"JULES MASTERSON!"
The girl awoke with a start, a few moments after the music player on her phone had switched to playing "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen.
Gah! What the hell?! Jules's mind screamed out, in silent thought. Would a simple poke not have done the job?!
She snapped her eyes open and stopped the music before she was asked to gaze skyward. She disregarded the lyrics that came before that point, despite their upcoming relevance, and turned her lazy gaze onto whoever had dared to wake her while shuffling slightly in her seat. After all, she never was a cheerful sort, which made sense considering her past.
"What? What is it?" Jules barely managed to mumble out the words, directing them vaguely in the direction of her friend, Emily. She stayed facing forward, as she was the one driving. Namely, through a city of concrete monoliths as far as the eye could see. Jules had always wondered how anybody found their way around without a map, unlike her and her tendency to lose track of wherever she was. Like with her life in general, Jules tended to wander around in an aimless haze unless she actually had directions.
"Jeez, I thought you were supposed to be a light sleeper!" Emily said, in a tone that was betwixt and between peppy and excited, and annoyed and irritated. "Besides, you'd best take some time to wake up, we're nearly at Kingdom Come!" She added, referring to the local convention they were due to attend.
Jules scoffed. Her sleep cycle had never been 100 percent perfect, and it was hardly consistent, either. "We've nearly reached Kingdom Come, have we? Great, the end is nigh!" She snarked. "Soon, we will descend into a realm of bizarre outfits, a mish-mash of warped fictional realities, inescapable smells of both 'darkness' and hair gel, and lethal amounts of amateur gothic 'philosophical' poetry about hearts, light, darkness, and friendship! All taken seriously! Among other things!"
Jules was less than excited, her shoulders moving from tense with irritated fervor to relaxed thanks to a sense of resignation. She went on to throw her arms up in the air in exasperation. "I've no idea where you heard that thing about me being a light sleeper, though... It usually isn't wise to make assumptions over my sleep cycle, you know."
Naomi decided to speak up next. "I know you hold tightly, heck, we all do, Jules. It's just… We get worried about you and your sleeping patterns, you know?" She didn't mention how she was worried Jules was going to flip out, panic, and/or act recklessly, as she did from time to time.
"Yes, yes. I know." Not that knowing means fully understanding, but I figure I get enough of the gist… Jules pondered to herself briefly, over how many situations in her life to which that particular thought could apply.
After this brief discussion, Jules switched her music player to shuffle again, with it landing on "Suits, Maps, and Guns" from the John Wick Ch. 2 soundtrack album. This, like many other music tracks, moved her in a way. It reminded her of the time she last turned this song on, where she and her friends were acquiring and securing supplies in their van in preparation for Kingdom Come.
Jules took stock of the supplies once again, thanks to the music more than anything else, except possibly the first-timer jitters. She'd never gone to a convention before and didn't want to be going in blind.
She had some protective gear on underneath her high-collared jacket, just in case anybody got too rowdy on or around her, as well as a replica Struggle Bat in one of the car's compartments in the unlikely event that such an audacious thing would get past security. She'd made an educated estimate that a bow wouldn't get past security, especially with a decent stock of arrows.
Jules mentally kicked herself for forgetting about the obvious security-friendly alternative of a structurally reinforced "FREE HUGS" sign. Still, if the security team were good at what they did, the group had nothing apocalyptically bad to fear, just things that were slightly less bad, like overly excitable people wielding FREE HUGS signs.
The group also had a water bottle, portable power banks for their phones, a bunch of bags just in case, a water bottle per-person (Jules was packing two, much larger as well. She tended to get thirsty.) They had also brought some odd bits of food, cash (not in a duffel bag, despite how cool and intimidating they thought it might be) and some sun-screen.
The only thing Jules was missing was an actual desire to attend their local Kingdom Come, the convention of all things Kingdom Hearts, and the worlds and characters detailed within. This would lead to all sorts of worlds being represented, such as some modern classics, live-action and animated, standing alongside the oldest cartoon characters (excluding the likes of Charlie Sheen, Jeremy Clarkson, etc) in the world.
The whole convention seemed to receive attention in a similar style to Fyre Festival, (which had received promotion through famous online social media celebrities posting orange tiles) but with an added dash of blurring the lines between reality and fiction with a series of absurd marketing stunts, which seemed to show various kinds of Heartless, ripped straight from the games, transplanted into real life locations. Bizarrely, nobody could see any marks of the photos being faked, leading everyone to conclude that there must have been some very impressive photo editing at play, despite nobody being given official credit for creating the highly convincing advertising material.
Jules had briefly wondered upon seeing the images if anybody thought they could possibly be real, which would most likely lead to mass hysteria and pandemonium. Despite this, she never bothered to check the news for if anybody had actually freaked out this way. Regardless of any potential freak-outs or mass panics, the advertising worked, and Kingdom Come was brought to the attention of many throughout the whole entire Kingdom Hearts community.
Considering the scope of the crossover between numerous worlds, many thought the scope of the convention would be way too broad, especially for a first-time convention. However, somehow, the organizers behind this convention had seemingly managed to pull together the resources to pull off the unthinkable and set up such an audacious convention. Usually, such ambitious conventions failed miserably, with key examples being found in the failure of Dashcon and Fyre Festival. Many people, Jules and Naomi included thought it was a scam at first until proof was submitted via various sources, in various forms, that it was all real. The tickets sold out soon after that (but not too soon after, there was quite a large capacity).
And not only that, but similar cons were going down at the same time in other locations across the world, with size and scale set accordingly for each region. It was unheard of, but it was undeniably happening. The scale actually intimidated Jules greatly, but for the sake of not getting her friends worried over her, she took a deep breath in, and out, counting to 4 between each breath.
"I have not come this far to die now," Jules informed herself. "I have not come this far just to suffer."
"Jeez, Jules!" Emily chirped. "Drama queen, much? No need to act so down! It's gonna go fine, I promise!
Naomi was next. "It's only a convention, no need to act so dramatically. It'll be fine." She mused on how Jules's flair for the dramatic showed through on occasion. "Heck, even if one bad thing happens, it's not the end of the world."
"Uh... Alright, I'm sorry, Something just doesn't feel entirely right... It's probably nothing." At least, I hope so...
