Black Gardens

[heartswillbeone]

Who: Anyone and everyone who wants to participate
What: Finding and destroying the pieces of heart that Xehanort has planted!
Where: Starting at Sora’s station, then going into the darkness
Warnings: Likely fighting, desperation and other forms of violence


Everyone arriving at Sora’s station of awakening would notice changes right away, even if they weren’t attuned to the darkness. The ever-present light shining from above had grown dim, barely lighting the glass below. The glass itself was still warped in its continual changes, but individual pieces of it were beginning to grow a bit darker.

Someone would have to stay behind to anchor all of the others, and to keep a watch on Sora’s heart from here. But beyond them, in the seemingly endless darkness, lay shards of heart deliberately planted and hidden. With each passing moment they were growing larger and digging roots deeper, threatening not just Sora, but every other heart inside him.

----------------------------------

Your characters can begin the hunt for the heart pieces that Xehanort has planted in the darkness of Sora’s heart! Unfortunately, finding and then eliminating them all is going to be no easy task. They’ve been hidden in the darkness very well, and even having an idea of what to look for, the fact that they’re planted in darkness at all makes them difficult to sniff out. What’s more, because they’ve been rooted in deep, it will take some effort to completely remove them...Keyblades and any other weapons available will likely be necessary.

To that end, this is how things will work: teams of 2-4 will go out into the darkness to search for the heart seeds. Characters should not travel alone, or else they’ll be lost. At least one character can be left behind at Sora’s station, both to serve as an anchor to call back anyone in the darkness, and to be able to tell easiest whether there are any remaining seeds left. But be warned: any anchor left behind will likely be involved in some combat, too!

For those in the darkness, those capable of looking can take one turn each to ‘scan’ the feelings of the surrounding darkness and see if they can pinpoint a heart seed. With each turn, they will have anywhere from a 1-in-3 to a 1-in-10 chance of finding one, depending on the seed. If they locate one, they can then begin the process of uprooting it and destroying it. If they find a particularly difficult one and are not well-equipped to handle it, they can use themselves as anchors to call over others to help. If no team can locate one during their turn, they can keep traversing the darkness and trying over and over until they locate one.

Time is working against them, though. The more turns it takes for them to locate a heart seed, the larger it will grow and the more difficult it will be to destroy it once it *is* found. Heart seeds left for too long may even fight back when attacked, or make themselves impossible to remove without also hurting Sora. If any one piece is left long enough to truly threaten Sora’s heart and identity, then Kingdom Hearts may step in to do something about it...and characters would *not* want that, as it would mean a terrible end for everyone. And Sora’s heart won’t be safe until every heart seed is found and eradicated!

Comments

[Team 1 here]

[heartswillbeone]

[eternalfrolicbond]

Lea figures that he's got this pretty locked down. He's decent at finding what he's sent out to find, but he's worried about getting lost down here somewhere. It's all they can do to save Sora, though, not to mention the rest of the universe.

I want to apologize! I completely forgot this was happening! /epic fail

[townandcastle]

Disney Town follows the red head. "Don't worry. If we stick together it shouldn't be a problem, right?" He's always the optimist but that's just the type of world he is: full of light.

He reaches out and tries to find any hint of a seed of darkness. There's no sense in wasting time. He knows how urgent this is after all.

[heartswillbeone]

Disney Town happens to get lucky on this first look, and they find the first seed.

It appears as a glowing shard of heart, buried in the darkness itself. It's grown a larger since it was initially planted, though, and has wider and deeper roots in the darkness. It will take considerable effort to uproot and destroy it, but should hopefully still be manageable with just the two of them.

[eternalfrolicbond]

"Okay, let's get to this." Lea edges closer to the heartseed. He's not sure if it can hurt them if they don't touch it. They'll have to, to uproot it, but hopefully that won'd be too much of a problem. It felt like he should be able to use his keyblade to help somehow, so he calls it to his hand.

[Team 2 here]

[heartswillbeone]

[radiantlance]

Searching for darkness isn't really something that Dilan can say he much enjoys the idea of. True, he does have something of an advantage in that he's passingly familiar with the sort of darkness that will be relevant here, but he's no Ienzo. Not by a long shot.

But neither is he going to stand idly by. Not this time, and he glances over to see if Even is as ready as he is. (Which might well be 'not at all, but pretending to be otherwise'.)

[defrostedpride]

It's like Dilan knows him, or something. Even isn't nearly as ready as he would like to be, but unfortunately time won't change that; he has always been more comfortable with instruments than with his own senses for such purposes. But he isn't going to admit to such, not even to Dilan, though he doesn't mind too much if he guesses.

"Well? Are we just going to stand about?" At least he knows the particular type of darkness they're looking for, even if he (to his own enduring shame) never identified it on his own.

[radiantlance]

"It would be counterproductive to stay here," Dilan offers by way of answer. As much as he might not really like the idea of searching for darkness among darkness, but it's not like there's a choice. It won't be easy, but that isn't going to stop Dilan.

The matter of reading the darkness enough to figure out where Xehanort is most likely to be takes work, but eventually Dilan manages to at least have a general idea of what is probably the least like anything that belongs to Sora and he points out into the endless darkness.

"That way, I believe."

[heartswillbeone]

Unfortunately, the darkness hides the seed too well for this first try, and the two find nothing. They'll have to try again.

