The Quantum Reach

Jerusha

"Jerusha." The angel replied, and took a moment to think before speaking again. "How do we leave? I want to go back." Her attention turned to others in the room, wondering if any of them knew, but eventually she focused back on Katya.

Portal Room

"It's okay." Little Wolf told Setsuna as she returned the hug. "Like I said, I know he's a jerk. But if you kill humans, humans will kill your kind back. And then nobody will be happy."

As Setsuna released him, Little Wolf turned to face Matt, glowering at him. "First off, I'm not a kid. I'm 21. Secondly, just because you help people doesn't give you the right to be a jackass. Part of helping people means making them feel safe. That means not being a jerk."

Matt apologized, fortunately, so Little Wolf let the matter drop. Instead, as Setsuna conversed with Nancy (his nose had twitched a bit when Seamstress appeared - he could definitely sense something there, though he wasn't good enough at magic stuff to actually see it), he plodded over to Katya. He turned towards Jerusha first.

"If you wanna go home, you should just be able to ask the people in charge here. I don't know why they brought you here without asking. Unless, like, your home world was destroyed, but you'd probably remember that happening." He explained, before turning towards Katya.

"Hi. I'm Wolfgang Kalashnikov. Though people call me Little Wolf." He greeted in Russian. His accent was slightly American, but he was clearly well-spoken in the language. "I couldn't help but overhear that you were from Russia. My pack is from there, so I figured I'd introduce myself. In case you ever wanted to talk to someone in your native tongue, y'know?

Setsuna

Oh. That explained it. Oni were always more spiritually attuned than humans. Of course she'd be able to see whatever... that...

...did she just say her hair was beautiful?

She scrambled, looking back and messily holding up her hair in astonishment. Together with the kimono thing, she couldn't help but blush.

That was becoming a common thing, wasn't it?

"...uh, thanks! I guess. Never thought of it that way. Not that I mind! And, um, I wouldn't mind the kimono either." She awkwardly held up the back of her waistcloth like a skirt before letting it drop. "I've been wearing this thing my whole life, but... let's just say I wouldn't mind changing things up."

Especially if it meant seperating herself from everything she used to be as much as possible.

"And you don't have to keep calling me 'san'. We don't use honorifics where I'm from. Too formal. But hey, either way works for me!"

Portal Room

“...That's okay. I want to go home too...” Katya admitted, slightly taken aback by Jerusha's blunt response yet feeling a pain of sympathy in her chest for the angel nonetheless. Despite her monotonous tone, the almost child-like honesty cut through to her. “But it'll be okay. We might get to... we just need to figure all of this out first...”

The approach of Little Wolf initially made her take an instinctive step or two back, but his speaking in her language and his friendly demeanour soon gave her pause. By the time he'd finished speaking she was smiling gently at him, grateful for his generous words and his apparent thoughtfulness.

“...That's... that's very sweet of you. Thank you, Little Wolf,” she eventually manages to respond, relaxing a little as she slipped into her more comfortable native tongue. “Your family comes from Russia? Whereabouts– oh, wait just a moment~!”

Seeming to have an epiphany, she suddenly darts over to the spot where she'd originally woken up—having forgotten to check if her guitar and recorder had made it with her. Seeing the familiar case of her instrument, she practically crowed with glee before hugging it and slinging it over her back—returning to Little Wolf and Jerusha with a renewed smile and a happier demeanour about her now that her prized possession was back on her person. She didn't even seem to care about the weight of the thing; like she was used to carrying it around for long periods of time.

“Sorry~! Carry on, please!” she encouraged once she'd gone back to them.

"Okay, so, honestly, at this point, we-"

Tackle. Slam. Thud. Mason found himself on the ground, eyes wide and heart hammering, as he looked up at the claws pinning him down and threatening to rip into him.

