melodiesoflife | Intro Log || This Keeps Happening

Intro Log || This Keeps Happening

Characters: All the "Heroes of Light" (only new characters can start threads).
Where: Aqures Ixen.
When: The 5th of January. The new Heroes of Light will awaken early in the morning.
Summary: The new Heroes of Light awaken in Aqures Ixen and are informed by their assigned Moogles of what the situation and what their destinies are. This a log for them to react to the situation, meet each other and be welcomed by the former batches of Heroes of Light.
Warning: Snow. Also some leftover decorations from Christmas.

Where you were or what you were doing— It does not really matter. Not any more. Within an instant, the world around you collapses. Reality twists and shatters... Or maybe you are the one who is collapsing and shattering away from reality as you knew it. No matter what the answer is, it will only take a few seconds for you to find yourself sinking into a void, your world vanishing into the distance. There is nothing but darkness as far as the eye can see. Even you feel different: all the powers you might once have had, are now gone. It is silent, cold and it feels as though life itself is slipping out of you.

At this moment, when it looks as though nothing but a never-ending void awaits you, a red Crystal forms before you. In this void, its warmth compels you to grab it. Upon doing so, you can hear a soft, soothing voice speaking:

"Wake up."

Soon, the void itself vanishes and is replaced by distant noises of engines. Had it all been nothing more than a dream? The soothing voice repeats its call one more time, but is soon replaced with a much less graceful "Wake up Kupo." Hand clutched on your Crystal, the call of the Moogle may finally wake you up. But you are no longer in your world, nor in the void. You are before the Crystal of Fire, in the third district of a city called Aqures Ixen. At this point, you may realize the engine noise actually originates from an Airship flying low over the city and headed to dock beneath the castle. As if it wasn't strange enough, your clothes have changed as well. They are now a reflection of the Jobs you are wielding. Last but not least, you are surrounded by Moogles, small and fluffy creatures who are more than happy to tell you about everything you want to know, about your 'destiny' as a Hero of Light, about what awaits you.

Or at least, they will tell you everything they do know, which isn't much in the end.

The only people around you are like you-- There are quite a few of them, all clothed in their Job garbs and most likely wondering what is happening. If somehow you do not realize it, the Moogle who woke you up will be more than happy to inform you there are others like you around. In fact, there are other Heroes who have arrived in the course of the past year and they will come soon! Like you, they have Jobs and a Crystal.

If asked, the Moogles will mention that the Heroes of Light - that is to say you - are fighting against time to save Crystallis from the Calamity that is about to awaken to devour the entire world. Sounds terrible? Welcome to Crystallis.

The Other Heroes
— Shortly Thereafter —
Thanks to the efficiency of Mognet, it does not take long for the other Heroes to come around: those who arrived in this world within the past year. You may have imagined heroic and charismatic figures when your Moogle told you that there were other Heroes of Light in this city. You may have imagined persons with fearsome powers when they told you about how they managed to push back the Empire and defeat gigantic beasts in the past. And more importantly, you may have imagined them as people who would have all the answers to your, doubtlessly, numerous questions.

If so, you may be up for a tragic disappointment. Still, for the most part they know more than you on the situation and may be more than happy to fill you in, especially if your Moogle didn't tell you much.

The City of Aqures Ixen
— Anytime —
With Christmas being barely over, there are still Christmas Decoration in the streets, and while the reconstruction are nearly over, there are still traces of the attack the Empire led against the city six months ago. A few buildings are being worked on.

And besides the decorations and reconstructions, there are a lot of things to do in the city for newcomers. A few groups of Triple Triad players are playing before Mognet Office in the ninth district, and a Blitzball Match is set to start at 20:00 in the stadium! Characters are also free to visit the city-- Mognet Office just behind the Triple Triad games is filled with Moogles, most of them discussing about the election for the future director of Mognet. They can also visit Airship Port in the twelfth district from where characters can board for free Airships from Shoopuf Airline.

Or maybe you could visit your new house in the 11th District, and get to know your new neighbors and housemate. Hopefully your neighbors are people you will get along with.

The Laboratory
— Anytime —
A location where a lot of Heroes of Light seem to be gathering is Palitutu's Laboratory. It is a place where employed characters can research into various topics. However, most importantly, characters can see a file with their name...

