Character Cruise

-Check-in/Lobby-

The dimensional door closer to the wall opened up, and a short woman with shorter hair walked out. To someone with a twenty-first century concept of human ethnicities, she looked Japanese. She wore expensive shoes and a green-and-white coatdress with a blue sash. Her hair was also green and white, split down the middle with a thin blue streak. Her eyes glinted slightly with the glassy, faintly look of non-concealed implants, and a small, dark metallic ellipsoid was perched on her left sleeve like some kind of medieval hunting hawk.

Kazuko Kimura, GNI, surveyed the crowd milling about with growing - if mostly hidden - dismay. By definition, she hadn't known what to expect from an "Open Space Inter-Dimensional Cruise", or even its boarding area, but she certainly hadn't expected anything quite so... boringly familiar. She'd probably been in terminals like this (except shinier) half her childhood. And the people! All of them human - strange enough, given the looks and supposed nature of the place - and most of them baseline-looking.

A quote popped up in her head (not literally, of course - that was another thing she might have to get used to): The strange is most strange when it doesn't look strange. She tried to place it, failed, shrugged, and stepped out into the crowd.

No point in sitting back and scratching until I get my bearings...

And my ticket.

edited 1st Sep '12 9:54:57 PM by nrjxll

Check-in

Cain sleepily watched the crowds. They all seemed happy, but then again, he wasn't as good with the whole empathy thing like Gabrielle was, but he wasn't a complete sociopath who wanted to kill 90% of the human population. (Although he did seriously consider and explore the workings of a spell that would work that way. Still, it was a pretty dumb thing to do.) He was sure that everyone would have some interesting stories from back home, but he felt too indifferent and too shy to mingle.

He noticed the newcomer, a short woman who looked like the same ethnicity as Haruka but different. She had the Utopian look in her although Cain was sure that she wasn't from Utopia or the same universe that he came from. She surveying her surroundings and the people already here. She seemed interesting but he didn't really care to be honest. He shifted on his seat and started to preen the dark gray feathers on his wing—a somewhat nervous tic he developed. You'd develop nervous tics too if you went through what he did.

edited 1st Sep '12 10:32:01 PM by Tehpillowstar

Ulrich continued through the busier portion of the parking lot, glancing aside to see a few young women gathering some belongings that had been strewn about. For the second time in five minutes, he was glad he was traveling light. He checked the side pocket of his duffel bag, ensuring that his ticket was still in place— the last thing he needed was to make an ass of himself in front of a hundred others. He hated crowds, hated the bustling swarm of faces spewing hollow pleasantries and feigned interest in each others' lives. Besides, he needed time to make a quick call.

He took his place at the back of the long line and withdrew his cell phone, brushing a few stray silvery hairs out of his eyes as he scrolled through his contacts. He had a few good ideas for getting his...item... through the doors, of course, but he preferred to speak with his insider.

There was a slight pang of guilt as he recalled the strict luggage regulations, but he swallowed it the same way he had a thousand times before. He could hardly afford to make that mistake again, especially in as crowded and vulnerable a setting as a cruise ship. No, it was better, he knew, to break one rule now than to risk something much worse. They'd thank him later.

Just before he could press "Call," a thin fingertip prodded his shoulder.

"Hey," said the person behind him, "what's the big deal with this place, anyway?"

Ulrich turned around to see a bewildered-looking teenage boy with a hodgepodge of items slung over his shoulder. "What's the big deal?" This was a cruise, for God's sake— what did the kid expect?

"Supply and demand," Ulrich drawled, scanning his cell phone screen again. "Lots of people sick of reality, only one cruise ship. Not gonna be quick." Turning away from the kid, he put the phone to his ear and waited for Ethrein to answer.

Parking Lot -> Check in

While Jacob slowly slid his car into an empty spot in the parking lot, Michael flipped through his the music menu in his cell phone, having just remembered downloading a clip for his new ringtone. He found it just as the car came to full halt. Unfastening his seatbelt, he quickly stepped out and stretched. It had been a long drive to getting here, and all he wanted to do now was get on that boat. He took two steps towards the trunk of the car but, noticing the lack of movement from the driver’s side, stepped back and looked in through the window.

