PROLOGUE

[Captain Failson]

Welcome, my friend, to the Alliance of Hope.

You have been scouted to join this prestigious alliance for one sole, defining purpose: to destroy the blight of Despair wherever it rears its head. To spread Justice and Hope to all of the Earth, and to the stars beyond. From this world, and from many others, across time and space, dimensions far too numerous to count, we have searched. And you have been selected to be one of the founding members of this Alliance. With the world in such a chaotic state as the dimensions merge, now, more than ever, is such an Alliance actively needed, to spread Hope to all who need it, and remain forever vigi--

The remainder of the letter is scribbled out in what looks to be crayon or pencil..... In the margin at the bottom of the letter, more words have been written in, in what appears to be messy handwriting.

Upupupupu~! That was just getting repetetive! Hope is such an outdated term anyway, isn't it? Besides, you bastards won't be spreading anything to anyone except Despair! When you shake yourselves out of your stupor, go ahead and haul yourselves to the Assembly Hall! We've got a very busy first day planned, and I can bearly contain my excitement! Upupupupu!

The Hope Alliance headquarters..... Intended to be a shining beacon of Hope to the world that awaited far below, it now stood as little more than a cold steel coffin, aimlessly orbiting the Earth. A tragedy had struck, the entire facility plunged into chaos and darkness. The Director had vanished without a trace, and the occupants of the facility -- the founding members of what was intended to be a mighty, expansive Alliance -- were MIA.

Little did the world below know, however....that the Alliance's members were alive, if not quite well. Unconscious and silent within the bowels of the massive space station that served as headquarters for them, they clung to life.

As lights began to flicker back on within the station, power restored by some unexplainable feat of luck or fate, they Alliance members would begin to slowly stir, dragging themselves out of the haze of unconsciousness. Each of them would find, in their hand or close by their person, the above letter. But beyond that, they find their memories are....fuzzy. They recall.....arriving to the facility, and then nothing....merely waking up.

Slowly, they begin to fully awaken from the stupor of unconscious sleep and take full stock of their situations....

[[NOTE: Before posting, please ensure you have read the How it Works thread in its entirety, as it will provide some information that may prove necessary to know for proper posting protocol.]]

[Jetstream Sam]

..........

.............

................eh?

Sam's eyes shot awake, as he lay face down on the unfamiliar grated metal floor. Instantly, he welled up with adrenaline and rapidly went on guard. His eyes darted quickly, one shadowed steel wall to the next. Sam's first instinct was to immediately hop to his feet, but he was just as immediately thwarted by way of a sudden throbbing migraine that made him regret awakening to begin with. As his eyes began to adjust to the darkness of the room, he felt that extra burst of fight or flight die inside of him, replaced with a feeling of inconvenient and disgruntled sobriety. Never the less, Sam resolved to at least get to his feet, and with a certain marked sluggishness, did just as much. The feet of his exosuit made contact with the ground, and the sound of metal on metal made a pronounced "clang" echo out over the breath of the room...

...or at least would of, had he been equipped with his exosuit.

It took a moment of grogginess for this to register: but after a short period of head rubbing, the realization came to Sam with a sense of creeping dread. Massaging his temples, he recalled the events leading up to him coming to this place to the...

Sam looked up at the wall, and saw the defiled plaque, their personal introduction to wherever he was now.

The "Alliance of Hope".

Sam let out a bitter chuckle. Ugh, it was stupid to have even given that invitation a second thought...something as corny as all that, wanting someone like him? But there was no time for any regrets or second thoughts. He needed to get up and assess the situation. The point was, he recalled wearing his exosuit on the way here...and then waking up just now...so obviously it was taken some time inbetween then and now. Which meant that his sword...

Moving his robotic arm to the side, he realized his Murasama had also been stolen.

"...Just dandy..."

Cocking his head to the side, he read over the board one more time, before deciding to make his way out to...wherever the auditorium was. But he stopped at the door, taking a look back for a moment. It seems he wasn't the only person abducted...and scattered about. There were all sorts of people waiting back, of all kinds of shapes and sizes. Just...what was this? What was the Alliance's game? And less importantly, what kind of sound did "upupupu" translate into...was it just someone saying "up" a lot or a laugh...how the...?

