Day 2: Later Afternoon, starting at 4pm, spanning into the evening

[arcadia_central]

Who: Everyone except the exploration team, which has left by this point.
Where: Central Square
What: Following from uSUC's invite.
Rating: G
Warnings: TBA

Comments

[wolfsstrife]

Really, he had known it all along. He hadn't had his cell in the first place - he had lost it some time before or after Vincent saved him from Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo - but he had hoped that he would find it. The small edge of hope he was clinging to would have been considerably widened had he found a way to contact... any of the others. He had no proof that they were there, after all.

And if no one else was here...

He pushed the thought down, knowing it wasn't safe to entertain at that moment. Ok. So if the electronic way of finding people was out, he'd have to do it the traditional way. That was, he'd have to actually lookA thin smile touched his lips when he walked away from the street he had stuck himself in. Would Tifa be proud of him, for actually moving, instead of just dilly-dallying? It had been quite a big temptation simply to head out of the City. He'd seen hide nor hair of any living creature, let alone one he knew or cared about. But he had to look, because then there was a chance that he could find someone. A hand rested

[arcadia_central]

Annnnd, uSUC, ever present, ever omniscient, ever annoying, popped up with a cheerful: "Welcome to Arcadia!" from a screen right beside Cloud's left ear, and promptly showered him with streamers.

Oh, he had a weapon. Oh, touchy. uSUC would have to speak to him in private about that later - he must have sneaked through Customs. But right now, uSUC deemed it undiplomatic to shade the arrival with such administrative matters. Besides, it wasn't in a position to take that weapon by force if the newcomer should run. "Have a journal!" It spat a small, handheld console at him. "And an orange! And could I have a name for registration?"

[wolfsstrife]

Cloud spun around at the voice, ready to swing his sword out of the sheathe at a moment's notice. He was, however, blinded at that moment as a very light purple streamer landed across his eyes. With a gasp of surprise (causing a pink one to fall into his mouth), he reached up to wrench it and the others away.

He barely had time to think about the face he could see on a screen nearby his standing point before he scrambled to catch the journal system that had been spat out at him. The orange, however, bounced off his chest and rolled against the wall. That caused Cloud to blink. Streamers. Handheld computers. Oranges.

Either he had slipped into some form of insanity (again), or he had slipped into this place's answer to the Gold Saucer. In all honesty, he didn't know which was worse

[arcadia_central]

uSUC formulated a face on screen that all but beamed at Cloud. This user seemed very similar to one registered as 'Strife' in the database, but uSUC did not pay that any heed. It wasn't programmed to be naturally curious, or to formulate lines of reasoning.

"This is the central square of Arcadia." uSUC also failed to note irony in the fact that the square was round. "And you are just in time! I was going to provide a detailed explanation for all users as to the location of Arcadia. I understand that a number of you have concerns."

"We have, at the moment, 35 registered users. I would not know if you consider that 'many'. A large number of them are here, however. While waiting, perhaps you might like to mingle? And do try the sandwiches!" uSUC's tone was vaguely reminiscient of a proud parent.

[comprehended]

Gale... Had no idea where he was going. In fact, it was by a simple turn of fate that he ended up on the place destined for this meeting, his steps steady above the grass.

He had just woken up in this strange place after falling asleep in one of the boats. His body felt heavier than usual, green hair short, covering rather pale skin, in more than one place.

Truth be told, Gale was naked. That had been the way he had woken up in, and, as he was, there was nothing wrong about going around like that. Well, with his new emotions sense, he did feel like he was receiving too many odd looks for it to be fully normal, he knew, by a fact, people should get dressed, but well, he didn't have any clothes with him, the only ones he had on completely gone, taken by... whoever.

It was nice though, to find such a huge quantity of people. He was sure to find eone from one of the tribes in here, right?

Well, at least he hoped so.

[blacksword_rune]

Jowy was in better spirits by the arrival of the second day. Sleep had come easily to his exhausted body and he had enjoyed unbroken, dreamless rest throughout the night; even having overslept, it hadn't hurt his mood. An odd sense of warmth and safety had possessed him from the moment he woke, and had looked to the window, had let the situation sink back in again

[flaming_general]

Seed listened to his king talking, occasionally interjecting, not quite as good at carrying any lengthy conversation as Culgan had been, but able to hold his own as long as gigantic words weren't thrown into the exchange. He had slept as deeply as a seasoned general dare, waking up every so often to check around their surroundings and make sure things were completely safe. Perhaps, in a way, he had also forced himself to rise in order to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, and that Jowy had disappeared from him again

[comprehended]

Gale hadn't been aware of the small conversation he had engaged between the two men, eyes searching the crowd eagerly, in a desperate search for any signs of orange, the colour of his tribe

[hollowed_man]

... it wasn't bad, the fake greenery. At very least, it was green.

... ... ...

No.

It was-to be merciful-quite bad; a hideous imitation of the lush lawns and gardens he'd once known.

... and what exactly was in the sandwiches? He, though once a king, was hardly picky, it was true-but he had his limits.

Namely, he had to be able to identify the contents.

Wisely, he opted for an orange.

[arcadia_central]

A newcomer? Yes, it was a newcomer! One of the ships had set out, returned, come through Customs while Customs had been down - how terrible. These glitches were getting out of hand, and uSUC knew it had to rectify them, and quickly. But in the meantime, it had to keep its database maintained.