Jacob was still strapped in seat with his hand firmly on the steering wheel. His face was tense and his eyes were set as if looking at something miles away. And if it weren’t for his lime colored Hawaiian shirt and white shorts, it wouldn’t have looked entirely that ridiculous.

“Um…you do realize we’re here, right?” Michael asked.

“This all still seems too shady,” Jacob replied, still looking out the windshield, “I mean, inviting you to a meeting of multiple dimensions. It feels the host has something sinister in mind.”

“Damn it, Jacob,” said Michael, annoyed that the topic had been brought up again, “this is just supposed to be a fun cruise. Why do you have to make it any more complicated than that?”

“Look,” he said, turning to Michael, “all I’m saying is it could get dangerous. Just keep your eyes open and try to blend in as much as you can.”

“Oh, blend in?” Michael added, “Is that why you’re going dressed as alligator vomit?”

“Shut up,” Jacob said, unbuckling his seatbelt. He got out and walked to the back of the car, which Michael did too. The former opened the trunk and the two of them took out their luggage. Locking first the trunk and then the rest of the doors, they walked towards the nearby building, hoping the check-in counters were there.

As they entered the room, Jacob was a bit taken aback by how much more crowded it was than he had expected, while Michael’s eyes quickly darted around the room, looking for the shortest line. “Wait, here. I’ll be back in a sec,” he said to Jacob as he found it and, with his invitation in hand, he slipped away into the crowd.

edited 2nd Sep '12 12:27:46 AM by Elfhunter

Check-In

Jonathan looked up to see two new people walking in from outside the doors. They seemed a bit nervous and were already looking for the shortest line to the desks. He nudged Cain with his elbow and pointed them out. "Hey look, more people."

Cain gave an exasperated sigh. "Are you going to point out every single person that comes in? We have plenty of time to mingle once we get on the ship. Now leave me alone."

When Cain went back to fingering the feathers on his wings, Jonathan, with their tickets in hand, walked towards the shortest line, which conveniently was the line where the two newcomers just entered.

edited 2nd Sep '12 12:33:56 AM by Tehpillowstar

[Someplace Else -> Check In and Lobby]

It's just a dimensional portal. That's not even really special. A sigh, and a step through.

Black. Not like teleport at all, too slow, measurable transit time, thirty seconds. Nobody comfort-designed this, at least not for someone like him. He shook his head to clear it after the transit, feeling...muzzy. Bad sign. He reached up and tapped his left shirt pocket. "Steelheart. Diagnostic."

"No faults." Clipped female voice, overly precise pronunciation.

He frowned and shook his head again, making his way to the check-in counter and finding a short line, and drawing an ID card from his other shirt pocket. Wait for the reaction. It wasn't always good for someone of apparently Arabic descent these days, at least if this was where he'd be told it was.

He was reasonably sure they'd be even less happy to see him when he told them about the issue with the teleport service, because it'd be the devil's own work to untangle which part of his background meant he was aware of the transit.

"Nice place. Little rustic," he observed to the person ahead of him.

-Check In/Outside-

"Thanks, mam!" Whitney said, as she got the necessary stuff for boarding the ship. She went back outside. "Well, guys, I'm ready!"

[Check-In/Lobby]

Through the dimensional portal emerged a teenaged male, looking to be around seventeen or eighteen. His hair was grown out long and black, unkempt and wild; through strands of it his deep brown eyes were visible, quickly moving back and forth as if the boy was expecting an attack. When he saw that there was not, in fact, a bunch of knights waiting to run him through or magicians to blast him into oblivion, he relaxed a bit, previously hunched up shoulders dropping down.

This boy was, of course, Melvin Morris, and he had not arrived where he thought he was going to.

Melvin curiously picked himself off the floor and stepped forward, approaching the counter to his left, barely concealing the small amount of caution he still had.

Before Melvin could say anything to her, the receptionist said, "Are you here for the cruise?"

This caught Melvin off-guard; after all, he was not here for a cruise and didn't even know there would be one in the first place. However, he was already here, so quickly Melvin formulated a plan. "Yes, I'm here for the cruise... That'd be the-"

"The Open Space Inter-Dimensional Cruise?" the receptionist finished for him - or so she thought, anyway. "Yes, that'd be it. Only boat in the bay, isn't it? Other ships won't come back for a day or two."

