Quill listened to Faust recount his time in his homeworld, and though Faust spoke with optimism in his voice, the slight crack of reality was there. A life of struggle and uncertainty, all faced with a strong force of positivity that Quill couldn’t help but envy. To be able to look forward to new and interesting aspects of life seemed unlikely in a life of fighting yet here was a man with a strength Quill wholey admired. “That’s..real nice Faust. Thank you, the fact you make even a dower prison like this slightly tenable is no easy feat.” Across the way the two adjacent, Aux and Kaida, spoke of a past together. Learning together and working as allies, possibly in the use of the keyblade? Could such a thing exist, on Quill’s world the keyblade was a tool for war but never studied as an art. He had to know more, yet Aux seemed confused about his past. Perhaps an injury that caused memory loss? The girl though, Kaida, may have answers if Quill manages to live that long. The two bonded over their time fighting together, something that scratched a numb part of Quill. Allies faces washed over his memories and disappeared quickly, a time of his life that seems like a vivid dream. Quill began to wonder about this group, whether he could see himself as someone’s ally again. Yet suddenly doors opened, a civilian entered. It couldn’t already be visitation hours? The lack of clocks or magic for the last week has made Quill more aware of keeping track of time. He stood around in no particular spot and had a subtle smirk, his question to the group didn’t seem relevant to a bunch of prisoners, who’ve been in cold cells the whole time. From his corner Quill kept an eye on the door, if other visitors were suddenly coming then he needed to be ready for any surprises. 7/30
Quill listened as he put the final touches on, he was almost thankful these horrid mutations were so durable. Quill had surmised after several attempts of pulling the claws off days ago, the chitin on his body grew from his skeletal structure. Now it was the hard part, Quill moved closer to a 45 degree angle of the barred door. He had to know, he knew something of this situation. Readying a throw, Quill tossed the plate in a vertical spin zipping through the bars of Aux’s cell. Quill rejoiced, until he heard curses from the other cell. Perhaps it might’ve smacked him a little hard, but it had to be fast and discreet or the cameras would see. On the hand sized rectangle was carved a question Quill needed to know. 6/30 Spoiler: Aux's eyes only “How did you regain your light? How does a man who’s given into darkness return? I need to know
Quill tried to stay calm, no sense getting agitated because of this new guy. Spending a couple moments on the floor stretching his muscles, releasing built up pressure as he was trained, Faust spoke out. “-what's you guys home-worlds like?” Hm, nothing he’d like to think about to be honest. “My world is in...complicated circumstances. Nowhere you’d go want to see or return to, lest you end up losing your life. It was nice once though, a viridescent paradise, but that was before I was born. It only stays in my memory now as penance for a lifetime of mistakes. Hm you enjoy your own homeworld Faust? Well if you’re here, your past is a tad complicated too.” A grim chuckle came from closed lips, Quill couldn’t help but find life so strange. Quill’s thoughts were interrupted by Vanitas' hazing. He was near to yelling but Aux took the words out of his mouth, he had a lot more to say to this madman and shut him down. Quill respected Aux a lot for his confidence, but that line about “Did I really talk like that?” What does he mean? Kaida began to speak about her own past, but well, she seemed uh confused? Some trinket she had and where she got it, but something about Aux making it, and not making it? Could this have something to do with Aux “finding his light again”, that was something he’d need to ask about. Quill took another plate from the wall, shocks lessened, and began carving some more. 5/30
Quill worked slowly on his small project, losing himself in a daydream. Of a time when he could spend his days helping the locals, trading stories with his fellow soldiers, and when he believed the war effort could’ve been won. Yes, it was a nice fantasy to return to but that was all it was now, a fantasy. Suddenly he heard clangs of metal, he was closer to the door so he heard the shuffling of footsteps down the hall, guards, with others. He laid down his materials and waited, the sealed doors separated as the higher ranked guard came in “Prisoner transfer” they said. And behind him they dragged in a man, a man with eyes like his own. His black hair and strange metallic face plates were striking, he had a crazed look of joy when he addressed the room. Quill couldn’t stop staring, he seemed to radiate this unpleasant pressure on the room. Quill told himself he needed to stay calm, he couldn’t react like before. Breath, breath...breath… The man was addressed as Vanitas, he was somehow familiar with the rest of the new prisoners here. Now isn’t that a funny coincidence. The girl, Kaida, she ignored the new man’s attempts to converse as she spoke with Aux. Suddenly the first attempts to speak to the intercom actually got a response. Quill was floored “What the hell..I’ve been here a week and yelled for hours and I got nothing..” he mumbled in slight frustration. But yes, the intercom began to read out the crimes of each of the detainees. “Mass destruction, hmm.” Quill was suddenly rather melancholy thinking of the meaning of that crime. And what it really meant for the world he left behind. Still Quill’s ears perked up when he heard Aux, Vanitas, and Kaida’s charges. Could he be wrong about these guys, but Quill's instinct said they didn’t seem to fit the crimes they were pinned for. Well this new guy could, but the other two didn’t give off the Terrorist temperament at the moment. And what the hell was ‘No Heart’? Still, this new guy was an unsettling presence for Quill, even if the others seemed to ignore him. “Hey new guy, pipe down alright. These cold murky cells are bad enough without your running commentary.” 4/30
