Welcome to Gaia! ::

Day in. Day out. The students of a small high school live their lives unknowing as to the conflict that lay ahead. Two planes of existence are converging on one another, and will soon meet. A young man leaves class early to speak with a police officer about a little breaking and entering. A young lady skips a class to go play arcade games. The young man joins her by causing a slight diversion in his chemistry class. It involved smoke and a strange statue of a mettalic cat. Together, these two meet another girl at the arcade. They talk, never realizing that fate is not without a sense of irony. They go there seperate ways. One to fix a Ma and Pop Diner, another works on homework in a coffee shop, the third working in that very same shop. Hours pass these connected souls and they find themselves getting closer and closer to one another, though they don't yet know. The boy holds a meeting right outside a convinience store that ends in blood and he leaves in his car in a rather big hurry, haveing been shot in the arm. One of the girls, having just left work, begins her trek home. The other girl, having finished her homwork, leaves to get to the bus stop. Then the world changes. Lights flicker, shadows become longer, buildings twist into ever growing spires, and people begin to disapear. But not everyone. It doesn't take long for denizens of this mockery of existence to begin their advance on whats left. The girl while walking home is almost barreled over by yet another young lady who speaks japanese in a rush of excitement. The two are assualted by slaves of the mind, and barely escape with their lives, the newcomer having sustained an injury in their desperate flight. The boy drives calmly while the statue of the mettalic cat speaks words of mystery to him. He spots his freind whom he ditched class with and offers her a lift, seeing as the new place they find themselves in could be terribly hostile. She smiles at the sight of a friendly face and gladly accepts the invite, not wanting to spend another minute in this darkness alone. She escapes from the now cold night air. The boy accelerates only to slam on the brakes a moment later as the other two girls run out of an alleyway and into his path. The Cat, being no stranger to this land, tells the boy to let the others in. He rolls down his window and tells them to get in. No sooner had they gotten in, he gunned the car and plowed into one very unlucky mind slave. They drove further into this new plane, learning of the Red Queen's nightmares that now plauged the once beautiful city, and how planes of existence are very much like solar systems in how they collide with one another. Rain falls now, gently, when they have to stop the car. It's hard to progress farther when their is a giant crystaline bear in the middle of the road. It is here, where our story takes place. Their is no comfort for these lost and demoralized teenagers. William Shakespeare once wrote, "Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them".

Name: Khyn

Age: Almost 17

Appearance: Khyn's about 5'7" and 120 lbs with red hair, green eyes and a slight tan. She has long, muscular legs that have been toned by running. She's usually wearing the school's uniform or the track uniform. She has faint and thin scars on the insides and tops of her thighs that she claims are from falling during running.

Personality: Quiet and serious, might seem stand-offish at times. Dedicated to achieving personal goals and sometimes berates herself for not being "better".

Background Info: Khyn transferred to the school during the middle of her Junior year. Her father had gotten a new job and so the family was forced to move. She'd been popular at her previous school due to her being a track star. She loved running but was finding that recently she'd become quite talented at the long jump. Viewers often commented that when she jumped... it was like she was flying...

Since the events leading up to the warp, she's noticed she feels different somehow. She is finding that in some instances, she vaguely knows that something is going to happen before it does... kind of like her gut instincts go into overdrive. That could just be paranoia though.

"So...what's this about mind slaves...and whatevers of existence...and stuff?" Traci asked quietly and bashfully.

"Well," Fiasco began, looking at Traci in the rearview mirror "It's complicated. Imagine for a moment that we're not alone. I mean in a grand scale. The reality we know appears to coexist alongside others. Or so the Cat tells me."

The Cat turned to Traci "Fiasco is right. He's far more astute than I gave him credit for. As for why you're here, I imagine it has something to do with strength of mind. My involvement in your lives through Fiasco may have had something to do with too."

Fiasco hung a hard right just as the Cat told him "But what are we supposed to do here while our reality is phased out?"

