforming back into a puppy. "Higitus figitus migitus mum, Prestidigitorium." Then the rest of her body as the puppy danced around. "Higitus figitus migitus mum, Prestidigitorium! HIGITUS FIGITUS MIGITUS MUM! PRESTIDIGITORIUM!!!" For a moment, she became entirely visible in her puppy form, before quickly fading from view and transforming back into her human form.

"By jove, I think she's got it." Merlin laughed. "Now, just remember, music sung from the heart creates the purest of magic aligned with that heart. I daresay music from her heart creates a magic of the most pure light, because her heart is one of light. Were one of darkness to sing from their own heart, it would create magic of pure darkness. And magic born of music will radiate its light, or darkness, to the heart of others. Everyone..." He looked over toward Lucian for a moment, saying "Save for a very rare few... have both in their hearts. Light, and dark. So when a villain of darkness sings from their heart, it may swell that darkness in the hearts of others, driving good people to do bad things. Just as well, a song of light, one of hope, joy, love, may swell the light in the hearts of others, lifting their spirits, and driving them to the greatest of goods."

To end off his lecture, he said "There is little magic in all the worlds that can match the power of magic born of music. One such magic, is the very same you suffer from, curses. Powerful, dark magic that does terrible, terrible things. Never has there been a good curse... This is magic as powerful as the greatest songs sung from hearts of darkness. Those sung from light however... there are forms of White Magic that wield such levels of purity of light that even music cannot swell to. In my many, many years I have known but one to have mastered White Magic..." He looked over toward Morgan, who didn't seem to be paying attention, nor have heard what he said next. "But without her memories, I fear any knowledge of such magic is lost to her for the time being. So... if you want to break this curse of yours permanently, you will either need to find ANOTHER master of White Magic capable of shattering the curse that has been placed on you with the purest of magic... or you will need to find another way. What that other way is, I am afraid I cannot say."

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

I found it, a song that would... later on, fit Morgan for her own depressing Disney musical.

