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 Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 8:06 pm
The candleflame catches on the makeshift kindling, slowly crawling up the splinter of one chair leg to breathe new life into the embers below it. It takes a few minutes, and a bit of careful effort and patience, but eventually the FIREPLACE flares up to meet its full potential. It casts both light and warmth enough to fill the large room. And thanks to the revived fire playing its gray highlights across the table and up the walls, you discover that the room is not quite as indoors as you may have once assumed.  A dusty marble floor is the support for sturdy stone walls that reach up several feet until they abruptly and raggedly end, creating a tattered frame for the open but stale air above. Instead of a ceiling or any sort of skyscape there is just a thick, prevailing darkness devoid or stars or clouds or even the sense of depth that a normal atmosphere conveys when one looks upon it. It is simply an enormous and endless shadow... cast by nothing. The table awaits the rest of its guests. What do you do?
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Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 9:32 pm
Tony watched as everyone tried to make sense of where they were. He understood the confusion, and the differing efforts to get them some light. The darkness was still thick, and even their little candles did little to help them.
He smiled at Sedna, nodding his head in the others direction. He did recognize him, and was glad to see him. They had met under strange circumstances, and a near drowning, but he was glad to see the knight there now. Just adding the the number of faces he realized he recognized, and to the more pressing feeling that they were all gathered for something important.
They were all knights, he was sure of that now. Even if he didn't know some of them, they must have all had that in common. And those he didn't know seemed to know the others, which connected them all by strings, however thick or thin.
He found himself holding Kyndall's hand, gripping it tightly to keep her close to him. He wasn't nervous, or he told himself he wasn't, as he sat in his chair and waited for the others to join him. He nodded at her question. "I know a few. I think we're safe here." He spotted Amarilla sitting nearby and offered her a smile as well.
When the lights flared, he looked over at the fireplace as it burned to life, smiling appreciatively at the efforts and then finding his gaze drifting upwards.
"Good heavens," he breathed, though it wasn't exactly apt. There were no heavens out there, as far as he could see. There was nothing out there, where ever it was. Just more of that inky darkness that almost had a weight to it, though it was not oppressive in a way that often preceded danger in horror movies.
At least, he hoped it wasn't any of that. Maybe he was projecting his will for everything to be safe and not as unusual as it really was, but that was just masking what really might have been a dangerous situation. Whatever the case, everyone seemed to be calm, and they were even beginning to introduce themselves. He liked the idea, and followed Valhalla's example. He cleared his throat, speaking just loud enough to be heard by those at the table and near it, though he understood that there were a lot of them and some were busy with their own investigations and conversations.
"I'm Camelot of Earth. I've met a lot of you before, or at least seen you. I think it's safe to assume we're all knights here? From one planet or another."
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Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 10:00 pm
Fritz, seated across the table from the one who introduced himself as Valhalla (it was only after this that he recognized him as one of the knights from the Surrounding experience), let his gaze travel upwards, staring into the blank, grey black air, his eyes traveling the sky - or what might have been the sky once. There were no stars, no moon, no sun, not even a stray wisp of a cloud; nothing to indicate that it was, in fact, a sky.
It was haunting. Fritz felt a small shiver slide down his spine.
Tilting his head downwards, he caught wind of a voice - an introduction from the one he'd thought looked familiar, and when "Camelot of Earth" was heard, Fritz smiled a bit.
"I'm Celsus, Squire of Chronos," he said cheerfully, the English accent more pronounced under their somewhat uncertain circumstances. The room - or what was left of it - felt eerie, the air stale, and it was more unsettling than he cared to admit. Fritz lifted a hand in a brief greeting to all who were around. "A pleasure to meet all of you."
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Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 11:21 pm
Squires, Knights, Pages...they were all just as he though - like him. Or at least...that strange magical him that he still really didn't know anything about... He felt somewhat ashamed by it. Like he should have known, but again, just who did he have to turn to for instruction? Before now anyway. Maybe someone here would be able to help him figure things out?
