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

[loyal_liar]

[Lyra's tried several times to get past the teachers to explore the rest of the area, arguing with the teachers in a tone that sounds utterly confident, only to be herded back into the crowd each time, until she decides to try asking her 'fellow students' instead.]

What's going on- have any of you even seen this place before?

[aureus_veritas]

Ed Elric is not happy.

Between the weird dream and the situation he'd woken up to, he was anything but happy. He'd tried to stop, to inform the more official-looking people that there's been a mix-up, that there's somewhere he needs to be, that he's not supposed to be here - wherever "here" is - and where the returning train is. But somehow he's wound up in this lobby with a bunch of other people that seem to be at least as confused as he is if not as upset. Then again, it would be hard to match how upset Edward is right at this very moment.

So as an alternative, Ed moves through the crowd to try to talk to someone else about this predicament. There has to be someone with an ounce of influence and a lick of sense around here.

[eidetic]

Reid awoke rather slowly, not at all surprised he was on a cushiony seat. After all, he and the rest of the team were on the way back to Quantico from another case, and he'd made himself at home along one wall to take a nap. There was frequently no time for sleep on a case.

He sat up and blinked. It was a bit bright for the plane, and there were a lot more people around. A lot more unfamiliar people. He'd been using his blazer as a blanket, and he started to put it back on as he surveyed the scene. He counted the number of people, twelve in all, of various ages and nationalities. None of which were other members of the BAU. Had he been kidnapped again? Whatever had happened, they definitely were organized about it. He was missing his gun, his credentials, his satchel, everything except the clothing on his back.

He smoothed his hair down and stood, still a bit unsteady on his legs.

[discarded]

Miwako had decided to go back to school, yes, but this certainly wasn't the school she'd meant. She pushed through the crowd, trying to find someone who seems like they would know the answers, and bumps into Ed.

"Ack--! I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going..."

[choseanidiot]

http://choseanidiot.dreamwidth.org/699.html

Someone, in the tram, on the trip up to the building, and then inside the building, stunk of blood. Enki hadn't got a good view of all the people in the small crowd, but someone here was injured. And since he couldn't see who it was, he couldn't put the needed distance between them for him to not feel vaguely shaky. This was not what he needed. Not now, not ever, but especially not now.

"They should just give us more information," Enki looked up at Gaara beside him annoyed at the 'very bysy' receptionists, and their now-disappeared guides. "This waiting ain't gonna make anyone in here calmer." He disapproved of the way whoever in charge was handling this. A lot. They were even worse than--- Who had he chosen as King of En, anyway? Was the king as bad as Shoryu was with his behaviour? He couldn't put his finger on it.

[formerly_known_as_prince]

Utena remembers swords. Singing a song of steel, of sharpness and cutting, of pain, infinite, more than one body could seemingly hold, wondering if madness would be a kind of escape. She remembers castles crumbling, a projector, roses hacked from their vines, a Greek chorus singing of places of burial, Lucifer, the prince, the witch who could never be a princess, the princesses, selfish and swarming like flies over a carcass, begging for rescue all of them so many there is no end to them until I feel my small body might begin to crack in places like a statue that has been climbed on too much but I must rescue princesses I am-

The transition was too smooth for her to notice.

-am the pr...the knight who rescues princesses and all the rest (did I just leave something incomplete and is there time to recollect it before I must save the princess again?).




Utena wakes up on the tram. She is going to a new academy. Something happened at her old one and now she can no longer be there. She does not remember what that was.

She is holding the strap with numb fingers. She does not remember how long she has been doing so. She switches hands. The right, which was formerly holding the strap, prickles as feeling returns. She feels as if she should be wearing something on it that is not there.

On her middle finger, there is a patch of pale skin where a ring would have gone.
al
She moves numbly with the crush of other students to the lobby. The architecture seems familiar too. She goes to the desk to register.

"Hi, i'm transferring, last name...Last name..." She's uncomfortable. She pulls her arm behind her head and begins to stretch to her side as she tries to recall it.