Of course, one of these thoughts was perhaps a bit more towards the back of his mind than others. Looking out over the swath of people, he thought it was at least a decent thing to try and wake them up. Taking his metal hand, he slammed it against a metal wall, making a light dent and a loud banging noise, inbetween a gong or some kind of car accident. Still nursing his splitting headache and feeling quite hung over, he called out to the prone crowds in front of him.

"...Oy, whoever you lot are. You may as well get up now and ah...well. Rise and shine."

Having made his proclamation to the crowds as skillfully awkward as he could muster, Sam decided to stride off, after lingering just a moment more...with a bit of luck someone might have heard him. Nevertheless, Sam let out a pained grown: he sure as hell heard himself. Making that loud noise when he felt so out of it practically made his head spin. Regardless of how suspicious it made him look, he decided just to break off after that little public service announcement, and after checking the nearby hallway left and right, began to make his way through the cold, winding unfamiliar corridors.

Location: Assembly Hall

[Ridley Duchannes]

Crash.

The earsplitting noise made Ridley jolt awake. She scrambled into a sitting position from where she'd been sprawled on the ground, and then immediately regretted it as her head throbbed in protest. Her golden eyes shifted angrily to the source of the noise - a man with a metal arm, who seemed to have intentionally woken her up.

...Them up. He'd spoken in plural. She blinked, and shifted slightly to get a better look around - and then immediately realized what he'd been referring to. Scattered around were various...bodies; unconscious forms (though like her, they probably wouldn't stay that way for much longer). She recognized none of them; they were just...there. Lena, Clara, the Doctor - none of her friends were among them, and on top of that, this was an entirely unfamiliar setting as well. Trying not to bristle, Ridley opened her mouth to demand answers from the man who'd woken them up - but he was already on his way out, paying her no heed as he slipped out the door and down the corridor.

Gritting her teeth, the Siren scrambled to her feet and took a better look at her surroundings. On a board nearby was written 'The Alliance of Hope', and upon reading it, something clicked. The invitation she'd received - she bent and snatched it up off the ground, scowling faintly. The Alliance of Hope. What a load of bullshit. And yet, they'd...picked her. These people, who were supposedly recruiting the best of the best, had invited her into their ranks. It wasn't often that anyone actually bothered to stop and find any good in the Dark Caster, and perhaps it was that which had drawn her here. ...Or maybe it was just the fierce need to prove herself, and that she could handle an adventure independently from the rest of her group.

Either way, she hadn't bargained for this. She couldn't even remember why she'd blacked out, or how she'd been dragged in here, or by who - but it went without saying that just about everything about this was shady. She assumed that the others scattered around her were the other participants. And the man from before - she'd mistaken him for the culprit, but now it seemed much more likely that he had also been invited, and had simply woken up before anyone else. ..One thing was for sure. He had the right idea. Ridley wasn't really in the mood to stop and chat - what she wanted, more than anything right now, were answers. And the only way to get them was to follow the instructions in the letter.

With no further thought, she cast one last glance over her shoulder, and then slipped out the door in search of the Assembly Hall.

Location: Annex Hall

[Karkat Vantas]

What was this bullshit?

Karkat's first thought as he awoke was exactly that. Sure, he remembered going to some school or something, if only because Kankri wanted him to go... but he didn't expect to be knocked out or whatever and shoved into some shitty classroom. Karkat stood up from the desk he was sitting at and took a glance around the room. It was... nothing too special. Just what appeared to be an average human classroom. Karkat knew what these were supposed to look like from human television, though this was a far cry from Saved by the Bell. {:]}

It was then when he noticed that there was something on the desk he'd been sleeping at. It was a piece of paper... that's right, it was the note he got when he entered the building. At least... that's what he thought it was. His memories were blurry, especially when it came to this place. At first, the note seemed pretty normal. Obnoxiously condescending and official, but normal. At least, that's what it seemed until Karkat reached the second part. Scrawled at the bottom of the page, interrupting the first half, was a note written in... red crayon. What the fuck was this?