"I'm Mont Blonc, Page of Saturn..." He said, straightening up in his seat again. He sounded somewhat unsure of himself. And in truth he was. Although he knew who he was, it was more that he lacked confidence in asserting himself. Even for an introduction.
He spared a few glances around the much better illuminated 'room' uh, wow. How the darkness could make things seem so different! Or perhaps more amazing yet - how the imagination could fuel and change perception...
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 3:26 am
Introduction time? Were they going around the circle? Sedna shifted uncomfortably in his chair, running his hand to push his hair back as he spoke. He tried to keep track mentally, of all the knights around him, but he could guess that it was a little too much for his memory alone.
Sedna stood, leaning slightly against the table as he decided to participate in this little class-introduction sort of setting.
"I'm Ryugu-jo, page of Neptune. I'll do my best in the memorization department but no guarantees. Same goes for you guys, you don't have to memorize my name either."
"Celsus and Mont Blanc."
Sedna thought about it.
"... Celsius and .. Mont Blanc? Are you sure those things weren't named after you guys, minus a letter change or something?"
A mont blanc dessert sounded really good right now.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 5:24 am
Fully satisfied by the roaring fire in front of him (he'd known that this one thing he could take care of), Finn rose to his feet and hurried back to the table. he slid into a chair, assuming the rigid posture with a hint of pride, and glanced around the table. There were certainly a few familiar faces that he recognized from his experiences! The boy elected to keep his eyes trained level with the others at the table or lower, because the roof was disconcerting and he didn't want to stare into the abyss. Look long enough and the abyss stares back at you, so on and so forth. "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" he posited, following up on Ryugu-jo's question. Frankly, he'd stopped trying to figure out the timeline for Babylon on earth and Babylon in space a long time ago, deterred by his ancestor's reticence. Gesturing to himself, Finn continued, "I'm Babylon squire of Mercury. It's good to finally see a bunch of us gathered." Valhalla he recognized, as well as Camelot, and some of the others looked passingly familiar - Finn smiled weakly, just now realizing how few knights he actually knew.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 6:46 am
"So very deep," Sessrumnir said with an amused snort in response to Babylon's question. "Fancy yourself a philosopher?" He was still standing over by the fireplace and dusting his hands off from digging around for a flue that really didn't exist. Why would it when the whole ceiling was open? It must suck whenever it rained... At first he thought it had just collapsed, but since there didn't appear to be any debris, at least from what he could see, he would chance a guess that it was designed like that.
Kinda like the Temple of Apollo at Didyma. Only he was pretty sure they didn't have a medieval-like dinning room.
"Sessrumnir. Jupiter," he introduced, refraining from adding frivolous ranks that meant nothing to a group of people who didn't follow any kind of pecking order. Perhaps if they were in a military setting he would be more inclined to care if someone has been around longer than he has, but when words like 'squire' and 'page' were thrown around, it just seemed to be some kind of 'I'm better than you because' contest. To him, at least.
He remained by the fireplace, arms crossed over his chest as he glanced over the others sitting around the table. He'd been the one to break apart a chair, so until they made sure that everyone had a seat, he'd do what he said he'd volunteer to do – stand.
There were only a few that he recognized, and frankly that didn't surprise him. He didn't really care to envelope himself into the world of magic and war. He'd already served one war; he wasn't all too keen to jump into another, although he would help where he could. ——————————————— "There's a group of us who have gathered in larger numbers before," Valhalla offered, not wanting Camelot's (and the rest of the group's) efforts in bonding them somehow to go to waste. Still, there were many he hadn't seen before, so he could understand the sentiment. He was surprised that there were so many new faces in the crowd.
Feeling a bit more comfortable, and a bit less on edge, Valhalla slowly took his seat at the table, letting others introduce themselves in turn. He nodded politely when each offered their introductions, relaxing a bit more at everyone's show of cooperativeness so far.
