Surprise Arrival [Shinn/ permission]

[Heroic Bilby]

Who indeed? A question left unanswered. Just as Kairi went to follow the stranger a burst of purple fire erupted between them like a wall, cutting the two off. The man probably wasn't expecting that, but whatever his reaction couldn't really be made out by the princess of heart through the unnaturally coloured flames. They roared for a few tense minutes then died away. The stranger was gone.

"Sorry about that, dear," said a melancholic voice. It came from behind the girl and belonged to an aged woman. She stood there near the Third District's fountain wearing all black, a widow's veil hanging over he round, wrinkled face farmed by curly grey hair. "But we couldn't have you getting away now could we?"

[Iris|Kairi]

"Oh!" Kairi yelped, bouncing away from the saving stranger as the odd purple fire erupted. At first she suspected Axel, but his flames weren't purple. Her eyes were wide as she watched, trying to figure out where it came from and how to get through it to meet the man who came to her rescue, only for the flames to poof and the man to be gone. She was alone again...

Or so the princess thought.

Whirling, she searched for the sudden voice, finding it coming from an older lady who seemed awful sad. That old woman hadn't been there before... Kairi got a chilling vibe. This place was very weird. Feet bringing her carefully closer, she ventured a question. "Do you need me for something?"

[Heroic Bilby]

"I would say I do young lady," the would-be widow said, practically oozing sorrow with every breath. Her voice seemed healthy for her age at least, not like someone knocking at death's door. "Sorry about those nasty things before. I'm not quite as young as I once was and they get away from me now and then."

The woman's veiled expression seemed to turn more sour at the mention of the Heartless, matching a dip in her tone.

"Oh my, pardon my manners dear. I am Sorrow. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Despite her words the lady did not seem "pleased" in the slightest. Her name was apparently more than for coincidence.

[Iris|Kairi]

"Your name is Sorrow--..Ah, Nice to meet you, too..." Kairi stammered, trying to be polite despite the shock at the name. It certainly fit. Really unnerving, but fit... Standing a comfortable distance away, the princess remained steadily on edge, as if waiting for something horrible to happen. Or for the lady to start crying. Maybe both. There was a sort of a funk in the air, but it'd been there since she mysteriously arrived.

"..Did you say those heartless got away from you? They were yours?" she asked, feeling like she missing something. Where they pets? Could this woman summon them? In that case, wouldn't that make her filled with darkness and an enemy?

[Heroic Bilby]

"When one offers their name it's polite to give you own, young lady," the woman answered, instead of going right for her question. She sight quite sadly and then began to move a little to face the fountain, walking with both hands using a single brown cane together as she hunched slightly forward.

"They are not mine, no. But I suppose I should start from the beginning." With that the lady slowly but finally managed to seat herself on the edge of the fountain, facing Kairi with a somber face that could barely be seen below the tinted dark curtain. "Might I ask your name first?"

[Iris|Kairi]

"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I was so flustered by all that went on I forgot," Kairi blushed embarrassedly. Where WERE her manners? She really forgot her head there for a moment. "My name is Kairi. Please forgive me," the young lady offered a smile, lowering her head in hopes that it would make up for her oversight. A sigh followed that as she sat down near Sorrow on the lip of the fountain, though not too close.

"You were saying...about the heartless? Were you keeping them somewhere and they got loose?" she asked, though that didn't make sense either. Could you trap a heartless? Usually they just appeared or traveled through shadows..

[Heroic Bilby]

Once again the woman seemed to glaze over the girl's questions about the Heartless. She stayed silent for a little, then spoke again sounding reflective but still sad.

"Kairi... such a lovely name. You are a very special girl, aren't you Kairi?" she asked quietly with her aged voice before an audible sniff filled the space between them. "Excuse me," she said as her right hand went up below her veil to wipe at her eyes. "Looking at you makes me imagine what I might have been like when I was young and whole."

[Iris|Kairi]

"I'm not too special-- Oh, don't cry Sorrow," Kairi started awkwardly, the sentence itself sounding wrong. She continued on though. She hated to see someone so sad, though the rest of Sorrow's words threw her off a little. Blue eyes blinking, she tried to think it through, but soon gave up.

