Kingdom Hearts - Blades of Three Realms

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro had watched Roxas do his song, of course with everyone in on this, it meant Shiro could keep calm, even though he was still a bundle of nerves, now slowly unwinding mostly about the singing part, but when he noticed the dancing with the sea creatures, possibly with the mermaid called Ariel, but he just swam over to Sebastian and proceeded to pluck off a song from Sebastian's music sheets, looking over the music as Sebastian saw what Shiro had picked, humming a bit in thought "you sure about dat one?" Shiro hummed in thought, before nodding lightly as he continued reading over it "yeah... this one seems interesting enough." Sebastian nodded, taking the sheet after Shiro studied it, and got to , the music starting in the background with Shiro starting slow, at least building up a decent pace, doing soft spirals and spins, bringing out Melody into hand as he worked into a circle to draw orange flames with his throat sinking in, well, his adams apple once more vanishing as he started to sing. "you, who seek Eterinity, are a capricious dreamer~ As you cling to a fickle dream... to where shall you go?" with that he would pass through some nearby rocks in a small spiral, leaving small gentle trails of light as he worked his way downwards into a figure eight, more sideways "i, who wept because i sought the key to open twilight~ but could not reach the moonlight-- to where shall i go?" with that he'd slow down his swimming to let himself be in tune with the chorus "even if the two of us lose our secrets in the other's eyes, we won't unclasp our layered arms~" Shiro would then move to start swim-dancing with one of the mermaids joining in, only minorly blushing due to the fact he was actually doing something this extravagant "Pale moon of January, hide the morning glow... to a night that should have no end will come a Gentle Dawn~..." of course, the two parted, and Shiro proceeded to start swimming in a small spiral, even winding down to the band to slowly float along the band group making small bubbles via melody which popped to make sparkles, the orange circle slowly turning into a blue crescent of sorts as he worked his magic "Because of the weight of love, which hurts the closer one gets~, When our chests were separated too far, i called it freedom~..." with that, he'd let his voice mingle with the chorus once more but still standing in the forefront as he slowly started making small waves of bubbles behind him using Melody to join and start swirling upwards to the 'crescent moon'. "Saying 'Only in dark places are things that Shine,' i gazed into the distance from my tiny window..." he then would rise up to slowly work his way towards the crescent moon effect he had drawn, which started to fade "Pale moon of January, how far will you sink? to a love that should have no end will come to a Gentle Dawn..." he then would start singing as he made an orange wave break the moon into fading, and creating a rising dawn, a gentle dawn in effect "Pale moon of January, hide the morning glow... to a night that should have no end will come a Gentle Dawn..." with that, shiro would start making other various effects to go with the 'rising dawn' dancing with the various sea creatures, and even drawing mini moons which faded amongst the dawn and with a flourish the song ended, with a nervous and slightly tired Shiro, but he did smile a bit lightly, even if he was new to working with the Atlanticans he did try his hardest on that part. the singing just came natural to him of course.

Roveth of course was clapping at Shiro's performance, even if Sebastian was a harsh critic over things, to him the singing was -spot on- in he had to say so from just listening. of course, he already had a song in mind, and if that sheet collection was extensive, then he'd definitely use the song he had in mind with a grin.

Axel of course would give off a whistle and clapping in applause for Shiro as well, even if Demyx was insanely jealous and Envious of Shiro's singing talent, at least the young 'unlimited' tried to do his best, and it was definitely a grand performance. as for himself.. he did have to wonder what song would come to mind for him, but eh, he'll figure something out at least.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Roxas, Crystal, and Xion also applauded Shiro's performance. It seemed like Roxas's attempt to get Shiro motivated to really try his best out there had been successful. Sure, Shiro still seemed to be nervous and all, but at least he wasn't whining about it anymore.

"Looks like we're up!" Crystal announced suddenly taking Xion fully by surprise.

"You mean both of us?" Xion wasn't expecting this considering Crystal hadn't mentioned it earlier when Roxas had first suggested for everyone to participate in the auditions to take some of the pressure off of Shiro.

"You've never done this before, right? And I already know I'm not the greatest singer so I'll just be doing this for fun anyway," Crystal explained. "Besides, it'll be more fun if we do this one together. And I've got some neat ideas for how to handle the choreography too."

Roxas watched with some amusement as the girls began whispering for a moment before Xion finally seemed to agree to whatever it was Crystal was planning and the two went over to make their song selection. The band started up again and Crystal got the ball rolling with the first verse.

"There's a place I know, it's always jumping. // I'm thinking we should go and leave our worries. // You got a friend in me, and I'll tell you something: // This time can be extraordinary!" Crystal sang while also making gentle movements with her hands, casting some Waterga magic to produce a very cool underwater lava-lamp effect around them.

"When shadows fall you're feeling small. // It looks like walls are closing in. // Don't be afraid, the dark will fade, // Just take my hand and look again!" Xion handled the next verse while also working to cast some Blizzaga magic to produce ornate ice crystals that began to flow in and around the bubbling swirls of moving water.

"This side of paradise, is where I want to be. // This side of paradise, for you and me. // This side of paradise, what you get is what you see. // And I never thought I'd see a place as nice, // This side of paradise." They sang together for the chorus, with Crystal bringing out Light's Shadow to shine a bit of Holy magic into the ice crystals to become refracted into multi-hued lights bouncing from one to another, weaving rainbows through the dancing currents of water creating an impressive spectacle of light and color.

