Welcome, One and All

[revenancemods]

Characters: Everyone!
Content: Welcome to Traverse Town.
Location (including world): Traverse Town, 1st District
Time of Day: Any - subthreads may take place at different times
Warnings: None so far
Notes: This is an open thread: anyone may tag with anyone else. Tag around and have fun!

Well. This certainly wasn’t what you were expecting.

This part of the town is lit with street lamps and shop signs, illuminating the wooden structures and cobblestone streets. If it weren’t for the neon signs, you’d swear you’d landed in a small European town several centuries back.

The Moogle floating near the staircase leading up to the town’s item shop doesn’t help that illusion either. You may have already spoken with it; it’ll tell you where you are and that you’re in the realm of dreams, give you your starter package, and help you make your first Dream Eater. It will not, however, tell you how to get home. Sorry, but that’s not information it has, kupo.

Now that you’ve taken care of that, what will you do next? That is up to you.

Comments

[brodakota]

[Not what he was expecting was right.

North doesn't know where he is, but it's not where he was. And he's already exhausted, with a headache, and the neon signs don't help. He's been needing time to think, and that seems to be in short supply right now.

Well, he was always told that if you're lost, it's a good idea to stay in one place. And that might be a good place to start. So, he's sitting on the steps, watching for someone who might have more information than him. A pricklemane pounces around his feet, and there's a red and blue hologram floating above his shoulder]

[unrecovered]

[Wash had taken the time to canvas at least this district - there were a few good places to take cover and a few good places to get food, and for now, that meant the essentials were covered. There were also more than a few nasty versions of the little spirits the Moogle had been giving them; fortunately, they went down relatively easy. He was heading back towards the cafe he'd spotted earlier and was halfway down the stairs before he spotted who was sitting at the bottom of them. His first thought was Doc, but no, that wasn't the right color, and the hologram-]

[He froze, nearly overbalancing. There was no way. There was no way. How was this even- he knew he was dreaming, yeah, but that didn't mean- absolutely no way in hell-]

[The bat on his shoulder squeaked questioningly, definitely loud enough to hear, and he nearly overbalanced again. No way in hell would North miss that. Might as well bite the bullet.]

North?

[unrecovered]

[What the hell was this.]

[Wash was used to adjusting to new situations very quickly, but this just threw everything he knew for a massive loop. A realm of dreams? Floating white pom pom bears? And the yellow bat perched on his shoulder certainly wasn't making him feel any better. He kept insisting he worked alone, and life kept insisting on saddling him with some sort of partner or team anyway. At least this one didn't talk. It was, however, overly affectionate; he couldn't figure out of that was better or worse.]

[Having done a sweep of the immediate area, he was currently trying his hand at opening the big double doors where he'd originally arrived. He was having absolutely zero luck, but dammit, he'd only just started trying and that was not about to stop him.]

[dork_of_keys]

Sora wasn't quite sure what to make of this situation. Granted, there were probably worse things that could have happened, but it was still a little puzzling.

So was finding someone trying to push the huge double doors in First District open. He seemed awfully determined, though it was kind of hard to tell past the armor and helmet. Sora was pretty sure the doors weren't going to open very easily if at all.

"I don't think they're going to open." Sure it was stating the obvious, but he wasn't really sure what else to say.

[raisethemoon]

[Luna stopped in her own investigation of the area, staring. That was...a creature made out of metal. Either that, or wearing armor? Whatever it was, it had a companion quite like her own, so it likely wasn't a local. Perhaps a local would have better luck opening those doors.

Somewhat hesitantly, she trotted up behind him, watching for a few more seconds before speaking up.]

Dost thou require assistance, good...citizen? [Is that thing male or female, she cannot tell]

[dork_of_keys]

Sora really wasn't sure what to make of this. After Yen Sid had gone over their results and named Riku a Master, Sora had gone to take care of something important. He thought it was important anyway. Thanking the Spirit Dream Eaters that had helped him had only seemed appropriate and they'd greatly appreciated that he thought of them. He'd hung around a little and played with them even too. It was nice to be able to do that without having to get a move on. When he left, he'd promised to visit them again, soon.