"Young and whole? Youth isn't everything. And what makes you..not whole?"

Was she..a nobody? Had she lost a loved one? A husband?

[Heroic Bilby]

"Not special? Is that so? I surely hope that you are," the woman answered. "Or else I've wasted my time."

The idea of it seemed to break her heart.

"Well, I said I would start from the beginning so I had best do what I say. Let me get this settled first, dear: I'm not the one who brought you here. I don't know who that was or who that man from before was either. I just happened to see you and, well... I knew I had to intervene. I couldn't let you get taken away. At first i tried to call off those Heartless attacking you but well, you know well that went. Seems I haven't got the spirit for controlling them anymore. I've let a heavy burden wear me down."

[Iris|Kairi]

Letting the control comment slide, she nodded understandingly, accepting there were mysteries not likely to ever be answered.

"What is this burden you have, and how can I help? I'll do my best not to waste your time, Sorrow. Maybe I was brought here for a reason, to help you if I can," Kairi smiled, trying to cheer the woman. Surely she could do SOMETHING. It'd be a shame for her to be the only person seemingly around and have to leave this poor old lady in her suffering. Kairi was humble, but she couldn't deny internally that she was special. But what she special enough to be able to help?

[Heroic Bilby]

"I wonder," came the predictably melancholy answer. "You see Kairi, the reason I intervened was because of that heart of yours. I've never sensed one quite like it in all my memories. Who would have thought a heart could exist without darkness? Well, that told me right away you were different, but then you showed that Keyblade as well. Even I know what that is."

Sorrow sighed again and then caught her breath, possibly winded from her small bout of talking. She did look rather feeble even if her voice stayed solid enough.

"So, Kairi, with all that I'd be rather surprised if you didn't know what a Nobody was."

[Iris|Kairi]

Ah, it was the worst-case scenario. Sighing lightly, she smiled sadly once more and nodded. Sorrow's...sorrow was catching. Nobodies were very good at making their emotions feel real. "Yeah, I know what a Nobody is. Is that what you are, Sorrow?" she wanted to make sure, unsure of how she could be any help. If there was a way she could, surely the Organization would've known about it and told her to do it. The princess didn't know how to make nobodies whole again, but she wished she did.

[Heroic Bilby]

"Yes, that is what I am. Or was," the old woman stated, her head bowing lower as more sadness overtook her voice from those last words. "To be honest, I am not sure what I am anymore. It all started with this."

The lady in black reached into her collar with her right hand and then produced a necklace with a vibrant purple gemstone attached. She let it hang over her clothes unhidden and then rested her hand back on her cane again. The amethyst on her necklace was quite large, easily the size of a person's palm. Not the sort of thing you would wear for jewelry under normal circumstances.

"This cursed rock."

And then she truly began to cry.

[Iris|Kairi]

"A-ah, don't cry!" Kairi exclaimed, truly not knowing what to do, exactly. She reached out and hesitantly patted the woman's shoulder, leaning closer. "I'll try to help anyway I can. What is that? What did it do that makes you unsure of what you are? If you stop crying and tell me more, maybe I can do something?" Kairi spoke softly, optimism in her voice. Maybe if she was cheerful, it could infect this lady like the sadness tried to infect her.

Taking her eyes from what she could see of the woman's face, they moved to the 'cursed rock'. It was large..and purple like the fire that had kept her from leaving with the man. It was actually kind of pretty, but the anguish it attached to this woman kept it from being truly beautiful. "Why do you say this is cursed?"

[Heroic Bilby]

"Why?" the woman repeated morbidly. "Can you imagine what it is like to become a Dusk, my dear? To lose your heart so much that you barely remember feelings at all, and no longer remember even what you were like as a whole being? To only imagine that someday you might feel again as proof of your existence? And then when your wish is granted..."

The woman's right black-covered hand rose up and removed her veil. She looked back up now, straight at Kairi. She was indeed crying now, but her eyes were so red and swollen that it looked as if she'd been crying for days long before the Princess of Heart had even appeared here.

"... to have no other feelings than constant, ovrwhelming sadness?"