"I chose you for a reason, I need your help to wake the Red Queen." The Cat stated flatly.

FIasco's eyebrows raised in question "Where are we? Wonderland?"

The Cat turned to Fiasco, eyes narrowed "You may as well be. Only in this variant, the Red Queen has nightmares you've never imagined. Our world is plauged, besieged, by them."

Traci couldn't resist a snort. This just sounded too...weird. And strength of mind? Traci? Ha, yeah right. She looked out the window, bored and more than a little uncomfortable. If she got dragged along in this, she'd probably be the nuisance pulling everyone back.

Khyn squinted slightly at the cat, lost in contemplation. What was the creature talking about. It all sounded so odd... almost... Ah ha! That's what's going on. It all suddenly made sense to her.She must have fallen asleep in the cafe and was dreaming all of what was happening. Because everyone knew that statues couldn't talk or move, and it also explained the entire weirdness of this night. She pursed her lips slightly, glanced sideways at Fiasco and then leaned back in the seat. She crossed her arms over her chest and closed her eyes. The basic ignoring of the situation drew a few curious gazes from the boy, which she didn't notice. I'll just close my eyes for a minute and wake up again in the cafe, she thought to herself.

Fiasco drove as Khyn closed her confused eyes, painfully aware that his shoulder had yet to stop bleeding. "Everyone all right?" He said out loud, but he looked at Khyn as he spoke. A droplet of water fell atop his windshield, followed closey by a second one. Lightning flashed in the distance, it was two seconds before the report was heard. "As if my night couldn't get any worse, it begins to rain. Typical. Where are you directing us?"

The cat flicked his tale, "Not far. You'll want to make the next left, then stop the car. We'll go the rest of the way on foot."

The car drove gently along as rain began pounding it. Fiasco turned left and stopped the car. In front of him is what appears to be a crstaline bear the size of an elephant. It sat in the middle of the road blocking any further access to the street ahead. It's dark purple body shimmerd as the cars headlights danced along it's glossy surface. It moved it's head to stare at the mass of metal that pulled up in front of it. "Cat?" Fiasco stared at the beast, dumbfounded "What in God's name is that thing?"

Khyn tried to zone the others out, but their conversation kept intruding. Please... please wake up! She silently repeated this over and over in her head. She licked dry lips and opened her eyes just as Fiasco was stopping the car. Her heart felt cold when the reality that this was all really happening set in. Her world fell apart. Everything she'd ever known was proven false. She glanced over at the boy as he got out of the car. As he walked outside, she suddenly felt a tendril of... of something... cold probing at her. It trailed frozen paths as it tried to intrude in her mind. She was shocked for a moment and this allowed those tenrils to invade further. Becoming aware of this, she put up a mental block without even realizing what or how she was doing so. She watched the slivers retreating back towards the strange girl in the backseat of the car. She looked at the girl who seemed to be making no sign of knowing what was going on at all.

The Cat peered at the wet creature throug the windshield. "You've never seen a bear before? I find that dificult to believe."

"Are all animals here made of material thats not living flesh? More importantly, should we get out here, I mean, is it safe to get out here?" Fiasco didn't take his eyes off the shiny bear as he voice his concerns to the Cat.

The Cat raised an eyebrow that Fiasco wasn't even aware he had "If nothing else, it'll keep the mind slaves away."

Fiasco's head bobbed up and down breifly "Right. Everyone stay here." He opened his door and stepped out into the rainey gloom. The bear watched quite curiously, but made no agressive acts toward him. He approached the bear cautiously to ten feet from. He then turned and walked back to the car. "Seems all right, everyone out of the pool." And with that, he turned the car off.

Khyn's glare was broken when Fiasco scooted into the car and turned it off. She glanced at him with slightly dulled eyes, her entire posture telling of the shock she felt. He reached out with one hand and placed it on her shoulder. She followed the line of his arm to look at him gripping her shoulder. It's going to be alright...She blinked in surprise as she heard his voice faintly in her head. She merely nodded and let him gather them all outside of the car.

