in defense of our dreams {open}

[Morgana Pendragon]

Never let them see your fear. Fear would be immediately exploited; an enemy who meant real harm would not hesitate before striking. These were the things Morgause had taught her, and she clung to them now like they were the only thing keeping her breathing. In a way, they were. In this strange, loud, overwhelming foreign land, nothing was familiar - all she had to depend upon for her survival were the things her sister had taught her. Wits. Manipulation. Magic. ..No, she could not use magic here, could not take that risk - she knew that already. Surely, whoever functioned as the authorities here would have her immediately arrested. And what would follow, inevitably, would be her execution, if the ruler of this land was anything like Uther.

She narrowed her eyes at the thought of her dear guardian, so prejudiced and narrow-minded that he would have countless people killed rather than admit he was wrong about the nature of magic. It could be used for good, Morgana truly and firmly believed that. But first, she would need to use it for an inevitable, unavoidable evil: to kill the king, and any who got in her way of restoring Camelot to its rightful state. This was what her sister had been training her for over the past year - and the young witch was fiercely determined to find away to return to the land she knew as quickly as possible so that she could complete the task she'd been trusted with.

First, however, she'd need to get out of these strange city with its ridiculously massive towers and horrid overpopulation issues. She'd taken shelter in this...sort of island of tranquility that existed in the city's midst, this 'central park'. She would not be able to remain there for long. Already, Morgana had noticed that the people of this realm dressed in some bizarre, other-worldly fashion - and that she, in her long black gown and traveling cloak, stuck out rather obviously. People kept giving her these odd looks, looks that instinctively made her bristle. Even here, people had retained the tendency to frown upon anything that was different. Morgana did not wish to shrink away from them, to appear weak or frightened, but it was instinct that kept her close to the trees, putting a good distance between herself and anyone else passing through the park. Her bewilderment at having been thrown into this place left her in a state of muted shock, and she kept her head down as she moved along - until the sight of something so wonderfully familiar caught her eye and made her pause.

A line of carriages had gathered along the side of the street in front of the park - and attached to all of them, horses. She gave a muted sigh of relief, finally a mode of transportation that would allow her to leave the city as quickly as possible. She hesitated only a moment before approaching a man who was currently feeding one of the horses, and dipped her head slightly in greeting to him. "How much will you take for the horse?" Morgana asked him, her voice quieted, almost subdued - allowing this stranger to underestimate her seemed to be in her best interest now, in case he proved to be dangerous. But the man's response was only to snort at her.

"Ain't for sale. They belong to the company. ...What's with the get-up, anyway? There a renaissance fair in town?"

Morgana was fairly certain she'd only understood about half of what he'd just set, so she...chose to ignore most of it, reaching for the small pouch she carried with her. "I will pay you in gold." she told him, holding out a hand to reveal what she thought to be a reasonable amount of gold pieces for a horse like this one. He blinked.

"Look, lady, if you want a ride it's cash only -"

"I do not want a ride, I want a steed." Morgana interrupted him sharply, fixing him with a piercing green stare. "I need to...I just want to leave, as quickly as possible."

"Then, uh...call a cab?"

What was this nonsense he was spouting at her? She had no time for these - the crowds of unfamiliar, absurdly dressed people were putting her on edge, and she felt exposed and vulnerable being so openly different from all of them. At least in Camelot, she'd been able to hide her magic, hide the fact that she was different. But now...she shook her head impatiently, her expression hardening. "I have no time for this! I've offered you a fair price for the horse, and you have plenty of others..."

"Lady. Get. Lost."

They stared each other down for a moment, and Morgana met his gaze unflinchingly, scowling at his unreasonable defiance. She had half a mind to pull her sword on him, but with all of these people around...well, that would probably attract more attention and trouble than it was worth. So it was with great reluctance that she eventually turned away with from him, trying to retain as much dignity as she could as she pointedly stalked past him and out into the street. If he refused to help her, then she'd just head further into the city and find someone who would -

And suddenly a loud screeching noise pulled her out of her thoughts, followed by an even louder and obnoxious beeping. Morgana startled as some sort of large, mechanical thing stopped just sort of barreling right into her - it had been going so fast that it would have probably been capable of running her right over! And there were more behind it - more everywhere, the streets were full of them, and there was a man inside the one that had stopped in front of her. He was angry, yelling at her - yelling at her because she'd gotten in his way? She hadn't meant to, but nobody had warned her of these mechanical monsters that roamed the streets, and taking all of this in now was...more than a bit overwhelming.

