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Endless Warrior Sora

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{Btw, screw you picture website that didn't let me keep my picture up for direct linking...it's my picture -_-}

Memories are the essence of humanity. (We All Become - Darren Korb (ft. Ashley Barrett)


That was his firm belief, and even after all this time that belief still hadn't changed. For what was a person, without their memories? Personality, opinions, mistakes, love, hate, and even history. All of these qualities are dictated by memories. Even the things we think we throw away over time, our body still remembers them. No one remembers the first time they burned their finger touching a hot stove, but it is ingrained in the body, in it's memory of the world, that hot stove is equivalent to pain. Everything was going smoothly. Every cycle always took a while to find candidates, but of course all good things take time and patience. And those were two things he had in great abundance. Feelings of excitement and anticipation flooded him, as it did every Cycle. This one was no different. Enix City, the metropolitan playground, still bustled with oblivious people. Those who didn't have time to remember. Who didn't appreciate the blessing and curse that is memory. Cars driving to and fro, honking and beeping. People walking talking about the weather, or what movie to go watch, or complaining about school. They were consumed with the thought of consumption. Time, money, food. Trivial. Important, but trivial. Mundane at best. Yet still somehow, gorgeous in it's simplicity. He wasn't one to try to dictate how people should live, or think, but he was fascinated how people reacted when it was life and death. When everyone started with a clean slate. Clean slates come with a price however. It was so deliciously thrilling. He placed them all with upmost care, one by one, in The Negative District. He looked at 'her', hoping she would make him proud. He saved them all from certain doom. Now it was time to earn that blessing. And then it was time to contact his other children. It was time to go to work. Another cycle of the Game was going to commence very shortly. It was a fleeting, yet eternal tug of war composed of two factions. One faction scrambling to reweave the fabrics they have lost, the other ever persistent in denying the former that very opportunity. What if fabrics clash? What would occur if the new cloths created were a constant repellant against the former fabrics? How could a human cope with such a fact? Perhaps this was the reason why continuous cycles and cycles of The Game were played. An endless cog in the machine of time. Was this purely an experiment to gauge the will of a single human? If everything they knew was stripped from them, how would they fair? A peculiar bunch, these humans are. Perhaps this was not an experiment, but merely a form of entertainment? The Fragmented run as quick as their lungs can carry them, with the enigmatic Harbringers determined to reduce them to nothing but Static. Yes, a new cycle of the Game was about to begin. And everything was going according to plan.

___________________________________________________________________________________

[The Collector's Paradise]

The dimly lit room was as dim as ever. And boy was that BOOOORING. The Collector's Paradise's neon lights flashed in time with the music eternally booming out the speakers. She kept telling herself she was going to get a lamp for this place. She also kept telling herself to keep telling herself to do that because if she didn't stop telling herself eventually she was going to forget to keep telling herself and forget to buy that damned pot for the kitchen.

"1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,damn,1,2,3,34,damn,13,DAMN!!"

The Witch Doctor laid herself upside down on the couch in her incurable boredom and attempted to count the little black dots on the television screen before her. But she kept losing count because those OTHER stupid WHITE dots kept getting in the way!

"HEY!!! WHITE DOTS! GET OUTTA THA FRACKIN WAY!" She screamed, wildly waving her hands around, still enveloped by the sleeves of her long coat. Silver yawned, loudly and obnoxiously before scratching the the top of her head. Home to a messy scalp with hair the color of her namesake. She had a feeling work was coming. She always had a "feeling" whenever work was coming. It always made her scalp itch. She also had a feeling that she wanted burritos. Burritos were always nice. But back to work. Maybe this bunch would be good fodder for her experiments? She could always just feed them to 'him'. Maybe she could experiment on one and learn the secrets to memory! In any case she couldn't stay in this dark hole in the wall of another dimension or whatever any longer. Or she would DIE of boredom.

"1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,46,DAMN!"

_________________________________________________________________________________________

[District Zero]

When consciousness finally settled in, the boy found himself enveloped in white. He blinked, and grimaced, trying to gather his thoughts. Then his eyes shot wide open and his breathing got heavier. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no no no no no.

"I died, didn't I?" He thought. "I died, I died, I died, I'm dead and this is heaven." He thought. And then another epihphany struck him on the head. A face contorted into utter confusion. He began to panic.

"Wait a minute...I...I can't....I don't....I don't remember anything...Who am I?! What am I doing here?! What's going on?!" The boy sits up, burying his face in his hands. Blank. All of it. Everything. He couldn't remember a single thing about who he was, where he was, or how he got there. And he was terrified. He had no idea what to do or where to start. He began to clutch his skull really hard, pulling at his hair. As if he could squeeze the memories out of his brain. However, his new seated position allowed him to see something at his feet. A name...?

Shiro Akeizu.

Was that...his name?

"Shiro Akeizu...," He parroted. It felt...right. It felt like home. Even if it wasn't, in any case that was his name now. "Okay, calm down uh...Shiro...Maybe if I say that enough times, it'll stick. Start with what you know....which is absolutely nothing." He murmured to himself. He scanned his surroundings. "This looks like a...parking lot? Okay, at least I remember what a parking lot is... But somethings...weird." The parking lot's colors were reversed. Shiro picked up a pebble of gravel, and noticed it was white as snow. Weird, definitely weird. Black paint outlined each parking space, and he noticed that there were other people there too. Some even looked his age. It was a relief to not be alone. THAT would've been terrifying. However, Shiro just ended up more confused. Who were all these other people? What were they all doing here? Is he the only one who doesn't remember anything?

Just what the hell was going on?
 
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Ðari

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Re: [fr@gm3n+s ]

[Fragment - Jeane + Dexter]

You ever felt like you've seen your life flash before your eyes within an instant. It seemed to be that way, as the gut wrenching feeling lingered, the harsh memory seemed...almost erased? Things were dark, darker than even she could remember, it felt confidence, but then her head started to ping with sound. Sounds from every direction, the rustling of feet, voices, but there wasn't a picture to be painted.

"This...isn't very funny, wheres the lights..."

The girl seemed to trudge forward feeling anything that was flat, there appeared to be a wall to go along, it's texture felt like it was brick. If it was brick it was probably a building or even stone wall, so she was outside right? It's never been this dark, not a single street light to be found, it was almost scary. Pushing away from the wall, she took a step forward, concrete sidewalk quickly turned into pavement? Moving forward, her foot caught hold of what felt like a long rectangular block and she quickly fell to the ground with a nasty thud.

Her eyes were wide open, the sound of click switched on coming from above. It had the resonant sound of a incandescent set of lights. Then the grave reality began to set in...was she unable to see anything? Anything at all? Her vision was dark at first, but now it was all kind of blurry, mixtures of light, even looking at her own hands at the pavement as malformed blurs. She was truly loosing her composure, yet did not scream in a panic, she simply lied there, thinking and then something else was strange, something was missing.

She was having trouble remembering...well, what exactly happened last?

There was a younger boy in the distance, he wasn't particularly thrilled based on how arduously he was tapping his knee. The confirmed blind girl could hear it from at the distance she was, and looked over in his direction. "Is there someone there?"

The boy turned his head, and spit off to his right side. "Yeah, there is. And you are? Well, besides loosing your footing."

"You sound like...a boy?"

"Boys sound like boys don't they? You're looking dead at me aren't you?"

"I think...I'm blind."

"You think? What? How the- seriously, don't joke like that it's..." he stopped, getting a good look at her eyes from the short distance he was away and she had no black pupils to be seen. "Holy crap! Were your eyes taken from you??"

"So it seems...a little help?"

The boy stood up and made his way over, though she couldn't see him, she could determine that he was at the very least male just based on his voice and his grip. Her ears pinched as there were more people around, breathing, and a comment made about another young kid staring intently.

"It's Dexter Lane. You asked right? Thats my name." he almost sounded irritated acting as a human crutch.

"Jeane Clonders..?"

He frowned, "You even sound unsure...seriously hoping I don't have to carry you in my backpack."

"You sound like a joy to be around. You even talk like a miserable old guy, whats up with that?"

"I'm very reliable, just very impatient at the same time. Sorry for your blind situation, but I'm serious in telling you that it's gotta be something you can do to overcome it, because I will not be carrying you."

She thought hard for a second, how this could've only have been an even worse predicament than ever. "Christ dude, tell me how you really feel...today already sucks, don't even."

This parking lot wasn't empty, but by the looks of it everyone here was in a pretty similar predicament as it stood. The boy nodded hooking Jeane's arm under him, this would be one of the few times he assisted her in such a way, but he'd could at least be somewhat patient for her circumstances.

"Anybody here wanna tell me what the hell is going on, and why it seems even harder than ever to even remember what happened?" he spoke addressing the entire group as one this time.



[Collector - Rien]

Lounging about as per normal. The collector was looking at his phone checking messages, there was a list. Roster by name of current fragments listed to participate in the game this time around. He was laying back in his chair and spun around as it swiveled, before he put his feet up on a foot rest. He yawned, starting to quickly lack the motivation to continue as he had to endure the babble and dribbling of her number crunching. Shrugging, he stared back at his phone and then pulled himself up to the table.

Adjusting his green scarf he was trying to looking appealing. More than sure this wouldn't be the first time before pre-game that the other collector's mingled, regardless, he wasn't exactly chatty as he wasn't very interesting himself.

"We have another game on our hands...this is going to drag ass like it did playing last time. Ugh, not feeling it today."
 

Hazen Gregory

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Re: [fr@gm3n+s ]

Immediately following a painful sensation and something that could be defined as a cross between an illumination of light, and dead silence, Rain cried out. It had to be a silent scream because she was unable to hear any sounds around her at all. Then, she started to hear a sound that was strangely familiar.

Static.

"Huh??" In the area directly in front of her body Rain saw the color...white?? She stared ahead, already aware that there were other individuals that were also present in this...parking lot?? Rain knew she was afraid but the real confusion was coming from the fact that she actually didn't remember much of anything. Her sense of time and direction were gone, there was no recollection of where she'd been previously or how she'd ended up in her current location at all. To be honest something told her that the possibility of kidnap wasn't out of the question but who were these other people?? How were they connected?? Why were the connected??

"Ugh, what am I wearing??" Rain ran her had down the length of her body while slowly climbing to her feet, seeing that she was clad in a skin tight bodysuit that was colored bright red. "Hmm, what's all of this about??" Rain peered to her far left, noticing that two others were chatting at the same time she was trying to figure things out. For the time being however, they didn't matter. "What happened to my memories??" Her voice was soft, nearly broken, filled with a confused fear and lackluster wonder of how this was possible.

It wasn't until her eyes settled on the pair again that Rain sighed, somehow grasping at the image of a figure in her mind. "Ugh, I gotta at least figure out what I can do t help these other people if I can't help myself..." She turned slowly around, counting at least four more individuals in the parking lot. Rain had to chuckle, the reversed nature of the paint would have thrown her off more if she weren't already unable to remember what had happened.

"Umm, I'm sorry, I can't answer that for you. I'm completely discombobulated." Rain nodded at the girl whom looked bewildered, "I don't really remember much??" Rain stopped moving through the parking lot, rubbing her sides, hating the feeling of the tight fabric on her skin. "Geez." Rain was certainly perplexed but with something like this happening it was probably going to get worse. Either everybody was going to be killed, or they were being involved in some new radical terrorist act..."So you really don't remember anything either?? Strange."
 

Story Keeper

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Re: [fr@gm3n+s ]

~- Garden of Shadows -~

There was a blob of color, it would move toward her for a minute or two; freeze and then jerk backwards toward where it had been before; only to move toward her again. She could feel herself bracing herself to block something, only for a white-hot pain to race through her. She was falling....

There was a blob of color, it moved toward her for a minute or two, freeze and then jerk backwards toward where it had been before.....

A blob of color....


