A river flows in you [Jin, PM for invitation]

[Era]

A small bell jingled as the glass door to the shoe shop swung open. Era waved to the store owner. "Thanks again," she glanced down at her boots. They had just been refurbished, and they were looking splendid. The grey-haired fellow behind the counter smiled at her - a young upstart whose presence just seeped light. The old man's expression was so richly seasoned, and his eyes showed the wisdom of his years in business. "If you like what we do, tell a friend," he nodded as she waved and made her exit.

From the other side of the glass he watched her scamper a few feet away, check the pockets of her pleated black skirt, tap her new travel pack and continue on her way.

Era's frost blue eyes scanned over the bright lights of the town; Traverse Town's lights were part of its homey attraction. Her gaze scanned the district with aloof ease, then lingered to one bench in particular on the lower level and her countenance fell. The memory of resting alone on that bench, singing to herself had rushed back to her. The thought of the redheaded maverick she'd gotten acquainted with... and the hole in her heart that encompassed all of her worry for him. It all made her so sad now - was he really gone this time? Or would he resurface somewhere, somehow?

He'd battled against slim chances to come find her in the Castle of Darkness. Could she not do the same for him?

She had bigger goals, sure. And she knew she had to live outside of herself and her own dreams and ambitions.. that the battle to be fought was so much bigger than her own circle of important people, but she was still able to plan a side-trip while on her way through the bigger scheme of things wasn't she?

The girl walked quietly over to her familiar bench - the one closest to the Gizmo Shop, and took a seat on its welcoming wooden planks for the second time in quite a long time, and she looked up at the stars in memory of the song she had hummed here so long ago.

[Jin]

He was there one second, and the next he wasn’t.

Perhaps one of the strangest sensations a person could feel was the feeling of falling while attempting to get to sleep. A smart person would simply chalk it up to the brain reacting to the relaxation of muscles and thinking that it was actually falling due to some mundane psychiatric jargon, but Jin could safely say that no amount of explanation would stop making the sensation of falling while laying down in his own bed any less disturbing.

Still, suddenly experiencing the same falling sensation when in the middle of a battle against a horde of creatures with unknown class or order was different. Suddenly waking up in the middle of an alleyway was both different and much more unsettling. Years of being on the run from a corrupt government that had gone mad with power in the middle of a technological revolution had made him privy to unexpected occurrences, of course. Still, he’d never simply been pushed aside to an unknown location before.

’Now hang on a second. Take a breath. Calm down. Whatever they did to you, you can get back.’

A deep, slow inhalation and a barely audible release of the drawn breath sounded from the boy as he took to the roofs of the nearby shops, wisps of vapor escaping from his mouth due to the cold. It was winter here, as opposed to the early Autumn Tamnia had been in. Jin favored the cold, though. He felt at home in it more than he did in the scorching heat of summer or the brightness of spring. Dull winter days where the temperature dropped and grey clouds hung overhead suited him much more. Plus, who didn't like snow?

Further investigation revealed that he was in a town of some sorts, but where it was escaped him. Even with all the traveling around he typically did, he’d never come across a place quite like this. Sure, there were cities a little more technologically advanced than others, but the odd mix between the stone walkways, stained windows, and neon signs wasn’t something you saw every day.

The first thing he needed to do was get his bearings. There was no better way to do that than to do a little exploring. Perhaps he could find the exit and get back to the others. He’d probably find some way out eventually.

He didn’t though. He found himself completely boxed in by building after building all in a row. Wherever this place was, he wasn’t allowed to leave by normal means. Now the panic was starting to set in, and he was getting desperate. It was time to start talking to people.

The nearest sign of life at this point was a girl sitting on a bench just outside one of the shops. Despite being on the rooftops, the orange haired male found it fitting to leap off, dropping rapidly to the ground and yet somehow managing to land softly. Taking the next few steps over to the girl, he began to speak.

”Excuse me, but do you know what this place is?”

While Jin was never one for the niceties and subtler nature of conversation, he found that often times adopting manners would keep the locals – whether they had powers or not – a bit more cooperative with him. Hopefully the same patterns would apply here.

[Era]

As she hummed, the stars twinkled: one, then another. She squinted as one went out. Memories tugged at the back of her mind and she reminisced on the life she knew and the friends she had made thus far. The pictures projected in her mind's eye flowed from Rook and Jason, to Shiro, to Hero and Renzo... and Vapor. She'd made so many friends, and she had wondered where they had gone. What were they doing with their lives now? Would she meet them on the path she'd chosen for herself? Were they all still all right? And what of that pact she'd made with Rook and Jason?


"You'll stay..?"

"Sometimes... we all need a little help from an outside source to leave the darkness... And come back to the light. No matter what the case, no matter what the cost... I will always be there when you need it most."

