I'm Here Now... Where Ever Here Is [OPEN]

[Rapunzel]

Pascal crawled from one of Rapunzel’s shoulders to the other, back and forth, back and forth. Rapunzel knew he was just taking in the scenery, trying to find something that was any kind of familiar, but she still wished that he would stop. She kept walking at a slower pace, hands behind her back, and her head down. She had been walking almost non-stop since she had ended up… wherever this was. This place was a forested area, but it wasn’t her forest.

”You’d think trees were trees, but these are not the ones I remember.” She mumbled. Pascal looked to her, stopping on her right shoulder. Seeing her mood going down, the small reptile came and nuzzled her face. Rapunzel stopped walking and automatically petted Pascal. ”Thank you, Pascal. I know, I’m not exactly Ms. Ray of Sunshine right now.”

The Lost Princess and the chameleon looked at each other, smiling, albeit sadly, but still smiling. Rapunzel then looked up and took in her surroundings one more time. The trees were almost unsettling, they were so different. The place wasn’t unpleasant to be in, it was just that feeling that it was an entirely different world that bothered the young maiden. After having seen new maps and the like in the library at the festival, she knew that the world was a big place.

”But this doesn’t feel bigger…. This feels newer.” she said aloud. Pascal nodded in agreement before jumping off of Rapunzel’s shoulder. He crawled over to a small pond and began to take some drinks. Rapunzel rolled her eyes and walked over there. ”Hey, Mister, we should really stick together.” She pulled the majority of her hair towards her, before sitting down herself. And sticking a finger in the water. It was cool to the touch, but not unpleasantly so. She smiled, getting an idea. She brought her skirt up to a little past her knees and stuck her feet in the water. She giggled, and Pascal just shook his head, but he was smiling, too. The young maiden kicked her feet in the water, causing a small amount of splash.

”I guess it’s not all bad. I have to look on the bright side. Cooped up in a tower for eighteen years and now I finally have some leg room.” She kicked and splashed again, laughing this time as she got herself wet. She tucked a bit of hair behind her ear and gave serious thought to going for a swim to cheer herself up, but she felt a tugging on her hair to her left. She looked down and saw Pascal, furiously tugging on her hair, but not looking at her. She gave him a confused look before turning back to see what he was gaping at. Whatever it was, it was brown, wore clothes, resembled some sort of pig, but most importantly, it held a mace with very unpleasant-looking spikes all over it.

She stared at it. It stared at her.

She stared at it, and it stared at her.

The whole situation was confusing for all parties involved, so Rapunzel did what Rapunzel did best in situations like this.

She gave a high pitched squeal and slammed her frying pan into the face of the pig-man-thing. The forest seemed to ring with the contact that the cooking ware made with the face. Rapunzel didn’t bother to see if the creature had been rendered unconscious; she gathered up as much hair as she could, as well as Pascal, and ran to the nearest tree. She climbed it with ease after the huge dose of adrenaline, and then perched herself high, high, high up on a branch, and then she pulled up her hair. When finished, she was breathing hard, heart racing faster than she thought possible, and her eyes were as big as plates.

”Mother said a lot of things, she warned me about a LOT of things, and she might have exaggerated some, but ohmigawd why didn’t she mention man-pig-things? That seems like VERY important information!” she spat out to no one really. Pascal was breathing just as hard as Rapunzel, and his eyes were almost as big as hers. After calming down and moving some hair out of her face, Rapunzel got the courage to look down and see what had become of the odd looking creature. It was sprawled on its back, very clearly unconscious. Rapunzel held the trusty frying pan closer to her, and quietly thanked it.

She squealed in fear when she saw man-pig-thing move, giving a pained groan and sitting up slowly, rubbing its no-… snout. Oh no, nonononono. Rapunzel was too frantic to come up with an escape plan. Things were just too weird all of a sudden.

[Vivi]

The littlest mage had been making his way through the area quite lost. Once again he'd managed to fall through some sort of dark and eerie portal into this strange new place. He had landed in a forest and the portal had disappeared behind him. Looking around, Vivi dusted himself off before he heard a squeal and a thud that sounded pretty solid... metallic even.