"We're gonna take a ride, we're gonna catch that train. // When you're at my side the world has hope and, // As we pass on by, we all look the same. // The clouds are high, the world is open." Crystal took over the singing again for the next verse, shining another burst of Holy magic into the ice crystals so that there were now multiple sources of the dazzling light to illuminate the area.

"Forget about the pain and doubt, // Your happiness is overdue. // I've been dreaming of (dream) the skies above, // Dancing through the stars with you, // Oh, take me to..." Xion took over again for the next verse while Crystal conjured up some Magnega magic to gather all of the ice together behind the pair of them for one last hurrah. Once that was done Crystal would dismiss Light's Shadow from her hand getting ready for the last round of the chorus at which point both she and Xion held out their hands to the gathered ice casting Firaga to produce a vibrant, spinning explosion of underwater sparkles.

"This side of paradise, is where I want to be. // This side of paradise, for you and me. // This side of paradise, what you get is what you see. // And I never thought I'd see a place as nice, // This side of paradise." The girls sang through the rest of the song and waited for the music to fade out before going to rejoin the others once they were finished.

Roxas applauded them both with a smile. Sebastian was naturally going to be a tough critic about the vocals, but even he was impressed by the visual effects choreography the girls had managed to pull off. There was always room for more hands to help with providing ambiance even if there were only a finite number of vocalist positions for the concert.

"You two really know how to work your magic," Roxas was pretty amazed by how easily the girls had managed to pull that all together without having any time to practice first.

"The timing could use a bit more work, but just knowing how the spells can interact makes a pretty huge difference," Crystal grinned in amusement. "Of course, I was also tempted to summon Leviathan, but I decided against it for now because that might be a little bit much."

"You were right though. It was a lot of fun," Xion had to admit. "So, I guess that just leaves Roveth and Axel to decide who will be going next."

"I wonder what Axel will choose," Roxas looked contemplative for a moment. "I know he can sing because he gets roped into karaoke with Demyx when I'm not around to stop Demyx from monopolizing the machine, but he doesn't usually bother with it when I'm there because he'd rather just listen."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Axel and Roveth seemed to look at each other in an amused glances, before they turned, and proceeded to start doing Rock Paper Scissors to see who went next, eventually, Roveth got outplayed when he went for Rock and Axel went in with paper, causing the Dark half to grumble good naturedly and move off to fetch the right sheet music for himself, feeling one call out to him made him raise an eyebrow when he started looking over the song "huh... this is actually..." he smirked a bit, actually noticing the nature of the song, which made him reach to his back where he felt the cards, before nodding "this one shall do well." he said, once he was done studying the sheet he'd hand it over to Sebastian who nodded a bit and got the music ready and Roveth would make his belt appear around his waist, with a bit of magic to make everything with its contents waterproof, especially the deck as he pulled it out, grinning "Ladies and Gentlemen~! hope everyone's watching because... It's SHOWTIME!" with that the music started kicking in as he brought out two cards while swimming about, swirling around bubbles as he summoned out two Imairuka's to swim with him. "As long as those smiles are there... You wanna keep on Shining~!" he then would create sparkles using a small hinotama spell card to follow the three of them like a trail "I'll stake it all on my ultimate Pride~, I Wanna be Perfect!" of course, with that, the two Imairuka's started glowing, and with blue shines, dashed forward into a small portal, which exploded out into stars and small energy bolts before forming what looked to be a Cat mixed with a shark nyaoing in it's appearance and starting to zip along and creating various shapes while swimming as Roveth continued to sing on"no matter when, we'll believe in our Tomorrow... now, on wings of courage, just fly away~!" with that, he'd punctuate his next lines with two cards flinging out curling through the water like shurikens "We are Future Fighters~! This duel of the soul... Slice through the Darkness, card of Miracles!" with that, the two cards would burst into light, summoning out Deep Sea Diva, and Crystal Beast Emerald Tortoise, both now dancing and spinning along, green sparkles flowing off the turtle's back "Clash heads in the battle that Transcends Space and Time~! The real fun's just getting started!" of cours,e soon the two would join with Roveth, starting to swim/dance with him, with Emerald Tortoise following along spinning, creating a spiraling shower of sparkles on them along with bubbles floating up from the atlantean crew "for our dreams to gather in our hands... let's go, towards the ultimate future~! Never Give Up||Never Give Up||Never Give Up||Never Give Up" with that the music got to play a bit with the three of them dancing and giving off big smiles before they broke off from Roveth, who now had out two new cards, but held onto them almost hiding his smile with their fanned out state. "Doubt has no place in this game... You wanna be the Legend!" he would start slipping down in a slow descent towards the grounds below as he continued "Never be afraid to hurt... I wanna keep on going~!" with that, he'd settle down while small orbs of purplish light started popping into play spinning around him "Brimming inside our chests is infinite Energy... set free your feeling and reach for the sky~!" of course, at that point Roveth tossed out the next two cards, which formed two almost alien like creatures, though one belonged in the underwater scene: Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin, and his ally in crime fighting, Elemental Hero Neos! "We are future Fighters~! This duel's passions... Synchro and Fusion, the power of a ruler!" of course, at the mention of Fusion Neos and Aqual Dolphin proceeded to swim into a spiral, glowing, before coliding and letting out bursts of bubbles and sparkles to reveal Elemental Hero Aqua Neos who began spreading various underwater effects "the tension increases in the battle between light and darkness~! take a bow, and let's Pendulum Summon!" of course, the pendulum did form, drawing arcs of light across the area while Roveth took hand in hand with Aqua neos and Deep Sea Diva, starting to do their own little show "To understand the Genuine Strength in our hands... let's Aspire to go to the Definitive Future~! Never Give Up||Never Give Up||Never Give Up||Never Give Up" of course, with this the three started doing their own dance routines, using various atlantica effects like bubbles, so on. it took a few moments before the music readied as Roveth resumed singing "No matter when, we'll believe in our Tomorrow... now, on wings of courage just fly away~!" he said, spreading his arms wide with a couple of blue bursts of energy sparkled near his hands forming into cards, which were thrown out, cutting paths of light "We are Future Fighters~!this duel of the soul~...Slice through the Darkness, Card of Miracles!" he then would smirk, the cards rising up, one being Mirror Wall which formed and the second card being elemental Hero Bubbleman, which began firing off bubbles to create a prismatic sparkle along the help of the Mirror Wall "Clash heads in the battle that transcends space and time!The real fun's just getting started!~" of course, add in a bit more atlantica themed theatrics with Neos, Deep Sea Diva, Cat Shark ,and Emerald Tortoise dancing in the background dancing with the bubble jets and steam vents "For our dreams to gather within our hands... let's go, Towards the ultimate future! Never Give Up||Never Give Up||Never Give Up||Never Give Up" with that, the music would start winding down into its finisher, before giving off a big burst of energy and sparkles as the monsters all dismissed themselves like fireworks, leaving a swirling around Roveth moving to take a bow in the center of the watery stage.

