There were a few moments of silence, before Ariza clapped her hands together, looking rather cheerful despite the lack of response.

She was... still taller than Jesse. (Then again, most everyone was.) Actually, she was about an inch taller than Aiden, and seemed to be beating out a few of the more average-height competitors.

Definitely nowhere near Petra or Axel's height, though. They were really tall.

"Great. We'll start with Stella-" Ariza nodded at Stella, the purple-dressed woman blinking almost in owlish surprise at her, before gesturing in a vague circle around them. "- and move around the area. Sound good?"

Another general mumble as everyone made agreeing sounds. Jesse just made an absentminded 'mm-hm' and looked around, still amazed as to how it felt like she was outside. A bird fluttered by.

"For the interest of time, please just state your name and give a quick reason that you live out here in this rural, remote village that's about a hundred miles away from everyone and everything involving technology and nonsense," Ariza said, a slightly larger smile forming on her face, "and remember- while you don't have to do a backstory-slash-reason now, it's good practice for when doing so or not doing so could potentially cost you points."

A short pause, before she winked and pointed to Stella. "Alright, Stella, your turn."

Stella blinked, before raising her hand and giving a faint wave, looking rather taken aback at the sudden introduction. "Uh... well, I'm Stella. Er, I moved to this lovely village because, because..." Her hazel eyes darted around nervously, apparently having left her speechless at the lack of a real response.

Jesse gave a tiny wave, apparently managing to catch her attention because Stella's eyes snapped to Jesse in the span of a millisecond.

Jesse raised her hand and made a motion like she was patting a llama or a cat. Or Reuben. Boy, he loved being petted.

Stella's tense shoulders loosened, and a rather pleasant smile came over her face. "Er, I have a pet llama. Her name is Lluna. Beautiful llama. Prettier than any other pet you can imagine." She lightly flicked some of her blonde hair over her shoulder. "She didn't much like the city, so I felt like a rural area'd be more beneficial for her."

Ariza gave Stella what looked to be encouraging nod while, behind Aiden, Jesse shot her a big grin and a thumbs up. "Alright, now... how about you, good ma'am?"

Harper cleared her throat. "Uh, well, my name's Harper. Pleasure to meet everyone." She gave a polite nod before continuing, "and I moved to this lovely town because... I've always liked quieter areas. Plus the climate's nicer than where I used to live."

Lukas gave a weak little wave when all eyes switched to him. "Hi, I'm Lukas. I moved here because..." He stammered for a moment, looking stuck. It was both sort of amusing... and kind of scary to see the usually calm, collected Lukas looking totally tongue-tied.

"Be... cause I really like writing." Lukas cleared his throat, looking surprised at the response he'd come up with. "I like writing books and... stories and stuff, and... I felt like a more rural landscape would help provide more fodder than a crowded area."

"Valid. Okay, how 'bout you, Romeo?" Ariza smiled pleasantly at the brilliantly-red-haired man, who looked startled at the transition.

"Oh, er... I'm Romeo. I moved... here... because..." A short moment of pause as he tried to think of a good reason. "Because I've always wanted to live a normal life in a quiet rural village of Nowhere in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. That sounds about right."

Xara quietly snorted into her hand from where she was standing next to Cassie Rose, wearing... yep, she had on an orange dress with purple pinstripes. An interesting fashion choice. Then again, it looked nice on her, so who was Jesse to judge.

Petra lifted her hand into a wave, shifting uncomfortably in... wait, Petra was wearing a white shirt, a blue-and-black vest over it, and dark brown pants like Ivor's. Like the guy's outfits. And not a girl's.

What?! That was so unfair. This dress wasn't exactly comfortable.

"I'm Petra, I moved here because I heard that there was a little town out in the middle of nowhere that needed a resident go-getter and I had the skills required, so here I am."

Isa's... outfit had actually remained the same for the most part. Just that she had an apron on and her robe was actually a part of the dress she was wearing instead. "My name is Isa, I... came here because I wanted to raise my chicken in a calm environment."

"I'm Stacy, I came here because I heard there were lots of dogs in the area and I'm in for that."

Ariza's chuckle was friendly and cheerful at the enthusiasm. "Nice. And yes. Plenty of wolves to be tamed in this place, Stacy, don't you worry."

Stacy pumped her fist in the air as Dan picked up, "Er, I'm Dan, and I'm here at this village to visit my friends Lizzie, Stampy, Stacy, and Sparklez."

