paixaorpg | What do you see? [active]

Character(s): Zexion and Angeal
Content: A young man, on the run from the Heartless. Or so it seems anyway...
Setting: Somewhere
Time: Still too dark to tell
Warnings: Heartless, possible manipulation

To be perfectly honest, Zexion had nothing to fear from the Heartless. He had no heart for them to steal, and while they did, on occasion, swarm around him there was never any danger to his own person. However, it did raise something of a problem when he was busy being someone he wasn't. Zexion of the Organization had reason to not fear them; the man whose form he had assumed did.

Luckily enough, it was child's play to arrange create his own 'Shadows'. He know their habits, their appearance, and how they attacked. And that was all he needed to create the illusion of a small swarm of shadows, looming up out of the darkness. One more lie added to the web of them that was everything he planned.

Thus, anyone who happened to pass by would see a pale young man with messily-trimmed red hair backed up against a wall, with a look of determined desperation on his face as he attempted to (largely unsuccesfully) hold off a swarm of Shadows with little more than what could only be described as a handful of multi-colored sparks.

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For the past few days, getting back to the hotel in this black haze seemed nearly impossible, even for him. Whatever bursts of light he could generate seemed to vanish right before his eyes, lost up in the dark mist. Though for the last day or so, it seemed to have gotten better. The street lights were beginning to flicker back on, which made things a little easier.

Still, flying was definately out this time around - crashing into buildings in midair wouldn't help matters any - so he carefully traversed the unknown streets, simply trying to get back home.

Then again, there had also been the problem of the little yellow-eyed beasts constantly nipping at his feet. The replacement sword had done well to dispose of them so far, though he mostly relied on his magic to take them out. Though, no matter how many he defeated, more seemed to rise up, so the ex-SOLDIER simply took to ignoring them as he went, a bit faster this time. Using too much magic would exhaust himself. He didn't want that in these conditions, especially since he didn't know what the little monsters could do to him.

Somewhere along the darkened path, the winged man's sensitive hearing picked up signs of battle... and nearby, too. Probably a new arrival that needed help. Or a trap.

But now wasn't the time to think.

Without wasting a moment, the dark-haired man rushed onto the scene, determined to take out the creatures.

If one were perfectly honest it was far closer to a trap. But it was one that wasn't designed to be harmful. Zexion quite simply didn't operate that way. He was looking for allies, not sacrifices.

Besides, as soon as Angeal rounded the corner he had more important things to tend to. His 'shadows' could only act as he willed them, turning to look at the new arrival. A new heart. A new person. A moment of pause as they tried to decide which of the two to take first.

That pause would be their death, as Angeal's attack caught them off-guard and cut through them like a hot knife through butter. Only then did Zexion let his face relax into tired relief as his sparks came back to hover loosely around his wrists.

"Thank you."

The monsters went down far more easily that he would have expected, but he couldn't exactly say he was complaining. Perhaps these types of creatures were simply weak, like the beasts Sephiroth would brag about taking down in one blow, or Genesis' irritation and strange retorts at the fact. Funny how life seemed to change so quickly, but he was created to adapt after all.

Not important. Someone seemed injured.

Sliding the small sword back into its holster, the winged man stepped forward carefully, holding out one hand to help the other up, or at least offer a bit of support. There had been quite a few of those things anyway, and he still wasn't sure of where there would be a medical facility anywhere nearby.

Then again... he hadn't tried exerting his true powers yet, so there was the off chance he would be able to offer a Cure spell if the other needed it. But he would wait and see, first of all.

"You alright?" He asked, as though he hadn't even been fighting at all. And truthfully, the attempt had been effortless, so he truly hadn't.

Had they been anything but the weakest sort of Heartless, Zexion would have made sure that they lasted longer. But for simple Shadows it took almost not effort to take them down and the man had seemed easily strong enough to not have any appreciable problem with them. Not to mention he could always claim to have weakened them beforehand.