Everyone jumped to his defense, everyone jumped to THEIR defense, peace was attempted and peace was generally maintained, everyone split off to their own conversations, arguments. The large red one was shouting a lot, the blue one who jumped to his defense was...honestly pretty chill about it and he could respect that, and at this point him trying to maintain peace would ultimately be...well, redundant. Everyone was talking among themselves and aside from the odd duck (Whoever the sexist dude in the background was, was getting an earful and rightfully so), so he held up his hands and looked up at the leonine figure that was pinning him down.

"Hey. Hey." he whispered as peacefully as he could. "Everything is okay. Everything is fine. I'm not an enemy. I'm not a bad guy. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just as lost and just as confused as you are but I know one thing and thats that we can't go jumping at each others throat."

He ignored the odd buzzing around his arm band, where a few empty Fullbottles sat, one of them vibrating lightly and glowing, deep inside, a golden yellow color.

"Maybe we can start new? Show I'm an ally?" He grinned. "My name is Mason Itakari. I'm from Japan. I don't know where we are now. I'm a Kamen Rider. I fight for Love and Peace and for the people who can't defend themselves. I like to think I'm a hero."

A pause and he looked up at Matt with a glare. "Nerd?"

Portal Room - Kha

Kha continued to glare down at Mason even as he explained himself and the others threatened him with their own weapons. He had no fear, knowing full well that no matter what they threw at him, it would bounce off if he used his Semblance. Still, they didn't seem to be bandits, but nor were the students or...well, even remotely from Remnant, judging by the weird words and places some of there were talking about. Heart still pounding, he stayed atop Mason a bit longer, breathing heavily.

And with a flick of his wrists the claws retracted, Kha breathing out slowly and loosening up as he got off of Mason. There was no helping hand back up (Kha wasn't that naively trustworthy) but he dropped out of a fighting stance.

"Sorry. Thought you all were bandits or something. Can you blame me? Waking up after I just fell into a hole and I'm in a strange place surrounded by weird people. And my name...it's Kha. Leijon."

And then Little Wolf and Matt spoke, and Kha stiffened yet again, curling his hands into fists. Fleshbag he could handle. That was what humans were as well. The former threats, water under the bridge. But...

Animal?! Monkey-boy?!

"Who you calling 'animal'?!" He wheeled around on his heels, baring his teeth and scowling.

"Faunus are just as good as humans, if not better! We have night vision! So I don't think 'animal' quite fits! And I'm not a monkey-boy either! This is a lion's tail, learn the difference!"

As if to illustrate his point, he grabbed the end of his tail, bringing it in front of him and shaking the tufted part around for emphasis.

Matt

And...well, you learn something every day. Wolfgang was his age. "I'd say 75% of the time, the people I work to save don't meet me, and they don't need to. I don't need their thanks or their appreciation. Long as they go on with their lives, it doesn't matter to me."

As for the guy pinned by the...lion boy... "Yes." Was all the response Matt gave to Mason.

Matt turned around and sighed, figuring that there was something—-well, this was part of the headache of dealing with alternate worlds. Apparently animal was a slur on this guy's home world, for...whatever a "Faunus" was. "First and foremost, going into this I had literally no idea what a Faunus was. If that word is some kinda slur on your world, I'll...keep that in mind."

Artoria

Artoria breathed a silent sigh of relief as the lion-human hybrid got off of Mason. It appeared that things might go smoothly from here—

...

...well.

Nevermind.

Fortunately, the situation managed to resolve itself...reasonably quickly. Still, Artoria was starting to get rather...exasperated. Is everyone here looking for conflict? she wondered.

It seemed that things weren't getting violent, though, so she looked around the room and soon spotted a rather tall, muscular woman wearing a frilly dress.

Hm. She wasn't here before...

Artoria walked over to the woman, looking up at her. "Saber-class Servant," she said, extending a hand. "You may call me Saber. What's your name?"

Well, hostilies seem to have calmed down. Disappointing. No chance to blast a meatbag then. Oh well, hopefully there is a chance to do so soon enough.

