Character Cruise

Main Deck

Sukio chuckled at the younger girl, it was nice to have something else on her mind then the Duke.

"Well Starlight got contacted by White Rose, who is sort of the unicorn protector of the Dreamrealm which was undersiege by the Nightmares, and loosing. Starlight having Unicorn themed powers was more then happy to help and the rest of our gang joined in. After we gave the Dreamers room to fight back White Rose revealed she knew of a realm with some artifacts that were very similar our power broaches," she brushes her fingers against the pink butterfly clip in her hair before pulling a matching pendent out from her shirt.

Then looked down again, "...But as soon as we entereded the realm we were overwheled by our magical aspects. The rest is a increasing blur until White Rose rescued out, de transformed us and gave us some enchanted armor so we could finish the quest. But even the magic in the armor started to effect us slowly and we started taking on the roles Dark Elf Rogue, Orc Barbarian, etc, that those armors represented. We did get our power pendents but...well...even a world away the Duke still finds ways to peek in on me, and when he does i slip back into the role of one of his h-harem cat-girls."

Museum

Talitha raised an eyebrow in confusion. Okay, she had already heard and seen a lot of weirdness already. Still, provided she was understanding this correctly, this probably had to be one of the strangest things she'd heard yet. Suliver's sister was a cat? She found that rather difficult to believe, since Suliver himself looked completely human.

I'm not going to push the subject, she thought. Still, I think I'll head somewhere else after the drill. This weirdness is starting to get to me.

A moment later, she tried her best to look as normal as possible. "Well, I'm going to be heading over to the crystal room. You're free to join me in there if you want, but we should probably remain in this part of the museum until the emergency drill. That way, we can head right to the spot where they want us to go once it starts."

She nodded towards both Suliver and Whitney afterwards, before making good on her word and heading into the rows of crystal-filled display cases.

-Museum-

"I shall be joining her!" Whitney said, following Talitha.

[Main Deck]

"What," Liz repeated in the exact same tone as before, staring at both Sukio and Lyra with half-lidded eyes. An awed expression spread across Lyra's face and she slowly put a hand to her chin.

"A... harem? Y-you mean, like..." She made an indiscernible gesture with her hands, keeping her eyes locked on Sukio as she waited for her to continue.

Main Deck

Sukio nods looking down at her feet, paling a little, unable to elaborate further.

[Main Deck]

An awkward silence fell, lasting for what seemed like an eternity. Liz scratched behind her ear and looked off into space, tapping the tip of her shoe on the floor.

"So..." Lyra started, "d-did you ever—"

"No, Lyra," Liz scolded, giving her a firm push on the shoulder.

Ulrich cringed inwardly. That was something he definitely could not reveal.

"I'm from the Principality of Laithia," he said easily. "It's a sort of feudal kingdom out in the flatlands. The flatlands of where, I couldn't tell you. I was pretty young when I left. There was a disease outbreak, lots of people died, and I struck out for anywhere. One of the clan leaders teleported me away, but he didn't say where. A kid doesn't think too much about retracing his steps, you know." He glanced over Jacob's shoulder at the large window. The deck was bare.

"But no, I can't open portals. I've used them, but never made one."

I'm coming dangerously close to letting him turn this thing around, Ulrich realized. He was never this messy!

"Why do you ask?" he said, slouching a bit in his seat. "You know much about that kind of thing?"

edited 18th Sep '12 11:09:04 PM by BrainSewage

[Rooms ~ P. Gladwin's Private Quarters]

...rife with nastiness. To conclude, there's a point of high importance which seem to be forgetting; the world you're sending me back to is held firmly under the sway of science and logic, and nothing but. Human influence reaches only to the extent that reality will allow it to. I expect what you've done to me to fade away fully as soon as I get off, as if waking from a nightmare. If the influence of that lonely land could extend beyond it's glass box, we'd have noticed long beforehand.

Yours viciously sincerely,

Peter

Gladwin had only just finished lifting his pencil from the last letter in his name—an ugly inscription, he much preferred the sharp contours that came from penning his letters—when the paper he was writing on began to fold itself, quite rapidly, into a neatly segmented square.

What in heavens name is causing it to do thi- A sudden dreadful thought struck him. He took his pipe, and with it, he gingerly reached out to nudge the paper. Just before the tip of the pipe touched—or perhaps the instant it had; he couldn't tell—the paper snapped backwards and began to unfold just as quickly as it had started folding.

Sure enough, as the page laid itself bare once more, surprisingly free of creases, the writing had changed. In place of Gladwin's original lettering was a message in a hand with impossibly sharp curves.

Dear Peter,

Did you like that? It helps to make a large impact on people, and I think card tricks might just be the way to do it. Lighten up Peter. You've really rather disappointed me. You've just gotten on the boat and already loosing your patience. Didn't our little deal tell you anything? You could slow that spreading arm of yours to a snails pace that would take several lifetimes to affect you entirely if you would just have a little patience. Just as a seed sprouts into a plant, or as a festering wound heals, your trip home is going to take time. Meet some people. Socialize. Make friends.

