((Rushed phone post)) Within moments, Glyde was zipping through space, passenger aboard the lifeboat sailed by Jim. It was a smooth ride; smoother, he assumed, than Take's would have been. Still, he was compelled to find and grab hold of whatever handle-like pieces of boat that head could. It took a bit of doing, but eventually he was able to find enough balance to maintain a three-point contact. In theory, he could get away with only using one hand for this battle; that was all it took to wield his Keyblade. As the lifeboats made their pass, rounding the side of the ship, Glyde aimed his Keyblade into the horde of Shadows. It was harder to be precise with moving targets while he too was moving at someone else's will. Rather than waste a single shot on a likely miss, he decided to use his elemental magic. "Fire," he spoke, as though giving it as a command. Bursts of flame erupted out around before him and into the swarm. HP: 30 AP: 16 MP: 11 ((Not sure how to calculate damage to the enemy in this)).
"Eh. Personally, I'd feel more comfortable riding along with Jim," Glyde said, sensing that a more seasoned hand in sailing would leave his skills in better confidence. "But, it seems like that's not something that'll happen so easily; I'll go with whomever I need to." He took a sharp glance at Aria. "I'd be interested in knowing who else you're saying has... less fighting styles... Another time... However we split up, we're probably not gonna have the luxury of fighting in closed quarters so much this time. So we should make sure that we have the coverage to handle enough of them from a distance." He walked across the room and stood by one of the lifeboats. "Whenever we're ready, I guess."
"Wait, what?" Glyde had latched onto the conversation, if it could be called that from his end, between himself, Illiana, and Chrono. He became caught up in the role of a sideline observer to Chrono's string of questions and the subsequent answers. Invested as he was, he hadn't registered the swaying of the ship, or the scraping against the side of the hull. It was only when Aria hurried passed that he snapped out of his inner-musings. A few seconds of perplexity lead to Glyde rushing away from Illiana, following a short distance behind Chrono. He arrived by the lifeboats not long after; just in time to catch Aria's plan to ask for the cabin boy's help in operating the lifeboat to ride the ship of the Shadows. "Couldn't hurt," he agreed, inching his way into the group. "I should be able to help too," he added. "With the fighting that is. Probably not the best idea for me to ask Jim's help though, seeing as I barely met the guy."
Glyde withdrew a short pace, his face flushing a brilliant, bright red. Quickly, he gulped down another, larger sip of his tea. After a deep breath, he dropped easily into the chair. He took a third, small drink from his cup, and set it down on the table top. “Between us,” he said, dropping his voice low and leaning in closer. He glanced around the deck; no was in earshot of the three of them. Directing his comment back to Illiana, he spoke, in a whisper, “I doubt that old metal-arm was planning to let us free at all.”
Glyde accepted the tea, softly clasping the cup Illiana handed to him. His hand trembled slightly as he neared the cup towards his lips. He blew a light, rippling breath over the surface of beverage, just to be sure not to scald his tongue; some people, he understood, preferred it that way, but not him. Wresting control over his tremors, he tipped the cup towards his mouth. The tea went down. Warmly and smoothly, the drink validated Illiana’s claim: slowly, but certainly, Glyde’s nerves eased. His tensions lifted and the trembling subsided. He exchanged a small, light smile to Aria as she came by, and then approached Illiana. “Regarding my comment earlier… about not wanting to be double crossed,” he would start as she would [presumably] procure a cup of tea for Chrono.
Glyde stalled in the wake of his final attack, wearing his subtle smirk like a medal as he reveled inwardly to his newly emerging sense of power. Anyone that might have directed their eyes towards him in that instance might have caught the discrete, self-approving nods he repeatedly made to himself. Yes. Better. Much better than before, he told himself in uncounted repetition. WHAM. With no warning, the ship made another violent rocking motion. Already standing with less stability as he held to the posture of his blade thrust, he fell forward. Tossing, rather, dropping, his Keyblade aside, he threw his forearms out in front of him. He landed, arms-first upon the deck, dragging forward as he skid forward. Laboring back to his feet against the residual rocking, he took to a lifeline as the skittish crew member from earlier passed them to all on deck. Following with the precautions taken by the crew, he moved to a nearby rail, clasped his hands around it, and braced for another shockwave. When the final wave struck the ship, he, like many others upon the deck, unwillingly relinquished his grip upon the rail, and flew off from the deck only to be save by the taut line tied to the ship. While significantly less abrupt, and, thankfully, more controlled, his return the deck met him with some unwanted aftereffects. He felt somewhat sore, a nearly whip lashed feeling, and an overexcited pounding in his chest sent a quiver through his limbs. Too much for one day, he told himself. Attempting to stretch out his sore spots, he staggered towards Illiana. "C-calms the nerves, you say?" he said, with a small stutter. "Worth a try, I suppose. I'll take some too, if you're OK with giving more."
