Chronicles of Gaia (RP)

Ama stood in front of the 'Mirrors', and first responded to Kudret with a finger to her Chin, "Hrm… something like that, though it's not really 'gaining power', it's more along the lines of experiencing what would normally be beyond impossible for you, and as such, gaining the experience and knowledge necessary to increase the space between you and your limitations." next, her gaze turned to Aislin, why did Ama seem so damn happy over something at the moment, it must've been unnerving given her usual demeanour, "I am she, she is I, just from different points in time, though the gap is... kind of beyond any recorded history, moving on, these 'Mirrors' you see are more like Gates, Portals to other realms of possibility, ones where you either don't exist, or are before or after your lives have run their course, for example." Beckoning with a Finger, a red-framed 'Mirror' came hurtling towards her, stopping immediately, "This one in particular is a version of my own, I don't exist in this one, and the ShinRa Corporation certainly didn't take the same approach, I believe a certain Black Gunner put it correctly when he called Midgar a 'Rotting Pizza'." she stopped speaking, before sending it away once more, "Nasty place that, can't recommend the view, Regardless, in terms Aislin will be able to explain, think of these Opportunities as... 'Side-Quests' of sorts, you go through, complete a set of Pre-Determined 'Missions', and when done, come back out, sometimes there are rewards for it, sometimes there aren't, depends on the difficulty I suppose." Leaning against one of the mirrors, her mouth once more, a sigh coming forth, "Right, you're all going to be stuck in here a while, you can either make yourselves at home and give the place some life for once, or, you can go do some thing in these Mirrors and see what happens, Kudret, I suggest-" a Mirror came speeding towards her, "you do this one, turns out this Diemia or whatever came through the Tower at some point, and got stuck in one of these Alternate Realities, should be more than Tailored for you to sort that mess out."

Kudret sighed, frowning once more at Terria's words. "I asked for help due to Rowan rebuffing my attempts earlier. Aislin would be a good choice normally, except she's also part of the problem." He ran his claws through his neck fur, fiddling with it. "I don't really know what to do now..." He heard what Ama said and chuffed a laugh, shaking his head. "That sounds just like him," he commented, remembering with fondness how the normally stoic Stone Mana would often gush about different spiritual religions and speculate about dimensions. It was through the talkative Mana that Kudret even knew the basics of Astral Projection, and thus roughly what Seyr had done back then. "I should go get him back," he said to Terria, politely excusing himself, "It's been... a long time since we were separated from each other." He stepped up to the mirror poking a paw against, and then through cautiously. When nothing seemed to harm it, he boldly stepped all the way, emerging from the other side to a new place entirely. Kudret looked back in time to see the mirror-portal vanish once his tail was fully out. It seemed he was stuck here until he found Diemia, then. Aislin frowned heavily, mind working to comprehend this. "So... Direct Reincarnation, with both timelines aware or just the shared soul aware of the other times it was born, possibly with many of the same personality traits... Neat." She had to smile at the Black Gunner comment and muttered, "Yup, that's Barret alright. Sounds just like him to call Midgar that." Aislin perked right up when her name was mentioned, and gained an almost gleeful grin as she said, "My specialty. Okay, gather around, anyone who wants to know what she's talking about!" Aislin dropped to her knees and shrugged off her bag, delving in it to grab the journal and the pencil. Speedily flipping through it to a blank page, she drew a long line across it before creating lines cutting through, labeling each one with shorthanded notes. This was going to be fun. Now, which world could she use for an example? ...Aha, Dragonquest 11 should do nicely. After waiting for a few minutes for those who were curious enough to come over and working on the presentation in the meantime, Aislin felt she had prepared enough to speak. She leaned back on her knees and clapped her hands to catch their attention. "Before I begin, I'll let you all know right now that I'll be referring to a different world than anyone here would recognize except me. All questions pertaining to why I know this sort of things will be ignored until the end." Using the pencil to illustrate a pointing finger, she began poking various notes on the two pages while she spoke. "In most stories or adventures, the hero or heroes traveling tend to have an overall goal that they are trying to reach and succeed. In this world, the hero must defeat the Lord of Shadows Mordegan, being his equal and counterpart as the Luminary." There was a slight fondness to her tone, as if she had witnessed some of said adventure herself. "Defeating Mordegan would be the goal of the whole journey, the Main Quest so to speak. Along the way of course there are obstacles to be faced such as trekking from town to town, escaping the bad guys at times and figuring out ways to get around the world at large." The pencil pointed straight up into the air for a moment, held slightly upwards as if to shush them all. "Now for the term sidequests. As seems to be normal for just about any adventure with heroes, there are people around who need a bit of help in their daily lives or are having some troubles. The heroes can choose to help them out, often deliberately going out of their way just to do so. These would be considered sidequests, as they are technically not needed to be done to reach the end goal." She giggled and added, "Though most heroes would be hard-pressed to ignore such things, they're really kind-hearted that way. Anyway, like I said they don't need to be done, but there are often rewards for doing such a thing. Whether that reward is something useful, more fighting experience, or even just some more healing items depends on the quest itself and the person who asked for help." She now pointed at the mirror Kudret had gone through, still using the pencil. "As for these mirrors, my best guess is that each of them are the gateways to several different worlds, each with a distinct possibility of being different from the 'true' timeline. The popular term for that would be 'Alternate Universes', or AUs for short. Kudret's reward for going through that particular mirror and completing the objective within would be returning here safely with Diemia, who happens to be an old partner of his. As for the rest of you, again it would depend on what world you head into and the overall objective, but given the non-existence of this tower likely means we'll get scaled to the appropriate level of power needed to complete said objective." She leaned back with a grin still on her face and her eyes glowing in the excitement of being able to explain things. She absolutely loved doing that, it was so uch fun trying to figure out how the worlds worked. "So... any questions? Besides how I know different worlds, that is a completely separate explanation. Asking me anything else is fine, I won't be offended."