Yours truly, Alphonse Dürer

PS; I'm just as excited to see what comes of returning to the world as you are. Don't be afraid to write!

Gladwin held the piece of paper up, crinkled it into a ball, and took it out to his balcony to cast into the sea. As soon as he did, his bad arm started too feel like it was being tightened again. He tugged back his sleeve, and indeed, to his despair, the yellowish skin had grown further along his arm. He thought he could even see it move as he stared. It was now just past his forearm.

Well, he thought as he stepped back inside, I guess I won't be staying in here after all. There was no way he would be able to keep his senses by talking with Alphonse.

He sighed and rubbed his chin with his bad hand, feeling the rough bristles of his beard. How uncouth of him... Gladwin opened the door to his somewhat small bathroom and confirmed in his mirror that his hair was a mess as well. There was no tub to his dismay, but there was a shower. Better than nothing. Without delay, he grabbed a change of clothes and his razor from his bag, and headed into the shower.

Soon he thought. Soon I will learn the full strangeness of this vessel.

Main Deck

Sukio looked sick but refused to answer acqwardly changing the question, "So yeah what do you think of my magical candy powers?"

[Main Deck]

"Magically delicious, of course!" Lyra exclaimed, grinning and nodding her head. "Speaking of which, any more where that caramel corn came from? I'm starving."

Main Deck

Sukio smiled cupping her hands as she created more caramel corn, "That's the one perk to be a Magical Girl, i can create any kind of candy i want, even when powered down."

[Main Deck]

Lyra squealed, scooping the candy up and practically inhaling it. "Mm, y'know," she said with her mouth full, "let's just hope you never decide to—mm—use your powers for evil." She swallowed. "'Cause, I mean... Brr, sugar-free candy. What a nightmare, right?"

Main Deck

Sukio started to smile, "I know right. Anything I can think off. Carmel Corn, Bonbons, bars, canes" as she talked sweets started to pile up in her hands, forming faster then she could rattle them off, "and that's not the best part!"

Her body began to shrink away her clothes growing looser until sh vanished into the folds a small white cat emerging from the folds the candy raining around her. "I can also turn into any form of feline from house cats to..." then the house cat grew up taking the form of a tiger, "to tigers."

[Restaurant]

Cain listened. He looked at Jane, but he had his famous 1000-yard stare, where he'd look at you and behind you and 5000 miles behind you and in entirely different dimensions at the same time. "Is Jane part of Jane Doe?" He nonchalantly asked.

[Main Deck]

Liz shrieked and recoiled, staggering back and falling to the floor. Lyra, on the other hand, didn't flinch. "Oh my gosh, Liz, isn't this girl the coolest?!" She paused for a moment before looking down at the assortment of sweets Sukio had created, grabbing an armful and eating some of them.

[Restaurant]

"I. . ." Jane's expression changed to confusion, "have never heard of a Doe. I'm literally just Jane. I know it's not the most interesting name, like some other people in my 'group'. Like Pascal."

She noticed something odd about the way Cain was staring at her, not exactly the kind of look for maintaining eye-contact. "You okay? You seem distracted."

[Restau—wait, I'm pretty sure you know where I am now. >_>]

"Hm, interesting. Jane Doe is a name for anonymous and unidentified women...Hm," Cain didn't turn away, yet he never quite made eye contact with Jane's eyes, another strange tic of his. He finished his tall milkshake by then, now only to wait for the drill to occur.

His thoughts drifted to Jonathan and his sister. He knew a lot more about them than Jonathan knew...but it wasn't time to tell him yet. Maybe he'll never tell him at all...it's not like his circumstances were anything special.

"You say you had no parents, then how did you come to be? In-vitro fertilization, or ANNE?" He said the last acronym like A-N-N-E. "Who took care of you when you were a child?"

edited 19th Sep '12 2:39:48 PM by Tehpillowstar

[ They were in the Restaurant the entire time!]

"Oh! I see," Jane was interested in having a milkshake but she resisted the temptation, "in my time they're just called JD. Wait. . . that acronym makes sense now."

After a drifting thought of what other acronyms could mean, Jane went back to the subject at hand. "It was a science project, Aurora. I never found out the full details but it was intended to find a way to get rid of disease and disabilities, bring Humanity to its full potential. I was largely looked after by scientists, teachers and another one born the same way as me. I suppose she was the closest I had to a sister. Then, when it came time that I was legally able to work I got forced into paying off the debts of all the investors of Aurora. It was like that for several years until I ran away from it all. And became. . ." Jane sighed, almost blushing.

"It's silly."

edited 19th Sep '12 5:24:06 PM by darthnazgul

Main Deck

Sukio shifted back down to housecat form as she slipped into her clothes, "The tricky part is getting my clothes back on when I it in public." her form shifted and grew into a lynx, still quite a bit smaller then a human as she tried to work her limited limb rotations into the sleeves while trying to stand on her hind paws, before dropping back to her paws as she grew to a hyenna form, a bit smaller then human then back to human, getting up from her hands as she adjusted her clothes back to a more normal fit and sitting down to adjust her shoes.

