Welcome to Gaia! ::

Gilbert was doing his best to remain at the rear of the group headed toward the apparent castles. Though he highly doubted they would reach them, having a group of people as large as this one standing around for who knew how long would only spell trouble. In the interest of preventing mass hysteria (and personal injury while he tried to quell it) it seemed like the best idea to give people a goal, even if it was as shaky as "walk toward that castle thing."

He cast Marienrode a grateful look, making a mental note to find her later and thank her in person. Someone with a level head on her shoulders would be useful in a time of crisis, anyway.

"If you're headed to the castle, this way!" he couldn't compel them all, and he really didn't think splitting up was the best plan, but he had to work with what he was given. "Be calm and orderly! Find a travel buddy and stick to them!"

((ooc: you can assume that Gilbert is at the rear of the group that's walking, trying to keep them all in his sight and together! =) I will be scarce today so feel free to mention him as herding people if you need. He will also wait for any stragglers and try to push them to join up with the main group!))

For the most part, Fritz had been standing off to the side, attempting to imprint the image of the rainbow bridge in his mind. If he ever got out of this - whatever this was - it would definitely make for a good strip for his next webcomic update.

The Time I Was Taken to Care Bear Land, by Fritz St. James.

In the meantime, there was that weird sound that rang in his head like the deep, rumbling tones of a bell; yet it was somewhat less...solid than that, somehow more...within his own mind, rather than physically rippling throughout the throngs of people that were amassing on top of the brightly colored road. Fritz could not describe it accurately; he felt as if nothing he said would be quite adequate, so instead he just clamped his lips shut and shoved aside the mad desire to find out if someone had a camera so he could document his surroundings.

They were all moving now - sort of. There seemed to be random groups of people clumped together awkwardly as they all shuffled one direction or another. With this many people - and Fritz did not really want to take the time to count - it was clear that being "calm and orderly" like the cop had called out to them would probably not work too well.

But it didn't hurt to try, did it? Hands slipped casually into his pockets as if he were walking to class, Fritz ambled along behind the rest of the people, somewhat lagging behind as his green eyes flickered around, taking in every small detail he could attempt to memorize.

Except doing that apparently meant he was not really paying attention to his surroundings and accidentally stumbled into someone

"Oops," Fritz said, lifting his hands in a gesture of apology to the guy, grinning sheepishly. "My bad, dude, sorry. It's kinda crowded in here, y'know?"

Never.

Never in all of his life had Prosper been so scandalized, or so terrified. He was a rich, well-mannered boy with his own chauffeur and personal stylist. While not wholly ignorant of the crime and danger that plagued Destiny City, Prosper was detached from it. All of the monsters and the supernatural-whatevers supposedly lurking in every corner of the metropolis were to him not unlike animals in a zoo-- out of mind when they were out of site.

Except for what he'd watched of the news, Prosper's life was largely untouched by magic and chaos. For years he had wallowed in the generous embrace of his mother's credit cards. Whenever it seemed like Destiny City was about to fall apart, there was nowhere he couldn't go.

France. Spain. Italy.

But this was different.

One moment he had basked in the light of the sun by the pool. And the next? The next Prosper had suffered (what he could only guess) was a heart attack. And he'd died.

Or, at least, come very close to it.

The boy with the purple hair traipsed along the Rainbow Road, somewhere ahead of Officer Gilbert and well behind whoever happened to be leading the group. If Prosper was nothing else, he was a survivor, and certain that being in the centre, as far away from the edge of the road as he could possibly get, was the safest and smartest place to be.

"It is very pretty here," Prosper mused softly, more to himself than to anyone else, and searched The Surrounding with those wide eyes. They shone at once with awe and fear. He wondered absently if this was the path to heaven, and mourned all of the wonderful things he might never have another opportunity to do.

All the things he'd never get to own.

The noise made Hawke freeze. That wasn't something she was familiar with, much less a sound she'd ever heard in any of her games before. It set her on edge. She felt like she was having that moment where you accidentally walked into the high dragon's area, under leveled, no potions, no injury kits, and not even a mage or buffs or even the malbari hound.
But sound or not, space Fade had a Golden City. Thing. And Hawke could work with it..

