The Search for the Newcomers, November 2012 Edition.

[stringmods]

Who: Open to Everyone, but only Newly Accepted Characters can start threads.
Where: All around the city, anywhere from the 5th to the 20th.
Summary: Newcomers arrive and by now the Government is more ready and sends everyone out to go people hunting.
Warnings: ARRIVALS. Also assume the first thread is the ones who tell you about the city, and the other tags for the character can be talking with others in the city and learning more about it.

[FOR THOSE IN THE CITY:]
They were getting much better at this, it was for certain.

The COMPS had been upgraded with a new program, HORUS which allowed them to spot abnormalities; if something or someone showed up suddenly in a city that was constantly scanned, then there was a high probability it was a newcomer. There was also a sort of left energy from the travel; the Wise Men called it leftover Magatama Residue, where the magical energy used to pull them to this world and keep the String intact was still faintly present around them. It wouldn't last more than a few minutes, however, and due to the fact they could appear in most parts of the city, it made finding the newcomers was both easy yet frustratingly difficult. As the blips appear on your radar function, they were nice enough to calculate for you the best transport and destination routes to take to get there.

Now it was just left up to chance and make sure you got there fast enough that you were still able to find them relatively easily. For the most part, the fact they stuck out would most certainly help...

[FOR THOSE WHO JUST ARRIVED:]
You're not in your homeworld anymore. That much is evident. So how do you feel? Happy? Sad? Troubled? A little of all three? No matter what, the memories of a butterfly man named Philemon are fading like a dream; you'll remember the details, but perhaps not everything he has said.

There is one word that stays with you, however.

Persona.

So...here to save the city, huh? First you'll need to find out more information. And who knows, maybe a familiar face or two...

[OOC: As stated above, only new characters can start a thread, but feel free to jump in any of them. characters arrive with their clothing and whatever items they had on them the moment they were taken; the remaining items will be later found in their apartments.]

Comments

[shibuyasmusic]

... Well isn't that odd~? You see, from my point of view, you already attempted to use it against me, and failed spectacularly. While destroying yourself in the process, of course.

Oh, but don't worry, you came back. You're a little too persistent to go down that easily~

[tangentlion]

[Sho blinks. Then he closes the gap between them using his stupidly long legs and grabs Josh up by the front of his shirt] You factoring son of a DIGIT! How did you... How?! My plan was flawless! AND A SECRET! How did you find out about it?! [baring his teeth, he shakes him a little] I did everything right to hide it from your foresight!

[drop!! Now he's scrawling calculations on the concrete, clearly having a slightly more-than-minor meltdown right there.] Fourteen square root... power of.... derivations in the nth degree... space time complex transverse axes why why WHY WHY. [he slams his fist down] MY CALCULATIONS WERE FLAWLESS!!

[better do something, Josh, before he melts down completely]

[shibuyasmusic]

[Joshua just calmly stares at him with a blank expression as he's lifted off the ground, taking only a minor stumbling step backwards when he's dropped again. He watches Sho carefully.]

I'm not saying your plan was flawed, Minamimoto. It wasn't actually a half bad plan~ However, you weren't the only one who came up with it, were you? Creating taboo noise is a capital offense... and someone taught you how to make them.

I still don't know who it was- a rogue Angel I'm sure- but you miscalculated.

I have my own Angel on my side~ With him, it wasn't difficult to take you down.

[tangentlion]

[Sho ignores him, for the most part, going over every single calculation again, writing down only part of it on the cement. And boy oh boy, is that complex. Also somewhat... foreign. There are symbols there that are not of this plane. He mutters to himself, strings of numbers and phrases.

Then he caps his pen and looks over his work.

No.

It was perfect.

Without looking up;] You talk like it's already happened.

[shibuyasmusic]

From my point of view, it has. I believe that we were taken from different points in time. At least as far as my personal timeline goes...

You failed to become Composer.

Unless you think that I'm lying? [Joshua looks over his calculations carefully.] You do know that calculations can be entirely correct and valid, and yet the initial theory is what was flawed? It can ruin entire equations if you don't take something into account.

[tangentlion]

Different... time... [Sho uncaps his sharpie again and this time, he writes some shit that definitely looks like string theory. Then he draws a simple line, labeling one end "past" and the other "future". He draws a dot and labels it with his name in the middle, then draws another dot near the future end and labels it "Composer Garbage"] That masked digit. Had the power to do this? [he draws arrows from both dots to a large circle that says "SAME TIME DIFFERENT WORLD"] ... Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally... space-time manipulation. That's... [Way out of even HIS league]

... That's mathematically impossible. I checked the theory over and over. My proof was irrefutable. The Angle said there was no statistical chance I would fail. No variable I-- [he pauses, then hisses] The Proxy! Add that X to the equation! An unpredictable integer! No!! HRAARGH! ... Haha... Haaahahahaha! But! Look! You know what this means?! [he points to his string theory stuff and then the simplified diagram] It means... that there can be divergent timelines. Parallel ones, too! [and now he just goes crazy drawing lines] I just have to account for the extra variable... haha... Hahaha!!

