Intro Log || This Keeps Happening

[melodiesmods]

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...

Comments

[rialynn]

Rialynn was jostled, and a little startled, but she hadn't hit her head or knocked out a tooth, so it was safe to say that her face remained accident-free when she got over her surprise and turned her head to look at who'd bumped into her.

"Me? I'm fine!" she reassured her quickly, about to wave her off since Yuna had said she was in a hurry. "You're fine, go ahead, I'm--"

Then she noticed the uniform, and how it matched the garb worn by the others swimming in the sphere, save for the colors. Rialynn glanced sharply back at Yuna, her eyebrows climbing up to disappear behind the silk bandanna running across her forehead. "You're going into that floating lake orb? Wow, good luck!"

II. The City:

[bloodynine]

"A war. We won, I guess. We're still alive after all."

A rather raggedly-dressed man, probably in his mid 30s, answers Aya. He looks about as scarred and battered as a person can be, and he's got a bottle of liquor peeking out of one pocket. He isn't reeking of booze though, not yet.

II

[red_planet_blues]

The person Aya happens to stop and ask is a passing cop, who had just been chatting with some of the construction workers on this site. It's easy to figure from that question that Aya is either from very far out of town or a new Hero. Either way, it's not easy news to deliver.

"Oh, uh. Well, we've had some problems with the Empire. They've attacked us 'n our allied cities. Ain't been easy, but we've managed to drive 'em off so far. Things've been going pretty well on the clean up efforts, but we still gotta ways to go."

[rialynn]

"And over here," Kuponia gestured, "is the best kupo nut stand in the city! You really must try one, they're delicious. Oh, but we should fetch your stipend first, it should be in your room."

"So we should head there next?" Rialynn suggested.

Kuponia didn't answer. Her attention was fixated on something else entirely off to the left. Or someone else. Rialynn turned her head to follow the Moogle's stare, and to her surprise, she saw a young man dancing energetically. It was easy to discover why Kuponia was so captivated. This sort of dancing was wholly unfamiliar to Rialynn. There was so much energy, the movements so precise and lively. No, no one she'd ever known had demonstrated those kinds of steps.

Slowly she moved forward, gravitating toward the performer as her eyes darted from his arms to his legs, trying to study his motions so she might imitate them later.

"He's very good," Kuponia whispered, hovering next to Rialynn. "Maybe you should join him, or play an instrument, yes?"

She shook her head. "It might be seen as an attempt to upstage his performance," she whispered back, her gaze still locked on Zack. "Unless invited, it would be extremely rude. Bards don't have a lot of strict protocol, but that's definitely something no one oversteps where I come from."

But she gave Kuponia a light pat just the same, to make sure the Moogle's feelings weren't hurt by declining the suggestion. Would that she had a coin to toss into the hat, she would, but the stipend was still waiting at her future home.

Kuponia, however, very politely placed three kupo nuts into Zack's hut. A very generous offering indeed! To a Moogle anyway.

[dancingbaronet]

Coming to a crashing finish, Zack posed before nodding at the others assembled. He noticed several other people coming to the dance performance and he smiled at them.

Noticing Rialynn there, he nodded politely. "Hi, did you enjoy the performance?"

He was curious to what kind of thought she had about his dancing.

[rialynn]

Rialynn's expression brightened in a heartbeat. "I did! Where did you learn your steps and style?" It was certainly more complicated and eyecatching than the sort of dancing she typically used in her performances, and a chance to talk shop was incredibly exciting.

Her gaze drifted to his hat, and one corner of her smile went awry. "Ah, sorry, I guess maybe you thought I didn't because I didn't have any coins to drop into the hat. We were just on our way to pick that up, actually. Are you going to be here for long? I can swing back later! But your dancing was great," she reassured, throwing up both hands in a quick gesture. "I mean, it's obvious you've been doing it for a while."

[dancingbaronet]

Zack chuckled as he grinned a bit. "A friend of mine taught me, her name is Asami, but I've been dancing for years now. So I've had time to polish my skills and continue dancing. This sort of dancing is common back home, in Zawame City.'

