Wake Up「Sitewide Grand-Opening topic」

The Fountain water was calm and clear. No water in the world was ever that blue, that pristine, that still in such a small, contained space. It practically glowed as the sun hit it, hued the color of the clear sky that spread like a dome over the square. It was a beautiful day. People walked leisurely, talking amongst themselves. Townsfolk carried knapsacks full of food for the day, guards in full metal armor stoically marching beside each other. The water was calm, the people were calm. Everything. Was. Calm.

A static sound emanated from somewhere beyond the open air, a rustling distortion, followed by two taps. It was loud and sure, but no one reacted to it. No one around the square, at least. In the center of the square, bodies lay, and they slowly began to stir at the advent of the sounds. They dappled the area around the fountain, dozens of unconscious people, mostly teenagers, knocked out cold against the cobblestone ground. No one reacted to them. No one said a word.

That was, until a thick-accented voice, from nowhere in particular, commanded, "Wake up."

Damian sat up, rubbing his head. He had the worst headache. Looking around, the boy wondered where he was. All he could remember before he was knocked out was being promised to beta test a new game that had looked interesting. Next thing he knew he was waking up at the fountain with a mysterious voice telling him to wake up. Looking around, he noticed the unnaturally blue skies and the fountain surrounded by unconscious humans, similar to how Damian was. "Where am I?" he asked to no one, standing up.

"Nghh..." Everything ached. From head to toe, the ringing in her ears practically screaming at her to wake up, and the more or less uncomfortable position that she had found herself in didn't help in the slightest. Part of it was the rather heavy weight pressing down against her figure, and the other was that she just couldn't get up. Groggily, her eyes flickered open, registering the prismatic sky above. Sunshine showering down in rays, and white clouds that only told her that she had to be outside. Something about the sky looked off, but she pinpointed it as her still being tired and not fully in the right mind quite yet.

Lilian lifted her head a bit, using her arms to try and get up, but she was immediately crushed back down. Shooting a glance over her shoulder, it finally registered to her that there was someone sleeping on top of her. Someone that she didn't know or had ever met. Hissing under her breath, she shifted herself from underneath them, and without any remorse, got up and let the person's head smack onto the patterned floor. Spinning on her heel, she crossed her arms and let out a small 'hmph'. "Serves you right for using me as a resting place." Another voice had interrupted, echoing past the fountain's roaring splashes. Where were they? Weren't they at the gaming convention in Modena?

... No. This wasn't the place at all. It was too medieval. Too fantasy-like. The hexagons and squares littered the sky, as though drawing out a diagram for a building plan. No way. This was Project Aubade?

Blue eyes peered past the eyelids like crescent moons. An unnatural blue seemed to reflect back at them. For a long moment, the boy seemed to watch the sky--noting the shapes that danced in the sky. 'How pretty...' Blond brows knit together and blue eyes opened wider to take in the sky. "Wait." With a sudden influx of adrenaline, Shepard practically leaped to his feet, taking in the scene around him.

A crowd of teenages littered the cobblestone pathway, many trying to gather where they were, or just merely awaken from their sleep. Eyes gazed down at his hands, testing his movements. For the love of it all, he could not understand how he got where he was. One moment he was walking home with his sister--

Mackenzie!

Heart lurching, the twin spun back around to face where he had been laying. Not even a foot away from him, lay his sister--not quite awake. Biting his lip, the brother crouched by her side and gently shook her. "Zeze, wake up! It isn't time for your 'I'm still sleeping' shenanigans. Please get up." The last bit was begging, which he normally wouldn't do unless it was important. Mackenzie knew that.

"Please"

Sawyer laid face down to the ground, his arm beneath him - numb from restriction of circulation. A grunt escaped his chest as he pushed himself up gently, waiting for the tingling feeling to fade in his right arm. The dark haired boy sat in criss-cross position, gripping his pounding forehead. Dark eyes filled with shock as they peered around the pathways that were littered with bodies.

Sawyers arms dropped to his lap as he took in everything at once, there were some bodies that stirred with movement while others lay completely still. Blue lights blurred his vision as he peered up towards the ornamental clouds. The voice boomed throughout the yard demanding even the deepest of sleepers to rise. "What is this?"