[shibuyasmusic]

It seems to be a likelihood. Trust me, I find it entirely unbelievable as well, I'm not sure what that masked man was... but he had to be something close in power to a god.

[Despite Minamimoto not exactly being a friend or even an ally, it was a bit comforting to know he wasn't the only one from his world around who had no idea what was going on with being pulled into an entirely different world.]

You're right. There are such things as divergent timelines. [Where do you think he was hiding after you tried to blast him~?] However, looking back at things... Nothing you could have done would have resulted in your desired reality.

It was out of your hands the entire time. Though I'm not sure how you've brought Neku into the equation. He never did anything directly to turn the tables on you.

[tangentlion]

A true God... [did such things even EXIST? Angels did, but even Angels had weaknesses. Gods were... Well, Sho didn't really want to think about it. Instead he focuses on his math]

Hmph. You would say that. I don't believe you. I'll find a way to make my equation work. I have no other option. I've already come too far to change my course 180 degrees. I'm Erased for my Refinery Sigil either way. I have less than nothing to lose. [he caps his pen again] That yoctogram... It was a mistake for me to think of him as a throwaway variable. His very existence could change things. Like the Butterfly Effect, zero.

[shibuyasmusic]

Does this mean you're going to try to kill my proxy? I'm not sure what you would stand to gain from that, he played no role in taking you down, Minamimoto. Where exactly does he fit into your elaborate equation?

[He's afraid that Minamimoto will try to harm Neku. As far as he was concerned, if this Sho was to eventually to return to their timeline, nothing would change. If he did return and ended up on a divergent timeline because of what this world had done...

It still didn't effect him personally, otherwise what had happened to him would never have happened at all. Effectively, it'd create a paradox. And time paradoxes, as far as Joshua can tell, don't actually exist. Parallel timelines are a measure against them, a safety mechanism.]

There's no point in getting angry and wasting your time thinking about our other world, you know. You're still not taking into account the simple fact that we're still trapped in this one.

[tangentlion]

I don't know what I'm going to do with him. Yet. I need to do more calculations. My entire expression needs to be redrawn.

[and that's the honest truth. Something for him to work on until he gets home... Then he gives Josh a sly look] And look at you. Do you actually care about that yoctogram? A singular little human? Ha!! That's a zetta good joke!

.... I know that. I'm thinking ahead, you moron.

[shibuyasmusic]

Neku Sakuraba is my proxy. You do know what a proxy is, and what role he plays, don't you? He's necessary for my own goals, so yes, I do care for his well-being.

[So maybe, now that the Game was over, he cared a little bit more than that. It's not as though he'd express that to Sho, not in a million years.]

What is it they say about people who think ahead too much and forget the basic problems at hand? Don't put the cart before the horse? Don't count your chickens before they hatch? I'm sure there's more of those, maybe even a math related one made just for you~

[tangentlion]

Oh. I'm positive that's all there is to it. [He didn't get as highly ranked as he did as fast as he did without being extremely perceptive. So not convinced, Josh. But also not pushing it any further. He has to save some material for later]

Ha! Maybe empty sets like you can only calculate one thing at a time, but I'm a genius. I can solve the problem of how to get home AND work on my new proof.

[shibuyasmusic]

Of course you are. [Joshua honestly doesn't care all that much. It wasn't as though Neku was here anyway. Not that he knows, anyway.]

Then let me know when you've found out how to get home. If you want to kill me there, I certainly can't be left behind here, you know.

[tangentlion]

[that's gonna be fun. SO FUN]

Zetta duh. I'll drag you back with me and end you right there! Hmm... I wonder if they take yen around here.

[shibuyasmusic]

[He'll let you dream, Sho.]

Good. And considering this is a Japanese city, I believe so.... then again, this is another world we're living in. Currency might be different. Maybe you're in luck; if it happens to be junk heaps, you'd be filthy rich.

[tangentlion]

Tch! If art is currency, it loses all of its value! Whatever it is, they should be able to change the money into the local kind, whatever it is. I mean, every single digit in this city is probably from a different place, if that part's real. The all gotta have cash.

[shibuyasmusic]

How ironic.

Did you actually come with cash on you, Sho? I didn't. It appears that the city is giving us monthly allowances for food... Odds are you're going to need a job to pay for anything else.