"Then let's do it. Jason, Rook. Let's make an oath to help each other fulfill our goals, and not give up until we've completed them."

"...All of them. No backing out. No uncertainty. No secrets."

Frost blue eyes watched the twinkling white lights so very far away. Her humming had gone silent during the latest memory of her pact. Just what had become of that? She hadn't given up. In this moment she'd resolved to find them and tell them about her newest extreme plan; hopefully they'd be willing to come with her, as it was her newest goal.  And goals were supposed to be covered according to their pact. 

Era crossed her arms, one hand rubbing the black glove sleeve, looking to generate friction for warmth. She drew in a breath, then exerted it in a cloud of warm white vapor.

The chilly atmosphere that had settled over Traverse Town was new. Her memories of this world had been of a warmer town, with no dusting of snow. No icicle hanging from shop signs or window sills. But, the cold, while annoying, wasn't necessarily detestable. It wasn't what she was used to for sure, but the cool had its own charm. There was a certain magic that snowy weather brought to the world. It was the only weather that brought silence upon everything it touched.

And as such, with the atmosphere the way it was, what sounds did exist were amplified in the frigid world of ever-night. Her head turned a forward-swept mane of orange hair as she heard a shuffling rhythm on the rooftops. It got closer and closer, until a character popped into view.

Watching him, she had found it odd that he was so agile as to fall to the ground with such grace and ease as not to make a clatter of the scene. Her eyes picked up the puff of snow flakes that had kicked up on the stranger's landing, and the first thing she'd noticed about him was that his hair was about the same tint as her own; it was a rarer trait amongst individuals - at least those she'd come into contact with, and she might've wanted to comment about it, but he'd come out with a sentence before she could.

”Excuse me, but do you know what this place is?”

She contemplated his answer with a blink, then her glance pulled itself back toward the sky. It may have looked kiddish, but she was just putting it together. Was his home the star she'd just watched fade out?

Her gaze fell back onto the orange-haired stranger. Era's initial countenance was light and chipper. "This is Traverse Town: a coalescence of several worlds and cultures... It's -" she thought for a moment about how to word this. He had presented himself as a new arrival to Traverse Town, so how would she break news to him that his home, his family his friends... might all be gone now?

A more somber tone took root in her words. "...It's where people who've lost their world usually end up," there. It was frank, but gentle ...ish.

[Jin]

Tamnia was a cold world. Because of this, the chill in the air wasn't entirely unfamiliar to Jin. Still, he'd barely noticed the drop in temperature from where he was before to when he ended up here. The heat radiating from his body in a post-fight rush as well as the adrenaline had dulled his senses to discomfort. In fact, his first clue that it was actually cold here was in the walk over to Era as well as the small moment it had taken her to turn her head to face him and give him her response. He'd seen her breath, and then realized he could see his own as well. He noted he might have to find a jacket soon unless he could keep himself warm just through his electric energy.

He was used to receiving odd glances in towns like this, but she didn’t seem to think his presence around her was odd at all. Between the orange hair – not unlike her own, he supposed – and the swords around his waist, most people could find out pretty easily that he wasn’t exactly a pacifist. Back home, it was also pretty easy for people to assume he was the enemy. This wasn’t the case with this girl, and that could only mean one thing.

Something had gone very wrong.

”Traverse…Town,” he intoned, the name rolling off his lips. The alliteration hadn’t slipped past him, either. He was so used to hearing the typical continent names. Leviterra, Sorqa, and the like were all fairly common stops for him. Still, despite his limited knowledge of geography on Tamnia, he knew that there was nowhere officially recognized as Traverse Town.

His realization that he might not even be where he was supposed to be anymore wasn’t helped by the fact that it wasn’t supposed to be snowing anywhere in Tamnia during this part of the year.

Lost their world. That was certainly a vague response. Had this girl meant losing their world in a spiritual sense; that this place was alive and would draw in those who had lost their way on the road of life? Was it more physical? Tamnia certainly wasn’t gone – the spark in his chest still screamed otherwise. No, Tamnia wasn’t gone. Or at the very least, it wasn’t dead. Besides, even if he was really gone from his planet – his “world,” he supposed they called them here – that didn’t mean that the rest of the people were. There just wasn’t a way a place as big as Tamnia could just up and vanish without him even sensing it.

He almost laughed at the statement before remembering how impressionable people could be to that sort of thing. He didn’t want to go and shove some sort of offense in the face of this person, not while there were still things he would like explained in more detail to him. Instead, he managed to stifle it to merely a chuckle.

”I’m sorry, but I don’t think you understand just how impossible that seems. I would have sensed something if the planet had really just vanished. Moreover, there was really no cause for it to happen. Perhaps if you explained things in a bit more detail, I’d be more inclined to take you seriously. Still, you have to admit that it sounds a little far fetched.”