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X-DREAMERS [IC - BASE]

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Natsuki [ XDRS Base, Library ] [ Original Work ]

 

Having all of their digits still attached really was nice, Natsuki mused. It took ages for the nerves to heal back properly, and one pinky still always felt a little bit chilled. Then again, that one had somehow been strangled in their sleep, so maybe the blood supply hadn't been fixed as well as it should have been. The mangled one's replacement had gone better. Xander probably didn't need to know that, though. 

 

"Indeed. It's good to remain busy." They exhaled sharply in what was almost a laugh. "Yes, let's keep our priorities in order." They weren't quite sure why 'gardening' was on anyone's schedule, but maybe Xander found it relaxing, or perhaps new recruits were more likely to join up if it looked like XDRS knew what it was doing and had things under control. That, or the flowers were actually important for some weird magic reason. In any case, had it been someone else they might have made a comment, but they more than trusted Xander to manage his time effectively.  

 

They frowned a bit. They had been working a bit hard, but it wasn't anything abnormal, was it? No, there was too much to do. It was good that Xander was concerned, and everyone had to be at their physical and mental best, but Natsuki could take care of themself. Well, not really, but it they doubted that anyone was expected to do much self-surgery. "I haven't gone outside, no, but I ate." They didn't mention that it had been a leftover bowl of rice that they had microwaved for breakfast. 

 

"The new arrivals should have 'ported in by now, if things are going on schedule," they said, trying to change the subject. "You haven't received a Luma with an update either, right?" Hopefully one would be sent soon. It was quite disconcerting, not maintaining radio contact while others were in a potentially dangerous situation.

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Badu, the Plague Doctor & Audrey the Grave Robber - XDRS Base & Gate

 

(Now with colors!)

 

As she walked through the hallways of the castle on her way out, the same Luma which she'd sent to Twilight Sparkle had returned. She greeted it with a friendly tone and a smile from beneath her mask.

 

"Hello! Any news?"

 

It chittered back a message from Twilight Sparkle: She was to meet her at the gates.

 

"Thanks for your help!" She waved the Luma off as it zipped back into the depths of the base.

 

She ran out to join the others. Since the planet the base was on happened to be relatively small, she covered that ground quickly.

 

The chaos she witnessed was too much to properly take in all at once.

 

A whole mess of strange-looking people, two robots, Twilight Princess, and Pascal, all in various states of disagreement.

 

Heh, Shame I missed all the fun.

 

Then, one face caught her eye.

 

.. Is that Audrey?

 

The person in question took on an incredulous expression as she arrived, and ran out to hug her. Though at first surprised, she returned it.

 

"Badu! We all thought you were dead! How the hell did you get here?"

 

"Haha, same way you did, old friend. I'm apart of the XDRS now."

 

She backed off, then asked with an inquiring tilt of the head.

 

"I take it you know what we do here? I'd love for you to join, but it'll probably only be more dangerous than the Hamlet's problems."

 

Audrey scoffed at this, twirling a spare dagger in her hand before putting it away.

 

"Hmph. Nothing we can't handle together, and besides, there's nothing left for me there."

 

"Too right you are."

 

Then, Badu addressed Twilight Sparkle, to ask about the main reason she'd come.

 

"Is anybody injured? I hope not, but it's not unlikely. Given we have some especially colorful characters this time around."

 

At this last statement, she couldn't help but chuckle. Knowing she shouldn't laugh didn't change the humor one could find in the chaos of new recruits.

Edited by Coryn02

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Jowan [ Gate ] [ Dragon Age: Origins ] 

 

"Oh, sorry," Jowan snapped, taking a nervous step backwards even as he did so. "Spirit, don't touch me." Similarly to the white-haired one, the aggressive girl looked almost like a person. She clearly wasn't as deformed or monstrous as abominations and shades usually were, but there were still a few things that looked wrong. Specifically, her hair was an unnatural shade of pink, and there was something a bit off about her ears. The angle between the top of the ear and her head was wrong, or something like that. Not to mention the electricity sparking at her shoulder, but that was probably the most normal thing about the situa- Maker have mercy, did the white haired one just pop his shoulder back into place. 

 

He hadn't expected the Mind Blast to hurt or keep the white haired one away, but seeing something that looked like a child fix its own dislocated shoulder without even a wince was unsettling. "Don't call him a demon, she says," he muttered. If he had any doubts about the white haired one being inhuman, they were gone. It was really doing quite poorly of appearing to be a person. That made it seem inexperienced and nonthreatening, but then again, there was the possibility of it all being a ruse. 

 

When the knife-wielding maniac started shouting, he jumped slightly. Safe!? He wasn't going to pretend a place was safe just because a demon told him it was. Then again... there hadn't been any actual violence, yet, aside from his spell and the invasion of personal space. The others that had allegedly been transported there didn't look very okay with the situation, either. Well, most of them didn't, and who knew what was going on with the golems (he briefly flicked his eyes towards them, just to make sure that they hadn't moved). Frustrated, he ran a hand across his scalp and tightened his fist around his hair. None of it made sense. 

 

His thoughts about the others were rapidly displaced by the more pressing concern of the knife maniac stalking towards him. Every muscle in his body tensed, and his hands dropped to his sides, prepared to cast spells. A few tongues of flame escaped from between his fingers, but he tightened his hands into fists to extinguish them. However self-destructive he was, he was at least able to avoid fireballing the demon threatening him with a knife. "Noted," he said, gulping.

 

Suddenly, it clicked. Probably a demon, weird features, purple electricity. Just what his day needed. Some extra stabbings by a pride demon. 

 

Despite his incredible ability to not start fights with pride demons, his self-preservation abilities apparently didn't extend to shutting his mouth. "Wait, I've been kidnapped by a group of dragon cult- ack!" Somehow while he had been distracted by the minor death threats, the purple quadruped had managed to sneak up on him. The same lavender glow from before wrapped itself around his shackles, and they started to assault him. He wasn't nearly quick enough to avoid the ones for his ankles, but he briefly batted away the handcuffs. They approached him a second time, and this time he waited for a cuff to partially wrap around his left wrist before he pulled his hand towards his body sharply. The jagged edge where the cuff had been broken dragged across his skin, tearing a long gash into his wrist and forcing him to suppress a scream. A moment later, both cuffs had been mended around his wrists as if they'd never been broken in the first place. At least the demon hadn't tried to gag him again. 

 

He held his bleeding wrist against the front of his robes, trying to stem the bleeding. It didn't seem like a good moment to try anything, but he felt a bit better about the option being there. Or worse. It wasn't like he had ever planned to use blood magic again, but most things that he planned didn't go so well. There was a good chance that the demons would realize that the injury hadn't been an accident and just kill him, but at this point he didn't even mind much. Dying because of blood magic wasn't new or undeserved, it was just delayed. 

 

He didn't expect to see the white haired one turn into a wolf and start bouncing around the quadruped excitedly while... talking? How. He'd heard of Witches of the Wilds shapeshifting, but he wasn't pretty sure that they didn't speak after they did so. Whatever. It was just one more weird thing in an incredibly tiring day. 

