Remember, lots of people making choices. Think of it as a cinmatic retelling of a fun DnD session!
Beyond the castle door that should have led to a throne room... instead entered into a forest on the ground floor where no castle could be seen above. You turned to the door. Castle. You looked forward.
Forest.
You stared.
"You get used to the sudden change in the scenery," Aqua said easily. She slowed as you both saw what seemed to be a glass cabinet in the shape of a coffin in the middle of the field. Aqua rushed over to stare at a sleeping young boy inside.
He was very blond. Was it natural? It could be magic... Aqua had magic.
"Ven!" she banged on the glass, with a pleading tone but the image vanished showing it was an illusion too. If you had any emotion to emulate right now, it would be a concern.
"We must leave. Something is intent on driving you insane," you warned. A flash of light behind made you both turn to see...
A giant floating mirror. Okay... this Realm of Darkness was clearly on drugs. Blond people weren't that blond and mirrors didn't float. You double-checked to make sure nothing else was in the coffin and Aqua had walked up to the mirror, putting her hand on her reflection as if surprised to see herself.
In a moment, her own reflection reached out, actually leaving the mirror, and yanked her into the mirror, the thing vanishing and leaving you alone in the field.
The correct emotion would be surprise, right?
"Aqua!" you called, casually walking to where she had been. You stared dispassionately. You tried making a Portal to her and stepped into it.
You ended up going through a confusing tunnel that whisked you side to side and up before down then backwards. It seemed you even lost your feeling of motion sickness. A benefit!
You ended up in the water. Your body appeared to be naturally buoyant. You stared up at the brilliant blue sky. The Dark realm seemed to be a bit lacking here. You could feel the darkness, but it seemed new here... as if adjusting to this place. You washed ashore on a golden beach where a boy with actual silver hair chuckled to himself. He seemed to be waiting for something. His pants were as bad as Aqua's friend. He turned as you approach.
Sneering, he looked away and his voice when he spoke was... masculine.
Like testosterone given a voice.
"Bothersome Dusk. This is my time, finally, Kingdom Hearts is mine. Tell your superior to stick to the plan... or we shall have to have words," he dismissed.
That boy needed to go into voice acting. Seriously, but you left as you had no desire to be around someone so rude. Aqua had to be around here somewhere... You stepped aside and looked around for a way out until you saw the island was quite... islandy.
You squirmed up to a tree and pondered your options. You watched as a boy with a key appeared. Ah, maybe he knew Aqua? He was accompanied by a duck and a dog.
Was that natural? Were animal people a thing now?
This place got stranger by the moment. You paused as you thought you heard...
Er...us!
How odd... there it was again!
Eraqu...re you?
You opened a portal and rushed through to find yourself... on the exact same island. You were beginning to think the portal thing was defunct. However, the boy, animal people, and boy with the sexy voice were gone. Instead, Aqua was fighting a swirling tornado of darkness. A mouse with a key was helping her.
Ah... well, why not? Aqua held up her Keyblade to defend herself, eyes shut in pain.
"Eraqus!" she screamed. You were sure your chest tugged a little. What an odd thing. It was like Aqua had clipped a leash between you both. You blinked as Aqua flipped back and held her hand out lines of blue like your own appearing on her sides as her glide took on a familiar zigzagging.
Aqua was acting like you! Still, best to help. Aqua was someone you invested time in... you mean, emotion wise, you 'cared' for her now. You wondered if you could be more Aqua? You imagined turning blue but all you did was do a weird circular motion in a weird zigzag of white. Ah well... you zigzagged into a pillar of darkness aiming for her back. You needle arms slashing.
You cut the head off this shadowy snake, but had to retreat a second later.
"You called?" you said calmly as Aqua turned.
"Eraqus!" she said, smiling. At the same time, the mouse stared at you.
"Oh no! Aqua watch out! It's a Nobody!" he cried, shooting a massive fireball at you. That was rude.
You weren't a nobody. You were Eraqus...
Aqua appeared and used that weird clear dome to block the attack.
"Mickey! He's my friend, he's... Eraqus!" she yelled but the darkness came back in for a new round. It had no interest in you. It was utterly focused on smacking Aqua around who was unable to spam her dome thing it seemed.