He was starting to grow tired of this meatbags complaining and screaming now. Perhaps it was better to see if there was anything that could lead them out of this room.

The Assassin Droid moved around the place to try to find a way out of here. Perhaps this blue room had a hidden door somewhere, maybe a hidden switch to let them out of this despicable room. He needed to know his situation better rather than let meatbag feelings get in his way of returning to his master.

"Oh, my name is Citrine Facet 3 Cut 5XL, but since I'm the only Citrine here, you can just call me that. Nice to meetcha, Saber!~" She crouched slightly so that she could reach Saber's hand to shake it.

"So, do you have any idea what brought us here? Or why? 'Cuz I'm confuzzled."

Nancy Weaver, Portal Room

"Oh, it's...no trouble at all, really..." Nancy said demurely, Seamstress dipping into a curtsy behind her, seemingly of its own volition. "If it's no trouble, I'd like to keep calling you Setsuna-san. I just find honorifics comforting, that's all. Reminds me of home."

"I think you're going to enjoy playing on drums because—because I'm planning to put on some kabuki shows once we get some more members. I can also teach you to dance and act, if you'd like. I'm sure...we can have a lot of fun together in the club," she continued more enthusiastically. "I can—I can make a kimono for you. My mom has some sewing patterns that she hasn't used in a while. It's really no bother at all."

Seamstress brandished its large needle victoriously, holding it up in the air with both hands. "Gyata-ta-ta!" it crowed happily.

"If you're not careful with that, you'll stick someone," Nancy muttered to her Stand. "Be more quiet, will you?"

The Stand then faded with a pout.

Edited by JumpingFruit on Aug 26th 2020 at 3:05:51 AM

Portal Room

Little Wolf nodded as Katya went off to get something, before she came back with a guitar case. He smiled at how clearly happy it made her. "Well, most of my family who are still in Russia live around Saint Petersburg now. Grandpa says we descended from the Norse wolf-god Fenrir, and thousands of years ago our ancestors came to Russia from Scandinavia and stuff."

He tilted his head to note her travel case. "You play guitar? I'd love to hear it, some time."

"Hey, it's fine. You do you."

Setsuna scratched her head as Nancy mentioned Kabuki. Not that she didn't like Kabuki. Saw a few shows from a distance once or twice. Pretty neat.

But she wasn't so sure about putting herself on display like that. Felt sort of FUCKING AWESOME embarrassing.

"And uh, I don't know. I did some dancing back in the village, but it wasn't anything fancy. I mean, I still liked it, but it was... I don't know. 'Trashy'? 'Risque'? Something like that. We weren't exactly about grace and poise."

She held up her club, waving it about with glee. "Ooo! I can do drums though! Was really good at that shit! Best part was pounding a gong during the summer festivals!" She held her club back, swinging it forward as if she were ringing the gong to start the festivities! "BANG! BANG! BA—"

And then she busted the whole wall in.

"...whoops. My bad."

Though that did solve one problem.

Namely, they weren't trapped anymore.

"Uh, anyone wanna take a look?"

Artoria

"It's good to meet you too," Artoria said, nodding at the woman called Citrine. "I have a few guesses as to why we're here, but based off what I've seen, I doubt any are correct."

And then Setsuna toppled the wall.

Hm.

"It might be best to look around," Artoria said, approaching the destroyed wall. "Getting a feel for our surroundings will likely prove useful later."

Not only that, but it didn't seem like anyone was coming to explain anytime soon. Why not simply go out and get the information they needed themselves?

Vale

Vale seemed amused by Setsuna and Nancy's conversation, even if most of the terms flew over his head. "Ya know, I've never seen someone order their soul around quite like that before." He chuckled softly, thinking to himself Nor have I seen someone chat with an Oni so casually. Wish Demarri had more of her kinda Oni.