Several people snorted a little at his intro. Well, it was a valid response.

Milo scratched his head, nearly upsetting his hat. "I'm Milo, and I'm here because... I enjoy building things, and... I felt that it'd be less of a bother to people if I built in a rural area with fewer buildings."

"I'm Cam- I'm Cam- I, u-uh-" Cam, the young lady who looked near-terrified at being addressed, adjusted her pale yellow sleeve, looking very much like she wanted to dive under a crate and hide. "I ca-came here be-because I-I don't han-handle people well so- so, so uh I felt like- I felt like it'd be better to- yeah." After stammering this out, she promptly looked down at the floor.

Otto's turn. He was wearing... well, not robes. Pretty much the same outfit as all the guys (plus Petra) were wearing. "My name's Otto, and... I came here because I felt there was a need to enforce some rules in this town."

"Hey there squishies!" Porkchop gave a (frankly terrifying) grin at everyone. To Jesse's surprise, they still had on their pig head and facial makeup. And their outfit was... it was a mix between the female's tops and the men's pants and shoes. So... that didn't clear up their gender. Well, okay. Looks like they were non-binary. Jesse could get with that. "The name's Porkchop. Came here to have some fun!"

"Fair," Ariza said cheerfully.

"Um..." Olivia tucked a strand of black hair behind her ear, the hair ignoring her attempt and simply popping back out with a curly bounce. "I'm Olivia, and... I felt like we needed some technology here, so I'm here to bring enough of it in that it helps everyone's lives a bit, but not enough that it takes over everything."

Ellegaard blinked at her, before glancing at the crowd of waiting eyes. "I'm Ellegaard... and..." She glanced at Olivia, before giving the younger girl a light pat on the back. "I came because Olivia wanted to bring technology here and I thought it was a good idea too."

Jesse could swear that she saw the virtual wolf roaming in the house past those two whimper and flatten his ears when Olivia put her hands to her mouth, looking for all intents and purposes like she was squealing even though Jesse couldn't hear it.

"I'm Soren, and I'm here because..." Soren paused, before dramatically throwing his arms wide to encompass everyone and everything. "I felt as though this town could use the gift of song."

Instantly the entire Order, Ivor, and several other people (Jesse managed to spot Isa, Cassie, Otto, Mevia, and Hadrian) all groaned loudly.

Jesse just smothered a startled laugh. Soren was a little quirky from what she'd heard, though she'd never heard of his apparent love of singing. Well, why not.

Hadrian went next, looking very irritated from Soren's introduction. "I'm Hadrian. I'm here because-" he cut himself off for a moment, as if he was thinking, before he let out an irritated huff. "Because I'm here."

Ariza arched her eyebrow at the very lackluster backstory. "Hm, not playing along I see. Ah well." And then she promptly moved on.

"Er, hello! My name is Stampy, and, uh..." The boy, who looked rather odd without his hood on his head, tagged at his orange sleeve. "I, er, I came here because I like parrots, and I heard that along with dogs, there were plenty of parrots here." And he gave a slightly nervous laugh that made Jesse's eyebrow shoot up- she hadn't heard him laugh before.

I mean it was a nice laugh, she wasn't saying that it wasn't.

"Yo, 'sup! I'm Nell, radical to meet you dudes, and I'm just here to chillax, y'know. Take a break from... crazy stuff." Nell looked weird in a traditional dress. It wasn't in a rude way, I mean she looked fine, but Jesse had already gotten used to seeing her in a green-and-gray jumpsuit and not a long, bright green dress with an apron. Nell didn't seem to mind the dress, though, unlike how some of the other girls were surreptitiously picking at their sleeves or inspecting their skirts. (Mevia in particular seemed to be trying to figure out why the waist of her dress was suddenly rather pinched.)

Facemeat (good lord, he's gigantic) had an interesting reason about... wanting to go on vacation (interestingly enough, his clothing hadn't changed much), Maya shrugged and said she liked quiet areas more than noisy ones, Radar stammered before making up an excuse that his boss had wanted to take a break, so he was taking a break too (his eyes flickered to Jesse when he said this), the Warden said he was tired of working in a building all day, and Slab shrugged and had some reason about wanting to sit in a quiet house to read books.

"Yeah, I feel you there," Ariza replied cheerfully.