Last night was a blur.

Arianna had a poor memory she barely remembered what had happened at prom. The one thing she remembered was that she drank a lot. The girl had been out cold since she was dealing with a hangover she didn't really want to wake up however she awoke with a start when someone commanded it.

Her head hurt and the sun was in her eyes. With a sigh she glanced around her to see more people sleeping in the streets. She didn't really realize what was happening since she felt sick and just wanted to sleep some more but she saw a face she recognized. "Charlotte?" She called out with a mumble her confusion grew.

Claire wasn't sure where she was and she awoke slightly upset she had heard some yelling and turned to see that it was a man yelling at a sibling possibly. She chose not to say anything and got up glancing around taking note of her surroundings.

It was clear that she was no longer at the beach...

Her eyes had narrowed as she gazed at the sun, the sky didn't seem right. Like it was a virtual world. Sighing Claire had rubbed her eyes she was still pretty tired and had hoped this was all some sort of dream that she could wake up from.

This was most definitely not her bus stop.

With a confused groan, Idris Alexopoulos' chocolate eyes flickered open. That was odd, hadn't it been raining before? Not this clear blue sky that she saw, not this... prismatic sky? The girl narrowed her eyes, peering through the almost unnaturally bright sunlight. Yes, that was right, that sky was fractured, artificial.
Where am I?
Idris pulled herself upright, muttering curses under her breath. She glanced around at her surroundings. Clearly, she wasn't in Manchester anymore, that much was obvious. How she'd got here, on the other hand... that was an issue.
There were others here, too. Dozens of teenagers, just as confused as she was. How'd they get here? The same way as her? They all seemed to speak English, but the accents heavily differed - everything from American to Japanese, and from what she could hear, nothing like her own thick British accent.
Idris mentally took note of her observations, but the nationality of the others trapped here was not a priority of hers. No, the first thing she could think of - how was she going to escape?


"Shit," Jacqueline Pink muttered, blinking her eyes open. One minute, she'd been mucking around in a gaming booth, the next, she was here. How this had happened, she had no idea. Had she been murdered? Was this heaven? It was odd, it didn't feel like she'd died. She still felt perfectly alive, pulse and all. Jacqueline squinted at the bright light. There was no way that was natural - it looked like the sun, sure, but it felt too bright, fake. She bolted upright. The situation had finally began to set in - no, she was not dead. She was well and truly alive, and she'd been kidnapped, somehow. How long was I out for?
Her eyes widened in alarm as she saw the others around her - the other captives, she thought. All of them teenagers, from the look of it, and she had to wonder how they'd all been brought here. And while she was at it, where was here, exactly?
For the first time in her life, she found herself wishing for her dusty apartment in Vancouver.
"None of you would have any idea where we are?" she grumbled to anyone who was listening.

Rory opened her eyes. It seemed strange, the colors that seemed to flash before her, the vivid blues and greens, brighter than she'd ever seen. It seemed like only moments ago that the colors she saw were dark, pitch black, the color of her room at night when the house was still. When the lights were turned off. The sound of rushing water gushed nearby, and a spray of droplets was hitting her face. The girl sat up. Was this a dream? Where was she?

The people around her seemed as inquisitive as she. She brushed her bangs from her eyes. If it were a dream, it was quite lifelike...

Her grandfather. His face flashed in her mind.

No, he was there! But...but where was he?

This was no dream.

---

Wolfgang had found the fountain before even thinking about anything else. He washed the water over his face, his bleary eyes. He overheard Jacqueline's muttering. "Prescott Park?" He called to her, without looking up from the water. The boy assumed he was in Manchester, somehow downtown, where the fountains adorned sidestreets and little gardens. Of course, it was not a little garden that he found himself in. The boy blinked at the houses, the strange, antiquated buildings. It was like something out of a video game.

---

The voice chimed up again, straight down from the heavens. "I assume you are all awake by now," it grumbled, then juxtaposed it with a dry cough and giggle. "Those of you awake, stir your neighbors. Now." The 'Now' was a deep command, a loud snap that rumbled across the village like thunder. The people around the fountain, the ones outside of the group of teenagers, did not react.