She felt something licking her cheek, stirring from the sleep she'd somehow entered, she reached a hand out toward what was licking her face and she felt the soft coat of an animal next to her. Shakily getting to her feet, she opened her eyes and looked around. A surge of panic gripped her as she realized that she couldn't see anything, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't hear anything either. A whimper escaping her, she took a step back to try and run away, but the animal brushed against her leg; seemingly trying to comfort her. Despite being unable to see, she could still 'see', and that was by a swirl of colors in her mind. It was much like the blob of color in her dream, but something about these colors didn't seem threatening.

Looking down at the animal by her side, she saw that it seemed to be a dog. Looking around her, at different locations there were ranges of color in a human-like shape. Cocking her head to the side, she was about to call out when a thought raced across her mind, and a rather important one. What's my name? She thought, sensing that the dog had moved away from her, she looked to see it was a couple of feet away from it. Carefully making her way over to it, she saw color signature of its head staring at the ground. Crouching down, she ran her fingers over the pavement and felt that some of it was raised up. It seemed to spell out the word 'Aliviana'.

Is that my name? she thought, only for her fingers to dance over two other names that could only be nicknames. One was the word 'Anna', the other was 'Liv'. Feeling the rightness in the words, she ran her fingers over the pavement a little more and came across one more message. 'The dog's name is Alice, she's a border collie.' A laugh escaping her, Anna remained where she was on the ground as she tried to come to terms with what she was dealing with. Fighting back the hysterics that wanted to over well her, she rose to her feet and grabbed a hold of Alice, making a mental note of the harness that the dog was already wearing. It did unnerve her a little that whoever brought her here and had taken her memories (because yes, she had noticed that jerk!) was apparently aware of her situation enough to provide a service animal.

Turning her head in the direction of another humanoid shape of colors, she signed, "Do you know where we're at? Matter of fact, how we even got here?"

~- Leave Me in the Dark -~

Opening her eyes, a sixteen-year-old raven haired girl looked around. She saw the inversed parking lot, feeling a faint sense of panic, she tried to remember how she'd gotten there; only to find that she couldn't remember how she'd gotten there. A groan of frustration escaping her, she looked at the edge of the parking space she was in to see that there was a name written at the end of it. Shakily getting on her feet, she walked toward the end and read the name at the end of it. Samara Winterthorn, and it seemed as if this Samara preferred the nickname Siam. Something about the name felt right with her, was that her name?

Feeling a sudden stab of pain behind her eyes, Siam closed her eyes and heard different snippets of conversation bouncing around in her mind.

"Where are we?" A male's voice called out, a hint of fear lacing his words.

"--- comes with a price, dearie."

"Brother!"

"Siam, please wake up. You promised you'd play with me once I was feeling better! Don't leave us, please...." The voice was that of a little girl, and she was crying.

"Are you missing him? You said this song made you think of him. Isn't he dead?" A little boy's voice, he sounded angry at whoever the "he" was.

"Baby forgive me, did I do something wrong?"

"I don't wanna talk. Can't we just let it go?"

"What could be so bad, that you'd leave me hangin' on?"

"I'm not doing time, this is not the scene of a crime!"


Was that last bit an argument between two lovers? She thought, her eyes opening from surprise. It took her a moment to realize that there were other people awake and moving around, she heard two ask what was going on, and she saw a third person sign the same thing. Watching the girl that signed for a moment, she noticed the way the girl hadn't moved out of her space; and after getting a good look at the girl's eyes Siam could understand why. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Siam walked over to the girl that had signed and gently grabbed her hand.

Taking a quick glance at the pavement, she saw that the other girl's name and took note of the two nickname's she seemed to prefer. Turning Anna's hand carefully so her palm was face up, Siam signed into it, "My name's Samara, but you can call me Siam. I don't know what's going on, or where we are. But I promise I'll keep you safe." Then for the others gathered, Siam said, "I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm willing to bet that this is someone's idea of a sick joke. I'm also willing to bet that there is something more going on than what we realize. What does everyone remember before waking up here?"

She didn't understand why she said that, until another snippet of conversation flashed through her head, "What the---? We have to fight for what's rightfully ours? That sick bas---."

"Brother! That's enough!"


Sucking in a deep breath, she tried to calm herself down. She could have sworn she knew those to voices, but she just couldn't put a name to the voices. She would have turned inward, but Anna stopped her by signing into her palm, paying attention to the question that was asked. "You tensed, what's wrong?"

She instinctively shook her head, only to remember that it wouldn't have worked, she signed back to the other girl through touch, "It's nothing. Don't worry about it, Aliviana."

She watched the way the other girl processed her response, before the other girl signed back, "Alright, I'll leave it be. And please, call me Anna or Liv, I'm okay with either. The dog's name is Alice."

A laugh escaping her, Siam signed an affirmative to it, before she focused back on the other people gathered. She wanted to know what they would do next, noticing one boy that was off by himself, she started walking toward him, guiding Anna along the way to the boy. Stopping in front of him (Shiro), she smiled kindly and said cheerfully, "Hi, my name's Siam. This is Anna and the dog is Alice, what's your name?"A warm look in her eyes accompanied the smile as she waited for the boy's answer.

~- It's All Over Now, Before It Has Begun -~

Collector's Paradise

Sync had overslept, so that had led to a mad scramble before he'd arrived at the lounge. He'd chosen to take advantage of Silver's and Rein's self absorbed activities to slip into the back of the lounge unnoticed, having stopped in the middle of the room just long enough to grab a rather lengthy fantasy novel before proceeding to his destination. Eying the other two collectors out of the corner of his eye, he felt his stomach clench at the sight of them, remembering them well from his run as a Fragment. Casting his eyes to the floor, Sync only started to breathe when he reached the minibar. Slipping past it into the "kitchen" area, he quickly made his way to the back corner and curled up in it, hiding in the space between the mini fridge and the wall. Don't ask how, he didn't feel like explaining it.

Feeling his heart pounding slightly from the activity, he rested his head against his knees, closing his eyes so he could just focus on calming his heart rate down. Taking a couple of shaky breaths, he tried to get it to a steadier pace. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, Sync flipped through the apps until he found the music one, which was right next to the memory mapp. Another painful reminder of the life he used to have, scowling at it he almost deleted the app but stopped. Opening the music one, he scrolled through his songs until he found the music he was searching for. Plugging in his earbuds, Sync put them into his ears and pressed play on the song. Closing his eyes, he leaned his head against the wall and let the music work its magic. After the song had finished playing about two or three times, Sync was a lot calmer.

Opening his eyes, he pressed pause on the music, stopping it before it could begin again. Flipping through the music again, he found another song and started playing it, but this time he removed one earbud so he could listen in on the conversation of anyone that was close enough. For the most part it was just soft murmurs, and the music that was already playing through the room had his attention but not as much as his own. Flipping through his phone, he saw a list of the new Fragmented, and while he was tempted to scroll through it, a part of him didn't want to. He couldn't explain why, all he knew is that he didn't want to see the names of the new batch. Maybe he shouldn't be in this game, maybe he should have went home.

It's easier to kill someone if you don't know their name, right? That's all it is. Sync scolded himself, nodding in acknowledgement of that, Sync put his phone back in his pocket and glanced at the book he'd taken from the main lounge area. Seeing the title of it, he skimmed the synopsis and flipped it open to the first page. A smile flitting about his face, Sync started to read it and hoped that no one would interrupt him until it was time for the game to begin.
 

Eternal Dream

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Re: [fr@gm3n+s ]

~- It's Not Right -~

You can sense it, can't you? It's time to hunt...

"Shut-up, bitch," Blaster growled, reaching for his smokes as he walked along the hallway. He held the pack in his hand, but didn't pull one out just yet. It was already a shitty start to another shitty day in this shitty place, with the Rage already whispering in the back of his brain, having to come to a meeting because the damned R.3.M had called them, being given a green ass partner straight out of his fuking Fragments run, and having to deal with all of the assholes that he'd been dealing with for the last ten months...

But Blaster had enough control over his shit to not need the damned ciggs this early in the damned day. Shoving them back into their pocket, he stuffed his hands into a different set of pockets in his coat as he stalked into the meeting room. He barely spared a glance for the Witch Doctor as he made a beeline for the kitchen area. It was the quietest place in the Collector's Paradise, and with his nerves and temper being even more frayed than usual, Blaster didn't want to listen to her in her fruitless attempts at counting all of the black dots on the t.v.; and Rein looked too damned bored to even bother talking to. Even so, Blaster growled softly as he stalked past Silver, "You're never gonna count 'em all, you psychotic, fuked up bitch. Even you should be able to find something to fix your boredom without making yourself even more batshit insane, if that's even a possibility anymore."

He didn't wait around for the crazy bitch's answer, he just walked straight into the kitchen. Walking over to the mini fridge, he thumped the top of it, causing Sync to jump as Blaster snapped, "Scrawny as your ass is, I'm still surprised you got back there. Get out here, Fresh Meat; it's smart to stay away from the other Collectors, but no one's gonna try to eat you for lunch now. Hurry up!"

Again, Blaster didn't really wait for Sync's answer, but the teen's remark had some bite of its own as Blaster grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge before sitting at the table. Twisting the top off of it, he took a swig, his eyes snapping around the room. He didn't bother looking at his phone to see who was in the Game this run through; it was the same every damned time. New kids came in, got there memory fuked with, and then had to get their memories back or die trying. Whoever was left at the end got to skip off on their merry way or become a Collector themselves. He wasn't as seasoned as some of the other Collectors, but Blaster had been here long enough to know it was always the same.

Why the hell should this Game be any different?

~- What're You Afraid Of? -~

Will you...?

...? Are you okay?​

Can you come over?​

BITCH!!


She woke slowly, until an intense, phantom pain forced her to full wakefulness with a sharp breath and a choked scream. Her muscles ached, and she felt like a thin arc of fire had been traced along her right cheek. She raised her hand, afraid to touch her face, but instinct demanding that she assess the damage. Her fingers touched down on her cheek, and she felt nothing but smooth, unbroken skin beneath her fingertips. A similar exploration of her stomach found the same thing, despite her muscles screaming at her that something was wrong, that there was a lake of lava where her middle section should be.

"This looks like a...parking lot? Okay, at least I remember what a parking lot is... But somethings...weird."

The boy's voice seemed to have an effect on the pain, pushing it away so fast that she thought it had disappeared. She realized after a moment that it wasn't, but it had been obscured, masked by something that she couldn't explain. Maybe adrenaline? Considering that she was starting to realize that she couldn't remember anything that wasn't impersonal, adrenaline would make sense, since she was becoming more and more alarmed about her lack of memory. What... what was going on?!

She pushed herself to a sitting position, her eyes and fingers tracing what appeared to be her name painted across the parking space she'd been curled up in. The name said she was called Harmony, but something nagged her about that. Sorrow tightened in her chest, a feeling that she could sense was a constant companion of hers; however, Sorrow allowed Confusion a moment to surge to the front as she kept staring at the name, as she allowed herself to taste it falling from her lips.

"Harmony..."

~- Awakening -~

"That's not right..."

A girl's soft voice to her right drew her consciousness fully to the surface. Flicking her eyes open, she saw a blonde sitting in what looked like... a parking space? It was the only way she could describe it; the blonde was sitting in a freaking white parking space with black lines, staring at a name in front of her. The name was Harmony; was that the other girl's name?

The one who had just woken up realized that she couldn't remember anything; well, she did remember a few things. She knew that they were in what looked like a parking garage, but the colors were all wrong, black where it was supposed to be white, and white where it was supposed to be black. But her name, her past, personal things...

Yeah, she was coming up totally empty.