He shook his head at her worried statement. "It's not a problem, I actually didn't realize there was a stipend. But your words are definitely appreciated. I'm Zack."

[rialynn]

"Rialynn," she returned, sticking out her hand to make his acquaintance properly. Zawame City... Not a place she was familiar with, but she didn't really expect that to be the case. His appearance was unusual to her as well. She'd seen very few with his features, hailing from the island nations to the north of her country. Such people had little reason to travel south, and he was the first she'd ever had the chance to speak with properly.

Kuponia had clasped her paws together in front of her chin. "You were amazing! Do you give autographs? I should like one, very much!"

Rialynn grinned, inclining her head to Zack. "Apparently we start out with some funds, so we can buy clothes, food, that sort of thing. It's probably waiting for you in your new room. You're a Hero of Light, then?"

If so, then she was even more delighted to know him.

[dancingbaronet]

He shook eagerly before smiling. She seemed like she was from a different world if the expression she had when he mentioned Zawame City wasn't one of realization. It was kind of hard to miss the epicenter of a near extinction level event back home.

"I can yes, I'll write one out for you." he said, as Moogla provided a pencil and paper.

As he wrote, he nodded. "I didn't realize this until now actually, there was little reason for Moogla to tell me about it."

"He's very much my pace, and yes, he's a Hero of Light," laughed Moogla.

[greenmagick]

[Terra looks up as if to see the mint color of her curls and then looks back at Riaylnn. This is the first time someone has really commented on her hair and she realizes she doesn't have an answer for her.]

It's natural. [She spoke softly turning over thoughts in her head.] Before I came here... I wasn't completely human.

[She pauses just to see how the other takes that bit of information.]

The City

[whereishe]

Yuna smiled bright and then pulled over a thousand gil from her pocket. He might not know what it's worth so she handed it over with a silent smile.

"Well, I loved your dance. Keep it up okay?" Her head tilted to the side hoping that he would accept her contribution.

[whereishe]

Yuna smiled a little awkwardly. "Ah yeah, the Sphere pool." Not knowing meant that this person was probably a new hero of light. Yuna didn't know many who didn't watch Blitzball in this world.

"Hey, if you stick around afterwards I can show you around."

It was the least she could do for running into her.

[rialynn]

"Oh, thank you so much! I'll treasure it always!" Kuponia beamed, carefully hugging the slip of paper. "I can get one from you too, can't I?" she asked Rialynn, turning to face her. "Once we reach your residence?"

"Sure, why not?" she grinned, setting a hand on her hip before looking back to Zack. "Don't worry about that part. It's good to establish a reputation early on, right?"

At least, she assumed that he did this for a living. How could he not?

"I should probably start looking around for a place to work too, come to think of it..." But that thought was going to quickly fly her mind once she realized what airships were, and that she could travel freely on them.

Re: The City

[dancingbaronet]

"I will! Thank you." He took her generous contribution and pocketed it, before he bowed. "Would you like to join in sometime?"

[dancingbaronet]

"That's true. I've heard that there's a lot of people who have suggested I work for a dance troupe and the theater," said Zack. "But I will always like doing this, no matter the weather."

He did dance for a living, and despite his bad leg, he was still getting better all the time.

"I think there's a job board and people hire," said Moogla. "There's plenty of work to go around."

[waterstrikes]

I. Waking Up

It could have been worse. Tidus jolted up, and after he realized that none of the Moogles looked really dangerous, and as weird as this was, it didn’t look like a dream, he started to relax. Actually, he rolled his eyes like he was annoyed.

The Moogles explained everything, making it pretty easy to understand for someone who wasn’t familiar with this world. Normally, Tidus might have interrupted with his own questions, but instead when they finished, he placed his hands behind his head, glancing up at the Crystal. Pretty.

“Maybe you should start asking people whether they want to be your Warriors of Light or whatever before bringing them here against their will?”