[ninjasloveme]

"They don't need us to be calm," Gaara's arms were folded and his expression blank, as if to spite their strange abductors. Occasionally he would turn, to watch someone arrive from either entrance. The people already in the uniform didn't look any less confused, but it could easily be a trap. No one was armed, and no one was stepping up to claim any kind of leadership. "They have their information. It's more a question of why we're still alive."

[choseanidiot]

Enki grunted and crossed his arms, once again trying to get a view of the crowd, but with more people arriving, it was getting harder and harder to see who was bleeding, or recently had been bleeding.

"They probably want us alive," Enki said with a scowl and then finally gave up on trying to see himself who was almost making his head woozy. He didn't need to collapse here. He'd just hope whoever they were didn't come (any) close(r).

"Do you see anyone injured in here?" Maybe Gaara'd have better luck on that part. Because there was a trace of bloodscent starting to permeat the place. Not something real, just from recent actions, though none of the incoming people looked in the least bloody. More like confused and upset. What was going on in here?

[cheesetwo]

A green-haired girl, seemingly of appropriate age for this place, doesn't seem too interested in mingling in the lobby. She's standing off to the side, aloof, looking around the room idly, not particularly caring about the unfamiliar faces. Though if she looked harder, maybe she'd find one or two that were a bit more familiar.

She's had weirder experiences than this. Somewhat. But usually when she was sedated she didn't end up on a tram to a school.

What with the Order gone now, who would be after her? And from within the security of Pendragon itself...how interesting. But she needed to get back to Zero. Her contract...

[ninjasloveme]

"Injured...?" He scanned the crowd again, but couldn't see anyone with an obvious wound. Some of the students were moving slowly, or with stiff, careful movements, but there was no sign of bandaging or bruising on a single one of them. It would be easy to assume they were just tired. He frowned, though it didn't show much, and looked back at Enki. "Not that I can see. Why?"

[awildcatappears]

[Mikoto really doesn't want to be bothered. After searching all this time, she found her brother and now, her brother is not here. She seemingly cut off all connection with all the other HiME and her friends. She was supposed to be fighting, defending her brother and now--]

[She hears the other girl's voice but ignores her.]

[choseanidiot]

"I can smell blood," Enki muttered and shook his head. You'd think, that after they had made Taiki feel secure with his choice, that things would be calm. Good. Normal, for a while. Take a trip into Hourai, follow Shoryu out into En to make sure the idiot didn't do anything too embarrassing. Enjoy the wind for a while. But no.

On top of this, standing about this group of people with his head uncovered felt strange, but they weren't in En or any of the other kingdoms. No one here would probably question his golden hair. Wouldn't find anything strange or revealing about it.
"And if whoever's in charge gonna let the confusion go on, they're worse than they need to be," Enki finally spat out, unease mounting from everything. Couldn't their kidnappers act like decent 'rulers' of their kidnapped 'subjects' at least?

[aureus_veritas]

Ed only stumbles a bit, hands coming up automatically to help steady the person if they need it. He barely even glances at her, too preoccupied with figuring out who he should be talking with in order to fix this.

"Don't worry about it," he says distractedly, his agitation with... everything apparent in his voice.

[brbdocumenting]

Anya was looking around only mildly interested in what was going on around her. So she was taken to a school? Gino dragged her to Ashford a few times so she figured it was like that.

She spotted C.C. and wondered if she was supposed to do anything, it's not like she had Mordred around. Instead she took a picture, with a bit of difficulty, to remind her that she was here.

[valleycat]

Kitty was panicking. She didn't know any of these people and they seemed just as lost as she did, but that wasn't the biggest problem. She didn't have her powers and she was so used to having them.

When the crowd was exiting the tram and going on campus, she was pushed and jostled a bit. Not being able to go through them was distracting her a bit more than she expected it would.

Maybe she could go through this person?

No?

How about this one?

Sorry Utena, she may have just bumped in to you.

[earlofpudding]

"--passengers please leave the tram, as it is terminating here."

The last of the announcement was what Lloyd woke up to. Or had he woken up at all? An overheated tram on the way to a school wasn't where he remembered being last. He watched the other passengers begin filing out for a bit before turning to look out the tram window by his seat.