So, apparently, the school had entered a cocoon of douchebaggery and emerged as a beautiful asshole, ready to make it's way through the world. Reading the rest of the letter, Karkat managed to not fall into an overwhelming rage.... at least, until he reached the pun. It could have been a misspell... it could have been. But, yet... it looked like a pun. It felt like a pun. Karkat tore the note in two and crumpled up the two halves, attempting to contain his rage about being forced to read a pun - and not only a pun, but a fucking bear pun. That was the lowest of the low. He wasn't even doing a good job of "restraining" himself. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS INTOLERABLE BULLSHIT!?" He shouted to the heavens as he forced himself to not flip a nearby desk.

Then he remembered... he had to get down to the Assembly Hall. Holding in his rage as best as he could, Karkat made his way to the door and pushed it open. It led into a hallway, which he could only assume would bring him to the Assembly Hall somehow.

[Alucard]

The distant sound of a sharp clang awoke him. Behind the sunglasses that hid his eyes, they snapped open, a dull red glow gleaming behind the tinted lenses. For a long moment, he just laid there, staring into the near-darkness. The surroundings were unfamiliar to him, and he was only roused to finally get to his feet by the muffled sound of obscene rage in a nearby room.

With a swift shove, he pulled himself to his feet, staring down the hallway before him, and behind him. Definitely not familiar surroundings. The only thing that immediately caught his eye was what appeared to be a letter.....nailed to the wall, Without even bothering to tear it down, he read it in haste, and his expression twisted into a glaring grimace as he reached the end. He recalled receiving such an invitation.....only under orders from his Master had he accepted it on behalf of the entire Hellsing organization, but as he had left he....

.....what had happened? An uncharacteristic spot of blackness hung over his memory....had he just lost consciousness on the way here? That.....that had to be it....he couldn't remember anything else. He had just arrived here, and....

Not letting himself dwell on possibilities anymore, he finally ripped the letter, nail and all, from the wall and strode purposefully down the corridor, looking aimlessly for the Assembly Hall. In mere moments, he reached an intersection, directing him in the proper direction.....the Assembly Hall one way, the Storage Room to the other.

Without a backward glance, he stormed into the Assembly Hall, and after giving it a cursory once-over glance, pulled the seat set out for him back from the table and lowered himself to sit, looking thoroughly.....displeased.

Location: Assembly Hall

[Lilynette Gingerback]

Fuck, her head felt weird.

Lilynette curled up. Well, whatever. It wasn't like Starrk would make her wake up or anything.

There was something odd about that thought, but she was drowsy enough to ignore it. She would have just fallen back asleep, but there was a sound in the distance. Was that... what, Ulquiorra? Were they being attacked? Her head went from feeling fuzzy to stabs of pain as she slowly sat up. No injuries, everything seemed to be fine except for her head -

Starrk!

Where was Starrk? Screw sitting up - she scrambled to her feet, faltering a little when her head pulsed again. Fucking headaches... how did she even get one? Where was she? Spotting a letter, she made a grab for it and frowned, eye narrowing. What the fuck was this? The... Alliance? No, she remembered that - getting the invitation and keeping it a secret from even Starrk. So... so she could prove she was good at something too, even if she wasn't as strong.

Except now, she was stuck somewhere, and feeling really stupid about it.

Something felt really off - not with her balance, but like something other than her other half was missing. But maybe that was just being... scared. Not that she was really scared! No, what she needed to do was go to that Assembly Hall and then find a way out. Simple enough.

The letter still held tightly in one hand, she stalked into the hallway, and from there to the hall.

Like hell she was going to waste any time hanging around here.

Location: Assembly Hall

[Roxy Lalonde]

Now, Roxy Lalonde could rest assured in the fact that what she was currently experiencing was highly irregular for her. Ordinarily, her dreams truly were not this fucked up. Unfortunately, in Dream Land, you didn't have much opportunity to question the laws of sanity. At the moment, she was engaged in having a picnic with her bestie, Jane, the obnoxious troll girl who wanted to be a pirate(), and her cat, Mutie. However, their picnic was briefly interrupted when a resounding clank momentarily awoke Roxy. Her eyes flickered open before she quickly fell back into her dream world.

