Welcome to Gaia! ::

[Alan :: LoD :: Throne Room]

Alan shifted his focus from Amy to Jon, a bemused expression crossing his face. He was a little disappointed that they would not be treated to the Emperor's hospitality, but glad he had never vocalized that idea. Apparently the Emperor was testier than he looked. "Well," he said in response to Jon's promise of information, "that's something, at least."

A thousand questions were racing through his head, some more pertinent than others, and some that where hopelessly impolitic. For now, he settled on: "So, are we leaving China? Like, right now?"

The prospect of leaving the Land of Dragons so shortly after having arrived left a bit of a bad taste in Alan's mouth. There was just so much he wanted to do here. However, if these people had some answers, that took priority. He should at least hear them out. And, who knows! Maybe he could visit again in the future.

Alan forced an awkward half smile.

[[Louis : The Train : Stable Car]]

Louis turned back to Dawn as she addressed him, smiling warmly and holding Jessie's head to his shoulder, "Yeah, seems as though I have." Louis looked into the big brown eye that looked into his never ending warmth emanating from it. After rubbing his face in Jessie's neck, he backed away a bit, noting Joe leave the next car over. His curiosity peaked and he wished to explore more of the train. He looked over to Dawn and tilted his head in the direction of the next car, strolling past Joe, careful not to disturb him.

As he entered the last car on the train, he first noticed Kyle standing amidst the training dummies, "Oh wow... this thing does everything doesn't it?" He said referencing the train as a whole, "Fancy Kitchen, living quarters, stable stocked with steeds, and a training room... not to mention its mobile... still haven't figured that part out yet but hey... pretty cool deal... where do I sign up?"

It wasn't clear if he was speaking to Kyle or Dawn, if she was following, "Wouldn't mind a bit of practice myself. Clear my head a bit whilst bashing some dummies. Say, Kyle was it? So how does this work? Do I have to pull some lever, or press a button? There's room for the two of us right?"

[ Kyle : Training Room ]

That should come in handy in the future.

After having practiced for fifteen or so minutes, Kyle felt the magic of the train fizzle somewhat as the door once again opened- this time, in came Dawn and Louis, the Ivalician. Something about the latter seemed to throw him off somewhat- mainly the Spiran clothing (very subtle differences- the looseness of the cloth, the symbols- things you'd only have noticed if you were a big fan of both universes). However, he claimed to be a traveler, so perhaps he had traveled through Bevelle...

"You'll need to close the door first and foremost," he responded, his voice calm despite the easily disguised apprehension (and annoyance- interrupted not once, but twice!) as he addressed their questions. "Afterward, the time-compression magic will kick in. For every minute in the real world, a pretty large portion of an hour goes by in here, but only if the door is closed."

"After that, it pretty much responds to your vocal demands, with a slight mind-reading. For example, if I were to mention '10 targets, variable space'-" as he spoke, the training dummy he'd been practicing on was pulled away, and ten targets appeared, each at different distances. "Voila. It's also got restorative properties- you'll never run out of energy and, should you take damage, it will heal automatically. Unless you disable that setting, of course."

"The other neat thing about this is that there's theoretically limitless space, so yeah, there's enough for us. But I was just finishing up, actually- been in here for at least an hour or so, and there's a time limit for each individual," he said, dispelling his weapon. "You guys can have at it, if you want."

[ Kefka : ??? : Dark Tower ]

The multi-colored clown was currently looking into a basin, watching a certain group of 'wannabes' on the sea. Pah. They needed to cause more destruction, but noooo, their stupid leader kid wanted things to go 'according to plan' or something like that.

I hate hate hate hate HAAAATE all this downtime!

However, before he could send a lightning bolt their way, his two little jester peons stole his attention, causing him to send a glare their way.

"Oh? What is it? I could use a bit more chaos, so speak up!" he shouted, raising an eyebrow at the duo.

[Jenny :: Train :: Dining Car]

"When you do go back to the University, what would you like to study?" Jenny asked, in curiosity. The corsair looked like someone would could study music, the glasses look made him look a little like an engineer type as well. When she wore glasses, did she look like she was some bio-med student? She wondered if reverting back to glasses would make people stop asking for her ID at movies.

