interstellar5555 | ☆MINGLE IN THE CITY

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☆MINGLE IN THE CITY

Who: NEWBIES FROM EVERYWHERE.
What: More rescuers and musicians have arrived. This is a non specific mingle log for whatever you want to do that is intro related!
When: March 9th, 2055
Where: Anywhere in Vista City!
Warnings: Could be anything, or possibly nothing.

☆VISTA CITY

You'll quickly notice that Vista City comes with multiple levels - the ground level, that actually touches the earth, and then a second level of streets and walkways that occurs halfway up the mountainous buildings. Cars streak down both sets of speedways, and the signs of life scatter every inch of the towers surrounding you. At the same time, though, a city of this magnitude leaves a lot of nooks and crannies left frequently unseen - something you'll definitely have to take advantage of. In the outer ring of the city the population is less dense than it gets towards the center, so at the least it gives you the opportunity to get your bearings.

You'll find that there is no shortage of people stalking around in the darkness, even as the sun sets and night totally takes hold. A lot of them are dressed pretty funny, too, and any insecurities you had about looking ridiculous can tentatively be put aside. The costumes you were left do allow you to blend in about as well as you could hope. You've been advised to avoid talking to locals as much as possible, at least until you've figured things out better. There is a notable absence of homeless people on the streets, which could mean any number of things.

RESCUERS WILL BE GIVEN THE FOLLOWING LOOT:

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING: if your character doesn’t already speak English, they will be given some time with a crown like technological device that seems the be able to psychically teach people languages at a rapid pace. Whatever has been enabling communication so far won’t cover you once you enter the city, so it’s important that you’re prepared. How easily a person’s brain accepts this information will vary based on unseen neurological factors, and can range from perfect fluency to an uneasy second language. (On an OOC level, whether or not your character struggles with picking up English is completely up to you.) Most of this training will be done on the trip to Tera.
THEIR DESIGNATED TOOLS: any items your character was designated on your application will be given to them now. They’ll have some degree of choice in what they get, but everything is limited in supply. There are manuals for everything, but how much you can be fucked to read them will vary. Also, some of them aren’t in English or anything else even remotely recognizable.
COMMUNICATION DEVICES: Everybody will get a communicator, which are worn around the back of your ear and project a holographic field over your eyes when activated. The device itself must be manually switched on with your fingers, and from there on out your exact method of controlling it depends on the settings. Some of the more basic functions can be manipulated with “brain waves” (though nothing very complicated) and the rest is mostly voice or touch activated, though you can also set it up to be controlled with blinking and eye movement if you are a “pro”. Its functions include voice, voice-to-text, and a sort of janky manual text mode that you have to touch the screen to use. Video chat is not available, though it is capable of recording video from your POV to be shared manually after the fact. It can also share still images. Various channels can be set up and accessed, both private and public, much like a Teamspeak server is used in gaming.
HOLO EMITTERS (LIMITED): The amount of these available are limited by “plot convenience.” Do you want your character to have to struggle with their alien appearance to get by constantly? Then imagine there wasn’t enough of them to go around and your character was unlikely or benevolent enough to not receive one. Would you rather they have access to one? Then you can have one. A holo emitter is capable of projecting a holographic image around your character and disguising their appearance, the complexity of which is entirely up to you. The major problems with it are that 1) it can’t conceal things that the hologram doesn’t actually touch – cow horns could be covered in a hologram to look like a hat, but it couldn’t make them look as if there is nothing there at all, and 2) the holograms have no mass, and so if anyone tries to touch them they’ll realize they are just light projections. Also, like most of the equipment, they only work for a few hours before running out of power.
AMERICANA DISGUISES: Clothing, make up, the works – everything the average joe needs to pass themselves off as a resident of Vista City. Outfits are perhaps a bit more eccentric and flashy than you’re used to...or maybe a bit less, depending where you come from. Either way, it’s a specific look, and there should be enough here to accommodate new outfits for all the humanoids. If you’re a horse, you’re sort of on your own. What your character ends up with is up to you, though “space rave” is a good way to describe common aesthetics. There are also a lot of hooded coats, hats, and other articles that would be good for hiding inhuman characteristics.
RATIONS: Enough food at water, tightly compact, to last everyone for a few days. It’s going to start to run out quickly, though, so the group is going to need some breadwinners sooner rather than later.
FAKE IDS: Complete with each individual's image (or a human approximation) and a made up name. It's enough info to get a job with, they'll explain, if you can manage it. Avoid pushing the forgery's limits, though, if you can. Silver and Gold made them themselves so they expect they are excellent quality, but you can never be too careful.

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He finds a new place for them to sit, a bench with their backs to the wall, so only Kairi would be able to see what he was writing when he opened the notepad and took out a colored pencil.