An older lady bumped into Sawyer, carrying a basket of bread and a pot of something luminescent and blue. "Oh-- excuse me dear!" she exclaimed, and passed on by.

One moment, she was on her way home.

The next, she was out.

Had she fallen asleep? It was plausible. Pulling all-nighters wasn't anything uncommon to the teen, so if she had dozed off out of nowhere it wouldn't be a huge surprise. Her sleep-like state left her wondering just what was going on. With her brain in overdrive trying to configure where in the world she was, she didn't even really notice her brother shaking her. The gentle nudges from her brother wouldn't register, until he spoke.

"ZeeZee...






As much as she valued her sleep, when Shepard used that tone, something was up. Her pale eyes fluttered open in that instant, a sharp gasp accompanying the movement as she quickly sat up. Looking at her brother, she let out a breath with the realization that nothing bad had happened to him. With her mind still foggy though, it was hard to focus.

"How many times do I-" While the twin was about to go off on her counterpart for waking her up for no important reason at all, something had clicked inside her brain. w̷̺̎̈́ě̷̛̻ ̵̛͎ș̵̍ḣ̶̟̞o̷̜̅̓ủ̴̘̻͠ḻ̷̒d̴̝̝͐̒n̸̛͉'̸̧̗̓̇t̷͔͓͐́ ̶̲͋̓b̸̬͈̀è̴͔͈̏ ̷̻̏ḧ̸̰́̚e̵̝͖͑r̶͘ͅe̶̠͆͝. Biting on her lower lip, the blonde looked around.
"Shep, wh-what's going on?" Panic danced like flames in her vibrant azure, near ice-blue eyes. Normally, she wasn't one for being jumpy. Or being thrown into situations for that matter.

Those of you awake, stir your neighbors, now.
The voice raining from above came as a startle. Mackenzie couldn't help but want to listen to it, though. She felt almost compelled, allured by the voice. Although, she was easily lead. Glancing around with the still fearful, somewhat curious expression, her elbow gently prodded her brother's side. "We should make sure others are okay..."

Rubbing her eyes, Lilian took a few glances around. So this was why the game was hyped up to be such a big thing, that even people who didn't normally play games were interested in it. Everything about it screamed fantasy, like a setting out of a fairy tale. Red roofs plastered on top of every building, a grand castle in the back set, and a dreamy sky to top it all off. Never mind the people around that wore the most outdated clothes possible... Or were they not outdated? It looked like something out of all of those anime or manga that have been gaining prominence all around the world lately. A place that was definitely not the gaming convention that she was originally at.

Come to think of it, everyone around was speaking the same language but well, with different accents of all kinds. American, French, Japanese, and then everything else. From brunettes to blondes to redheads to other obscure hair colors, everyone was certainly not from the same part of the globe. Taking a few strides here and there, she could hear people asking for friends or anyone they might possibly know or where they were. Not that she didn't have the same questions herself. Some voice that came - from the sky? - from somewhere nearly made her jump out of her skin, but she just shook it off. It was just her imagination, wasn't it?

Someone answered with Prescott Park. She snapped, retorting back, "There is absolutely no way this is..." Lilian blinked, trying to remember what exactly the place the guy had said it was. "Wherever you said it was. It definitely isn't there!" She shook her head, letting out an exasperated sigh. I feel like I'm surrounded by idiots.

---

Leaning against the fountain, a lone figure sat and stared up at the sky, the place where it seemed the voice was coming from. "My, this seems to be quite the predicament," they mused softly, with a gentle air to their voice, almost as though it were hushed in a whisper. Everyone around was in a daze or panic, worried about where they had wound up, or still waking up from their good night's worth of sleep. The person's appearance and body language betrayed them as female, for the most part. With a deep breath, they got up, crossing their arms across their chest.

Instead of fiddling around or mingling with the others, Callum strolled around, stumbling upon a pair of blonde twins. "Panicking isn't going to do you any good, you know," he said with a smile. "Might not be a bad idea to listen to the voice up above for now."

Bright yellow eyes opened up to the bright blue sky above. A commanding voice, and many other voices coaxing him out of sleep, that he didn't know he was in. Gabriel sat up off the hard ground slowly, his back protesting from the movement, and the time he spent on the ground. How long was he out this ground? And wasn't he on an airplane? It was hard to recall for sure...