Pushing herself to her hands and knees, the girl noticed a wave of soft red locks fell across her shoulders with the movement. Well, she was a red-head? Perfect; she felt like she should be one. Looking ahead of her, she saw a name painted across the front of her own parking spot. "Selene?" she said softly. Looking at the name some more, she said again, "Selene... doesn't seem quite right, but it's still good. I'll take it!"

Jumping to her feet, Selene saw that there were other people besides her and the blonde, Harmony. Her eyes still roaming around, she asked at large, "This is probably the question of the moment, but does anyone have even the faintest idea where we are or what the devil's going on?"
 

Endless Warrior Sora

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"Anybody here wanna tell me what the hell is going on, and why it seems even harder than ever to even remember what happened?".

"So you really don't remember anything either?? Strange."

Well, that was an answer if ever he needed one. Shiro could hear voices of others, who were seemingly in the same predicament he was in.

"Ooookay, so we're all really here. God, this is so weird. Like, SO weird. This has gotta be one of those science experiments or something." At this point, he figured he was just thinking out loud, just to hear himself speak. Just to refamiliarize himself with the sound of his voice. He tugged a spike of his turquoise colored hair protruding form his backwards cap.

He realized he had wandered off on his own before turning around as two girls approached him. He took a moment to analyze everyone around though, using those turquoise eyes of his. One of the voices from earlier belonged to a boy, who looked no older than he was and the other belonged to a woman who was much older. She had on a skintight bodysuit, which, as um...alluring as that was, made him wonder just what was going on. What was her dayjob? His attention returned to the two girls. One looked about his age, and the other looked a bit older. And then he realized...they were TWO GIRLS. Even if he couldn't remember anything, he was still a teenage boy. The thought of two girls approaching HIM of all people was enough to cause the boy's albino skin to glow a tint of red. Only momentarily though, one girl spoke:

"Hi, my name's Siam. This is Anna and the dog is Alice, what's your name?

Siam smiled warmly at him, and Shiro couldn't help but flash a smile back. It made him calm. Comfortable. It helped not to be alone. He extended a hand.

"Yo! Uhhh apparently my name's Shiro. Nice to meet you Siam. And uuuhhh Anna was it? Anna and Alice? Mind if I pet your dog? Also, uh...I'm pretty sure you guys have no idea what's going on either huh?"

Spoiler Spoiler Show


"Man if I had a nickel..." The teen muttered.

Only about twenty feet away from the Fragments, a letter began to materialize. Slowly...steadily....a gate was opening.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"You're never gonna count 'em all, you psychotic, fuked up bitch. Even you should be able to find something to fix your boredom without making yourself even more batshit insane, if that's even a possibility anymore."

Pouty brisked past her, reeking of anger and nicotine. She laughed at his comment. Hysterically, kicking the air, while still upside down on the couch.

"Ah! ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!~hm."

Suddenly her laughter ended. She resumed staring at the TV, intently for a few moments with supreme concentration. It was different than before. After a few beats, she sprouted upright on the couch and jumped to Rien in the swivel chair. Throwing her arms around him, she embraced him, stroking his also silver hair.

"Son! Oh it's been so long! I've missed you! Your father will be so happy you're home! How was school? Did you graduate yet? Kiss that girl you like??" In tandem with this sentence, Silver kisses Rien on the cheek, before relinquishing her embrace.
"Don't you go anywhere, I'm going to cook you up your favorite meal!"

With a bound and a skip, Silver also headed toward the kitchen.

"-but no one's gonna try to eat you for lunch now. Hurry up!"


Silver then jumped on the stove, before peering over it at Sync, her face looking upside down to the boy. Silver smiled widely, maniacally, enough to scare a small child.

"OOOOOOOOH LUNCH?! I'm making some for Son, d'ya want some? Uh...." Silver trailed off. Her face contorted into confusion. She realized that she had no idea who this boy was or what his name was. Even though she had probably spent an undisclosed amount of time making his life hell. He had...green hair...and green eyes... and his clothes were...green...kind of...so it was obvious! His name was:

"Grass! Heya Grass! I don't think we know each other. I'm gonna make some lunch for Son! Ya hungry? But you can only have a little cause the rest is for him and he needs to grow biiiiig and strong! SO ONLY A LITTLE YA HEAR?!"

Getting out of Sync's face, but not off the stove,Silver turned the gas and flame on the oven.

"763,849 still, plus on a continuous infinite loop would mean that the end result would be infinity, but in a single frame...hehehe in a single frame 763,849...."She muttered, while cooking crouched on the stove. "SEVENHUNDREDSIXTYTHREETHOUSANDEIGHTHUNDREDFOURTYNINEPOUTY!!!" She screamed at the ceiling. She began to burst into laughter before a "ping" hit her phone. She immediately reached and pulled out her dark black Nooky Prime.

Spoiler Spoiler Show



Her trademark grin spread across her face. Work. Work was here.
 

Ðari

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"Yeah yeah, save intros for later." Dexter muttered as impatient as ever.

His attention soon was caught to his right side looking as a gate suddenly seemed to materialize. There was a vibration coming from everyone's pockets, cellphones for sure. Having Jeane who was blind propped up, he resisted the irony of her situation in particular.

"....Don't say it..."

"For a girl thats blind, you're pretty...perceptive...it's almost terrifying, but yeah, I won't." Dexter teased as he whipped out his Blue Talkio Universe.

1 New Message, Open?

Flicking the screen, to his surprise it was sent from an unknown number. He would've been quick to write this off as spam, but the near unreadable language of "1337" was so irritating, it mentioned the gate that appeared. Having his own suspicions, but there was no coincidence here, he was going to trust it because what other options did they have? Tucking his phone away into his pocket, he took Jeane by the hand.

"What did the message say Dexter?" she inquired almost immediately as she could feel his hand grip a bit tensely.

"Apparently if we don't go through that gate we aren't going to learn anything about what happened to us. So I'm going, feel free to stay here if you like."

"W-wait a second dude, we don't know whats on the other side of that gate. We could be playing into a trap, your just gonna trust the words of a blind message??"

"Better than sticking around doing nothing, last chance, I'm not waiting around here anymore. I'll help you get around if your willing to press on, but I refuse to wait around, standing still is how you get killed, don't you watch mov-?"

He felt a sharp spasm as if he was jerking in the middle of a sentence, his vision blurred as he stammered forward holding his head with one hand and Jeane's hand with the other.

"What was that just now...was I remembering something? Ugghhhh whatever!" he let go of Jeane's hand and bolted through the gate first, and alone.

Still very much blind, hearing the direction, she motioned her way in that direction. Pushing through the gate or so she could feel it anyway. There were sounds of slow footsteps, it had to be Dexter's as he was the first one to go through. A hand gripped hers, feeling familiar it confirmed her suspicions.

"Whenever you feel like giving us some answers...be my guest." Jeane said rather annoyed at this point.

"Thats the spirit."

Looking at his skin foot r a brief moment there was a flicker of light, almost as if something had activated or something of the sort. Jeane flickered in the same a manner momentarily, there was no audio only this light show as some indication of something happening. Dexter grew even more eager and suspicious as to what had just happened. His eyes were then upon the buildings that towered over them as they came out into a very cramped for space alleyway. He wasn't expecting metropolitan area like this, rolling his eyes he continued to walk forward slowly.

"Shouldn't we wait for the others?"
"They'll catch up, concern for others safety is something built into people, even if thats a memory, the body is going to remember it."

_____________________________________

He was actually counting the swears, left and right from his senior officer. Hard to say if it was malice or that he just wasn't in the mood to take a crack at the newbies this time around. Vocalizing your dissatisfaction, vs. Rien who was just quiet with it, just riding with it. Blaster would be on the cover of one of those horrid people magazines with Tom Cruise and Angelina Jolie with as much drama surrounded his verbiage in tandem with Silver's eccentricity. Either way, he rolled his eyes, this early morning mark up was setting up for a long game ahead.

Rien actually laughed for a change, breaking his dull expression as Silver gave him a hug.

"It's remarkable that I haven't started calling you Mom as of yet. Still thank you Silver." he harked with a bit of an offsetting smirk. As unorthodox and jubilant as ever, though Rien as he often did quickly sank back into his off-putting nature of nonchalance. As the sounds of their phones began to vibrate, or play some awful chime, he checked his messages almost immediately. With a glance, he drew some concern.

His memory map was something he grew terrified of, because his old information was there from last game. It's supposably does a wipe of this information, but when he went to check it again, this time it really was gone. Releasing a low-sigh, he peered upon the list of fragmented, just names with an image next to each with a fat disclaimer "Status: Memory locked" next to each person. Bosses way of saying to his collector's, "get to know them before you buy them dinner" or something of the sort.

"I'll guess i'll take a moment to ask everybody here a question, since this is my first game as a collector, just what exactly should we expect?" he posed the question to everyone in the lounge.
 

Hazen Gregory

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Rain looked downcast for second, seeing that she pair shed been paying attention to wasn't really interested in conversation or introductions, a sigh slipped from Rain's mouth. She rubbed both temples slowly as for the second time within 10 minutes her vision had dulled and a fuzzy image started t flit across the very top most layer of her thoughts. "Geez, again??" The image seemed to clear up more than it did the first time but that wasn't giving much extra detail. Now rather than the fuzzy black and white image from before, her 'memory' had a bit of color to it. "Hmm, still nothing I can figure out though." In the midst of organizing her few thoughts about missing memories and what was going n in her head, Rain decided that she'd wait until more happened to get involved with anybody else in the group. There were simply too many unknowns that Rain was unwilling to chance. The risk was too much.

"Shit." Was she the only one who didn't have a cell phone on her?? Everyone else seemed to be getting some kind of message simultaneously which meant that they were ALL CONNECTED, just as she had been thinking from her first minutes awaking in the strange parking lot. Just beyond them it looked like the fabric of reality had torn and then reshaped for a brief instance, a gate of sorts forming. Before throwing all of her cautions to the wind, Rain laughed to herself, rushing back toward the spot where she'd opened her eyes into this mess. Just as she'd expected, a cellular phone was lying on the white pavement. "I guess this is mine." She quickly read the message and scratched her forehead, not understanding fully but completely read to find out more.

Refraining from saying anything else to the others that need not be said, Rain turned on her heel and clipped her phone through the chain dangling around her neck, then sprinted past the teen calling himself Shiro, blushing as she thought of how conspicuous she probably looked in her outfit that was basically a fabric catsuit. "Just so you all know, my name is Rain," her soft smile grew wider and she winked at Shiro. Something about his blue hair made her giggle, Rain liked it a lot. "Anyway, I'm going ahead, maybe ya'll should all follow suit??" Rain shrugged, waved and ran into the gate after blowing a kiss in Shiro's direction...

Loud noise and light seemed to rush all around Rain but died out just as quickly, her eyes which were closed, now popped open, taking in the surroundings which were a lot more realistic than the parking lot had seemed. A vast city loomed in front and all around her, spreading far off into the distance. N part of what she could actually see was familiar but she could see that the teen pair whom had basically ignored her before were up ahead. The distance between them was big enough that Rain would have to run to catch up, so instead of closing the gap right away, Rain instead peered at some of the buildings around her, looking for something, ANYTHING that might give her additional clues to what was actually going on.

"That text lied..." Going through the gate didn't seem to have revealed anything at all. "Maybe all of us need to be present for this revelation??"
 

Story Keeper

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~- Where'd the Gate Come From!? -~

"Yo! Uhhh apparently my name's Shiro. Nice to meet you Siam. And uuuhhh Anna was it? Anna and Alice? Mind if I pet your dog? Also, uh...I'm pretty sure you guys have no idea what's going on either huh?"

Siam laughed a little at Shiro's response, relaying the comment to Anna she saw a smile drift across the other girl's face. "Yeah, you can pet Alice. I think she wants it and things feel safe enough, as long as we're not about to cross the street." Anna answered, a warm smile on her face as she added, "It's nice to meet you Shiro."