Quill chuckled, a rather unfamiliar noise he thought. “Sure, if you guys aren’t sprung before judgement is passed, I'll take your last meal. No sense dying on an empty stomach, and...you don’t notice it when you’re gone anyway right...” Quill felt down for a moment, his cheer was downplayed by the reality that these could be his final moments of some freedom. “But if you guys are freed, suppose I’ll owe you guys a favor. Anything you need, I’ll do within my power. Consider it your own genie’s wish, for all that amounts to.” Faust when on with his surprisingly upbeat attitude, perhaps Quill could learn something about positivity from that. Quill picked up some of the metal scraps that in his rampage a couple days ago, an inkling of a nice idea came to mind. Taking his claws and digging into a bent metal wall plate, Quill began pulling on the lining of the wall. Electric shocks went across his body, his body and blood burnt. With a quick yank, palm sided rectangular panels ripped out. Quill’s breath was intense but the shocks were something he got used to. He calmed as he began carving crude sketches of playing card imagery upon the plates. 3/30
“Hm hm, perhaps you know more than I thought. You- you can speak rather bleakly, yet truthfully about…losing control. Perhaps power is not something we can claim to control, we’re simply at the whims of it’s alluring force.” Quill pondered aloud. Strange people, interesting people… “Hey, Faust was it, I’ll take you up on that bet. If you have friends here I’ll bet they won’t let you guys stay here long. You seem like you guys need another chance to show keyblade masters can redeem themselves. That’d be..wouldn’t that be nice?” Quill curled up his legs to his chest and smiled. 2/30
Quill’s bewilderment and enthusiasm was dashed quickly, he slumped back against the nearby wall. His expectation was for keyblade masters of great skill that could overcome any situation, but the lack of keyblade didn’t fill Quill with much confidence. I mean, this Aux could be telling the truth, Quill didn’t feel a connection with a keyblade either. But...well he hadn’t for some time. Quill’s face hardened into a grim complexion, he remembered seeing the weapon fall from his hands upon waking and cracking the floor under it. His keyblade was cold and rough, a chipped stone blade and a splintered oak handle. It led him to black out and when he awoke he was here, his keyblade somewhere else on the ship or thrown into the void of space. He didn’t know which. Quill once felt that his keyblade was his one source of freedom from life’s horrors, yet even that was now lost to him. “Wha- uh yes, I- I caused some problems for the people on the ship. I have some trouble staying calm and there was an incident when I was uh, brought on.” Quill didn’t remember being picked up by a ship at all, but explaining anything from before would likely only sour their moods and bring up his own bad memories. “I might’ve- I mean I did fight some of the staff after there was a problem summoning my keyblade. See this is why I was bewildered, I know why I’m here, but keyblade users being imprisoned doesn’t make sense. We- they’re meant to fight off the evils of the world.” Quill was exasperated at the end of talking this much, a week with nothing but his four walls left him pretty lonely, it was actually nice to talk this much, even if the topics disturbed him. Quill raised a hand to the transparent wall but reminded of his chitin clawed hands, pulled his hand back. Would they accept how his body was deformed or like the guards, consider him a freak. It put Quill off balance. 1/30
“Aux, Kaida, Stratos, Castur, Faust… Huh who knew people had such interesting names.” Quill said to himself. Faust seemed to strangely calm in this situation, perhaps unaware of the dangers once they arrived or he was rather really confident. The man across him, his name Castur, seemed more pessimistic. He could've been in similar situations before? The large male Aux, the name rather fitting Quill thought, was restless. Perhaps like Quill he knew he had something he needed to repent for, but Quill decided was reading into things too much. The woman, Kaida shared a familiarity with Aux and this silent man Stratos, she seemed puzzled by their current condition. Could they be falsely accused? Yet something as Quill stewed caught his attention “K-keyblades!? You know what keyblades are?” For the first time Quill dragged himself from his dark corner and went to red transparent walls, looking around to see other members of their five man band. “You all, I thought it possible but-” Quill looks around to the intercoms, whispering now “-are you keyblade wielders?”
