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

[mindofathief]

Waking Up

Duster wasn't surprised by reality breaking. In fact, he was expecting something along those lines to happen; it was only a matter of time. He didn't think that crystals would be involved, nor a small while creature standing on his stomach demanding Duster to get up.

"Lucas?" Ignoring the Moogle for now, he gently wrapped his hands around Tamekichi and sat up to take a better look around the temple. If this was supposed to be the new world, where was everyone he recognized? What was this unfamiliar building? Why was there a giant crystal floating before him?

"H-hey! Put me down, kupo! I gotta tell you some stuff! Reaaaal important stuff!" It wriggled in Duster's hands hard enough for him to drop him onto his lap.

"Sorry," he mumbled, then noticed his clothes. Pants the same shade as the bright red ones he normally wore, but baggier and without pockets. He had a green vest and cap to go along with it, all three embroidered with the same golden design. "Did someone change my clothes while I was asleep, or did I forget doing that?" Anything else but another bout of amnesia, especially after an earthquake like that.

The Moogle shook his head. "I dunno, but I am here to explain just what's happening, kupo. So just hold on and--hey! Where're you going?!"

Duster had turned away from the Moogle to find the nearest person that wasn't busy. "Excuse me," the scruffy man spoke with a gloomy expression. "...You don't remember how I got here, do you?"

Music Store

Bard: a Job that allows one to assist their fellow party members in battle with music. That sounded like the perfect thing to do while not kicking the enemy to submission. Ignoring his penniless state, Duster and Tamekichi headed to the Aures Ixen music shop in search of the perfect battle instrument. Besides, the walk home was long and cold; Duster was given no coat upon his arrival, and this store was the best place to warm up before continuing on their journey. The shopkeeper greeted the two with a cheery "Welcome!", to which Duster responded with a silent nod before he took to investigating the displays. Fiddles, lutes, drums...aha!

The double bass! His eyes light up as he rushes over to the giant instrument and strokes the wooden body. "This is beautiful."

"And expensive," Tamekichi adds from the floor. "And impossible to carry around on the battlefield."

Duster retracts his hand. "...I forgot about that part." He spun on his right leg and rushed to another aisle. Maybe an ocarina would be better.

House A-03

At his Moogle's insistence, Duster finally arrived at his small house in the 14th District. The neighborhood was more crowded than the old Tazmily, but there was more space and less technology than New Pork City, and by those standards, this place was perfect. He pushed the door open as quietly as he could - some thief skills are difficult to unlearn - and poked his head in.

"Hello? ...I'm your new housemate?" He shook the snow off his boots. Uneven footsteps moved across the wooden floor towards the stairs. Rather than wait for someone to arrive, Duster walked up the steps as quietly as he could.

That someone would mistake him for a common burglar didn't cross his mind.

Aliens?

What cute chocobos. What a relaxing, snowy location to take a nice walk--

Oh my pork they're going to experiment on the poor thing.

Duster jumps onto his feet, almost as if he's afraid the UFO will attack. "Quick, after it!" It's too late once he says that, of course, and he's left staring at the small patch of sky where the flying Chocobo kidnapper took off.

ALIENS!

[rialynn]

Rialynn, too, was enjoying the walk, and getting to know her fellow musician a little better. As eager as she was to test out her new ocarina and swap songs, she was honestly more interested in his stories. It seemed like he'd had some fairly interesting adventures of his own.

And then that happened.

While Duster jumped, Rialynn froze, her jaw dropping. What was that thing? It looked like a giant metal hat that someone had flung like a frisbee, but it moved far more freely. And it just sucked up a giant yellow bird? What? Why?!

Her companion sprang into action, and it took her a few seconds to kick her startled brain into gear. She ran not because she intended to stop the UFO, but because she didn't want to see him fight it alone. "After it?! Are you crazy?!" She looked reluctantly back at the spinning flashing hat machine. "What if we actually manage to catch it?" A highly doubtful outcome, but even so? She didn't think her rapier was going to do either of them any good.

[mindofathief]

Duster turns abruptly to Rialynn, his calm features replaced with worry for the Chocobo. "We can't let whoever took it turn it into a chimera, or whatever they plan to do to it!" He had seen what the Pig Army had done to the wildlife of the Nowhere Islands, and the mysterious flying machine may as well be taking the wildlife of Crystallis to an experimentation facility. That cannot happen.

