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Weeks, almost months, passed since that strange night of Airi's dreaming. Life has returned to normal - or rather, it was never interrupted, for what interruption could a fleeting dream be? Memories were easy to fade for some, harder for others. In the end, though, the truth was that the dream had passed, and the rest of the world continued. A day came like any other, with the mild continuation of general business.

But the day was interrupted. A feeling seized at you, sending your head reeling, vision fading. It was over in seconds, a dizzy spell without cause... but....

There's blindness. A feeling that you are being scrutinized carefully. It passes quickly, as your sight returns, you have a feeling of being somehow touched... disturbed. The feeling is a lasting one, and you have a sickening sense that something inside of you may be changing....

But then the outside catches your attention, and overwhelms the rest. Where you stand now is not where you stood before. There's the gritty hum of a ill-maintained motor, and the smell of dirty leather. Benches stretch up and down an aisle by the dozens, with torn coverings and lumpy stuffing over hard metal frames. Windows line both walls, showing a moving scene of a disjointed metal jungle, light and darkness both reflected from the forest of blades, their twig-like appendages scraping piercingly against the windows and aluminum sides of the vehicle. Those from more modern times might conjecture that they are standing aboard a very dirty bus.

A few others already sit, regarding one another and conversing tersely. Every little while, someone new pops into existence in a seat, with the same dizzy look on their face for a brief moment before they come to their full senses. At the head of the bus is a driver's seat, unoccupied. A console of buttons and levers rests by the wheel, with indecipherable markings carefully labeling each one - most of these, however, seem to have no effect when pressed, other than sometimes making rude noises. Despite the lack of presence, however, the vehicle seems self-determined on its route. The floor tilts as the bus forges ahead over uneven ground, crunching over metallic forms (some of which, fleetingly, seem to be moving and possibly sentient - too late to tell now, though) on its way to an unknown destination.

There don't seem to be any answers just lying around for you to find, however, and the number of infuriatingly necessary questions the situation lends itself to are countless. But who's to say that there's nobody around you that doesn't have an answer?


((This is the playground thread! Feel free to RP on the bus however you like, interact with other contestants, get a feel for your character. People are allowed to invent new effects for the console (though most will be taunting, be warned), and pretty much it's everything goes here. Pieces of this roleplay can be taken into continuity at the beginning of the contest if you choose, but otherwise, consider it a place to polish your roleplay with your character and have fun!))

The alien was big and purple, with two sets of arms and a single eye. He (at least, Nina suspected it was a he) was new to Zor, a criminal she'd never seen before. He sat, smoking and drinking, at a table with several other fellows whom she didn't know, and there was something shiny sticking out of the pocket of the jacket he'd slung over the back of his chair. Her eyes glinted with greed at the site of it.

It would have been easier to lift whatever it was with magic; Nina knew this, but there wasn't enough time to concentrate for that. Her fingers were far more convenient, and quicker too. Nina kept her face carefully composed as she, attempting to be discreet, strolled by, idly wondering exactly what it was she planned to steal.

Nina bent low, pretended to tie her shoe lace, and fought off the smirk that threatened to explode on her lips as she stood up; one hand, the distraction, went to her forehead, where she pushed back her wild hair, and the other, swift like lightning and slick like oil, slipped into the pocket. Her fingers curled around her prize; it was round and palm-sized, and cool to the touch. For a fleeting moment, she thought that she'd won, and then-

"Keep your nasty hands off of my stuff," the purple alien, who was faster than Nina, swiveled in his seat, and seized her arms. His face was one of the most hideous she'd ever seen. The left side (the one she hadn't been able to see earlier) was burnt to a crisp, and his teeth were visible through his cheek. The teenager's eyes went wide with alarm and, without really meaning to, she tightened her grip on the thing she'd tried to take.

His hold on her forearms was like iron. He shook her so roughly she thought her neck might snap, and then her head swam and she couldn't see anything. She felt disgusting; like something uninvited had crawled inside of her and decided to make it's self at home. Nina gasped in horror as she wondered, for only a moment, if he really had managed to break her neck and she'd died.