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Neku - Gateway

 

Neku groaned as he woke up, one hand pushing himself up, the other rubbing his oddly aching head. Why was he sore, anyway? It felt like he rolled out of bed and fell to the floor-

 

Wait. 

 

He was lying on the ground. Dirt ground, complete with flowers.

 

He was lying on the ground and waking up in yet another random place and god help him he did not want to go through this again, not after he'd finally, finally won his well-earned victory.

 

Now wide-eyed and alert, Neku bolted upright, a cocktail of panic, dread, and irritation charging his nerves. Said cocktail rapidly changed to confusion, however, when he actually took in his surroundings. If the flowers he woke up on weren't anything to go by, the view of a strange boulder formation surrounded by an open meadow definitely clued him in to the fact that this was not the Scramble Crossing. Or Shibuya, for that matter. The strangest thing by far, though, was the assortment of people that were with him. Actually, people didn't quite cut it. There were people, some dressed in odd costumes and crackling with power, sure, but that was plausible in the Game. The anime-esque mechas, talking white wolf, and freaking purple winged unicorn definitely weren't. 

 

"What. The actual. Hell."

 

This had to be some sick joke by the Composer. 

Edited by greenglassesgal

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Sora

 

All the white-haired boy did is touch the man's head and, suddenly, a shockwave blasted through the air, sending the strange kid backward and to the ground. Sora caught the edge of it, staggering only slightly and grunting as he adjusted his balance. "Hey!" he shouted. "What'd you do that for?" he scowled.

 

The sound of moving metal caught his attention and he focused on the giant Guard Armor-like creatures, crouching in a defensive stance when he realized the bronze colored one had guns this time. "Wanna fight?" he grumbled, eyes narrowing slightly. 

 

Twilight was talking again, replacing the 'demons!'-man's shackles around his wrists. In all of the confusion between the blast and the cuffs, Sora had not been able to help the white-haired boy to his feet. So, he opted for the next best thing he could do: walk over and see if he was alright. 

 

The boy surprised Sora though, abruptly changing into a wolf and bouncing around some of those gathered. All the while, the wolf-boy repeated the word 'okay.' Keyblade disappearing just as Nata stormed over, Sora rubbed the back of his head. "Sheesh... And I thought Donald would be the only one to scold me on a regular basis..." he muttered, angling a foot back as he leaned slightly and clasped his hands behind his head. "I didn't have anything to do with this. They started it," he huffed beneath his breath.

 

"Huh?" Sora blinked as a new woman approached him, asking him a question. "I don't even really know at this point," he answered honestly, shrugging his shoulders as he dropped his hands to his sides. Yet more people were arriving and it looked like there was another pair of strangers who recognized each other. "What a weird day..." he commented idly.

Edited by ValidEmotions

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Cistina ~ Gate
"I don't even really know at this point," the boy admitted. "What a weird day..."

 

"Oh. Hm, this hasn't been the worst arrival we've had here," Cistina stated casually. "No giant hellbeasts or insane murderers this time, at the very least."

She surveyed the scene again, now that Nata had intimidated a good portion of the group, showing off his sparks in the process. Twilight had put the chains back on the reeling man--Cistina felt a stab of pity--and Nata was just done growling at him. The two giant robe-oughts unsettled her, especially since the boy in front of her had reacted so poorly at one of them moving.

... Now that she thought about it, the things the robe-ought was waving around reminded her of Rendel's fusils... Eh?! Cistina stood wide-eyed as she saw the boy that had been knocked down stand back up, with shoulder turned at an unnatural angle, and casually snap his shoulder back in place. Like he was simply stretching after sitting down for a long time. Cistina raised an eyebrow, then noticed the silvery robe-ought turn to Twilight. She was about to walk over just in case anything happened, then Badu approached-Hm? Seems like she knew the person in the hat.

Cistina turned back to the reeling man, wondering if she should approach him and try to diffuse the situation when she saw the boy turn into a talking wolf, bounding around Twilight and the flower girl.

"That's.... Unusual," Cistina tried to think of any others she saw who were just as peculiar. Shapeshifters? She met some. People with uncanny healing skills? She'd met some too. "Or not so unusual." But the sheer... Innocence the boy had. That was strange.

It might be a good time to start knowing the arrivals.

 

"So, what's your name? I'm Cistina," she introduced to the brown key boy. 

 

Light ~ Gate 

"Oh, sorry. Spirit, don't touch me," the man snapped. What kind of insult is "spirit?" Even as he spoke, though, he stepped back defensively.

 

"I don't need to, you jerk," Light huffed. Technically it would be her magic and summons that touched him, right? But he wasn't attacking or anything. By posture and what he did, he looked as he wasn't going to either, but it might be a trap, for all she knew. Light let her arms fall to her side, but still tense.

 

"Okay," a voice said from behind her. Light turned and saw the boy back up on his feet, but before she could reply-

 

“Everyone shut up!”

 

She jumped as the voice bellowed out. It was the blue haired man, Nata, that spoke out.

 

“Hey, remember when Twilight said this was a ‘safe place’? Do you know how we make this place safe?” he paused. Safe. Safe.... This place was safe? “We keep this place safe by punishing anyone who tries to get violent, you lot included.” With this pause, he spun one of his knives, and shot some purple sparks for good measure. Light bit her lip. He seems like he's doing a much better job than I would over keeping things safe. He finished up by talking about how everyone was almost in the same boat and something about other universes. To punctuate his words, he started glaring at everyone.

Light flinched when he glared at her. I let my temper control me again.... When he walked over, Light started bracing herself, but to her surprise, he headed towards the man.

 

“Hey, you. If you keep throwing people around and I’ll show you what a real demon looks like.”

 

"Noted," the man sounded nervous, but some flames danced at his fingertips. As the blue-haired man stalked away, though, the rugged man began to speak again before his cuffs were enveloped by that same pink glow and started to rebind him. As she watched, he battered the handcuffs away momentarily, but--A white wolf bounded into her view. Light watched with wide eyes as it loped around her once, and she reached out to pet it before it ran to the unicorn Twilight, barking..... "Okay?"

"Okay" said in the same voice as the boy...? Light looked around the assembled group--There was an orange haired boy wearing earmuff-like things that was new, but--The white haired boy was nowhere to be found... Except... He was a shapeshifter?  The blue haired Nata said something about following Twilight and a dragon who hated violence. Light shook her head, bewildered. So many unusual people, so many unusual things. She would be able to learn so much here... But did I ruin my chances to...?

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Hush, Child of Void

 

Deep within the castle, a child's giggling laughter. To all others inside, more chaos than brewed without.

 

A pale white creature wearing a royal blue scarf gleeked about the halls, causing mischief wherever it went.

 

In another wing of the castle, the upgrade shop was both in shambles and partly on fire. Most of the crew had been forced to evacuate due to its severity, though they strongly suspected sabotage rather than mere malfunction.

 

Several of the living quarters had their pillows torn open, the feathers inside strewn about the room. Lumas attempting to investigate were usually hit in the face with an intact pillow before being driven out of the room by an unseen aggressor, which they could only characterize by its unnerving laughter.

