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: Yeah.

[3wingedangel]

"Yes," Sephiroth said.

Re: Yeah.

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"Then we thank you, sir," Sandry said, pulling free to give a curtsy.

Re: Yeah.

[3wingedangel]

Sephiroth nodded in acknowledgment, staying alert for Heartless as they headed for this house.

"Have you been in this world for some time?" he wondered.

Re: Yeah.

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"Not long, maybe a month, perhaps?" Sandry asked, head tilting as she considered.

"Don't ask me, I've just been weeding," Briar said, shaking his head.

Re: Yeah.

[3wingedangel]

"That's impressive you were able to obtain a house," he said. "Although I am unaware of the prices of the housing market here."

Perhaps they were even given one free if they promised to help build things up again.

Re: Yeah.

[4_lumps_of_thread]

Sandry huffed. "We weren't allowed to pay."

"Not that our money would have been much good here," Daja said, running a finger absently over the metal over the back of her hand.

"Some of us don't have money anyway," Tris snapped.

"Anyway," Sandry said, "We're here to help as long as we are stuck here."

Re: Yeah.

[3wingedangel]

"You weren't allowed?" He raised an eyebrow. "Were you given a house for free then?"

Or were they technically not supposed to be there?

That was what we arranged, right? If not I'll edit.

[4_lumps_of_thread]

Sandy nodded. "Our requests were.... a bit much for the inn, apparently."

Daja snorted. "The one place where Sandry's needs were perhaps the least spoiled of all of ours. I needed to be near a forge, Briar near the ground where he can garden, and we all needed roof top access. Tris especially. And she needed room for all the books she is somehow going to be able to buy."

"I'll get a job," Tris snapped. "Until then that is what libraries are for."

"She's usually halfway closer to charming at least," Briar drawled.

Yeah, it was.

[3wingedangel]

"... You didn't get into the hotel but they found a house for you that had what you wanted?" He still wasn't clear on if they had the house free or not. He hoped they were there with someone's blessing so there wouldn't be a chance of being kicked out.

Awesome. Ty

[4_lumps_of_thread]

Sandry nodded. "We would help anyway, mind."

"And we'll find a way to pay back, we don't need charity," Tris snapped.

"And we're back to this," Daja muttered, shaking her head.

Re: Awesome. Ty

[3wingedangel]

Sephiroth suddenly smirked a bit to himself. Tris had an even worse temper than Cloud.

"Is it much farther?" he asked.

Re: Awesome. Ty

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"Not much," Briar said. "You got us pretty close. Could use that ability back home. Something else for your to study, eh, copper curls?"

Tris glared at him. "When I can feel my legs again, you're in for it," she grumbled.

Re: Awesome. Ty

[3wingedangel]

Sephiroth nodded.

"Do you always have such interactions?" he wondered. He loved teasing Cloud, but partially because Cloud had started to mellow now that he realized Sephiroth was not his darkness and not trying to drive him to it. He wasn't sure he would find it as fun if Cloud was as angry as Tris seemed to be.

Re: Awesome. Ty

[4_lumps_of_thread]

Briar shrugged with a grin. "We're all mates, who can you fight with if not your mates?"

"You all aren't half bad," Daja said, nose in the air, but teasing in her tone. "For a bunch of filthy kaqs."

Sandry flushed a bit, shaking her head.

Tris snorted. "The street rat's the only one who is filthy, generally."

"You try staying clean while weeding."

"I manage," Sandry said, a little too innocently.

"Who weeds with spelled gloves?" Briar made a face.

Re: Awesome. Ty

[3wingedangel]

“Heh.” Sephiroth had really fought with Genesis, who had been jealous and hateful of him. He was unused to the idea of constantly deriding friends if not in actual anger and hate, although he did at least know before now that such interactions can happen. And of course there was how he had presented himself as a threat to Cloud for him to overcome, but that was different. He wondered why they seemed to enjoy verbally lashing out at each other so often, but he supposed it wasn’t something he would understand since it wasn’t how he liked to interact.

“Hopefully the Heartless won’t mistake your intentions and be drawn to you because of it.”

Re: Awesome. Ty

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"Like we said," Daja drawled. "Once we're ready, we'll make for good bait."

Re: Awesome. Ty

[3wingedangel]

"Yes, I believe you will," he remarked.

Re: Awesome. Ty

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"I'm not sure Lark would approve of us using yourselves as bait."

"And the Duke certainly wouldn't," Tris said. "He'd lock you up for your own safety."

Sandry wrinkled her nose. "Still, it is for the good of the people there, so we shall do it, of course."

"Of course," Briar said, smirking.

Re: Awesome. Ty

[3wingedangel]

"... Lark?" He looked interested. That was a name he had heard before.... "Who is Lark?"

Re: Awesome. Ty

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"She is one of our teachers," Sandry said, fondly.

"Was," Tris grumbled. "They kicked us out."

"We're adults now," Sandry said. "They needed our rooms for children who still needed help. Besides, they'd come visit us if we invited. In fact, when we return home, we should have them all for dinner. Lark, Rosethorn, Niko, Frostpine, and maybe even Crane."

"Crane? At the same dinner table as Rosethorn without a plague to distract them?" Briar asked. "I'll take my neb off anywhere else than in that house."

Daja snorted.

Re: Awesome. Ty

[3wingedangel]

“Hm. I wonder if she is the Lark someone here was telling me about,” he mused. “They were both sent to another world to help an alien race fix their planet. He liked her quite a bit.”

Re: Awesome. Ty

[4_lumps_of_thread]

"I... do not know that Dedicate Lark has ever been on any such adventure," Sandry said, thoughtful. "But I would like to talk to whoever it is who has met someone else named Lark, just in case."

Re: Awesome. Ty

[3wingedangel]

"She may be from an alternate dimension," Sephiroth said. "In any case, this person who met a Lark is named Radley. He said she had ... thread magic? She could control the threads in anything."

Re: Awesome. Ty

[4_lumps_of_thread]

The four exchanged looks. "That is Lark!" Sandry said, eyes wide. "Is this Radley here?"

"And we thought her being a traveling dancer was the shocking part of her history," Briar said, chuckling.

Re: Awesome. Ty

[3wingedangel]

"Yes, he lives at the hotel," Sephiroth said.