Melvin looked back at the crowd. Inter-Dimensional? Doesn't really look that way, he mused.

As if reading his mind, the receptionist said, "Yes, we get that a lot. Now, name and ticket-?"

Melvin theatrically searched through his pockets, eventually pulling them out, empty. "I think I lost my ticket," he said with an air of incredulity.

"No problem, Mister..."

"Smith. James Smith," Melvin said, taking a shot in the dark.

The receptionist typed away at the chrome laptop in front of her.

"Ah, Mister Smith," she said, suddenly formal. "We weren't expecting to see you until much later. No problem. We can give you a replacement ticket, of course."

From a cabinet behind the counter she pulled out a gilded yellow ticket, the words OSIDC FIRST CLASS gleaming on the front.

Melvin mouthed the words out. "First class?"

"Yes, you get treated to an endless feast for all of the five days at sea for free, goblets and goblets of wine, access to the Captain's Room, a shower of million dollar bills, and, of course, a reprimanded for not actually having a ticket in the first place."

It felt as if the receptionist had slapped him. "Wh-what?"

"Would you tell me your real name, please?"

"Melvin Morris," he blurted out.

The receptionist handed him another ticket, this one the color of month-old dirt, the words on it hard to read: OSIDC THAT-TACTIC-ISN'T-AS-ORIGINAL-AS-YOU-THINK CLASS.

The receptionist smiled serenely. "Welcome aboard, buckeroo."

Melvin walked out the door in a daze, his face feeling unnaturally hot.

Katsu blinked... and blinked... and blinked again.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" he inadvertently yelled out at least fifteen decibels louder than needed. After plugging his own ears — and noticing that the rest of the people here had done so and were now glaring daggers into him worse than his mother would — he waited a few moments before he let out a meek, "Sorry, I actually have no idea what's going on around here, having only arrived in this place just literally around a minute ago." Seeing that he needed to explain a bit better than that, he continued, "I only arrived at the parking lot, thinking that this was a dream, then tried to go back to sleep... only to fall on the pavement and wake myself up properly. I have absolutely no idea what's going on here or where this place is."

Bowing in the traditional Japanese style — after making sure that he could do so, anyway — he said, "I hope you can forgive me for being a total idiot in this situation. You could say that I ran away from home, but I don't know how I did that, either."

- Check-in Line -

Kazuko glanced back at the man who had spoken - nothing particularly interesting about his appearance, except for the fact that he was emitting mildly in the EM spectrum, not sure what to make of that - and nodded.

"Absolutely! I've seen lots of places go for the retro look - hell, grew up in them, more or less - but this looks like the authentic deal. Funny, given the... you know."

The line wasn't quite over yet - it looked like there was a bit of an argument going on with some kid. She opened her scratchpad with a subvocalization and set it to auto mode, at least for the moment. "Kazuko Kimura, GNI." She paused for a moment, watching for signs of recognition. "You are?"

edited 2nd Sep '12 4:47:58 PM by nrjxll

[Check-In Line]

"GNI. Something something Intelligence?" A raised black eyebrow. "Sounds like someone my father might know. Samuel al-Faddil," a pause, "I suppose you wouldn't recognize the Bureau Navy here."

Interesting outfit. Eyecatching, far more so then his own black ensemble, pockets on the shirt, none on the pants, both shirt and pants tucked in. And her eyes...

"Forgive me, but you're enhanced, aren't you? Technologically, at least." He reached up and placed his ID card back in his pocket, it apparently wasn't going to be needed anytime soon.

-Outside -> Check-in-

Jane nodded as Whitney came out of the check-in. "Guess I'll see you on the ship, then. If you'll excuse me, I need to go check on a few things. Catch you later, Whitney." She smiled and made her way back into the building. She passed by a dark-haired teenager who looked embarrassed, Judging by the ticket in his hand and the smirking receptionist nearby, he didn't get what he bargained for. Dammit, shouldn't think like that. This is a vacation, not an interrogation.

