EVENT: Heartless Swarm

[fatedhearts]

Things have been fairly peaceful for a while now as everyone has settled into their current lives on this new world. But one day towards late summer, that all comes to an end.

One of the portals in the sky suddenly opens again, an odd glowing light surrounding it as it ejects creature after creature. Then it closes, followed by another glowing portal elsewhere in the sky emitting the same creatures. Small and black, mostly, with odd antennae and glowing eyes. Some here will know them. The Heartless, creatures of the darkness who seek hearts. Those they attack, if they give in to the darkness in their hearts, will become Heartless themselves.

Where is a Keybearer when we need one?!

OOC INFO

Heartless can be encountered anywhere! They're pouring into Edge, the Midgar ruins, Kalm, Wutai, and everywhere else. Balamb Garden won't be spared, but if they're able to seal everything off in time and take flight, they may be safe from the majority of the creatures and be a safehouse for anyone desperate to escape them.

Anyone familiar with Heartless is encouraged to try to defeat them (or control them, if they're lucky enough to possess that ability). But they may find something else will push back if they try. Did someone deliberately send the Heartless through the portals? Who, and why? Does someone on the other side of those portals know what's happening here? And why are the portals glowing when they open? Is there any important significance in that?

(And yes, this is a very significant event that will have a deep bearing on the overall plot!)

Before anyone asks, having your character become a Heartless is probably not a good idea, given that it would be very difficult to get them back to their normal selves at this point in the game. But we welcome intense situations of Heartless trying their hardest to claim hearts before they're stopped!

The event is scheduled to run through August 10th, but backdating and backtagging is encouraged for as long as everyone wants! Post toplevels to this post or create new posts!

Comments

Re: Sandry, Daja, Tris, Briar | OTA

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"We'll be fine," Briar said, "but Sandry says to be careful, the unmagic can cling to your weapon."

The lightning shot from Tris's fingers into a cluster of Heartless. "Fight and talk at the same time!" she snapped, more lightning already gathering around her hand. She shot out at another cluster, more gathering even as she expended it. "If I have to flood this place, none of us are going to be happy."

Re: Sandry, Daja, Tris, Briar | OTA

[3wingedangel]

"Un-magic?" Sephiroth repeated with a raised eyebrow.

He sliced his sword to the right through a group of Heartless without batting an eye.

Re: Sandry, Daja, Tris, Briar | OTA

[4_lumps_of_thread]

Sandry swallowed hard and grabbed at something worn under the high neckline of her dress. She took a deep shuddering breath and then explained. "Unmagic... My student and I tracked down and caught assassins who were using it..." She shuddered. "It clings, Winding Circle had to spend a very long time developing oils that could clean it from a surface, or from a person. It clings and eats into you until you are more unmagic than person..." She swallowed hard. "Between that and the dragon salt... everything that made them them... was gone..." she whispered. "Their hearts their bodies, nearly their minds. I had to..."

Briar put an arm around her as Tris zapped a few others.

"Moral of the story," Daja said, "Fight without touching it, and without letting it touch anything you want to keep. I don't know what Lark and Crane had to do to make the stuff to help clean the infection..." She grabbed up a stone and it started heating to red hot in her hand. "I only know Frostpine's part. So we need to destroy these things before they can spread."

Re: Sandry, Daja, Tris, Briar | OTA

[3wingedangel]

"Are you calling these creatures unmagic? They are Heartless in my world." Sephiroth attacked several more. "Normally I can control them, but they are not listening to me here." And then he paused as he absorbed the rest of what was said. "And someone has made a cure for being attacked by them?" Such a thing would be invaluable.

Re: Sandry, Daja, Tris, Briar | OTA

[4_lumps_of_thread]

Well yes she had but excuse Sandry if she fixated on something else... "YOU USE THESE THINGS?!" she asked, horrified.

Re: Sandry, Daja, Tris, Briar | OTA

[3wingedangel]

"I control them to leave people alone," he said, flicking a wing. "I do not use them for evil."

Re: Sandry, Daja, Tris, Briar | OTA

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"Using them at all is dangerous without the right cleansing oils!" she said. She looked to the others. "We have to stop them before they devour him!"

"Sure," Daja said. "But not all of us can throw lightning. Open to ideas."

Briar flipped a seed at one, sending green magic into it so it grew into a throny vine that... the Hearless passed right through. "With Daj on this one! We could use a plan before Copper Curls runs herself out of braids."

"I don't know!" Sandry wailed. "We don't have the time or the oils to weave another net to catch them!"

"Net... huh?" Daja said. "Okay, got it." she switched to mental speech. Tris gave her a sharp look at one time, but then they all nodded.

Sandry pulled a hank of spun yarn from her pocket and threw it in the air, it broke into strings and started weaving itself into an open net, Briar threw a few seeds at the mid air net and they grw ingot climbing vines that wove themselves into the pattern.

Once they had a large enough net, Daja called "anyone who doesn't want to get burned stay very very still!"

Sandry dropped the net downwards as the plants on the vine all superheated to the point they made the air waver. Tris, sweating, untied the rest of the small braid on the side of her head and the net dropped neatly so that each person was perfectly framed in one of the holes - so long as they had all frozen when told to, and the net dropped on the Heartless. As soon as it hit the ground the whole thing came alive with lightning, doing more damage than Tris' small bolts had been managing.

"Remind me why we seperated out our powers again?" Daja asked, panting a bit herself, leaning on her staff with one hand, her other hand absently petting the metal over the back of the first hand.

Re: Sandry, Daja, Tris, Briar | OTA

[3wingedangel]

Cleansing oils? Well, that was something no one used in any world he had been to. But this was hardly the time to talk about it.