"We're all knights of the different planets?" he wondered out loud to himself. "Plus Chronos..." But that was more or less the Surrounding. So were they knights that belonged to the Surrounding? That must be it... "And there are knights of Cosmos, too..." he said, his thoughts with his best friend from high school, but whom he didn't see with them. "The Cosmos...? Or is Cosmos someone like Princess Chronos? And if so, are there senshi out there with the names of all the planets?" It certainly seemed to be that way, but since they knew very little about who they were or what they were doing...
Hell, he hadn't even been to... whatever Valhalla was. A planet of its own, or a chunk of rock in space like Naica's?
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 8:19 am
She giggled at Fritz with a smile, she loved adventure, she couldn't help it. They made life so much more exciting she just hoped the adventure didn't turn devastating, though she didn't think it would. She waved happily at Ricky, really the girl was too excitable for her 15 years.
When Valhalla introduced himself she grinned and practically bounced with excitement remember the knight from up on the surrounding. She waved doubting that he could see her clearly, but then the room seemed to just light up and Eliza looked around.
The room wasn't overly complicated, but when she looked up she frowned slightly. She wasn't sure their was a ceiling, she didn't think so, but it was dark with no stars or anything. Her attention, however turned back to the other's as they were seated and introduced themselves.
"I'm Pharos, of Chronos," she introduced herself in a happy somewhat excited tone. "This is really nice, well not that we don't know where we are but, other than Chronos knights, I've really only met Vahalla and that was before I knew I was a knight."
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 9:49 am
For the most part, Layton had stayed in the back of the room, but as soon as the fireplace went up, she let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't so dark in the room anymore, and she felt less petrified. The light flooded the room ... or ... not so room, but area. Grey walls, a table, a fireplace. It was rather simple. It wasn't nearly as scary though.
Especially when she saw two of her fellow Chronos knights, Celsus and Pharos. Layton immediately stood up and ran to Fritz's side, cowering behind him, grabbing at the odd cloth on his sleeve for a little extra confidence.
As everyone introduced themselves, Layton piped up, "I-I-I am Peklo of Chronos." Could anyone hear that? Probably not. Layton was bad in front of groups.
Well ... Layton was bad in front of anyone.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 10:59 am
As all of the other figures on the room began sitting down, Bellatrix got a bit more comfortable. As they began giving her names, she struggled to start to remember them all. Were there really so many knights in the city? That was kind of amazing, to say the least. “I’m Caelian, page of Venus. It’s nice to meet you all.”
She knew Camelot, Shalott and Peklo, and was rather glad to see them all here, it made her feel very much like she was less alone in this mess. Though, everyone being here, confused and not knowing what was going on added to that sense of comfort. She nodded as everyone continued to give their names, and decided not to say anything after, just trying to keep linking names to faces.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 11:02 am
Amarilla's head swiveled to see each person's face as they introduced themselves. These were knights from every planet it seemed, except hers. And then suddenly she wasn't alone! Her eyes laid on a girl with pink and purple, who said she too was from Venus. An ally! ..Not that they all weren't allies, but someone she shared a common thing with! The young knight waited until Caelian was done speaking before saying quietly "Your from Venus too?"
When a lull entered between names, she cleared her throat gently and said "I'm Esquiline...of Venus. So I take it these kinds of meetings aren't normal?"
The greenhorn was terribly aware that there was no ceiling to the room. Now that the fireplace had been brought back to life, she could see that there really wasn't much of anything of there, save for darkness. She avoided looking at it, instead casually glancing at each of the Knights in turn, trying to remember which Knight went with which name. Amarilla saw Camelot give her a smile and she returned it silently. At least there was one familiar face in a room full of strangers.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 12:04 pm
It was the fireplace filling the room with light that pulled Oliver from his thoughts about where the heck eh was and made him realize that wherever he was he wasn't alone. He glanced around at the others, sitting up slightly in his chair. He didn't recognize them, but very soon introductions were happening and he realized they were Knights like himself. He hadn't even thought to connect the strange situation with his new magical abilities, but then he had only learned that he was Glendalough Page of Earth a week or two ago. It was all very new to him, he was still having Allie talk him through all the implications of this new magical world he had been sucked into. It all seemed very complicated, but the only thing he wanted to do was protect the Moon Princess, even as a Page of Earth his highest priority was keeping Allie safe.
