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

[whereibelong]

Technically Xion was off the clock - her shift was over. But her manager didn't seem to mind it overly much if she stayed and socialized with some of the fuzzier animals they had up for adoption. From the way she understood, helped the puppies be more friendly with people, which always made them much more adoptable, plus it helped burn off some of the energy in the more antsy puppies and dogs.

So when Sora went into a certain pet store in his explorings, he was likely to find his little sister surrounded by three puppies, two of which were crawling over her. She was too absorbed in trying to disengage the one whose paws were entangled in her hair to notice him, unless he tried to catch her attention.

[aworldwithoutyou]

The pet store caught Sora's attention almost as soon as he saw it. Though he hadn't seen very many pet stores in his life, since the one of the islands was so tiny that it barely counted and they were surprisingly rare on the worlds he had visited (or, at least, he hadn't really had time to find any), he couldn't deny that he got excited every time he saw something like one. He couldn't help it - he really liked animals, and had always wanted a pet, but his parents had never agreed when he had asked for one. Having to shuffle ninety-nine Dalmatian puppies across the worlds the year bef-...or, well, a few years ago had sort of made up it it, that wasn't quite the same as having a dog of his own.

And, well, it wasn't like now was a good time to think about getting a pet, but what could looking hurt?

So he walked through the store, slowly going from section to section and looking at just about everything...so absorbed, in fact, that he didn't notice until he tried to step away from a cage with some birds that the top of his shoe had acquired one tiny kitten.

"Hey," he said, kneeling down to get a closer look, but careful not to move his foot. "You don't look like you're supposed to be wandering around out here." The little cat was perfectly comfortable and didn't seem to care, but Sora knew that it was probably a good idea to let someone know that he...she?...was running around by themselves. He picked it up carefully, looking around, and...well, luckily, he could see the back of someone who looked like they maybe worked here, playing with some puppies.

"Um, excuse me?" he said, walking in her direction. "Do you know where..."

And, suddenly, it occurred to him that the back of that head looked familiar. Very familiar.

In fact, he was sure that it had to be...

"Xion?"

[whereibelong]

She'd already jerked her head up and begun looking around when she heard the excuse me. She had the misfortune, however, of seeing Sora and hearing her name at the exact same time. Her eyes flew wide, and her feet slipped under her from where she'd sat, half-turned. The resulting crash sent one puppy scurrying back with a yelp as she accidentally half-landed on one of his paws.

The noise caught Xion's attention, and she reached up with a slightly shaking hand to catch and soothe the tiny creature.

"Sorry..." she muttered to it, before turning to face Sora, eyes still wide. It was him. The clothes were different, and the voice was older, but she'd know that face anywhere. Knew it as clearly as she knew her name.

The thing was, she wasn't the only one who knew her name, clearly.

"Sora?" she asked, voice a little unsteady.

[aworldwithoutyou]

He was grinning from ear to ear, happy to see that it was for sure his little sister. This was great! It had been so weird being the only person he knew here, and now he didn't have to worry about that. Sora might have even run up to her and given her a hug, except she was surrounded by puppies and he was still holding the kitten.

But his grin fades when she falls back, and the expression on her face has him worried. Did she just hurt herself or something? It didn't look like too bad of a fall, but he hoped not. Maybe she was just...surprised? Yeah, that had to be it.

Though the kitten objects a little to the sudden movement, Sora sits down a bit closer to her, still careful to avoid disrupting the puppies.

"You okay, Xion?" he asked. "Did I scare you or something?"