He hadn't meant this soon, but it became apparent rather quickly that something wasn't quite right. The Dream Eaters he'd just left weren't here. The Moogle by the accessory shop had been a little bit helpful, though it couldn't help him with finding the other Dream Eaters that he was certain should be there. Instead, it gave him a bag with enough munny for one night at the hotel, some kind of communication device and the dream bits to make a Dream Eater. He wasn't overly surprised to realize he had the bits for a Meow Wow. Somehow it just seemed appropriate. He couldn't exactly complain though. The lovable little critters could learn some helpful abilities, including healing.

The Meow Wow he got out of the dream bits was every bit as energetic as his first one, though possibly a bit more affectionate. For the time being, he parked himself at the bottom of the stairs by the accessory shop and spent a little time getting to know the Spirit. He may also have been thinking about his situation, but not too much. While it was puzzling, he knew stressing himself out wasn't going to help.

Sorry so short. ^^;;;

[colorbymemory]

Batty was proving to be a good exploring partner; he was always flying ahead and coming back to chitter at her about what he'd seen. At least he helped keep her focused on her surroundings as she tried to follow his flight path. His flight path which was now directed at a very familiar figure sitting on the steps near one of the shops.

"Sora?"

She hurried over to meet him. If he was here, what had happened to everyone else?

[wavesinherheart]

[After the constant darkness, Aqua had been more than a little surprised to find herself standing in even the dim light of Traverse Town's streetlamps. It wasn't bad, precisely, but it was almost more than she'd been hoping to see anytime soon. The moogle's explanation of where this was, however, had been almost enough to knock the metaphorical ground out from under her feet once again. Especially given where she would have had to fall asleep to even end up in the Realm of Dreams in the first place. She'd managed to thank the moogle for its time though, before she'd quietly gone to find a place to get her head on straight once again.

It was only once she'd managed that much that she'd turned to the odd fragments of who knew what the moogle had said would make some sort of ally. That had ended her with the Pricklemane that was currently sitting at her feet, and though it wasn't quite what she'd expected it was better than nothing.

For now, she's simply sitting outside one of the shops, watching the city and trying to get used to the idea of even relative small crowds once again.]

[shadearchivist]

Ienzo rather resents being taken away from home again immediately after his return, even if being taken away only means being in some sort of dream world. He'd worried that Radiant Garden had been plunged into the Darkness again, and the moogle hadn't been exceptionally helpful in reassuring him that that wasn't the case. Still, he'd had to thank it for being at least vaguely helpful. He had managed not to be annoyed at being saddled with this cat...dog...thing. Dream eater, he was told, and he supposed he just had to accept it. Many of the people around him seemed just as perturbed by their situations; Ienzo decided he'd be best served just to sit and observe for a while.

He approached the young woman sitting in front of a shop; she had the look of someone new to the town. He could probably safely sit next to her and not be bothered, if they were both assimilating their new existence. "Excuse me, miss, do you mind if I sit here as well?"

[brodakota]

Having had enough time to think, and get a feel for this new world, North figured it was time to start exploring. He was still kind of tired, but there was only so much sitting he could do. Besides, walking always helped to calm Theta down, and his AI still needed that.

It was weird that there didn't seem to be a whole lot of people here. Sure there were some, but really, the Mother of Invention was more populated than this place, at least from what he'd seen.

It took a bit of wandering before he saw someone outside the shops. Perhaps she'd be able to give him some more information beyond what the moogle had told him.

"Excuse me, Miss, are you alright?

[defrostedpride]

[Even Vexen doesn't know entirely what's going on, but he knows he doesn't approve of it. As far as he can tell, this Realm of Dreams combines the worst features of dream with the worst features of waking. It's a particular sort of adding insult to injury to be stuck in a nonsensical world while being aware that its desirable elements are just a dream.]

