moonstrualcycle | heartless? heartless.

heartless? heartless.

[Lea and Isa were just out for a nice lunch in Radiant Garden today, and then on their way home, walking hand in hand, everything goes completely sideways. too close to the castle, maybe, or just bad luck, who knows? might just be the dressing room pulling its first really serious, actually dangerous dick move since Isa first arrived.

"dick move" is actually a bit of an understatement, since there's a seething mass of darkness ahead of them, blocking the road completely, with two pairs of Heartless eyes visible in the midst. something big is in there. Isa likely hauled Lea to a stop the second she noticed it.]

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[ TWO?! Lea noticed it a beat after Isa did, jerking her head in the direction of the shadow's bulk. ]

Oh, fuck this.

[ Is it a portal? Are we spewing Heartless just for the threat of of it, or connecting to the realm of Darkness? Impossible to know with her lack of control over 'em these days, but she frees her hand to summon her Keyblade. Seems like the best start. ]

[Isa's warier, shifting her hand to grab Lea by the sleeve instead to pull her back. she's not summoning her own weapon yet, not until they see what they're actually up against.

it does seem to be a portal of some kind, as some of the extra darkness around the eyes dissipates after a few more seconds. the pairs of eyes are moving away from each other, too, the two Heartless finding their space. one of them is looking a bit spiky around the edges; these aren't garden variety Heartless, apparently.]

[ Hey no, she has stuff to protect now, she can't just be running away from obvious threats anymore. They gotta be heroes, and all that. What would happen if they just fucked off and let the shadow twins loose? This is a pretty threatening display, admittedly, and that's a pretty iconic spikiness... Oh. ]

You seeing what I'm seeing?

[more spikes are forming on the one, blue and silver and yellow emerging through the wisps of darkness as it takes shape. Isa's expression has gone flat, her body wound tight, barely breathing at all. she knows this Heartless, even though she's never seen it before.]

Unfortunately. This is deliberate, for us.

Really don't think I deserve this today. Do we bail?

[ Do they have a choice, is more like what she means. Fuck that other one, twitching taller and taller like some kind of fucked up marionette. It breathes in a big, shuddering sigh, puffs of dark smoke billowing out from each movement. She twists her hand around to grab Isa's again, and tries not to step back from it. ]

I don't think they'll let us.

[Isa's not even sure she has it in her to fight something like this, but they have to try. her hand is probably clammy in Lea's, and she does step back, one step. her Heartless is on all fours, and shakes off the remaining darkness like water, revealing a thing shaped sort of like a Behemoth, very front-heavy and bullish, but covered in sharp spikes all along its spine. there's blue fire sparking to life under its feet.]

What the fuck do we do with that.

[ This is such bullshit. She just wanted to go home and lay on her wife. Not have existential trauma come to fuck them up.

The taller thing has stopped growing, becoming topheavy by the weight of it's upper body, and the relative lack of support in its middle — a large, jagged hole, heart-shaped, takes up most of its chest. It glows faintly from embers, and the back of the Heartless' head is almost visible with how far it has to lean back to maintain balance. The body is all black except for the inner glow, the long fingers — four on each hand — which continuously crumble into grey ash, and the crown of similarly crumbling horns. The face is masked, but it's impossible to say by what with the head tilted so far back. The Heartless steps forward, sways, and more smoke billows out from beneath the mask. ]

[this is fine. Isa's Heartless bears a slight resemblance to that creature Isa turned into in Halloween Town, now that it's fully visible and standing apart from Lea's. there's a second set of forelimbs hiding behind the first pair, and both have clawed pseudo-hands good for grappling. its face is too long, with none of the rounded cuteness most Heartless have, though it has the right kind of featureless maw, and when it opens its mouth, the bright glow of moonlight is visible in its throat.]

Kill them, I guess.

[she detaches from Lea and shakes out her arm, and it's worrying that it takes a much stronger effort than it used to for Lunatic to appear in her hand. she's not really in prime shape for this anymore, but she'll be damned if she's not going to try.]

Sounds great.

[ It actually sounds awful, and Lea's secretly worried this is going to mess them up too, somehow. She's seen enough of the dressing room harassing Riku over the years to not trust it, even if they are able to take them. ]

You wanna take mine, or...?

[ Hers seems to have difficulty breathing, silently coughing out more smoke as it sways from side to side. It seems almost harmless, given the lack of focus. ]

Only if you think you can hold mine off long enough for me to kill yours.

[she knows for a fact that hers would kill Lea, given enough time, or perhaps no time at all. it's big, and strong, and probably fast, but they don't have a clue what Lea's can do. this sounds like the best plan though.]