You tried to rush around Aqua, her own dash giving off that weird same white lightning stuff. It made your own movement even faster. She did a barrier by saying something...
What was it. Reflect?
"Reflect?" you tried and three pink blocks of geometric perfection appeared that caused the pillar to slow down by a few seconds, giving Aqua the time she needed to cast an explosion of lightning at the pillar.
You saw that your body was pulsing with a blue weird star symbol. It reminded you of Aqua's hair.
Aqua Link discovered! Grants NP to use in battle. N-Link level: 1
Nothing Points: 2 out 3
"Amazing, Eraqus! You ready for the D-Link finale?" she beamed, her heart was open to you and the light made you... feel even emptier somewhat. Ah well.
"Sounds like you need to buy me dinner first," you answered blankly. Aqua just focused and that weird nothing energy infused both of your bodies.
The resulting pull was both interesting and confusing.
You were drawn along the edge of Aqua's Keyblade like a ribbon as she pointed you with a focused gaze at the incoming pillar of darkness.
The name of the incoming event spoke to you loud and clear.
"Roar of Nothing!" you both chanted and white lightning that exploded out of her Keyblade was jagged and like curving lasers. You moved along these white paths, slicing with your arms as the lasers passed over the pillar. Each bounce made you go faster and faster until the pillar was neatly cut into 7 pieces. The glow around your arms faded and the hearts fleeing the shadows made you want to reach for them, but you didn't.
Crit bonus: Reversal is now fully learned and can be used at the cost of one NP. It gives +15 bonus to dodging physical attacks or slow moving magic.
The mouse known as Mickey rushed over holding his Keyblade, eyes locked on to you but Aqua appeared between you both.
"Mickey... he just helped us," she warned and the mouse looked between us.
"But Aqua, Nobodies don't have emotions-" he began. Aqua rolled her arms and looked around the beach.
"I know. He told me," she said easily. You did. Mickey shook his head.
"Oh, this feels like a bad idea, but we don't have any time. We have to find the Key of Darkness!" he said looking at the island towards a small cave hidden near a tree.
Oh, more keys? You guessed these things were common then. Giving you one last look, the mouse bounded over to the cave and Aqua took off, dragging you along by the noodle arm.
She was lucky you could turn off the sharpness... just because you both performed some odd super attack and had a weird bond of power, didn't mean she could manhandle you.
You were a very independent sock with a zipper.
Inside the cave was a single floating key with a silver handle and a golden shaft. It reminded you of something...
"Oh, they come in recolours. It's like the kid with the big shoes," you announced as you tried to click your fingers only for the noodle limb to do nothing and Aqua looked confused but Mickey spun with alarm.
"You've seen Sora?" he asked and you tilted your head.
"Kid with a duck and a dog fighting a kid with silver hair on this island," you explained. The words made Aqua stiffen but Mickey shook his head.
"No time! We had to go! The door is opening soon," he cried and took off in a direction. The key he now wielded seemed to open a path for him. I wonder where it led? Somewhere nice maybe.
This place sucked. It was light... but not. Filled with Heartless but also just... not that cool. Well, the rocks were cool.
"The rocks are cool," you said calmly as Mickey tried to rush forward to help that silver-haired kid from before. His voice had changed for the worst as he spoke to the goofy kid on the other side. Aqua laughed a little as she saw the way out.
She stopped when a pillar of darkness headed for the kid. Mickey jumped at it but was molested as his shirt was torn away before the pillar sent him crashing along the ground.
"The Heartless take your clothes?" you asked, knowing the correct emotion was alarm, and Aqua charged to protect the kid without answering. You could see she was going to just be tackled head-on. She was going to be sucked into a side passage but...
She kinda wanted to go home, right?
You pointed at her and the three reflect blocks appeared before her, the wave smashed through them without much thought, but it let Aqua get her own barrier up.
It didn't last long under the clunky cast either. She was shoved hard back, but not into the side passage.
You head Mickey yelling at the kid.
"Now, Sora!" he was calling.
The Heartless went for the mouse as his Keyblade began to gather light at the tip. Why did it feel like he was going to lock you all in? Eh... still, better than Aqua being alone. The light of the key forced the Heartless away towards the woman in question.
