Jesse finally looked up and around, frowning slightly. Well, if the only way to leave the room was to grab the earbuds and the gold wristband and put 'em on, she supposed she'd go ahead and do that. It was better than just sitting in the room and trying to have a conversation with the automated voice.
"Please take the items hanging on the wall–"
"Okay! Okay! Yeah, I heard you!" Jesse shouted at the ceiling, trying to make it be quiet. To her slight surprise, the voice cut off right then and there.
Walking over to the items on the wall and taking a closer look, she actually read at the sign hanging next to the items. The handwriting was neat enough to read, yet crooked enough that it was definitely hand-drawn.
Jesse read the sign aloud, just to fill the sudden silence with some sound besides silence. The silence was getting to be eerie.
"'Be aware that when you initially touch the items, there will be a small shock. This should only last a second, but it may startle you into dropping the items, so I suggest not actually holding the items yet and simply touching them to avoid any damage, since if if the items are damaged the door will not open for you. Thank you.'"
The black-haired girl regarded the items with some more suspicion. It looked pretty innocuous to her– just a pair of gold earbuds and a gold wristband with a black, shiny band running through the center of the wristband.
Shrugging, she reached out and carefully bumped her finger into the earbuds first.
"Ouch!"
Jesse started back at the slight shock, even though she'd been expecting it. It was... more intense than she'd been expecting. Jesse had been expecting something like a small static shock. This was more like something shooting into her nerves.
She approached the wristband more warily, finger brushing it gently and allowing the second shock to shoot up her already-slightly-numb fingertips. When the shock didn't persist, Jesse carefully reached out and took ahold of the earbuds.
This time, they didn't shock her, simply coming off the wall with almost no trouble. Jesse regarded the earbuds, which were a little weird– one of them seemed to have a small microphone extending towards her mouth. Shrugging slightly, she pulled her long, black hair back and carefully stuck the earbud into her ear. It went in almost perfectly, and the one with the microphone fit snugly so that the microphone was at her cheek.
Reassured by the lack of a shock, Jesse picked up the wristband with a good deal more confidence and clicked it into place on her wrist. The gold part of the wristband glittered in the light.
Jesse made her way back over to the door and tried the handle. This time, the handle turned without any resistance whatsoever, and Jesse pushed the door open with ease.
She immediately found herself moving carefully into an equally dark hallway with more doors lining the walls. Torches were spread out along the wall, indicating more doors along the hallway, which seemed to stretch on for quite a distance from where Jesse was. When she turned to her right, there was an empty wall except for a sign that read, Please go to the other end of the hallway.
So she was at the wrong end of the hallway, she supposed.
The door across from hers opened, and Jesse found– to her surprise– herself face to face with a woman with tan skin. Her uniquely styled hair looked like it was bleached blonde, and her eyes were hazel. She was wearing a purple, striped suit, and– to Jesse's even greater surprise– a gold wristband as well.
The other woman gave her an almost mock-scowl when she saw who she was standing across from. "Oh... why am I surprised. Of course my rival was invited, too," she muttered.
Jesse blinked at the other woman, who didn't look too much older than she was.
Well, actually, this woman looked as if she were in her mid-twenties, and considering Jesse wasn't even 18 yet, that was actually a pretty sizeable age gap. But the fact that this woman seemed to think that Jesse was her 'rival' was a little confusing– for one, Jesse was pretty sure she'd never even met the woman.
"I'm... sorry?" she asked, at last, tilting her head to one side and blinking at the other woman. "I... think you've got the wrong person, I've never even met you." Just to be polite, since she was still IMMENSELY confused, she smiled at the other woman politely. "I'm, um, I'm Jesse. Pleased to meet you, Miss...?"
The other woman scoffed, developing Jesse's confusion even further. "Oh, of course. Classic rival." She paused, narrowing her eyes at Jesse, before tilting her own head, eyes narrowing. Since this woman was almost two heads taller than her, Jesse had to tilt her head back to make eye contact. Which made Jesse feel short. Which she was. "You look much younger than when we met earlier today..."