Ah! No need to worry; the clang was merely a result of Mutie hitting a ginormous gong, announcing the start of their picnic (even though they had been eating for quite some time now). Roxy had a quick second to wonder why on earth everyone had begun talking so posh and British-like when she awakened with a start. Sitting bolt upright in her chair, she noted the posture in which she had been sleeping; hunched over the desk before her with her head down. Oh, and she had begun drooling at some point; that was certainly attractive.

She didn't have long to consider her surroundings before a throbbing pain gripped her head and she hunched over with a groan. Had she been drinking again? She'd been doing so well, too. Rubbing her eyes with the heel of her palms, Roxy let out another long groan. okay gurl, think, you havent been drinking so what happened? She tried to remember, but no matter how hard she struggled, she couldn't recall the reason as to why she'd blacked out. What she did remember, however, was the letter she'd received. Snatching it up quickly, she began to read only to realize she'd used it as a pillow; drool prevented much of the letter from remaining legible, especially the bit written in crayon.

She crinkled the letter into a ball and tossed it over her shoulder. "fuck..." Looking around the room, the sixteen-year-old girl noted she was the only one in the room. Thankfully, she'd gathered enough information to distinguish that she'd come here because of hero-duty-shiz and hope-ness and what-not and that everyone was supposed to be in the Assembly Hall; whoever "everyone" was.

"well, rox better get your fine ass down to the assembly hell." Whoops. "haha im hilarious. hall!" She called out to the empty room. However, something about this place and whatever was going on was seriously beginning to unnerve her. Waking up in an empty room with the inability to remember why you were doing such a thing could really set a person on edge. Roxy steeled herself, shook the remaining grogginess from her mind, and set foot out into the hallway. Embarking on her journey to the Assembly Hall, she continued to chat with herself in an effort to relieve some of her tension.

"if i get to this meeting shindig only to find the batterwitch im throwing myself off a bridge."

[Caliborn]

A voice rung out through the classroom hallway: it was loud, deafening, and filled with stewing resentment and abject suffering. But soon to accompany it was another noise: the noise of the secondary classroom door being punted open, and it's occupant marching out. Glaring left to right, he caught sight of the screamer. Then, he launched into his own edict.

"OH MY GOD. SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU DISGUSTING DAFT ASSHOLE."

An angry, ornery voice to match and, nay, even surpass the sheer pants shittingly rage of Karkat Vantas echoed, seemingly throughout the entire complex. The angry green monster from whence it originated from promptly brushed pass Karkat, through the hallway. His footsteps made a semi-hard clang with every step on the metallic ground. His red eyes shot forward, glaring ever thusly in front of him, and his small frame moved unflinchingly to his destination. His claws were curled into scaled fists, and his fanged mouth, adorn with a singular gold tooth, was stretched into a marked, angered scowl. He growled out another angry edict before continuing down the hallway between classrooms, out of sight of the cancerous troll.

"YOU READ LIKE. A SINGLE PUN. HOLY SHIT. GET OVER IT. NOW HAUL YOUR USELESS ASS. YOU DUMB FUCK."

Caliborn had been awake for some time: and mostly bored. Having utilized his distaste for sleep, he managed to have spent the past while looking from class to class, room to room for something useful. There was a fair share of bodies, the majority of which were unfortunately alive. Stumbling upon them was a bit of a shock, to be entirely honest: and a bit of a boon to boot. He recognized some of these prone figures...there was the sleeping body of that mysterious "zapping" boy his elfman once punched in the fucking jaw. There was the unmistakable outline of a Strider in the midst of this assfuckery, like a shining beacon of almost not-worthless in a sea of completely worthless...but the most familiar face of all was that dumb bitch, Roxy Lalonde. Oooh, last he saw him, she was in England, doing...whatever the fuck it was she was doing. He recalled looming over her once sleeping body, contemplating snapping with with a single thrust of his boot...but ultimately he decided against it. Now, it would seem she was up, as when he turned the corner, he immediately clung to the wall to avoid being seen by her passing figure. Caliborn's scowl turned into a bright, predatory grin.