Curiosity bid the mage to follow the sound and he stepped forward with only a bit of apprehension, peeking through the undergrowth at the girl hugging a frying pan. His hat stood out over the bush comically as his large glowing eyes blinked out from behind the foliage.

She was pretty. Being around Zidane had taught Vivi a certain appreciation for female beauty. She had big green eyes and long golden hair. Vivi wondered if the girl was any relation to the genomes; she had a glowing quality to her.

The tiny mage looked down at the pig creature and felt... unimpressed. Lets face it, once you've camped and journeyed with a Qu, these kinds of creatures weren't that ominous or frightening. Now a creature who has no gender and eats anything that doesn't eat it first? THAT'S terror.

Vivi then noticed the tiny green creature the girl had with her and felt his curiosity zero in on the tiny creature. Blinking his big yellow eyes, the tiniest mage put a finger up to where his mouth should be.

"H-hello." The little child said timidly. "W...What's that..." He pointed up at the green lizard thing quietly, trying to quench his thirst. Vivi turned then as he heard a noise. The pig creature thing sat up and looked around, very confused. Vivi looked back at it.

The pig sneered at him and snorted. "Mmnn..."

[Cloud Strife]

Cloud had been nearby when he heard the squeal of a girl. Grabbing his Fusion Sword and sheathing it Buster Sword style on his back, he swiftly made his way towards the sound of the frightened cry. He had just arrived in this world for recon, seeking to find out information on Heartless (as in numbers, what kinds, etc) to take back to SquallLeon in Radiant Garden. Why was the chocobo haired warrior doing recon? He had to do something, or he would die of boredom. This also gave him the opportunity to seek out his remaining friends.

He looked down and suddenly saw a girl smack what looked like a walking boar in the face with... a frying pan. A rare smile crossed Cloud's face. This girl has got guts. Hand on the handle of his sword(s), he stepped towards them as the pig stood, snorting angrily and waving it's flail around in it's fury.

That is, until it saw Cloud. It turned and saw the man, his sword only half drawn, his Mako eyes glowing in the shade of the trees. The pig's eyes darted from Cloud, to the sword, and then back to Cloud as it then proceeded to smack itself in the face with it's mace, and run away squealing. Cloud sheathed the sword the rest of the way, and addressed those in front of him with his Mako gaze. A girl, late teens, really, really long blonde hair, frying pan, some kind of lizard... and her eyes betrayed a sense of being lost. Another victim of the Heartless? Perhaps, but only time will tell.

He then looked at the Littlest Mage. Young boy, looks to be seven or eight, glowing eyes like a Heartless, but... this little one doesn't have the permeating Darkness that emanates from the Shadow Heartless... and those eyes weren't blank and senseless like the Heartless, they actually had feeling. In the couple of seconds Cloud took to survey these new people, he nodded.

"Sorry... saw you were having some trouble..." he crossed his arms, and shifted his weight to change his stance, so he wouldn't look so threatening (because, folks, when you walk up to Rapunzel looking like Cloud, panic might just happen), the sword clinked against the buckles of his scabbard as he moved and awaited a response from the two.

[Rapunzel]

“H-Hello… W…What’s that….”

Rapunzel gave another squeal at hearing the other voice and fell from her tree. Her hair was looped around the branch she had been perched on, thankfully, allowing her to snag it and use it as a rope in order to catch herself. Essentially, nothing she hadn’t been doing for years on end. Pascal was dangling on a strand of hair as well, holding on for dear life. Slowly spinning around to see the Littlest Mage, Rapunzel’s eyes remained wide and surprised. The question was not registering in her mind at the moment. She had to process the small child in front of her, or what appeared to be a small child. She couldn’t see his face at all, except for two glowing eyes. It was weird.

Pascal narrowed his eyes at the tiny mage before jumping off of Rapunzel’s hair and crawling quickly over to Vivi. He gave the youngling a look over, before nodding back to Rapunzel, deeming the Gaia-resident suitable and worthy. Rapunzel slowly let herself touch ground and gathered her hair back to herself. Tucking some hair behind her ear, she realized that the child had said hello and appeared to be asking about Pascal, of all things. Had he not seen a chameleon before? To be fair, Eugene had refused to acknowledge that Pascal wasn’t a frog or some other type of lizard/amphibian.