"Oh– did we meet earlier today? Sorry, I... really don't remember." Jesse reached up and rubbed her head awkwardly, cheeks steadily reddening. She really didn't recognize this woman at all.
The other woman regarded Jesse, before sighing and extending her hand. "I'm Stella. Pleased to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too!" and Jesse returned the handshake with a little more zeal than was necessary. "I'm Jess– oh, I already said that."
Stella blinked at Jesse before letting out a little chuckle at that. It was the first sound that wasn't a scoff or an annoyed one from this woman, and it was a nice one. "Yes. Yes, you did. Anyway, do you know what's going on?"
"Uh, nope. I was about to ask you that, actually." Jesse had to reach up and scratch the back of her neck sheepishly. "Well, we're supposed to head that way–" Jesse pointed at the far end of the hallway. "For... something. I don't know."
Stella looked over in that direction, before simply shrugging and beginning to stride towards the far end of the hallway. "I suppose we should head that way, then."
Jesse had to practically scramble to keep up with her, since Stella's legs were surprisingly long. And she was wearing high heels, at least two inches high. How was she walking so quickly without tripping?!
They were about halfway down the hallway, with Jesse practically running after Stella and Stella just walking at a quick clip, when another door abruptly flew open, and Stella screeched to a halt. Jesse nearly walked/ran straight into Stella, but managed to skid to a halt just in the nick of time.
Another person Jesse completely didn't recognize walked out of the room. His dark blue eyes travelled everywhere searchingly, most of his unhealthily pale face almost hidden by his long black hair. Upon spotting the two girls, he scowled slightly, crossing his arms and letting the flash of gold on his wrist peek out at them. "And just who might you two be?" he asked, sharply. His brown robes hung just an inch above the floor, showing scuffed dark shoes, and his almost dingy appearance was interrupted with a single, gleaming dark blue stone embedded in a gold buckle, attached to a belt that was wrapped around his waist.
"Uh–" Jesse was taken back by the sharpness in his voice for a moment.
But only for a moment.
"Hi there! I'm Jesse. This is Stella." She pointed at the much-taller woman next to her (the heels probably helped her height), who gave a little gesture that resembled a wave to the strange man. "And you are...?"
He stared at her for a moment before letting out a very annoyed-sounding sigh, letting his arms fall back to his sides. "Ivor." He didn't offer to shake her hand or wave at her or anything.
Jesse waited for another moment, waiting for him to say anything else, but when he didn't she just shrugged and smiled at him cheerfully. "Okay... well, nice to meet you, Ivor!"
He simply made a sort of grunting sound in response.
Stella finally spoke up, when it was clear that Ivor wasn't going to say anything else and Jesse was at a loss for what else to say, "Well... we were heading this way." She pointed in the direction Jesse and she had been going in. "D'you want to come with us?"
Another grunt.
"Taking that as a yes." Stella immediately resumed her long-legged stride towards the other end of the hallway, and Jesse resumed her slight run. Ivor didn't move as they passed him, but when Jesse glanced back, he'd also started walking behind Jesse, his longer legs keeping pace with the two of them better than Jesse was.
Jesse was jealous of tall people.
The weird little trio continued down the hallway, passing more and more doors that were still shut. The silence in the hallway was quite eerie, and hearing the quiet footsteps echoing through the hallway was not particularly comforting either.
Finally, after a particularly eerie stretch of silence, they reached the far end of the hallway. At the far end of the hallway was a small room, barely enough for Jesse to stand in the center, extend her arms straight out into a 'T' position, and spin around without touching the walls. The room had no furnishings, and was just as black as the previous areas.
The only thing in the room was a sign with a button underneath it.
Stella, slightly surprisingly, was the first person to walk over to this sign, a strange thunking sound reaching Jesse's ears as she passed through the threshold of the room. She leaned forward a bit, before reading off of the sign, "Please press this button to exit the check-in zone."