The Rogue managed to shield himself with his cloak as Setsuna abruptly demolished the nearby wall and brushed off any dust and debris that clung to his outfit. "Works for me!" He chirped out before poking his head through the hole in the wall to scout for traps or unpleasant surprises.

Edited by svenorzokarkoff on Aug 26th 2020 at 3:25:50 AM

Mason

Mason jumped violently when the Oni suddenly smashed down an entire section of the wall and the once noisy room was filled with...well, other noises but more urban and...strangely other things.

The destruction was pretty severe, it destroyed the blue light fixtures and sent some of the rooms...well "wiring" may have been a stretch but something was sparking in between them. He was tempted to take a peek outside-

When suddenly a small collection of them suddenly made a move for the torn open wall and Mason, against his better judgement, allowed for the concept of logic to win over, if only for a moment.

"Ah, wait, shouldn't we be waiting for like, someone? This place was closed off for a reason but...now..." he paused, looking around for a moment before he inhaled deeply and sighed. "Alright screw it, I have a lot of answers and I need something to look for so I'm coming too!" he informed Setsuna, Vale and Artoria as he rushed after them, making sure his belt was strapped tight but making sure to give a little bit if anyone else wanted to follow after them.

Wherever this place was, it was gigantic and impressive and a fucking mishmash of things. It looked like someone had plucked out various things from various forms of media. Anime, literature (it ALMOST looked like a chunk of Hogwarts was off to the side, not the only thing but a notable chunk of it), sprawling academies, bustling city blocks, small, rustic villages...everything that could make up some variety of media looked like it was cut out, glued and then stapled here.

But that wasn't all.

People and creatures and things existed around them too. And they looked hysterically out of place with the people who were around them. A plain clothes wizard stood off to the side and having an actual conversation with a Minotaur, both of them laughing after a joke only the two of them understood. A young child, perhaps no more than 8 with a sword bigger than they were was having an arm wrestling contest with a large, bearded man who looked like he could lift a building and chuck it across the street - and the child was winning.

Sights like this were all around and just felt...odd. Out of place. Peculiar.

But here, it felt normal.

It felt like...a place to belong.

"Wow..." Mason whispered as he combed a hand through his silver locks, eyes wide and glimmering in silent joy and excitement. "I can't...I can't even...this place looks..." He couldn't even find the words. Mason was a genius back at his...his world, but here, he was speechless.

This was the Quantum Reach.

And it was all theirs to explore.

Artoria

Artoria...had never seen anything like this.

Some strange combination of architecture from all sorts of time periods and cultures, packed with people from seemingly everywhere, where mythical creatures were roaming without any odd looks...it was unbelievable.

"This place..." she murmured, eyes wide in complete awe.

She looked up at one of the buildings, and her brow furrowed as she walked up to it. For a moment, she paused, wondering if this would stand out even for this city—

—then activated Mana Burst and ran up the wall with her burst of speed.

It took only seconds for Artoria to reach the top. From there, she surveyed the city, trying to get a feel for how big it was.

Katya

St. Petersburg, hmm? Katya was about to remark on the matter of Little Wolf's heritage before their rather scary local oni decided to (or accidentally, it was hard to tell from here) pulverise the wall of the room they were in, prompting her to clap her hands over her ears at the noise and stare wide-eyed at the massive hole now carved out of the wall. She lingered in uncertainty as the others started to venture out, and briefly glanced back over her shoulder—only to give in with a shake of her head and run out after them.

“...Holy...” she began, trailing off as she glanced all around herself at the frankly mental sights around them. Mythical creatures, strange and wonderful people, buildings that seemed to be a hodgepodge of... everything...

“...This is very different to Nizhnevartovsk,” she decided in a mumble, watching as Artoria expertly scaled a building and instinctively moving closer to the others out of wariness. Her curiosity was winning out, however—and she seen found herself staring at the hilariously misproportioned arm wrestle going on in the background.

“...All these people here... they're all... so happy...”