Terria watched Kudret fidget. He was obviously nervous, or uncomfortable. Her theory was proven correct as he slipped through the mirror. She wasn't surprised. She had the tendency to make people uncomfortable just by being there. But as the cyborg thought for a moment, the mirror in front of her seemed to glow with light for a second. As Kudret had gone through a mirror, it couldn't be too unsafe. So she cautiously rested a hand against the surface. The mirror felt almost like liquid. There was a brief resistance as she pushed against it, then her hand went through. Well, I guess no turning back now. She stepped through the mirror, getting almost a velvet sensation as she emerged, floating, with black all around her. Welcome. Terria whipped around as the voice echoed all around her. "Who's there?" she called, seeing nothing except absolute darkness. That was, until, blue words lit up in front of her, appearing while the same voice talked in her head. Welcome. Do not be alarmed. Your Mission Details are to convince two parents to stay together for the sake of the Child, whilst also convincing said Parents to be around said Child more... while staying out of the Child's knowledge. "What can you tell me about where I'm going?" Terria asked, still trying to comprehend the voice's message. Kells City, in the year 2085, on the planet Earth. Your appearance will be changed. Do not be alarmed. Integration will commence in 3... 2... 1... Terria felt a swooping sensation in her stomach, much like free-falling. When the blackness abruptly faded she found herself in a driverless car, wearing her black biker jacket, but with a short purple shirt and grey pants. At least she was still wearing her boots. She leaned back against the seat with a sigh, her wings pressing into her back. What now?

Kuja, having lost interest in whatever it was Seyr wanted, had started to focus his attention on Aislin instead, listening closely to her explanation of what they called 'sidequests'. It was good to see her in a better mood again; the Genome hadn't quite understood what had been going on with her. "Your knowledge on these kind of things truly is quite something", he spoke before directing his gaze at the mirrors. "Well, I do suppose I could give one of these a shot." If there was a reward for completing one of these quests, it would be worth it. Walking over to a mirror, he calmly placed a hand on it. It was a strange sensation, going through that mirror, but the other side was something else entirely. The mirror disappeared behind him, his exit now gone, and the silver-haired mage warily looked around as a voice telepathically explained his mission to him. 'Your mission will be to rescue the child currently in the custody of the military's Chief of Staff, as well as figure out who the traitor among the group is. You are to bring the child to the Barsburg Church and leave her with a man named Frau. Any usage of magic will result in immediate failure.' The voice admittedly spooked Kuja; it was identical to Mizuki's, yet much more confident than he was used to from the girl. Besides...she was resting, she wasn't really here. He shook his head, trying to make sense of the mission details, and that's when he noticed the change of clothing. His usual clothes had been replaced by what he could only assume to be this particular world's military clothes; it would help him blend in after all. The uniform he was wearing consisted of a black, ankle-length overcoat with gold trimmings, black trousers and knee-length black boots. "What do you mean, Mikhail has awoken? What's going on, Lab?" Frau seemed confused at Labrador's words. In all the years that Iliya had been at the church with him, Mikhail had remained dormant, hiding his presence so Iliya would not be found and captured. "There's no way he wouldn't have noticed Mikhail's awakening", Castor mentioned. Seth's cloaking magic was actually a good thing in this case; had Iliya not been cloaked, she'd have been found immediately. At least now they had time to come up with a plan.