Should your character decide to go there and peek at their file, there are two possibilities. Either the file is corrupted and they cannot access it: too bad for them, but at least their life will remain a mystery. Or should you decide the file isn't corrupted, they will find a summary of their lives up to their canon point, as if written by a third-person omniscient narrator. On the column left to the text, to the top there is a portrait of them, and beneath it there is a 3D model of them. Said portrait and model can be switched to any year of their life. At the bottom there is a percentage, indicating 0%. On the right column, there are various links, most of which are grayed out. The clickable links lead to their Homeworld History and their future post-canon point history (corrupted file for unfinished canons).

At least, they can lock this file away if they don't want anyone to see it.

The Hospital
— Anytime —
Characters who have already been in Crystallis before do not wake up by the Crystal of Fire like everyone else. Instead, they will wake up in the Hospital of Aqures Ixen, in a room where there are over a hundred of other Heroes of Light like them-- Maybe even some familiar faces... Except they're all in Crystal Stasis.

A couple Moogles and a few nurses will be waiting by the room, and they will welcome all characters waking up. Upon exiting the room, they will also meet a lot of guards, and they all have for order to shoot anyone that comes out of this room without a Moogle. Hopefully you won't try running out without waiting for your Moogle. As for why the guards are so on edge, it might be a good idea to ask the other Heroes of Light about what happened a couple months ago.

Close Encounters of the Third(?) Kind
— 15:00 —
Characters venturing by between the city's outskirts and the Chocobo Farm at this specific time will be able to see a most peculiar sight: a flying saucer seemingly abducting a Chocobo before flying away and disappearing into the sky without leaving any traces of its presence. If your character do see it, hopefully there will be someone with them. Otherwise, nobody will believe their story.

Was it an UFO or just a hallucination? Previous sightings of such a thing have happened. It might be a good idea to investigate this sometimes...

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Sheena always tried to help the new Heroes whenever she could--and today was no exception. It was a frightening thing to be in your world one moment, be in darkness the next, then in a new world after.

Seeing Zack stand, Sheena immediately went over, her own Moogle, Corrine perched on her shoulder. She arrived just in time to hear the exchange between the two and she looked from one to the other, her expression concerned.

"Is everything okay?"

"They are pretty awesome," admitted Erika. "The things I could do designing an outfit based on them!"

At the second question, she nodded. "Yeah, our world has a, I wouldn't say habit but it's got a lot of out of this world attackers. Fortunately there's always the Pretty Cure to defend the world from evil."

"Ah, just a case of momentary mistaken identity, kupo," said Moogla. "He's the newcomer I'm assigned to."

"Which is weird, because Moogla here sounds exactly like Asami, a friend from my world." Added Zack. "It's just disorienting to hear her voice coming from such a small creature."

As Moogla pouted, Zack chuckled. "Though it's not a small comfort to have a familiar voice around. Oh I'm Zack." He added, holding out his hand in greeting to Sheena.

I believe they last the duration of the game. I don't know for certain, since I haven't played in an actual match yet.

He'd really rather not. This...person...could find the hat easily enough on his own, and now that he knew he hadn't mowed down a small child, he was less inclined to be polite. But...

Hm.

A glance at the doors showed that there wasn't anyone rushing forward to subdue the newest imported prisoners, and the Moogle he'd woken up to was more busy complaining about him and making angry gestures in his direction. All right, then.

Given his height advantage, it wasn't hard for him to spot the hat hanging from a nearby sconce. He smirked a little, amused that it would have landed like that, and plucked it free to plonk it down on Ales's head.

"There you go. Now if you'll excuse me..."

"Flying, hm?" He could see himself speaking about something like that. Jaeha remained leery of his situation, but it was obvious that she wasn't a suspicious person. She also had information about him, and that was a mystery he needed to clear.

"Someone who looks like me, sounds like me, and bears my name. That is a puzzle indeed, isn't it?" He rested a gloved finger against his chin, perplexed. "What did this other look-alike say about flying?"

[It's difficult to say which of them looks more shocked at the assessment. A good pair? They even glance at each other, and it takes all of Jaeha's self-restraint not to burst out laughing, for he wouldn't want to--]

AH HA HA HA HA HA HA!