Was this mere resignation, or were they genuinely enjoying their time here? Katya seriously hoped it was the latter.

Setsuna tried to stay cautious, but she couldn't help but poke her head out of the hole in the... hell, could you even call it a wall anymore?

It was... amazing. There was a wizard or something on one corner, and a caveman the next. A large dodo flew alongside a gigantic blimp, and ten blue moons dotted the sea-green sky.

It was like something out of a Sumi-e ink wash painting.

And it was glorious.

Against all reason, she had to take a closer look. Throwing caution to the wind, she leaped down from the building, shaking the ground as she landed in the middle of a park. There were all sorts of people going about their business. Lovers on a park bench. Green-skinned vendors selling pulsing green masses on a bun. Pterodactyls wheeling in the sky as they looked for their next meal.

And the best part was, nobody gave her the time of the day. And for good reason. It wasn't like there weren't any humans in the park. She could see a few playing with their... ten-legged... jaberwockies?

Whatever. Point was, there were all sorts of different people waltzing around the park. And she wasn't any more out of place than them.

Perhaps she finally found a place she could belo—

"HEY THERE!"

Screaming in shock, she spun around, raising her club out of instinct. Standing in front of her was... was he supposed to be a mascot or something? He was dressed in some big-ass patched up bunny costume. The ears were sagging, held up by pins and needles. The tail was twisted and scrunched, like someone had sat on it one two many times. And the rest of it looked like it was run over by a truck.

And yet, whoever was in it was as cheery and peppy as ever. "YOU LOOK LIKE YOU COULD USE A HUG!" The mascot held up a pamphlet. The front of it was worn and battered, but it read ' MR.WHISKER'S HAPPY FUN MULTIVERSAL EMPORIUM ' clear as day. "MR.HOPPY THINKS YOU SHOULD COME TO MR.WHISKERS! MR.WHISKER'S GIVES PLENTY OF HUGS! DON'T YOU THINK YOU NEED A HUG?"

Not surprisingly, every instinct and bit of experience Setsuna had was setting off alarm bells. "GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!" She lashed out with her mace, slamming the ground in front of him and sending 'Mr.Hoppy' running.

And everyone else in the park.

At the sight of the raging oni woman pounding the ground with her club for half a minute, everyone started running away in terror, tumbling over each other as their day was instantly ruined.

"...uh—-"

And that's when the sirens started blaring.

Of course.

"...is that bad? That's bad, right?"

Fuck.

Just her luck, wasn't it?

Why should anything go right?

Edited by kkhohoho on Aug 27th 2020 at 9:22:07 AM

Jerusha

When the large woman had busted down the wall, Jerusha took that as an invitation to go take a look. Upon seeing what looked like a large city of...everything, the angel began walking.

Said walking would, perhaps ironically, take her towards the front steps of a church, where a kindly old nun was sweeping the front steps. Staring up at the cross adorning the top of the building, her gaze filled with a mixture of conflicted emotions, Jerusha stood still as a statue, just...staring.

HK kept examining the walls to see if there was something that could get them out...until he heard the loud sound of Setsana breaking one of them down and giving them a way outside.

As the droid went outside with the others, it took the sights of this Reach, and found it quite...curious.

"Commentary: These sights and all the mixed variants of meatbags around the place reminds me of Coruscant. If i'd take a guess myself, this Reach must be a ecumenopolis spreading across the entire universe where these...alternate worlds gather for trade, or to meet each other."

The droid kept examining the place, until he once again heard the screaming oni meatbag doing her thing once again. It seems subtletly doesn't exist in her dictionary at all. But considering she had a primitive club with her, he imagined dictionaries didn't exist in her world. Typical.

"Advice: If I were you meatbag, I would consider running, or convincing the authorities that they were attacking you first. I would also suggest bribing them, but if it's an uncorruptible authority, that may not work." The droid spoke louldy from the distance in the building as the oni got herself into trouble, wanting to see what happens next.

