Welcome to Gaia! ::

Atop a tower in the midst of an infinite plane where neither good nor evil existed, neither order nor chaos prevailed, stood a circle of twelve figures robed in gray that leaned neither toward black nor white. In the center of the circle was a floor that looked to be made of glass or crystal and inside swirled a cacophony of ever changing shapes and images--worlds of material elements and worlds of thought and dream, past, present, future. Everything that was could be seen and everything that had been. And much that would come to pass flitted back and forth across the smooth surface.

And as the figures watched these moving shapes, one of them spoke.

“The balance has begun to sway,” it said, looking at the others. “Darkness has begun to prevail over light.”

“We must preserve the balance,” another said, an urgent undertone to his voice. “We cannot allow this darkness to expand further."

“There is not enough light left,” said the first. “The brightest lights have been extinguished from the worlds given into our care. We have no way to counteract the dark.”

“The balance must be served!” several others chorused.

“But how?” demanded the first. “We cannot create light from nothing and even now, the darkness ever grows.”

“Then we will bring lights from elsewhere,” said another, stepping to the center of the circle. “In the great spiral, in the vastness of the multiverse, there are other worlds beyond our power. From there, we will draw lights to serve the balance. To replace those that have been extinguished. We will bring new lights to counter this darkness. The balance will be served.”

The others nodded in agreement and murmured amongst themselves. This was a good plan. If light could not be created from nothing, then it had to be brought from elsewhere. Their network of worlds and planes was beginning to teeter as the balance between good and evil, order and chaos was disturbed by some unknown force. The lights would find that source and eliminate it. They would fight to preserve balance.

But first, the lights had to be found and brought to neutral ground to begin their journey. And with this knowledge, the council began their plans. There was much work ahead of them. Pawns had to be selected and pieces had to be placed on the board. It was to be a game between light and dark and they would be the ones who stood guardian over the events.

In the end, the balance would be served.


**************

There was no wind. The sky was gray over cast above a wide, empty plane. On the horizon to the west was the beginning of foothills to the misty mountains beyond. To the east was the beginnings of a vast forest. North and south were flat as far as the eye could see. The few trees and shrubs on the planes offered shelter to only a few small animals. There were no birds.

The plane was barren but peaceful until a sudden light flashed from a point a mere six feet off the ground--far too low to be lightning. It flashed again and there was a low rumble, but not of thunder. It was the rumble of time and space being torn apart. The air ripped in two, leaving a quite literal gaping hole and through it fell a bewildered girl who landed in an undignified heap of black and white.

She lay stunned momentarily and then sat up slowly, looking around. "Where...the hell am I?" she demanded of...no one. Because she was actually alone. She stood uncertainly and brushed herself off. "Well. Damn."

She caught the flash of light out of the corner of her eye and began to look for cover when the rumbling began. The air split in two and through the bizarre, gaping hole in reality, another person fell through.

An old but young red head sat in a wing backed chair in his study. He was a bit bored again, and lonely. The "others" were out working.
His only amusement was to spy out on people he knew below on planets.
The red head stretched his boots onto a hard table in the dark and pulled a red velvet coat lined with white fur over himself.
the place was silent except for the box he was watching, and dark except for it's glow and the light of his shining eyes.
He was watching a human movie that has just come out, after getting the television he bought to work in his home. He had spent six hours getting the TV signals to come through into his world.

Zen was enjoying the movie about teenage wizards, when he heard a big banging sound.

Suddenly he had been poofed somewhere outside, and it was cold. He landed on his a** in the dirt, in the stupid position he had been sitting in.

"Dammit I had another twenty minutes left to watch!" He shouted while dusting off his velvet and pulling twigs out of his hair. Zen looked around, trying to change his eyes to keep them from glowing out here, and to find what did this to him.
"Is this a bad joke?" He shouted around, expecting someone he knew to answer, but then realizing he had no idea where he was.
The red head straightened up, knowing how in danger he could be, he was beyond the safety of his dark world.... but it was terribly exciting.

It took him a second to notice, but he realized he had half fallen onto a young woman.

A couple big objects fell on Zen, his body back in the dirt. They weren't really light either.

"HEY! Watch it!" He shouted, squirming to get out from under the two boys.
he was trying not to be inappropriate to the woman under him, but that was hard not that his face was next to hers.