”Hi…. He’s a chamel-!” She heard man-pig-thing’s snorting, turned around, and immediately held up her frying pan in a ‘I know how to use this! Beware!’-type of way. She had almost forgotten about the creature, how was that even poss-?

That was a really big sword, so the frying pan remained held out in front of her “threateningly.” She forgot entirely about man-pig-thing, again, with a sword that big in clear view.

“Sorry… saw you were having some trouble…”

Rapunzel was not able to return to ‘at ease’-status until she looked at the other blonde man for a good while. She looked past the sword, noting his dark clothes and his odd hair cut (not that she could say anything about anyone’s hair, ever). Pascal, who was still over by Vivi, gave a reptilian growl and crawled into the space between Rapunzel and Cloud, protective of the golden-haired teen. Rapunzel bit her lip in thought as she determined if Cloud was a threat, not entirely sure. Alright, if your journey so far has taught you anything, it’s to trust your instincts, Rapunzel,[/color] she thought to herself. Overall, she didn't feel like he was a threat to her. He looked better kempt than the Snuggly Duckling thugs, and they were sweethearts. Maybe he was similar…?

Slowly, very slowly, she lowered the frying pan and allowed her demeanor to become more relaxed, though still obviously on guard. It was starting to be a weird day on sooo many levels already. Pascal was still remaining between the ‘SOLDIER,’ and the Lost Princess, growling unimpressively.

Rapunzel gave a turn to look at Vivi, and then glanced back over to Cloud.

”…Thank you….” She looked between the two again. “I feel like I got way in over my head at some point….”

[Vivi]

Vivi watched as the spiky haired man approached and dispatched the pig monster thing. Looking up at him, the littlest mage wondered who it was that was wandering around with a huge sword and such an intense gaze.

He was quiet as the girl with green eyes and very long hair looked up at the man and thanked him. Vivi bobbed his head in a bow to the man too in thanks, even though Vivi had felt no fear from the creature.

"Th-thank you, sir. B-but be sure to watch out for the things with the shadowy faces and the yellow eyes... th-they seem to invade places really fast when they show up..." Adjusting his hat, the tiny mage looked up at the man with glowing eyes. "My name is V-Vivi. I-I'm a b-black mage."

Vivi's childish voice filtered up to the two taller people and he looked back around the forest. It seemed strange, to the mage. It wasn't like the forests back on Gaia...

"...I guess I'm not back on Gaia anymore..." he whispered to himself quietly as is eyes once more settled on the little chameleon. Vivi admired the little thing's bravery and it's curly tail as it walked around between Rapunzel and anyone else. Like any little boy, lizards and the like fascinated Vivi. Particularly when, even though they were so very small, they were so very fearless.

[Cloud Strife]

Cloud looked between the two. The littlest Mage, and the reluctant Princess. He, however, hadn't seen either of them before, but he had enough time to survey the situation to realize they weren't enemies. If the girl had more than a frying pan to defend herself with, he would have just turned, hopped back up to the ledge, mounted the nearby Fenrir, and drove off, journeying to the next world in his search for Sephiroth. He had been fruitless, and decided to get off of the motorcycle to stretch his legs. Lucky for him, it wasn't a Heartless invasion, nor any large monsters he would have had to pull his gloves off to fight. Just a girl, and a mage.

He looked over to the west, in the direction of a Castle he saw, and nodded. "Follow me, and I can take you to a Castle near here. They seem hospitable and kind, and would most likely give you a place to stay for now." he said, looking back at Rapunzel. He nodded to the girl. "I'm Cloud. Cloud Strife. I'm a delivery boy, traveling around. What's your names?" he asked, looking between the girl and the young Mage. He remembered SquallLeon's words, to keep the worlds a secret, to not allow others to learn of the world's existence, so he stuck with his delivery boy story... it was the best way to keep people from knowing that he came from a world where heroes unlike him existed and could cut both this girl and the little mage to ribbons without a second thought...

Not a good things to share on the first impression.

[Rapunzel]

Watch out for the things with shadowy faces and the yellow eyes?