Binta said she'd lived there since she was a little kid (which made Ariza smile brightly), Cassie fiddled with the sleeve of her dress uncomfortably as she said something about wanting to live in a smaller house for a while, Xara flat-out just said it was quieter so she could sleep ("Brah, I so feel you there!" Nell beamed at her from about... twelve people away), Oxblood said he wanted to take care of his mooshroom, Magnus said with a big grin that people cared less if he blew TNT up in the rural areas (which then caused Xara to halfheartedly 'in-character' shoot back that if he woke her up at a stupid time of night she was going to throw an axe at his head, and Axel cheerfully said that since Jesse and Olivia both lived there he'd thought 'why not'.

Ariza gave a light laugh. "Well... I mean, I guess that makes sense too." She was mostly quiet through the introductions, nodding with a smile at each one as she seemed to be noting them down- Jesse could see that her screen was up.

Sparklez said that he'd thought it be fun to live in a quiet village, Nurm said something in rapid-fire Villagerese which Jack (who was right next to him) promptly translated that he'd said that he'd moved from a place called the Mushroom Archipelago because he wanted to live in a rural area and not by the ocean, Jack then promptly introducing himself and stating that his reason was that he'd lived in a place that didn't have very good... memories attached to it.

Jesse noticed that Ariza shifted and rested her chin on her hand, a more sympathetic look entering her eyes when he said that. She didn't clarify though, and the introductions went on.

Gill cheerfully remarked that he'd always liked sitting in quiet little places, Clutch shrugged and said something about... a bigger variety of fresh food? (Jesse was pretty sure that was her reasoning, anyway.) Em simply leaned on her podium (which were all very nice and made out of smooth wood. They didn't exactly hurt to lean on, either.) and muttered something about wanting a break from her very boring life, Soup exuberantly said that she (she? Was Soup a she? Jesse was pretty sure.) and Val co-owned a llama and they'd wanted to raise the llama in better conditions than a city or something.

Anthony said he'd always liked making cookies and he felt like it'd be fun to make them with fresher ingredients, Gabriel said that he was tired and wanted to take a break from fighting and stuff all the time, Reginald shrugged and said he'd heard there was a town in the middle of nowhere that needed a town guard, Lizzie mildly chirped something about hidden treasure, and Val gave the same reasoning as Soup. (It would've been weird if she'd had a different reason, Jesse supposed.)

And then it was Mevia's turn.

"Er... I'm Mevia. I'm here because I..." Mevia hesitated for a moment. Jesse thought she was going to pull what Hadrian did and just not come up with a backstory, but then she smoothly went into, "My friend's kid lives here, and they asked me to do them a favor and watch the kid."

"Neat! Who's the kid?" Ariza gave Mevia an almost too-pleasant grin, leaning on her own podium with a friendly twinkle in her eyes.

"Jesse," Mevia said automatically, before blinking.

Jesse blinked back, while Ivor's eyebrow went up and he shifted to glance at Mevia. He didn't actually show surprise on his face, but Jesse was willing to bet that he felt it. Honestly, from Mevia's facial expression, Jesse was pretty sure she was surprised that she'd given that reason.

"I'm Ivor, and..." The man paused, his lips thinning into a line as he considered his 'backstory', before segueing quite smoothly into "I make potions. Potion ingredients in rural areas are richer and give better effects when harvested, so I moved out to this small town."

Ariza gave him a pleasant nod and a grin. "A fair reason."

And then it was Jesse's turn.

"Uh... hi! I'm Jesse. I moved here because I have a pet pig named Reuben and he's really cute, but... he... also doesn't really like going into crowded areas, so I felt like living in a quieter area would help him with that!" Jesse's eyes darted to the young woman at her podium, but Ariza apparently approved of the reason because she gave a pleasant smile and nod.

Finally, Aiden shifted before clearing his throat. "My name's Aiden. I moved here because I... like... ocelots." He cleared his throat again, crossing his arms. "I kinda wanted to see if I could find one out here."

"Well, there're plenty, so feel free to check around!" Ariza replied pleasantly and rather cheerfully. "If you are still uncertain about the role you have received, feel free to send me a message if and when you're 'awake' and let me know what you're confused about."

She tilted her head a moment later, measuring how the sun had already started dipping behind several of the houses in the area. "Well, this took all day, literally, so why doesn't everyone go to sleep for the night and we'll continue in the morning," Ariza said mildly, leaning on a fencepost and smiling enigmatically at them.

