Round 1 [new characters and round announcement]

[utopiamods]

You're falling, and you can't remember why. It's a sickening feeling that makes your insides lurch; the darkness and the vertigo combine, and all you can think of is a story you heard once, somewhere.

- I remember now. It's a simple story that everyone knows. A legend of a Princess, the Demon Lord who kidnapped her, and the Knight who fought to save her.

The Demon Lord had kidnapped the Princess countless times, but every time the Knight bested his challenges and rescued the Princess.

No matter what tricks and ploys the Demon Lord used, the Knight would always triumph in the end. This was because--

The world tilts on its axis one last time, and the dream slips from your mind as easily as it arrived. A new voice intrudes on your sleep.

"Next stop: Academy Main Entrance. This tramline terminates here; all change. Next stop: Academy Main Entrance. All change."

Sunlight streams through the windows of the long carriage, making the seats almost uncomfortably warm beneath its waking passengers. The air is muggy and thick, the atmosphere deeply tired. Your nausea settles, slowly. The last of the dream fades.

"We have arrived at Utopia. Repeat, we have arrived at Utopia Academy. Could all passengers please leave the tram, as it is terminating here."

The tram pulls to a stop outside the academy station, and the students onboard are ushered off and directed to the front lobby of the school. They can't miss it; there are signs up pointing toward the main entrance, reading "New student orientation" in big, bright letters. If anyone should care to move off the path, try exploring somewhere else, a teacher will conveniently appear to shoo them back toward the lobby, assuring them that "all your questions will be answered inside".

The lobby is big and spacious, looking more like a university or perhaps a fancy international hotel than a high school. Stood around are any number of students in the uniform of the school. Some of them even look awake. There are several receptionists at the desk towards the back of the lobby, but for now they seem busy with paperwork.


[ Note: the round announcement will go up in a thread once you've all mingled. ♥ ]

Comments

[bitofafiction]

Sherlock raises his eyebrows at the player list. Euphemia, Yuki... he could look for either of them. Or he could take a chance on someone he doesn't know as well—one of the newcomers, perhaps. He hasn't quite decided yet.

(When he looks at the announcer, why does he feel cold metal in his hands? Leave it.)

[queenscheckmate]

Kallen somehow (really she amazes herself) gathered herself to go to the lobby. Even though it was near the end of the announcement, she did show up. Just in time to see the names flash on the screen. Her name wasn't there and quite honestly, she was relieved. She was no condition to fight, not now. Not when she was on edge and having slight hallucinations.

There was nothing more for her to do here. She started to make her way back to the dorm because she was no in mood to go to class. Unintentionally, her shoulder bumped into Sherlock on the way back.

"Sorry," she muttered, not really looking up.

[bitofafiction]

"Think nothing of it."

He has another unintelligible flash of tactile memory when he looks at Kallen. Did they talk while he was in the latter stages of sleep deprivation? Or did she feature in his nightmare of dubious origin? He can't recall.

[queenscheckmate]

Don't mind that the view of her back may remind you as her shadow walked away after killing Euphie.

[bitofafiction]

Oh. Yes. That.

He starts after her. "Excuse me, miss..."

The events aren't clear in his mind; all he has to go on is the memory of pain in his left hand and a sword in his right. But something about her is ringing a bell and Sherlock would dearly love to find out what.

[queenscheckmate]

Kallen stopped and turned around, hiding her hands behind her back. "Yes?"

[bitofafiction]

His eyes flick down to her arms in an effort to read the position of her hands by observing what he can see of them.

"Have we met?" he tries.

[queenscheckmate]

Her hands linked with each other as she looked up at him. "No, I don't believe so."

[bitofafiction]

"You seem familiar. Perhaps I merely saw you somewhere."

It's likely, in fact. But that doesn't explain why his hands remember trying and failing to hold a gun.

[queenscheckmate]

"It's a big school," Kallen started, "But I happen to wonder around a lot, so perhaps you've seen me along the way?" She was trying to ignore the fact that there was a dripping noise coming from behind her that only she could hear.

[bitofafiction]

"I, too, have a propensity to wander. And yet."

He frowns in thought.

"What did you dream last night?"

[queenscheckmate]

"I--" She confirmed it with her roommates... everyone remembered bits and pieces of the death and shadows around them. Although Kallen was the only one who remembered the tiger. She wasn't sure if that part was even real, but when she woke up screaming that morning...

"Is... that how you believe you know me?" Yes, she is avoiding the question because she doesn't want to think of the events that day.

[bitofafiction]

"It is, shall we say, a leading theory."

[idkmybffxiao]

There's a tug at his sleeve. Mei's down there, trying to get his attention.

"Hey? Have you seen Gino or Grenn?" She realizes a second later that he might not know them by name, though she has seen him around before. He was in the rounds before this one... and... where else? "You know, the really tall one with braids? And the girl in the wheelchair? I lost track of them."

With more people crowded into the main building, and most of them still being taller then her, it had been easy to lose sight...

[bitofafiction]

"There is more than one girl in a wheelchair," he notes. "But yes, I know Gino's name, and no, I have not seen any of them thus far."

[idkmybffxiao]

"Oh, right." Mei has to think for a second. What other defining features does-- oh! "Grenn's the one with black hair!" But he says he hasn't seen them and she sighs. "Okay. Thanks..."

She almost turned and went on with her search, but another question came to mind before she did.

"Do you remember the last time everyone was in here?"

[bitofafiction]

"I am not entirely sure I trust my memory at the moment," Sherlock answers, looking down at his hands. He remembers wrecking one of them irreparably, and yet there they are, good as new.

[idkmybffxiao]

"Why not?" Mei really shouldn't be bugging other people over this, but that was a weird way of saying 'I don't know', if she understood that right.

[bitofafiction]

"I had a very unpleasant dream and woke up from it somewhere I would never voluntarily have gone to sleep. Before that I suspect I may have been hallucinating for a while. But yes, I do remember such a gathering." He rubs the palm of his left hand with the fingers of his right. "It did not end well."

[idkmybffxiao]

"The one where everyone..." Mei didn't want to say it, so she lets that trail off and finds something else to say instead. "I think everyone had the same problem." Whatever that problem had been. The jury was still out on it being just a dream or a mass hallucination or whatever. "Grenn and Gino and I all remember similar things. They said people in their rooms did, too."

[bitofafiction]

"Regardless of its relation to reality, then, we have all been afforded the experience of dying. I don't consider that a kindness."

[idkmybffxiao]

"I wonder if I can trade that memory in for one I do want..." If only. "But what's going to happen if they try that again?"

[bitofafiction]

"The same thing that happened the first time, I should imagine."

Sherlock Holmes is not the person to go to for empty reassurances.

[idkmybffxiao]

"Yeah..." Though she thinks they might be able to take the shadows easier next time. Mei shakes her head and switches back to what she had originally asked. "If you see Gino around, can you tell him Mei is looking for him?"

[bitofafiction]

"Certainly, miss."

He smiles. Only slightly, but still, a smile.