Rowan listened intently to Aislin's explanation. He was familiar with the concept of Side-missions, side-jobs, whatever, though the context Aislin was using confused him slightly. Perhaps he was envisioning 'quest' as something different than she was. Why would someone stop working at something so important to be dubbed the 'main quest' to do something non-essential? She'd mentioned awards, perhaps it was a money thing? Saving the world from some threat didn't really give pay after all, not until after the deeds were done and even then... A part of him burned to question her more, to understand her view of the world, to know what she knew and understood what she understood. The other part of him though, which unfortunately was the dominant force at present, still couldn't face her. Memories of the previous night were still plaguing him, and he didn't want anything to slip again because he risked talking to her directly. He might hurt her again... So the angel turned and moved toward the mirror he'd been inspecting earlier. Perhaps he could distract himself in trying to glean information on how such a portal worked. The mirror aspect and all the talk of alternate universes reminded him forcefully of the VRT-gates. He could tell these weren't the same thing, but it was one of the few things that seemed to be able to penetrate his thoughts at present.

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Laura remained sitting - she'd sat down across from Aislin to hear her explanation - and waited until the others had drifted away to speak. "That was quite the explanation, Aislin. And quite the smile! You look like you've just been given birthday present." The Siren paused for a moment, apparently distracted by trying out different nail colors. The more relaxed and nonchalant she appeared and sounded the better. "Its good to see you're not still down from this morning. I have to admit, I'm curious about that dream you had. I've known Rowan for quite some time after all. So I hope you don't mind too much when I ask, what did you dream last night? What was it that scared you?"

And just like that, whatever veneer of a good mood she had disappeared as Aislin was reminded of why she needed cheering up in the first place. Her smile dropped and she looked down at her lap, trying to decide on how much she could say. ...Wait a minute. Why was Laura so interested in this? She did say she was curious, but was that all there was to it? Aislin pursed her lips in an obvious indication of doubt and muttered, "Not sure I should say." Perhaps two seconds later her eyes went wide and she swiftly added, "Sorry, I said that out loud didn't I? I mean, I just-" she floundered for a bit before giving up on tact with a sigh and stating it as bluntly as she could. "I just don't know if I can trust you not to take your teasing too far or something if I tell you. I know I said I'd tell you later, but from all I've experienced alongside you... I don't know, maybe I'm reading too much into this." Aislin shook her head and frowned at her lap. This was significantly harder than it really should be. "I guess what I'm saying is, I don't know if I should tell you, since I don't know if I can protect myself if things go wrong because I spoke about it." She offered a wavering smile and finished lamely, "Sorry Laura."

After Iliya collapsed, Seth had brought the unconscious girl to one of his outposts. It was a place he'd set up the last time he was on the blizzard continent. The dark-haired male had one of these outposts on each of the continents, just in case he needed a place to stay while executing his plans. Seth needed to rethink those plans now that his initial plan hit a snag. Perhaps he should've just gone to that group's camp after all, rather than chase after the little Ghost; after all, he had been so close to killing Mizuki. He then shook his head, and finally placed Iliya down on a bed. She was much more valuable than getting an early kill on Rikazu's kid. He would surely get another chance for that, and next time...he wouldn't fail. It was a good thing that time went by differently in the mirror dimension that Kuja had entered, because his mission was going to be a long one. The Genome's first challenge had been to blend in; while the clothes helped him, he still had his tail visibly present, and he knew absolutely nothing about the lore in this world. As such, Kuja first spent time figuring out more about the place he was in, and learning about the 'Chief of Staff' that he was supposed to find; a man by the name of Ayanami. He was the leader of a group called the 'Black Hawks', this world's most elite military forces, and the only way he was going to get anywhere near the child he was looking for was by joining this elite group. And so he did, lying his way through questions that were asked him and manipulating situations to his advantage; he admittedly missed being able to do this. After getting the chairman's recommendation, Kuja was finally able to join the Black Hawks, a week already having gone by in this dimension. It was when he finally met Ayanami that he saw the child for the first time; she had a strange kind of collar around her neck, with a chain attached to it. The girl was desperately clinging onto the man's hand and her eyes held a fearful look in them. Kuja recognized that look...no, not just that, he recognized that child. Surely, she was a lot younger, but there was no doubt in his mind that this was Iliya; the very same girl that Seth currently held captive. She was the one he was supposed to rescue?

Celere returned to the room momentarily, fists Bloodied after pounding the old 'teacher' into submission, she felt so much better after that much needed catharsis, as if she could move on from something that'd weighed her down for years, she once again returned to the Cracked Mirror from before, this time keeping her hands well away from it, "... Not now, this will be something I have to do later, not ready either..." she continued to stand there, staring into the empty space for several moments before going to lean against a wall, "Lemme know if any of you plan on doing anything, I could use a distraction from my thoughts." As Celere entered, Toré left, getting into a room where he thought he was alone, his hand was firmly clenched, and at this point he had started to punch his own temple in frustration, this attempted Mind Control was starting to wear thin on his Psyche, resistance was a thing, but he'd break eventually, and the inflictee knew that, what a perfect place and time to knock out threats to their reign, "Fine, you want control?" as soon as the question was asked, he slammed his forehead into the wall of the room, and he kept doing so.

