Melus wasn't necessarily talking at that moment. Even when Lea had come over and given the potions, she had only been on edge a bit more because of what just happened, and the clones had come closer. He hadn't really eased her mind, but when Koa spoke up, she realized the tone he was speaking at was like trying to console a child. She knew he didn't mean it in that manner, but she figured maybe at that point it was a little safer. Melus took a deep breath and she held her hand up for a moment and waved it. The clones stopped and simply faded into the air until they were no longer present. Melus looked up at Koa and reached out for one of the potions and used it. She felt a wave of healing relief wash over her and she looked up at the boy and said, "I'd keep that one on standby in case we need it later." Melus got up from the ground rubbing her arm a bit and looking around and she kind of scoffed at herself before saying, "So... everyone else got out with minor scratches?" she looked around and put on a small, relatively fake smile before saying, "How about next time someone might potentially be working for the enemy, we don't... well... bring them back? This was our first encounter... I don't even wanna know what the others are like yet." she held her hands up and her harp materialized and she started playing it a bit to calm herself a little more, "But uh... we did it. That's a... that's a start." Melus looked over at Aeria and Kiara and said, "Maybe we've got a psychological damage issue going on instead? Alright, Shrink Melus ready for deployment. Tell me your troubles today." she looked over at Koa and said, "You. You didn't get under her control. Fascinating. Are you gay?" she paused for a moment with her playing before she held her hand up, "It's okay, if you're uncomfortable with the subject, allow me to break the tension." she placed her hand towards her heart, "I'm gay. Though uh, hm. Maybe that raises questions about me not being controlled by... wait she said men's hearts. Whatever misandry she was spilling. So yeah. If your heart set on a man?"
"Alright boys!" Aalis at this point was no longer glowing blue. She did for quite a while but now she had no aura which made no difference to her but probably made her teammates grateful for the lack of distraction. Aalis braced herself a minute and rubbed her nose before pulling out her fan and saying, "Let's get this party started! Yee haw!" and the girl ran at the Grimm. She got herself a slice straight across with one of the Beowulfs and sniffled a bit as she managed to defeat at least one Beowulf. Aalis got a good hit in with the Ursa. Aalis backed on up afterwards, hopping a bit to keep herself moving while she swished around her fan saying, "I bet I can get more of these down than any of you." She looked over at Arian and had a mischievous grin on her face, "'Less ya think you're better than me?" 9/10 Beowulfs left. Ursa has 7BP. Aalis has 15HP left Uva, having not really interacted with her team much, didn't really wait for her team to get started. Uva charged on in silently and tried her best to sneak behind the group. She kept herself low to the ground until she was behind the Ursa. She decided to go after the one that stood out from the crowd first. She didn't know if it was stronger or weaker by design, so she just went with it anyway. Snapping some fire dust into her boot she charged up and kicked hard into the back of it's leg and it let out a cry while some fire blasted out. Uva let the blade extend a bit as she backed away and did a flip to get out of the way. Rubbing her face while she was aware she'd just put herself as central focus in the crowd. She sighed a bit and fixed up her hood and held her hands out for balance as she got ready to do more kicking. 10/10 Beowulfs left. Ursa has 3BP left. Uva has 15HP left.
Takehiko was glad he had a name to associate with the cabin boy now. Though he was a bit more distracted by the pink floating blob that came close to his face. There was a moment where he found himself smiling a lot more at the thing before he caught how much he was actually grinning at it at he stopped. Take covered his mouth a little to calm himself down. There was a reason why he was reacting the way he did. Just looking at the thing, he could just hear his little brother's voice screaming 'look at it, it's so squishy looking' and Take found so much humor in that. But he managed to contain laughter. Didn't hurt that Morph got so close it almost tickled. Take removed his hand when he was certain his emotions were contained and he pointed to himself and said, "My name's Takehiko, you can call me Take And this is Chrono. You can call him Chrono." Take had motioned over towards his partner. He probably figured the white haired boy wouldn't care whether or not he introduced himself. He didn't see the harm in giving this boy their real names. If Chrono didn't like it, he'd take an earful later.