As she sat down on a nearby bench, she stretched out her limbs and yawned. She checked the phone in her pocket; no signal and the battery was beginning to dim. She felt like resting her eyes, let the excitement kick in with ocean waves but she was startled along with most of the people in the building as she heard someone yell "WHAT THE HELL?!" from outside in the parking lot. She peeked outside a window to see someone apologizing but she couldn't tell if it was the person who yelled.

She looked around the place once more, everything seemed particularly ordinary except for one thing; Does. . . Does that guy have wings?

She definitely didn't remember reading anything about that in the history books, could be some whole other race she never heard of before. The guy didn't look occupied, so she decided to get up and ask him about it. Better break the ice first, I hope I don't offend the guy.

"So. . . cruise ship. Hope this doesn't turn out to be another Titanic, right?"

-Outside-

Whitney looked at the ship from outside. "Wow, this thing's huge!" Whitney said. "Hopefully it isn't the next Titanic, or Lady Crithania..." Whitney boarded the ship, not noticing there was a nameplate attached to it, which was called 'Jenny'...

- Check-In Line -

Kazuko grinned sardonically as her scratchpad took notes. "Information. Galactic Networked Information. You're probably thinking of GANI..." She paused, leaned slightly to one side, eyes unblinking as they recorded additional footage. "Or, actually, you probably aren't."

The line advanced slightly. "Yeah, I'm enhanced. I'd say 'isn't everyone', but I get the feeling that here, everyone isn't. Lots of basic stuff, plus the eyes - broad-spectrum sensitivity, advanced recording capabilities. Norm for the business."

Pause again, thinking. "Never heard of a Bureau Navy, so that's another bit for the idea that our, ahem, 'dimensions' are pretty divergent. I'd guess you've never heard of a Galactic Alliance?"

edited 2nd Sep '12 7:07:28 PM by nrjxll

Check-in Center -> Ship

After some time, Talitha finally had gotten to the point where she could show the person at the counter her credentials. She pulled out her ticket, showed the attendant her identification and whatnot when asked, and soon enough received a room key. With that taken care of, she was about to leave the room and head on out to the boat when the loud expletive of some male nearby nearly made her jump several feet. She gave this person a look of both annoyance and confusion - annoyance because, well, he just swore very loudly, and confusion because "what the heck" wasn't exactly the first response she had to this building. Surely, there had to be some rational explanation to this?

Well, she wasn't going to dwell on it for long. Not when she was done with her check-in and was ready to get on the ship she signed up to ride. With that, she turned around, walked out to the docks, and finally walked over the bridge onto the ship.

Oh, what the heck. :P

[Dock]

A hydraulic-electric motor sound could be heard, as two metal panels along the dock unfolded and a sleek silver-metal sidewalk elevator rose up to the surface. Like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRQVkIaSIYM but you know, cooler. Also, this is not beneath anyone, but can be close by.

Inside were two new guests. The first was a man, moderately tall with a thin figure, bright blue eyes, and had messy shortish golden-blond hair, with a pair of cat ears and a tail to match. He stood to the left, and was wearing a button-up blue jacket, a white undershirt and pants, and holding a small envelope. He appeared to possibly be of Japanese descent, but was truthfully unidentifiable. The second to the right was a woman, a bit shorter, who looked to be almost half-machine, as she had electronic components all along her left arm, and scattered throughout the rest of her body. She was wearing (or had integrated) gadgeteer glasses, with a variety of tools attached, and through which her network-patterned bright green eyes could be seen, with complex circuit-board-like patterns along her visible metallic skin. She was wearing an impossible-box-print light purple sun dress, and was reading a brochure about the cruise.

The man, Takumi Nekomura, opening the elevator grating and letting them both step out, said, "here we are!"

The woman, Patricia8, putting down her brochure, said, "you know, they have dimensional doors here too."

"Take one of these cheapo off-brand portals? No way - the last one I tried sent all my luggage to Alabastia!" Takumi said, as the elevator receded back into the ground, the panels closing after it.

"You don't even have any luggage ... do you at least have our reservation?"

"Already checked in remotely before we got here - we're all ready to board!" Takumi said, sounding exited, then, looking over at the ship, turned back around and said, "remind me again why we picked such a boring-looking ship?"