Hopefully something bloody.

Edited by kkhohoho on Aug 27th 2020 at 8:54:47 AM

Matt

And Setsuna showed just how these things seemed to go with her by destroying the property of these "Reach" people, and then rampaging outside to go wreak havoc. He followed the others outdoors, trying to keep up and prevent any more incidents from happening like this one. Did she have utterly no restraint—-the answer was obviously no. Well, at least the place around here was reasonably nice looking if a bit hectic. It looked like a chaotic mishmash of a variety of possible worlds. Nothing really seemed to stick together thematically.

Matt stuck his hands into his pockets and remarked aloud, "Taking bets on how long it takes that big red buffoon to get herself impounded."

When Matt saw that it looked like Setsuna had waved her club at that mascot and violently sent him away, Matt just swiped his palm over his face. "...I think my bet just went up a fair bit." Hearing the sirens blaring, Matt knew something was definitely gonna be happening here.

And he wanted to make it very clear he and the others were not in any way disposed to act like...like that. That any consequences Setsuna faced for her destructive behavior rested on her shoulders. She seemed like an adult, after all.

Vale

Looking beyond the wall at the bizarre city sprawl on the other side, Vale let out a soft whistle of awe. "Dang. Haven't seen a sight like this since I first stepped foot in the capital back home...and I gotta say this beats it by a mile. Some'a these buildings an' folks look downright crazy." He voiced his thoughts.

Exiting the wrecked room, Vale's first instinct was to find the nearest tavern or bar and get a feel for the local mood and rumor mill, maybe scope the place out, find out where the law's hot zones were and get a feel for who ran the underground around here. Though now that he was lumped in with a bunch of strangers who were all stuck in an unfamiliar place like he was, the Rogue wasn't so keen to just go off on his own and get lost in this city right now. Strangers they may be, but there was strength in numbers, and Vale's gut was telling him he would be better off sticking with them for the time being.

Even when Setsuna freaked out and tried to play whack-a-mole with some freaky living stuffed bunny...costume.

"Yep, that's bad! Law's usually a bad thing when ya swing that iron bat int the face of somebody not tryin' to gut ya." He called to the Oni, eyes plotting out potential escape routes. "If ya wanna tussle with the guards or scram, better make your choice quick! I'm not lookin' forward to seeing what sorta cells they keep here!"

Setsuna

...wait, the law?

Well, shit.

She didn't wanna mess with the law.

Unless the law messed with her.

She still remembered the time they sent a bunch of samurai after her for loitering.

...maybe she did want to mess with the law?

...

But what if—

Before she could finish that thought, the source of the sirens came blaring through the throughs. And... it was a ball. A harmless, screaming little metal ball. It quicky passed through, ignoring Setsuna like she was a cog in the machine, and went about its' merry way.

Talk about an anti-climax.

With the coast clear, the park-goers came back.

Including Mr.Hoppy.

"HEY, LITTLE GIRL!"

...did he...

"THAT WASN'T VERY NICE!"

...he didn't...

"YOU'D BETTER APOLOGIZE TO MR.HOPPY!"

...he did.

"OR ELSE I'LL CALL THE REAL COPS!"

NO-ONE CALLED HER A LITTLE— wait, what?

"YOU HEARD ME! MR.HOPPY WANTS YOU TO APOLOGIZE! AND MAYBE VISIT MR.BUNNY'S MULTIVERSAL EMPORIUM WHILE YOU'RE AT IT! WELL? WHADDYA SAY?"

...it was everything she had not to whack him right there.

Bu she'd already gotten a scare from the not-cops.

She did NOT want to go through that again.

But she didn't want to apologize to this... this... what the hell even was he anyway?

Not wanting to surrender her dignity, but also not wanting to surrender to the law, she loudly whispered to any of the others that bothered to listen. "Uh, guys? Little help? Pretty please?"