"Hi................................?" He said awkwardly, expecting to have his nose bitten off.

He was missing watching his movie right about now.

An obsidian-haired youth hurtled at an angle from the portal, and, unfortunately managed to get in a perfect path of trajectory.

Namely, he managed to shoot face-first into Angela's chest.

The force of the fall managed to knock the two into the gathering dog pile, where the newcomer lay quite still, sprawled over the much smaller girl.

The girl, still propping herself up in a graceful, relaxed slouch, continued to stare, but with a now faintly amused expression. She laughed, a sharp, humorless cry.

"Figured you'd be here, foolish little kitten...And such a stunningly...typical...enterance for you as well," She purred, raising a hand to brush her knuckles against her jaw languidly as she stretched.

Hearing a voice or two below him, Inutai blinked and looked down past Toshi to see an older man with medium-gray hair ((As that's what it looks like to Inutai)). After a few moments, he realized that he needed to get up and managed to slide off the pile quite easily. As soon as Inutai got off him, Toshi stood, though not without grabbing someone's ankle by accident when searching for a hard surface to help push himself up, brushing himself off.

"Sorry about that," Toshi said as he turned to face the man that he just got off. Hearing a frustrated scream, Toshi rubbed the back of his head, somehow feeling responsible. "Again, I apologize for all this. . . but it is not as if I did such a thing on purpose."

Inutai looked from the gray-haired man, to the white-haired woman, to a black haired-man, to a gray-haired woman, rather curiously. He stayed quiet, though, seeing as Toshi was speaking, something he rarely ever did to strangers.

The man groaned and leaned back, blanking dazedly. So much for his idea that freezing would allow him to stay like that a little while longer...something he would've very much enjoyed. He blinked at the sound of a familiar giggle.

"....Oh heeeeeellll no."



"Oh yes!"

The girl rolled onto her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows, kicking her legs up as she surveyed the mound of bodies with more giggles. She still hadn't blinked in her staring, but smiled, a sly smirk. Her hair cascaded gracefully as she tilted her head at what looked to be a rather painful angle.

"Aren't you happy to see me, little one?"

He stood up and dusted himself off--he had to be at least 6 feet tall, while she couldn't have been more than 5 feet. He ignored her, but tensed and glared at the ground in a silent reply. She giggled again, and kicked her feet in a hyper little tantrum.

Toshi merely shook his head at Angela's question. "Not particularly. If I were able to see, then perhaps I might have. Otherwise, I do not recognize anything," he said rather bluntly. "How about you?" He nudged Inutai slightly with a foot.

Sniffing the air slightly, Inutai shook his head. His ears were perked up, alert, as he was in unknown territory. "I haven't been to many places, but this definitely isn't one of them," he said, glancing over at Angela. He shot a glance at the black-haired man and the gray-haired woman, seeing they seemed to know each other, but he couldn't help but think they were acting pretty strange, at least to his standards (which wasn't saying much).

"Since we're all here together and have gotten to know each other already, wouldn't it be appropriate if we introduced ourselves?" Inutai asked to no one in particular. "You may call me Inutai, and I call him Toshi, so you get to, too!" He smiled slightly, placing his hands on his hips as if he'd accomplished something.

Angela lifted an eyebrow. Alright. Her companions were definitely a bit odd.

"I'm Angela," she said. "Angela Brighton." She looked around the empty plain, confirming that it was, indeed, empty. There was literally nothing around for miles. In one direction she could see mountains and in the other, a forest. Both looked to be equally far away. The sky was heavy overcast so it was difficult to guess the time of day as well. It could be mid morning to late afternoon for all she could see.

"If none of us knows where we are or why we suddenly began raining from the sky, then I suggest we try to find some people. We're definitely not going to get any answers standing in the middle of nowhere." She paused thoughtfully, definitely uncomfortable with the idea of leading. She was hoping someone else would step up and lead the group while she just...supported from behind and threatened anyone who made the situation even more difficult. She shot a glare at the girl in black, just knowing she would be the one to cause trouble.

"I don't want to jump to conclusions but we all appeared in the same location, at the same time and in the same way. I think that under the circumstances, it would be best to assume that we were brought to this location by the same force and possibly for some purpose. For now, I think it would be best if we stayed together.

So. Any ideas on the best direction to go to find a town of some kind?"