The mage looked up at James' question and smiled broadly, "I work at an outdoor concert hall setting up fireworks to music. It's a lot of manual labor but I love it. Plus, I get to see free concerts. I used to work at a pizza parlor but working right next to an oven in the summer is rather uncomfortable."

{James : Train : Dining Car}

James listened intently as Jenny spoke and asked him regarding what classes he thought he would take if he went back to school. Until then his eyes hadn't left the time mage, except to take a drink of ramune, but as she asked he couldn't help but close his eyes and think... his eyes remained closed even as she explained regarding her summer job. His eyes only opened again when he had gathered what he wanted to say.

"I don't really know... I mean when I went to college the first time it was to go for a Bachelor in Computer Science, it had been my dream to become a game programmer and I had planned out a huge MMORPG that I wanted to make. That dream was mostly inspired off of dot hack sign though and all that it got me when the dream died was about a two thousand dollar debt." He couldn't help but cringe as he said that, he had hated being in such debt and had done all he could to get it paid off quickly, "Though I have squared that now... and have had it squared for a long time. If I were to go back, despite knowing the fact how hard it is to make a living in I would probably pursue something in music. Which really has been the only constant in my life that brings me happiness. In terms of activities and academics that is at least..."

He paused there, realizing that yet again he had said more then he had been asked for. Sometimes it was a really cool thing to feel so informative and other times he knew it could just be annoying.

"Your summer job sounds pretty cool. I have never been to an outdoor concert like what you're talking about and the most pyrotechnic performance I have ever seen was Trans-Siberian Orchestra and in the front row I guarantee you you can feel the heat. I imagine it would be a lot like that only much more dynamic, and free concerts are always nice. Definitely sounds better then working at a pizza parlor in the summer though. I have only really worked for ShopKo and the worst thing I had to do there was be a cashier... I hated being the customers cannon fodder."

{Kuro Oni : The Flying Dutchman : Captain's Quarters}

Kuro Oni had only been only been gone for a minutes but already a portal of darkness opened once again and out of it stepped the Dark Corsair and the man who he had been sent to retrieve for Ajora. The Representative of the East India Trading Company, Cutler Beckett. He roughly shoved the man with his left hand toward Ajora.

"Here you go. Cutler Beckett as you wanted, didn't take much, just a threat on his life to get him to come with me."

He said with a slight chuckle as he moved away to lean against one of the walls.

{Zorn & Thorn : ??? : Dark Tower}

The two court jesters stood side by side, bowing deeply to their lord as he glared at them, raising an eyebrow. Kefka was indeed a rather intimidating character, not one to cross. However they raised their heads again as he told them to speak up.

"For our experiment we request you summon these three heartless!"
"These three Heartless for our experiment we request you summon!"

They paused there tilting their heads to in the opposite directions as they mentally gathered the list they needed.

"Blue Rhapsody!"
"Red Nocturne!"
"Yellow Opera!"

The last one, the two of them called out in unison, jumping into the air as they did so. When they landed the two of them looked at Kefka questioningly, as if wondering if he would summon the Heartless they requested as they waited for a reply they cocked their heads from side to side in synchronization waiting...

[Amy : Land of Dragons : Throne Room]

Amy nodded to Alan's correct guess that Dress Spheres were clothing of some kind, and let out a small, "Yeah." She scratched at the back of her neck, noting the man's good humor, and gave him a resigned, but not unfriendly, smile in return. It was obvious to anyone paying attention that she was tired and worn out, but the source of her exhaustion didn't only stem from the recent fighting. There was a great deal of emotional baggage she was denying that added to it in no small amount.

"That would help, wouldn't it?" she answered, most likely confusing him. It made sense to her.

The Emperor was asking them to leave. She looked over at Kichi as he spoke, and then Leon. As was her habit when she was tired and had an audience (even if it was only one person who may or may not still be listening to her), Amy pointed out the obvious. "It's time to leave, I guess."

No one else was really stepping forward to just... well, go. She was the first to leave the building, not saying a word to the Emperor. She passed John on the way, catching his eye. "Not the way I wanted to leave China."

She was outside now, alone for the moment, and staring at the huge "Palace Gates" courtyard where Sora had fought a heartless dragon in the game. The breeze was kinda nice out here. It felt good on her still stinging scrapes.

"Ba-larg. Ba-larg, I say." This also made sense to her, and most likely only to her.