 

Many of the halls were difficult to navigate, being littered with what seemed to be ball bearings stolen from the upgrade shop. The lights were also out, their source of power having been disrupted.

 

But the worst part of all was that the perpetrator, a Dusk who called itself Hush, continued to wreak havoc on the castle. Not one person had discovered it yet, but suspected these failures were not coincidences.

Edited by Coryn02

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Pascal stood with her mouth agape, stunned in place by Nata's speech even if she wasn't included in the list of recipients.

 

So that's why they kept the kid around.

 

~~

 

Twilight - Gateway

 

The transformed-human bounded around her like an excited foal. Twilight had read about shapechangers from other universes, many who were much less malignant than the Changelings native to Equestria. This one seemed to have a sense of childlike amazement, and she wondered if the human form was just another one of its disguises because of his limited speech. She couldn't help but show a genuine smile. "Okay," she repeated. "You're okay?"

 

That would be a good name for now, until she figured out if the shapeshifter even had a name. "Come on Okay!" She beckoned him over with one of her wings. "We're going somewhere else now, so follow me!"

 

And then, to the lanky metal creature who asked her a question, she was happy to provide an answer. "There's a lot of different things out there in all these multiple universes, and it's sad to say not everyone ends up wanting to be friendly." Her ears drooped visibly from disappointment, but she perked them back up when she realized they were betraying her feelings. "I think everyone has some good in them, but it's almost guaranteed that there are people we're up against who just want to pick a fight and won't give up until either party is dead. But Enough of that!" She abruptly changed the topic to avoid talking about it further. "Come on everyone, let's go get some tea, shall we? And Badu," she added, "I hope you don't mind us using that lovely rose blend? You can stay here if you want to assist Pascal and Cistina, or come along and catch up with your friend. It's up to you."

 

With a few strides she was out of the circle between the Gateway's rocks. Through a wave of her tail, Twilight hailed a nearby yellow star-creature with beady black eyes. "These are Lumas, by the way, native to this area of space. It's said that they will one day become stars or other celestial bodies. They're good friends of ours and help out around our base."

 

The Luma waved a stubby little arm in greeting and did a small flip in the air. "Hello!"

 

"Could you ask Yusei to boil some water for tea?" Twilight requested. "If you can't find him, anyone else near the kitchen would do. It would be nice to have something to welcome our guests."

 

Bobbing up and down in its equivalent of nodding, the Luma flew off in front of her and raced towards headquarters. Twilight followed after it in a relaxed trot along the paved path surrounded by patches of flowers, explaining to the mismatched group behind her as she went along and making sure to speak loud enough for them to hear.

 

"To those who arrived recently, this planet is called the Gateway to the Starry Sky. You might have realized this by now, but I don't come from this planet either and in fact, I don't think anyone here other than the Lumas and their mother are even native to this universe."
 

"Some of you might be confused with what I mean when I say 'universe'. Like Nata put so concisely, an innumerable amount of universes are in peril and the fact that you're here is proof enough that many worlds exist outside of what you thought you knew. Past, present, and future, all sorts of infinite possibilities playing out simultaneously... There probably is a being out there who can understand it all, but none out of anyone I know. For instance, I knew of the dimension of humans, but the cycles of natural weather patterns would be foreign to my world."

 

Very quickly did the curvature of the planet reveal the shape of the castle-like building they had taken as their base. It wasn't that grand, compared to the lavish structures of the royalty Twilight had known, but it was cozy and it was what they were given. They hadn't had time to decorate it officially so some of the interior was rather bare (Rarity would've had a field day if she were here).

 

"This is where everyone here is staying for now, at least until we sort out this teleporter business to get people back to where they belong. The 'saving all universes' crew lives here too, so you'll see some agents around going about their daily routine."

 

The front doors were surrounded by a pink glow and Twilight pushed them open with her magic. They were three times too tall even for a fully grown pony and for the longest time the front entrance felt too big -- though it was just the right size for certain large creatures like her dragon friend. The floor inside was in light and dark marble, each tile containing shimmering bits within like stars on a night sky, lit by the magitech lights above and along the walls. Doors on either side of the main hall led to further rooms, and a set of beautiful stairs led up to more places on the second floor.

 

 

Twilight - XDRS Front Hall

 

...And at the top of the staircase was a regal young man in a uniform and a sword at his hip. "Morning, Duke!" the pony greeted. Morning was the few hours after they woke up, even though the outside was no clear indication of when morning actually was. "Here's the group from the ripple. I'm just going to explain the usual--"

 

Twilight's snout suddenly flattened against an invisible force. Taken by surprise, she jolted backwards and her wings unfurled out of reflex. "Horsefeathers, Duke...!" she shouted in exasperation, pushing one her front hooves against the side of her face in the equivalent of a human facepalm. She wanted to try one of her barrier-breaking spells just to save herself the inconvenience, but she was afraid of injuring the human by forcefully tearing down his conjured walls. It was a problem she and many others faced on a regular basis, and one that the blond haired human found extremely amusing.

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[I will have to add colors and fonts later as I'm on mobile right now.]

 

Yusei

 

The sound of the engine, the vibration of the speeding tires, was almost meditative to him. However, he was focusing on the Runner, listening for anything that might stop working or just wasn't working right. His Duel Runner had been damaged when he first arrived on the small, strange world and, over the last few weeks of being here, he had been working to fix it. There were interruptions, of course, requiring him to leave on missions or other assignments, repair someone else's equipment, or even customize new things. And he couldn't make repairs out of any random scrap. 

 

Finally, though, it seemed his work was paying off.

 

A smile ghosted across his face, eyes shaded by the dark visor. Sliding to a halt at the backside of the castle, he shut down the engine and touched the side of his helmet. Instantly, the visor slid upward into hiding and he pulled the helmet off, revealing black hair, highlighted by yellow - a matching color to the criminal marking etched to the left side of his face. 

 

Setting the helmet in the seat of his Runner as he got off the customized bike, Yusei glanced over his shoulder as a Luma approached. "Yeah? What is it?" he questioned.

 

"Twilight would like you to set a pot for tea. There are new arrivals," it explained, enthusiastic. Twirling, it hurried back inside.

 

Reaching forward, he pressed a button on the Runner. The screen lit up with color and a robotic voice announced, "Secondary mode, on." From the consol, his Duel Disk unlocked and he pulled it free, placing it on left arm. The deck within the disk was removed and placed into a holder on his belt, quickly replaced by another before he started walking.

 

Wondering what sort of individuals Twilight brought back, Yusei navigated to the kitchen where he located a tea kettle and filled it with water. Once it was set on the stove and the burner turned on, he paused at the sound of some commotion. Frowning, he left the kitchen and caught a glimpse of something darting down the hallway. Glacing at the room it fled from, he noted the mess that wasn't there before. Curious, he followed the creature at a brisk pace.

 

As he moved, he held his left arm before him, the Duel Disk activating. He drew a handful of cards, immediately seeing the one he wanted. Playing the Trap Card as he began to sprint, a large, glowing circle of glyphs appeared beneath the odd creature, trapping it in place. "Now, what sort of character are you?" he asked it. 