[Never mind. It seems his self-restraint wasn't enough. Kulana scowls, and gives his head one last stomp before storming a few feet away and turning to face him with a fierce look, arms crossed.]

[Jaeha sits up cross-legged and grinning, and sniffles as he wipes away the blood dribbling from his nose.]

I can't allow a lady to pay for my meal, but I'm willing to listen to what you'd like to say.

[He can't promise to believe it, nor can he promise to linger long, but it's true that he does need more information.]

It wasn't that hard. His Dragoon powers hadn't even activated. He may as well have jumped over a puddle, as easy as it was to leap over someone's hair trailing along the ground. She really ought to take better care of it, it was going to pick up dirt and bugs like that.

He blinked in surprise, as she teleported, just to...look snide? What a strange woman.

He just smiled again, tipping her a casual salute with two of his fingers as he raced away.

"Suspicious? I wonder." Kulana frowned in consideration, deciding to entrust the matter to Yuri. "Now that he's here, I should be able to access his file. Maybe there's something I don't know." And she doubted Jaeha would even know about the file's existence to take the appropriate measures to lock it down.

Meanwhile, once Jaeha had managed to make his way toward the gates, he ducked into a nearby alley to pause. The guards at the entrance barely glanced his way. He was sure one of them had even nodded as if to greet him, with neither moving to block his flight or raise their spears.

None of this made sense to him.

He dropped to one knee, shooting a quick glance at either end of the alley to see if he was being watched, then started to tug his trouser leg out of his boot...

And stopped, head still bent, hands stilled. He restuffed the trouser leg and stood to his feet. He hadn't been able to check, and he wasn't about to while there was a witness around, and he was well aware now that he had a tail. "It's been a while since someone took the effort to chase me down," he announced with a lazy smile. "Is your admiration really that great?"

Of course it wasn't, but he wanted to know just what sort of person he was going to be dealing with.

"You're a lyricist too?" Better and better! Rialynn was absolutely delighted, and stuck out her hand as if to seal the deal of their future partnership. "Sounds great! How do I get in contact with you if I find a job, or to schedule some time to practice? I'm in..."

She hesitated, and looked to Kunia, who held up Rialynn's key. "House A-06, in the Fourteenth District," the Moogle supplied helpfully.

"Yes! There," she beamed, fists on her hips as if she even knew where the Fourteenth District was. "Drop by any time, or leave a note if I'm not home."

Before Nibelheim, before Sephiroth went off the deep end. He didn't know Cloud all that well, not personally at least, but many young men joined the Shinra military because of the propaganda surrounding the war hero. He wondered if Cloud was the same way. But it wasn't too important to figure that out, not for Rufus.

"Ah, I take it that you already know what's going to happen then?" He wasn't sure if that was a wise decision or not, but Cloud now knew and there wasn't much that could be done to change that.

"Then they are like the Jenoine, then," Tazendra said. "Ah, well, then I at least have a duty to stop them."

"I think so? Ya'd have to travel to Mysidia, but maybe there can be a trip out there for the newbies. To be honest, I didn't go to meet him when we went over there, but a lot of the other Heroes did. One of 'em can probably fill ya in on the details, though."

He looks slightly sheepish for a moment. "To be honest, I didn't go talk to him. I'm in no rush to go back to Mysidia, but maybe I should sometime." He really should be more up on what's going on now that the Calamity was looming again.

"It's a creature made from combining two different animals," he replied without turning his head away from his destination. "They do something to them that causes them to get really agitated and attack us on sight, and some are really dangerous. I'm a bit worried what they can do with a huge bird like that." Ostrelephants were frightening foes to encounter in the wild, and on his own, a rabid Chocobo would kill him in no time.

When Rialynn walked back to him, he stopped walking and tilted his head in confusion. "What do you mean...?" He couldn't think of any recent injury he had, so why would he look like he was hurt--oh, right.

"Oh, I've had that handicap for almost all my life." He waved his hands at her. "It's really nothing by now, I should have mentioned that earlier."

In the past three years, others have stopped pointing out Duster's limp in front of him, so he forgot his habit of bringing it up first.