The brown haired boy stayed seated on the ground looking around at the various people from various places of the world. Despite looking like they were from different places they all spoke in the same language that it seemed that he could understand, though he doesn't recall knowing it. His attention turned to the feminine person who spoke about not panicking. Voice above? Was that the commanding voice that woke him up? He remained silent, waiting on whatever was to come next.




Well this is better than where he was yesterday. Mason's gray green eyes looked forward blankly as he sat against the fountain having woken up a moment ago. He didn't know where he was, but one thing was for certain it was better than the city he was roaming yesterday or maybe a few days before. He didn't know how long he had been out.

One thing was for sure though. He didn't like the fact that someone managed to get a jump on him, and take him to an unknown location, even if the sky looked rather squarey. He didn't know how else to describe it, or rather he was too lazy to look for another word. He also didn't care much for the voice in the sky commanding them around like that. He didn't need another person like his mother in his life. His neutral look turned into somewhat of a glare as others spoke and interacted. He was irritated by all of this.

Relief was written on Shepard's face as his eyebrows lifted from their low position, and a deep sigh to regain whatever composure he had left. His mouth opened to respond--but was cut off by the voice commanding them to wake the others. The voice seemed to push him back to his feet. The blond took this moment to actually take in their surroundings. "Toto, I have a feeling we are not in Kansas anymore." His voice didn't reach its usual level of volume, instead it was whispered under his breath.

With a mere glance towards his sister, the blond ignored her elbow to his side, opting to observe the lone figure that approached them. "I suppose not." Shepard reasoned, studying the boy's calm appearance. "But at the same time, it feels like a reasonable reaction to waking up like this." His eyes shifted away from Callum and to the villagers strolling past.

The most immediate thing Shepard noticed was the lack of attention the other people were giving to the group of teenagers awaking in the square. Hell, they didn't react to the man talking to them from above. 'What the hell? Where are we?'

Damian watched as more and more people began to stir and wonder what was going on. He had been one of the first to wake up and was sitting by the fountain, on the opposite side. He wasn't really paying much attention to all the noise, but instead was staring at the people in the town, paying the large group of teenagers and young adults no attention. He found it odd, but then the memory came back to him. The beta test. Was this the game they were talking about? They never actually gave a name for the game, so it was all guesses from his point of view.

---

Barry shot up after hearing various voices. The last thing he remembered was going to close up shop after that beta test for a new game was holding sign-ups for. Then he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head and then: darkness. Next thing he knew he was waking up in a group of teenagers all spouting the same thing; "Where were they?" It was a question Barry had as well, but he knew better than to ask the same group that was already confused where they were. He stood up and rubbed his eyes, getting the last of the sleep out of his eyes. From what he could tell, no one around him had figured out where they were. Great.

The voice waited a moment for a few more people to wake up. "Children, children, welcome to my game!" he said cheerfully. His cackle echoed over the valley. "Only, it is more of a game for me, and more of a cage for you. You're my rats now."

Rory looked up at to the voice, her face alight with horrified realization. Her grandfather, her grandfather. What did he do to her? Why did he come last night? She backed up, but she could not hide from the sky. People chattered around them in lazy midday serenity.

"My game," the Japanese voice continued, "Is an inescapable one. You are prisoners in your own mind, in the high-tech world of virtual reality. Your bodies are currently in a laboratory, deep below the ground. Do not worry, however. We are sustaining them quite well."

Wolfgang looked at the people that stood around him, wondering if this was a dream, and if they were reacting to all this. He himself felt numb, perhaps due to shock. How could he be in virtual reality? It all seemed so real. But in the same way, how could he be in a dream? The boy peered down at his clothes. They were so...odd, like something out of a fantasy anime. He'd never worn anything that looked like that before...

Arianna was pretty dazed still and when she had heard the voice again she had a pretty dull reaction. She pressed her hands onto her head and tried to cancel out the panic that everyone was causing. First a hangover.. now this crappy situation? What a great life she lived! She felt like she was about to throw-up. Arianna didn't know what to feel right now, at least she had her sister by her side.