Shiro just stared with wide eyes at how well Roveth did, given he never thought to use summons! of course, he himself didn't have any usable summons that he knew of but still, this was way over the top! and yet.. he just let his eyes return to normal, and a small smile showed on his face before chuckling, knowing full well Roveth was a definite showboat of epic proportions.

Axel of course just gulped a bit, looking at everyone else, then at the remnants of Roveth's performance, how the hell is he going to top that!?!?! sure, he knew he couldn't beat Shiro's singing talent, but add in Roveth's theatrics, those two would be -unstoppable-! of course, he did wonder how Ariel and Flounder were taking the facts of their group being so.. well diversed and all.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Cue Ariel speaking up again in response to Roveth's rather unorthodox performance. "You guys are really something else. There's no question that Shiro has a great singing voice, but all the rest of you have excellent showmanship and extremely diverse talents."

"Some of that stuff just now was kinda weird, but it was also really cool," Flounder chimed in commenting on the bizarre nature of Roveth's monsters and the strange way they would appear, combine, and then ultimately disappeared in a fireworks flourish once the performance was over.

"Trust me, when Roveth puts on a show, he won't settle for anything less than his best and he always delivers in full," Crystal commented. She wasn't only referring to his performance here in Atlantica either. His fireworks spectacular in El Nido during the party had also been top notch. Plus, it was nice to see him actually enjoying himself. And it seemed like the monsters he summoned had fun too.

"Well Axel, it looks like you're up," Roxas observed. By having Roveth go before him Axel had given himself the distinction of going last and that meant now all the pressure was going to be on him as he tried to upstage all the other performances. Roxas almost felt sorry for him, but he was confident that being as this was Axel being put on the spot like this he could definitely handle it.

"I'm sure you'll do great," Xion added trying to sound encouraging.

It really was a lot to measure up to. Sebastian, although he maintained his composure expertly, was already flabbergasted by the other performances and how talented this rather unusual group was, but he had to be unbiased and professional about it as the official court composer and all.

Roxas settled in next to Crystal looking thoughtful. "You know, I think convincing everyone to audition like this really was a good idea."

"I think so too," Crystal was all smiles right now. "After all, I went along with it, didn't I?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure I could have convinced Roveth without you," Roxas had to admit. "Still, he put on one heck of a performance."

"He has every right to be pleased with himself for that one," Crystal agreed wholeheartedly. "Axel is really going to have his work cut out for him."

"It's Axel so he'll be fine," Roxas nodded. "Still, it looks like Shiro is becoming a little more cheerful now so I'd say that's a good sign."

"That is what we were going for," Crystal confirmed. "The important thing is that we're all having fun together. The enemies we're facing want to instill us with fear and distrust in order to sever the bonds between us. It's especially hard on Shiro because trusting in others hasn't come easily for him. I have faith in him not to do anything reckless that might jeopardize my safety until we've sorted out what's wrong. Plus," she added with a dorky grin, "being together with everyone is bound to make us both stronger and I really think that everything is going to be okay."

One of the cracks in the broken door within Crystal's mindscape filled in, seeming to disappear completely. The mental projection of her younger self folded her arms over her chest while staring disdainfully at the newly mended door. "You're resilient, I'll give you that, but how long do you think you can really keep this up?"  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth would swim over as he heard the compliments, chuckling a bit, though he did have to give Crystal a bit of a dirty look for being tricked into joining, even if he did have fun, Singing wasn't really his thing unlike Shiro at least, though grandstanding in general, that he could do in a heartbeat. "just remember that this was your ideas you two, not mine. i went along with it to see my Aibou sing." he said calmly enough.