"Because it's a vacation - the whole point is to be bored - if I'm lucky, I might even get below 50% CPU utilization - now that would be a miracle," Patricia said.

"Oh, alright," Takumi said as they walked together towards the ramp up to the ship.

They're both available if anyone wants/needs anyone to talk to. Oh, and those with any kinds of super/magic/techo-senses might get strange (energy/matter) readings, like they're only partially here, or are something else entirely - although they should appear relatively normal to ordinary viewing/inspection.

Check-In

Cain froze and looked up. It was another woman, not the Utopian-looking one, but see seemed a little nervous. She wanted to strike up a conversation with him. Titanic? Like he needed to think about the possibility of disaster before he got on the ship. He stood up a little straighter, which probably wasn't a good idea since he was taller than most of the people in this croud.

"No, I hope not. I'd rather have smooth sailing." He paused for a moment, before adding, "What's your name?"

In the corner of Jonathan's eye he saw Cain get distracted by some woman talking to him. No problem, he thought. You only needed one person to check in, not the entire troupe.

edited 2nd Sep '12 9:15:41 PM by Tehpillowstar

Recoiling from the earsplitting scream, Ulrich nearly dropped his phone. "I'll call you back," he hissed into the receiver. Whirling on the awkward teen behind him, he drew in a sharp breath to call out for the mother of this obviously handicapped kid. But upon seeing his eyes, Ulrich stopped short.

The kid's eyes were wide and frightened, but Ulrich swore he glimpsed a certain brightness behind them. His face was blank and frozen in confusion, but Ulrich could make an educated guess at what had happened. His long fingers gliding over the slight bulge of the long box in his bag, remembering before his head did the stories of the Wanderers, he stepped forward to help the kid up.

"You disappear randomly from a familiar place?" he asked, extending a scarred arm. "Take a trip through some void— a trip that could have been either seconds or years long?"

edited 2nd Sep '12 9:11:13 PM by BrainSewage

Katsu looked at the man that was in front of him that he had apologized to, and carefully thought over the question being asked. He didn't know how he got there, but he knew that it would probably be best to answer as honestly as he could. After a while, he finally found an answer he could use, as he said in a steady voice, "Well, I generally have trouble falling asleep in my room, so I read books to try falling asleep. Normally, this would work perfectly, but I tend to voice act the characters and wake my family up in the process. Finally, last I was aware of it happening, my mom came in and took all the books but one away from my room...."

Suddenly....

"Of COURSE!" Katsu exclaimed. "The book I was about to read must've been one that could take people to places far away! If I can find that book, then I can get back home!" After thinking for a bit, he asked the man, "Do you mind helping me find the book? I think it could very easily be somewhere other than with me, so I'll be completely stuck here without the book, anyway."

As if just remembering something, he then said, "The name's Katsu. What's yours?"

[Check-In Line]

"So basically it's like being an intelligence agent, only not having a cover so everyone knows you're dangerous to talk to," Samuel said, amused. "No, I wouldn't recognize it."

He shrugged easily. "I am enhanced myself. Though since mine is adapted from a pre-legality design, it's not supposed to be obvious to the average unaugmented person. So are you here in official capacity, or a personal one?"

He drew out his ID again and sighed. "Dimensional travel. Poor checkin procedure. Why not?" The line inched forward again, only one or two more people to go.

[[Check In => Outside]]

Alice's tablet vibrates gently and a message pops up on the screen. She frowns.

An electrical signal of foreign origin? I thought I could get away from work for a moment.

She follows the directions of the tablet out the doors, nearly bumping into a few people in the process. The figures she's getting just don't fit together, but then again the cruise was supposed to be inter-dimensional. Once outside one of its cameras locks onto the strangest sight she has ever seen, a perfectly normal man minus the tail and ears, as well as a perfectly normal women if you discounted the odd dress and cybernetic implants, an oddity she had only heard of and never experienced, stem cells provided a much more neat solution to all medical problems she had heard of. Still though they seemed to be heading to board the ship and having a conversation and so she goes to join them in line.