"I will be now," he answered, taking Angeal's hand as he climbed to his feet. "Although I'm not sure I could have said the same if you had been any later."

He certainly wasn't a fighter after all, and he looked it. Just someone who had had a slight turn of bad luck and was left to defend himself with the only thing he had.

The taller man looked down to the still vanishing puffs of smoke, though it was still difficult to see in this blackness, and tilted his head slightly at the sight. Huh. Never seen a monster die like that before, though those Nobodies had been odd back then as well. He turned back to the other, gesturing to the remains. "What were those things anyway? Never seen 'em before."

Had the darkness created them? Or was someone else pulling the strings for the birth of these creatures? Either way, they seemed to go down easily, and he wouldn't have much of a problem if they encountered more back to wherever this guy was staying.

"What's your name, anyway?"

"I think I heard someone call them 'Heartless'," he answered. "And they certainly seem to be that, if nothing else." Why they were out wandering the streets 'he' couldn't say, but he would agree that they were inconvenient. As for easy to kill... that entirely depended on what one had to use.

(Although he could have easily killed them if he wanted to. He simply wouldn't, for the sake of the personality he was creating.)

"Call me Red. Everyone else does." For reasons that were both entirely apparent and entirely false. But it would serve, unless the other man had some desperate desire to know the given name of the person this was supposed to be, and he could deal with that if and when it came up.

Heartless? That was odd. Though if they had been created from this strange darkness, then he supposed it was a fitting name. This was going to be an annoying experience, he was sure, but remaining on guard was what he was trained to do. Even if he wanted to forget that time back then.

Oddly miscoloured blue eyes turned back to the man as he replied, stifling a small chuckle at the name, though it was barely audible and sounded more like an annoyed breath. If he didn't want to give his real name, that was alright. Least he wasn't being as cocky as the last kid he came across in this place. That was a start.

"So... Red." He started, tilting his head a bit. "You know what happened to the light in this place?"

Of course he did. It hadn't been hard in the least to figure it out, and what he'd found hadn't been surprising in the least. Maleficent, at her tricks again. But he rather doubted that it had had the effect she'd intended. No one had given into darker emotions (save perhaps annoyance, but that was a minor one) and he'd yet to see anything to suggest that the Heartless had been anything other than a slight inconvenience to the people of the city.

Clearly, those who currently dwelled at City Hall would need to try harder if they wished to be considered a true that.

"I'm afraid not," he answered with a shrug, the lie coming as easily to his lips as the truth. "But it seems to be getting easier to keep things lit, if nothing else."

He stepped forward, scanning the surrounding area for any sign of more of the creatures, but failing to register any. Perhaps they were too camoflauged by the lack of light, or they simply hadn't emerged yet. Either way, it wasn't safe to stand out in the middle of the street like this, so he turned again, back to the other. "...I'll escort you home. Then I'm leaving myself. Where you staying?"

And perhaps the weakening of the darkness could serve to his advantage. Maybe act as a sort of... living flashlight. He mentally sighed at the ridiculous wording his mind had produced, and he silently hoped it would never leak to any of the other SOLDIERs. "If you've got something to make a light, too, it'll help at least a bit. I'm not a babysitter."

"Not far from here," he answered. It was at least partly the truth - he'd gone to the trouble of acquiring a small apartment early on during his stay in the city and made sure that it at least looked tolerably lived-in. It made things so much easier. "I was on my way there when they - the Heartless - showed up."

A simple mistake. The shadows rolling in faster than he had expected; the distance perhaps a bit too great for him to cross alone. Maye he simply hadn't expected them to be lurking in the darkness. Any umber of possibilities, all pointing to something that was entirely his fault.

Which was just the way he wanted it, really.

"Only these," he answered, giving his wrists a shake, sparks flaring into life once again before drifting up over his head and collecting into a loose ball of multicolored points of light. Admittedly, it wasn't the best source of light, but it was better than nothing.

What do you see? [active]

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