Laura chuckled softly at Aislin's wariness. "It's only natural, Dear. I am a Siren after all. Very well, I think a simple deal should suffice. If you give me what I want to know, this dream, your thoughts on our Angel friend, so on so forth, I will give you what you want to know: The truth. Rowan's past, What I know of him and how I know of him. I'll even offer to go first, give you a taste of what I know." Laura smiled as her offer was completed. Offering information on Rowan's past was a bit of a gamble, but one she felt would be safe to make. Aislin was clearly wrapped up in some kind of emotional trouble with Rowan. knowledge was one of the few reliable ways to help sort out a troubled mind. Anything in order to feel assured of making a right choice, even if only slightly so. On the other hand if Rowan got wind of Laura sharing his history with Aislin... what would he do? Get angry? If he did he might lash out at Aislin for trying to learn the information. That would be interesting to see, not to mention how Aislin might react in turn. She'd be careful playing that card though, anger was a volatile element to say the least.

Aislin, at first, wanted to refuse. Her first thoughts told her not to trust the one who so clearly made things worse for the one she liked. Her instincts on the other hand told her to accept the help, as she was clearly chasing herself in circles trying to figure it out while keeping her feelings mum. If the nightmare hadn't happened... but it did, there was nothing to it. None of this was going to go away if she tried to ignore it, no matter how much she wanted to, and things would get worse if she let it fester. That being said, it wouldn't be a lie to say Aislin hadn't considered asking about his past and how he knew Laura, what exactly had happened with everything he's experienced. Since Rowan was most definitely avoiding her -she had noticed him listening to the explanation -her only option was to trust that Laura knew to follow through on this deal. There was still the matter of confronting the angel, but the sheer fact that kept returning was the one she thought for most of her life: she just didn't know enough. ...It was decided, then. Aislin took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. "Fine. We have a deal, Laura." She took care not to look at her, knowing it would come across as sullen acceptance but was really only wounded pride. She hated asking for help when vulnerable to emotion, it always felt more like pity than anything else when they agreed to do so. Making a deal seemed like a better option this time around. Kudret stepped through the portal cautiously, keeping his tail close as the somewhat more familiar faces of his new comrades came into view, Nicole's hair very much like a beacon. *So these are your comrades? Interesting group, cub,* Diemia commented, to which Kudret just sighed softly. He moved over to another wall and leaned against it, still silently marveling at the new weight on his back. He'll shift them for easier access later, but for now this would suffice as he thought back to what had happened in that mirror. The world Kudret was placed into seemed to be the past of his school. The objective he had been given was to ensure that a certain group made it to a particular place, which meant Kudret had to scour ahead for any traces of potential road damage or monster tracks and eliminate the threats. That is to say, keep them to a manageable level for the monsters; letting an inexperienced group of alchemists on Dragon Road go up against a trio of Necrohydras all at once was a little much for them. Kudret achieved that through working with his instincts and learning how to avoid the red haze that covered his senses once upon a time, though it didn't exactly help him in gaining strength. No, that was achieved through clearing a rock fall/skeleton debris on the section of Dragon Road called Heaven's Road and finding none other than his partner, the rhino-shaped living pile of rock known as Diemia. After the two pacted once again, Diemia told Kudret that he wasn't at full strength; it seemed coming into the tower and entering the mirror had consequences in that he was dropped into what was probably the lowest level of power he had ever been. Kudret informed him that it was in fact the consequences of traveling to the planet they were currently on, with the tower being disconnected from its plane of existence. Diemia immediately insisted on going back to the tower, but Kudret patiently told him the details of how to get back. Once the two had cleared the route entirely, and silently stalked the group, or rather the lone alchemist that separated and traveled down Heaven's Road by himself and defeated the Great Dragon, Kudret was finally allowed to leave with Diemia. They had stopped by the school again before leaving to utilize the cauldrons and aethers to create a few things, such as a stone sword and stone shield, and a few healing items in the vague hope of someone being able to analyze and replicate the formula. ((Kudret now has a new sword, a shield, and a few Healing Jars (basic level heal item). Diemia can be called on in battle to basically ram something or charge in a straight line, or to help Kudret activate the hidden power of items inherent in the Alchemist Job Class. He will also be watching things happen from within Kudret and may or may not comment on things that happen.))