The brunette was about to introduce himself when he glanced up and his words caught in his throat when he noticed the ceiling, or lack thereof. That was a bit unsettling. Shaking his head he looked around the table again speaking up when there was a silent moment. "I'm Glendalough, Page of Earth." He glanced towards the others that had identified themselves as Earth Knights. He wasn't sure exactly what it meant, that there were on the same team? He really was new to this whole magical boy thing.
Beyond his introduction he was silent, he rather watch and make assessments before he volunteered anymore information. He was a bit wary in unfamiliar situations, especially those that had to deal with his new identity when he didn't have Chibimoon around to guide him.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 3:26 pm
Lian spotted a door. Perhaps it led to a kitchen? He didn’t know why he thought of a kitchen of all things, but it seemed apt. He stood in place, eyeing the door. For a moment the young man considered passing through the door, but he found it to be terribly rude to exit without notifying everyone. Lian looked over at Chris as he urged everyone to stay together. He blinked. “No worries. I won’t leave.” He wouldn’t leave yet, but right now it was wiser for him to stay in the room. While he only vaguely listened to the other conversations going on in the background, Lian idly walked around the edges of the room until the fireplace flared to life. With the room now mostly lit, he took the opportunity to survey the walls, which weren’t quite walls the farther up he stared.
He still stared. What kind of room was this? Lian cast his gaze back to the table. Most of the people in the room had found their seats again and announced their names. Knights. It seemed everyone here was a knight.
A sigh escaped his lips as he walked over to slip back into his chair. “Aeolia. Page of Uranus.” He flicked his gaze toward the young girl behind Fritz. While Lian could have sworn he saw her lips move, he hadn’t heard a damn thing. “I can’t hear you. Speak up.” He sounded annoyed, but it was only Lian being Lian.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 7:34 pm
Fritz's eyes slid sideways to the pale haired young man who had addressed him, a grin on his face as he replied "Doubt it. Celsius and Celsus are two separate things, after all. They do sound alike, though..."
Page of Saturn...Page of Neptune...Squire of Mercury...it would seem that his initial beliefs were right - they were all knights of some place or another. Fritz idly ran his fingers along the tabletop again, lost in thought - at least until there was a scuffling noise, a small voice, and something latching onto his sleeve.
"Hi, Layton," said Fritz cheerfully, without turning around. He did not need to look to see who it was; the mannerisms were clear enough as it was. "Glad to see you here as well. I wonder if Menthe is here..."
He glanced around the room, wondering if the rest of the Chronos knights were here as well - or even the Princess herself, but something told him that she wasn't.
So the question remained - what were they all doing here?
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 11:38 pm
"Shalott, of Earth." Funny how the two that were clearly a couple were also related by wonder. Would anyone put two and two together?
She sat next to Tony and shifted uncomfortably in her seat until she finally figured out that sitting up straight was the only way to be even remotely at ease. She reached for Tony's hand, though she probably should show more courage in the face of uncertainty. She was still new to strange happenings to herself but at least present company seemed to be all knights and no negas to worry about. Though as the candles glowed she looked up and saw the void, not very much comforted by swirling thick black overhead.
"I don't suppose it's occurred to anyone that this is some sort of trap? I mean...it's not like we can exactly leave."
She pointed up to prove her point to anyone who hadn't consulted the lack of ceiling before. Bad omens and all but she didn't feel like she was in danger. She was only unnerved by the strangeness of all of this.
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