Jesse followed into the room, aware that there was another clicking sound. "The check-in zone...?" she echoed, aware that the voice in her room had said much the same thing.
"Yep." Stella put her hands on her hips and looked around the room as Ivor stepped in as well, another thunking sound... well, sounding. "I guess this little room's the check-in zone... I expected more, honestly."
Jesse just shrugged, while Ivor walked up to the button and regarded it. "So... if we want to exit the check-in zone to... wherever we are," he muttered, "I guess we just..." Without any warning, he reached up and pushed the button, which made an audible clicking noise as he did so. Jesse let out a slightly startled sound.
Did he just... push the button? Without knowing anything about what it did?!
One moment, Ivor was just standing there, staring at the button expectantly. The next, he was suddenly gone, sparks lazily flitting around in the air where he'd been.
Both Stella and Jesse let out astonished exclamations at that. "What– what just happened?!" the blonde woman spluttered, looking startled. "Where'd he go?"
"Where'd who go?"
Jesse jumped at the sudden voice, and so did Stella, because Jesse suddenly found herself toppling over with Stella on top of her, Stella having knocked herself off-balance when she'd jumped and therefore knocking herself to the floor. And since she was pretty much right next to Jesse, she also succeeded in knocking the much-shorter female down as well.
A few moments of confusion ensued as they tried to get back up, with Jesse apologizing furiously (for some reason) and Stella apologizing herself, and then Stella tried to get up while Jesse did at the same time and Stella stepped on Jesse's ankle with her high-heel, and then Jesse almost knocked Stella over– when, in short, the two of them finally managed to get to an upright position, they looked up to see–
"Um..." A woman with shoulder-length blue hair was blinking at them. Like Ivor, her skin was unhealthily pale, but unlike Ivor, her eyes weren't dark blue– they were almost pure black. She was wearing a strange black-and-red robe (mostly black, with some red accents), and she was regarding the two younger girls with a blank expression on her face.
Jesse absentmindedly noticed that she also had a gold wristband on her wrist.
Finally, she gave them a nod. "Mevia."
Jesse was confused for a second, but then Stella was inclining her head back in Mevia's direction. "I'm Stella."
Oh, Mevia was the woman's name... okay.
"And this is Jesse." Stella gestured at the shorter girl, who gave 'Mevia', apparently, a cheerful little wave. Mevia nodded back at Jesse again, before glancing between the two of them.
"Who is the... 'who' you were just talking about?"
Stella blinked twice. "Who?"
"That's what I'm asking you."
"No, I'm not sure who you're talking about."
"Who is the who you were just referring to?" Mevia repeated, more slowly, as if saying this to someone who was mentally challenged.
"Who is the who–?" Stella began, but Jesse had... sort of deciphered the conversation by this point.
"Ah–" she clapped her hands together a little bit. "We were talking about Ivor, our... acquaintance. He pressed this button–" Jesse reached her arm up to point at the button and felt it click under her finger as she pressed it a little, "and then–"
Suddenly, she wasn't looking at Mevia or Stella, who had both turned to look at the shorter girl quizzically, but standing in a room with a dark floor and black walls. (What was up with all the black, seriously.) On the far wall of where Jesse had appeared– which wasn't that far, to be honest– there was a huge, shiny-looking screen. The room was lined with comfortable-looking couches and a few small tables, along with a few solitary comfortable-looking chairs.
There was also Ivor, who was sitting down on one of the couches and turning to see who it was.
"Oh, you pressed the button." His voice was almost matter-of-fact, without any questioning in it at all.
"Um– yeah." Jesse looked from the black wall to Ivor. "Uh, where are–?"
"Please be seated for the orientation."
Jesse managed to keep her jump under control this time. "Wh–? Seated for the... huh?"