[It seemed so real, too, what he was dreaming before falling into this Realm. In retrospect, though, it was too good to be true. Far more likely that he's dead. He rubs his chest, where he appears to be dreaming that he has a heartbeat. That much wasn't a dream.]

[He scowls at the town at large.] If I'm going to be dreaming, you'd think I could dream - somewhere with better taste.

[His Pricklemane squeaks disappropvingly and bounces from foot to foot. That also squeaks.] I didn't ask you.

[unrecovered]

[Wash had been heading through the town, still trying to get the lay of the land, when he heard that comment. Well, at least he wasn't the only one who wasn't too thrilled with this whole everything's-a-dream idea. Still, this place looked a bit nicer than a lot of other locations Wash had ended up in; it sucked, but he couldn't complain too much.]

Could be worse. Could be Sidewinder.

[In the meantime, the Komory Bat following him had swooped down to chatter at the Pricklemane. New friends were always fun!]

[skysmirror]

Xion didn't know entirely what was going on herself. That said, as long as she was here she thought she might as well explore the place to get a better sense of it. There was only so much the echos of Sora's memories could tell her, after all.

Barkley seemed to enjoy the exploring, too, sniffing ahead of her. Catching the scent of a Pricklemane, he bounded up to greet it, leaving Xion to speak with its owner. Said owner looked familiar, though it took Xion a moment to recall his name.

"Vexen?"

No Organization coat, but other than that, it looked like him. Spoke like him, too, now that she thought about it.

[skysmirror]

True, Xion hadn’t expected to wake up again. The plan had been for her to fade into Sora--well, Roxas, who was part of Sora--and then eventually give those memories back to Sora himself. She’d go back to sleep in Sora’s heart, a memory never to be recalled.

To be honest, she'd been so overwhelmed by everything that she'd barely been able to take in what the Moogle said. At least she now had a basic grasp of the communicator, and the Potion was a welcome addition to the MegaPotions in her pocket. Making the Dream Eater had been tricky. Luckily, the Moogle had been patient in helping her make it.

Speaking of said Spirit, the Meow Wow had turned out to be remarkably playful. He--for some reason she thought of it as a he--seemed to have boundless energy. While she'd found a quiet corner where she could sit on a crate and pull herself together, he ran about nearby, sniffing at everything and occasionally barking at others he saw in the distance. Maybe she should name him Barkley. It would fit.

[brodakota]

While he'd been exploring Traverse Town, North hadn't really paid that much attention to his Pricklemane, which had been walking beside him, occasionally pouncing at something it saw, or pausing to look at a rock more closely.

North still wasn't sure what to do with it, but when it took off towards some crates, it was all he could do to run after it, only to see it pouncing at another one of those weird spirits.

"Hey! Stop it, you're bugging him," He sighs, wishing he had a leash to control the spirit better. He looks at the owner.

"Sorry. Guess I haven't trained him well enough yet."

[colorbymemory]

Unexpected was definitely the word for it.

Sitting at one of the tables in the cafe, with her Komory Bat flying overhead, she took a moment to process what exactly was going on. Somehow she was here, without Axel, Riku, Sora, or anyone she knew. Aside from her Spirit, she was essentially alone.

She should use the communicator to see if anyone else was here. Staying on her own was out of the question; she couldn't fight off the NIghtmares on her own. Well, with the Komory Bat's help., maybe, but even then she couldn't hope to hold a group of them off for long.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the Komory Bat swooping down to chitter at her. He--she’d decided her bat was a he--gently wrapped his claws around her arm, then tugged her into a standing position. “I see. You want to go exploring.”

He released her arm to nuzzle at her cheek, as if to say she was right. She smiled, then reached up to pet him. “I guess you need a name. How about Batty?”

His chittering indicated approval.

[hiptobe_eraqus]

This had most definitely been unexpected...in fact, Eraqus would consider it terribly wrong. It was an odd thing to think, considering the alternative was that he just wouldn't exist anymore at all. But the last thing he remembered was being struck from behind. Of all things to happen from that, falling asleep should not be one of them.