As Hawke got ready to head to the castle to flee from Templar Cullen Gilbert, apparently, so did everybody else. Eyes flicked over to the one woman. Marienrode? Juding by the way she was acting, she was Chantry. She was now Sister Marienrode. Figured with a templar they'd also have a Sister in their midst. But under them everyone was moving to the castle. Which meant to her LARP brain that really- "By Andraste's holy knickers Anders!" the revelation came swift and suddenly, as Hawke raise her waved to the sky and moved it, as if to proudly display the vastness of Fade Space. "If nobody is a demon, and we're all in the Fade, even the templar, then doesn't it make sense Anders?" A shake on her campanion's black feathered shoulders were given for emphasis. "It was just like that spell the keeper used! The one that allowed Haw- er, me to go into the Fade even though I'm not a mage! Just this time it's bigger? And more random. Point is-" A finger in the direction of the Castle.

"Golden City or not this is space Fade. And you-" She grinned at her firend. "You're the mage! I fully expect some epic buffs and spells for back up if we do run into demons and by the way, ******** no." She laughed, even in this situation. "I don't want to take over the Golden City. Okay maybe a little but on another play through."
As she walked towards the castle she did muse at the fact there were multiple castles. "It's not really Golden. Maybe its sort of like Mage Tower Quest the Hero of Ferelden faced. Have to unlock all the things to get to the boss to unlock- ******** it Anders." Hawke was confusing herself with Dragon Age logic. "You're a mage. Buff me."

Oh s**t...

the sound that Natalia was damn sure was some sort of dragon, no, maybe a while-dragon-something-or-another, came louder again. And louder automatically equated to closer in her mind. Yes, it had definitively been closer. But, but,....this was a dream! There was no reason to be afraid! It was simply a dream, and if she got too scared she'd just wake up!

But then the rainbow path began to..brighten? And the...something was coming. Something fast. As it got closer...it certainly began looking more human, then finally recognizable as a man. A man Natalia could visually appreciate, at that.

"Wha-what?" Natalia stammered, caught off guard to properly register this new happenstance.

This guy seemed to totally know what this was, where they were... Maybe he'd been in this place for a while, somehow got here like they did, and now knew the place as well as most of them knew Destiny City? No! That wasn't it. He was just a helpful figment of her dream. You had one of those in pretty much any campaign....

Wait, this place had a name? The Surrounding? Surrounding what, exactly?

Before she could demand any answers, he was gone! The hell!? Once again, Natalia crossed her arms and stamped her foot. Finally they find someone who knows something and he runs off! But...he has said something about going to get someone responsible? So there were others here besides their group?

Grant saw the person who had made quite the entrance, as it was impossible to miss, and he smiled brightly, the light reflecting in his eyes as his mood picked up quite a bit. Not that it had really ever seemed low to begin with, but now he was close to ecstatic in his hopefulness.

"See," he said to Anna, Ricky, Cathleen and Mal, "that fellow seemed very nice! Maybe when he comes back with whoever it is he's getting, he'll be able to answer our questions. If he feels like it, of course."

Grant saw the strange things this 'man' had done, but he somehow seemed to ignore how very strange, indeed, they were. In fact, he was acting like someone had walked up in a perfectly normal fashion, told them to sit tight, and then ran off at the speed any normal human might have.

Either he was really great at taking things in stride, or, more to the truth, he had a habit of rejecting things that did not make sense in his idea of the world and replacing them with his own versions. Normal people. Normal things. Even out here, apparently in space, there had to be some reasonable, normal explanation for everything.

Hopefully it would all come to light when the scantily clad young man returned with whoever was in charge. Maybe this was a hidden camera show after all?

He'd never heard of a show called The Surrounding before, though. Maybe it was a new reality show.

(I miiight not be able to get any more posts in from here, but if I don't feel free to puppet Grant along with his little group. He'll happily follow anyone, if it'll keep them happy.)

Kes had been listening to the others as they spoke about moving towards the castle, though she was in complete agreement she didn't really want to go and leave the other two on their own.

"Hey we should follow them..." She spoke to Anandi and Holi though she wasn't sure whether or not it was the best idea. They had to do something though right? She would have joined in the others conversations but she didn't want to seem too rude with these two, especially as they were seemingly getting on now.

The appearance of a guy was something new.

"He was fit..." It slipped out her mouth okay? She wasn't the only one thinking it right? The fact that the rainbow glowed under his feet and everything just kind of made him all that much better. "Dude he was gorgeous..." and he seemed to glow like an angel. Was he an angel? Did angels exist? s**t should she start praying or something? Uh oh.