Axel just sighed, and swam over to go through the sheets for the musics, finding one rather easily that fit his nature, but he handed it to Sebastian regardless as a small set of veins would start going up his arms as if tensing his body for what he was about to pull. "this should do, right?" Sebastian nodded, and motioned with a claw for Axel to take the stage. Axel would do so, slowly cracking his knuckles as he sighed, taking a breath while listening to the music a moment to get into rhythm, bubbles being pushed up from a nearby vent as he raised his hands, filling them with different colored flames, before his own hand took on the same nature of flames, purple in color "Snatch! Everything! with these hands!" he sang, waving his hand as a blue flame bubble popped open releasing glimmers of rainbow sparkles "even if the heart gets hurt.. the awakened power rushes through my body~ changing the meaning of words~!" he then would proceed to wave around his arm, which switched from purple to black flames next, and given his look of concentration he was keeping himself very calm as he worked with his energies and created black shapes made from the flames, various sea-based creature shapes at least. "Yesterday's reality are the lies of Today, it only makes everyone continue to Wander..." he continued to work, even streaming out some of the black flames to form a spiral around a vent of blowing bubbles, creating a masterful artwork "Dreams and love are convenient Illusions... to get a grasp of Reality with out limits~ Stretch out your hand towards the future!" he then focused and switched from black to red flames, lessening his concentration before swimming around and starting to make swimming maneuvers with the flames trailing him, leaving behind orange sparkles "Reckless Fire Boldly burn with your soul~! i'm not running away~ Lies and Mistakes are wiped out by my strength and friends~!" Axel would then do a spiraling loop with those flames as he continued singing "i can't seek for it... i'll dwell along with Sympathy!~ i won't hand it over until i can truly get a grasp on something..." Axel would then start to switch over to green flames, which took on a consistency of leaves, letting them form out and lash towards one of the bubbles holding flames, unleashing a small burst of blue fire from it which formed into a spiral of sparkles before fading "is it scary to notice it? is it fun living slyly? what is this journey shaping into?" he'd continue singing, swishing out another light blue colored flame, which would swirl around him forming a small cloud of rainbow effects like an illusion obscuring Axel "Feeling the pain... 'there's no way anyone will understand~!' Open your eyes and look this way, an unforgivable REFLECTION~!" he then would burst out of said flames, guiding more now dark red flames around forming into the shapes of eels swirling in the waters, and somehow, through all this, the heat of the waters had not even changed in the slightest with his work "Reckless Fire~ if it's weak Pride, it'll be reduced to Ashes! there's no such thing as miracles... it's a sweet trap that draws you in..." Axel would then swirl up into the higher points of the sea with his flames swirling around him, and with his hands grasping the tails, he'd pop two more bubbles with different colored flames, once more unleashing various sparkles and flame designs from within "the thing you should believe in is yourself... hold onto the precious someone you can't lose!" he'd keep singing, it seemed he was well within his element to play with the flames, as the veins continued rising up the arms while he kept his firm will on them, switching from the crimson red flames now to a reddish brown flame almost looking like molten magma even though it wasn't. swirling down towards the ground to give off a burst of swirling flames that wouldn't hurt anyone, but at least look cool like the shockwave before raising his hand once more as if grasping at something "Seize! Everything! with your heart~! even if you're down with dissapointment and despair... in that last moment i will rise to be Glorious!" he would then lash out to pop another bubble, releasing yellow flames to swirl and form a globe of yellow energy much like a sun before fading into sparkles "if it's a Risk or Minus, it'll explode~! the night of the boiling 'core'... is blasting into the future!" he then formed more orange flames along his fists to start swimming about with that trail of orange sparkles following along behind him "Reckless Fire~ Boldly change the way of your life~! this worlds Rule is Survival~ whether it's white or black, there's only one way to go...~! Reckless Fire Boldly burn with your soul~! i'm not running away... Lies and Mistakes are wiped out by my strength and friends!" he then would swirl up, igniting indigo flames and bursting the last few bubbles to create more fire designs, and singing his last few lines "there's no way it'll burn out, this mischeviousness in my heart... don't ever let go of your will and power to get through it~!" with that, he would start swimming upwards trailing a rainbow colored flame pattern in a swirl, and leaving behind a small burst of rainbow flames that punctuated the end of the song with rainbow sparkles.

Shiro had actually raised an eyebrow, looking to Roveth who was actually also surprised that Axel could pull something off like that "huh.. guess i'm not the only one whose surprised he can use different colored flames. either way.. i say a definite excellent performance." he started clapping with Roveth following along not soon after as he grinned all the same.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Roxas and Xion were less surprised by Axel's ability to wield different colors of fire and more just surprised by his performance in general and how he actually went about using said fire to make shapes and sparkles.

"Wow Axel, that was amazing!" Xion was certainly impressed by the whole spectacle.

"I'll admit, his control over the fire element is something else," Crystal spoke up in surprise as well. Axel was impressive in battle and she knew full well that he was innately attuned to making and manipulating fire, but this went well beyond mere control. It was like he was one with the flames.

"Axel definitely has a real flare for the dramatic," Roxas chimed in. "And he really knows how to put all that flashiness to good use."

Seriously, have you ever seen Axel not make a dramatic entrance. The guy can't resist making a spectacle of himself. As for Sebastian, his mouth was hanging open and his eyes were sort of glazed over, overwhelmed by all those auditions stacked together. It was definitely going to take some time for him to think what to do with so much talent all around.

"I think we broke the composer," Crystal observed with some amusement.

"Oh, Sebastian will be fine," Ariel assured everyone. "He probably wasn't expecting you all to be so talented."

"Well, when we're all trying to upstage each other, it's to be expected we might get a little bit carried away," Crystal admitted.

"Especially Roveth and Axel," Roxas agreed.