It took a minute of silence as Quill tapped scratched a divot in the floor but as he looked out from the cell, Quill heard a reply from a new voice. This one was neither raging like the deeper voiced person or alert like the female voice. Perhaps younger like the calmer teenager’s voice? “Ah a Magician, you keep unique company for a performer.” It was a nice change of pace for Quill to talk with someone who wasn’t trying to imprison or kill him. “You might want to tell your friend he’ll have no luck, I’ve been here a week and unless he wants to go into shock, he better stop giving the collar a reason to electrocute him. They react to violent action and physical force, as well suppressing more overt castings of magic.” Quill still heard the raging man bash against his cage, he could swear he heard the whispering of sadistic laughter from somewhere in the cell block as well. He couldn’t blame the big guy though, he reacted the same way on the first day, the claw marks and gashes in the metallic walls were proof enough of his danger to others, and himself. “Sigh, oh by the way, I saw a couple of other people carried when you were being put in cells. You don’t happen to know any injured people right?”
Tap, Tap, Tap, Click BZZZT. Another electric shock from the collar as Quill played with the lock again. The sharp claws were close but not far enough to jimmy the lock. The shocks have been getting less intense after the first few when he tried escaping, perhaps the charge was running out? Suddenly the doors opened with guards carrying more people. “-get these scumbags on the ship, they’re pretty dangerous, but be gentle with the ones going to the medical bay.” “Huh, more people?” Quill warily got to his feet and used the wall to walk to the red transparent walls. The people were having collars put on and put in cells, were those keyblade chains? “Hey, those people, are they also keyblade mast-” BZZT Quill fell down in pain as the guards pressed a switch on his cell’s console. “No more talking freak, after what you did to the people on this ship, I’m hearing no more from you.” The guard looked at him like a monster, but Quill couldn’t blame him really. Still- “Look I wasn’t in control of myself-” BZZT “Gahhshhhhiit...” Quill coiled in pain on the ground. The guards left and Quill slid slowly back to his corner, he stayed like that for several hours. Drifting in and out of daydreams and murky sleep, noises began to get Quill’s attention. “Any SOS mem-” "SCREW Y-" "helllooooo! Is anyone out there?" Quill sprung awake and peered down his cell, across from him was a well dressed man with a jacket with a fur lapel. Still groggy and not awake, so it must’ve been someone else. Clearing his throat “Mhm, hello. And who are all of you? I was having a pleasant nap in this cold metal cell until you started screaming, so you all must be new to imprisonment. My name is…uh well, you can call me Quill. We’ll either be here for a long time or a very deadly short time, so let's get comfy.”
Username: ClearzerO Name: Quill (Q) Age: 22 (Age Relative) Appearance: Personality: Social yet keeps secrets to himself. Prickly, and is a prick. Homeworld: The Demonic Front. Keyblade: Razor Vine [Encased in Stone] What's most important to you? Making amends for the Sins of my pasts, finding shape in a world broken and shapeless. As he sees it, life is now a meaningless series of events he needs to find a path for once again. What do you want outta life? To amass power, gaining more control over his life. With some sense of control over his life again through Power, he believes he'll be able to accept his past and be a better person. The idea of being powerless to control his destiny makes him afraid. What are you afraid of? MY SIIIIIIIINS. (But seriously). He has taken a dangerous road and come out the other side afraid that he can't return to decency as a human being. He's worried he only can make sense of reality through the eyes of a monster. He's also afraid of Geese, cause they scary and loud. I am choosing Path of the Guardian, sacrificing the Path of the Warrior. KH SOS Awakening.