[Team 3 here]

[heartswillbeone]

[gimmiemyflower]

During her first time stuck in Sora's heart, Kairi hadn't really ventured into the darkness of it...she'd spent most of the time trying to get Sora's attention, and the darkness didn't seem to hold any promise of that. But now, she'd have to go into it in order to save them...and all of them, really. At this, she wasn't afraid.

While she wouldn't be as skilled at searching the darkness as some of the other people going with her, she could fight, and she intended to if necessary. She hoped that it wouldn't be, but had a strong feeling that fighting was going to be the case.

"Let's get going. We're not going to help anything by waiting here."

[noblankpages]

Ienzo nods, silently, and starts to test the air. Of course, being a disembodied Heart and Will he knows he's not doing anything of the sort, but it's much easier to think of things in terms of the physical senses than in purely abstracts. There will be time to contemplate the nature of their current reality later.

"I think I've found something," he says, slowly and sounding mostly unsure of himself. "It's difficult to say, with so much ambient darkness, but there's something that could be its source."

[wheretheresawill]

Terra nodded also and turned his senses outwards, though not in quite the same way Ienzo was. He had never had the nose for darkness that Ienzo did, but this particular darkness was imbued with Xehanort's power, and that he did know. It hung in the air like a cloying fog. If he tried, he should be able to feel the patterns in it. Should be. He'd never tried anything like this before.

[heartswillbeone]

Terra and Ienzo get lucky. For their first look into the darkness, the two are able to find the fifth seed.

It appears as a glowing shard of heart, buried in the darkness itself. Roots of darkness anchor it in a moderate amount. Since they found this one quickly, it will be a bit easier to uproot and destroy. However, it's still going to require some effort, using whatever weapons and magic are available.

[Team 4 here]

[heartswillbeone]

[halfdarkened]

Riku stood at the edge of Sora's Station of Awakening, staring unintimidated into the darkness. The grip on his Keyblade was tight. His knuckles were near-white only because he knew they would be had he been flesh. This wasn't the first time he'd ventured into the darkness surrounding Sora's heart, nor was it the first time he risked being trapped in it. This time waking Sora was much more complicated, and Xehanort had found his way in.

He's just not learning not to mess with Sora's heart, he thought to no one in particular. They had a job to do, and a hard one at that. Riku was ready in spirit, even if he didn't know what they'd find. He wanted this over with, and had the fire and determination in his expression to prove it.

[leavetheirmark]

Riku wasn't alone. He'd heard the call, heard Terra's anguish, and had considered for some time what to do. It was not for a world to meddle in the affairs of living things... a world supported, but did not take part.

Yet how many more would have to live on through this? It was... unnatural. After his brief conversation, he knew that Kingdom Hearts had become warped by the pressures that living creatures had exerted on it and it had acted before its time. This was not when all would be collected, and especially not in the heart of a mortal. It was... abhorrent. No, something had to be done. Something to ensure the future of the younger worlds and the people that lived on them.

It was time for the old world to take action, and there was no one better to make that stand with than the one he had already acknowledged. While there was not much he could do that Riku couldn't, one and a half sets of eyes and two hearts set would help route the darkness.

[halfdarkened]

He didn't need to turn to know the Keyblade Graveyard was there. He couldn't think of a tougher or wiser world to have by his side. Much as he wold have appreciated the company of his home, he'd fear for the Destiny Islands out there. Between a world and a person, they had a wide variety of experiences to draw upon, something valuable in a situation like this.

Riku stood there, jaw set as strong as his resolve a moment before speaking. "You ready for this?" Even as he said it, he stepped off unflinchingly. His feet met with nothing, and he floated there, not entirely unlike what happened when he slipped off his own Station of Awakening. The difference was this was intentional and done with conviction rather than an accident. Finally, as he began to float out, he looked over his shoulder to make sure the world was with him.

[leavetheirmark]

Wordlessly the Keyblade Graveyard followed, keeping in step easily even when they weren't walking. He was no stranger to darkness, though not the sort of passive darkness that they were entering. This was not darkness aimed to destroy through aggression, this was a corrupting sort of darkness that set off warning bells. The kind that would eat its way to one's heart and rot them from the inside out. A fate worse than death for any world... and for any living creature, he surmised.

"Aye, Riku. Watch thy step. Thou knowest that this foe relieth not on its brute strength but on its tricks..."

[Anchors]

[heartswillbeone]

[exanimo]

While joining a group to go looking would be amusing, he would be much better served by staying put at Sora's Heart station. That way there would be less chance of someone detecting, and a better opportunity to keep an eye on their progress. If necessary, he could intervene... even if it meant losing his cover. He hadn't come this far only to be routed so easily, after all.

"I will stay here. If things start to look bad, I can attempt to bolster the light myself to buy us time."

[keepingthebeat]

He's not the only one who's staying behind. Treble and Bass have done their share of exploring things already, but this is something they aren't really cut out for. But keep people's spirits up and providing something that's easy to return to? That they can do, and they nod a general sort of agreement at the comment. They'll stay too, and the music offers up a general feeling of helping out as best they can.

It's not necessarily much but if there's anything they can do they absolutely mean to do it.

[ttlynotanagent]

Perry is also there. He's had his fill of the memories for the moment and the most critical place is staying near Sora's Heart Station. He feels he's pretty grounded besides and can best serve here.

Perry's eyes scan the platform and he frowns. He doesn't like this at all and his thoughts go out to those who have go forward to find the seeds. He knows they can do it!

[heartswillbeone]

Those acting as anchors will suddenly notice just a little more light return to the space around the platform: one of the seeds has been destroyed. They aren't completely in the clear yet, though.