Spoiler: A flashback Kaida was all set and ready for the Mark of Mastery, but she wanted to visit Hikaru before she started it. Hikaru at this point had been in a coma for a month, and it only made Kaida more and more anxious by the day. But she liked to keep him updated, though she wasn't exactly sure how much he could hear. She made her way to the chair most people sat in to talk while he was sleeping. Kaida took a deep breath and began speaking, “Hey Hikaru… I’m taking the Mark of Mastery today... again... I know you would have wanted to wish me luck before I go… so I decided to come in.” Kaida chuckled a little and said, “You’re missing everything man, you better wake up soon or I’m gonna get mad. But, maybe when you wake up I’ll be a master, and then you can be jealous…” she shifted to stand up and said, “I’m gonna probably be late… so-” “Ya know, I was gonna have him on my shoulders cheering for you from the sidelines, but that seems inappropriate.” Kaida looked over to see where the voice came from and saw Aux and rolled her eyes, “Have you been practicing his voice?” “No..” Aux responded, sounding slightly unsure. Kaida looked at him with an eyebrow raised and he replied, “Maybe…” then Kaida tilted her head entirely and Aux looked away from her direction as she said, “Shut up.” Kaida laughed and imitated Hikaru poorly, “You go Kaida! Don’t let Aux get you down!” There was a pause in the dialogue between the two before Aux cut through it, “You ever feel we’re getting too disrespectful around him?” “Honestly? He’d be doing the exact same thing if one of us were in his position instead.” Kaida quipped right back. “I just want him to wake up.” Aux bluntly replied and Kaida sighed saying, “I do too, but he’d probably rather us be doing something with our lives rather than moping around.” “I don’t mope.” Aux replied very quickly. “Then what emotion is this, mister “I don’t mope”?” Kaida replied rolling her eyes. “Heartache?” Kaida looked a bit thrown off by that reply and scratched the back of her head, “I mean… I get it. But you gotta get out and do something. Give him stories to tell. Don’t tell him all you did was sit bedside for a month while he was sleeping.” Krowley seemed to walk in right just as she said that and looked towards the blond before crossing his arms a bit, “Kaida, you’re still here? You’re going to be late.” “I was just about to leave, I didn’t wanna cut Aux and I’s conversation short.” Kaida admitted. Aux shifted his head towards the door and said, “Go, and good luck. We’ll be here when you get back.” Kaida nodded and waved saying, “See you later.” As she ran off as he replied, “See you later.” See you later. Goodbye. See you later. Goodbye. "Why then... why does Aux seem to remember up until then? Why?" Kaida hissed to herself before the light of the new world finally touched her eyes. Kaida was a bit surprised when she found herself... shorter than usual. She thought maybe it was a size difference type thing before she saw her feet and moved them a bit. She tried to move her arms but felt them a little harder to lift before she realized she had wings. That was when it clicked to Kaida that she was a bird and she rolled her eyes. Of course. It only clicked further when she saw Hikaru was a wolf, a very blue wolf, that Kaida waddled her way over towards Hikaru saying, "Of course you'd be a wolf. What else would you have been..." Kaida teased a bit. She tried moving a bit as well, realizing she was pretty fast in this little body, but she didn't feel quite as nimble. She could get used to that. She heard Hikaru mention the lands and she looked towards them and asked, "Is it a drought? This looks like it's a drought of some kind. Unless it has something to do with heartless... i wouldn't be surprised if it did."
(I was totally following this game from behind the scenes and I'm just gonna say, Gabi is never gonna trust Maru again)
The reason I personally have problems with Kairi wielding the keyblade being determined by her being a Princess of Heart is that... does this mean you could hand out a keyblade to all princesses of heart? This seems odd to me. If a princess of heart is able to USE the keyblade because of their strength of heart that makes sense to me, but being chosen by the keyblade cause Kairi accidentally touched Aqua's keyblade is a little.... aha... poor in terms of writing? I mean, I get it, I just don't like it. Now, the Xehanort situation. The keyblade as far as I am aware is not inherently good or evil, it it a tool simply given to those based on their strength of heart (which I personally look at as strength of resolve/determination) so it isn't THAT weird to me, honestly. Not nearly as much as the Kairi situation.