Siam repeated the warm welcome, letting Shiro know it was nice to meet him. She then heard another girl ask what was going on, along with Shiro's mumbled response. "I know what you mean Shiro. As for what's going on, nope, I don't have an idea." Siam aimed that last part at the girl that had asked the question, a cold look coming to her eyes for the briefest of moments before they warmed again.

Hearing the soft ring of a bell, she fished around in her pockets. Pulling out a phone, she frowned a little at it as she wondered how she got the phone. Scrolling through it, she came across a text message that she didn't recognize the number of the one that sent it. Eyes darting around her, she spotted the gate that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Seeing the outline of something in Anna's pocket, Siam signed quickly into the other girl's hand, "Mind if I reach into your pocket? Also we just got a message from someone that could really do with a grammar lesson. I hate text speak...or I think I do."

Anna nodded in answer, granting Siam permission to go digging through the other girl's pocket. Pulling out a phone, Siam looked at Shiro with a confused look on her face before she asked Anna through touch, "Um, if I'm allowed to ask, how come do you have a phone?"

Anna shook her head, a confused look coming to her face as she answered, "Given my circumstances? I have no idea why I've got a phone. Anyway, what did the message say?"

Siam signed the basic skinny of the message into Anna's hand, and she watched the other girl role her eyes at what they're supposed to do. "Come on, we may as well as do what this person wants. Even if only because with any luck they'll be there so we can kick them in the spleen!" Anna grumbled, a fiery look coming to dull eyes.

"Spleen?" Siam asked, before remembering Anna's situation and then communicating through touch once more.

"Yes, now let's go!" Anna huffed, lightly tugging on Siam's hand, she asked, "Which way is this gate Siam?"

Looking in the direction of it, Siam looked to Shiro and the other girl to see if they were ready to leave. Alice meanwhile was curled up between the girls and Shiro, seeming to have enjoyed the pet that she'd gotten from Shiro before returning to her duty of guide dog once more.

Siam watched as a girl in a red bodysuit went running past, saying as she went past, "Just so you all know, my name is Rain. Anyway, I'm going ahead, maybe ya'll should all follow suit??"

Blinking at the instance, she relayed the message to Anna along with what she was about tell Shiro. Shrugging she commented nonchalantly, "Maybe we should listen to Rain's suggestion?" She glanced in the direction Rain had run off and then looked at Shiro, waiting to see what he would do.

~- Pre-Game Banter -~

"Scrawny as your ass is, I'm still surprised you got back there. Get out here, Fresh Meat; it's smart to stay away from the other Collectors, but no one's gonna try to eat you for lunch now. Hurry up!"

Sync cringed at the thump that he heard on the fridge. Looking up at the one responsible, he felt his heart skip a couple beats when he saw that it was Blaster. His brain registered the irritable quip that the other collector made, and he thought about answering with a similar remark. Feeling the vibration of the mini fridge's door shutting after Blaster retrieved a water bottle, he bristled in response and snapped, "Can you be anymore of an ass?"

He did a quick check of his pulse, being careful not to let Blaster catch him doing. Satisfied enough with the count, Sync was about to climb out of his spot and head to the bar, but Silver got up in his face and forced Sync to scramble deeper into his little cubby hole. His pulse spiked high, causing the blood to roar in his ears as Silver chatted away happily, "Grass! Heya Grass! I don't think we know each other. I'm gonna make some lunch for Son! Ya hungry? But you can only have a little cause the rest is for him and he needs to grow biiiiig and strong! SO ONLY A LITTLE YA HEAR?!"

A groan escaping him, Sync was grateful beyond words when Silver moved back from him. Inching toward the exit of his hiding hole, he glanced at Silver and answered hesitantly, "My name's Sync. As for being hungry, I guess I am a littl--- What the?" Sync's eyes widened in panic as Silver started screaming at the ceiling. Was she that crazy during the round when she was trying to kill him? He couldn't remember.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his phone and glanced at the memory mapp to see that all of the info for the previous game had been erased; including the info on his brother. Feeling his chest tighten at the sight, Sync heard a ding echo through the lounge to alert them all that a message had been delivered. He saw a brief blurb of what the R.3.M had to say, and a part of it made him feel sick. Closing out of the app before he could see any of the Fragmenteds names, he climbed out of his hiding hole completely. Sync reached into the mini fridge to get something to drink as Rien asked, "I'll guess i'll take a moment to ask everybody here a question, since this is my first game as a collector, just what exactly should we expect?"

He wasn't sure how to answer that since he was in the same boat as Rien, but that remark made Sync feel like an idiot. Why had he mistaken Rien for one of his superiors? He didn't know, but it felt nice knowing that he wasn't the only "Fresh Meat" this time around as Blaster liked reminding him. Sync was only reminded that his phone was still playing music and he still had one of his earbuds in when it switched songs. Tensing a little at the song that came on, he almost considered skipping it; only to decide to let it play because it fit with two of the main characters in the book he'd decided to borrow. It didn't matter that he'd read this book beforehand, it was still one of his favorites. It also probably felt that he knew how this particular character was feeling in terms of a certain person being the only spot of color in a world of grey.

Stop thinking about her. She's a part of that life, the life that you gave up. She's gone. He scolded himself mentally, a bitterly hurt look coming to his green eyes for a moment before the look disappeared. He turned his attention back to Silver and Rien as he commented, "Don't know Rien, I'm in the same boat as you. So, if our two senior officers would be kind enough to explain, that'd be cool."

Twisting the cap off of his water after a bit of struggle, Sync thought about throwing the cap at Blaster's head before he looked at Silver and mouthed, pointing to Blaster, "Is he always this grumpy?" Then, thinking about the idea of food, he stepped away from the mini fridge to give Silver room to get into it and he lightly tossed the novel he'd picked on the table in front of Blaster, causing the water in the other collector's drink to bounce a little. Leaning against the wall, he focused his attention inward for a brief second to see that his pulse had calmed down a little bit. He then focused back on the others, waiting to see what would happen next.
 
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Eternal Dream

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~- Out With the Reason -~

Blaster couldn't help the slight grin that curled his lip at Sync's expected response. Ass? That was established a LONG time ago, kid; still, nice try...

"763,849 still, plus on a continuous infinite loop would mean that the end result would be infinity, but in a single frame...hehehe in a single frame 763,849...."

"I'll guess i'll take a moment to ask everybody here a question, since this is my first game as a collector, just what exactly should we expect?"

"Don't know Rien, I'm in the same boat as you. So, if our two senior officers would be kind enough to explain, that'd be cool."

Blaster could deal with Sync in the kitchen with him. But Silver and Rien, and then Blaster's phone going off with a message that the Collector knew was from none other than the High Lord Bastard himself? That was ten people too many in Blaster's personal space-which, if anyone was brave enough to ask him, Blaster would tell him was within a twenty foot radius of his person-, and that set a faster flame to an already short fuse anyway.

"Yo, Fresh Meat, get your skinny ass in gear. We'll go and scope out the Fraggies for this Game as they come out. Unless you'd rather stick with the Bitch Doctor, that is? I think she's probably got her hands full with her own psycho ass and the other kid, but if she wants to take you too, I don't give two shits about it. Hop to it, Fresh Meat!" Ignoring the book that Sync had tossed at him, Blaster drained the bottle he'd just opened before pitching it in the garbage, being sure to hit Silver on the head with the bottle first before it landed in the can. Blaster'd check the message later, after he got away from Silver and Rien. It was probably just R.3.M's usual pre-Game crap, but it'd be just Blaster's luck that the asshole would want him to train Sync and Rien both.

Better to pretend he hadn't gotten the message until after he was out in the field with just Sync than to deal with two greenhorns.
 

Endless Warrior Sora

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"Yeah, you can pet Alice. I think she wants it and things feel safe enough, as long as we're not about to cross the street."

Shiro smirked before leaning over just a bit to pet the dog. He remembered dogs. And he remembered that petting dogs was a thing he did. He figured even with his memories gone, his body at least still recalled things he used to do. Were these rules of thumb?

"What was that just now...was I remembering something? Ugghhhh whatever!"

He could hear the mutterings of others as something that looked like a gate appeared before the children. Beyond it was an alleyway, the only normally colored thing in this white space of a parking lot. A pair already bolted through the gate. He'd received the ping as well, and checked his Talkio Universe.

"Oh hey, this is...my phone. But when did I get this? And did I talk to people on it...?" He muttered to himself. Glancing up for a moment it occured to him that everyone else seemingly recieved the same message he did. Things just kept getting weirder and weirder. Opening the message Shiro instantly grimaced. "Seriously how is anyone expected to be able to read this...Is that supposed to say 'the'?"

"Come on, we may as well as do what this person wants. Even if only because with any luck they'll be there so we can kick them in the spleen!"

"Spleen?"

The girls were having their own conversation but they still weren't out of earshot. Shiro smirked at their relationship. It seemed like they were already hitting it off to be great friends. Suddenly, another girl (just how many girls were there?), the older one in the bodysuit, sprinted past him,

"Just so you all know, my name is Rain. Anyway, I'm going ahead, maybe ya'll should all follow suit??"

The girl blew a kiss in Shiro's direction before being swallowed by the gate.

"Wwww-wwaaaaah??"

Shiro's eyes grew wide and his mouth went agape in shock. Blushing red, he found words hard for him to formulate at the moment. Did older girls really like him?? Was he that attractive? What did he even look like?!?!

"Maybe we should listen to Rain's suggestion?"

The comment shocked him. He tried to hide his shock and embarassment, but he didn't really know if he was successful.

"Uhh-y-yeah! Let's go get some answers..."He trailed off, before fiddling with a strand of his hair. His heart was still beating a million a minute. He tried to compose himself as best he could before flashing a smile again. "C'mon! Let's get out of here!"

He looked over and saw a few more girls (seriously, how many girls were there??) who still were figuring things out. He called over to them, waving.

"Heeeeey! We're about to go through this gate okay?! You guys coming or what?"

Running through the gate, he could feel the heartbeat of the city. The sun was shining, cars were honking, and countless footsteps. Ending up in an alley way, he examined his surrounds before first noticing something on the walls. It was graffiti.

"Is this...art? Something about this is...familiar." His blood began to boil. He liked this. Like really really liked this. "I think this is graffiti...This is...so dope!!" He chuckled to himself. Placing a palm on the wall, he traced the letters of the art on the wall. He then addressed the group, his hand never leaving the wall.

"Ssssssooooooo what now? Wasn't something supposed to happen or...something?"

A light began to appear in Shiro's pocket, piercing through his shorts. It was warm, gently warm enough to grab his attention.

"...The hell?"
Reaching in, Shiro fumbled around before feeling something flat and smooth. Puling the object out, he examined it. It was blank, and the light faded away once it hit the air. Raising an eyebrow, he grew more confused.

"The helly hell? Is this...a sticker? Why isn't there a design on it?" Shiro decided he might as well ask around. With the day he was having, everyone else was probably experiencing the same thing.

"Hey...anyone else have a sticker in their pocket? It's, uh, not just me, right?"
__________________________________________________________________________________________

I'll guess i'll take a moment to ask everybody here a question, since this is my first game as a collector, just what exactly should we expect?"

Silver immediately stopped cooking and turned to face him. She also saw Sync mouthing some words in her direction. And she immediately knew exactly what he was asking her. She had no idea WHY he was mouthing the words though. That was weird. Was her hearing going? She was sure she could hear.

"YES! I KNOW YOU'RE HUNGRY! I'M MAKING FOOD NOW! CAN! YOU! HEAR! ME?!"


Yo, Fresh Meat, get your skinny ass in gear. We'll go and scope out the Fraggies for this Game as they come out. Unless you'd rather stick with the Bitch Doctor, that is? I think she's probably got her hands full with her own psycho ass and the other kid, but if she wants to take you too, I don't give two shits about it. Hop to it, Fresh Meat!