Glyde: +AP & +MP
Following upon Illiana’s coattails, Glyde ascended the steps back to the upper deck. Since his escape from the brig below, his hands hadn’t lifted so much as a finger from the handle of his Keyblade. Upon his arrival up top, his weapon was at a carry position. For the brief span after this, he held close in Illiana’s shadow. Naturally, he held no expectation that she would remain in such an amicable spot. She was rearing to fight, and otherwise far too… something, to simply let someone in good form use her as a shield. When she ran, Glyde did the same in the opposite direction. He circled the action, as he had done in prior battles, keeping on the fringes. The difference this time around, of course, being that he had a new skill to employ to his advantage. Finding an opening to the two remaining enemies, he moved his Keyblade to firing position. Estimating, from his previous try against the rock, that he couldn’t muster the power to defeat one in single shot, he moved forward. He would catch the attention of both Heartless. In a self-surprising feat of agility, he evaded both as they charged him. Now behind them, he opened fire, hitting his mark on the pirate slightly further from him. It wasn’t much, as power went. But, it proved enough to buy him the time he needed to safely close the distance. With a with a diagonal swing, he dispatch the nearer Heartless. Following with a thrust forward, he dealt the final blow against the remaining one. Pulling out from the dispersing wisp of darkness in the Heartless’ wake, he cracked a feint, relieved smile. "Better." HP: 30 AP: 1/12 MP: 20/20 Enemies Defeated: 2 (2 Pirates) 0 Enemies remaining?
It's not uncommon for sites to employ a feature that lets them default the usernames of long-inactive members to something more of a placeholder name; I think vBulletin forums have something like that, so I'd wager that XF might have a similar function. It certainly doesn't seem unfair (at least from my perspective) to default someone's username to something else if they haven't been on in 5+ years. The confusion of name changes can be largely mitigated, first by only allowing a limited number of name changes in the long term, and secondly by keeping an active, public list on who is/was who. That's just how I see most places doing it, if that offers anything worth considering.
Staring through his prison bars, Glyde's eyes widened as Illiana brandished her Keyblade towards her cell's lock. Immediately, his jaw, as though weighted, dropped at the sight of caged door unlocking and swinging open with nothing so much as a scratch upon it. Perplexed, and in awe, he summoned his own Keyblade and pressed himself to his feet. Responding to Illiana's prompts, Glyde's widened eyes bounced to his Keyblade, then to the lock of the now-deactivated cell, and then back to his Keyblade. "No. I've got it; I DID just watch you do it yourself." He directed the end of the Keyblade towards the lock on the door, feeling more than a little foolish for having not thought of it. IT"S SHAPED LIKE A KEY FOR A REASON YOU IDIOT, he chided from the back of his mind. He stumbled hard as the ship rocked against a sudden impact, catching himself inches before his head slammed against the cell's bars; even without the electric current, knocking one's head into metal bars wasn't a healthy way to go. Balancing himself against the shaking of the vessel, he aimed the Keyblade at the lock again. It took some doing to align it just right, but within less than a minute, the Keyblade got the message. A small beam of light shot out from the end of the Key and into the lock. The mechanism within clicked, and the door swung open. Off kilter, and nearly falling a second time, he made his exit from the cell. "Either we hit something, are getting sucked into something, or... almost sounds like there's a fight." He looked at his Keyblade a third time. "We should get up top." He looked about and started in the direction Silver had brought them in from. "You gonna be able to stand and walk alright?"