Kaida listened to Aux and Hikaru's back and forth, and realized just how much Aux didn't remember. The further on this went, the further on this whole situation pissed her off. Finally, Kaida looked up at Aux and said, "Over a year. You have lost your memories for over a year. You didn't just close your eyes and sleep your way through a year. You haven't even noticed the fact Hikaru has a keyblade now, have you?" Kaida paused a moment to take a breath and said, "Hikaru's always been kinder, you know I'm not.... So let me put it this way. You've done some horrible stuff over the past year you don't even remember. While not everyone in this room feels this way, most of the people in this room want to see your head rolling across the floor." Kaida's fists tightened before she added, "That group includes me." Kaida grinned sarcastically and said, "Welcome to the party Aux, I'm looking forward to wherever this train wreck leads." and Kaida went to go walk in the portal but stopped and turned to look over at Steel and said under her breath, "Why did I only just realize he's a wolf..." and she entered the portal.
Kaida wasn't exactly fond of Hikaru's answer, but it was better than nothing. She was confused about the recorder but she pulled it out of her pocket and looked it over before handing it over to Hikaru and saying, "Don't overwrite anything, I don't want Karina to lose anything cause of it. If you can figure out how to word it without recording, just let me know... alright?" Kaida held the recorder even further out and said, "Just... above all else, take care of yourself. Okay?" Once he held it she walked over and messed with Hikaru's hair a bit and then sighed, "Let's try and get this done, shall we?" she walked towards the world portals and pointed to one of them, Pridelands or something, and said, "How about this one?"
Take watched the cabin boy begin printing towards the captain's cabin. He knew at this point knew that the kid knew they were intruders and he took a breath and cursed under his breath before he ran as well, in the other direction and said, "Hey hey hey hey! Wait, hear me out a second." when he reached the other side of the door he held his hands out towards the boy and said, "Look, I know you'll find this hard to believe, but we ended up knocked onboard and we have no idea where we are, and we just wanted to talk to the captain to clear things up. We mean no harm. I just, well, didn't want to freak you out but this approach seemed to freak you out more."
SCREEEEEEEEE
Today I am going to initiate a rant about the keyblade inheritance ceremony, and why everything about it is wrong. Or rather, a better way to explain the ceremony and pretend that official explanations as to why people obtained the keyblades are wrong. Today, we are going to mostly talk about Kairi: This little picture here is the official explanation for why Kairi is able to wield the keyblade. But I have a few problems with this being the exact reason why Kairi can in fact wield it. For example, do any of you remember this? This was a little scene where Sora kind of handed off the keyblade to Jack Sparrow. Possibly as a joke, but the fact of the matter is that if anyone who touches the keyblade initiates the ceremony, are we going to end up with Jack Sparrow jumping in from the sky keyblade in hand to save the day? Or perhaps people'll say "well, Kairi had the makings, Jack didn't." but the fact of the matter is... anyone who has the makings through the simple act of the taking can get the keyblade? I think this is a little bit of a problem . Now, if we were talking about this particular moment being where Kairi got the keyblade: THAT would make more sense to me. But even still... I never got the impression Kairi could actively wield the keyblade. She could just temporarily use it. I was never under the impression she could do anything other than hit people with it. Like a magically imbued stick or something. But if we're going to make it so the passing of the keyblade is a thing... shouldn't it be something more formal? I was under the impression Riku accidentally performed the inheritance ceremony. And maybe someone out there is yelling, "But for the inheritance ceremony to work, they have be a keyblade master!" Terra wasn't a keyblade master. And still isn't a keyblade master (no matter what Arch says, he's not a keyblade master) So therefore... this logic doesn't work. So, why would just someone touching the keyblade passing on inheritance be a thing? Does this mean every single heartless that Sora hit, that turned out to be worthy, is going to come back with a keyblade in hand led by Jack Sparrow to save the day in Kingdom Hearts III? This just doesn't make sense to me. And I just don't like the idea that touching a keyblade ever so slightly means that scared little girls can end up keyblade wielders. Ya know...