“But your return was prophesized, kupo! And the world of Crystallis desperately needs you.” one of the Moogles spoke up. Tidus glanced at him. The Moogle had been floating closer to him than any of the others and it was starting to bother him a little.

“Yeah. Okay.” Tidus scoffed and rolled his eyes, beginning to walk away. He scrubbed at his eyes. His head swam and this was all hard to process. Him? Some kind of hero? Sure, he tried to do the right thing, but this was…

He actually wanted to scream.

At least in Spira, he had kind of sort of had a choice as to where he went. Or the illusion of one. He had to get back there. He still had to confront someone, and he had to make sure Yuna didn’t sacrifice herself at all.

“Where are you going, kupo?” The moogle asked, still floating after him. He was persistent. Tidus didn’t stop walking, but he did answer him. “I don’t know. Why are you following me?”

“I’ve been assigned to you! My name is Mogtide, kupo.”

That wasn’t the weirdest thing about today. Tidus nodded, and decided to look for any of these other Heroes of Light.

II. The City

Tidus wasn’t sure where he was heading to in the city. The logical answer would have been where he was assigned to live, but he still found the whole situation too surreal to not wander around and stare at everything. He was glad to at least not to be surrounded by Moogles anymore. There were still Moogles, but not as many. That wasn’t the worst way to wake up, but there had been too many in a small vicinity. And cute or not, he wasn’t sure if he trusted them.

At least his memories were intact. As far as he knew, anyway.

“Mogtide?”

“What is it, kupo?”

Tidus stopped walking. “Is it true that Blitzball is a thing here?”

“That’s right! A match is about to start pretty soon. If you run, you might even manage to find a seat, kupo! Have you heard of Blitzball before? Did you want to go see it?”

“No, I mean, it’s fine. Not right now.” But did that mean Crystallis had a connection to his world deeper than simply summoning him here to what? Save the world? There was no way. He might have been Yuna’s guardian, but that hadn’t seem to matter to Chaos.

But if they were connected somehow, maybe...

Tidus broke into a run, ignoring (or just oblivious to) Mogtide’s sounds of protests as he floated after him. He had just been summoned here, so maybe there had been others too that he had somehow missed. The Warriors of Cosmos, one of the other guardians, or even...

He had to find out. He had to look everywhere and ask everyone, and he wouldn’t give up until he was certain.

[charming_jerk]

[Not just horns and white skin, but bright blue eyes with no pupils, and pointed teeth as well. Wrap that in a package that's over six feet tall and muscled, Johnny cuts an intimidating figure to say the least. And from the looks of it, he's used to such reactions, though it's been awhile since someone's reacted so strongly. No matter what he says about it, it hurts every time.

The fact that Rialynn is reaching for her weapon makes it worse. His expression turns from apologetic to stern in an instant, but he holds up his hands to show he's unarmed. He even backs off a few steps.]

Relax. I'm on your side.

[charming_jerk]

"Show 'em what ya just did here, and I'd bet you'd get right in. I better find a new place to play, or I ain't gonna make a dime with you around." He says that with a bit of a grin, though.

"Our full-time jobs are as Heroes though, I guess. I try not to slap that label on myself, but weird shit's gonna pop up sooner than later, and it's our gang's job to deal with it."

[red_planet_blues]

"Well, I guess today is the fifth, so that explains that." The crystal was pretty timely, after all. Delivering new Heroes every other month like clockwork.

Sparks descended the stairs to introduce himself, and give his new roommate a handshake.

"Welcome to the fun house, I guess. I'm Sparks Nevada. Been here since day one. Lucky me. Room upstairs that's empty'd be yours then. Ain't much, but it's free, so ya can't really gripe about it too much, right?"

[grandsummon]

( continued & shoe-horned in... )

She was the one that was supposed to have an old hand in the apology game. Funny, she didn't think there was any reason for him to say those words either... and maybe, just for now at least... it was better not to think about it any more.

There was an enthusiastic shake of her head at that. Even if she had plans she was supposed to attend to, it all seemed hardly important compared to this. To his finally being here...