"I fought robots and plenty of soldiers back home. We can fight whoever stole the Chocobo once we find them." If they can find them, he told himself, which was near impossible at this point. He slumped his shoulders.

"...We should warn the others," he told the grass below him. "They might come back for more."

Poor, defenseless chocobo.

[rialynn]

She had no idea what a chimera or a robot was, but she at least caught the gist of it: they were bad news. If Duster was truly confident that they could handle this hovering monstrosity as a team, then she'd put her faith in him.

But as fast as she ran, it didn't seem like they were going to match its flying speed. It was already disappearing.

When it was gone, she stopped to lean on her knees and catch her breath. "Y-yeah...good idea...there's gotta be a...sheriff around...right...?" Or some sort of law enforcement individual.

'Waking Up'

[comeoutswinging]

The 'person' he grabs the attention of stops a moment, trying to recognize the voice of the person speaking. Realizing that she totally doesn't, the girl turns around, brushing her hair out of her face.

'I probably need a haircut soon' she thinks before looking the lanky man up and down. "No, can't say I know. You don't seem familiar. But... I can probably explain thing. You're new here, right? NO idea where you are, just woke up, little fluffy thing kinda shouting at you about this and that and Heroes?"

[mindofathief]

Another person Duster doesn't recognize, but he's more distracted by her hair. He knows one human with pink hair, but Kumatora was a special exception: she was a powerful psychic, after all. The small girl might be one as well.

Her voice draws his attention back to her face. "Oh. Right. I think that's the case for everyone here." He turns at the other Heroes, who all look equally confused while talking to their own fluffy white creatures.

Tamekichi, meanwhile, gapes at Allenby, slightly miffed at her description of Moogles.

"I must be missing a lot of my memories because this...is definitely not how my world looked like a while ago."

[comeoutswinging]

Carol didn't mind it. It's true after all, and totally not a positive first impression for a good fraction of people. But she was just as blunt as Allenby was.

"No, you're probably not, unless you lose them often?" she inquires. "But most likely not at all. You've been brought, summoned more or less, to this city. Aquares Ixen. You're not at all in the world you're from. Home is some far away dimension right now and..." About that 'being blunt' thing, "You're kind of stuck here with the rest of us for now. But it's not bad. Just jarring."

Waking Up

[thegreatninja]

Yuffie didn't like coming to these things but she was looking for people in particular this time. There was one weird surprise out of those waking up but that could wait for later. She turned on her heel and was about to head towards the hospital when someone stopped her.

She blink, large dark eyes looking at the man in front of her.

When he asked his question she scoffed lightly and then looked over towards his moogle. "I'm sure you remember the same dream we all do." She paused for a moment and then nodded towards his moogle. "Your moogles been trying to get your attention. They're here to answer basic questions like that."

Of course some moogles don't.

[mindofathief]

"The one with the floating crystal?" It felt oddly specific and not one a large group of people would come up with. If he had any other guess, the crystals were supposed to warn everyone that the new world has these glowing crystals everywhere.

What were they, anyway?

The Moogle huffed. "That's what I was just trying to do! But this jerk," he pointed a furry thumb at Duster, "keeps ignoring me. Can you help with that?"

Duster twitched and looked away in embarrassment.

[thegreatninja]

Yuffie broke into loud unashamed laughter. She had never had someone ask for that sort of help from her before considering she's the one who usually wasn't listening. Her fingers gripped her stomach and until the laughter subsided into soft giggles.

"I can try but I don't think he'll listen to me if he wasn't listening to you." It's okay, she wasn't laughing at you Duster. At least not that much. "Hey." She waved a hand at Duster smiling.

"How about this? Why don't you want to listen to the moogle but you're asking others? They aren't toys or anything." Which was what she had thought when she first met Mooshoo.

Music Store

[goddessofthesky]

Zelda was picking up new strings for her harp. She kept the original ones but without the tools from home she couldn't keep them in perfect condition so she thought to just switch them out. With the required items in hand she hears the conversation between hero and moogle and paused.

She stepped into view and spied who was speaking with a warm smile.

"Maybe I can help?" Kopula floated at her side wearing his trademark green. It wasn't to hard to tell that Zelda was a hero too. She quickly put her new strings in her bag and then pushed a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.

"I've been here for awhile and I frequent this shop when I can. I play the Lyre which is a small harp." She didn't know if everyone knew that.