 

Moving closer, he stopped just before the Spellbinding Circle. "You know, I don't think you realize that people don't take fondly to sabotage," he commented.

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Hush, Child of Void - XDRS Base

 

Still floating through the hallways, the Nobody's attention was grabbed by a single figure, working on a large machine. It looked something like a motorbike, though Hush wasn't quite sure what it was meant to be.

 

It tilted its head at this young man, before darting out of sight as one of the star-shaped creatures approached.

 

After they finished talking, Hush followed him out to the kitchen, where it continued to watch him from the door as he prepared tea. Just behind it, the room next door was still in disarray from when it had been ransacked previously.

 

Haha, that was fun. Maybe I should- Oh no, he saw me!

 

Only too late did Hush realize it had been spotted by the man it was watching, and decided to leave before it was discovered.

 

Unfortunately, the boy had some manner of magic, and trapped him with a sigil on the floor.

 

Trying to fly past it resulted in a sharp yank as if tethered to the spot. Frustrated, the Nobody tried to strike outside the barrier to disrupt the human and his spell, but was countered by a barrier.

 

So focused was it on escape that it barely heard the comment about sabotage as his captor stepped forward. Peculiar hair that was spiked, not uncommon across the worlds.

 

Hush was reminded of the leaders- but also the hunter, who had a similar style. It wondered if it was going to die here, with a flicker of fear where its heart should be.

 

"Anyone hurt?" He addressed the man, figuring the only way out was by talking, provided there were any.

 

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Jowan [ Gate ] [ Dragon Age: Origins ]

 

Andraste, that hurt. Cutting oneself with a sharp knife wasn't exactly pleasant, but it was apparently a lot better than tearing one's flesh apart. Increasing the pressure on the afflicted wrist helped a little. It was the best that he could manage, anyway. Now that he'd done it, he wasn't sure that injuring himself had been the best decision, but at the same time it was... comforting. There was power in it, just waiting to be used. 

 

Was the quadruped actually disappointed that everyone wasn't suddenly friends? That wasn't how the world worked, and she had to know that. Fighting wasn't some kind of game, so of course people were going to die. Demons and spirits weren't innocent of that idea either, however little their understood about the material world. The Fade wasn't exactly peaceful. Speaking of which... He slowly spun around on one heel, scanning the oddly curved horizon. Nope, he hadn't just missed it. No ominous dark cities forever floating at the edge of the sky, eternally out of reach. Huh. So, he really wasn't trapped in the Fade. 

 

He wasn't sure what to do with that information, and it only made him feel more lost. If he wasn't in the Fade or dreaming, that left 'oddly vivid hallucination' and 'the probably-demons are actually telling the truth'. The latter still seemed unlikely, given that teleporting went against the cardinal rules of magic, but alternative universes didn't play into any magical theories that he'd heard of. That, and though he knew that it was dangerous to assume things about demons, the quadruped really didn't seem like one. She was obviously too smart to be a rage or hunger demon, wasn't playing off of any of his wishes (fix things. go back and stop himself from ever reading that book. see Neria again and apologize one last time.) like a desire demon wouldand it was hard to imagine a pride demon pretending to be so naive. Then again, she was consorting with demons, which was almost as bad, but maybe she didn't understand what she was doing. Maybe she really did believe what she was saying. 

 

Still, he wasn't planning on letting his guard down. He followed the quadruped, but only because he didn't have anywhere else to go and because it hardly seemed like it could get him into worse trouble than he was already in. Sitting in the middle of some creepy henge wasn't his idea of a fun time. At least he had learned some names; apparently the pride demon was called Nata and the person wearing a cloak and pointed mask (he was pretty sure that some doctors had worn something like that during the First or maybe Second Blight, before it had been realized that there was no helping someone that had been tainted) was Badu.

 

Jowan [ XDRS Front Hall ] [ Dragon Age: Origins ] 

 

The castle was impressive, though it wasn't quite as large or grand as the palace at Redcliffe. Hopefully the dungeons were a bit nicer, though. He jumped and prepared for a fight when the quadruped suddenly stopped and started shouting and the figure at the top of the stairs, but forced himself to calm down upon noticing the lack of malice in her voice. His state of artificial calm didn't last long, however, as suddenly a set of blue barriers were revealed and the boy at the top of the stairs - Duke - launched into some kind of speech about a maze. Something under his eye seemed to be glowing as well, which was weird. Lyrium tattoos, maybe? Was Duke from Tevinter? 

 

Blowing a hole through the walls did sound tempting, but Duke was probably right in that another attempt at murder was a poor choice of action. Besides, he didn't know how strong the walls were and didn't want to embarrass himself by failing to make a dent. He noticed Duke's raised eyebrow and averted his gaze. He supposed that maybe he did stick out a bit, with his chains and blood-splattered robes, but they were also accompanied by two ten foot tall metal golems. 

 

When Duke finished, Jowan crossed his arms (which was made quite difficult for the chains and need to keep his left arm wrapped in his robes) and glared up at him, an incredulous expression on his face. What was the point of this? Some kind of sadistic game? He wasn't interested in playing it, anyway. Let the others do whatever it was that Duke wanted. 

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   Typheus's wings shifted at the pony's response. Her voice was leveled with experience, but her ears still drooped from the words; evidently she would rather everyone was cooperative, which explained binding the robed man back up. Her next words though became a painful echo of what he had thought many times before; but he didn't dwell on it. It wasn't important. Instead he turned to Fiddlesticks, relieved to see that she had calmed down and was simply staring at the grass.

   Twilight says we were brought here to fight potential hostiles, he worded carefully, try not to prematurely destroy anything.
   The umber machine perked up at the console message, looking up at him but saying nothing. He held her gaze for a moment, before he noticed Twilight turning to leave, with the others from the circle following her. Let's go see what this base is all about.
   Fiddlesticks glanced to the side, rubbing one arm with a bayonet in indecision, but looked back up when Typheus began to leave as well. It would be a bad idea to be left standing without backup in this strange place... ordinarily she would be fine with being alone, but the planet could have any kind of defense set up that she could be trapped in. So she trotted back up to the group, taking the rear and letting Typheus fall back beside her, giving her a pleased look. Honestly, he was worried she would be too high-strung to come, but he wouldn't have said anything anyway.

 

   Twilight says there are 'baby stars' that live here that help maintain Base, called 'Lumas', he told her, as she had missed that part of the conversation. The planet is indeed called 'The Gateway to the Starry Sky'... Gateway is a lot easier," he added more to himself, and most of the people here aren't native to this place.
   Fiddlesticks tried to absorb all of the information he was, and was making connections with the names, but found herself lingering on the bizarre nature of the place: "kitch silus", or "hatchling stars"? The Gateway? Only the Lumas exist here? What kind of planet was this??
   Typheus sheathed his emitters, so she tuned into Twilight's words, intrigued by the concept of multiple universes. It was a new concept to her, and while humans were more diverse and open-minded in comparison to Xinschi-uual, she didn't recall any of the ones she met talking about multiple universes before. It was an interesting idea, that there might be hundreds of other things from completely different realities in existence, and she just didn't know it yet.
   Except for now, apparently, if she was to believe this purple Twilight horse. She saw no reason to discredit her either, not with the people she was surrounded with.