"Why don't I show you more of the city?" if he'd just arrived, there was a chance that he was still getting used to things, and everyone knew Yuna had a penchant for helping. Memories of dragging him all around the stadium in Luca surfaced from the corners of her mind, thoughts, happy moments she had been denying herself... for fear that they'd remain phantoms forever.

But there was no need for it now, and as she looked at him, she couldn't help but feel a brightness, a warmth radiating from him... just like the sun.

[ruinedempire]

Rufus didn't take notice of Yuffie, not right away. He wasn't exactly looking at her direction, as he was examining one of the buildings that was being reconstructed. There was a lot to learn about this place, even with the moogle's information. However, he was easily brought out of his focus when he felt someone harshly bump into him.

And that person didn't even stop to apologize.

Irritation crossed his face for a moment as he turned to look at the person that clearly had zero manners. Sure, he was a ruthless corporate executive that did anything to rebuild his company, but at least he had manners. Made all the difference here.

But his earlier expression was soon replaced by genuine surprise, not expecting to see the young Wutai girl here. Her hair was longer than what he recalled, but Rufus knew that he wasn't mistaken. Although subtle, he unconsciously tensed when he saw the dagger flip into her hand and he barely stopped himself from pulling the gun from his belt.

"I find that wholly unnecessary, Yuffie Kisaragi." If he pulled out his gun here, she would definitely attack... although there was a chance that should would attack anyway. Rufus wouldn't win in a fight against her, he was well-aware of his limits. It was a gamble he was taking here and he would just have to get ready for any signs of attack.

Although, this was the 6th time that he was being threatened in a span of two years. The thought slightly amused him despite himself. But if she was here, did that mean that there were other AVALANCHE members in this city? It would be quite bothersome, but he had to take one situation at a time.

[ruinedempire]

Not even one hour of this city and he was already being scolded by another person. What a way to start his day. Rufus cared very little about being nice or making sure that he didn't hurt the moogle's feelings. However, he didn't exactly want to make enemies of people right off the bat. Rufus figured that some people could be that sensitive about treating moogles right.

"I apologize, that was rather rude of me." He sounded completely sincere, even if he didn't mean any of it. Rufus was used to doing that, he was raised to. "It's been a trying day-- although I do realize that's only an excuse for admittedly appalling behavior."

[ruinedempire]

Rufus turned to Chrom, quickly taking in his appearance and overall demeanor. He seemed sincere and potentially knowledgeable, so this wasn't an opportunity that he should pass up. He pleasantly smiled at the other man, trying to show that he was grateful about his offer. At least he wasn't being threatened right off the bat, which was something all too plausible with his status back home.

The small blessings, right?

He never heard of Ylisse, so Chrom must be from another world. Intriguing, but Rufus didn't have that much interest in other worlds. "I suppose I should start off with a relatively simple one. Everything the moogle told me, I'm assuming it's true? The Calamity, being Heroes of Light."

Waking up!

[nosferatanking]

With the new arrivals imminent, Morgan had decided to distract himself from his current family situation by lending a helping hand. He wasn't around the crystal long before he ran into somebody that could only be a new hero, if the way they were interacting with their moogle was any indication.

"They're pretty cute, aren't they?" Morgan beamed as he approached, and shot a friendly glance towards his own moogle, Robin. The moogle didn't seem to share the sentiment, as she crossed her small moogle arms and turned to face the other direction. Morgan continued on, undaunted.

"You're new here, right? Have you gotten the introduction lecture yet?"

1

[aero_dienamic]

Hearing those echoing words 'you can't run away', didn't particularly get the Fiend's attention, but rather her Moogle.

"Should we do something?" the Moogle asks.

"I don't see why." the towering woman responds, crossing in front of what would-be Jaeha's path. There was no chance of colission, but her hair was certainly in the way, all fourteen feet of it, as she pretends to look at something. "Cowards are no problem of mine. It's not like I contribute all that much." she hums, watching out of the corner of her eye to see whether or not the fleeing 'hero' trips over her hair.