But writing and holding the notepad up so only Kairi will be able to see it is impossible to do at the same time, so he kind of gives her a sympathetic smile. "I gotta use this hand but I'm gonna giving you my arm instead," he says quietly, hoping she'll let go so he can link his arm in hers instead and be able to use both hands. At least that way, they were still connected, because it seemed like something she needed. It's a comfort to Sora too: if she's close, he can make sure she's safe.

She hesitated, then nodded, leaving the charm in his hand as she moved up to hold his arm, sitting closed beside him. Oh, she knew if they were home they'd be teased for looking so much like a couple. But appearances didn't matter to Kairi. Protecting him did.

"That's my lucky charm," she said softly, reminding him. "So you better not lose it."

Sora lifts his hand to look at the charm in it, and finds himself grinning as he notices the little face with his hairstyle. Another memory, short but sweet, returns to him:

'This is my lucky charm. Be sure to bring it back to me.'

He holds it a little tighter, then uses that hand to hold his note book up. The last thing he whispers before he starts writing is "I won't. I didn't lose it last time, right?"

The words he writes, however:

I drew you and Riku once. My boss discovered it and asked me lots of questions about it. Then I disappeared for like a day and a half. No one knows what happened to me but I remember I was in pain when I woke up.

I don't want anything bad to happen to either of you, so I think we have to be real careful about all of this.

He offers her the pencil when he's finished. "Your turn," he says, like they're playing a game of tic-tac-toe or something.

She had smiled and nodded when he whispered, tears of joy welling in her eyes. It might have been childish, to be so emotional, but she didn't care.

When he started writing, she all but draped herself over his shoulder to watch. Her smile grew with the first sentence, and faded fast thereafter. She was grim indeed, and determined. Lying to Sora to protect herself? That was never going to happen. But lying to strangers to protect Sora? If that was what was needed, she'd do it. For him. But not for herself. And there was something she very much didn't understand.

She took the pencil with her free hand, still keeping an arm around him, so her handwriting wasn't the best as she leaned over to write.

"If they're hurting you, why didn't you stop them?" she wrote, frowning darkly, expression grim and protective. "Why not come with us now, help us save everyone else? Forget about the danger to us, why are you staying in danger if you don't have to be, Sora?"

She looked up to him as she offered back the pencil, confused, angry - though not at him, protective, concerned.

As Sora reads, he winces. And there's a pained expression on his face as he picks up writing again. The thought of fighting back, of leaving Pride, is one that goes against his programming. His heart and mind try to fight it, causing him pain. It's not the first time it's happened, but it's the first time he's become so acutely aware that there's something wrong with that and it's not something he should just brush aside.

This is the only life I really know, I'm still learning about you and the heartless and the other stuff. And I have friends that I have to protect who are going through the same thing as me. I can't leave them and I won't. Especially not Jamie, he's been through a lot already and I love him. I'll only leave if I can take them with me.

His handwriting is a little shaky, but there's determination in his expression despite the pain.

She took the pencil. To her, the answer really was obvious. "So take them with you. No one would ever ask you to leave your friends in danger, Sora. And we'll help you remember. We'll help them too. That's why I'm here. To help you, and then to help you and Riku save everyone. Whatever I need to do to help you fight back, tell me, Sora. Whatever it takes. This time it's my turn to protect you."

She handed him the pencil and looked up at his face, concerned.

'No one would ever ask him to leave his friends in danger.' If only that were true. There were too many times he'd been separated from his friends here and they'd wound up hurt. Because of this he keeps in contact with them as much as possible via text when they're apart.

You need to talk to Riku. I don't have the answers for you but I think he will. You need to use a different name like Riku does, too. And try to blend in. I don't know how either of you got here or what it will take to take me back to the life you're from. And if I try to fight them head on without knowing anything, they'll just take me away from my friends and hurt them. They've done it before. I won't let that happen again.

She frowned and took the pencil. "Who are they?" she wrote. "I'll go directly to them myself."

How dare they hurt Sora. How dare they hurt people he loves to further hurt him? And how could all this creeping around and lying work better than a direct attack. She had to protect him. Whatever it would take. She would stand between him and this danger.

It was odd having someone so ready to physically fight for him, as that wasn't something he'd ever felt he needed in this life, his life as a celebrity. But he knew that in that other life there had been a lot of fighting.

I don't know for sure. Still trying to work it all out and get answers, though I'm pretty sure the Pride CEO has got something to do with it. Help me by getting answers first, Kairi. I'm sure the time to fight will come, but not yet. We have to figure out who and how to get to them first. And we're going to need help. We've got a better chance to save everyone if everyone is helping. Don't try to do this on your own, Kairi. You have friends, and I bet you can make more. Your friends will help give you strength.

He smiles at her after he says this, an encouraging smile. He believes in her, and he can't blame her for wanting to be reckless, as there have been plenty of times when he'd been that way to want to help protect his friends. But being reckless now would just cause more trouble for everyone.