"From the looks of things, maybe we should give him some room and come back again later," Xion suggested. When that later might be was ambiguous at best, but there didn't appear to be any rush to get started on additional rehearsals or anything at the moment.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Axel of course gave off a sigh, letting his body relax while the veins slowly lowered back into his arms, and he rubbed the back of his neck in mild embarrassment "its not really as easy as one thinks, especially when underwater." he said while swimming over to the others to explain it takes a -lot- of concentration and willpower to both summon the flames underwater as well as keep them controlled, and the different colors vary in use, though i was pushing myself a bit given the black flames are the hardest to control, as they technically burn -anything-, and -will not stop burning- unless willed to." he said, while looking over to the current 'broken' composer, snickering lightly "but i do agree, we should probably move on, since it seems we broke the composer, and i don't get carried away that much, that's more Roveth's thing." he said, waving it off, while at least glad he wasn't showing no signs of over-exerting his work on flame control for now.

Roveth of course gave off a snort and crossed his arms looking -way- too amused for his liking at Axel's mention of him going over the top, and just looked over to the lion-fish merman with some mirth and amusement in his eyes "yes well, even if i did go over the top, i at least stayed within the water elements with it, you used an opposing element to water to more effect than i did." he pointed out, while looking to Roxas a bit affronted (though more over-dramatic and silly like.) "how rude of you Roxas, to insinuate that i would get only a little bit carried away! if i'm going to put on a show as an entertainer then nothing but the best performance i can give will suffice!" he said while 'fainting' backwards from the mention of such an insult, leaving Axel to snort at Roveth's theatrics, and Shiro to actually chuckle a bit.

Shiro of course would just shake his head after chuckling at Roveth's dramatic flare and all while scratching the back of his own head a bit "well, now that we got our singing and drama out of our systems for a bit, we should move on and give the composer some time to think on things while we go to our original destination, ne?" he said, looking meaningfully to Crystal, knowing that while it was fun in general to sing ,despite his nervousness to do it to new people due to his vocal skills, that, and he -was- worried for Crystal, especially if it's his fault that she's been fraying towards destroying herself...  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"I know, I know," Crystal had to agree with Shiro on the subject of moving on to their actual destination. They would bid their farewells to the residents of Atlantica and then Crystal would open the path to El Nido.

*~El Nido: Viper Manor (Another)~*

They arrived at the gates of a large mansion that doubled as a fortress. It was a bit smaller than the mansion in Twilight Town after Roveth's renovations, but it was impressive nonetheless. That wasn't the most noteworthy thing about their arrival, however, as the main feature that both Roxas and Xion were staring at was the gaping cylindrical hole through the outer wall next to the securely fastened gate. Shiro would, of course, recognize this as the handiwork of Crystal and her not-so-aptly named Gatebuster Cannon.

"Huh, you'd think they would have fixed that by now," Crystal chuckled with some amusement with her arms propped behind her head while admiring the strangely cohesive deconstruction. Incidentally, she was back to wearing her thieving attire again.

"It sounds like you know how this happened," Xion observed from the way Crystal was acting.

"Well, you see, the gate was locked and I wasn't inclined to bring out my Keyblade unnecessarily, so I improvised," Crystal explained while still being entirely too amused to see that the gaping hole in the wall was still the there.

"Improvised with what?" Roxas wondered trying to gauge what could have caused such uniform damage. It didn't look like it had been caused by any sort of magic.

"Well, if you really want to know," Crystal went on while scrolling through the holographic interface on her watch. "Materialize, Gatebuster Cannon!" The industrial grade energy cannon dropped to the ground making a heavy indent where it fell. Crystal gestured toward the cannon, which made the expected whirring, clanking, and other electronic noises one might expect, "I used this."

After she had given Roxas and Xion, and very likely Axel as well, a chance to stare at it for a moment, Crystal did of course digitize said cannon back into her watch so it wouldn't attract too much unwanted attention from anyone who might presently be occupying the mansion. "Anyway, since we're here, we can start our search by poking around the library here at Viper Manor to see if there are any books that mention the Frozen Flame," Crystal pointed out as she started strolling through the aforementioned gaping hole in the wall like it was perfectly normal to be doing.

"Is it really okay for us to just go barging in there like this?" Xion wondered aloud.

"Hm, no one ever stopped me before," Crystal answered with a shrug. "I think the Acacia Dragoons are probably pretty busy with running damage control at Fort Dragonia, especially now that Lynx is gone, and there's also the matter of keeping the Porre Military from the mainland off the islands so security has been pretty light here at the manor."

"It sounds like you really know your way around the place," Roxas noted while starting to follow Crystal through the gaping hole in the wall. To him it seemed that if no one had even bothered to patch up such a glaringly obvious breach in security, then they probably weren't making much of an effort to keep people out right now anyway. And Crystal was a thief, even if it was only the title that she took seriously and not the actual occupational stealing it would usually entail.