...But shortly afterwards moved immediately back to a frown. What the fuck was Eridan doing with an invitation to this place? It was space! What the fuck was in space?! Who even needed space. Whatever. Caliborn was unaware this would be in space. In fact, he was mostly unaware of what this place was at all. He knew it was like some kind of hope convention, but beyond that, nothing. All in all, it looked pretty lame. It even put him to sleep with it's boredom. To be honest, it didn't even seem well planned: the graffiti on the notes was only slightly better than Caliborn's hand writing. He intended to correct the shitty vandal's gutcrunchingly bad work himself, but when he found no crayon around matching the consistency and color of his shitty dead sister's corpse, he promptly gave up the ghost, so to say.

Ha. Ha. Ghost. Like Calliope was. After she died. Ha. Ha.

Caliborn was so funny.

As Roxy past, he couldn't help but groan. So she was going ahead with seemingly everyone else. Whatever. Caliborn guessed he could follow and horribly murder her when she wasn't looking in the Assembly Room. Or maybe wait a bit and see what this place was even about. You know. Before killing everyone. After all he had already done basically everyone. You know, like knock of Eridan's door alot and hope he'd answer, draw a dumb face of the English looking kid who was passed out in the laundry room: actually now the thought occured to him, he could just use that green sharpie he found to vandalize the vandal. But whatever. He decided against it.

He'd been unproductive enough already. Besides, from the sounds of things, the game was about to really start, one way or another. With a ravenous smile, he moved on.

Oh how Caliborn loved games.

Location: Annex Hall A

[John Egbert]

Lulled into a deep sleep, without anything to disturb him, John was oblivious to the world around him. Even as a certain green child-monster of seething rage had scribbled on his face, all he had really done was....lamely roll over and mumble incoherently. And he remained conked out and dead to the world for a long while, managing to remain out of it even through the noisy rantings of both Karkat and Caliborn. Muffled as they were, they still reached him....but failed to elicit even the faintest of reactions from him.

He probably would have gone on sleeping for a number of hours had he not decided to roll over....and tumble to the floor, headfirst. The unruly mop of hair in conjunction with a bundled mass of his godhood kept him from injuring himself beyond a mild headache from the impact, but the jolt did serve to wake him up.

In his flailing, he sent himself tumbling over to land flat on his back, his tussling disturbing a latter on the washing machine he had been sprawled out on, which came fluttering down to land on his face. "W-Wha.....?" Slowly, he sat up, pulling the letter from his face and reading it hurriedly, his sleep-and-headache-addled brain making the task harder than it would usualy be. But eventually he managed to get that he needed to head to the Assembly Hall, if nothing else.

Out of the laundry room he staggered, ending up in an empty, quiet hallway. "Uh, helloooooooo?" When the only answer he got was his own voice, he sighed, starting off down the hall and looking aimlessly for where the Assembly Hall might be. After wandering dumbly to every room except the Assembly Hall, he eventually stumbled across a door that was labelled "Annex Hall".

Wandering through, he peered first one way, then the other, finally spying someone. "Oh! Excuse me, miss!" With no small measure of relief, he hurried toward the young woman. "Do you know where the....." Forgetfully, he checked the letter in his hands. ".....the Assembly Hall is?"

Location: Annex Hall

[Dave Strider]

"The fuuuu..."

Where the hell was he? He didn't remember moving; he'd been chilling at Bro's place before he fell asleep. So who the hell had spirited him away into what looked like a classroom, and why could he hear no activity except for the occasional distant footstep?

Dave took another look around the room, satisfied there was nothing here to be investigated. Conceding that he was, as had been part of the norm playing SBURB, confused as fuck, he stood up from the desk he'd been passed out on and made for the doorway, taking up the letter that had been laid before him as he went. He looked down to read it as he stepped into the corridor outside, squinting behind his shades as he moved on from the printed text to the irate scribbling in the margin.

Assembly Hall, huh? Either he'd find some answers there, or he was about to walk sleepily into a trap. In the latter case, he supposed he could always fight his way out, maybe squeeze a few fools for information when he was done. Adjusting his godhood, and briefly thanking his luck that the god tier action pajamas were indeed hells of comfy to sleep in, he paced quickly through the corridors, following the numerous signs towards the Assembly Hall.