Kaida wasn't exactly sure what Hikaru wanted to say about the Aux situation, and she had been mostly ignoring this present thing he kept pushing cause that wasn't too big a deal to her. But when she heard Aux's voice and turned around to see... well... his face again. It bothered her. It reminded her of them being thrown into darkness all over again... but this time it was awkwardly casual. Too casual. She knew why... she didn't like it. Even with Aux framing stuff from what he last remembered, it made her feel uneasy. Kaida tried her best to hide her contempt. She knew it wasn't fair. Kaida looked back at Aux, but the friendliness she used to have when looking at him was gone as she replied, "No. I failed it." her voice was cold, she hadn't meant for it to be, but it was too late to go back and change that. Kaida backed away slightly and put her hands in her pocket before she turned to Hikaru and asked quietly, "What were you talking about before?"
Kaida heading to pridelands
Take was a little annoyed by the fact the plan didn't work, and when he noticed Jim backing away towards the cabin, he had a feeling he knew what was going on. Takehiko raised an eyebrow a bit and said, "Yeah, we're part of the night crew. Shifts get worrisome with tired workers...." he looked back over towards Chrono before turning back towards the young man and he began inching towards the cabin as well, "We were below deck for the most part, but we did notice an issue when doing a quick inspection, a problem with one of the lifeboats, well, more specifically the... rmblmblmbl." Take's knowledge on boats was starting to fail him so he hoped him coughing and then mumbling could somehow cover it up. Take was about the same distance from the cabin as the boy, just on the opposite side, "So we've just come to inform the captain."
Takehiko looked around and spoke, "I assume the captain would be wherever the captain's cabin is which is..." Take finally spotted it and sighed, "Riiiight behind the guy mopping...." the boy looked to see if there was another route around but it seemed almost impossible for there to be a way without going past the cabin boy. Takehiko crossed his arms and asked, "Alright guys, we're gonna have to be subtle about this. So try and be casual, and Illiana maybe not do that walk with the umbrell- where is Illiana?" Take realized the girl wasn't with their group anymore and raised an eyebrow, "O...kay... well, I'm not gonna worry about her then. She'll... probably be fine. Um, let's... just walk past the guy and not draw attention to ourselves?" Take asked it as a question and looked to Chrono and Glyde in case there were objections. But he didn't wait too long before he started walking on over towards the cabin. Trying not to draw the attention of the guy mopping. Maybe he'd just think they were other members of the crew or something? He wasn't entirely sure this would work but he kept with it anyway. Though he was doing his best to not walk like a soldier and try to keep a more casual walk. Which looked casual, albeit totally unnatural a walk for those who knew what Take walked like, since he was much more relaxed in posture.
Kaida listened to Hikaru's reply and before she did, she acknowledged Stratos' comment and gave him a nod and a thumbs up before she turned to Hikaru and said, "How exactly would we get these kind of answers from a man who apparently only has memories up 'until he went dark'?" Kaida was silent for a bit before she looked pained and said, "Wait, you think he was thinking about this stuff even before... what even was the point he 'went dark'?" Kaida stood there and pondered it, her fingers stroking her chin as she did before saying, "Cause... iunno. His change seemed... sudden. One day we were getting a long and the next he didn't want anything to do with me... Ugh, I don't like thinking about this stuff, Hikaru. I only just came to terms with the fact Aux was the bad guy.... unless he's not?" Kaida let go of her chin and said, "What if we're the bad guys? No that's stupid. I'm pretty sure we aren't shoving people into dangerous places and killing anyone... er, anyone who didn't at least instigate the conflict first." The blonde paused before her eyes narrowed and she poked Hikaru's chest, "I blame you for making me overthink this." Kaida sighed and looked down at the ground. Her finger still pointed at Hikaru as she admitted, "I don't want to do this... only to be happy we're a trio again... Then have this finish up only for Aux to gain all those memories back and want us dead again.." Kaida's hand fell and she looked up at Hikaru again, "I feel like it'd hurt more. And if anything... I just think it'd make Aux worse..."