You did a weird movement where your body drifted towards Aqua suggestively, pelvic thrust forward as it gave you extra speed. The motion might look odd from Aqua's point of view, but you had the best intentions.
Honestly.
You grabbed Aqua and began to haul her. The extra weight negating your own thrusting boost. What power you had did not translate into throwing. She landed hard at about thirty 30 feet away. The door was barely open now.
The boy with the brown hair stared at her in confusion but the silver one spoke and distracted him. Aqua got up and looked ready to sprint the distance. In your effort to get her closer, you had forgotten to factor in the chasing darkness.
You were smashed in the back hard and sent flying. Your voice made an odd garble as you hit the wall and the darkness closed in on you. There was a brilliant flash of light as the door gave an almighty click. You stared as the angry darkness flew at you once more. You couldn't feel fear or anger. You just felt numb acceptance. Was this death? You didn't know if you had enough left to die anymore.
"Reflect!" Aqua screamed as she skidded in front of you. You stared. She had enough time to get out and find her friends... why did she come back?
"Eraqus, get up!" she urged and you slid to your noodle feet without a word.
"Or slide up, that works too," she panted.
"Stopza!" Mickey cried and the darkness froze as a baffled looking kid stared at the chaos. You felt... drained. Not emotionally, but quite literally drained of power. You let Aqua and Mickey destroy the shadows as you slid to the kid. He backed off, raising his hand to summon some super gothic red bat wing sword with an eye on the hilt...
"Groovy. Does it come with leather pants and membership to Hot Topic?" you asked blankly, getting out of range of the fight.
"What are you?!" he demanded. You tilted your head.
"I'm Eraqus the Nobody. That's my friend the Blueberry sad muffin, and her friend, the mouse with the key," you explained as you moved past him to rest against a wall.
"Uh... Riku... why does your side glow?" he asked as a blaze of light killed the pillar.
"I'm charging my sarcasm and cares," you said, crossing my noodle arms.
"Riku to you too," you added after a pause.
"My name is Riku! And what are you! Some Heartless?" he asked annoyed, his sword slightly moving.
"He's my friend," Aqua said from behind him. Riku turned and looked at her, opening his mouth before he shut it with a sharp click.
"Hello again," Aqua giggled and you sighed. Of course Blueberry knew an angry child with big pants. What next? You all just saved everything? The world was too small...
"Kingdom Hearts is closed... the worlds are coming back and restored! We saved everyone!" Mickey cried excitedly. You laid down. How could you feel 'done' when you didn't feel? Someone explain this...
"We're locked in the realm of darkness. We need out," Riku said quickly as he turned his respect voice on full for Mickey. What, he was some King and you were loose change? How rude. Aqua gave you a look and I shrugged, showing how limp your noodles were.
No portaling for the time being. You needed rest. Riku shivered as a green pulsing shadow overcame him for the moment before it faded.
"Ansem is still here," Riku whispered, touching his chest. You decided you had nothing left to contribute fell into an uneasy slumber as not exactly sleep overtook you... but something akin to it.
It was filled with dreams. Dancing dogs and pink bats... very disturbing. When you awoke, If you had to guess you were out for sometime because Riku was holding you in a familiar dark void. Mickey and Aqua were nowhere to be seen.
Riku was talking to some weird guy with another to die for voice. Before you could protest or say anything, light opened before us and spat you both out in the most eye-blinding white room you had ever seen.
"Riku, explain why you keep finding yourself in these situations," you asked calmly. He turned to you laying on the floor and looked down at the ground.
"Just doing what Sora would do," he smiled weakly as he examined the place that had a feel of... something familiar.
This 'Sora' was dumb. He was dumb and tacky and you hated him.
Well...hate was a strong word. Mildly uncared about in a downwards meaning was closer, but it lacked a certain pazzah like 'Hate'.
"Are you my new sad muffin companion?" you asked Riku curiously. The look of utter disdain at these words told you your answer.
"I'll call you a grumpy cookie," you decided.
Then you felt a weird calling from an unknown number. It felt rude so you ignored it.
In a room with a giant orb that showed the scene or Riku's arrival, Zexion stared as the Dusk ignored his command. It just... ignored him. This did not promise good things to come.