 

   The trek was short, ending with the entrance of a large, stone-and-mortar castle; pretty underwhelming, considering Fiddlesticks was expecting some kind of advanced, alien tech, but not without its ancient charm - and Twilight led them right up to the large, stone doors. The same pink glow that both bound and unbound the robed man surrounded the doors while Twilight explained the purpose of the base, and they pushed open effortlessly without so much as a creak.
   Typheus ducked through without issue, only regarding the oddity for a moment. Fiddlesticks was so taken aback with curiosity that she kept walking, inevitably smacking her head on the door jam, then proceeding with embarrassment, ignoring the laughter in her partner's eye. Everything has been an inconvenient size since leaving Zirhon...

   Upon entering the building it was revealed to be a lot more regal, with glittering marble slabwork and concise etching, crown molding, and railings. The lighting was unfamiliar, but that only captivated the machines more; it looked like some rather fancy technology. Up on the immense, curved staircase was yet another human, standing in boredom. Twilight spoke up to greet him, but was suddenly cut off as she hit... an invisible object? Or had something cloaked hit her?


   "Horsefeathers, Duke...!" she exclaimed, wings ruffling. Both machines stopped abruptly in their tracks, as the man on the stairs looked up at their arrival.
   "My apologies, Twilight dear," he said, in a rather grandiose voice. "Feel free to join me if you would like."
   Unexpectedly, a blue shimmer manifested in front of Twilight, forming a hole that allowed her to pass through. Fiddlesticks's eye widened; what kind of technology was that?! She looked at Typheus, but he simply stared blankly at the anomaly, having no answers. Thankfully though, the strange man already had the answers for them, first introducing himself as the mentioned "Duke" and explaining that he had a little game for them... how exciting. A maze of barriers.
   Typheus wasn't amused, giving the man a flat stare at the uncalled-for challenge; then he grew worried at the recognition of it being a challenge.
   "Oh, and please don't try to force your way across," Duke continued, as Fiddlesticks walked right up to the wall with the horse-shaped hole in it. She tapped it, making it shimmer blue like ripples in sand. "Blowing a hole through the walls also means you'll blow a hole through me, and I won't judge if you want to start your new career as a time-travelling space agent with murder..."
   Typheus turned him out. He was shaking his head at his partner while she gave him a facetious look. Don't do it Fiddlesticks...

 

   The Pusher model turned her back to him and gave the wall a harder smack, judging its integrity. Then she backed up, readying for a charge.
   "Fidds!" Typheus barked too late; she ignored him and jumped forward, throwing her full weight against the wall.
   An immense crash! Large chunks of blue material flew out in front of her as she broke through, and momentarily she felt victory!... Then she realized she was floating.
   What the-?! her mind cried out. She was suddenly thrown backward with the chunks, and she hit the floor hard with a loud beep. Typheus deftly dodged her while her momentum was stopped by the back wall, and looked up to find the chunks literally returning to the place they had come from!
   Duke was right; brute-forcing it doesn't work. What kind of technology created invisible walls that could repair themselves, though?

 

   Fiddlesticks angrily picked herself up and ran back to the wall, hissing with bayonets bared. She fell against it and struck once with the left blade, then twice, then a third time, then a fourth, and a fifth... Typheus sighed at the fruitless effort and walked up to her.
   "It's not working," he said flatly. She just roared at him - a sound like metal scraping against metal - and continued striking with both bayonets, the blades only flashes with the immense speed that was also getting her nowhere. "Fiddlesticks."
   "EVERYTHING CAN BE DESTROYED! Why isn't it being destroyed?!" she cried incredulously. She stopped stabbing to warm up her lasers even while the wall repaired itself in front of her, but Typheus grabbed her and wrenched her back at the escalating whir.
   "He said it can't be destroyed!" he scolded her. She huffed, laserheads going dead, glaring between him and her target.
   "You're believing the word of something that used to be a meal?" she shot back.
   "These people are not meals," he sighed dramatically, wanting to shrink up in shame of her actions. And please, let's not reveal that right now, he added to himself. She just never learns...
   Fiddlesticks turned and scanned the seemingly-empty room, trying to be clever about the situation. Knowing where the walls were was the first step... striking them turned them blue... that might work.

Edited by skwerl56767

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Neku - Gateway

Multiple universes. Right. That made everything make so much more sense. Especially coming out of a unicorn's mouth. To give credit where credit was due, Neku himself was familiar with the concept of alternate planes of existence--even if he didn't really understand how they worked. If those existed, then maybe alternate universes weren't all that farfetched, either. Besides, it wasn't as if there were many better explanations out there. He doubted that even he would be able to dream up something this surreal.

 

He decided to follow along when said unicorn started leading the group away; from what it looked like, she (?) seemed to be the most knowledgable one around. And as much as he wanted to question his sanity when the unicorn called over the star-Luma-thing, he wasn't going to get any answers without putting a little trust in her. 

 

If my universe really is in trouble, then... What's going to happen to my friends? Did... he even know about this?

 

Neku was jolted out of his thoughts as the unicorn telekinetically opened the doors to a stone castle. He gawked a bit at its interior. Though architecture wasn't really his thing, the twinkling marble and ethereal lighting truly gave it an otherworldly beauty. 

 

"Horsefeathers, Duke!" shouted the now-exasperated unicorn, pressing a hoof to her head in what seemed to be a facepalm.

 

There went his sense of awe.

 

Neku - XDRS Front Hall

 

As Duke finished up his little monologue, Neku, too, found himself in a facepalm. This guy was like a Support Reaper version of Joshua, and boy was he not in the mood to deal with that again.

 

Before he could do anything, one of the two mechs--Fiddlesticks--charged the wall, trying to brute force its way through. It wasn't working very well, and the other mech clearly agreed, restraining its companion from doing any more. It was for the better. While ripping a hole through Duke sounded like a lovely option, Neku didn't want to murder one of the few people that looked to be in the know. Even if they were an insufferable jerk. He sighed.

 

Walking forward, he reached a hand up to where the barrier seemed to be. Sure enough, a solid force pushed back, a familiar glow underneath his touch. Unlike the walls he was used to, there wasn't any stupid requirement they had to fulfill other than simply getting across. He turned back to the group. 

 

"We could try feeling our way around," he offered, shrugging.

 

Edited by greenglassesgal

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Twilight - Main Hall

 

"No, it isn't fair that I don't have to do it either," Twilight told Duke, turning away from the hole in the barrier he made for her. One of the metal creatures attempted to slam through that hole and only succeeded in launching itself into the wall. She made a note to fix the broken plaster later, and judging by how passive some of the new arrivals were, the quickest way to dispel the maze would be to get through it herself. Apart from Nata shocking Duke silly, that is.

 

"We'll play his game," Twilight declared. "No need to use force when it's unnecessary," she added to Nata.