Tamashī no Samuraitachi

Akane, the Raijin Shogun

Akane | The Raijin Shogun

Unarmored NOTE: She still has her tail and ears, just like this image for her general appearance. It is extremely rare, at least to current date, for anyone to have seen her like this. She is almost ALWAYS wearing full armor, and this includes covering her face. Most people don't even know what color her eyes or skin are. The strange thing is, in the rare cases people have seen her out of her armor, it was typically when she was training, and despite how rare it is to see her like that, she didn't seem to actually care. Perhaps seeing her face is so rare for no reason other than that she is always ready for a fight. ____________________________________________________ C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N (Note, this character has a slight Gimmick. I want everyone to be aware that when she speaks normally, or at least, what counts as normal for her, dialogue will be in pinkish red However, when dialogue is in a purple. Ren is the only character who can understand her. I will make changes to the colors if necessary, if the difference isn't noticeable enough, or is hard to read for anyone. Name Akane Nicknames/Aliases Raijin Shogun Birth City/District: Technically Speaking, The Heita District Age: Unknown, physically she appears to be 'older', but not 'that' old. Not a wrinkle on her body, but she looks anything but young. The only way to describe her is that she looks mature. However, even if directly asked, questioning her age will be entirely ignored. Nobody, not even Tsuki and Ren, know her age. Everyone can only guess, and they're usually all wrong. Height The tips of her ears reach right up around 7Ft. or so. Racial Background: Appears Pure blood Japanese Race: Shogun Hair Color: White Eye Color: Red Appearance: She is almost always seen in full-body armor of some technologically advanced description. It is black with red lights that can be turned on or off at will. It is incredibly rare to see her without her armor, let alone for her to show her face to people, at least that has been the case in the past. Outside the armor, she has a very mature look to her, with long straight white hair, pale skin, and an expression that rarely shows emotion. Mutation Marker(s): Atop her head, she has two very large fox ears with white fur that matches her hair in color. Due to this mutation, her human ears are gone entirely. Behind her is a long fluffy white tail. For a single tail, it's incredibly thick... thicker than her own waist even. Touch it at your peril. Her fingers are tipped with extremely strong (As in they won't snap off), long, sharp claws. This is naturally a far less noticeable mutation, and most don't realize she has this third mutation at all. Her mouth can open wider than your typical human, and her teeth are all much longer and sharper than human's teeth tend to be. You wouldn't be incorrect in saying she has fangs instead of teeth, and that goes for every one she has. Much like her claws, this is a mutation that is harder to notice, and most people could be forgiven for thinking she only has two mutations. Especially since, as stated, she almost always has her face covered. Personality: She is outwardly calm, quiet, and does not speak much. When she does speak, it's hard to understand her, like she's simultaneously speaking your language, and not. You get the gist of what she's saying, but most people can't keep from stopping and questioning to themselves 'What did she just say?'. Most people chock this up to, for some reason, her not being fluent in their language, despite seeming like she was born in the city. While most people will not see or know this, internally, she is often a raging ball of hatred that is absolutely irate at the world, but she does a very good job of hiding it. Appearances are very, very important to her, and that goes for how those who associate themselves with her act. She tends to not tolerate childish behavior in her presence. (But at the word of those in charge, will let it slide... that way she's not just a big 'no fun allowed' character when she's around, she'll just be annoyed.) However... for some reason, she doesn't understand some of the simplest things. She reacts to things in surprising ways, that often cause people to think she's, well... an idiot... You know in Zoolander, the "The files are IN the computer!" scene? That's her... Sometimes, when angered, she forgets to speak a language others can understand, so it's not uncommon for people to get yelled at, and have absolutely no idea what she is saying. Aspirations: Freedom, to go home, to live as she once did, not shackled by the cruelty of this city, and to run free as she once did... Oh, and to MURDER EVERY SINGLE MEMBER OF THE YOKAI COUNCIL. Fears: She doesn't seem to have any, and that may be one of her major faults. She is reckless and over confident in every situation. People need fear to stay alive, and she seems to lack it entirely. Vehicle: Any vehicle she has was likely borrowed to her by someone else. P O W E R / C Y B E R N E T I C S I N F O R M A T I O N Strengths/Natural Abilities: Strength of a God: Someone with a title like Raijin, the Thunder God, you would expect them to be immensely physically strong. While she is not a literal God, she is still extremely powerful even by Y.S.G. Standards. There are certainly, without a doubt others out there who are more physically strong than she is. But she can typically block most direct attacks with ease, and overpower her opponents with an unexpected show of strength. Lightning Speed: Her speed does not come in the form of actual movement speed, outside of her awakened ability. Instead, it is her mind, and reactionary ability that is lightning fast. She can process the movements of her opponent in real time as they happen, as if she were experiencing everything in slow motion. Against most foes, this means she can know exactly what way to dodge, exactly where each and every attack is coming from, and never be fooled by feints. This ability allows her to not only pierce her opponent's defenses with extreme precision, being able to see every single mistake they make, as they make it, but also be able to react near instantaneously to attacks. While this sounds, and is incredibly powerful, the flaw here is that she can typically only focus on one opponent at a time. If she is attacked from more than one angle, she has to push her body to its limits to be able to react to everything at once, and this is not only extremely exhausting, but physically hurts her to do. She can dodge bullets, or even parry them with her sword. But her defense is not inexhaustible, which is why she tends to attempt to end battles quickly, before she reaches her limit. Weaknesses/Flaws: Extreme Overconfidence: She doesn't seem to know her own limits. Or, more accurately, she seems to believe she doesn't have any. No matter the odds, she seems to think any foe beneath her. In some cases, she is right, and she will not hesitate to display the difference in power between her and a lesser foe. The problem is, she still has this same exact attitude even when she and her foe are evenly matched, or when she is facing overwhelming odds. Language Barrier: Another issue is that she is very hard for most people to communicate with. Only Ren can communicate with her easily, but even he has the issue that he has to be careful about how he words things as she will take them very literally. For example, if he, or anyone, were to tell her 'The files are in the computer', her understanding would be 'These 'file things' which are apparently important for 'some reason' are PHYSICALLY inside of that metal/plastic box'. Battery Life Expectency: While she is incredibly powerful even for what she is, she cannot prolong a fight, and must end them quickly. Her power is limited, and everything she does drains that power. If a fight lasts too long, and she runs out of power, she will need to buy herself time to recharge. Think of her like a rechargeable battery. She has a limited charge and must regenerate energy to use more. For this reason, she tries to end every fight quickly, and decisively. She struggles against hardy opponents who can stay on the defensive against her attacks, and must typically resort to fully awakening her ability to defeat them, and if she has to go any further, she may knock herself out of a fight entirely just to win. Y.S.G Ability(ies): Basic Ability - Raijin: Akane is the living embodiment of thunder, wielding lightning in every way imaginable. She can create, and direct lightning at will. She could call down a bolt of lightning to strike at a location. She could expel lightning from her body striking everything around her. She is fully in control of lightning's every motion. She is also capable of channeling her lightning through weapons. However, this ability has a limit. By default, when not actively engaged in combat, she is fully charged at all times. But the amount of lightning she can hold within her body is limited, and every use of it expels energy that must be regenerated over time. Note: Her energy recharges much, much faster when she is outdoors during a thunderstorm, and can even regenerate her energy nearly as fast as she expels it. First Awakening - Ride the Lightning: Expending a large amount of energy, she can quite literally 'ride the lightning', as if becoming one with it, she will appear at a location that is within her initial view nearly instantaneously, accompanied by a strike of lightning around her. This ability can be used to travel great distances, or to flank enemies in an instant. The drawback here is that doing this expels a full half of her power, leaving her unable to followup with her most powerful strike. Second Awakening - Raijin no Tenshin: This ability not only requires the full potential power that she can store within her body just to use it, but can only be unleashed through her Soul Binder. She raises her sword, and the very skies above swirl with thunder clouds. After a long moment of channeling her power, she dashes, and slashes through her opponent. Striking them with her blade during this dask leaves a mark on them, which summons the full lightning strike of the storm above. The entirety of her power is channeled through this storm, directly into her opponent, but also leaving her completely drained of energy. She can only mark a single target. Soul Binder/Weapon(s): Raishinken: The blade glows red, with black Yokai runes etched across its surface. It is doubtful many can read the inscription. The rest of the blade is black, as if forged from obsidian. Despite its color, its surface shimmers with a million tiny sparks of electricity, and is capable of channeling her full power, when any other blade would melt from the amount of energy passing through it. By all accounts, the blade seems to be of Yokai origin. With a snap of her finger, a strike of lightning from the heavens delivers the blade to her, embedded in the ground, ready for her to pull and wield. The very act of the blade being summoned like this can have deadly consequences for anyone too close, and especially anyone directly where it impacts. Alternatively, should she be indoors, or otherwise unable to call the blade from the sky, she throws her hand out to her side, and the blade appears in an instant with a blast of arcing electricity. Image Combat Gear: Few battles warrant her full power, and the Raijin no Tenshin is not a weapon she summons lightly. Instead, she most typically has a large metal sheath on her hip that charges a vibro-katana. It has built in magnetic rails to unsheathe the katana at high velocity, allowing for extremely fast strikes straight from the sheath. This is her go-to weapon for standard combat, as while she is all too happy to display a difference in power between herself and her opponent... what better way than to defeat them with a standard issue, albeit military grade weapon? Image Cybernetics/Gadets/Accessories: Implants of unknown origin are embedded into her body in key locations. The back of her neck, partway down her spine, one on each shoulder, and one on each hip. Nobody who has seen them seems to know their purpose. But then again, very, very few have seen them. The only one that would ever be seen, is the one on the back of her neck. But even then, due to her rarely being seen out of her armor, that too is rare. E X T R A Anything else? Themes: Armored Raijin Casual Akane A Folktale: The Fox and the Shogun Raijin no Tenshin