Ivor let out a sigh, talking over the robotic voice as it spoke again. "It said that to me as well. I think we should just take a seat, if they keep insisting." He paused, before shaking his head. "Whoever 'they' are."
Jesse considered this idea, before moving forward and sitting on the couch Ivor was sitting on, although she kept a safe distance between the two– she was a little against just sitting next to random people that she'd just met.
Although she was not against trying to have a conversation with them.
"So... er... how did you get here?" she asked, after a few minutes of extremely awkward silence.
Ivor shrugged. "I went to sleep. Then I woke up in that room that I was in when I met you." His voice was a little sharp still, and basically contained a command in it– something along the lines of don't talk to me.
"... oh." A short pause. "That happened to me too," she told him, trying to keep the sort-of-a-conversation alive anyway. It seemed less eerie than just sitting in the dark room.
A short grunt from the older man.
... this might be harder than Jesse had thought.
The mostly one-sided, weak little conversation kept starting and stopping, over and over again, as Jesse repeatedly made little tries to talk to Ivor. As weak as the conversation was, Jesse was very relieved when Stella and then Mevia showed up, in short succession. Even though Stella sat a little ways away from Jesse– about two spaces– and Mevia sat by herself in an armchair, at least Jesse didn't feel so isolated.
(Stella has checked in.)
(Jesse has checked in.)
(Ivor has checked in.)
(Mevia has checked in.)
She tilted her head, regarding the wall and letting out a pleasant hum. "Hm, people are waking up already? That was quick."
She paused, drumming her fingers on the desk thoughtfully. "Mostly only the Gold Team, though... and even then, not all of 'em are up..."
A short pause.
"Maybe I should've put in an alarm to wake 'em all up... then again, the hallway would've gotten way too crowded then and that would've been a bit of a mess. Especially with all the different people from all the different... areas." She said 'area' as if it had a different meaning from the dictionary definition. Which it did, in this case.
She brushed a hand through her hair, regarding the computer and drumming her fingers on the table patiently as she kept watching the list of people, check marks next to only four of the names.
Another notification came up with a musical tone, and she glanced at it... before the drumming of her fingers stalled as more and more began to pop in, at a progressively quicker pace.
"Oh, boy. This is... going to be a bit confusing for some people."
Slowly, a smile crept across her face.
"This is definitely going to be fun~"
(Gabriel has checked in.)
(Isa has checked in.)
(Cassie Rose has checked in.)
(Harper has checked in.)
(Nell has checked in.)
(Radar has checked in.)
(The Warden has checked in.)
(Porkchop has checked in.)
(Xara has checked in.)
(Romeo has checked in.)
A/N: Ooh! New person who seems to be behind this! And it's not Romeo, lol
This is going to be really confusing for several of these people, since the meeting times seem to be a bit skewed. Also, this is not the full list of characters appearing in the story so far; just some of 'em.
Ooh, by the way, this is your chance to ask questions for things that you may not understand. (I.E. Where is Reuben/this person, why is this happening, etc.). I will answer in the story!
Replies to reviews!
andie: Why not? xD
LunarTheMooncake: Yep xD / No spoilers. xD
homeworkoverload: Never watched Teen Titans, so xD / I always have a sort of schedule, although I deviated last week to upload the first chapter xD
TheAmberShadow: (laughs) / I think I answered your question, haha. xD
CamronXTheXGamer: We'll see!
AquaK13: Nope xD / I never watched Adventure Time so xD / No feels this story, I promise xD Just fun feels xP
Toni42: I ain't saying anything until next chapter xD but glad you like it so far ToniBear
Emily The Avenger: I'M READY TO WRITE THIS STORY xD
Rabbits rule: (chuckles) Not those Games. / He's not in a cage, don't worry.
Alice foreshadow: You'll find out!
RapidSammi: We'll see soon, to both of the first things. / Yes, indeed xD
Welp, that's all for now! See ya next chapter, where some very... interesting things happen. :3
x.X. A.L. X.x