 

Facing the spot where she bumped into the wall, Twilight extended one of her wings until she felt the resistance of the force field against it. She walked at a brisk pace until she could feel the wall fall away, then followed the corner around by the touch of her feathers. A maze could be solved in one of several ways, but the simplest one was to follow a wall continuously to the end and judging by the size of the room, the solution shouldn't have taken too long.

 

...Except the strategy had taken her back to the beginning, where the group was assembled by the door. The pony quickly turned her back to the group and snapped her wings shut to hide her embarrassment. She was supposedly the noble leader who knew everything, but failed to solve a simple maze! That portion of the wall formed a closed loop according to what she could visualize, so all she needed to do was find an outside wall which would lead directly to Duke.

 

She headed left, feeling for the barrier with her wing again. It wasn't that hard to find, since she bumped into it with her nose first again.

Edited by TehUltimateMage

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Light ~ Following Twilight/XDre Base

Light listened and watched as the unicorn Twilight explained some things, including the presence of Wisp-like star spirits called "Lumas" who would apparently become stars themselves one day, how everyone assembled was probably from a different world, and business about teleporters and dimensions before she lead the assembled group towards a castle that appeared surprisingly quickly. She had nicknamed the white wolf boy "Okay," and requested a Luma to ask someone named "Yusei" to make tea. 

 

When they actually reached the castle--it was surprisingly large, far bigger than any single person, but it was a castle, so maybe that was to be expected?--there was a pink glow, like the ones around the bound man's shackles previously, that surrounded the giant doors. When they opened, Light gasped. The main hall was made of smooth black and white swirled stone, speckled with lights that gave everything the appearance of a clear night sky. A man with a white cape stood at the top of some stairs in the vast room, and Twilight greeted him upon seeing him:

 

"Morning, Duke! Here's the group from the ripple. I'm just going to explain the usual--"

 

Whatever else she was going to say was cut off as she slammed into some sort of invisible barrier, to which she responded with a very exasperated  "Horsefeathers, Duke...!".

There was a shimmer as the man offered her to "join him"--What a cliche--and a wall shimmered into view, with a hole opening to admit Twilight in--and only Twilight, if the size and shape was any indication.

More blue shimmers ran down the hall, and more barriers revealed themselves, though it was slightly difficult to tell where they all were.

 

 "Good morning, everyone!"  As the melodramatic Duke spoke, a sudden wind ran through the room and the walls disappeared. "Duke Lefevre, at your service -- the pleasure is entirely mine. I take it you've had an interesting morning? I apologise for having to send such violate agents your way first thing." 

Yup. Melodramatic is the right word. He paused and seemed to scan all of them before continuing. "In any case, you're here now. I take it you've been told how this place functions and that you are safe, which are both truths. But before we get towards the ordeal of having to sort out papers and send people back to their homeworlds and meeting angry men on horseback, let's have a little bit of fun! Think of it as housewarming. Undoubtedly, some of you will stay -- either by choice or by necessity, and what better way to get to know your new living room by trying to run across it?"

The melodramatic Duke then laid out the "rules" of his game: with Ophelia-like powers, he created barriers around the room in a maze. Unlike Ophelia, they also would hurt him if they were struck. And now the motley gang at the entrance has to find their way across. Light walked over to where she remembered a barrier being and gave it a poke... Nothing happened, but she felt a smooth surface under her finger.

 

A crash drew her attention, and she watched with wide eyes as the copper robot rammed through a barrier. That would hurt the melodramatic Duke... Light winced in spite of herself. Though at the same time, maybe he deserves it? But he hasn't hurt anyone yet. Just acted really pretentious and gave us a giant puzzle. The unicorn Twilight was walking with her wings out, feeling for the walls. Smart... But then she walked right back towards them? What looked like irritation passed over her face, then she extended her wings again.

Light looked around, then gathered a glob of mana in one hand. The mana "solidified" into a neon green circle, and Light reached her other hand out, feeling her way towards Twilight.

"Excuse me? What direction would you like me to throw this paint in?"

 

Cistina is currently at the gate, bored and jogging in circles.

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Twilight - Main Hall

 

Twilight's ears perked up and she turned her head when addressed by the bright-haired human, who also had some kind of magic. "That's a great idea! It'll show everyone else where the path is, or at least mark where we've been. Try firing it straight ahead from this point," she pointed with her hoof down towards Duke's direction.

Edited by TehUltimateMage

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When Reshiram followed the group to the hall, they were met by a boasting man whose manner reminded them of a green-haired human who had bragged about ruling the world. Except this human was bragging about.... an invisible maze?? There was a blue shern. It disappeared. Two metallic creatures attacked - and hit thin air - moments after the purple Blitzle started feeling at thin air. Then a human summoned paint.

 

Where had that paint come from, anyways? They looked at it. It looked like it cane from thin air, but paint didn't just come out of thin air. The Manakete growled in confusion. The Blirzle-thing was telling the human to throw the paint forwards. Reshiram slunk up to about where most of the others seemed to be stopping, and reached out.

 

There was something solid. They hissed. The other hand came out of their coat and beat at the wall weakly. Definitely solid. An alarmed hiss, and Reshiram backed up - no, scuttled back like they were burned, slitted eyes focused on the air ahead of them like it was a wall of earth summoned by some Ground-element.

Edited by DuskOfTheStars

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Jowan [ XDRS Base, Main Entrance ] [ Dragon Age: Origins ]

 

Startled by the sight of the brown golem moving alarmingly quickly, Jowan tried to step backwards. Predictably, it didn't work very well, and he fell to the ground without even his hands to catch him. Maybe that was a good thing- at least it meant that his wrists stayed unbroken. He swore, both because of the pain and as a delayed reaction to the golem's actions. Nope. New plan. If getting through the maze was the best way to get as far away from the very violent giant murder things (there was also the door to the outside, but having a wall that they couldn't destroy between him and them sounded nice), then that was what he was going to do. 

 

It took him an embarrassing amount of time to scramble to his feet. Chains really weren't fun to deal with (he wished that the purple demon would remove them again, but he doubted that just asking nicely would get him anywhere). By the time he was upright again, the purple demon had circled around back to them again. Great, so that trick was out. Not for the first time, he wished that he had a staff. The standard mage technique of poking weird things with a long stick rarely went wrong (well, except for that time an apprentice lost their eyebrows, or that time that a hunger demon was released and killed two people, or that time that... it was probably a good time to stop mentally listing things). 

 

He looked down at his blood-soaked robes and bit his lip. No, that was an incredibly bad plan for several reasons. His other spells wouldn't be very helpful for maze solving... unless the barriers required concentration to maintain? They were clearly quite powerful, so he'd be surprised if they didn't. Then again, they didn't seem to work by any of the rules that he was used to, but it was worth a shot. As long as he wasn't punished for attacking Duke, at least. The purple demon hadn't said anything to the golems, despite how attacking the walls apparently hurt the man maintaining them. Besides, Disorient didn't have any lasting effects. He knew from experience that it wasn't pleasant, but it was nothing like getting hit with a fireball. 

