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<span style="font-size: 22px"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(64, 64, 64)">Riku's Bastion</span></span></span><br/>
<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(175, 175, 175)"><span style="font-size: 12px">10:23 PM - The King's Keep</span><br/>
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---   ---   ---</span></span>​</div><span style="font-family: 'Georgia'"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(175, 175, 175)"><br/>
Riku was no King...<br/>
<br/>
That much was for certain, but he was also not the only outcast stuck dangling between the interconnected worlds of the galaxy. In fact, there were plenty of those who were neither fully alive, nor dead and gone. They were lost souls, not Demons or Heartless, but living, breathing beings just like him without homes. Nobodies and the living of his universe had come to live together. Parallel universes now intertwined when the lines had blurred between the realms in which they resided. A universe full of unique individuals, each possessing a mirror of themselves that would always be connected to them on the other side. They had all had one. Sora, Kairi and even Riku, and now, after the worlds had come to collide, there were so many who were lost to the in between. So many left to drift through the endless void alone, forever. Without loved ones to embrace and to cherish. Without beds upon which to rest their heads or rooms in which to have their time alone and be stuck deep within their own thoughts.<br/>
<br/>
They were hopeless... that is, until Riku had found them, and the more of them he found, the more of them he had appointed to begin doing the very thing that he himself was. Saving lives and finding each and every one of them a measure of purpose once more...<br/>
<br/>
Some had called him hero, others had called him a god, but most had called him King, though none of these titles had sufficed. None of them had been fair to apply to a man who didn't want them, and so he, whether or not they preferred to comply, asked them all respectfully to call him 'Friend' instead of anything else. That, though, was something that some of them couldn't bring themselves to give, even with all that he had done for them. Some of them forced themselves to abide by his wishes, others tried and tried, but failed time and again to remember that he wanted no glory and he needed no praise. He was just a man from a different world, a different shape and of a different mold than the rest. A different size and a different scheme of color. He was just Riku, and there were no other men like him. All of them were so many different shapes and sizes, from so many different worlds that he'd never even known existed until he'd decided to bear this undertaking.<br/>
<br/>
He was not their King. He was just a lonesome man who'd rescued a few wanderers. Wanderers just like him who'd had nowhere to go, and those few had turned right around to do the same for others by turning the few aimless souls into hundreds and then thousands, filling the homes and houses he'd built to the brim with families and loved ones long thought lost. It was magnificent, Riku's Bastion, and he hoped that it always would be, but Riku would remain alone but for some of the people who'd chosen to keep guard over a man that didn't need their protection. Of course, it made them feel safer by protecting the one they looked to daily for guidance, even if they knew he didn't need them at all.<br/>
<br/>
Perhaps they believed he'd disappear again if he tried to escape his Bastion built in his own image that he had chosen to share with them all. Or perhaps they knew his wayward soul had no right being there in that peaceful place far removed from the other worlds while Sora and Kairi were resting in a pair of graves, side by side and stolen from the world far too early. Hopefully they weren't waiting for him on the other side, for Riku feared that there would never be a time when someone did not need him. There would never be a day that his strength was not required to hold someone else up. To carry them that last step they could not bring themselves to take with every bit of strength they could muster. He was born a protector, and when he had failed to protect the only two people he had ever cared about in all of his young years he was punished by the gods and coaxed into erecting a sanctuary for the dammed of which he would be the ruler of. He wasn't just in hell, he was it's architect. He had constructed his very own city of the dammed. A city of lost children, all of whom were in need of protecting, and he had been made responsible for each and every one.<br/>
<br/>
<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(77, 77, 255)">"Damn you all..."</span>, whispered a deep voice that belonged to a lean, muscular figure with long white hair and sapphire orbs that seemed to glow when the moon glared at him through the window. He sat atop a black, steel throne designed to appear as though there was a rose in full bloom looming over you and looking down at you expectantly, thousands of thorns reaching down across his shoulders and running along the legs and arm rests of the elaborately and skillfully crafted seat. He was tired of it all, the demand for his guidance and the pining for his protection. Sometimes, in fact, he believed that it would be far easier to just put them all out of their miseries. To break them all and let their lives be done so that he wouldn't be responsible for them and they would have no reason to suffer and no need to struggle through their genuinely depressing existences. In those moments of silent contemplation, as he glanced between four guards on the opposite ends of the room, he wondered just how he might escape them if he so chose to go... if he so chose to just... leave.</span><br/>
<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(175, 175, 175)"><br/>
Then, in the blink of an eye, a plume of dust bloomed up from the throne where the man had been sitting who was now nowhere to be found. The tiny particles were drifting through the wall of light peering through a high window in the room, and as the guards realized that Riku's form was now entirely gone from view in an instant, they all gawked at the empty seat, questioning whether he had ever even existed at all. It was as if one of the gods saw it fit for him never to have existed, and so they reached into the past and smudged out his soul the very second it was formed in his mother's belly. The silence was deafening for that moment as they blinked and glanced around the room, trying their best to comprehend what had just happened, but the very next second each of their eyes rolled back into their heads, offering a blank, white pair of orbs to replace what had once been there. Then the clattering of armor filled the room as they all fell to their knees while a myriad of dark colors shimmered between the four of them, forming something tall and standing perfectly still.<br/>
<br/>
The form was impressive, to say the least, if not a bit ghostly after having appeared out of thin air, but this form had belonged to their chosen one. Their leader. Their god. Their King. No more... He was done playing a role in a play he never wished to be a part of, and so he picked up his feet and began taking strides for the tall doors at the front of his throne room, an indifferent expression on his face as his sapphire orbs illuminated the black and gray scene around him.<br/>
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<span>Spoiler: <span class="bbCodeSpoiler-button-title">Riku</span></span>
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<div class="bbCodeBlock-content"><b>Riku</b><br/>
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<b>Origin Story:</b><br/>
Riku(Earth/Strength) is the long lost friend of Sora(Sky) and Kairi(Sea/Ocean) who, early on during the events that transpired involving their world and a host of other worlds that became bound together by fate, became lost to darkness and was set along his own path, apart from his friends, to complete a puzzle in which he might well be the most important piece. In that effort of fighting for control over his darkness tethered soul he will soldier on and free his mind, body and soul before he gives everything he has to offer in order to save his world and the lives of the friends he loves.<br/>
<br/>
<b>Quote:</b><br/>
"I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one? And suppose there are other worlds... then ours is just a little piece of something much greater."<br/>
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<b>Other Information:</b><br/>
Name: Riku - Strength/Earth<br/>
Sex: Male<br/>
Preference: Heterosexual<br/>
Age: 19<br/>
Race: Human<br/>
Height: 6'3"<br/>
Weight: 182lbs<br/>
Eyes: Blue<br/>
Hair: White</div>
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