Still staring at the group, the water bottle thunked Silver on the head before landing in the trash. Silver didn't react, as if the bottle hadn't even hit her. Instead, her eyes went wide as she turned again to the stove.

"Ah! My food! Son's food!" She wailed. Reaching into a cupboard, she brought out two bags and placed a piece of half burnt, dry and unseasoned chicken cutlet into each bag. She smiled warmly at both Grass and Son, extending the bags.

"Wait! It's dangerous to go alone! Here, take these." She joked before chuckling a bit to herself. In the same moment, the shadow beneath Silver began to distort, and two black tendrils formed from underneath her. Two pairs of scissors began to cut at the space in front of her, ripping it open and revealing a rooftop beyond. "I think it's time for a picnic! Walking would be soooooo boring. Who wants in?" She sung.
 

Eternal Dream

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~- Left to My Own Devices -~

"Hey, are you okay?"

She was on the swings, someone pushing her higher and higher. She was a little younger; maybe twelve? She couldn't see who was pushing her, but elation expanded in her chest, and she opened her mouth to squeal with joy. At least, she thought so, but what came out instead was, "Come on, you can tell me. You need someone to talk to, right?"

This time, she knew she was closer to her real age. She was wearing skates, but instead of pulling off some moves that her body seemed to recognize, she was in one massively undignified heap on the floor, her legs curled around her, wheels digging into her ass. She had one hand against her head as she took deep breaths, trying to gather her thoughts, while her other arm was curled against her chest, pain radiating from her shoulder to her fingertips. Someone was shouting something, something that didn't make any sense in the given situation. Who cares about the freaking pythagorean theorem at a time like this, huh?!


"Heeeeey! We're about to go through this gate okay?! You guys coming or what?"

"Sure thing! Just hold up a moment!"

"In a minute; I think we have one more..."

One set of footsteps moved away, while another moved closer. She groaned softly, the disjointed voices and scenes keeping her from opening her eyes for fear that things would keep on not making sense. Someone knelt next to her, a hand landing lightly on her shoulder as the second girl from earlier spoke again. "Easy now. Do you know your name? Can you remember anything?"

What kind of question was that? She tried to ask the girl that, but instead she muttered hoarsely, "What's the hypotenuse if one leg of the triangle is four while the other is three...?"

That seemed to earn a surprised laugh from the other girl, and it forced her to open her eyes from sheer embarrassment. She pushed herself to her knees, her eyes scanning over paint that was splashed across the ground in front of her, spelling out a name. Ally?

Again, the other girl spoke, the slightest bit of levity still in her voice as she said, "It's okay. I think we're all a little disoriented. But how's your memory, away from math? And my name's Harmony, I think."

Ally could hear how Harmony sounded the name out, like it wasn't natural to her. It was curious, but not quite as curious as her certainty that Ally's memory was messed up. However, she wasn't pleased to find out that Harmony was right; her memory was full of holes, like missing puzzle pieces, and what she did have she could tell that the audio and visual portions didn't match up at all.

"Screwier than a squirrel stashing nuts for winter, apparently. And my name's Ally," she said. She gave herself a quick mental shake, trying to get some of the weirdness to roll off as Ally let Harmony help her to her feet. Looking around, she saw that they were in one real crazy looking parking lot. Noticing that the last of their... group, she guessed? The last couple of kids were just leaving, leaving just Ally and Harmony there. Looking to the blonde, Ally asked, "I guess we should follow them?"

"Seeing as how we're the only ones left, I suppose we should," the other girl agreed. Ally started walking, Harmony falling into step beside her as the older girl explained briefly about the text that they all seemed to have received. Hauling her's out real quick, Ally saw that, yep, she had a text from some idiot writing in leet speak. Soon as she got her hands on this guy, she'd kill him, for that stupid text if nothing else.

"Hey...anyone else have a sticker in their pocket? It's, uh, not just me, right?"

At the boy's comment, Ally's hand dipped into her skirt; feeling something there, she drew her hand out just as Harmony said, "I do, and I think Ally does to. Are we in some sort of club together?"
 

Ðari

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Jeane began to feel her pockets after, what she liked to believe was Shiro's voice, the only other boy there with whom she heard actually give his name, along with Siam and her doll Anna, Raine, the list went on. It was a bit overwhelming, couldn't see anything, let alone approach anyone...everything was already at a perpetual low for Jeane. She sighed, prompting to feel around in her pocket and definitely feeling something that wasn't there before perhaps? She couldn't see it, but it felt really...thin? When Shiro mentioned that what he found was a sticker, should could feel the separation of paper.

"Hmmm thats-" her speech was broken by a flash of light, that surfaced through the alleyway.
Each of the stickers being held emitted a brief flash and and plastered itself somewhere randomly on each person on the groups body. Jeane's sticker attached somewhere just below her right breast, she felt a sharp surge as if it's passive nature activated, and her vision became red. Suddenly able to make out silhouettes of figures, objects, buildings around her, filling in nothing but space, while everything that wasn't red, was still pitch black.

"What was that??" She said suddenly going into shock, she grabbed onto Dexter's arm, profusely shutting her eyes, but she could still see him in red.

Dexter sighed. The sticker attached itself to his bottom left thigh, he didn't really know what it was supposed to do exactly, but it was already a disappointment. As Jeane latched onto him, it was weird seeing an older girl with this kind of handicap, he dealt with it for the time being.

"Everything is red, but..."
"So you can see something. Your becoming more independent by the second, thats a relief I guess." He said freeing himself of Jeane's grasp. "More importantly, this information waiting game should be ending pretty soon."

He gave a bit of a dismissive wave and the 16 year old began to walk off from the group for the second time now. "No use in waiting around here guys, lets keep moving."

"Dexter."

He stopped in his tracks, and turned his head around looking over his shoulder. "What is it now Jeane?"

"Could you...i don't know, just wait a second? Your ridiculously calm given whats going on-"

"Typical girls, reading too much into the situation and stressing THEMSELVES out beyond whats actually happening. Look, I don't like standing around doing nothing, at least I'm trying to make progress by scouting, it's not like I wasn't prepared to come back or something, geez, relax will you?"

"You want me to relax when I can BARELY see?? Before just now I couldn't see ANYTHING at all! We don't know where we are, whats going on, we don't even remember anything either, how can you be so calm knowing all of these things??"

Dexter sighed, and gave a full turn around. "Because even if I can't remember anything, my personality is just bold, independent, strong-willed, the situation becomes irrelevant because I'm not sitting on my butt freaking out, rather looking for solutions. I get that your worried, but whats anyone going to do against a group like ours, I'd like to see it. Besides, what are you doing right now other than wasting your energy arguing with me?"

Jeane was in disbelief at how stubborn he was being right now. "If you keeping going off on your own, your going to get lost, or worse. Thats all I'm saying Dexter. Try to remember at least there is a group with you, shouldn't we be coming up with some sort of plan?"

Dexter smirked, "Look at you, I like that suggestion, ok lets make a plan. Ball's in your park J9, rather than that, lets hear what everyone think's we should do."

"We should probably check our phones again, there might be new information since we're all here now. Thats a start."

"Ok. Anybody else got any more bright ideas?"


------------------------

Well he understood one thing. Everyone here besides Sync, seemed to be off their rocker, and the lackadaisical collected simply shook his head. The aroma of smoke and burning was traveling through the collector's paradise, and already felt a surge down his spine as Silver professed the first meal of the day was "ready". Well, of course it was prepared, for no one to eat it that is (hah!).

Rien laughed, Blaster basically threw them to the wolves.

"Guessing he's still salty about the hands he caught from me and Vandiken last phase, oh well, we're on our own here Sync." (LMAO!) The day ??? collector snickered to himself and turned to the hole ripped open by Silver.

Turning on his heel he proceeded to rest his hand on the back of his neck, a shortcut huh? He indulged for once, because life was everything, survival was absolute here. There was no other reason for being here than to solidify this fact and he knew this to be his mantra.

I think we'll be skipping breakfast today 'Mom' besides, Blaster pretty much sent us to do some of the heavy lifting, if you could even call it that...eh. I have no idea what I'm saying, but i'll go first." Rien said as he blindly stepped through.

It seemed rather quiet, somber even, the floor was surprisingly...gone? Wait...wha-.

"What the fuck!!!" The sound of his voice traveled across the city as he fell straight into a pit fall. What better way to troll them then to basically send them to their deaths by fall via portal. As if it triggered something in him, he acted almost immediately, throwing his hands up and watching paper purge from his palms binding together until he formed an open bag shaped parachute and began to drastically slow down his descent.

"You can't be serious...Sync! That last step is...yeah don't take it!" he screamed upward as he landed on a horizontal flagpole sticking out of the skyscraper he just fell from. His paper parachute then proceeded to scatter into smaller and smaller and smaller particles until they were completely obscured from visibility.

Rien looked down, he remembered Enix-City like it was yesterday. All he cared about was survival at the time he spent going through the last cycle, and that didn't change. There were some really powerful fragments last time he played, one of which kind of disappeared and was never confirmed to be erased, promoted, or to return to their old life. Unfortunately that person wasn't...well, the most stable individual to put it mildly, it wouldn't surprise him if they attacked current fragments or collector's alike without any rhyme or reason to it. He then thought about Van's decision to go back home, when he remembered what was most important he made the conscious decision to go home.

Sitting on the pole now, he started to daydream, almost completely missing faint yelling from somewhere down below.

"--Before just now I couldn't see ANYTHING at all! We don't know where we are, whats going on, we don't even remember anything either, how can you be so calm knowing all of these things??"

It was far enough away from them, but the sound bounced off walls. Their exasperation and confusion hit close to home. He couldn't believe he had to harass people, but he'd do it for however long was necessary, just as Blaster did to him.
 
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Story Keeper

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~- Feel the Same -~

Siam smiled a little at Shiro, being able to tell that he was nervous. Reaching out a hand, she almost placed it on Shiro's arm when she stopped herself. Following after Shiro, she helped Alice guide Anna toward the gate. This type of action felt familiar, almost as if she'd done it before. Stepping through the gate, Siam was briefly blinded by the light as they were transported to...an alleyway? Looking around her she saw the graffiti on the wall and listened as Shiro asked, "Is this...art? Something about this is...familiar."

Another smile spread across her face, enjoying the sight of Shiro seeming more comfortable than he was beforehand. Only for a strange glowing light to appear in his pocket, raising an eyebrow at that, Siam was about to comment when Anna dragged her attention to her own pocket. Pulling out a sticker she frowned at it for a moment, it had a design on it but it was faded to the point she couldn't make it out. Watching as it drifted up and floated to her shoulder, see watched as it fazed into her skin. Surprise widening her eyes, she could tell that there was other "stickers" that just attached themselves to other parts of her body.

Feeling Anna squeeze her hand, Siam gave a quick squeeze back to reassure the girl next to her. She listened to the argument that Dexter and Jeane got into, or at least she was assuming that was their names by what was said. Glancing at her phone to see that there was no new messages, Siam heard Dexter ask for suggestions, and she had one alright; but she didn't think it'd do them much good if she said it. She glanced at them again. Focusing on Anna, she signed into the other girl's palm, "I'll be right back, okay?"

Anna nodded in answer, letting Siam move away to approach Dexter she said, "My name's Siam. I'm not seeing any new text messages...yet, but that doesn't mean it won't show up. In terms of what we should do, i think we should do a mix of yours and Jeane-was it?- ideas." She glanced at the girl in question's direction, before she focused back on Dexter. "We should find out what's going on, maybe scout the area, but we should do it in a minimum of groups of two. Also, not all girls stress for no reason." She knew she shouldn't have thrown that last bit on, but she couldn't stop herself, something about it seemed right.