 

Focusing on Duke, he drew a bit of power from the blood leaking from his arm. He knew that he shouldn't, but... well, he was already bleeding, no one would know, and he wasn't a powerful mage. It wouldn't do any harm, aside from the twinge of weakness that he felt as he cast the spell. There was a momentary shimmer in the air around Duke as the spell found its target. He shot a nervous glance at the golems, hoping that his plan worked. That, or whatever Light and the purple demon were doing. He really wasn't picky so long as he didn't get crushed. 

 

Natsuki [ XDRS Base, Library ] [ Original Work ] 

 

They hummed in reply, displeased by the lack of news. "I'll send a Luma with a request for a status update when we next see one, then." The miniature stars seemed to never be around when they needed one, and everywhere when they didn't. Biases sure were fun. Still, it was annoying even if they were pretty sure that the number of Lumas flying around didn't change based on need. 

 

"Thank you," they said, any temptation to decline prevented from realization by Xander's gaze. They were pretty sure that he would physically drag them there if they said no. Besides, he was right about them needing their strength to deal with the new arrivals. People generally weren't too stable when they were suddenly dragged to the base, and it seemed like the majority of them had destructive abilities. 

 

They reached the door and stepped through, planning on hold it open for Xander. Instead, they felt their feet fall out from under them and they landed with a thump on the stone floor and... ball bearings? A quick physical inventory revealed that nothing was broken, though they suspected that that was only because breaking wasn't really a thing that their bones did. "Duke," they said through gritted teeth, standing up and being careful to not step on any more ball bearings. 

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Light ~ XDre Entrance: Maze

Light nodded at the unicorn Twilight's words, and aimed the ball--but can I really aim when I don't know where to throw something?--forwards. When it hit, it splattered against a wall and revealed... A dead end, as well as a bit of another "corridor."

 

"My paint only lasts about 30 seconds," Light informed the unicorn Twilight, then she headed partway into the corridor--Twilight had been here, right?-- and slowly spread her arms out until she could feel walls on both sides, and started walking forward. A few steps later, though, and she stopped feeling anything press against her left hand. Another intersection, maybe?

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   As Typheus expected from the implications of his monologue, the strange human Duke didn't look very comfortable at the impact nor the stabbing. Fiddlesticks's head was darting about, the same way it does when she's searching for a clever target; her intentions were difficult to read, however.

   "I appreciate the momentary reprieve, but could we avoid hitting the barriers further? I've only just had breakfast and I don't think all of you want to witness me throwing up two pieces of toast and Xander's entire collection of fine wines," Duke said, with a smile, "I swear I'm not drunk, though."

   Typheus wasn't sure if he should laugh or stare blankly at him more. He checked the reactions of the rest of the group, thinking.

   Nata looked pretty angry, and was speaking to Twilight, but she denied whatever request he gave, refused Duke's offer as well, and instead declared that everyone will go through this maze the latter had set up. There were disgruntled looks all around, but no objections. One of the white boys - which he could now discern from the other boy as having slitted eyes - batted strangely at the invisible wall, bristling. Each jerky movement made him look uncomfortable in his own skin... Twilight tried following what she could feel of the wall to solve the maze, only to wrap back around with a look of utter dismay on her face, provoking a snicker from Duke. The machine looked at the other humans in the group: one had conjured up some kind of glowing ball and was feeling her way toward Twilight, two others looked pretty relaxed, with one of them quizzically touching the wall, but the other two weren't very responsive... trying to be clever, perhaps? His eye met the robed one's, and there was something.. off about the suppressed panic he had shown earlier.

   His suspicion was only rising. Only Nata has been a legitimate threat so far, as well as whatever purple kinetic field Twilight had, but maybe trusting all of these strangers wasn't a good idea... especially when one of them can make giant, invisible walls, apparently.

 

   Fiddlesticks tried scanning the wall, finding that the projection stopped at it like a real object, but her expression diffused into puzzlement at whatever she was picking up. None of these chemical compounds made any sense... was this a new element? Whatever it was it was self-repairing... that would make great armor. She had a feeling Duke wouldn't want to share it though, and without the formula she couldn't experiment and make it herself. She turned off the scanner and gave him a long look, studying his composure for any clues on the maze's integrity. Surprisingly, he too looked confused. A glance to her right verified that one of the humans had... eaten something blue? There was a chunk missing from the wall... could it be eaten?

   She watched the white human in fascination. If the wall could be eaten that would be much easier than trying to navigate this place! Although, if the wall repaired itself as quickly as it did with her, maybe it couldn't be eaten fast enough. As another thought, what kind of human ate walls, anyway? She didn't have taste sensors, but she couldn't imagine people building their homes out of something edible or even tasted nice; that was just illogical. Or perhaps whatever made these walls invisible made them tasty? Or perhaps she was thinking about this too hard...

   Without her knowing it, Typheus had recognized the advantage of the scanner, and had taken the left corridor through the maze, flashing the yellow grid projection to predict incoming obstacles. He had quickly found himself in a dead end, but with the scanner her managed to direct himself out of it, continuing up into another dead and end spinning around, trying to find a new opening.

 

   Fiddlesticks didn't even notice he had left until she tried to look back at him, only to find him halfway across the room already! Her ears tilted up in surprise.

   "How did you-?" she began, cutting herself off when her step forward resulted in her bumping into the wall in front of her. She held back a disgruntled growl when Typheus just looked back at her, his expression blank, and continued scanning the floor a few quli away from him. She inched to the left along the wall, not paying attention to the others, and quickly found the opening he had gone through.

   Ah hah! She let out a cryptic whistle, trotting toward Typheus, and he looked back up at her. With him right in front of her she anticipated meeting right up with-

   THWACK! An angry beep escaped her speaker as she hit a solid force. A wall?!

   "Hah hah hah hahhahahahah!" he laughed.

   "Not funny!" she hummed, rubbing her face with her turrets. It didn't quell his amusement, and he simply walked on, flashing his scanner back on. She stared at him sullenly for a moment, before it finally clicked:

   Scanner. Stops at substances. The walls are a substance, stupid.

   "Stupid mech, laughing at me, I'll show you..." she grumbled to herself, turning her scanner on and turning right, where he was going, just to find a wall and go left instead. "Stupid walls..."

Edited by skwerl56767

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Yusei

 

He watched the creature thrash about, clearly trying to break free. Eventually, it stopped, seemingly to realize the reality of its situation, and spoke. "No, no one's hurt," Yusei replied. "However, that's not really the point," he stated. Examining the creature, he started speaking again. "I'll let you out, if you don't cause any more trouble. Don't want you being attacked by anyone else here. Fair?" he offered. 

 

Stepping back from the Spellbinding Circle, Yusei deactivated the card and slipped it back into his deck, his duel disk similarly deactivating. "There now. How about we talk? My name's Yusei," he introduced.

 

Sora

 

Following Twilight, Sora returned his hands to the back of his head, twining his fingers together. When they reached the castle, he lowered his arms again and stared momentarily. "Looks pretty neat," he commented. Though, admittedly, he had seen some more impressive palaces. 

 

Inside, the situation seemed to go downhill. Invisible barriers flashed blue for a brief second and Sora grew tense. He did not enjoy unseen barriers - it meant enemies. Narrowing his eyes, he summoned his Keyblade and readied for a fight just as the bronze Guard Armor Heartless began attacking the wall before the group. Not wanting the feeling of being trapped to start crawling along his skin, he started moving. Others were heading left so he would head to the right.