"But I've gotten better at it with practice."

Ship...Wait, why am I still writing this? Where else would the (Restaurant) be?

Jacob furrowed his brow as he thought he'd found a discrepancy with what Ulrich had said. Even his timeline was starting to get fuzzy now, which was a sign that he wasn't being entirely honest. He needed to keep pushing for more information and see how he reacted.

"Hardly that," Jacob replied to Ulrich, trying to brush off the topic, obviously not wanting to reveal his portal hunting job to the latter, "I was just curious whether the ability to open portals was limited to whoever invited us here."

"But it's interesting," Jacob said, trying to maintain pressure on Ulrich, "It would be pretty lucky to run into someone who can make portals even once in your life, but you seem to have done so at least twice by now. Is that just luck or..." giving a sideways glance to Ulrich while taking another sip from his glass, he continued "is there some ability involved in tracking them down?"

edited 20th Sep '12 11:07:40 AM by Elfhunter

[Da Restaurant in Da Ship]

Cain politely smiled and nodded, but he was completely exhausted. He just wanted the drill to happen so he can get it over with already and have a nice long nap. "If you say so," He yawned, then muttered under his breath, "I'm just tired...stupid fucking curse..."

He rubbed his eyes and shifted in his seat.

[Roostooroont]

"Oh yeah, your curse." Jane winced slightly, she couldn't help it. Cain looked uncomfortable but she had no idea how it was really affecting him. Wish I could do something. . .

"Of course, 'it' has its moments. What I do." Should probably keep his mind off it, maybe it won't be so bad if he's not thinking about it. Like breathing.

Dammit, now I'm doing it manually. Jane controlled her annoyance so that it wasn't too noticeable.

edited 20th Sep '12 3:53:21 PM by darthnazgul

Museum -> Floor B2

The crystal room's walls were covered with more glass cases that rose to the ceiling, each one having 5 levels filled with crystals. As she looked around it, Talitha couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. She knew girls back at her high school that would kill to have jewelry made out of these. To them, the more impressive your earrings and necklaces were, the higher your status. At least, that was what Talitha thought of the whole thing, but then again she was more an outsider back home. She herself could care less about popular fashion. She did care somewhat about looking good, but she wasn't one to blow an entire fortune on clothes. There were better things that money could go towards.

Her attention then fell on a waist-high pedestal sitting in the middle of the room. Sitting on this pedestal was a very large geode, filled with orange crystals. Intrigued, she walked up and took a closer look at it. There was a sign hanging off the side of the pedestal that was filled with information about geodes. Next to that sign was the obligatory "Do not touch" sign.

Talitha didn't pay much attention to either sign, instead preferring to look inside the geode. She swore she could see her reflection on the crystals within. At that point, she took back her earlier comment that this section was boring. Seeing stuff like this just made the pocket nerd in her jump with joy.

She was about to go look at the crystals in the cases when the loudspeaker turned on again. "Passengers in rooms 1-87, please report to floor 2B. Repeat, passengers in rooms 1-87, please report to floor 2B," boomed a man's voice. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the emergency drill that had been announced an hour prior was finally starting to begin.

At first, Talitha didn't understand what the announcer meant by "room," but she then came to the conclusion that it referred to the passenger rooms. If she remembered correctly, her room was number 57. When she looked at her passcard to check, her memory was proven to be correct. She stuffed it back in her pocket before turning to Whitney and Suliver.

"Well guys, I've got to go participate in the emergency drill. I'll meet up with you later, I suppose?" she said before exiting the museum and going down the stairs to where the ship's crew wanted them.

About the room numbers: That's just there so that the passengers get split up into sections. You can send your characters down when you want.

[Railing]

The Ambassador shook his snout in a nod.

"Of course. I do not mean to tell you how to fight your war even if that decision was yours." A situation that I can empathize with! "I am only suggesting a mindset - that you not think too much of your enemy as incomprehensible, for comprehending them might be important one day."

He turned back to the railing. "So! Shall we talk of something else?"

[Restaurant]

"Well, I can't see how killing off passengers through horrible biochemical errors is good for business," Kazuko said drily. "Even if the entertainments think otherwise. God, that series was awful."

She took another sip of water. "Anyway, I have to get to my cabin."

I'm just going to ignore the drill for now, since it's more of a disruption then an opportunity for my characters.

edited 20th Sep '12 4:31:02 PM by nrjxll

[Restaurant -> Floor 2B]

"Passengers in rooms 1-87, please report to floor 2B. Repeat, passengers in rooms 1-87, please report to floor 2B."

Jane quickly remembered her room number, it was time for the drill. "Sorry Cain. We can catch up some other time, nice talking to you again!" She jolted from her chair and jogged through the ship to where she needed to be. The thought of something to do, even just a drill, was a relief.