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

[earlofpudding]

Did somebody say fully integrated virtual network including several layers of tactile, empathic holograms? Because that was where Lloyd stopped listening. Everything else the woman on the screen was saying just wasn't as important. The entire campus was fitted out with something like that? Now this really was starting to sound like one of his dreams~

Lloyd did a turn around, scanning the building they were in for what he would assume were projectors. He couldn't spot anything obvious. Aha, these people were good at hiding them. That had to be it. "...now how would a glove trigger a tactile hologram? Hmmm." Better question. "How did they even construct a tactile hologram?"

Forget all this nonsense about some game. The man in the labcoat was going to wonder about the tech even needed for this silliness. Surely it could be put to a better use.

[discarded]

"What's a tactile hologram?" Miwako asked the man. She supposed she could have guessed from the context of the words, but she was overwhelmed by all of this. She still had no clue...

[earlofpudding]

The first minute is spent ignoring that he was even spoken to. This is his dream, he doesn't have to acknowledge silly questions. The girl should wander off soon enough. When she didn't just move on or fade away like a good dream person should have, however, he turns to face her and peers down at her, a cheerful smile put on.

"What is it? Well, holograms are 3D projections. Normally it's just light, but if these ones really are tactile, it means you can handle them as if they were real solid objects!"

Isn't that exciting? He sure thought so.

[discarded]

"That sounds like something out of a manga," she comments warily. "I... I didn't know those kinds of things were real..."

Somehow, Miwako does not share in his excitement.

[earlofpudding]

"It isn't all that far-fetched! There are actually a few institutes working on a study for--"

And this was where he went on in-depth about how something like tangible light could be possible. It involved a lot of strange words and equations and a dozen tangents that were vaguely connected to the topic. Lloyd wasn't actually trying to explain any of it to Miwako anymore, he was just thinking aloud as he tried to puzzle it out himself. He couldn't care less if it made no sense to her.

[discarded]

She stares. His words fly right over her head, in one ear and out the other. Finally, she squeaks out a nervous, "Oh. I-I see."

[earlofpudding]

Lloyd stopped when she managed to squeak something out. Oho, she could still talk. He just smiled and gave her a pat on the head. Pat. Pat. "No you don't," he told her, the words as discouraging as they were cheerful, "But not to worry! You don't need to know anything to actually use them!"

[discarded]

Well, he was right there, but she didn't quite know what to make of his tone. "Are you in charge then, sir?"

[earlofpudding]

"Me?" The idea of Lloyd, of all people, being in charge of a school would send shivers of horror down spines. What an amusing idea, but, alas. "Nope! Certainly not." He gave a shrug and folded his arms. "I ended up here the same way as everyone else."

[brbdocumenting]

Anya was listening to the announcement but it didn't really show. Fighting terrorists to fighting in some game? It didn't make that much of a difference to Anya, she'd do what she's told, and that means finding a player or something. She could do that later though.

She wondered if any of her cats were here too. Or Mordred. How was she supposed to fight without Mordred again?

Instead of worrying about it like normal people would, she took out her phone and took a picture of the names on the screen and started looking around. The guy in the lab coat looked familiar.

[earlofpudding]

In his turn about while checking for projectors, he did manage to spot someone familiar. He would have known other familiar people were here as well, if he'd bothered to keep paying attention to the screen when it displayed those names, but, oh well! Lloyd could find out later. Right now he was looking at a pink-haired... a... what was she again?

A something of the Rounds. A Knightmare Frame pilot, in any case.

The scientist raised a hand up in the air and waved at her. "Anya~! What are you doing here?"

[brbdocumenting]

She shrugged at him, "Dunno". What was she doing here? What was he doing here?

[earlofpudding]

"As on top of the situation as always, I see," he teased her. Lloyd finally turned to give the screen with the names a curious glance. That had been left up there for awhile now.

A Players list? He skimmed it, blinked, went back to the top and skimmed it again. "C.C is here...?" His gaze shifted down a few more names. "Euphemia li Britannia?!" That wasn't possible. "Heh. Bit of a cruel joke there, eh, Anya?"

[trollofthree]

Well, that was his Player sorted for the immediate future. Feeling immensely pleased with himself, Gino looked around for Grenn or Mei, but managed to spot a couple of people who definitely hadn't been around before today.

Now if he could just remember her name... But he was sure she'd answer to a nickname if he came up with one. It was fine!

"Yo!" He almost ran over, beaming down at the pink-haired knight. "Just got here?"

[brbdocumenting]

"Yes" Anya answered Lloyd, she supposed it was cruel that Princess Euphemia was here and she wondered if there were any Japanese around, like Suzaku.

Then Gino came lumbering towards her. She looked up at him, he was still really tall, and answered "Yes" to him as well.

[earlofpudding]

Hey, another familiar face.

"She just won't stop talking today," the Earl joked. He looked back at the screen with the names. So there was C.C., supposedly Euphemia, Anya, and now Gino. "Say, Gino, what are all of you really doing here? They don't actually expect anyone to fight, do they?"

[trollofthree]

"That's what we've been doing." He rested a hand on Anya's head, companionably. He'd missed her, unsurprisingly. "Did you find the Knight of Seven yet? Haven't seen him yet, so he's probably still asleep..."

[veepofchess]

Now this was an interesting choice for the academy to make. And a very useful one too. Lelouch's demeanor was serious, and since he had little other choice, he openly approached the scientist. It would also be the best way of finding out just what this man remembered. "I'm sure that if anyone could find the answer to that question, it would be you, Lloyd."

[earlofpudding]

An interesting choice they might regret. Lloyd was already considering prying the walls open in a search for the projectors. He wondered how long it would take for the faculty to react to something like that. Maybe he could talk someone else into trying instead, just to check the timing, and--

"Hmm?"

It was the familiarity of the voice that drew his attention away from his own thoughts rather than the name. He turned to look. By now, Lelouch was probably used to the staring, though Lloyd didn't stare for too long.

"Well, well, just how many lives do you have?"

It may have freaked the others out, but he found it funny.

[veepofchess]

So he thought he'd died too. "I'll need to make use of your expertise. As you've already seen, we have quite the system set up for us here." No, he was not leaving the Earl room to refuse.

[earlofpudding]

And he would be happy to describe it in great detail if ever asked to! The Earl slipped his hands into his coat pockets and shrugged. "Of course! I was already planning to, but I won't have time to figure it out before I wake up. That's how it usually goes, you know? How unfair..."

Yeah. He still thought this was all one big, silly dream. People didn't just get stuck in a school with those who are either dead or missing. That it could be real was beyond belief for him.

[veepofchess]

"This is no dream," he said simply. "This is our new reality, such as it is. It would seem the reports of my death are grossly inaccurate," he told him.

[earlofpudding]

"It isn't?" That was irritating. There were plenty of ways the Earl could try and explain that away, too, but the thought that this was all just a lucid dream was starting to wear thin. "So is this a kidnapping?" Which made just as little sense.

"Your death looked very convincing to me!" If he had been worried about how this wasn't a dream before, it didn't last long. He was smiling again. Lloyd nodded towards the screen with the Player names. "Does that make the reports of your sister's death just as inaccurate?"

[veepofchess]

He paused before he responded about Euphie. "...Perhaps. Some of the details still remain to be seen."

"At any rate, I have a source for you to look in to," he began. "Tsuki Aoi. She seems to know more intimately than the rest the program at hand."

[earlofpudding]

"Well aren't you prepared. Tsuki Aoi, eh? Is she in here?" Lloyd certainly wasn't going to go talk to her right this instant, but actually having an idea of who she was would be a good starting place.