 

After a thought, he jabbed his Keyblade towards the ceiling and called, "Aero." A gust of magicked wind swirled about him in a small radius, creating a protective buffer. A smirk crossed his features. There would be no embarrassing face-plants for him with the spell active. 

 

Heading right, he watched the walls light up when the Aero brushed against them, giving him bread crumbs to follow left and forward. "What's a member of Organization Thirteen doing here?" he questioned, staring at Duke as he directed the words towards the blond.

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Hush, Child of Void - XDRS Base

 

The man spoke softly, as if not trying to scare Hush away. It seemed to work, since the Nobody was fully willing to cooperate as long as it wasn't threatened. Hush nodded in agreement at the proposition.

 

The man expressed the will to keep it out of harm's way, and Hush saw this. He introduced himself as Yusei.

 

Should I give my name as a pale one, or my name before?

 

While perhaps not a crucial detail, Hush identified itself differently based on when it had been alive, and decided introducing itself as a Nobody would make more sense.

 

"Hello hello! I am Hush!"

 

It held up a single forelimb in greeting, then degrading into childlike idling. Hush floated into the air upside down, where it idly began swatting at a fly buzzing through the air. It giggled while it did so, sounding much like a child's laughter.

 

- - - -

 

Audrey & Badu - XDRS Base

 

Badu watches the antics unfolding around her and laughs from beneath her mask. All these new people trying to get through Duke's silly test, and they all try to force their way through.

 

"You're not going to help them?" Audrey asked, with a touch of concern.

 

"No, they can probably do this themselves. And besides, we've got catching up to do! What's the Hamlet like now?" Badu replied.

 

Well, Reynauld and Dismas are still the strongest of us all. Dismas got sick a while back, but the boss isn't sending him for treatment. Insists on 'minimizing costs'."

 

A degree of scorn could be detected in Audrey's speech as she related this.

 

Badu snorted. "Just as cheap as always, eh? I'm glad I work on my own schedule now, even if we've got bigger fish to fry."

 

Audrey shook her head in disbelief. "But, Badu... That thing beneath the manor is dangerous, even if I was only in it for the money. What could be more important to the boss than that?"

 

"You know those fish at the cove, and the mushroom men in the forest? Those come from another dimension. But it's all in the same universe, so even if the Heir fails, it'll be contained. What the XDRS does is make sure the universes themselves don't fall apart, whether we're there or trying to manage the chaos from outside."

 

Audrey gave her a blank look conveying a lack of comprehension, to which Badu raised her hands in an appeasing gesture.

 

"I-I'll explain more once we're inside, okay? It's a lot to take in, I know."

 

 

Edited by Coryn02

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Neku - XDRS Front Hall

 

"See, she has the right idea," Neku commented as he watched Twilight walk off, using her wings as a guide. Before he could start probing his way around the maze himself, the white wolf from earlier padded up to him.

 

"Feeling," it echoed, confirming that it was, indeed, a talking wolf. Or at least, it was a wolf. With a shimmer of light, it transformed into a white haired young boy. Guess that somewhat explained the talking part. He really wondered how he'd gotten to the point where shapeshifting people made sense and holy crap was that a sword?!

 

He reflexively dodged to the side. A crack sounded as the attack connected with the wall, sending blue shards flying back. "Watch it, kid!" he snapped. It was a good thing he wasn't in the way--if the mangled sword was anything to go by, the boy was stronger than he appeared. It seemed that the boy was much more engrossed in the already-reforming wall, grabbing a piece of it from the air. The boy looked around as if to check for some sort of reaction from the rest of the crowd, and for one brief moment, made eye contact with Neku. 

 

Then he ate the wall.

 

"... Okayyy. Not gonna ask." By this point, Twilight had somehow ended up wandering in a loop, and was working her way down a different path with someone else. Guess he'd better get a move on too. Keeping his hands out, he made his way over to them.

Edited by greenglassesgal

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Reshiram hissed, eyes darting around the hall. Up at front, then at the paint. What was this. What was all this. So strange. They shouldn't be. They shouldn't be in this body. A frightened hiss. The Manakete twitches- one hand shoots out - clutches the stone --

 

A burst of white light. An elegant furred and feathered dragon without any forearms appeared from the light. They had piercing blue eyes and twin streaming manes coming off the dragon's vulpine head. Vast white-feathered wings splayed out. They snarled, and shifted their mighty feet.

 

Then suddenly, they breathed in. An orb of blue light. An unholy cry, and a deep blue laser flew out. It hits the wall - ricochets, all through the maze, and even through the doorway where it bounces off another reflective wall, and continues bouncing. The laser barely missed the trembling, twitching white dragon. Reshiram screams. The laser keeps going, until it finally hits an intersection at such an angle that it smashes through the ceiling.

 

The white dragon changed back in another burst of white light. The Manakete fell to their knees, hands shooting out onto the ground. Reshiram breathed heavily, blue eyes wide with panic.

Edited by DuskOfTheStars

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~Evonna~

 

So… Where am I and how did I get here? My book was JUST getting good.

 

Evonna sighed and took out her hairpin for a brief moment. The way I put this damned thing in, it was pulling at individual hairs… Jesus could anything be more painful. She refused to entertain her wandering mind and instead directed her attention to the meadow of flowers around her. Her rear end hurt a little, but her landing was otherwise very gentle thanks to the flowers. It makes me wonder if these were planted for the sole purpose of being a cushion. She stopped paying attention to the flowers themselves and more to the rocks. Hmm, interesting. I suppose this is just a landing pad? What am I here for…?

 

Looking around, Evonna just wasn’t sure what she was looking at. This was one of the strangest things she has ever seen- and of course there was nobody to explain it to her. Perhaps she was dreaming. In that case, though, her dream was really odd. She wondered, then, if any of her fellow students gave her something laced, because this dream felt too real. It better not have been Thel… Or I’m going to kill him.

 

She heard confused screams and wails from people around her. It upset her, only because it interrupted the trains of thought running through her very-introverted mind. It often confused her, since she preferred if she were able to concentrate on her own thoughts. Frankly, it helped her fight, study, get some quality goddamned sleep… And most importantly, she liked quiet because it allowed her to become more aware of her surroundings. Situations like this, to say the least, were undesirable for a number of different reasons.

 

To say she had expected what would happen next, though, was a complete lie.

 

~Lara~

 

Lara sighed and took a quick sip of her tea in the kitchen, doing a quick inventory of her ammunition supplies. Shotgun is fully loaded, I have a few more rounds of that… My fifty-caliber pistols are also loaded… Hopefully my dual pistols will have enough ammo for now. Who knows if I’ll need more. Hopefully there should be some in stock somewhere, right? After putting her guns to the side, Lara picked up her tea cup again. This tea is decent, I suppose, but I do miss the tea from back home. If I make it home, maybe I should ask Winston to get some more when he’s out and about.

 

Edited by Mikasa361
y'all are a pain about the font I use. :p

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