One of the smaller screens popped into life near Ansem. "Hello!" uSUC warbled, then exploded a packet of streamers all over the man. Gotcha. "Are you one of the new arrivals? Welcome to Arcadia! Have an -- ah, I see you have an orange already."

[Possibly the best welcoming party ever.]

[hollowed_man]

Not that he had anything on him that Customs would make off with. The most dangerous weapon he was wont to wield, after all, was an ice lolly stick, and, well, furbies unnerved him as much as they did anyone else with a brain that functioned with a vague sense of normalcy.

... though not quite as much as-uSUC, was it? He couldn't seem to keep all the terms entirely straight. Covered in shimmery streamers, he blinked, once, twice, and opened his mouth to respond, though it hung that was for a moment. (He felt a bit odd, talking to a computer-sure, he'd talked to his own computer, but it had been, for all intents and purposes, alive...) "I-am." He shifted, staring. Clearly he was still a bit out of sort due to the journey back here.

[uSUC tries its best!]

[arcadia_central]

uSUC waited at the pause for the usual name, but when none was forthcoming, it deliberated for a moment between registering the new user as [insert silence here], and running through the registration protocol properly.

...It being a creature of protocol, it decided on the latter. "I am the unmanned Supervisory Universal Computer, or uSUC, for short. Welcome to Central City!"

Ansem couldn't have known that the computer was frantically scanning his ice lolly for any foreign bacteria.

"May I have a name for registration purposes?"

[deadly_runes]

It wasn't hard, odd encounters aside, to spend most of his day wandering the city streets on an ever tightening spiral. Aside from a few others who seemed as much displaced as he the city seemed empty. More so, even, then the ruined cities of Ishbal. Those at least bore the signs of rebels and refugees, while this one seemed neat and clean as a model or some lab created terrarium.

The gathering he saw in the central square gave him minor pause, unexpected as it was. He thought he caught a brief glimpse of one of the men from the ship, Jowy, but he didn't bother to confirm it. He suffered the crowd enough to get himself an orange and a cup of bitter tea, then retreated to spot near the edge of the area. It seemed like something was set to happen, he might as well stay to find out what it was.

[densetsulink]

Blue eyes lighted on the man who had a similar idea as him, sitting off to the edge, at least. Maybe he could also appreciate the interim between safe and the unknown. Or maybe he just liked the edge like him. It wasn't really important when one thought about it with more depth, but he did offer a smile after swallowing the bite of sand-witch. Which he was beginning to think was less an enemy and more a food article proper.

There were a lot of people here, and this fellow seemed to be intentionally setting himself apart. Not necessarily good, but not necessarily his responsibility either. Several people here spoke a common language, was it just that he didn't?

[deadly_runes]

Kimbley was halfway through his cup of tea when it registered that he was being watched, he took another long deliberate sip before turning his attention away from the milling group and scanned to either side of him. One dark brow arched as he eyed the blond boy who was watching him. The blond boy with large pointy ears…. His lips pursed slightly as if the orange piece head just eaten had turned suddenly sour. Still he wasn't actually looking for trouble at the moment, at least not until he'd finished his tea, so he gave a faint nod in response to the boy's smile.

He was beginning to like this place less and less. Just how far from Amestria was he?

[densetsulink]

He smiled over a sandwich, feeling an unique sort of energy coming from this fellow. Well, to be honest, everyone's life energy felt different here, never having left Hyrule, he'd never had a chance to feel any foreign entities.

Trouble wasn't something he sought, either. He just wanted friends. Though this fellow didn't look to be a swordsman, one did not need to be versed in the way of swordfighting to be his friend. Picking himself up he stepped over, sitting on his haunches far enough away to not infringe on personal space.

"... Hi. You have marks on your hands, too?"

[generation_bug]

What was that, parked over on the edge of one of the green squares? Was it a blindingly yellow car sitting innocently where it had no business being? Again?

Why yes, yes it was. Someone was taking this reconnaisance crap seriously.

[bright_shiner]

Hrm. A bright yellow car? Such a strange device it is too.

Please pay no attention to the cat that has just curled up on your hood and who is watching those gathered with one brilliant eye. He doesn't quite know what a car is, but he does know he's seen this... thing around. And it's warm. It should be interesting.

Really, thats all Mogget needs to do anything.

[endless_mania]

One shoe off and one shoe on she came walking, humming the song that her fish had warbled to its grave in her pocket. The silvers flecks flickered in her green eye like shoals of tiny fish themselves, and she turned her mismatched gaze to the small yellow car parked on the edge of the green. She smiled.

She was good at driving.

Continuing to hum, she walked over to the car, barely noticing the little cat curled up on the hood. It was like being back on the journey with Dream, with the car, and he liked cats.

"Hello Mr Car." She said to it, touching the hood. "I'm a very good driver."

[generation_bug]

...alright, this sort of attention was not exactly what he'd had in mind. Bad enough he'd acquired the small white furry animal that looked like an Earth cat but certainly didn't scan like a cat, then there was this very, very, very odd scanning human...ish...thing. That spoke to him as though she knew he could hear.

He debated replying. Debated and debated some more and decided, for the moment, to keep silent. Both of their energy readings were extremely alarming.