H i s t o r y The Disappeared Shogun It was Ren who guided Tsukiyama that rainy night, into what no doubt felt like Hell on Earth. Half of the Heita District had been quarantined off, and word was the J.F. weren't just being mobilized en masse, but they were gathering outside the District and intended to push in as one massive force. Nobody can speak for Tsukiyama, but she must have had every doubt possible about what they were doing, and it no doubt took an incredible amount of faith to follow Ren into that place. And when they arrived, they saw her. Standing amidst the carnage, what looked like the sight of a cataclysm, with fires raging, the very ground shattered into rubble, was a single person. With sword in hand, lightning arched off their body, striking the buildings, the burning wrecks of vehicles, causing sparks to break off all over. She looked exhausted, as she stood in the rain, panting, leaning back to look a the sky. One can only imagine why she never struck out again, when she was approached by Ren. Why she chose to follow them, and escape the District before the J.F. arrived... and stranger yet, one can only imagine why such devastation has never been wrought by her again. Those who know her would fully doubt she was even capable of it. Powerful, sure... but the level of destruction seen that day, years later, they were still repairing the slums, at least as much as they had to. What happened in the years that followed that day are a mystery, only known to Tsukiyama and Ren. Nobody knows why she stuck around, or why she listens to what Tsukiyama says. None could do anything but guess at why she now stands with them as they set out to change the world. But one might just imagine, that though she may never admit it openly, she believes in what Tsukiyama is doing, and despite not having the connection with her that Ren does, she will stand with her, and fight for the dream that she has. Perhaps, in doing so, her own dream may someday come true.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@mattmanganon