But, no- it wasn't very long before the world came back to her, or she came back to the world, and everything felt... better. Well, kind of, anyways. At least the purple psycho's slimy claws weren't cutting off her circulation anymore.

She sighed in relief and relaxed into her seat for a heartbeat, then sat upright with a jolt and craned her head in every direction. There was no sign of her victim-turned-attacker, true, but that didn't explain where she was, or how she'd gotten there.

A golden pocket watch in her hand, the stolen artifact, pulsed audibly as the time passed.

Oh hell no.

J’dyr had been in class, or rather, between classes, milling through the halls. He was minding his own business, strolling along as his friend made passes at each and every female in the general area and then- Then there was dizziness. At first, the young cadet believed it to be a migraine, one of those things his father always complained of. It was certainly disorienting, and blinding, though J’dyr didn’t realize the blinding part was quite so literal, but when his vision faded back in…

This was a bus. Migraines, he was positive, do not end in buses. He hadn’t been on a bus in years; the last time J’dyr was subjected to public transportation was the day he’d gone out to the country to visit one of his father’s very important friends. He’d gotten sick. To be fair, he was quite young and the road was quite bumpy, but the rooster boy was already feeling uneasy. The teenager shifted and glanced around. Of course, the uneasy feeling might have something to do with being warped through time and space with no account for the laws of physics and thermodynamics and whatever the hell else governs the universe.

This was not happening to him again.

J’dyr still remembered the dream (nightmare) like it was yesterday. Though he woke up, just as Airi had said, the cadet could not help but feel betrayed. She left him to die, flower or not. She left him to die on the nuclear swiss cheese known as his home planet and he wasn’t about to let himself be hurtled through a series of unfortunate events only to be whisked home once it got too intense for-

Deep breath, J’dyr. Breathing is generally recommended.

Folding his arms over his chest, the rooster inhaled again and glanced around. He did not recognize anybody aboard; that was not a good sign. Perhaps this wasn’t the same circumstances as last time. Shifting again, he cleared his throat.

“Who the hell is in charge here? Or does no one care that, I don’t know, we’re all on a bus without a driver?”

Running through the trees at top speed, Raina leaped from the branch of one to the trunk of another, letting out a guttural growl as she made contact. She shimmied up the tree, climbing to the top so that she could look out on the forest at large. They were chasing hunter beasts, she and her mentor, trying to find where they made their nest. By Sidu, there was no end to the trees, no sign of anything remotely resembling a cave or perhaps the barren wasteland of her dream.

"Za, there is nothing up here!" she called down, sniffing audibly in an attempt to smell the things out. Raina's sense of smell was not particularly acute, not like some of the tribesmen. "What is that up ahead?" There was a tree on its side, she could see the sap weeping from great scratches, and the poor thing's roots waving in the air like restless crawlers, unable to find purchase in the heavy fog that crept along the ground.

That was why they were so well hidden, wasn't it? Sidu take the fog! They needed every bit of clear view they could get. The hunter beasts stalked their village now, and they would have to find a new place to bed down, or else wipe out this pride. "Keep looking, Raina-child," came the returning cry, carried smooth and still upon the air, as she looked down upon the forest floor.

"I do not like what I see, Zalur. I do not like it at all." She could almost sense the danger now, thick in the air, waiting for her to drop her guard even for a moment. "Saaa, girl, there is nothing to fear this day. Keep your eyes high." Sighing softly, the winter girl held tightly to the branch, peering out over the forest. After a time, she thought she saw some movement among the trees up ahead. "There! One hundred paces, at a dash. They are there! As the moons rise, I see them. The trees part, see?"

"So," Zalur agreed, and Raina was grateful that she was not alone. She did not truly fear the hunter beasts, but if they were nesting, and had young cubs, they would be a greater danger. True, they were large, and hungry, but they had always been so. She knew them, knew their appetites and their habits like she knew her own blood. "It will not be long now." Zalur would make the hunting call, and the tribesmen would come to take care of the nest.

