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

[princessofheart]

Yes, I figured he was a dream...

[You can see realization dawning as her eyes dart around more seriously, taking a long moment to look at Aqua's neck as her fingers gently touch her own collar. Her lips purse, and she's starting to feel a knot in her stomach. What in the world was going on...? She obviously wasn't home, and this was starting to feel less and less like Facility...
Aqua would have the answers.]

Where are we...?

[destinedwaters]

He was, and yet he wasn't...? It's hard to explain, and even I don't fully know what it meant.

[But she could help figure it out with her! It could be a thing. Still, that confusion? She knew it well, even though when she arrived at first she was more relieved that she didn't have to sleep on a rock or sand for at least a few days, if she could sleep at all.]

This city's called Hinoto-Ri. From what I understand, it's a world many of us outsiders were called to "save", but from what... is more of a mystery that involves a power called Persona and something to do with a "zodiac" on another world.

[Don't mind the post-apocalyptic nature. It's at least better than a space station or a city in perpetual night, right?]

A few others from our worlds are here, too... though I'm pretty sure not all of us remember the same things.

[princessofheart]

Hinoto-Ri...

[She frowns, fiddling with her hands and fingers beneath her long sleeves to try and give herself something to do out of nervousness. A few simple questions would get her to what she really needs to hear...]

Aqua, does the name Val ring a bell? Or the Facility? Or maybe even Haven?

[Haven was the last place she had seen Aqua, so she might as well throw that one in there, too. Could she have possibly been accidentally scooped away out of the station, 'called' to this place much like she had been 'taken' to Facility? There were obviously no other collared people around, but it didn't mean that this place couldn't have found a way to remove them-- or maybe Val could have changed things up like she had apparently done quite a few years prior, when people found their way out of the original collars, the bracelets.]

[destinedwaters]

[Aqua looks a little puzzled for a moment, but then... she'd been through this before with Riku and this "Splendor" or something like that what seemed like an eternity ago. So she ends up shaking her head.]

No, none of that seems familiar... and I'm guessing you wouldn't know Promenade, either?

[It isn't like she would be surprised, or any less accepting. Besides, she was the veteran world hopper... and apparently that also came with this place, too. Hm...]

[princessofheart]

No, sorry, I don't think I do.

[She purses her lips, and from the look of her expression something seems to be dawning on her. It was unbelievable, she had only ever thought the possibly a dream while she was stuck week after week in a horrible torture facility, but was it possible that... she got out? Only one more name to ping before she could draw a more certain conclusion.]

Maybe the Consortium...?

[destinedwaters]

[Well, anything is possible considering this is the second time she's escaped the Dark Realm and not quite of her own volition (the last place was kind of Dark still, after all). Still, she hopes that by shaking her head this time, it will help her apprentice come to a similar conclusion.]

No. I think I would remember that name if I'd heard it before.

[She's sorry, and yet not. Mostly sorry because for some reason, those two names seem to bring pain. She sees them scars, okay. Yet she doesn't think any less of her.]

[princessofheart]

...That shouldn't be possible.

[Val would have never let them leave... and yet here she was? In a whole new world, outside of the realms of both her and the Consortium that once controlled her?

From the looks of Kairi's expression, she seems a little distressed by the situation, but not particularly in a bad way. More so... incredulous.]

[destinedwaters]

Huh? [Sob. She's so sorry, Kairi... but she has little to no idea what you're talking about in this case.] Kairi, are you alright?

[You have your predecessor worried, ok.]

[princessofheart]

...I don't know.

[Gonna be honest here; she's never been very good at lying to Aqua anyways.]

I think I will be, though.