Traci hopped out of the car and reveled in the new rain. She tilted her head up to catch a few drops, then approached the bear curiously.

"It's beautiful," she breathed, reaching out hesitantly to touch it. She was almost totally in her element now: the air smelled beautifully with the rain, which in turn was pouring down on her, and the sky was charmingly overcast. Ah, how Traci loved the water. And now there was a great shiny bear right in front of them all.

Name: Traci Clark

Gender: Female

Age: 15

Appearance: Traci is the perfect representation of her personality as most people see it. While she is quiet, her mousy brown hair matches perfectly. Her dark brown eyes are inexpressive. She is small and petitely built, with an amazingly fast metabolism so that she can be lazy, eat, and stay skinny. Usually she lets her hair fall down to her shoulders, but occasionally she likes to put it up in crazy styles or just in a simple ponytail.

Very pale, for she never goes outside if she can help it. She wears any kind of clothes that she has--she's not really one to care, but if Traci could choose anything, she'd probably still wear anything from gangster casual to punk to schoolgirl to cutesy prep.

Personality/Background: Traci is an absolute mouse, quiet and extremely shy, with few friends, but those she has she loves dearly. She is the stereotypical game nerd, whose interests typically include fangirling, Japanese music, singing, basically anything most game freaks love. She's not really that socially inclined, but can get along with most anyone.

Her story is not extremely outstanding--nothing more than divorced feuding parents and normal high school pressures. But now her life is turned around on this day. Strangely, Traci seems to be making a big adventure out of it, taking everything in stride. She's taken a shine to Ryu, not only for her outgoing craziness but also for her Japanese origins, which intrigue her obsessive Japanophilic self. As for her other companions, she would like to make friends but doesn't really know how to go about it. At the moment, though, she's not too consumed with this as there are other more fun things to think about.

Khyn silently stood with the others, shivering slightly as cold raindrops fell upon them all. Her hair soon flattened against her skull and shoulders. She carefully listened to the metal cat's words and took note of how it looked past the crystaline bear to the dark shadow of the trees it mentioned. She hugged her arms tighter around her soaked chest and turned to start walking. Without waiting for the others, she slipped past the bear, making her way through the ever-deepening puddles. She walked slow enough to give the others ample time to catch up though.

Ryu stayed a little longer than the others, staring at the giant bear. With her index finger and thumb, she took off her hat by the bill and held it upside-down to reveal coarse blond hair and a red scar across her forehead. She let rainwater collect in her baseball cap while she stared up at the bear. Then she flipped the cap back up, the water splashing down the edges of her head. "" And then she plodded after the group, falling behind somewhat to stare at the kuma a little longer.

Khyn looked over at Fiasco as the rain pelted upon the open umbrella above her head. Her eyes silently thanked him. She took the umbrella when he handed it to her and slowed down to let the others catch up. The wind blew cold, as it had been all night. She paused a moment and bent down to pick up the metal cat and held it in the crook of one arm, as if it were a real cat. She then returned to Fiasco's side, holding the umbrella over them both as the other two girls came closer and then crowded underneath as well. She suddenly had a tightening in her stomach and her eyes darted around, looking towards the darkness surrounding them.

"It feels as if we are being watched..."

Ryu kept out from underneath the umbrella, instead standing just behind it. She didn't like being dry. She wasn't sure why this was, she just didn't like it. As much as she liked cats, she wasn't anything like them and they probably didn't like her for it. Whatever. Cats don't really 'like' anyone. Not even the people who feed- A rather strong arm grabbed her around the neck and pulled her back. "" She grabbed the beefy arm and twisted it off of her. She then proceded to chuck the mindslave into a wall of trees. ((We're in the forest by now, right? RIGHT?!))