Hunter beasts liked to burrow, dwelling deep beneath the roots of the great trees, and subsisting on what prey they could take down. Keta were some of their favorite morsels, and sometimes a hunter beast would steal a chick from the very arms of its mother. That was only if the keta grew careless, however, and it had been ten winters since last it had happened. She was not afraid, as she knelt upon the branch, nor did she fear when Zalur let out a piercing whistle. She knew that help would soon be on its way.

That was when the sight left her, and she cried out, fearful of falling from the great tree. It was tall, taller than any of its brothers, and if she fell from that height, she would surely break her neck. Waves of dizziness took her, and she reeled, nearly gagging at the new sensation that she felt. Something... something moved, something grew in her, and brushed against the deep places inside. Her mind turned over and over on itself, and she thought she would never see again.

Just as soon as she had that thought, it vanished. She realized that she had only been unable to see for seconds, and that she was... not in the tree. She was not crouched on the ground, but in a strange, unfamiliar place. It was hard, harder than the fossilized forest that dotted the edge of beyond, and it smelled strange. Looking about herself, Raina could hardly believe her eyes. What... was that? Had she been swallowed by some terrible beast, that ran far and fast away from Zalur?

The surface beneath her feet vibrated and almost hummed, and she sat down rather unceremoniously. ... What... where was she? Was this the dream again? Anger filtered through her thoughts, and she realized that she still resented her treatment at the hands of the dream girl. There had been many nightmarish creatures in that odd twilight realm. She remembered them clearly now. The terrible men with their thundersticks! Yes, and the weird monster that another had faced, that she had punched. There had even been hunter beasts.

That girl, that timeless child had said that it had been to test them, to see who among them was real. How strange a thing, to wield such power in such a way... to claim that it was to the benefit of those whom you wielded it against! She could not believe that, truly. No, clearly there had been something else, some other motive behind the great dream. Looking about herself sharply, she realized that she recognized a face among the small crowd. A face... perhaps not a face, but feathers.

Was that... J'dyr?

Bodies materialized out of nowhere all over the dirty bus. Nina sat, uncharacteristically quiet, and observed. All of them appeared to be about as lost and confused as she was, but she, at least, had a bit of an idea as to why they found themselves there. She recognized no one and, while the metal jungle that whirred outside the windows was not completely unlike Zor (with its many piles of trash and home-made garbage trees), Nina knew, though she didn’t know how she knew, that this wasn’t home.

Her heart thundered in her chest.

Where were they, then?

The boy with the feathers spoke, effectively calling her attention to the empty driver’s seat for the first time since her arrival, and something froze deep within her belly. What kind of magic could possibly be responsible for this?

“I don’t think it matters who is in charge here.” Nina drawled lazily. She stood up, slipped the stolen time piece down the front of her shirt where it would be safely out of reach, and marched to the front of the bus. She peered out the grime-streaked windshield; eyes narrowed, and claimed the driver’s seat for her own.

“This bus seems to have a pretty good idea of where it’s going and, lucky for you guys, I think I know where we’re headed.” Her face was set in a grim line as she spoke, and she resigned herself to the truth (really, there was only one plausible explanation) and propped her feet up on the dash, “We are dead, and this bus must be taking us to the place of judgment.”

It upset her, to say it aloud and something constricted painfully within her chest, but Nina exhaled sharply and refused to cry.

The voice of the newest arrival caught of her off guard. It was strikingly familiar. Curious, Nina cocked an eyebrow and twisted her neck around in order to see behind her. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head at the site of Iko.

"Bookworm!" She exclaimed loudly, and her mind flew backwards in time. Memories fluttered through her head at top speed, and Nina struggled to wrap her head around what this might mean. Could it be? Was she dreaming, like last time?

Maybe she wasn't dead, after all!

He drummed his fingers on his book which appeared on the seat next to him and wondered idly why he was having strange dreams again and why in the world his head felt like it was working with fluffy white matter instead of the usual gray matter. He tipped his head to the side and was about to tap on his temple when he heard a voice he figured he'd never hear again. He'd -dreamed- them all right?