He was skeptical of the net going over his wings safely and drew them tightly against his body.

He smirked as many Heartless were attacked at once by the net. “Creative,” he praised.

Re: Sandry, Daja, Tris, Briar | OTA

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"We... We still work well together you know..." Sandry said, voice still a bit shaky.

"Yeah, guess we do, duchess, got an idea to take out the rest?"

"What about a sheet?" Daja suggested.

Sandry nodded. "A tighter weave. Tris?"

"I'll channel through you, weave it," she said shortly.

Sandry nodded and a cloud thickened and darkened as it slowly grew downwards, lighting flashing brightly within it. Sandry and Tris were both sweating a bit. Whatever they were building this time, it was big.

Re: Sandry, Daja, Tris, Briar | OTA

[3wingedangel]

Sephiroth took out any Heartless that got too close while they were doing ... whatever it was they were doing. He didn't want to interfere if it worked, and since the net had worked, he had reason to believe this would work as well.

cool if they take out the last of the ones near them so they can all talk?

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"Alright, the girls have it," Briar said. "You're going to want to stand very very still..."

Yeah.

[3wingedangel]

Sephiroth nodded and stood still again, drawing his wings close against himself.

Re: Yeah.

[4_lumps_of_thread]

The cloud broke apart as a tightly woven blanket of electricity dropped on the remaining heartless, ending them.

Tris started to fall but Daja and Briar caught her and helped her sit on the ground. Both of the small braids that framed her face were completely unbraided and already curling around her pale face. She was breathing hard. Sandry leaned lightly against a wall carefully.

Re: Yeah.

[3wingedangel]

Sephiroth was again impressed, but quickly turned his attention to the girl. "Is she alright?" he asked in concern.

Re: Yeah.

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"She'll be fine," Briar said. "She's just tired out, so she'll be a little grumpier than usual. Not that most people would be able to tell."

Tris glared daggers at him through her spectacles, he seemed not to notice.

"Hopefully there will be another storm soon, a natural one."

"I'll recharge just fine, thank you," Tris snapped.

"Ah, Daj knows, no need to bite her neb off, Copper curls," Briar said, pulling lightly on one of Tris' now loose curls, laughing as she swatted his hand away. The little glass dragon trying to bite his hand, did the trick though and he stuck it on his pockets. Though possibly not before Sephiroth would be able to see that the tattoo he has of leafy vines on his hand... moves.

Re: Yeah.

[3wingedangel]

Sephiroth stayed silent, watching and listening to their antics. Then he stiffened. “… Did your tattoo just … move?”

That was not something he often saw.

Re: Yeah.

[4_lumps_of_thread]

Briar winced then shook his head. "Copper curls stores lightning in her hair, we wove that lightning into a net then she and Sandry wove it into a fire suppression blanket, Chime is trying to nuzzle himself into Tris' neck and your question is about my tattoos?"


He sighed and pulled out his hands. Both of them had tattoos wrapping around his wrists, over the backs of his hands and then around to under his nails, and both sets of vines and leaves moved. The leaves under the nails even seemed to be growing. "I have plant magic, and Sandry is a stitch witch."

Tris snorted.

Briar ignored her and continued. "I was foolish enough to borrow a needle from Sandry's mage kit,"

"Borrow?" Daja said, a brow raised.

"I gave it back," he muttered, then shook his head. "Anyway, I nicked the needle with out asking and used it with a plant dye I made and..." he shrugged and put his hands back in his pockets. "Lesson learned. Never touch another mage's mage kit."

Re: Yeah.

[3wingedangel]

"I have elemental magic myself, so that isn't exactly new to me," he replied. "Moving tattoos are much more unusual."

He quirked an eyebrow in concern. "You're stuck with that now because of a small mistake?" Magic was dangerous, but there was generally a way to reverse it.

Re: Yeah.

[4_lumps_of_thread]

He shrugged. "There is probably some way to undo it eventually. But given how odd our magic can be, I for one have no intention of trying without at least Niko and Rosethorn present. and trying to pin Niko down to any one place these days is..." he shook his head.

Sandry smiled softly. "We were honored by the time he gave us when he was our teacher." Then her expression hardened as she looked at the person to whom they had been speaking. "Sir, you said that you have worked with unmagic before. You will explain now, thank you," she said suddenly sounding and looking like a noblewoman who was used to her orders being obeyed without thought.

Re: Yeah.

[3wingedangel]

"Hm. Yes, I would agree that having experts in that field be present would be critical."

He looked to Sandry. "As I told you, these creatures are called Heartless in my world. They are the hearts of those fallen to the darkness. There are very few who can control them. Most who can use them for evil. I make them stop their madness back home. I do not know why they do not listen to me here."

Re: Yeah.

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"Those... Those were people?" Sandry asked, horrified. Her hands went over to her face as she paled and sank to the ground.

Re: Yeah.

[3wingedangel]

He hurried over to her in concern. "Are you alright?!" He knelt down beside her.

Had she actually fainted or just grown weak?

Re: Yeah.

[4_lumps_of_thread]

She had her hands on the ground as she panted. "Those.... Those were people...." she whispered.

Tris swallowed hard, trying not to be sick.

"We need clarification," Daja said, hands holding tight to her staff. "Did we just slaughter a bunch of people trapped within unmagic?"

Re: Yeah.

[3wingedangel]

"No," Sephiroth said. "The Heartless have to be defeated in order to have any hope of getting the people back to normal. Once the heart as well as the separated body and soul are defeated, they reunite into the person again."

Re: Yeah.

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"Oh thank Mila," Briar muttered.

Daja snorted. "Look who found religion," she teased, but it was weak.

Sandry pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve. She dabbed at her eyes. "I'll thank any and every God myself," she said, weak with relief.