Jesse barely had time to blink at her in confusion before everyone and everything slowly faded into darkness. There were several exclamations of surprise, but then the sound in Jesse's ears also faded out. It was like the world around Jesse had disappeared.

And then the robed figure of Ariza, with her pink hair and eyes and edges of her robe practically standing out like a beacon in the darkness, clapping her hands together and giving Jesse a pleasant smile.

"So, the Mystic Seer. You're not the average run-of-the-mill Seer or an Aura Seer, no, no, you're really good at your job. Maybe you went to Seer college. Who knows." Ariza's lighthearted voice managed to soothe Jesse's somewhat jangly nerves.

Alright, really jangly nerves.

"Anyway, when you go to sleep you can see things. You see things about the people around you in stunning detail, like what they do at night, what they've done in the past, what they can do, et cetera et cetera, it's super cool, if I do say so myself." Ariza gave a cheerful grin and bounced on the balls of her feet for a moment.

And then Ariza crossed her arms, giving Jesse a grin that was both the nicest thing Jesse had seen all day so far... and sent chills crawling up Jesse's spine at how excited it was.

"So. Who would you like to have a look at tonight?"


A/N: And first audience choice of this story. Recommended person to 'investigate?'

(Alternatively, send a list of three people. Top votes either get investigated, killed, or... something else.)

I apologize for the giant 'intro' chapter- but we should probably get used to them because they're easy to write and they've gotta do intros throughout the entire 'game' series, as towards the end they'll be doing roles.

So as some of you may already know, I'm in my senior year of high school, and planning to apply to art school. And to do so, I have to get my portfolio ready. As of right now... I have little to nothing I'd be comfortable with showing colleges when I apply; not to mention that these art schools are REALLY high level. (Except for one but I still want to take that one really seriously.) I'm also working on Fata Morgana (formerly known as Phantasmagoria) and a few other projects.

I'm... not ready at all, so from now until sometime around early December, I will probably rarely surface on here. (Not that I've been doing that recently, sorry! I've been busy.) When I DO come on, updates will be very sporadic. Please don't be surprised if I don't reappear on here until after that early December deadline- I am going to be snowed under with portfolio preparation, not to mention my last year of high school.

But thank you all for following these stories- I'll hope you'll stick with me through (more) months of inactivity!

RQTC: What do you all want to be when you're a full-fledged adult?

I... have no idea, really xD

Responses to reviews!

LunartheMooncake: I have a headcanon about Lluna spitting; if you can find it on Tumblr I applaud you xD / Hehe, these are the MCSM characters we're talking about xD / Yis :3

SoundMusician60: Yeah, I'm definitely pretty happy too. x3 / Nice!

homeworkoverload: What exactly do you not understand? Please specify so I can explain later xD / (shrugs) Maybe. Who knows? He's definitely pretty scared of her at the moment, though. / Porkchop is wearing a girl's 'top' and the boy's pants, since they have no gender. And Petra defies the rules and wears pants anyway xD / That's good :3 / No, no he is not, and I don't know xD

TheAmberShadow: Heh, that's fair. / It is! / Lluna spitting on Jesse? It's actually related to a headcanon I have, but that's buried somewhere in my Tumblr xD / It doesn't, but it was a joke that popped to mind while I was writing. I was trying to figure out a good thing to call it and my brain instantly went through 'Game Cube', 'X-Box', and 'Play Station.' PlayStation won out xD / Yeah! Think colonial America, I guess xD / For the first week you have 'teams' that are not related to the teams you were assigned; for the second week one or two person(s) from each team is put in a game of Mafiawolf together to avoid overcrowding, and the teams can provide help to get their team maximum points.

Guest: That's neat! Undertale's great, and I've heard Breath of the Wild is very good too.

Toni42: Yeah, pretty much! It'll go fine, nothing'll go terribly wrong (outside of the game. Inside the game it's gonna be chaos xD)

AquaEclipse: Nice! / Yeah, pretty much. / I'm glad you're here!

RougeGamer: Red, hi! Long- long time no see. We missed you. Um, I said 'old friend' because you did... you know, stop contacting us. As well as all your friends. You all just... cut contact so quickly that we didn't know what happened, and could really only assume that you didn't want to be friends anymore.

Well... looks like that's all for now.

See ya, so long, and g'bye! I hope to see you guys when I'm back from my hiatus (again).

x.X. A.L. X.x