The Search for the Newcomers, December 2012 Edition.

[stringmods]

Who: Open to Everyone, but only Newly Accepted Characters can start threads.
Where: All around the city! They appear where you want them to appear.
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.

Last month's initial testing of the HORUS system had worked really well. The device which allowed everyone to spot abnormalities; and now even more refined, they could hone in on newcomers at a much faster pace. The leftover energy from the travel (commonly called Magatama Residue) gave them a few minutes to find them before it would flicker out.

Combined with 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 own radar function, it was also nice enough to calculate for you the best transport and destination routes to take to get there. Speed was of the essence, after all.

[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

[growths]

Persona.

At first it's the only thing Garra takes in as he stands motionless in one of Aquarius' many streets. Blank-faced, a little spacey... But then again that's Garra on a good day anyway when he's not paying attention to the outside world. His host's body feels ill, like it wants to vomit. But he knows from practice that it can't so he ignores the sensation for the moment.

Warmth, sun, noise.

With a slight blink Garra's eyes come into focus. He still spends several more seconds staring blankly ahead before bothering to lift a hand and look down at it. Still in the same Host...but the setting is different. Or is it the same? He isn't sure, he wasn't paying attention. It must be some sort of task or mission though, Garra decides, though what that might be is...also a train of thought that dies as he starts staring straight up, one hand held up to shield his eyes from the sun.

Then he just keeps staring...and staring...

Braining, hard at work.

[primordial]

"Are you alright?"

Don't look now, Garra, but there's a mess of a guy standing in front of you, bent over slightly in clothes that are a bit too big for his body, squinted eyes blinking behind messy long brown hair. He doesn't at all look like much- Sam looks like the guy made for living in a dark corner of an alley than a nice room.

He waves a hand, trying to get his attention. "Hello? Staring at the sun isn't good for your eyes, you know..."

[growths]

If he was capable of making societal judgements Garra would definitely count this guy in with the scraggly-looking types. Not that he...looks all that much better, really, but that's important--doesn't even matter as far as Garra's able to concern himself.

No, what concerns him is that he's suddenly being spoken to and that distracts him from being...distracted...by the sky. The sun was bad for them? Maybe that explained why they were watering so badly. Huh. With a slight blink he pulls his gaze downward to look at Sam with consideration.

It might also be the sun spots in his vision though. "...Oh. That's why it burns then right?"

[primordial]

What an odd guy. Sam glances to the sky, as if he's missing something vitally important to the comprehension of this conversation there, but when he doesn't find it he just turns back to Garra with a confused look.

"Yeah...it usually does, unless you wear sunglasses. What, don't you have a sun where you come from?"

[growths]

"Which one?" ...Of him, he means, but there have been precious few people that have actually understood the question and Garra remembers even less of them than that. It's not something he's bothered to keep track of and he isn't about to start now, closing one eye and rubbing at it through the lid.

[primordial]

Unfortunately, Sam misinterprets that to mean something similar to "which sun are you talking about", which leads him to think that there must be a multiple sun thing going on where Garra comes from.

"Which one?? You have multiple suns, and...you don't know that looking at them causes pain." What even. Wow, this guy must be stupid. "Well...at least you know, now?"

[growths]

"There's more than one??" This is the worst communication failure ever, wow. Not that suns particularly matter to Garra other than to produce shadows (which he rather likes), but he's pretty sure he only saw one sun up there. So he turns his head up again, trying to squint into it.

[primordial]

"No, that's what I thought you were saying."

Nope, definitely as dumb as a rock. Internally Sam is just lamenting his wasted time with this guy, but hey...dumb people could be useful, too. Better stick around and look friendly as he can.

He wrings his hands, frowning.

"Ugh, really you shouldn't do that. That's not a good idea if you don't want to go blind..."

[growths]

"Only one would go blind," Garra replies through squinted eyes when he pulls his gaze back from the sun to this...talking person again. This blurry, sunspot-filled guy. Man that is a lot of color. Garra brings both blackened hand up to rub at his face like it'll help--and no, those aren't long gloves. It's his actual skin and it looks like it's been dipped in ink or something.

[primordial]

"Why, is the other one blind already?"