I'll probably use that, but edit it slightly. The direction I think it should go, is that magic born of music is the purest magic imaginable (But not necessarily the most powerful). But, music from the heart, creates magic in the alignment of that heart. Music sang from malice, from a dark heart, would create magic of the purest darkness, while magic from a heart of light, would create magic of the purest light.

This gives weight to villains having their own musical numbers, and why, for example, in Anastasia, Rasputin does his most powerful magic while singing, it's because his music from a heart of darkness, creates magic of pure darkness.

Also the idea that it binds hearts of likeness together... which is why many villain songs seem to rally followers (Be Prepared, Savages, The Mob Song). The idea is that when sung from the heart, a song can resonate with that same part of people's hearts. Everyone has darkness and light in them, so when a villain sings a song, it resonates with the darkness in people's hearts, allowing villains like Gaston or Ratcliffe to rally people to do their bidding, when in all fairness, they are just normal people being manipulated to do something bad.

Not that you specifically said music from the heart was purely light, but I want to make the distinction.

Maybe Morgan will get her own song at some point... if I ever found one I liked... that's probably be dark, or depressing, or both.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@Sadu Are you already working on your next post, or would you like to Collab it? I've got some idea's for how it can go if you need the inspiration.

@mattmanganon

I was waiting on Crimson since he's still part of the scene. But today decided to just start writing up a post so I'm working on it. If you have anything you'd like me to include you can let me know, but Merlin's about to pretty much kick them out for his behind the scenes talk with Morgan, and then she'll head out too.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

I'm mostly just waiting on his next post to see what he wants to do with Lucian, before having Merlin respond to Zen-Aku.

Then either the fight is going to start, and Merlin will somehow someway 'wizardy things' know about it, and send at least Morgan off to fight, or waiting on that, I'll just have Morgan leave on her own after a behind the scenes private chat with Merlin.

Tamashī no Samuraitachi (Cyberpunk/Anime Inspired) IC

Hey, as a weeb who pretends to know more about Japanese stuff than I actually do, this looks fun! Is it still accepting characters?

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

So, how's people's writing going?

Closing in on that collab being in the works for nearly a month now.

I'm a bit bored of playing Merlin but I'm waiting for the previously mentioned Heartless Swarm/Guard Armor to give him a reason to send whoever happens to still be there to go join in. Sooooo just checkin' in on people, seeing what's up.

We've been in Traverse Town for over 2 months now and I think we'd all like to get going to other worlds at this point.

I hope this isn't coming across as negative, I just want the RP to keep moving forward as best it can, and it definitely feels like it's stagnating a bit. I feel like I've already done too much of Merlin yapping people's ear off at this point.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

I was going to say we should discuss that and figure it out ahead of time exactly how many groups there are going to be, who is going where and all that. But I was yapping a lot at the time as it was.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

I will say, I was expecting a bigger reaction out of Merlin for Zen-Aku's transformation, being that he canonically hates Black Magic.

@mattmanganon

I take that as him talking about 'dark magic' like witchcraft/cultist stuff in the movie. But with Kingdom Hearts being a merge between Disney and Final Fantasy, in this case Black Magic has a different meaning, that it is just a school of magic. So when this version of Merlin says he'd never touch 'Black Magic', he means that school of magic which he finds far too dangerous and destructive since that's the only purpose Black Magic really serves is to destroy.

Morgan herself uses Black Magic. (Elements such as Ice, Fire, and Lightning fall under Black Magic)

But overall in general, I'm just playing him as the kinda guy who isn't going to judge people for what methods they use when it comes to magic, as long as he's not hurting anyone as far as Merlin can tell. And as long as he's not doing necromancy or something right in front of him, or sacrificing people. So even if someone is using darker magic, he puts more weight in their attitude and how much respect they show.

After all, he was still nice to the supposedly 'evil witch' even after she tried to kill him. Well, nicer than she wanted him to be.