Location: Corridors

[Thor Odinson]

It seemed like it had been a long while now. Since he had finally managed to rouse himself fully from the unpleasant shock of unconsciousness -- something he was altogether not used to feeling in the slightest. The unfamiliar confines of the area about him as he had stirred from his sleep initially caught him offguard, and the absence of trusty Mjolnir unnerved and angered him more than anything else. Flying into a disgruntled rage, he had promptly attempted to smash through the nearest wall and force his way out of wherever he was.

All that had happened was a large dent being smashed into the wall and pain lancing up his arm, forcing him to abandon the prospect as much out of pain and confusion as out of shock at the warning issued to him about damaging Alliance property. And then it had hit him. The Alliance. He had....been invited to come here. And he had....just arrived? Yes. Yes, of course. He had just arrived, and....somehow passed out. Unnerving, but not the most bizarre thing he had experienced in all his years.

He had set out to explore the facility that was open to him, coming across a number of other individuals that were all in a similar state of unconsciousness as he had just roused himself from. There was one other that was up and about, but just as he had decided to speak to the small green creature it had disappeared, leaving the mighty god of thunder more perplexed than before.

It was only when he returned to where he had awoken out of desperation -- the cafeteria -- that fe finally came upon the letter, sitting undisturbed on the table where he had awoken. Snatching it up, he read it quickly, and as soon as he was done, crumpled the paper in his fist and stormed out of the room. The others in the area seemed to be waking up now, but he was in no pleasant mood to converse.

With a purposeful lean to his stride, he threw open the doors of the Assembly Hall and lowered himself into the seat designated for him, a scowl on his features as he glanced about the room searchingly.

Location: Assembly Hall

[Princess Celestia]

Princess Celestia was a light sleeper. It wasn't a fact she easily offered, nor was it one she liked to dwell on -- for too long, the alicorn had to rely on herself and herself only, remaining ever-vigilant and always on call. This had been less true recently. So many others around her were willing and able to help. But old habits die hard, and Celestia had long ago learned to shun proper sleep in favor of light rest, allowing her to spring awake at a moment's notice.

She first stirred slowly, lashes gently fluttering open as her mane and tail arose of their own volition, billowing like flags in an imaginary wind. Once the brief moment passed, she sprung awake in a far more characteristic manner, eyes widening with shock as she took in the scene in front of her. She quickly - almost desperately - shut them again tightly, opening them slowly once again in an attempt to maintain her external composure. She succeeded; the gaze with which she continued to scan the room was stern and mirthless, but not longer showed an ounce of surprise.

A note laid unceremoniously on the floor caught her eye. She turned her head slightly to take it in, squinting with disapproval the further down she got. She did recall agreeing to join this Alliance of Hope -- how could she not have? It's ideals inspired her, and without doubt would do wonderfully to inspire those inhabitants of the worlds who allowed fear or despair to overcome them in these chaotic days. For one who strived to serve as a guiding light, no offer could have excited her more. Hope was most certainly not an outdated term; it was a shining source of comfort. The idea that no matter how dire matters get, there's always a chance to improve them and fix what has gone wrong.

Perhaps it had been a trap; perhaps she should have been more critical. There was precious little time to dwell on it. She had no intention of playing into the hooves of this mysterious other, but she couldn't act blindly either. For now, all there was to do was find out more about the situation, and more about just what this note meant. Celestia rose to her hooves, briefly flaring her wings and refolding them to stretch. Her muscles felt a tad sore; the cold, hard ground had not been an accommodating bed.

A loud clang rung out nearby. She wasn't alone. That wasn't surprising; the note did address multiple individuals. After a short moment of pondering, she decided investigating the note was, for the time being, more important than seeing who else was here. She was fine; she could only assume they were as well.

Celestia's gallop was purposeful, but not panicked -- she made haste, but did not run. Her dignity proved her resolve; whatever was going on and whoever was behind it, she was strong enough to end it, especially if there were others here like her, who had come to fight for hope. She was certain. Hoofbeats sounded through the hallway, and then through the assembly hall as she entered. She wasn't the first to arrive; knowing she had support made her resolve all the firmer. Still, she wasn't in the mood for pleasant conversation -- all there was to do was wait and see just where this was headed. She offered the others a nod of greeting, but dispensed with no small talk.

