The Smith King: The search is on!

[oblivion]

Lucia hesitantly made her way along the cobblestone path of the strange new world that she had ended up in. The knight that had saved her, had dissappeared so quickly before she could argue. So now she was alone... well, not completely alone. Shibbles had already been cross with being left with a "noob" as she so strangely phrased it, but was still the only companion she had right now. "Man, this place looks like it could use a lot of work!" the little imp exclaimed, floating close behind Lucia.

"Well it looks like thats what is being done, hence the crane." Lucia replied hestitantly, not wanting to make this into a big deal.

"I guess. So where do you think we should go looking for allies? This place doesn't look like it has any warriors whatsoever." Shibbles replied now sitting on Lucia's shoulder.

"I don't know, but maybe there will be some around." Lucia replied sweatdropping. She was still not to happy about playing the hero, but she had to do something to stop him. If he succeeded, who knows where it would end. Other worlds like this town for example could be next.

[Faust]

(Sorry! Hadn't noticed that the event started. *Sweatdrops*)

If he ever had taken the time to notice, Red might have moted the fact that his choice of books were uncanny, if not mildly prophetic, to what was happening in the world around him. Having pored over the latest adventure of a traveling knight and his exploits against an evil wizard, the mousey young man found himself filled with an excitement not unlike the kind experienced right at the end of a gripping action movie.

Of course, unlike the little kids in the theaters, Red didn't jump out of his seat and begin karate chopping air, hopping around like a maniac until he would invarably crash into something and hurt himself. Instead, he merely pulled out another book from his pile (He had an unusually large column of them at his side.) and opened it up, ready to take in the adventures of that infamous rabbit thief Don Carrote.

Out from the top of the book, he spotted a young girl and... some bizarre creature. Taking off his glasses, he rubbed them and put them back on, unperturbed to find out that he wasn't hallucinating an elf girl and a little creature. Or maybe he was; his books often turned out to be a powerful force indeed.

Curiosity overrode his desire to continue reading (a rare event for Mister Lonna). Standing up and dusting himself off, he took a few steps forward, tilting his head to the side and staring with blank, dull curiosity. Abstaining to say anything, he merely made himself apparent and bowed politely.

[oblivion]

Both Lucia and Shibbles were mildly surprised (to say the least) when someone had walked right up to them and bowed without so much as a single word. "Um, hello?" Lucia squeaked; clearly uncomfortable.

"Whats with the royal treatment? You not telling me something noob?" Shibbles, the chibi sized imp asked looking at Lucia.

"Not to my knowledge... can we help you?" Lucia said looking at the mousey looking fellow before her; not quite sure what to make of him.

[Faust]

"Ah," Red mouthed, as though pleasantly surprised that the figments of his imagination talked. That, of course, meant that in all likelyhood he wasn't hallucinating, but he still was cautious. After all, illusions were pretty powerful things, or at least so he read.

Opening his book, he flipped to a page and began pointing to words and phrases. With practice, Red managed to effectively produce entire sentences with very little in the way of translation difficulties. His special book contained nearly every word he might need to say, and since he knew the contents inside and out, speaking was a longer, but not difficult process.

"My apologies... Madame..." Flip, flip flip... "...was only curious... about...you and..." Flip, flip... "The...little girl... behind you."

[oblivion]

"Little girl? Who are you calling little you-" Shibbles began, steam popping out of her ears as Lucia clamped a hand over her mouth to silence her; Shibbles continued to rant, mumbleling incorherantly through Lucia's hand.

"Yes... we're not really around from here. We're looking for some strong warriors to... help us with something." Lucia said sweatdropping with embarressment.

Shibbles then sat on Lucia's shoulder pouting, still ticked at Red for calling her a little girl... wasn't her fault that she was turned into this. "Would you know where we can find some?" Lucia asked hoping that he did know of such a place.

[Faust]

"You are in luck," Red pointed out with a smile. "This town is... full of... warriors." He thought for a second, flipped a few pages, and began pointing afresh. "Unfortunately... many of them... are busy...fighting..." He flipped all the way to the back of the front cover, where several words that weren't in the book were scrawled. He pointed to one that simply read. "...The Heartless."

"Ah!" A thought came to him, and he flipped pages. "Whatever for... do you... need... knights? Does it have something to do with...The Heartless...?"

[oblivion]

"Heartless here? Has he already begun?" Lucia thought trying not to panic or jump to conclusions. "Something like that... a man has taken control of my world using Heartless." Lucia nodded.

"And Lucia is supposedly the chosen one who's supposed to save the world." Shibbles added with a bored expression on her face.

"Yes... but I need some help." Lucia said never having to admit that she needed help with anything; but school was nothing compared to having to save the entire world.

[Faust]

Chosen One? Red chuckled good-naturedly. It sounded like the plot of a typical fantasy novel, but with more Heartless. Of course, if this was all a hallucination (and he was becoming less and less sure that it was), then his imagination was worse than he thought. But illusion or no, it was hardly polite to refuse the call to action, especially when it seemed as though something interesting was bound to happen.