That last line he wrote was just so... so... so Sora.... that she nodded, smiling. She hugged him once, quickly, tightly.

Then she took the pen. "My friends are my strength. You're the one who taught me that," she wrote, grinning up at him.

She then became somewhat more focused and took a deep breath as she wrote "I don't know how to find answers. I'm not sure I'll be of any use to anyone what way. I don't even know how to begin."

She looked up at him again, searching his face, though even she wasn't sure what for.

The hug is returned, and after she's done writing, he feels a surge of relief, like he'd just taken Kairi's hand and pulled her out of the path of immediate destruction.

Make new friends, talk to them and learn their stories. If you can, find out what they remember, because a lot of us have remembered stuff. Just be sneaky about it, use a different name too, 'cause if you get caught, you're not gonna be helping anyone, and Riku will have to rescue you too. And then he won't let either of us live it down.

There's another affectionate smile, caused by the thought of both his friends, Kairi and Riku. He's not sure when that became something he remembered about Riku, maybe it's partly because of the way Riku had playfully scolded him for being so trusting the last time they'd met.

I'm gonna try and figure out what all my friends know on the inside, too. And I need to find a way to keep in touch with you and Riku that's not obvious. Maybe with notebooks and sketchbooks?

That did it. Somehow, some way, that got through to her as nothing else had. Or maybe everything had been building to a point and that just finished the job. But when she read "'cause if you get caught, you're not gonna be helping anyone, and Riku will have to rescue you too. And then he won't let either of us live it down." from Sora, she was nodding. That got through to her.

She still didn't like the idea of lying. Still wanted to find a way to use the truth, still didn't see how lying would help anyone. But if Riku had to go through and rescue her... Sora was right. He wouldn't let her live it down. That... she could almost handle. Almost.

But Riku would be mad at Sora too. She knew he would. And she couldn't do that. Not to them. They were her best friends and she didn't want to cause them to fight, not for even a second. Her heart was connected to both of theirs, but in so many ways, she felt sure that Sora and Riku were connected to each other more strongly than either were connected to her.

And that was right. It wasn't something painful, it was simple fact about her two best friends. They let her in when she arrived on the Islands, they accepted her and welcomed her into their friendship. They're like the closest of brothers. And she never, ever, wanted to come between them.

Oh, their small competitions on the Islands didn't count. She knew that was just fun and games. But if she put herself in danger, Riku wouldn't see it as fun and games. Sora was right. He might be mad. And she could handle him being mad at her for a short time, so long as she could make it up to him, so long as she knew he'd always still love her. And she knew he would, she knew his heart. But... But it would hurt Riku to be mad at them both at the same time. And after Riku had been so sure that Sora wouldn't be able to see him past the Darkness... No. Riku needed them. Needed to not be mad at them, for his own sake, and for Sora's sake.

So she had to do whatever she could to save Sora without making Riku mad at him. Which was not going to be an easy task. And she didn't think she could pull that off and still keep to her own wish not to lie. She still felt like lying couldn't possibly be the answer... but...

She trusted Sora. And she trusted Riku. More than she trusted herself. And she would do anything to keep them safe, and to keep them from fighting. She loved them both with all she had. So she would find a way. And if she had to lie... she'd lie. She might hate it, but she'd hate hurting either of them so much more.

"How will I know who here was taken, and who wasn't?" she asked, writing her question. "Or is everyone in the city someone who was kidnapped?" Well, everyone except the rescuers, of course. But was he safer if she didn't let him know yet just how many of them there were? Well... actually...that was out of her hands. Because she really had no clue.

"Notebooks and sketchbooks would work, so long as no one finds them on you," she wrote back, worried about him. "I don't want you getting hurt over this. OVer anything, Sora. We came to rescue you, not put you in worse danger."

Sora gives some thought to her question before he writes again: "There's not a way to be for sure about who is or isn't, but some of my friends have talked to me about stuff, visions they've seen just like me. Since you guys were from my visions and showed up here, I know now they're definitely memories. Maybe that's the first thing we need to do, is make a list of people we think were probably taken.

Take this book with you, Kairi. I've got more. We'll figure out a way, and we'll save everyone that needs to be saved. It's you, me, and Riku, together, so I know we can do it."

She nodded at the last thing he wrote, confidance filling her. He was right. If it was them, they could do anything, together. She told him as much, in writing. "We can do anything. I know we can. And we have friends here too, ready to help us, and who need our help. We'll save everyone. Bring everyone where they should be!"

She turned and smiled up at him. Then she went back to writing again. "What about a radio show? One of those anonymous postcard things? Where we can talk to people about their dreams?" Could that work? Then they could find out who else had dreams that could be memories, without putting those people in danger. But... could they do it?

She looked up to Sora again, trying to see what he thought of that idea.

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☆MINGLE IN THE CITY

sora's gonna try and get her to understand

Good. He and Riku are the only ones she might listen to

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