[OPEN] KOMBAT TIME

[fauxmarth]

WHO: anyone
WHERE: Maurtia Falls
WHEN: Feb (dates are whatever bc time is fake, do what u need to do)
WHAT: FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!! COMBAT!!! BATTLE!!!!!!!!! DISCUSS THE NATURE OF HAVING NO FEELINGS I GUESS BUT ALSO PUNCH!!!!!1 (it's kh plot-related kombat time)
WARNINGS: violence and death and the like because KOMBAT TIME


Maurtia Falls faces a lot of unfortunate circumstances on the whole, but this emergence of shadow monsters -- heartless, as they're known -- has really added fuel to the fire. The little shadow blobs are annoying enough in the little hordes they move in, but easily out paced or beaten away with a shopping bag or purse.

Unfortunately, there's bigger things out there now.

When their hearts were torn free, Lucina and Guzma split -- in more than one sense -- and where they scattered, those animate pieces of their former selves have been loosed upon the city at large, and where they go, violence follows.

[ota toplevels to follow for each, but if you wanna do a special toplevel hit us up! ZornSable and/or whyellewhy LET'S PARTY IT'S KKKKKOOOOMMMMAAAAT TIIIIME]

Comments

[pullsheavendown]

[Roxas doesn't even notice Lucina at first. He's doing what he supposes is his duty; fighting Heartless, like he did when it was a routine and not anything particularly heroic.

This is one of the bigger ones he's seen, and he hears it before he sees it, from blocks away. When he rounds the corner, he doesn't hesitate for a moment before both Keyblades appear in his hands and he charges.]

[fauxmarth]

[the multi-armed heartless isn't even going to get a chance to turn and brace itself for the attack, because Lucina lands heavily between them, blade brandished, and she'll get to her feet and rush the boy and arc her swing to catch both his blades at once.]

[pullsheavendown]

[What the—Roxas has no time to skid to a stop, but it doesn't seem to matter. Blade clashes against blades, but he's not here to fight her. He knows her, doesn't he? Knows of her, she's been around for a while.]

Lucina? What are you doing?

[fauxmarth]

Keeping you out of the way.

[she gives him a shove to force him back enough to break their blade-on-blades hold so she can swing Aurora free and set herself defensively.]

The creature has a job to do for me, and I'll not see it interrupted.

[pullsheavendown]

[She's plenty strong, but it's confusion as much as the force of the shove that makes him step back.]

It's a Heartless. It's going to hurt people.

[fauxmarth]

Any fool wandering into its path now has no excuse. [she doesn't bat an eyelash.] The sooner it finds its quarry, the sooner the work is done, and I'll see it done swiftly.

[pullsheavendown]

The work?

[He lowers his Keyblade incrementally, but only because he's focusing harder on looking at her. Something is very, very wrong.]

What happened to you?

[fauxmarth]

A grave injustice has been done to me, and I'll see it rectified. [she straightens, lowering the blade.] You needn't concern yourself with it; it's my task to see through.

[and it's all she has now! without any burning purpose or feeling to fuel her...simply deciding it's inevitable is the best she's got.]

[pullsheavendown]

[Oh, no. No no no. He's got a horrible feeling that he knows what happened....that he knows she can't feel.]

I can't do that. That thing is going to hurt people.

[fauxmarth]

People who are fool enough to linger after having gotten fair warning, yes. Yet the quicker the damage is done, the sooner my goal is achieved. Leave well enough alone.

[pullsheavendown]

Okay. Fine.

[It's not fine. None of this.

He stares her down for a moment longer, and then he's gone — with a literal flash of light, he's streaking towards the Heartless.]

[fauxmarth]

-?!

[she bristles, eyes widening, and then looks around and behind her to glimpse the boy making his move. clenching her jaw, she turns properly and pushes off the ground, hoping to fly fast enough to intercept him -- or, at the very least, nip at those lightspeed heels of his enough to deter his actions.]

[pullsheavendown]

[She's fast, but he's faster — he gets in a good few blows on the Heartless, getting a good start on whatever force keeps it 'alive' (he hopes) before he spins in place to block whatever attack she has in mind.]

You're not going to stop me.

[fauxmarth]

[while the Heartless recoils and screeches, Lucina veers around the breadth of it, meaning to lunge at Roxas through flailing bug-limbs and hopefully catch his blades before they can lop off one of those arms.]

I won't! Let you! Take! All I have left!

[pullsheavendown]

It's just darkness, Lucina! It isn't anything!

[He catches the blow against his weapons, taking a step back with one foot and then using it as leverage to shove her.]

I don't want to hurt you!

[fauxmarth]

Then leave it be! [she grunts, heaving forward against his shove, imposing more of her own strength down on him.]

[pullsheavendown]

I can't.

[Then he's a blur of motion and gone, and there's nothing to stop her from toppling over--or, if she's quick enough on her feet, to leap after him.

But the pillars of light he flings behind him will take care of that. At best she'll lose time dodging, at worst she'll be flung backward when they strike true. It gives him all the time he needs to take out the monster nearby--only a heartbeat, really.]

[fauxmarth]

NO-!

[all she can do is watch as Roxas does his work -- the stuff those weapons of his were made for. and while she sounds outraged, there's no boiling feeling in her belly, no buzzing in her brain to drive her furiously forward. she just has the memory of what an injustice would do to her, what it would move her to do...

but to what end?

panting, she gets back up to her feet, glaring at the space the beast took up and the boy who made it so.

icily:] And now I have nothing.

[pullsheavendown]

[He's never felt bad about destroying a Heartless before, and he still doesn't—but he can feel bad for her, a little.]

Is that what you feel? Nothing?

[fauxmarth]

Nothing.

[she straightens, turning away.]

And now there is nothing.

[pullsheavendown]

I'm going to fix this.

[He says it as much as to himself as to her.]

You won't be like this forever. I promise.