Okay. That was definitely a school. Why he would be dreaming of going back to school, he had no idea, but it didn't bother him. Dreams weren't supposed to make sense.

"Might as well play along," he chuckled to himself and stood. It was too stuffy to just lurk around in here anyway. Lloyd trailed along after the rest of the group, content to just follow them over to the lobby.

[ninjasloveme]

He shrugged, very lightly, and almost began to answer when the realisation hit him and he froze. I can smell blood, Enki had said. Those words, too familiar, had him trying to mold chakra in a heartbeat. Why hadn't he thought of it sooner? His chakra was sealed, but what did that mean for Shukaku? He had mastered him, but that was when he was at full strength. Was the demon trying to take over even now? His mind clouded, and he involuntarily pressed the heel of his hand against his forehead. This could be a slaughter...

He looked up. Around. Had they placed him here, knowing that he would have to suppress the demon or risk the deaths of over fifty people? It would be an effective prison.

"Is the blood on any one person?"

[getsthefirstpunch]

Sakura's instinct was to stay to the back, avoid notice until she had a better idea of what was going on. Her hands wouldn't mold chakra and she couldn't even remember the name of the handseal she had been trying to use since she left that train.

But her eyes caught a familiar face, familiar enough but she didn't call out. She slipped through the crowd to stand beside him and nod. Commander, Kazekage, which should she use? She settled for the more relevant of the two.

"Commander?"

[loyal_liar]

[And Lyra notices the other girl!]

Hey... Have you even heard of this school before? If this is a kidnapping, it's a rather odd one.

[formerly_known_as_prince]

Utena was a physical person. Good balance and proprioception meant she did not fall over, even in the middle of stretching to her side. She whirled towards the source of the bump...

[formerly_known_as_prince]

For the second time that day, Utena gets bumped into. She's not one for hinting by throat clearing or attempting to wheedle apologies out of someone.

"Hey, watch it!" She says, bluntly.

[loyal_liar]

So someone else shares her displeasure. Might as well try to talk to them, right?

"Have you managed to get anything out of them yet? I've been trying, but they won't let us get away."

And being herded like this is starting to make Lyra nervous, though she shoves that feeling down, away from her face and her voice, down to the pit of her stomach.

[choseanidiot]

Enki looked up at the pink-haired young woman, who obviously knew Gaara and stared. Commander? An internal sigh. Of course the man would be a soldier of sorts, since he'd mentioned shinobi. Then he looked back to Gaara and shrugged.

"Someone in here's injured, but there's a..." How to even explain this part... "A general smell of blood. The ones who're coming in now... Something's happened." Enki's eyes narrowed as he studied those in the crowd who'd obviusly been here before them. Most of them seemed nervous, confused, upset. And shrouded with an old smell of blood. He hoped it didn't get any thicker, though, or he'd start gagging.

And he was starting to feel sure that his horn had been bound, despite there being no proof of this; why else could he not reach his shirei, why else was there simply a... nothingness, even where his noykai should have been? He'd never thought he'd be in this position again.

[discarded]

She fidgets, stepping back when his hands go up. She's still not good in crowds or around other people. "Ah-- okay."

She looks around and shrinks back a bit. "Do you know where we are?"

[waddles]

As Rafiel went passively along with the issued commands, he could not help the worried frown that creased his face. Not only because of his unknown location but because of how solitary he felt. For as long as he could remember, he had possessed an unusually strong power of empathy. The ability to feel the emotions of others around him and feel the flux of order and chaos in the world. All herons could do this, it was a gift given to them by the goddess, and yet...

Nothing. He could not sense the minds of the beorc around him, nor the tangible energies that must surely be present in this world. What, or who, had taken that from him?

As his white wings shifted slightly against his back, unable to be still in this uncertain situation, the heron brought a hand up to his heart and willed himself calm. He would be strong, he would simply have to find a way back home or wait for Nailah to catch his scent. It wasn't as if he'd never been captured before, after all...