"Kid had this place staked out for a while," Crystal explained a little bit vaguely. "She was convinced Lord Viper was in possession of the Frozen Flame and planned to steal it from him, but the treasure she found was actually a different artifact called the Dragon's Tear. The shattered remains of two such artifacts, becoming the Tear of Love and Tear of Hate respectively, transformed into the two halves of the legendary Chrono Cross that was used to free Princess Schala and finally eradicated the Time Devourer. But, as far as I know, she never found the Frozen Flame. So, we probably won't find it here at the manor, but it has an impressive library of books and sometimes the Sage of Wisdom, Belthasar, resides within so if he's there we might be able to ask him about it, although I wouldn't expect a straight answer from such an eccentric wise man. And... if we get bored, we can always go out to the stables to feed the dragons," Crystal finished with a silly grin, giving Shiro a meaningful look when she said that last part.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Axel would just stare a moment at the appearing cannon with disbelief that Crystal used something like that to blow a hole in the wall of the Manor's gate and all, blinking a few times before sighing, and shaking his head with amusement "only you would have something so... over the top to try and blast down a gate or a wall." he said, crossing his arms while Roveth quipped from his standpoint "well what do you know~ it seems you -can- act like a princess when you want to, Ojou-sama." he said, the nickname part almost mockingly with his infuriating amusement to it and all ,causing Axel to snort in response to Roveth's words, and turning more towards the wall to avoid watching Roveth get fried for the blatant comment he made.

Roveth of course had seen the cannon before, so he was nonplussed by it, outside of the genuine curiosity of dismantling it, figuring out how it's put together, put it back together, and actually make it work better. of course, at the mention of dragons, he did glance over to Shiro who had begun perking up hearing that given he did look quite bored about reading and all. Roveth of course was the type to study as well as tinker with tech and all, so reading for him was a good thing to keep him occupied from scouring the mansion for anything tech wise to fumble with.

Shiro would look over towards where he remembered the direction of the Stable, and grinned a bit fangedly, definitely interested in playing with/feeding the dragons, since he did have a -small- obsession about dragons in general, plus they tended to like him a lot anyway. "hmm... well, if i know Roveth, i think i'm going to back out on the reading and instead play with the dragons as mentioned." he said, rubbing the back of his head "i'm not that good with reading anyway so i think i will go.. have fun with the Dragons." he said, giving off a sheepish smile with an amused deadpan coming from Roveth, knowing exactly why he'd be doing that.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Roxas didn't think he was going to be much help in the library, to be honest, but he followed Crystal in that direction anyway because right now he really just wanted to make sure he was with her in case she did need him.

"I really wasn't trying to act like a princess," Crystal grumbled as she pressed on toward the manor. Otherwise, Axel would see that there really wasn't going to be any magic retaliation against Roveth.

Xion decided to follow Shiro to the dragon stables partly because she was curious about meeting the dragons and partly so someone would be there to make sure Shiro didn't get himself into too much trouble by himself. It wasn't everyday you got to meet supposedly friendly dragons you get to feed in either case. The dragons weren't the most impressive, being roughly horse-sized with a similarly gentle disposition, but while Shiro was feeding them it turned out some of the fences were either loose or so badly worn that they cracked when the eager dragons pressed up against them and before long Shiro was buried beneath the enthusiastic dragons with them licking his face and making it difficult for him to get out from under them in general. Xion attempted to herd the escaped dragons off of Shiro, but she was easily overpowered by the sheer number of them and ended up being knocked on top of Shiro instead. And that was when the real flailing began.

"Eep! Sorry Shiro!" Xion quickly apologized. How were they going to get out of this one?


Before long the other group managed to reach the library without incident, with Crystal pausing on the bridge between the main manor and the library tower to gesture toward the horizon. "At night this spot is one of the best views of the twin moons on the whole island," Crystal explained before she headed inside to start having a look around.

"So, what can I do to help?" Roxas wondered since he really had no idea where to even start. Not that he was a stranger to libraries or anything at this point. He'd been inside Beast's castle. He'd done plenty of studying while he was attending school in Twilight Town. The volumes here looked big and they were probably difficult, much like the books Crystal kept in her own collection. And since this looked more like someone's private collection and less like a formal library it was probably going to be tricky to find what they were actually looking for.

"Well, seeing as the Frozen Flame is a legendary artifact relegated to myths and folklore, those are the sorts of books we want to find," Crystal tried to explain. "Historical accounts would be preferable, but since no one is even sure the thing exists those are going to be pretty unreliable. Anyway, we should probably start with the oldest books we can find on those subjects and go from there."

"Okay, I think I can handle that much," Roxas nodded and started perusing the shelves for anything matching what Crystal had described.

"Oh right, and while we're here we might as well see whether or not Belthasar is up in the hidden room on the balcony," Crystal realized. She was already halfway up the ladder when she commented on this fact and seemed to have forgotten entirely that she was wearing a skirt. There was a clattering sound from down beneath said ladder as a very surprised looking Roxas toppled over, making a clattering sound as he dropped the armful of books he had been carrying.

"You okay down there?" Crystal had made it the rest of the way to the top of the ladder and leaned over the railing of the balcony to peer down at Roxas.

"Um yeah... I'm fine," Roxas hurried to get back on his feet, picking up the books and refusing pointedly to look upward again until his face stopped burning from how badly he was blushing right now. If Roveth and Axel were still with them one or both of them was likely going to break out laughing at the sight of this. "I'll be up in a second," Roxas added hastily as he took the books he had already found and placed them on the desk in the middle of the room so they could be consulted later. Then he headed back to the ladder leading up to the balcony to start making the climb, keeping his gaze level with the wall to avoid losing his balance again.

Once Roxas had made it up to the balcony Crystal showed him into the secret room and sure enough, there was the old sage himself. "So, does this guy live here or something?" Roxas asked curiously now that he had mostly recovered from his earlier state of total embarrassment.