A part of him wanted to find his apprentices here, but another part of him didn't. Maybe, they were still somewhere safe. In the meanwhile, he knew that no matter what happened, he couldn't stay on this world. If that meant having to follow these strange creatures...well, he had one trailing him now, although he hadn't decided on a name for it yet. It definitely had a lot of enthusiasm, though.

In his perusal around the town, he noticed a young girl wandering near the cafe, alone except for a Komory Bat. Eraqus was a little bit concerned...there was no telling how safe this world was, and he didn't believe that everyone here could necessarily defend themselves.

His decision to approach was made for him when the Hebby Rep he'd made went wheeling up in her direction, full of curiosity. He sighed, and walked towards her, following after his Spirit. "Hello. Did you just arrive here?"

[unrecovered]

Wash had been exploring for a good long while now - so far, all it had gotten him was a self-guided tour of this part of town and multiple run-ins with creatures that seemed to want to kill him. All in all, this wasn't his favorite place so far. He remembered seeing a cafe, though, and he headed towards it, figuring it would be a good place to take a break and that sitting in a corner would give him two walls to his back, meaning he'd have a little less space to watch. He'd take it.

It looked like someone had beaten him to the cafe idea, and he nearly did a double-take when he saw who it was. A kid? Okay, sure, a teenager, but she was way too young to be out here all alone, especially when he knew for a fact that there were dangerous creatures running around. He didn't like having to look after people too much, but...she was young and alone and dammit he still had morals.

His bat beat him to the introduction, flying ahead of him to squeak happily at the other bat. Go figure. He shrugged as he approached, stopping outside arm's length - he was pretty sure a strange man approaching would make her nervous, and there was no reason to make it worse. "You wound up with one of these too, huh," he said by way of greeting, gesturing at the bats.

[shadearchivist]

Ienzo had decided to take the moment to explore. This world, even if it was in the realm of dreams, seemed like it would be worth exploring. If he couldn't go home for some time, the best way of dealing with it would be to find out exactly how the world worked. He had wandered down to settle on a crate near the stairs. From here, he could watch the people and, perhaps, start to understand how the fighting monsters worked.

He glanced at his own tagalong, which looked more like a pill beetle to his mind than a cat or a dog, particularly when it was flopped over and rolling on its back like that.

[unrecovered]

Exploring what he could find was also on Wash's priority list, namely because reconnaissance was a better idea than being caught by surprise in a completely unfamiliar territory. He'd taken a turn around the shops up the stairs, not wanting to venture into the clearly marked second district quite yet, and had headed back down the stairs, stopping abruptly as a blue cat-dog-thing rolled right into his path.

He stared at it, glanced to the person sitting on the crate - was this thing his? - and looked back at the animal. "That," he said calmly, "was the worst obstacle ever. Of all time."

The bat that had been following behind him evidently disagreed, as it swooped down to chitter a greeting to the catdog.

[colorbymemory]

Namine had begun some cautious exploration of her own. The First District seemed to be relatively safe, and it might be good to see things for herself before using her communicator to see who else was here, too. Having Batty as a lookout helped--he was always coming back to chitter at her about what he'd seen.

He also liked finding people for her to talk to, apparently--people who she hadn't thought she'd see again. "Zexion?"

Batty seemed more occupied in seeing how friendly the Meow Wow was.

[salvagedlight]

"Not what he was expecting" was a little bit of an understatement.

What Ven had expected was... well, nothing. Absolutely nothing. That's what he thought he'd be going to, or maybe whatever sort of afterlife there was - he wasn't sure about that, some of the stories got pretty confusing. But he had more or less blown himself up, right? Well, that was the intention anyway - destroy Vanitas, destroy himself, to destroy the χ-blade, and he knew he'd done that. So why was he here?

The moogle offered a little clarification, at least, with the news that this was a place in the world of dreams. It made some form of sense to him - if he wasn't fully dead, sleep was the next thing to death, right? So, maybe he just had to wait here until he went one way or the other. At least this place seemed kind of nice and homey, though he couldn't help a small thought that he would have preferred Radiant Garden if he had to spend a lot of time in one town.