"Well." dejectedly, Glyde paced several laps across his cell before stopping at its center. Under the soft, static hum resonating off of the prison bars, he wrought his mind in the frantic search for a solution. Just some way out... But there was nothing he could think of that was within his power to do. Whether to bypass bars entirely, or somehow null or divert the electrified current coursing through them; neither seemed a likely feat for himself. And unless he was underestimating her, Illiana would be as lost for a way out as he was. Slumping to the bare wall at the back of his cell, he set his back against it and dropped down to a seated position. "Maybe I would have preferred getting thrown overboard. To be alive in jail cell, or dead or dying in outer space?" He gazed around the brig. An idea slowly formed itself in his mind. It wasn't particularly subtle; nor would it earn him any points for being graceful. But it could be effective. Certain that both Silver and Scroop were both absent, he looked to Illiana. "I don't know about you, but I'd rather take my chances for freedom than get double-crossed."
Gold. As in the gbc Gold version. Just a bit of a warm up run before I do it on other games. I'm far from prepared to nuzlocke US/UM. Even Sun...
The struggles of the Nuzlocke strike hard.
Glyde had been careful with his steps as he descended from the top deck. Each stride down the stairs was meticulously measured, and his efforts strained his mind as he minded not to make unnecessary noise or stirs... But all of this for naught. Despite his utmost caution, the bottom step down let out a sharp wooden, growl that filled the room. And this again... before he could process what was happening, Illiana had him clear across the room, and tucked against the wall, snapping a hushed reprimand before she was in turn reproached by another occupant of the ship. Glyde moved to assist her, but halted in an instant as the cold metal of a gun barrel pressed into his back. As if by instinct, Glyde splayed out his hand, like a resigned convict, prepared for a death sentence. "Neither of are particularly guilty of any sort of crime," he explained, adding into Illiana's plea. "We've heard nothing of consequence; even if we had, it's not our intent to interfere with anyone's business here. Killing us is actually probably way worse for you lot in the long run anyways."
Glyde's following with Chrono and Take proved more of an obligation than a want in his mind. The regret of this decision weighed upon his thoughts as they ascended the steps onto the upper deck. Open space... no where to take cover or hide... no way out but off... if the entire crew is going to meet anywhere at once, it'll be here, and we won't have any way to avoid them. At least, he gathered, if he had stayed below deck, he'd have been good enough to conceal himself, perhaps even get off a shot at someone if they came too close or too threatening. Up top, there was nothing but the seemingly skittish cabin boy, who would flee for the nearest authority, whose cabin happened to be within a few bounds. "I think," he whispered, only audible to Chrono and Take, "I'd better go make sure Illiana is alright. You two are better at the whole explaining things thing than I am anyways." He casually sidestepped out from the small formation the three of them had held. "Which reminds me," he spoke more audibly, "I forgot to bring up our paperwork on that." He began to backtrack towards the stairs they had come up from. "Be right back."
The Night Before Parting from the group, Glyde stepped outside of the lodging, calling forth his Keyblade as he crossed through the threshold of the doorway. Shutting the door behind his exit, he paced some ten or more yards from the house, eyes peeled for something in particular. He stopped as soon as he found that something: a lone rock, jutted out from the ground, not too small, but not quite large either. Perfect, he told himself. He cast a glance back over his shoulder towards the house, wherein lights were dimming and darkening entirely as Master Atmos and the others began bedding down. Certain that he wouldn't be interrupted, he returned to the rock, setting his undivided attention on it. He raised his Keyblade, leveling it with his eyes. Like a marksman at a range, he squared his sight along the length of his Kyeblade's 'barrel,' carefully setting the approximate center of the rock squarely into his aim. Let's see now. The instruction was clear enough; all it took was concentrating his power and channeling it through his Keyblade... But that was all in theory. He had to practice it for himself at least once to be sure it would work. It would be embarrassing to try it in a battle only for it to not work as expected. After almost a full minute of intensive willpower, he felt a strange sensation, that of energy moving through and from his arm and hand, and into his Keyblade. With more force than expected, this mass of energy released from the Keyblade as an orb-like manifestation, which slammed with breaking impact against the stone. Could use work; but it'll do. Feeling strangely winded from the endeavor, Glyde trekked back to the lodging. Silently making his way in, he found a cot tucked into