He's rubbing his face again, just like any regular person would do after staring into a giant ball of intense light. But Sam notices that what he thought were gloves...weren't really gloves at all. He was so focused on watching him stare at the sun that he didn't even look downwards, at his hands...

"And, I'm so sorry if this is rude, but...what happened to your arms?"

[growths]

As if one cue Garra holds them both up in front of him, looking them over. They seem to be just fine enough to him... He doesn't what what problem they might have. He hasn't broken them yet or anything.

"What-what happened to my arms? They're still mostly good I think, probably. Don't need new ones yet." He opens and closes one of them approvingly before dropping both at his sides and leaning in a bit, he canting. "What about yours?"

[primordial]

"Yet?!" That choice of words makes Sam narrow his eyes even further. "What...what do you mean, yet??"

And now he's being asked about his own arms. He pushes back the sleeves of his jacket, showing normal, pink skin. Which is a lie, of course. It's just what it looked like before what had happened to him. But it's a good facsimile, a good facade of what it should be like.

"See, mine are all normal...but what is the black stuff on yours?"

[growths]

"It's just me. Me-me not this me. I have a lot of me's but it's just this one. See?" Still following him Sam? No? Excellent.

[primordial]

"Riiiiight."

Nope, not at all. Which is infuriating, really. Sam lets out a sigh, shaking his head.

"Well, um...do you have a name?"

[growths]

A name? Well, he was sure he could find out his Host's name if he bothered to search through his memories... But he doesn't feel like doing that at the moment, so he shrugs. "Not for this one yet. It hasn't come--if it lasts maybe? I'll get one then if they decide it or I'll not get one." It's up the the ones who actually care about that sort of thing.

[terra_nullius]

Garra isn't the only one staring. Xehanort stares too, but that's mostly because that's what he does best. This one is odd, though, and it's caught his attention. Xehanort's taking him in, trying to figure out what's going on.

It's almost ironic in a few ways.

Finally, he makes an approach. "Is everything all right?"

[growths]

At least one of them is trying to figure things out. Garra started out with the intention to see if he could recognize anything or figure out why he was thinking of that strange word, "persona"...but that all came to a rather abrupt end. If his host was capable of expressing gratitude he might've done so for the pain is spares his poor eyes when the Grower turns away from the bright sunlight and to his newest company.

"...? Everything? I don't know. Haven't learned it yet, don't really need to. Everything's a big lot of things, too many things." Xheanor plz.

[terra_nullius]

This is a sentiment that Xehanort can get behind. There's been a lot to try to learn and figure out, the least of which is to even catch up to what everyone else already knows. Simple things that frustrate him that he doesn't know. Whatever caused his amnesia at least left his language centres intact so that he can communicate, but most other things fell by the wayside.

"Yeah, I know. It's a lot to try to take in at first. It's better to just take it one step at a time."

[growths]

"What's to take in?" As far as he knows this is...the same world? It looks different but his immediate assumption is that he simply doesn't remember, or forgot, or went to sleep for a while. His Host is the same which...means maybe not a lot of time has passed? Hmm.

All this thinking is irritating. Garra waves a hand. "Don't need it."

[terra_nullius]

"Uh, it's a different world, and everyone has a special power for them, and there's all these odd rules and things..." He doesn't really know for sure that it's any different, but he's had it drilled into him that this isn't the world he came from so at least there's that. He scratches his head after a moment. "I'm not really the best one to talk about it though."

[growths]

Well, at least one thing catches his attention.

"...Another world?" What the flip does that mean derpy?

[terra_nullius]

"I don't know." He spreads his hands a bit in a gesture of confusion. "I don't remember anything before arriving here. I just know what people have told me..."

[growths]

"I remember lots of stuff!" He says this like it should be helpful in comparison to Xehanort's lack of knowledge, naturally. "Not buildings like this though. Thought I went to sleep maybe but this one's still on so I don't know anymore. I'm not wrecked yet!"

[terra_nullius]

The words out of the young man's mouth didn't really make any amount of sense, and Xehanort couldn't help but cock his head slightly in confusion. "I...'m not sure what you mean, but I suppose it's better than nothing."

[growths]

Well, obviously!

"Nothing's nothing so everything is better." Gosh this white-haired guy was weird. Gosh.