"Perhaps I can be of assistance?" He pointed, "I may be an old man, but..." Wait, that wasn't right. Stick to small phrases, Red. Waving his hand as though to erase the previous statement, he started over. "I may...not...be a... knight in shining armor... but I know... a thing...or...two...about... The Heartless" He bowed, turning to the inside back cover to a pre-typed phrase. "My name is Red Lonna, of Radient Garden.

[oblivion]

Lucia was gradually getting used to the oddness of Red's method of communication, wondering if he was a mute up until he chuckled. She smiled as he 'said' that he knew a thing or two about the heartless, but her people also knew things about them. Knowing and being able to fight them were two completely different things.

"How do you talk to people if you're in a battle?" Shibbles blurted out without thinking.

"We'd be happy to have you join us. We're still be in need of some capable warriors though." Lucia said trying to chang ethe subject.

"How do you expect to fight the heartless? Throw a dictionary at them?" Shibbles exclaimed with a giggle.

"Shibbles! Behave yourself..." Lucia whispered urgently, feeling extremely embarressed; it was like she was dealing with a child.

[Faust]

"Certainly..." Red quipped at Shibble with his fingers, "... such a harmless... looking... figure like yourself... has no room to talk. At the very least, you should... know... the... meaning of... the phrase... 'Appearances can be decieving."

Nodding, satisfied that he got his message across with only a few hiccups, Red finished with "It's not that I am...unable to...talk. I simply choose not to. My... voice... is too dangerous. But enough idle chatter." Red thought for a moment. "Where... to find...warriors? I suppose... if enough people... become curious...like I did...But then... that might... attract the wrong kind of attention...for... your needs."

[oblivion]

"Harmless! I'll show you harmless you-" Shibbles exclaimed before Lucia clamped a hand over her mouth; not stoppping the small fires radiating from her hands.

"There is no arena or mess hall around here?" Lucia asked trying not to get involved in a senseless fight between these two. "Maybe there is something around here where I can find out more about my enemy." Lucia added hopefully.

((Hmmm... need people... >.> this is what happend the last time I tried this plot))

[Dante]

The teen with the cleaver began to walk from the bailey, an empty paper cup in hand. Dante had come back to Hollow Bastion in search of Madam. His sources lead him here once again, his searching for this witch failing. Months have passed by and Madam hasn't spoken a word to him. Neither has her assisstant, who seemed to enjoy playing with Dante's mind as much as Madam. What if someone had already killed her? His life's goal would be ruined.

The teen sighed loudly as he leaped from the edge of the 'cliff' that was next to the bailey. He landed somewhere beyond the three that were conversing, his mind straying for a moment as he stared at the sky. "Hm... Wonder if Madam is actually hiding somewhere here. I can't believe she's so hard to find. Doesn't she knew when to take a break?"

[oblivion]

Lucia seemed the first to hear Dante, turning slightly wondering where he had come from; people just didn't fall out of the sky afterall. "Um... hello?" Lucia spoke up hoping to bring him out of his thoughts.

"What are you blabbing about?" Shibbles blurted out again against Lucia's wishes.

[LEO LION]

A giggle could be heard by the collective gathering of figures in Hallow Bastion. Soon enough a young girl could be seen running after an undulating ball, as if a ball that moved was odd enough they would be even more surprised to see that it was constructed out of fireflies. The young girl had a staff that was perhaps three times her size with her, she was holding it tightly in her hand as she ran – though it made her unbalanced and she often wobbled and almost tumbled a little as she went after the ever moving, ever rolling ball of insects.

They kept her busy and amused when she got bored, of course her designated keeper was busy trying to rebuild the city, not that Sika minded, “uncle” Cid (at least as she often called him) was usually too busy to bother with the little Spirit girl.

She paused hearing the voice of the imp, and looked over with her large mahogany eyes. They were alight with childish wonder and curiosity, she watched the group of three – no four? But the fourth didn’t seem at all interested in what the imp the elf and the other had to say – or write? The gaggle of insects returned to her side, having noticed that she was no longer interested in playing with them. They fluttered about her, flashing their taillights, though not to gain her attention, for they were watching the gathering as well. She was feeling an air of need around the tall female with the creature upon her shoulder.
Sika tilted her head; blond hair tipped orange fell over her shoulder and dangled beside her small body. A tail twitched, it was hidden beneath two kimonos, one pristine and white and very traditional, and the other pink and left untied. It was worn in the manner of a jacket. She didn’t insert herself however, and was far enough away to go unnoticed for the time being, she thought perhaps to eavesdrop and figure out what was going on, before she might interject herself into the conversation.

count; 348
remarks; I do not know what I am doing, but here's the post I promised.

[Faust]

Red made a noise of confusion as two new people showed up suddenly. "Speak of the devil..." One of the advantages of reading your words from a book was that it was easy to make snarky asides to one or two people without the other people overhearing. Of course, it made adressing the newcomers rather difficult, unless they had the vision to read a book from ten or more feet away.

Hesitantly, he raised one hand in greeting, first to the young man talking to himself, then to the mass of fireflies that surrounded (he thought) some young girl.