Completely overlooking the ‘invade places’ part, Rapunzel looked down to the mage, wondering if he realized that he kind of just described himself. Her brow furrowed a bit, giving the youngling a longer look, but she still couldn’t find it in her to see him as malicious. Her traveling with Eugene had taught her to trust her heart, probably the most important lesson she had ever received. She gave a sigh and tucked some hair behind her ear and relaxed. She watched as he adjusted his hat and looked up to the darkly dressed man.

“My name is V-Vivi. I-I’m a b-black mage.”

”What’s a black mage?” Rapunzel wondered aloud, but mostly to herself. She watched as he looked around the place and she noticed that she seemed as lost as she was. Odd. Was everyone lost here?

Pascal gave another growl towards Cloud, which brought the flower-child’s attention back to him. She listened as he offered to escort them towards a Castle, saying that they could probably stay there for awhile if they needed. Rapunzel smiled at the Planet-hero and nodded, before going over and picking up Pascal. He chirped in protest and shook his head towards Cloud. Rapunzel put him on her shoulder despite his protests.

”It’s okay, Pascal. I get the feeling we can trust him; It’s like the Snuggly Duckling.” Rapunzel said, mostly to just Pascal, though not exactly lowering her voice to indicate so. Pascal gave her his most annoyed look before putting his tiny ‘hand’ to his face and shaking his head. Rapunzel rolled her eyes, but put her attention back to the apparent delivery boy when he introduced himself. She raised an eyebrow at that, and looked at Pascal, who seemed to mirror her own disbelief. She didn’t get out much, and wasn’t exactly sure as to what sort of work delivering was, but it didn’t sound dangerous enough to justify carrying a sword that big around. Still, stranger things have happened, she supposed, as she had gained a whopping forty-eight hours out of her tower. Yay, experience!

”I’m Rapunzel and this is Pascal.” she said, motioning to the chameleon. Pascal just leered at Cloud, before making obvious gestures that he was keeping an eye on Cloud. Rapunzel looked towards Vivi and smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, Vivi,” she turned back to Cloud, “And you, too, Cloud. Once again, thanks for dealing with… the thing earlier.” Remembering man-pig-thing, Rapunzel began to unconsciously fiddle with some strands of her hair. What had that thing even been, anyway? Well, if they got to the Castle, Rapunzel would probably be able to rest without as much worry.
Then it hit her.

He had said ‘Castle.’

”You said there was a Castle nearby? How close was it? Was there a Bridge to get to it, was it surrounded by water? Was it off kinda on its own on an island? Lots of boats?” She had rushed Cloud, suddenly at his side and pelting him with questions. Could it be Corona? Maybe the Kingdom wasn’t as far off as she had thought, though she still felt worlds away from any thing familiar. If it was Corona, then maybe she might be able to find Maximus, her mother even, but most importantly Eugene….

[Vivi]

"W...Well a black mage is..." Vivi started before he realized what he was about to say. He was quiet for a moment before responding. It was probably not a good idea to admit that you had been made to be a weapon of mass distruction. "A black mage is m-me. I-it's very nice to meet you Cloud, Rapunzel and Pascal." At this same time Vivi put a hand to his belt to make sure his stave was safely tucked away against his side.

The littlest mage then looked up at the man and the girl before looking around. He didn't know where he was. As nice as it was to meet Cloud and Rapunzel... Vivi looked like a Heartless. This Castle might be full of guards that don't like how he looked or what he could do because of how he looked.

"M-maybe that's not a good idea..." He whispered to himself, mostly. If the royal family was like Queen Brahne, then they'd have lots of guards. Vivi didn't feel like fighting people who where trying to defend their homes. It gave him a bad feeling. Like he was a bad guy. This guy with the yellow hair didn't seem to match his surroundings at all.... But the girl... she might fit in here. Maybe it would be a good idea to take her to the Castle.

"B-besides... I don't think we'll all fit..." The tiny mage pointed at the motorcycle while taking a step back, trying to hide that he didn't know what that thing was, let alone if it was safe to ride. "M-maybe you should go on though..." Vivi looked up at Rapunzel.

"Y-you might find someone at the Castle you know." Vivi knew there would be no one at the Castle he knew, and the risks that he might cause trouble with his face were ever present in his mind. He'd already been in a few worlds where he'd been made known as unwelcome for his shadowy appearance and short stature.