So Morgana allowed instinct to take over as, like a scared animal, she hurried towards the sidewalk at a significantly quickened pace.

[Michelangelo]

Ah.. the afternoons in New York. It was always busy in the City that never sleeps, and we are not talking about Las Vegas. Out during the day, was Michelangelo, the cool and most radest of the Ninja Turtles, wearing his iconic trench coat and fedora to hide himself from the people of New York. Its not like Mikey wanted to hide, its more along the lines of he had to, cause the world was not ready for a mutant turtle that carries weapons and can fight better than most people. This allowed him and the other turtles a chance to move around the city, without using the sewers.

As Michelangelo walked, he was always watching and listening to what was going on, and int he world now, a lot of things was going on; people were arriving who were different, like out of the various movies, tv shows and comic books. And it seemed that the world was accepting of some of them, but it was still hard to really walk don the street, cause you might be called a monster and be attacked by the various heroes that were now here.

Still, this gave Mikey a chance to relax and pick up some food, pizza of course, but his mind was side tracked, when he looked up and saw a lady walk out into the middle of the street and almost get hit by a car. The look on her face was enough to tell Mikey that she was either A) lost and B)... lost. Shaking his head, he watch her return to the sidewalk and he approached her. "Excuse me," he said to the lady, Morgana. "Are you ok?" he asked her as he stood near her and waited.

[Morgana Pendragon]

It took Morgana a moment to realize that someone nearby was addressing her - but when she did notice the...well, what she assumed to be a man, though she couldn't make out many features due to the trenchcoat and hat...standing nearby, she immediately turned to him and tensed. Rather put off by her recent (and very first) experience conversing with the people of this world, she just sort of automatically expected this encounter to be unpleasant as well. Had she done something else wrong already? Or had she merely drawn too much attention to herself? Morgana was going to go ahead and guess it was the latter, because now the man seemed to be asking her whether or not she was alright - probably a question that had been prompted by her nearly getting herself killed by crossing the road just now.

Morgana hesitated before answering him. On one hand, she'd had it drilled into her head during her training to never express any form of weakness - especially when you had no idea whether who you were speaking to would try to exploit it or not. She had no idea whether she could count this man as an ally or foe, but, as it did with everyone these days, her initial instinct told her not to trust him. Yet at the same time, she was so completely overwhelmed by this strange new land she'd found herself in that she wasn't sure whether she had the capacity to hide how disoriented she was right now. Perhaps it would be better to...carefully indulge this man in conversation, see how much he knew, and decide whether or not he could help her - without opening up to him too much, of course.

She pulled her traveling cloak a little more tightly around her and gave him a brief frown. "I am..." she began before trailing off briefly, uncertainty making her pause before she voiced her next words. "...not..entirely certain where I am." Admitting this probably sounded completely bizarre - but Morgana relaxed (or at least appeared to relax) slightly as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders anyway, giving a brief, awkward sort of laugh. She'd certainly gotten herself into a fine mess. She just hoped that this man wouldn't think she was completely insane, and that whatever king ruled over these lands would be tolerant of a stranger's (albeit accidental) presence here. More than anything, she simply longed for something familiar, something to take comfort in...but the more time she spent here, the less certain she became that there were any similarities between this land and Camelot at all. And they would certainly notice her absence back home - and after she'd just been 'reunited' with her dear guardian Uther, too. The fool was probably yet again putting all his time and energy into looking for her. Such a selfish king he was, to put the needs of one person above all the rest in his kingdom - and Morgana did not feel moved by his concern, knowing that if he ever discovered her secret, he would cease to care for her in an instant. He would despise her, only because she had magic.

The very thought made her anger briefly reignite, but now was not the time for that. Forcing it away again, she focused her attention on the matter at hand. "I know how strange this must sound, but I couldn't even tell you how I came to be here. It happened so suddenly..." Her gaze drifted across the street, back towards the park she'd just come from. "What is this land called?" She asked suddenly, turning back around.