She turns toward the two of them and smiles, "Nice day for a cruise isn't it?"

Alice's head buzzes with questions, but she doesn't want to come off like an eight year old at a museum, fascinated with something abandoned for the greater good.

edited 2nd Sep '12 11:29:05 PM by Aqueos

- Check-In Line -

Kazuko shook her head. "I think you're getting the wrong idea. Which I figure makes sense - since your 'dimension' only recently legalized implants, I figure you wouldn't have anything like me yet."

She brought up her backup and opened a definition file, then ran a search for historical links. "GNI and other information providers are... I guess the best pre-starflight analogy would be news networks. We collect up-to-date information and take it from planetary net to planetary net. I'm in the collection section - you'd probably call me a reporter." She tapped the ellipsoid clinging to her sleeve. "Even have a camera, of sorts."

She glanced back at Samuel. "As for why I'm here... mix of both. This is foremost a vacation - on company money, no less - but interdimensional vacations, even strangely lotech ones, are not everyday things where I come from. So you can bet I'm taking notes."

[Check-In Line]

Samuel laughed softly. "You misunderstand me. I guessed what your job was like. My statement was my genuine assessment of it. Cynical, perhaps, but that's how any military or governmental personage will probably view you, as they will view most people engaged in the business of distributing information."

He nodded to the device on her sleeve. "A camera. I assume it has other functions. Much like mine does." He drew out what appeared to be an oversized playing card from his pocket, with a bluish cut jewel in the center. "Say hello, Steelheart."

"Greetings," the card intoned, though it sounded somewhat annoyed.

edited 3rd Sep '12 2:45:35 AM by Night

Check-in line

Michael sighed as he realized the guy in front of him was trying to get in with an obviously fake name. It was bad enough when he claimed to have lost his ticket, but now it was all too apparent that he didn't have one in the first place. So he found it infinitely satisfying when the receptionist revealed she wasn't oblivious to that fact. What puzzled him, though, was that instead of calling security, she instead asked him for his real name and handed him a ticket anyway.

As the boy collected his ticket and walked away, Michael looked on after him. Just what the hell was going on here?

"Excuse me, Sir," the receptionist called.

Michael's mind snapped back, remembering his position in line. "Oh, sorry," he said, and walked up to the counter.

"Do you have a reservation?" she asked with a smile.

"Yes, here," he said, handing her the invitation he had in hand.

As the receptionist finished reading it through, she asked, "Well, Mister Collins, do you have any ID?"

"Yes, one sec," he said as he placed his hand in his pocket and brought out his Student ID card.

The receptionist glanced over it and, handing it back to Michael, continued, "Everything seems to be in order. So did you bring along any guests?"

"Yes, just one. His name's Jacob Reynolds," he answered, and as she was typing the information down, he said, "I'm...confused. All the normal formalities with checking-in seem to be in force, but you just let the last guy in without even having an invitation..."

"We were told not to stop anyone who entered through the Dimensional Portals," she replied with a smile. She then produced two tickets and said, "Here you go, Mister Collins. Have a nice day."

"Thanks," Michael replied and, taking the tickets made his way back to where he'd left Jacob.

Jacob stared at the doors across the room through which he could see only shifting blackness. He guessed these were the dimensional portals though they were very different from the ones he and Michael had closed before. The feeling of uneasiness grew in him. They were treading unfamiliar waters.

Suddenly, someone yelling "WHAT THE HELL" caught his attention. He surveyed the room, trying to pinpoint the location of the sound. He found the most likely source talking to a man with a scarred arm. Even though it looked like something was wrong, he stood his ground like a dick, although it was uncharacteristic of him. Yup, he just stood there where Michael had told him to stand and didn't budge an inch.

edited 3rd Sep '12 8:56:28 PM by Elfhunter

Jane hesitated answering, the winged-man seemed unsettled by her question and she noticed his eye-patch. Smooth, Jane. she thought.

"My name's Jane. Jane Tanner. You are?" Better not laugh if he's named Icarus or something. Probably a nice guy. A. . . winged-guy with an eye-patch. Damn, I feel sorry for him. Could only see out one eye.

edited 3rd Sep '12 7:01:37 AM by darthnazgul