She knew she was talking too much, and then Anna commented, by mere coincidence, "You three should get over here, it's best to be together so if there's any hostile forces they're less likely to overhear our conversation."

Surprise flashing across her eyes, Siam glanced over to see that the other girl was still rooted to her spot, and that she was just staring at the ground. Siam was positive she was at a disadvantage, so how had Anna known to comment? Shoving the question to the back of her mind for now, Siam looked at the other two teens and waited to see what they had to say.

~- Keep Your Head -~

Anna didn't move from her spot, not because Siam was missing but because Alice didn't seem to want to move. She was aware of where everyone was, the colors in her head kept swirling around. She could see that Siam was talking to two other teens, she called out a quick suggestion, advising the three of them to move back toward the main group. She saw a new swirl of color appear around Siam, and it made her smile a little bit. She knew she'd have to explain it as soon as Siam was within a distance where she didn't have to raise her voice.

Spotting Shiro via of colors, she took a couple of steps toward him only to hesitate. She didn't know how she'd communicate, especially with the fact that she still couldn't hear or see. She fidgeted a little with where she was standing, and she wasn't sure about the others, but she was painfully aware of where whatever had been in her pocket had attached themselves to her body. Feeling Alice lean against her leg, she reached down and gave the dog a quick scratch behind the ears.

Despite knowing it wouldn't do any good, since she wouldn't be able to hear the response, she repeated, "Seriously, everyone get closer so we can discuss what we're going to do. I'd like a plan in place before we carry on with this crazy thing that we've been forcefully dragged into joining. Hop to it, people."

~- What the---? -~

Sync just listened to the conversation around him, watching as Blaster got up and left the room he wasn't quite sure how to react to it. The smell of burning food made him want to wrinkle his nose, but he didn't do it because it would have been rude. He wasn't Blaster. A polite smile spreading across his face, Sync grabbed a hold of the burnt offering bag and gave a quick thank you. Watching as Rien went through the shortcut first, Sync heard the yelling and did a mental facepalm. He remembered Rien a bit from the last round, they'd both been Fragmented, and he heard that Rien was just determined to survive the Fragment run; so Sync was floored when he learned that Rien had chosen to become a collector.

He was almost about to follow when Rien started flipping out, yelling for him to watch out for the last step. Eyes widening in panic, Sync backed up a bit and decided he was going to follow Blaster ins----.

"Move your ass Fresh Meat."

Sync felt a foot get planted in his butt before he was kicked out into the open air space, yelping from surprise he shouted back to Blaster, "Tsume!"

Calling the wind to him, Sync felt his descent slow as he got wrapped up in a cocoon. Flying down in a controlled fashion, Sync allowed his mind to wander for a couple of minutes until he got closer to Rien. Landing down next to him, yet far enough away to give the other new collector some personal space, he could heard a snippet of conversation.

"--Before just now I couldn't see ANYTHING at all! We don't know where we are, whats going on, we don't even remember anything either, how can you be so calm knowing all of these things??"

His eyes darted in different directions, trying to pinpoint where the origin of the voice came from. Brushing it off as best as he could, Sync focused back on the city as a whole. It still made him feel sick, but that's to be expected with everything. He was aware of the fact that during the free fall session, the "lunch" that Silver had somehow vanished. Dismissing his current train of thought, Sync looked back up toward where the other collectors were. "It's official, we're screwed. They're all nuts, especially Silver and Blaster." Sync mumbled, not even thinking about the fact there was someone there with him.

"Although, I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that Blaster is the most naive of us." Sync added, before a confused expression crossed his face at the comment. Why would he say something like that? He's seen Blaster and nothing of the collector suggested him being naive. He kept half his attention directed toward the outside world, but the rest of it was turned inward so he could try and figure out why he'd say that.
 

Hazen Gregory

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These days, Topsy had a different role in the games. Yes, it was true that he could do basically anything that he really pleased but this time around he wanted to do some player testing. It wasn't often that there were anomalies during the games and yet 5 games in a row, there had been disturbing sticker developments and events that apparently had been completely out of R.3.M's control. It meant one of two things.

The first would be that R.3.M was getting bored and lessening his restrictions during the games, which was plausible but not very likely. The second was more likely, that +H3y were working harder than before. Topsy didn't mind getting into a battle here and there if he got some kind of challenge from it, it was simply observation that showed Th3Y were ALWAYS a challenge.

"Oh crud." Topsy rubbed his wrist, displaying a holographic message which he glimpsed at, then closed the message. "It looks like the first testing stage can begin." Topsy stood up from his sitting position on a lavish bed with silk sweets, pillows strewn all over the floor. He was inside the Enix Hotel on the first floor, so Topsy didn't feel the need t use the zipper for traveling purposes. Instead, he turned and looked into the mirror, peering at himself, grinning. "Heh, lookin good bro." The mirror image of him was silent, showing only the smile Topsy wore on his face. Already, the outline of Topsy's entire form was covered in a shroud that looked like mucus fused over his form. A gleam lit up dully on Topsy's right thigh, fully revealing a long tattoo of a 5 armed Goliath carrying a moon.

As Topsy strode out of his hotel room, the pillows that had been tossed about the floor righted themselves onto the bed with a "swish". The door clicked when it shut behind Topsy. A blur shot through the hallway of the hotel's first floor, the pictures on the walls rattling about, one of them hanging sideways as the blur continued then through the luxurious hotel lobby. Topsy 'appeared' then, smiling before moving through the exit. Outside, the entrance of the hotel was about 2 city blocks from the hotel, 2 if you could climb and jump the barb-wire fence that divides the Hotel Area from the underground entrance to the graveyard.

"Amidst the bowels of the earth and the rock at my feet, summon static denizen and let them eat."
Topsy clasped his hands together and knelt down, a small spell circle formed around his kneeling form, releasing a reverberating shock-wave that was very faint but still very noticeable. "Hmm, I could have done better with that spell but who's judging anyway??" Topsy shrugged, chuckling as the first static he summoned began to appear. The creatures arose from the ground and even buildings in the general area, their static edges glimmering with a chrome shine. Up close these creatures looked humanoid but walked on all fours. The bodies seemed to be made of some combination of rock and metal. Each face had an over-sized mouth with teeth at jagged angles.

From this direction and that, the static began to come for the fragments, snarling and shrieking. The static didn't move much faster than a toddler having a tantrum. In this case, the toddlers were blood-thirsty, dangerous and had teeth that looked like metal shavings.

~~~~~

"Hmm??" Rain had become lost in her own thoughts again. Her head was actually starting to hurt from literally thinking so hard. She'd never actually been in a situation like this before that she could remember, and not remembering anything didn't help the process.It didn't take too long to realize that trying to rewind back to a point you didn't remember was EXTREMELY difficult. At first Rain thought that if she looked around the area a little bit, something might come back to her. There were so many things happening at once that realistically, the best option was to let everything unfold and stay calm. Whoever was doing this must have several reasons for why there were so many random attributes within the group. "Or not??" Rain sighed, circling back around to the edge of where the alley ended, she could see that the pair from earlier were only a few meters away.

The two were chattering about something when she looked down t an object on the ground that was glimmering. Without even thinking about it, Rain picked thee glowing object up, finding that it was a sticker. There was nothing on it which didn't surprise Rain that much. She figured that the glow would make the sticker appear or something cool would happen but then before she could take another look, there was a soft but forceful jolt through her body. It was such a strange feeling that Rain was unable to find more than one word to explain the feeling. "Completed??" That wasn't the term that settled with her. She had to rethink it. "Balanced??" Looking back down the alley, Rain could see the others were dilly-dallying a bit. She really couldn't blame them, the alley itself was at least two normal city blocks. It looked like it was a wrap around extension from the large building nearby. It was probably a restaurant at some point but now it was clearly run down. Rain thought this was a bit odd considering how nice the rest of the area looked. In the slight distance loomed an even larger structure. A gigantic neon sign read "ENIX HOTEL".

Rain's hand tingled, she looked at it t see there was a purple infinity sign on her palm, which was actually part of a scary smiley face. "Okay?? That's interesting,I think??" The diagonal line that went through the symbol's (eyes?) was strange."This all just keeps getting crazier and....." Rain was interrupted by a distortion on the screen surface of her cell phone that was in her hand. It seemed like the entire screen was rippling but expanding at the same time in an impossible display that Rain couldn't explain even though it was happening within the palm of her hand. Fear was a modicum of the true terror she felt when a shadow walked right past her, only a wicked, monstrous grin breaking the shadowy silhouette."The hell?!?!" A small burst of panic spread over Rain when she saw a screen appear like a display over her eyes, she could see a button panel that only had a single option...

[ACTIVATE FORTINBRAS]

With such limited options, Rain didn't want to have a bad encounter with the wraith, or ghoul or whatever scar thing she'd seen just then. It was probably a better idea to move forward rather than backward if she was going to be of any help to herself or the others. This was something that she'd been thinking from around the time of waking up with the others in the parking lot. She figured that the sticker was going to help in some way or other and this was somehow part of the sticker. The details were merely lacking.

"Umm?? Here goes."

Rain 'pressed' the button, causing a bright glare of light to spread across her vision. "Hello child, I am Fortinbras, do you need assistance??" A sinister sounding voice rasped just beyond Rain's ears, just loud enough for her to hear it. Shivers rippled down her spine much like her phone screen had done before she first saw the screen. It was as confusing as was interesting. Rain had ignored the voice for the time being, seeing that her panel touchscreen had changed. There were three different options, one of them was grey and couldn't be selected. Rain tried picking it several times which to her surprise caused a raspy giggle to sound in the same voice whom offered assistance before. This happened each time the option was chosen. While [LEVEL UP] wasn't a choice, she still had two other options. They were [LIGHTSABER] and [GRIN]

Rain pondered pressing one of the other options but resisted, reading her new text message. It had been both vague and cryptic, displayed in the same annoying style from before. "Defend ourselves?? From...what??"

The raspy voice voice chuckled again, showing the grin that had scared Rain before. In the immediate area Rain could almost make out a body but there were zero features other than the grin and a black grotesque hand. "From those dear." Only a few feet from where Rain stood, a small monster burst from the ground and turned toward her. The small body twitched and convulsed while it moved up right then rushed toward her. Something like instinct set in, causing Rain to press the [LIGHTSABER] panel. The grin spoke again, "Very well child, take the crystal." Rain looked slightly perplexed for a second before the grin laughed at her saying, "From my hand dear."

"Okay, I'm still not on board with all this yet." Rain hastily snatched the crystal, gasping when her hand turned black, covered over with a sheen of illuminated darkness. A lightsaber formed from the crystal handle Rain held, amazing her for a second. She noticed that the display from before was still active and scrolled down, reading a description of her current panel. It was complicated, or at least that was the way Rain felt about it. Time seemed to have slowed, as Rain seemed to have read the panel in the same second the static attacked her. "Whoa!!! That's so lit!!!" She hopped forward and input ^v^, swinging her weapon upward, catching the static a third of the way across its head. Her blade came back down and the static clawed at her but missed. Rain felt energy well up in her as she flipped forward, smashing the static into the ground. Anyone around her could see the word
SOMERSAULT

The wounded static creature shrieked and exploded in a burst of static. Rain raised an eyebrow and ran back toward where she saw Jeane and Dexter, there were three nearby static, one Rain aimed at and moved toward it, causing it to leap toward her. "Shit!!!" She screamed, her sword extended outward, impaling the static which dissipated from the blade. Taking another look as the blade returned to its original state, Rain thought to ask the voice what the sword was made from later on when things cooled down a bit.