"I am merely a visitor," Belthasar corrected him. "One anachronistic to the era, displaced from my home in the Kingdom of Zeal, during a great calamity with the existence called Lavos that eventually became the Devourer of Time. And although the princess has been saved and time that has been divided should have been restored to its original state, somehow I find myself still here."

"Belthasar, great sage of wisdom and knowledge, do you know anything at all about the Frozen Flame?" Crystal decided to cut right to the chase.

"It exists," the old man confirmed. "And yet it does not exist. Only the chosen arbiter can behold the Frozen Flame in the fated place. However, as to where that location is, I'm afraid that I do not know."

"So that means... what exactly?" Roxas was becoming overwhelmed by the difficult language being used by the old sage and he was getting a little confused about what Belthasar was saying.

"It's kind of like how a Keyblade chooses its wielder," Crystal explained. "The Frozen Flame will only reveal itself to whomever it has designated as its chosen arbiter."

Roxas frowned. "Doesn't that make our job of finding it even harder?"

"That depends on whether or not the Frozen Flame decides that it wants to be found," Crystal agreed. "But, I don't think Namine would have started having visions of the Frozen Flame connected with my memory if it wasn't possible for us to find it."

They headed back into the main library once they were done conversing with Belthasar. Crystal decided to check the shelves up on the balcony to see if there were any relevant books up there while Roxas headed on down to the start poking around in some of the books he had already found. He didn't know what he expected to find out, but he really hoped that they weren't just wasting their time.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro of course would laugh and giggle with the affectionate dragons nuzzling and licking him, but immediately went red when after he was pretty much dragon-piled on, Xion got in the mix and somehow ended up on top of him and flailed a bit but still couldn't help but giggle and smile at the affectionate dragons, well, not much he could do given he was pretty much at the bottom of the pile aside from accept the affection and embarrassment and try to verbally coax the dragons to let them get up and all, course, probably didn't help matters that he was trying to not jostle Xion much and all with his own flailing involved.

Axel of course had been settling down to start reading from a book of myths and legends to look up things on the Frozen flame when he heard the clattering noises and dropped books, before glancing to see Roxas looking embarrassed, and from where Crystal was.. he made an educated guess in his head and started chuckling at Roxas's expense for apparently getting embarrassed about seeing something he shouldn't have. once he had his chuckles about it he'd start resuming his reading to see what he could find out.

Roveth of course did look up as well, though he was nose deep in probably a large pile of books compared to the one or two Axel picked out, some of them not even on the branch of topic they were looking for, and noticed Roxas's embarrassment, he smirked a bit, but didn't quip on it as he looked back down into his reading, which seemed to be speed reading, he might not have Shiro's instinctual structural grasping, but he -did- have a Keen mind, one with Eidetic memory, so he was studying as much as he could so he didn't have to kidnap said books for future references.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Eventually hunger won out and the dragons removed themselves from Shiro and Xion to raid the food stores, determinedly gorging themselves while they had the chance. There was no question that the dragon pens were in dire need of repairs as the dragons were likely to eat out the entire food supply in a matter of hours if they were left unchecked. At least Xion was finally able to get off of Shiro so she could attempt to regain her composure and stop blushing, although the laughing wasn't going to stop anytime soon with the dragons still being so amusing in their gluttonous frenzy to get at the food stores.


Roxas wasn't making much headway with any of the books he was attempting to read through, but at least he was trying. Crystal had come back down from the balcony with a hefty stack of books that she was flipping through although it didn't seem like she was having any better luck. This went on for several days, with the group adopting the basement barracks as a place to camp out once they were too exhausted to stay awake and all, until one morning about a week later when they were rudely awoken by two highly unwelcome armored figures.

"You, what are you doing here?!" Solt demanded incredulously of the group sleeping down in the barracks of Viper Manor.

"It's one of those feisty wenches with the Radical Dreamers," Peppor chimed in.

"I was sleeping," Crystal grumbled while flinging the twin daggers, the Dragon Fangs, so that they embedded themselves several inches into the wall on either side of Peppor for his especially rude comment.

"I'm pretty sure we all were," Roxas sat up on one of the neighboring beds still looking bleary eyed as the two armored men began flailing in the doorway in a panic when Crystal's blades stuck into the wall.

"It looks like we've been found out," added Xion. "Maybe we should think about moving on from here to try looking for the Frozen Flame somewhere else."

Crystal sighed heavily. "I really didn't want to, but you're right. We're gonna have to check out the digital archives in the future city of Chronopolis. It's the only other place I can think of."

"Shake it!" Peppor declared furiously. "Don't you ignore us you no-good trespassers!"

Crystal propped herself up on an elbow. "You want to have a go? Next time you might find my blades in your gut instead of the wall."

"Methinks now might be the time for making a hastily hasty retreat," Solt spoke up while trembling nervously at the threat from Crystal. Not that she was the scariest one of the bunch when being woken up early. No doubt, Roveth and Axel were both going to be pretty terrifying too.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

of course, Shiro would get up as well, readjusting his clothes to at least keep himself calm while failing to hide his own blush at the moment, and would at least get to work on fixing the coral by going to go get some wood and everything to fix it up.

when the week had flown by Shiro would wake up as well to the Solt and Peppor alarm by pulling out his Caster Gun and unamusedly pointed it right at Solt as his presence went cold, not cold enough to be switch flipped as he cocked the hammer back and his trigger finger ready to fire "how about... *yaaaaawn* you two shut the hell up, it's too damn early for this mess, and i want a bit more sleep... *yaaawn* before we move on." of course, while Shiro -could- let Apocalypse out to play, this would have to do until the Frozen Flame was found at least.