Looking up his eyes opened owlishly as he spotted the familier girl. ".... you." His voice was slightly flat and almost not surprised. Somehow if anyone from that messed up dream was going to show up it would have to be her right? It probably served him right for getting made at that idiot for not putting books away somehow.

"I have a name you know...." He grumped slightly and wondered if she'd even hear when someone else, someone he didn't recognize, got up and told the familier girl that she wasn't allowed to sit in the drivers seat. Scooping up his book and getting up he wandered down the asile toward the front. "Why can't she sit there? There's plenty of girl bus drivers .. i think all of mine for school have been. It's a respectable job. Probably means you're a saint too with how many nasty kids they have to deal with"

He tipped his head to the side as he leaned against the back of an unoccupied seat to think. It wasn't like she was driving the bus anyway. It seemed like it was driving itself otherwise they'd have crashed into a building or one of those nasty metal vines or something.

"Do either of you feel like you have cotton in your head?" He blinked and looked between the two of them. His train of thought still latched onto the strange headache and the fact that he didn't seem to be thinking at his usual capasity.

What the- How did this bus keep gaining inhabitants?

Lost in his own speculation for a moment, he almost missed Chelynl's comment. Twisting to glare at her, he wrinkled his nose and tossed his head. "That's a stupid name," he remarked, puffing himself up as he tried to stand taller (though why he would try something so impossible is anyone's guess) that the girl he was addressing. "I'm Cadet J'dyr, and I'm a-" Okay, he wasn't entirely sure what he was. "I'm a cadet. That's what I am. I'm going to be a pilot. Or a captain. Or...something useful, I'm not sure yet."

Speaking of captain.

They were arguing over the driver's seat. It was a couple of kids he didn't know and Grasshead. He knew Grasshead. J'dyr frowned, unaware Chel had already made her way over to the argument. The teen wrinkled his nose and shuffled his way down to that end of the bus, noticing for the first time how crowded it was getting. Better not to think about small spaces, though. There were more important problems afoot. Namely, Grasshead and the girls he was arguing with.

"Girls don't get to be captain. Well, stupid girls don't get to be captain." Raising his eyebrows, he peered back at Grasshead. "That being said, stupid boys don't get to be captain, either. That would be you. And you owe me credits, by the way."

Dream or not, J'dyr never forgot a bet, especially one that hadn't been paid!

Shaol fixed the newest arrival with a blank stare. Did he seriously ask why girls can't sit in the driver's seat? Seriously? And he had girls doing work where he came from? The poor sod. Living in a world where women actually made decisions and had jobs outside of cooking and cleaning. That must be a horrible place. They also clearly read books there, and the fact that Iko was carrying them around with him clearly labelled him as a nerd. Nerds didn't get to sit in the driver's chair either, especially not when they brought their books along with them on a bus ride. Who even read their school books anymore? It was so archaic.

Some other girl was joining the party, and aside from looking weird she didn't have anything useful to add to the conversation. What made him feel he got to sit in the seat? It was obvious. He was clearly the best person for the job, since he was neither a girl nor a nerd. Did she honestly need him to explain it to her? Whatever. He needed to deal with this bookworm first. "She doesn't get to sit in the chair because she's a girl," he replied slowly, as though explaining nuclear physics to someone who didn't even know what an atom was. "Girls don't do well in positions of power, okay, they just mess things up and—"

Oh hello chicken. He glanced up at the uniformed teen, silently praising him for taking his side. Of course stupid girls didn't get to be captain. (Was this guy from some star ship or something? At least he was speaking about things that were familiar to him rather than judgement or whatever else people assumed this bus was.) His opinion of J'dyr, however, hit rock bottom the moment the cadet started on him.

"Says the guy that looks like a chicken," Shaol shot back, raising his eyebrows so they disappeared under his bangs. "Farm animals belong in the back of the bus. And I don't owe you anything. I don't even know you." Even if he did get that sense of déjà vu, he wasn't about to admit owing money to this turkey. Sorry, this chicken. As for the guy who wanted to try and play peacemaker, he could go kiss a pig. Shaol didn't want to know where they were going or what they were supposed to be doing. He just wanted to sit in the goddamn seat.