With the moogle's help (well - really the moogle did it all) Ven had gotten his Dream Eater on its feet, which turned out to be a lizard-like thing that came up about to his ribcage. It was... kind of funny, really; it seemed to like him right off the bat, running around him in circles and butting against him with its head, but he wasn't sure what to do after that. So he took a seat on one of the staircases in the district, scratching its head and thinking to himself.

[brodakota]

North had managed to wander around most of the first district, getting a good sense of the area, and he wasn't surprised to find himself back at the stairs. And it looked like someone else had arrived during his walkabout. Maybe it was time to pay it forward. Hopefully the kid wouldn't be too frightened of a guy in armour suddenly showing up and talking to him.

"Hey kid, you alright?"

He walked down a few steps before his pricklemane leapt to meet the new spirit.

"Hey, stop that."

[rushtothetruth]

Near the moogle was a quite annoyed scientist, rifling through the contents of the bag that he was given, murmuring quietly about "stasis" and "Eli" and "it's Destiny's fault, surely" and various other things.

He'd already checked out the communicator, certain to go back to it later when the pompom thing wasn't watching, and without really realizing that he was following the moogle's instructions about putting the Dream pieces together.

And then he suddenly had a pricklemane jumping towards him.

In a rather undignified moment, Rush was staggering away, falling to the ground, his bag besides him, and the pricklemane bouncing on his stomach.

"What - Get off!" he yelled.

The moogle was unhelpful. Useless.

[unrecovered]

Wash's reconnaissance of the first district had led him back around to the front of the shop where the Moogle was waiting. This time around, though, there was someone with it - someone with a very enthusiastic cat. As funny as it was, he probably didn't appreciate it too much. "You got one of the friendly ones too, huh," he said, approaching and offering him a hand up.

Meanwhile, Wash's bat was more than happy to swoop down and make friends with the Pricklemane.

[raisethemoon]

[Luna trots through the streets, head low and ears laid back. She'd had very little luck demanding answers from the white creature she had met, and the gifts it had so readily bestowed upon her now made her feel slightly guilty for startling it so with her Royal Canterlot Voice. Perhaps 'twas not its fault she found herself in this place.

The bat-like beast perched on her back chitters comfortingly, and she turns to face it.] We do not suppose thou knowest the way out of this land?

[She doesn't really think it does, though, so she sits with a huff and cranes her neck back to look up at the stars. Losing its footing, her Spirit starts circling around her, looking for some new friends. Maybe someone else could make her feel better!]

BELATED HELLOS

[shadearchivist]

Ienzo caught sight of the...pony, he supposed, though it wasn't entirely clear whether she was a pony or a horse, to him. She did seem to have the slightly out of place look as the gentlemen in armor, however, and she was accompanied by a dream eater, which indicated that she was stuck as the rest of them were. She certainly looked as dejected as everyone else here, once they realized they were stuck. He headed over and inclined his head.

"Good evening."

[4letters4ninja]

Ziva's chilling on the edge of a rooftop along the plaza of the 1st District. Does anyone know how she got there? No, and she's not telling you either. A Komory Bat is sitting next to her, seemingly bored at watching people go to and fro. Someone may thing she's memorizing the layout of the area... and they would be right.

Having a slightly childlike moment, she kicks her legs back and fro as she looks around, sighing.

"You know Fluffy, I want to go home." The bat gives her a look that shows his disdain for the nickname, and squeaks at her. "I know. You do not know the way. Not even the pompom bear knows the way."

[raisethemoon]

Luna's always been an extremely quiet flyer, but she flaps her wings loudly and deliberately as she angles in for a landing. It would never do to sneak up behind someone sitting on the edge of a roof. Her crystalline shoes chime a little on the shingles as she settles herself on its peak, looking down a little at Ziva. Her own Komory Bat glides in and perches next to her, squeaking a greeting to the other Spirit.

"Good evening. Art thou quite well?" So many people here have been quite helpful to her; the princess figures it's high time she repaid the favor.