Axel of course decided to aim at Solt's own head as well with his Chakrams looking nearly ready to give him a haircut with how close they came buzzing by and embedding themselves in the wall. "alright, i know i'm not as lazy as Demyx, but it is way too early to be screeching like monkeys not getting what they want, so either go away or you might get more than a few bruises and some third degree burns... got it memorized?" he groused out, giving an emerald-eyed glare at the two while trying to keep from yawning unlike Shiro who was openly yawning.

Roveth, well... let's just say he was also the closest to where they bursted in, thus having him shot up with a card in hand transforming into a Scythe and slamming it blade first into a wall, the scythe giving off a god-like yet -deadly- feel to it, especially when it literally cut into the walls with startling ease close to Peppor's waistline, his eyes starting to bleed black in the scelera and the iris's turning blood red "you have 5 seconds to vanish from my sight otherwise i'm spilling both your guts along the floor right here right now, and damn the consequences." he growled out, showing clearly, if it was someone not a friend of the group giving them rude awakenings... well, Roveth is going to be a -LOT- more vicious (not that Riku would realize he got off light with Roveth.), especially as he had been pulling all-nighters reading the entire library from floor to ceiling for the entire week, so sleep he -does- need to not be extra... well.. Malicious, if the slowly leaking out miasmic killing intent was any indication.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Solt and Peppor took off like bats out of hell, shrieking in terror all the way. Despite that rather unpleasant start to the day, later when everyone actually woke up for real and they decided to leave Viper Manor to set sail for Chronopolis everyone would have been in much better spirits, most especially Roveth who would have been looking forward to seeing the technological powerhouse that was the city of the future. Of course, upon arrival at said city they were set upon by the usual assortment of Aero Guards, Combots, Gizmotoids, Gyroblades, Polis Police, and Robo Duckies. In general, it was nothing they couldn't handle. Especially with Roveth around wanting to dismantle every new mechanized enemy they stumbled into. This in turn made it very easy for them to make it to the archive room where the real work of trying to uncover the whereabouts of the Frozen Flame would finally begin.

"From what I can recall of the recordings I activated by accident the last time I was here, most of the recordings are audio only," Crystal mentioned while seeming rather uneasy about being back in Chronopolis in general. "This city is monitoring all of the potential alternate timelines and alternate dimensions for this world so what we find might not reflect the reality we are presently standing in. Honestly, it still kind of creeps me out."

"What kind of recording was it that freaked you out so badly?" Xion was surprised considering very little seemed to really phase Crystal most of the time. "Was it a recording of yourself or someone you know?"

"It probably wasn't the Kid I know, but it definitely sounded a lot like her," Crystal answered contemplatively. "I guess there are probably multiple versions of her running around in these parallel worlds, all of them trying to steal either the Frozen Flame or the Dragon's Tear. Usually she hooks up with a boy named Serge, although he really doesn't talk much, and there's usually a third person with them, but that person seems to change erratically from recording to recording. One of the recordings I listened to, it was me, but it must have been a different version of me because it's a conversation I still haven't had yet. Or the scarier possibility is that it's something that's going to happen in my future."

"Why would that be scary? Doesn't that mean you at least know you have a future?" Roxas considered.

"Yeah, but what I heard didn't sound too good," Crystal scratched behind her ear. "But then, I guess I only heard a small part of what actually happens."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth, of course, while having a rude awakening and in the mood to kill people who piss him off, did light up ecstatically seeing Chronopolis once they arrived, and sure enough, he had out some of his own machine monsters ordering them to scour the place, salvage anything and everything technological, and to dismantle and take apart every mechanical enemy they came across to be studied and put back together for amusement, he even did a good bunch himself.. yeah, it was easy to see this would be a -playground- for him, given he was squee'ing a little while bouncing about. of course, after setting Roveth loose on the technological things, as well as them getting to the Archive room, Roveth would turn serious as he heard Crystal's story and all, looking about the audio archives, and would at least move over to the main terminal to start pulling things up, and sat down cracking his knuckles "let me see what i can pull up then of the Frozen Flame." he said, beginning to work his magic as the keystrokes began clacking, it seemed he must've read a book or two against dead languages, one that might fit with Chronopolis's systems as he worked in starting to A: hack it, and B: search for any mentions of the Frozen Flame within the archives, and doing so with quite a bit of a gleam in his eye, showing even -after- they manage to find the info they're looking for, he fully planned to copy and save everything, then have the archives dismantled and taken off world like the -rest- of Chronopolis's salvageable technology.

Shiro of course took a couple of steps forward, having been ignoring something it seemed in the back of his head, but either way he'd reach up to gently place a hand on Crystal's shoulder with a reassuring smile "you'll be fine crystal... we're all here with you." he said in one of his soft yet helpful undertones and all, showing his own kind heart despite how often he didn't let it out and all. "and leave things to Roveth.. if anything, he is -very- good with handling technology, and more than likely might find something, and we hope to not go deeper in Chronopolis." famous last words on that one, since Roveth would stay no matter what.

Axel of course just looked around, skeptical a moment or two about what Crystal mentioned about Chronopolis monitoring not just this reality, but numerous potential realities and dimensions of this very world, given how he felt about the whole 'string theory' or the 'Multiverse' theory, it was obvious he'd at least keep quiet about it and just frowned a bit lightly "Zexion or Vexen would love it here i bet." he said with a snort while crossing his arms and all in amusement.