"The Jenoine?" Duster asked. "Is that something from this world?"

"We're at B-14 in the Fourteenth District," supplemented Moogla. "Though there's the Mognet, where you can have us write letters to each person and we'll deliver it for you, arranging a time and meeting."

"Helpful. If a little slower than texting," said Zack with a grin. "Okay, we can meet up later since we're in the same district."

"So go to Mysidia. I'll have to look into that," said Zack with a nod. "There's plenty to do, and I think we need to get as prepared as we can."

Cause there was nothing but time to help out. So it seemed anyhow.

"They can do that?!" Her eyes were wide. Okay, then yes, this was absolutely something they needed to prevent from happening. She cast a nervous glance at the sky, as if the spaceship would suddenly return and take the two of them next.

It didn't happen, of course.

She nodded slowly as he explained, casting one last glance at his leg. "You're sure?" He had been keeping pace pretty well when they'd first charged out here, she supposed. Her smile returned, then strengthened, and she nodded. "All right, then. Let's keep going!"

Tex...ting? She looked at Kuponia, who just shrugged. The Moogle had never heard of the concept either. Well, it mattered little, Rialynn supposed. "B-14," she repeated. "Got it."

She started off with three quick steps, then stopped and pointed to the ground where Zack was standing as she raised her eyebrows. "Are you going to be dancing here for a while?"

"I think I'm going to dance for a while longer," said Zack, thinking about it. "After that I'm going to the laboratory to look things up. I might see you around later?"

Yet another word she'd never heard before, but she could ask Kuponia about it later. "Okay! Great! Keep dancing, then!" She turned, still pointing back at him as though telling him to stay put. She definitely wanted to drop some coins into his hat.

Little did she know that all that awaited her was a batch of Kuponia's coma-inducing cookies. She would not come back in time to catch Zack before he moved onward to the laboratory.

MAYBE NEXT TIME.

"That makes me feel a little better, then."

Aya is familiar with being less than content with her own assignments, but it came with the job. She does wonder if they get paid, but it doesn't really occur to her to ask.

Some relief sweeps across her disposition at Yuna's answer, and she nods. "That's... That's good to hear. I have a sister that I take care of back home, so..." She would hate to think that Eve would be spending the next few years of high school solely in the hands of Kyle. Not that she doesn't trust him, but he's never been particularly responsible when it came to caretaking.

At a later time, Aya may have to probe the matter further, judging by his mannerisms and tones. As it stands, she feels that it may not be the best subject to breach, particularly with someone you just met.

This would be the third person she's spoken to not of this world to have said they've been here for that long. It's peculiar, but it definitely drains the surprise from Aya's response. She opens her mouth to say something, but then closes it at Cloud's question.

"Oh, um. We have horses. I've never ridden one, though. People just tend to drive cars where I'm from."

"I'm pretty sure it's impossible for a whole planet to be flat." Aya may be no astronomer herself, but she has a basic enough understanding.

Eventually, the moogle stops tugging at Aya's side. She looks up, gracing Rialynn with an appreciative look but says nothing.

Aya just glances at the moogle, and then back to Rialynn. "Well, I wasn't even sure if I was actually hearing them talk or..." Or if she was just imagining things. She's still feeling pretty groggy from her awakening. This is why she doesn't drink. "But, yeah. Just give us a couple minutes, we should be square."

The creature looks like she really wants to speak, but quietly shies away from interrupting their conversation.

"Oh, you're like a guard. I saw a lot of them down south, or here. Most of them here seem kind of... hm. Stiff." He pauses, letting her catch the implication he finds her less of a stiff than oh, Sparks Nevada.

"I kind of wish sometimes I could be what I was where I'm from, I can't really get a Dozen together, and they seem to have plenty of Kings and Queens already." He frowns a little, as he finishes the last part, as if remembering just why he finds politics distasteful.

"But if you want to do what you did at home here, I'm sure you can find someone to lead you in that direction. Your moogle probably knows more than say, I would. I leave mine alone. West is a good enough fellow, though."

He shrugs.

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Page 19 of 34

Intro Log || This Keeps Happening

Waking up. (Hope you don't mind this being so late.)

Re: Close Encounters

Re: Waking up. (Not at all, I enjoy backtagging)

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