[/size][/blockquote]

LOCATION: Assembly Hall

[Captain Failson]

With a stirring and a start, the occupants of the Alliance right themselves and set about exploring, all setting out toward one common location to see what was the point of the letter. The Assembly Hall awaited those that had not yet arrived. And somewhere, someone else also waited for them all to gather....

[[At this point, a second round of posting may begin, and the cycle will continue until everyone is gathered in the Assembly Hall. To those already there, feel free to engage in idle banter or observation of the others. To those not already there, make haste! As a further note, please remember to mark your locations at the end of each post!]]

[Lilynette Gingerback]

Man, this place was full of weird assholes. Lilynette couldn't figure out what was weirder - that this 'alliance' had so few people hanging around, or that... one of the ones who had walked in was a horse.

With wings. And a horn.

Whatever it was - the horn reminded her of Apacci, but Apacci had been a deer, right? - it looked more than hopeful enough to make up for... everyone else. There was... mostly humans, from what she could tell. One had a messed up arm, and the others were much taller than her, but they all looked pretty normal otherwise. So she was the only Arrancar. If only Starrk had been here too... but no, that was stupid. Thinking about it wouldn't fix anything. She just had to get out.

But there was something bothering her.

The horse thing couldn't be normal. But she couldn't feel any reiatsu at all from any of them. Stiffening up, she narrowed her one visible eye. Was it just from her head? Wait - she had been asleep. What if someone had messed with her while she'd been sleeping? Or maybe it was this place - maybe the alliance just... made it impossible to sense anything.

Well, whatever. She could handle this, right?

...Right.

"This can't be all of us," she muttered, casting another suspicious look over the few people around. Stalking over to the door out onto the hall, she didn't even bother looking out. This was taking too long - didn't it make sense to get over here as quickly as possible?

"Hey dumbasses, get in here already!"

[Ridley Duchannes]

Wow. This crowd was even more 'colorful' than she originally figured. She eyed some of the passersby with nothing short of suspicion as they continued on down the hallway. It was probably best to just follow them, assuming they were all headed to the same place. Ridley really hoped someone around here had some answers - because she wasn't feeling patient enough to wait long for them. Visibly disgruntled, she quickened her pace a little...only to slow it again a moment later when an unfamiliar boy approached her. Her instinctive reaction was to frown at him, but before she could demand to know what he wanted, she noticed the bewildered expression on his face, and reminded herself that he was probably just as confused and uneasy as she was.

As was demonstrated a moment later, when he asked his question.

So they were all going to the same place. Well, good. If this was some kind of elaborate trap, she was less likely to be directly targeted in a large group. She adjusted her dark sunglasses - she was glad who'd ever dragged her in here had allowed her too keep them, lest she put everyone even more on edge - and gave the boy a slight shrug. "Not really. I was just looking for that, too." This was stupid. Why not just put them all in the assembly hall in the first place? What a complete waste of time. "Though my guess is that it's somewhere near here. We can probably just follow these stragglers." She glanced around at the few people who were in the same hallway, some of whom were now moving forward somewhat more deliberately. Okay then. Seemed promising.

And no sooner had she spoke, than a voice sounded from a nearby door, beckoning them inside - and not bothering to sugarcoat things, either. Ridley was torn between smirking and rolling her eyes, so instead, she decided to just get on with it. No point in doing anything else. "C'mon." she told the boy who'd approached her. It might be nice to have someone to stick with, at least for a little while. Moving forward, she headed through the door, brushing past who she assumed was the girl who'd shouted at them. Ridley spared her a brief glance, taking note of the helmet she wore. Well, that was a little strange.

...Far from the strangest thing in here, though. Was that a horse? ..Unicorn? No, it had wings, too. And it was so...sparkly. Ridley...stared for a moment, before tearing her gaze away and briefly scanning the rest of the hall. The group assembled so far looked nice and dysfunctional - just great. She slumped down in a chair, scowling slightly, and waited for whatever this was to begin.

Location: Assembly Hall