Kaida wasn't particularly fond with how the conversation played out. But the names didn't even have to appear for Kaida to know they were going to shove Aux at her. She was a little happy Hikaru was going to be there, but she didn't really show an indicator. She didn't really have a face showing off any emotions until Hikaru asked and Kaida kept looking away from Hikaru as she responded in a defeated sounding voice, "Isn't it great? Just like old times..." she felt her fists tighten a bit as she said, "And if this is working out the way it seems to be, we're all becoming Masters together..." Kaida's fists loosened up as she finally looked over at Hikaru, but she didn't look in his eyes as she said, "It's funny... when I took my last exam and failed it... you had woken up, and had a keyblade... and Aux grew distant." Kaida sighed and closed her eyes for a moment before admitting, "I'm not okay with this. But I'll be fine..." she looked him in the eyes and paused a bit before she smiled a bit and said, "You know you don't have to hide the fact you're happy about it... I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at this scenario..."
Take paused, looking over at the... he assumed cabin boy because of the way he was cleaning the ship and Take looked around and said, "I feel like it'd end badly for us if we didn't let our presence be known to whoever was in charge... maybe we should try to go about this without alerting any of the crew?" Take seemed to be fairly knowledgeable about ships, which might seem odd, but when he was training with Atmos he found himself stopping to read to learn more about other world's military strategies and that's when he learned about boats. He didn't necessarily know everything, hell he dared say he didn't know most things, but that didn't mean he didn't at least feel confident enough to try and get to the Captain and alert them before they were automatically thrown overboard. He looked around for perhaps a captain's cabin or something and looked towards Chrono, "Any ideas?"
Kaida had gotten everything, including the recorder, back in the bag. She didn't know if she was going to listen to it more, she really didn't feel like that was a good idea. And she decided not to really give that offer to anyone else either. She didn't consider herself one who knew Karina well, but it seemed no one was in that condition. She had no idea why Ananta seemed to think that the whole thing was connected to her. She was pretty sure Karina wasn't projecting those hostilities because of her... for lack of a better word... daddy issues. Then Kaida looked over to hear Hikaru talking to AJ and AJ was talking for quite some time. She heard a couple words from her distance from them, what about Aux and the fact he... apparently saw himself as Hikaru? That seemed strange to her but she tried to shake it off. She was trying not to care about Aux, but seeing Hikaru seem to completely ignore how she was feeling about this scenario just to learn more about Aux... it hurt Kaida a lot. She didn't want to deal with Hikaru at that point either. Kaida decided instead to walk on over toward Yue and Megumi with her hands in her pocket. She stopped just short of the two and stood there. Silently. After a moment she finally raised an eyebrow and said, "So, how else are you going to torture us today? Hm? Gonna throw Aux but with only memories of when he was dark next? Oh oh wait. Here's a fantastic one. How about you make it so Aux's memories... are inside Glen. What?! What a twist that would be." Kaida gritted her teeth and said, "I don't know. At this point even if it wasn't in your control. I have doubt either of you are having control over this." Kaida paused a bit and looked at Yue and said, "I know I piss you off, and I'm sorry, but please tell me this isn't some sick twisted revenge towards me. I'm sorry I was a brat... I'm sorry I was-" Kaida cut herself off and asked, "You're not gonna let Aux continue with this are you?"
When the girl was down and out, Melus still had a skeptical nature to her. But she was also just, not doing so hot anyway. She'd managed to do alright when Krista was trying to get the others to attack, the clones of her's doing most of the work for her. But when everything seemed relatively safe, Melus let her harp kind of fall and disappear into the wind before she collapsed. But she didn't let the clones disappear. If anything, they surrounded her even more defensively now while she tried to catch her breath. But she was still hurting, and she didn't know any spells for curing. She wished she hadn't been down and out so easily, she didn't want to look like she was made of glass or anything but she was naturally more build like a mage. She really didn't know how she would have handled anyone in combat on her own, and that was never really her intent. The brunette wasn't strictly speaking afraid, but the clones reacted in a manner based on how worried she was about potential danger. She didn't know if there were lingering effects to the charm she should be worried about. She didn't know if someone was gonna pop up out of nowhere and try to wipe the floor with them. Which is why Melus was now tightly surrounded by her wind clones and not willing to let anyone in unless she was absolutely sure it was safe.