~~~~~

Less than half a block away, Topsy continued his stroll down the street toward where the alley opened out, he was interested in the three closest to him, he saw two young women and and another teen, Dexter. He recognized him from the file immediately. "The hell with it, I'll start with him just to set things off." Topsy yelled to Dexter, "Heyy kid, get your hands up, I'm trying you out first...." Topsy ran down the street, gaining speed until he blurred from being visible, then appear two feet from Dexter, his body already in motion from a spinning kick thrown toward the teen that was followed by a rapid succession of a tripping kick and back-flip. Topsy bounded back and high into the air, throwing down a multitude of white lighting bolts. The tattoo on his forehead aglow.
 
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Endless Warrior Sora

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Shiro examined the sticker in between his fingers before it quickly dissipated in a flash of light. Feeling a sharp but brief pain accompanied by a slight warmth, it appeared that the sticker had fastened itself on the back of his right hand, still touching the wall of graffiti.

"What the..." He murmured to himself. Looking around, everyone else had the same quizzical expressions on their face, each colleague examining some part of their body. Clearly this wasn't just happening to him. Taking a closer look at the sticker, Shiro noticed that it was still pictureless, just a shape on the back of his hand. This was...strange. He did what any normal human being might do in that situation. Reaching his other hand over, he gently lodged a fingernail in between the sticker and his skin, attempting to remove the sticker.

"Ouch! sssssssshhhhiiiiieeeeez..."He seethed. The sticker refused to come off. And any attempt at doing so resulted in extreme pain. Like, worse than ripping a bandaid off. And when he tried to take the Sticker off...it felt like it was ripping his mind out of his skull at the same time. Sooo he wouldnt be trying THAT again any time soon. He felt his body temperature begin to rise. He was getting nervous. One crazy thing started to happen after another. What was going on??? Something snapped his attention off of his hand:

- your going to get lost, or worse. Thats all I'm saying Dexter. Try to remember at least there is a group with you, shouldn't we be coming up with some sort of plan?"
"Look at you, I like that suggestion, ok lets make a plan. Ball's in your park J9, rather than that, lets hear what everyone think's we should do."
"We should probably check our phones again, there might be new information since we're all here now. Thats a start."
"Ok. Anybody else got any more bright ideas?"

It was an argument between two of the others in the group. One seemed pretty blunt and straight forward, while the other, the girl seemed more empathetic. Shiro felt like the should step in until another chime from his phone interrupted him.

"Well, ask and you shall receive right?" He joked to the group, trying to diffuse the tension. Shoveling his pocket for his phone, a tap on the touchscreen brought up the message on the Talkio.

R3@ch ROOM 707 of the ENIX HOTEL t0 r3ciev3 y0ur firs+ MEMORY. R3f3r t0 y0ur MEMORY MAPP for g30gr@phica1 l0cati0n. Us3 y0ur STICKER t0 d3f3nd y0urself. G00d Luck.

"Ugh. Seriously, this is so dumb. It's prolly more complicated to text like this. This dude is going out of his way to be annoying." He muttered, scanning the message. The freckle face raised an eyebrow. Some of the words were typed out normally. And his first...Memory? Does this...whoever this person is physically HAVE his memories? How...how was that possible?

"This...this isn't funny. What do they mean 'first' memory? Does that mean there's more of my memories just floating around somewhere?" Shiro spat. More of HIS memories, that HE didn't know about. Were they stolen??? Seriously, what was going on?!?! "Enix Hotel?? Memory Mapp? What the hell?! This is getting ridiculous!" His frustration wa mounting. It was...surprising. Shiro didn't exactly know where it was coming from.

TSSSSHSHSHSSHSHSHSHSHSHSHHSHSHKSSSHSSHSH....

The sound was faint at first, but began to grow louder as if something was coming. Shiro's heartbeat began to pump faster. He got nervous all of a sudden. He felt...on edge. Unsafe.

"Does anyone else...hear that?"

"Whoa!!! That's so lit!!!"

A creature burst from the ground, directly in front of the girl named Rain! She now wielded a glowing...sword? And her hand took on a new color of black. Shiro began to sprint toward her, and he could hardly make out some blur appearing in front of the guy and his girlfriend but soon two more of the creatures appeared from the ground in front of him , blocking his path to them.

"Uwaaaaah! What the?!" He exclaimed. Adrenaline kicking in, Shiro threw a punch at one of the creatures. Only his fist just passed through the creature and a jolt went through his body. Jerking his arm back, he scrambled back a few feet.

"Aaaaaagh what the hell?! It shocked me!"

Shock was a light way to put it.It felt more like his fist and arm's cells were disassembled and reassembled going through the creature. And the same brain being ripped out of the skull feeling accompanied it. What was he supposed to do?! Was Rain the only one who could fight these things?! Clenching his jaw, Shiro scanned for Siam and Anna.

"Siam! Anna! Run!! I don't really know how to stop these things!!"

Shiro, backing away slowly, scanned the area for a weapon of any kind. If he couldn't physically touch them, then maybe something else could.

"Guys...we have to get out of this alleyway! It's too cramped, we're sitting ducks in here!"

He put his hands up, and in doing so, brought his right hand with the sticker into his peripheral vision. Wasn't there something in the text about using the sticker to defend yourself? How the HELL was he supposed to do that?! Maybe Rain had done it already, and that's how she fought off her creature?

He spent too much time thinking. The two monochrome creatures jumped at Shiro, jagged teeth snarling. Shiro put his hands up defensively, but could feel the glow from his sticker on his face. Something solid materialized in his hand. Feeling it out, he pressed the nozzle at the top.

KSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSST!

The sound was...anti climactic. Followed by small wimpers, Shiro opened his eyes to realize not only was he fine, but whatever he did seemed to stun the creatures.

"Dope! I dunno how I did that...but I did that!" He grinned, celebrating his small victory. "How...uh...did I do that?" He mused. Looking in his hands he saw a white spray can. His face fell.

"Awwww come on, seriously? She gets a...neon sword and I get a spray can?! How is THIS supposed to stop them?!"

Before too long the creatures were back on their feet and on the prowl...stalking Shiro and their prey.

"Um...will anybody judge me if I asked for help right now? Like...call me a wimp or anything? Cuz if so, I think I'd rather die by these things than embarassment.."
 

Eternal Dream

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~- Lost in the Static -~

"Tsume!"

Wait, was Sync yelling at him? Blaster couldn't help the bark of laughter that escaped him at the kid's yelp; comparing the older Collector to a wolf wasn't really that far off on the kid's part. Maybe Sync would prove to be some fun after all.

"You know, a picnic does sound good," Blaster muttered. Still ignoring Silver for the most part, Blaster continued, "And I think that the short-cut's the way to go for lunch." Blaster jumped through the doorway that Silver had created, not at all surprised that the Witch Doctor's "short-cut" came out just outside of the parking garage, even though he appeared several dozen feet in the air. Blaster braced himself, sending out a stream of fire from his palms at the last moment to slow his fall. Blaster didn't quite get how he could use the flames to slow his fall; he thought that thermals and heated air had something to do with it, but he didn't understand how a device that birds used to help them fly kept him from turning into a pancake. All he knew was that it worked, and it got him down to where Sync and Rein were just as Sync was grumbling about Blaster and Silver.

"Careful there, Fresh Meat," Blaster growled softly at the green haired Collector. A slight curve of his mouth showed one of his canines as Blaster scoped out the Fraggies below them before he let out a soft whistle. "Hot damn, we sure got a lot of girls this time, didn't we? You boys might be able to find a bit of sweet meat down there for yourselves."

"I do, and I think Ally does to. Are we in some sort of club together?"

Blaster's eyes were drawn to the speaker, a girl with blonde hair standing next to one with black hair. A little away from them, he saw a redhead dig into the pocket of her jeans to pull out a sticker of her own. He saw the redhead look over at the other two and say. "Stickers? Yeah, I got some. But what kind of club would that be? Seems kinda lame."

The familiar sound of static filled the air as some of the monsters appeared near the Fragments. Blaster snarled softly as he recognized them. "Great, Topsy's out this damned early? Be just our luck if that bitch Siren'd show up, too..."

What's wrong? You aren't afraid of that thought, are you dear?

As if, Blaster bit back mentally. Even as he shut the Rage down, the Collector knew he'd rather face off against Topsy, even the R.3.M himself, before he had to face Siren again. There was just something about that bitch that set him on the edge of falling into madness; at least she was high enough in the rankings that she rarely showed up on the streets, not to mention that it seemed as if a Game had to have a particularly spectacular cast for her to even show an interest in it.

Shaking off the mental blocks, Blaster muttered, "Okay, time to get this show on the road. Pay attention, Freshies; make sure the ones you want don't run off on you."

Blaster dipped into the power of the Rage, his eyes flashing from amber to solid gold. He growled again, but this time, the noise didn't sound human at all. It was guttural and feral, the sound of a tiger on the hunt. His eyes remained trained on the Fraggies, but Blaster saw Sync stiffen slightly in his peripheral as the newer Collector recognized the tactic that Blaster had used on him during Sync's Fragment run.

The reactions came almost immediately. Of the three girls that Blaster had spotted, the redhead froze, while the blonde whipped her head around, trying to locate the source of the noise. The girl with the black hair, on the other hand, suddenly found a flash of light emanating from the sticker she held in her hand, before the light dissipated into a shield in her left hand and a small bronze dagger in her right. She seemed startled for only a moment; then she collected herself and shouted, "Who's there? Show yourself!"
 
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Ðari

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Dexter was closest to the opening of the alleyway, the door was still there in his line of sight. After the light show from these "stickers" or whatever they were, he was getting a strong sensation of danger, unusual so. Jeane clung to him even now, but it was starting to get irritating, as his phone pinged to Shiro's input, as well as Jeane asking to double check, they were quickly given an objective.

"Enix-Hotel? Wherever that is, but it's something." He said reaffirming quickly. More interesting, where the woman in the body suit that didn't have pockets, found her sticker just ahead of them. Get this, it actually responded to activation, Dexter drew question marks on the inside of his head, but quickly shook it off at the sound of a detrimental shriek, and the snarls of "creatures."

"The ground...somethings below us! rrrrghhhh!" Jeane shouted quickly before covering her ears, the shriek was worse on her hearing, amped from being brought in blind.

"Great, now things are getting lively around here. Hope you've got plans Shiro!" Dexter shouted, he turned his head and pushed Jeane to his left as he leaned to the right. One of the creatures jumping towards them with flaring anger, and a beam passing between them. 'Rain??' she deliberately dove for an assist, dissipating whatever the thing was.

This wasn't unraveling well for any of them or even looking good. Dexter quickly began to think on his feet, the alleyway only had one exit, he turned forward as if to gesture to move this way, but before he could even speak someone was yelling from aways at it's opening. He looked rather chipper, but no "random stranger" is just suddenly going to appear, let alone an adult, and instantly Dexter didn't conform to trusting it at random.


"Heyy kid, get your hands up, I'm trying you out first...."

Dexter was absolutely thrilled, well, the understatement here was fairly clear. He didn't understand the concept of what Rain just did seconds prior, or how Jeane could somewhat see. His body was stiffed, as he locked eyes with the random stranger who bolted towards him, he was a short distance, but he quickly faded quickly. His adrenaline spiked as somewhere in the next second he was already on, his heart accelerated as he leaned and hopped to brush against the alley wall to avoid getting his face lobbed off by the kick and sliding kick. The brick felt...cushy? As if he was padded with some sort of rubber to reduce the hit of the friction, he didn't understand, but he watched as he jumped upward.

"It's time to go Je- Huh?"

She was holding what looked like a rifle, a sniper rifle of all things?

"What the hell is that??"

Her aim was cast straight upward towards the man, shooting straight past the orbs, three hitscan fires, in a span of 1.4 seconds. She bustled into a roll, and threw the sniper with a belt onto her shoulder and grabbed Dexter's hand, as she didn't aim for any of the falling orbs, but to weaken the support of an overhanging billboard just above the alleyway, and it was slowly beginning to creak and fall over the man's own head.