a comfortable corner. In moments, he was lost in a deep sleep... Morning The waking hour came about as suddenly to Glyde as sleep had the night before. Like the fatigue he had felt from his trial of magic hours before, the manner of his waking was strange as waking went. Often, it would be from the strength of a frenzied dream, or the piercing of a light, natural or otherwise, cutting into his eyes that he would awaken. This morning, it was the rare ocassion of being pulled from sleep by the almost synergistic awareness to the waking of others around him. As if feeling the stirring from his companions, the Master, or Torrin, Glyde too rejoined the waking world. However he did not spring from his bedding immediately, preferring to spend what remaining time he could as relaxed as he could; the day ahead would be stressful enough to warrant that. It would only be from overhearing the conversations of other rooms escalating through the morning hours that he would remove his covers and convene with the others. He would arrive, still putting down the rest of what he had scraped out of the remains of breakfast, just in time to bid farewell to Master Atmos, and move headlong through her portal into yet another world. It was still a new experience for him, traveling by way of portals such as that. When he emerged at the other end, he felt slightly dazed, as though he'd be spun around for some time. When he came back to his senses, he would join in Take's bewilderment. He peered anxiously through the gaps in the ship's hull, across the star-studded horizon outside. "Let's just hope we don't get kicked out of this place," he mentioned, remembering the initial hostilities of the natives of Atlantis.
Not ready... The words cut like a searing knife through Glyde's already uncertain mind. Normally, such words would be little more than a setback, a minor inconvenience that could be overcome by simply proving the person that spoke them wrong; that could only work if the person being spoken to was not convinced of their lack of readiness. To someone thoroughly sold on their unpreparedness, however, the damage they could deal came in spades. Glyde was one of the latter sorts of people when he heard Atmos say 'not ready.' Though he knew that she meant for the specific task she was to take up, the front of Glyde's thoughts took it more generally, applying it to the overall situation, and the road that stood ahead of him. Her words confirmed for him what he had told himself he already knew. "We're not strong enough, maybe?" he said aloud, speaking up for the first time since the confrontation in the throne room. "It took all of us, plus someone even stronger, to defeat that Leviathan. Besides, two people can keep a low profile better than eight, or ten, or however many of us there are." He didn't wait for any responses from his peers. He stepped forward from the group, pursuing Atmos. "Master..." he spoke awkwardly, and with a lengthy pause. "I wonder... is there anything you can show or tell me as far as... actually fighting? The whole hack and slash approach... err... hasn't exactly been working for me. And I'd be disappointed to not be able to offer much when we're in danger."
A battle worn and increasingly agitated Glyde ascended the staircase without commentary. Entering into the throne room, he made a beeline towards the exit, hoping to return to Master Atmos as suggested. Only at the calling of the King, and the feeling of new power coursing through him, was he drawn to a stop. He listened, through briefly, to the Atlantis King’s words. Though mere feet from the door out of the throne room, he would let the others pass by before leaving himself. Still cloistered behind a multitude of mounting confusions and perplexities, he allowed himself to wonder again of the questions he needed answered… And now, how to properly fight gets added to the top of that list, for now, he pondered, reflecting on his persisting insistence on hesitation. If nothing else, perhaps, Master Atmos would have a solution to that. But everything else… it seemed was on him to piece together. Maybe those papers we keep finding?
I'll have Glyde gain: - HP Boost - Leaf Bracer - Fire
I guess that plan is a wash too. Glyde heaved a heavy, exasperated breath. He unenthiastically summoned his Keyblade. With the defeat of the soldiers at the claws of the mechanized beast coming so quickly, he hesitantly resumed his place on the front line of combat. His experience so far had taken short time to teach him that the up-close and personaoool style of fighting was neither his forte, nor his interest. As it stood though, he lacked the knowledge of a means to cope with this roadblock; not with the Keyblade anyways. Grinding his teeth tightly, he proceeded forward. Despite the setback of two consecutive blows dealt by the Leviathan he maintained course. With the foe seeming single-mindedly focused on Take, Glyde began circling, looking for an opening in the Leviathan's defenses. Though no point seemed so exposed in its armored construction, he concluded as he rounded to its flank, that striking its legs could prove useful in the long run. He charged cautiously, making swings at the machine's appendages. HP: 10/25 AP: 9/12