[tangentlion]

Of course I have cash on me, zero! [he digs in his pocket and pulls out a lovely leather wallet with a metal skull motif; Wild Boar brand] Zetta duh. Who walks around without any money? Oh. Right. Factoring, stuck-up hectopascals like the Composer. [he pockets his wallet and grumbles] A job? Like a real job?

[shibuyasmusic]

You're implying that being a Reaper isn't a real job.

[He gives a small shrug.] Unfortunately I left my wallet at home~ [Being a deity that works above the rules of the RG, however, cash was plenty easy to come by. How else would he pay his Reapers their paychecks?]

As an officer you must be pretty well off.... granted your money works here. Are you aware of which apartment you were assigned? As much as I shouldn't care, I just couldn't sleep well at night knowing I left a maniac- excuse me, creative genius- like you on the streets.

[He's worried about the safety of the civilians, not Sho.]

[tangentlion]

It didn't feel like work. Not like RG jobs. But I guess Reaping is not an option. Hmmm... I gotta calculate a solution to this.

[Sho knew that money had to come from somewhere. But he didn't really question it. Plus, Noise always seemed to have pins that were worth quite a bit of money. Just wipe out a few and you had lunch. But here? No Noise. Nothing. Which meant Sho had to do something real with his time.

Which zetta sucked.]

I didn't look. Where is that information?

[shibuyasmusic]

I'm sorry that the RG doesn't contain anything that meets your... qualifications~ You're good at math, though, why don't you take up a job like accounting~?

[He is entirely kidding, of course. Minamimoto would be the accountant from hell.

With Sho's question, Joshua brings his hand up by his face and a pair of glasses suddenly appears over his eyes, like a projection.]

When I arrived, whatever city government in charge explained to me how to use these glasses. Apparently all extraterrestrials, as they called us, have them. I'm not sure how, but they're easy to activate: it just takes the thought of opening them up. [He deactivates the glasses and pulls out a watch from his pocket, putting it on his wrist.] They gave me this one. It's a little more convenient if I need to see where I'm going. [Pressing a button on the side, a projection appears just like his glasses, showing an entire network of databases, news feeds, and people posting videos, audio, and text to a common board.]

This has all sorts of software aside from the network, but for our purposes I think I'll be able to look up your apartment, if you'd like? Granted those in charge of taking care of us are aware of your presence, though I assume they are... they seem to know these things.

[tangentlion]

Ugh. Zetta boring. I'm not just some low level number cruncher.

[Sho watches, then tilts his head. That was a neat trick] Huh. So that's what they were on about. I was just waiting for them to shut up and let me go. [or answer his constant barrage of questions about WHO THEY WERE and WHERE HE WAS and blah blah. Sho activates his own glasses. Then he looks at his wrist, where he placed his own watch, next to his various bracelets. Another thing he never bothered to play with] This is some zetta high tech stuff. An RG with Imagination-powered technology? [he flips through the apartment listings just by thinking about them] ... Aha! "Libra 6-01"? Wherever Libra is. [and then a map pops up in his field of vision] Rrrargh! I didn't ask for your help, glasses!

[shibuyasmusic]

Clearly you did~ My, it looks like we'll be staying in the same apartment building. You'll try not to wreck the whole building, won't you? Keep your junk heaps on the street?

[He does not want to see how this guy treats his apartment, not with the nickname of Grim Heaper. At least being aware of Sho's apartment he can be sure to keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn't start any trouble or cause Joshua any physical harm.]

It seems to me as though this technology is not the only thing powered by Imagination. According to our 'captors', and our lovely butterfly masked god, we have the ability to summon creatures called Persona.

[tangentlion]

Hmm... The floor map indicates zetta minimal square-footage. My decorations will have to be sparse. But tasteful. [A few hub-cabs on the walls, a redesigned headboard on his bed, maybe a small heap in the corner... It could be homey. The glasses vanish] Maybe I'll put an installment in the lobby. Hehehe. No doubt it needs some class.

[again, guess who didn't listen to the spiel] Persona? I think I remember that digit saying something about those. Some sort of.. avatar? For fighting?

[shibuyasmusic]

I'm sure people would appreciate your artwork in the lounge. [More sarcasm that's probably flying over the egotistical Reaper's head.] Will you attempt to stay out of trouble? You've already made a mess in the middle of the street... And left fingerprints everywhere I'm sure.

We need to focus on getting home, and landing yourself in prison for vandalism or assault isn't going to help anyone.

[Joshua gives a small shrug.] I saw a brief demonstration when I requested it. It's very strange... I haven't been able to summon one yet but apparently the ability is available to us.