At least pretend to have faith in me. Distraction's my middle name, right?

[ She rolls her shoulders and bounces a little, more to try to lighten the mood than to warm up. This fucking sucks, and she hates it, but look here, you big beast. A nice shiny Keyblade!

At least if she does die she'll come back. Right? Go poke Lea's Heartless, Isa. It's just standing there like a science project volcano. ]

Be careful.

[this fucking sucks, Lea's right. Lunatic is heavy, even with two hands, but here she goes, gathering her momentum and rushing towards Lea's Heartless. she's prepared for fire, speed, smoke inhalation, pointy bits; pretty much anything she got from fighting Lea directly.

Isa's Heartless is stompy and bellowy, but watch out for the blue fire under its feet, and whatever it can probably breathe.]

[ Lea doesn't bother responding, because she's always careful. Instead she starts to walk a wide circle around the Heartless, trying to get it's attention but wary of sudden rushes like the one Isa is doing now.

As for Lea's Heartless, she stays as is until Isa gets closer, then it lurches forward, hard, folded over and staring at her with a blank, charred mask. The smoke turns darker and twin streams of molten lava drip from beneath the mask like tears. It heaves again, generating more smoke and flames, and swings its arm to unleash a stream of fire. ]

[it's fine, this is fine. behind it seems like a safer place to be, so she cuts around it, avoiding the fire and hopefully getting the right momentum and angle to be able to swing Lunatic at its legs.

Isa's Heartless huffs at Lea and rears up, and when it comes down there's a familiar shockwave from the impact. it's testing Lea as much as Lea's testing it.]

[ Lea jumps back from the shockwave, moving into a more battle-ready stance. Oh, okay, it's pissy too. She can deal with that. Let's bring out the big guns right away, with some waves of fire of her own. ]

Listen, you don't know it, but this is for your own good.

[ On the other side of the hall, lava pools at the floor beneath her Heartless. She takes the full brunt of the hit, but Lunatic blows through her legs like they're smoke. The embers inside of the heart-shaped hole glow brightly for that half a second, then die down again. Meanwhile, the smoke she's been emitting starts off a chain of explosions around them. ]

[does Lea remember how the fight in the Keyblade Graveyard went? specifically that her fire didn't seem to do much to Saïx? yeah, that's happening here. the fire splashes harmlessly off Isa's Heartless, which stomps its feet again and lowers its head.

Isa skids through where the legs were and stumbles, which means she's off-balance and unprepared for the explosions. Lunatic shields her from the brunt of the closest one, but it still scorches her clothes and possibly her hair, goddammit. she feels rusty, and it's terrifying, but she has to try. she's not seeing an obvious weak point on Lea's Heartless unless she gets the hose, though.]

[ Well that's just. fucking inconvenient. She's got the keyblade but that was work. The fire comes naturally. She tchs and jumps back further, rolling her shoulders for a little windup before she throws her keyblade in an arc, aiming for the forehead.

As for Lea's heartless, she has a big glowing weak spot, whaddaya mean. It roars, which comes out sounding more like an anguished, bitter cry, and more lava bleeds out from its eyes under that mask. It's not as aggressive as Isa's Heartless, and that must be Lea's laziness coming in to their advantage. ]

[yeah, but how is she supposed to hit an empty space? nothing left but to try, though, so she gathers her strength and leaps, swinging her weapon at the Heartless' torso.

Isa's Heartless takes the keyblade right to the head and seems to be stunned for several seconds. then it roars and bristles with a whole new set of additional spikes that look like they're made of metal, coated in that familiar blue energy.]

[ Oh. Fuck that. The Heartless is huge, and this area is small, and that's not a lot of maneuverability for her survival-focused ass. She turns tail and takes off, but it's at least partly because she wants to get it away from Isa and her own Heartless. She ends up slipping anyway, nearly falling on her ass when her Heartless takes that slam to the torso.

When it connects there's a large flash of heat, like opening an oven, or a door to a house on fire. The burning inside of its torso heats up white-hot and then red, and it turns to Isa aggressively, reaching to grab the weapon with its crumbling hands. One long, jagged crack goes up the mask. ]

[it can have the weapon, because the blast of heat combined with, apparently, the blow to her own Heartless, caught Isa entirely off guard and stunned her. she falls the distance to the ground and lands hard on her left side, and doesn't immediately move afterwards, eyes closed. her scar has split open and is bleeding freely down her face, more than usual from like, going berserk or something.

her Heartless bounds after Lea, though it's far less agile in this space than Lea is, and it stumbles a little when Isa hits the ground.]

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heartless? heartless.

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