"Guys...we have to get out of this alleyway! It's too cramped, we're sitting ducks in here!"

"Runnnnnnn!!!!!" She screamed hustling onto the street, fleeing from both the hostile male and other things that sprouted from the ground, as well as the falling billboard.

"Hey! What the hell's the-, do you even know where your going??"

She pointed at a large building in front of the alley, basically across the way where the man stood before. The sign read "Enix-hotel", but how could she possibly know, was this sticker bs really starting to kill her crippling handicap?

"Guys don't wait around! Hurry up!!!" Jeane said bursting through the rotating doors of the hotel and winding up in the lobby.

She was panting vigorously, she looked over at the door and adjusted her hearing to be on the alert. From where she was standing she could see that they did take notice to what she said and began to move, the question remained could they get here before a roadblock could happen. Everyone was already so scatterbrained and confused as it was.

Dexter looked around the lobby, walking just away from Jeane, to which she noticed immediately.

"You can't be serious Dex, I don't know what just happened, but are you-"

"Thinking about getting to the seventh floor?"

She had the most serious and agitated glare written all the way across her face. Panting from running she was nearly out of breath, if not for this passive trait from one of the stickers she had, she wouldn't be able to really see much of anything at all. It was like being in a grid ultimately, but everything was red, both solid, and wire framed, the density of the hues were still something she didn't full understand. And that rifle she used before, clutching her shoulder.

"Give them exactly 60 seconds. They might very well have to use the outside of the building to proceed if something happens to the entrance or they get stuck."

"Deal. Also, whats up with that rifle and...is that a grenade on your hip?"

"Guessing you didn't think anything about those stickers we all "found" apparently, their supposed to be tools for staying alive. Did you not receive something?"

Dexter rubbed his left thigh, remembering the cushion he felt. A lighting darted around his body almost like a rubber-like coil, and shaped into a cyan rod. He was perplexed, didn't get it, but he had something.

"Don't really know what this is, but it's something more than I could've used before." Dexter said examining the rod further.

"Christ...are boys always this dense and nonchalant? Ugh, whatever Dex, you should be taking the more seriously. That guy always wrecked shop with you."

He couldn't hear what she was saying, dabbling at his phone, trying to pull up the "memory map app" mentioned in the text message. It looked like something of a tracking system of some sort. There was a floor map of Enix-Hotel, and as he scrolled up and down, the floors changed, until there was a massive red dot on the seventh floor, must having some significance of being important. The blue dots on the screen...was that them? How? Unless...was it the phones? Was that how were found so quickly.

"Jeane...do you think the reason we were discovered so quickly, is because of our phones?"

"It's possible. That text said something about a memory map right? What is it?"

"A global tracker...but it looks like it only effects areas related to our memory? I'm just speculating here."
 
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Story Keeper

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~- Time to Leave -~

Siam hid her annoyance at Dexter for ignoring her, shaking her head she started to walk back toward Anna. Pausing midway there, she fished out her phone to see what the new message was when one of the other girls commented, ["I do, and I think Ally does to. Are we in some sort of club together?"

"Stickers? Yeah, I got some. But what kind of club would that be? Seems kinda lame."

Siam glanced in their direction, recognizing the second speaker as being Selene, the red head that she'd kind of spoke with. The dark haired girl looked vaguely familiar, and the blonde was a complete stranger. She thought about going over to talk to them, when the sound of static reached her ears. Tensing at that, she was set even more on edge when a low, menacing growl sounded through the alleyway. It sounded way too much like a tiger on the hunt. Getting ready to bolt toward Anna, she felt a hand land on her shoulder. Glancing back to see who'd done it, her eyes widened a little in surprise as she saw a girl with dark hair and grey eyes standing behind her.

"You should go with Harm and Selene, I'll look after the others. You can trust me, I promise."

Siam didn't know why, but something told her that she could this other dark haired girl. Hopping away from the dagger wielding girl, Siam felt a warmth spread along her left shoulder and over to her right arm. A pair of slim daggers appeared in her hands, and in front of her a small purple orb appeared. Out of it a doll dressed like a Gothic Lolita materialized, her dress a dark purplish-black and she had black feathered wings. When the doll glanced back at her, Siam saw that the doll's eyes were red in contrast to the doll's fair skin and white hair. The doll made a scoffing motion, before it focused on the canine-like creatures that appeared before them. Siam stared at the doll for a few moments, before her brain registered that one of the static like creatures had gotten to close.

Slashing out, she watched as it dissolved with a shriek. Glancing at the dark haired girl, she commented nonchalantly, "Meet us at the Enix Hotel, 'kay?"

She saw the girl nod, and Siam turned on her heel and bolted toward the blonde and red head, a part of her hating the idea of abandoning Anna to fend for herself. She saw the winged doll had followed her, knocking away staticky creatures from her. Slashing at any that the doll couldn't keep at bay, Siam jerked her head in the direction of the hotel as she ordered, "Move it."

She didn't give the girls a chance to answer, banishing her daggers, Siam grabbed both of their hands and ran in the direction she'd seen Dexter and Jeane disappeared in, somehow avoiding the knocked over billboard sign she made her way over to the hotel. She released the other two girls from her grip and pulled out her phone in one fluid motion, scrolling through the apps she found the one called memory map and opened it. Seeing that it's a type of gps thing, Siam bit back the desire to scream because apparently they were dealing with a bunch of creepy weirdos.

She couldn't see the alleyway that they'd come from, and it looked like the hotel was a little closer. Glancing at the girls she'd dragged along with her, she smiled sheepishly and said as nonchalantly as possible, "Sorry about that." Tapping her foot, she noticed that the doll kept flying around, almost like it was scanning the surrounding area for threats. She was about to say something to it, but it whipped around and glared at her, almost like it didn't want to hear whatever was about to come out of her mouth.

Stunned, Siam quieted down for the moment and tried to think of how to keep herself and the others safe. Hearing the soft flapping of wings, she looked up to see the winged doll was floating in front of her. She didn't move as it reached out and cupped her face, staring intently into her eyes she could tell that it was trying to tell her something but she couldn't figure out what it was. Then just as sudden as the softness in the doll's expression appeared, it faded away and the doll drifted away again, her eyes cold and harsh once more.

Siam glanced at Harm and Selene, trying to figure out what they thought of that crazy reaction from the doll. Looking to the hotel, Siam continued walking toward it, making it clear that she wanted to keep moving but at the same time she wasn't just about to abandon the two she'd been asked to look after.

~- No, time for a bit of wind. -~

Anna felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, her skin felt as if it was electrically charged and Alice was pressed against her leg almost as if she was afraid. Reaching out a hand, she gave Alice a quick scratch behind the ears; letting her fingers move down Alice's neck and into her shoulder area. Here Anna's fingers were greeted by raised, stiff fur and she could feel the vibrations of some sort of noise in Alice's shoulders. Everything about the border collie screamed danger and tension, setting Anna even more on edge. She remembered feeling something attach it to her skin, and she felt the sensation of her phone (she still didn't understand why she had one) vibrating in her pocket.

She hated the fact she was at a serious disadvantage. She tilted her head to the side, seeing disjointed blotches of color in her mind that she wasn't sure if they were correct. Noticing the solid palette of color that was Alice, and that the hackles were raised along the spine, Anna watched as the canine rushed forward started attacking the odd blotches. Surprise making sightless eyes widen, Anna couldn't explain why, but some sort of instinct made her spin to the left. Feeling warmth spread along the area of her right wrist, Anna sensed the change in the air in front of her. She felt it whipping her hair around her, an idea coming to her mind she tried to mentally direct it toward those little distorted blobs of grey, white and black. Watching as it reached them, Anna smiled a little as the wind seemed to pick the blobs up and threw them away from her in different directions.

Backing up a bit, she glanced around to see that she was next to her. He seemed to be holding something in his hand, and she saw his aura gave the illusion of his lips moving, but she couldn't quite figure out what he was saying. Feeling Alice press against her side again, Anna sighed in mild content and continued directing the wind at the weird little color blobby things.
 

Endless Warrior Sora

Return of the Kid
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"Runnnnnnn!!!!! Guys don't wait around! Hurry up!!!"


Aaaaand everyone was leaving. Footsteps filled the air as his comrades sprinted out of the alley. At least they listened to his advice. It didn't really look like that was going to matter now however. In that moment, a strong surge of wind barreled past him, tossing the creatures from midair and out into the street, where the impact caused them to dissolve. Looking behind him he saw, Anna with her hand stretched out. A small gust of wind danced around her hand, only being slightly visible in the way it displaced the air around it. Anna and another girl with raven colored hair were the only ones left in the alley by his mental count. Looking above them, a sign was falling on a distorted figure in the distance. If they could make it out in time, that could be used to their advantage.

"Anna! I'm practically useless here, but if you could cover us on the way out, we might be able to make it!" He called to her. He looked over to the black haired girl who if he remembered correctly (as if he remembered ANYTHING correctly at this point) was named Ally. "You in? We gotta get out of here. Anndddd it looks like you're better equipped than I am. My spray only seems to stun them."

He didn't have time to wait for their responses. However, the lack of recognition from Anna was kind of discomforting. "Hellooooooo! Anna! Can you hear me?? ANNNNNNAAAAAAAAAA!"

Shiro waved his arms around. Nothing. Someone must've forgot to tell him that Anna was both blind AND deaf.

"Great, she's turned into a statue. We're all gonna die." He grumbled. With a click of his teeth and a clench of his jaw, he took a pointer from Siam. Grabbing Anna's wrist, the one with the wind wrapped around it he braced himself for whatever crazy plan he was about to put into motion. "Anna, if you're in shock or whatever, I'm gonna tap your wrist during some moment. When I do, do that wind thingie you did earlier and blow these things away."

He tapped her wrist twice with his index finger. Praying to dear God that she got the message. "Like that, okay? And then youuuuu, do this!" He gently jerked her hand forward and brought his fingers together in the palm of his hand, he pulled his hand away, gesturing the wind motion, complete with "wshhheew wshhheew" sound effects.


"Alright Ally, watch out backs. We're about to charge our asses all the way outta here." He grinned. Looking down toward Alice, who was growling at the creatures he gave the dog a smile. "Alright, Alice! The future of our next 10 seconds rests on you. No pressure. You in, girl?" The dog barked in response and Shiro grinned even wider. It was nervous, but carefree. "Alright, I'll take that as a yes."

"...Run."

Shiro turned to look at Anna, the source of the voice. He grinned and nodded.

"LET'S NOT DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" He screamed, charging and rushing forward, dragging Anna along with him. Three of the creatures began speeding toward them as two more jumped down from the rooftops behind them. In the front, Shiro tapped Anna's wrist twice, and a gust of wind struck the two creatures sending them out of the way like puppets on string,

Making it through the doors and into the lobby of the hotel, Shiro relinquished his grip on Anna. Putting his hands on his knees, he attempted to catch his breath.

"Well...that....wasn't too bad was it?" Shiro panted between breaths. "So this is the Enix Hotel, huh? Looks pretty fancy. From outside it looked like it had a million floors. Why put the memory in the seventh one? Wouldn't it be more difficult to like, put it at the top or something?"

Shiro was right about the Hotel's extravagance though. It was a five star hotel, the floors wer every polished and a fountain decorated the middle of the lobby. It seemed no one was there at the moment except the receptionist, who even then didn't seem to notice the group. It was...odd. He pulled out his phone and tapped the "Memory Mapp" icon.

"Cute." He scoffed as the screen displayed a ground plan of the Enix Hotel, each floor being accounted for. Several blue dots were shown bunched together, which Shiro assumed represented him and his new companions. One red dot was displayed on the seventh floor, corresponding to the text message.

"Okay, so I guess we just...go to the seventh floor? It can't be THAT easy can it?" Shiro called to the group.
 
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