[mindofathief]

Tamekichi flew to the side to let Zelda pass, keeping an eye on the Hero and Moogle. Duster put the ocarina he was inspecting back on the shelf, still holding onto the smooth, blue instrument. His eyes lingered on Zelda's pointed ears for a few seconds. He had only seen humans so far, so to see something so human yet with a small difference was unusual.

"Oh." She knew a few things about this world, and wasn't as critical like Tamekichi...Duster could use a lot of help with deciding on an instrument. "I play the double bass, but that won't be easy to carry around." He hoped she hadn't overheard his conversation from earlier. "So I thought something like this would be nice."

[goddessofthesky]

Her lips curled into a warm smile as he showed off the instruments he had in mind. Admittedly she liked the way an ocarina sounded but it didn't seem anything like the instrument he used to play.

"You don't want to stick with a string instrument?" Her tone was gentle and light. She was just trying to learn more to help him make a more educated decision.

"Or do you just like low tones?"

Aliens?

[fearlessherosheart]

Tazendra had been considering getting a Chocobo, or at least instruction on how to find one. But mysterious metal disks were far more interesting. "Perhaps if we ask the farm to borrow mounts, we could track it."

This was going to be fun. At least until she got bored.

[mindofathief]

"We can do that?" The thought of riding this large birds never crossed his mind. Children rode wild Dragos if they befriended them, but Tazmily did not have farm animals meant to be mounts. If this woman was right, their chase would be much easier.

[fearlessherosheart]

"We could ask. I have not ridden one before, but it cannot be that different than riding a horse."

Tazendra never let not knowing how hard something might be to stop her from trying.

A-03

[red_planet_blues]

Luckily for Duster - or maybe unluckily - the current resident has pretty good senses for these things, and hears him enter. Besides, Sparks has been through several roommates by now, and has gotten used to the new rotation. It's a fairly small house anyway, so Sparks could hear Duster speak up even from upstairs.

A head pops out from the staircase, giving him a raised eyebrow in appraisal. Looks like a male roommate this time.

"That so, huh. Yer not just a guy wanderin' in here for the heck of it?"

[mindofathief]

Ah. Duster stopped in the middle of his tracks, staring straight back at the man at the top of the steps. He's not sure what he expected: a warm welcome from an old woman who would bring him in with open arms? A young, spirited woman? A kid? A grouchy old guy? No, just...a regular man.

Right. Answering. "Yeah." A pause. "I'm pretty sure this is the right place."

[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?"

Aliens

[neverfirstclass]

Duster wasn't the only one giving the aliens pursuit. Cloud had witnessed their last arrival and on a guess he went out to see if they would show up again.

Another chocobo runs up alongside Duster before trotting to a halt as the UFO vanishes off in the distance. The blonde gives a curse as he tugs on the reins, his eyes straining as he searches the afternoon sky.

"Damnit. They're taking Chocobos now?"

[mindofathief]

A million thoughts runs through Duster's head. What were they going to do to the bird? Why is a machine like that here? Are they being invaded? Just his luck to come from one world where scientists had turned more animals into chimeras and into one where they're starting to experiment on them.

He turns at the newcomer when he feels the Chocobo's footsteps. Ah, so that's how you rode them. He watched Cloud, hoping that he'd be able to help, only for him to bring bad news.

"They were taking animals before?!"

[neverfirstclass]

Cloud glanced over at the newcomer, giving him a nod before looking off into the distance. "Yeah. They took some cows last time. And now chocobos. What are they planning to do with them?" The young blonde glared off into the distance. He seemed more upset about the missing birds than the prospect of aliens or missing cattle.

Music Store

[line_piece]

[This isn't a store Chiaki comes to terribly often - at least not since she put Bard on the backburner - but she does stop in every so often to buy things to keep her own guitar in good working order. New strings and whatnot. Overhearing the conversation between Duster and his moogle, she blinks at them from a few feet away.]

...It's not that hard, really. Harps and flutes are more standard Bard instrument choices, but guitars aren't unheard of. If you get them reinforced, you can even use them as melee weapons.

[mindofathief]

[Duster stops in the middle of his quest when he heard Chiaki and listens intently. Harps do sound beautiful, but he already plays a plucking instrument, but he's encouraged that flutes are more common. He should try those next.

A grimace.] But...a weapon? I'd never do that to one of my instruments!

[The thought of breaking his double bass over someone's head hurts his musician's soul.]

[line_piece]

No, normal instruments would just break right away if you did that. But the one I have is a resonator guitar crafted and reinforced with orichalcum. It's one of the strongest metals in this world.