Ask to Join [GATHERS UNDER NIGHT]

[Jayblade]

After hearing what the rather enigmatic figure "Juno" had to say, Kazemi was starting to feel a little distressed; which was by all means very uncharacteristic of him. However, while he was ever so slightly beginning to crack, he was still mostly in denial. Not fully convinced by Juno's little speech. "Yeah...yeah right. No matter what this dude says, there ain't no way i'm gonna believe that this is real...no way." Kazemi really wanted to believe that it was just some sort of creepy lucid dream, but something about it all just felt oddly...real and...tangible, just how Juno described it. As a cold breeze pierced him like a knife, Kazemi shuddered. "Whether it's real or not, I still don't like this."

Keeping his cool was becoming a difficult challenge for Kazemi; who was usually too unfazed to feel the pressure in the most stressful of situations. In spite of that, he still managed to do so, he was just much more on edge than usual. So with that in mind, when he heard the faint sound of footsteps approaching him, he was a little freaked out. Much to his relief, when he turned around he was greeted with a wave from a pale, seemingly tall, yet vaguely familiar boy. "Guess he must be another player, huh." When the orange haired boy extended his hand for a hand shake, Kazemi too reached his out towards him. "Takeda huh? Nice to meet you, even under these bothersome circumstances. Anyways, it's Kazemi Fujiki. S'pose you can refer to me by whatever name you wish, it's whatever." Eventually, upon some further inspection and the name ringing bells in his head, Kazemi recognised Kin as a fellow second year and classmate. "Being real with you, I don't exactly know what's going on here either. And if i'm being completely honest, I don't even know if I trust this 'Juno', whoever they might be. All I know is that I wanna get outta here, as i'm sure you and all the others do too. So if teaming up will help us get through this, then i've no objections." Kazemi attempted to keep a cool head as Juno announced that they now had a mere 2 minutes to form pacts, although he was really beginning to feel the pressure. "Sooo he said we just gotta join hands right?" He asked, whilst quickly extending out his left hand.
(@DevVoid)

 

[DevVoid]

Fujiki Kazema.. that name seemed familiar to Kin. Just who was he? Kin paused for a moment, searching through his memories before realizing that this might have been one of his classmates. Well, it certainly was odd for someone he knew to potentially be in this dream.. thing.. but, then again, what wasn't so weird here? Takeda was quickly snapped back to reality by Juno's announcement of there only being 2 minutes left to team up, and as he looked down, found Kazema's hand extended. Kin quickly extended his hand as well and responded to the handshake.

" Honestly, I don't really care about what's going on here. I've just kind of learned to deal with the blows life gives you, you know? Anyway, it'd be pretty neat to at least find a way to get out of here. Well then, let's make that pact. "

 

[=Nightshade=]

Inja swallowed and gave a tremulous smile, then reached out and grabbed Kingyoso’s hand, hoping that something happened, anything, whatever was going to happen— to happen quickly so she wouldn’t have to awkwardly be holding the other girl’s hand for more than a few seconds. But for the few seconds their hands were clasped, Inja was hyper aware of the skin touching, the heat of the other girl against the coldness of her own hand, the firm hold of the shared grip, the slight sheen of sweat between them; it felt way too real, far realer than any of her other dreams.

Inja got that nagging feeling again that this may be more than she was seeing. The hair on the back of her neck rose with some mixture of apprehension, cold, and the trickling restlessness that made her want to run every time the one called Juno spoke. She shook her head to clear the thoughts from her mind, antennae bobbing side to side with the movement. None of this is real… just enjoy the good parts and ignore the bad. Maybe this’ll turn into a sick video game when I wake up.

 

[~Nilion~]

Being a third year, Gyo simply went through the motions on his first day back to school; not paying much heed to the announcements he’d already heard twice before.
He proceeded with introductions in all his major classes, caught up with friends, and overall just… got back into the routine of things.

For most, this was just the beginning of their next school year, but for Gyo, it was the first time in a long time he felt he didn’t have a sense of direction.
The tall, quiet, and somewhat lost-looking young man lingered on these thoughts for most of the day, and before he knew it, he was already walking home.

“Anybody around…?”

Glancing back towards the street he just turned off of, Gyo couldn’t see any of his fellow schoolmates. He stood there a moment, just waiting.

“Finally…”

Once he was certain no one he knew was nearby, Gyo took a moment to stretch out his bum leg. His weakened knee joint clicked loudly several times as the tension from walking normally on said leg all day set in.

“Ooooof. That did not sound too good.”

After grimacing at the overwhelming soreness he was finally acknowledging, Gyo continued his walk home, now with a very noticeable limp he'd evidently been hiding during school hours.

——————

After getting home, Gyo would continue going through the motions. First day paperwork signatures from his parents, going over class schedule. Then he’d work as his leg, as requested by his physical therapist, have his dinner, and finally take a shower.

It wasn’t too late at this point, but the young man was dreary after the sudden return of bustling school halls. He made his way over to the stand by his bed and slipped a small white bottle of pills out from the top drawer.
He’d recently acquired the need for sleep-aid, otherwise his leg keeps his tossing and turning most of the night.
After quickly dry-swallowing the small tablet, he laid back on his pillow and simply waited for sleep to start taking its grip.

——————

The young man suddenly awoke, finding himself surrounded by people who appeared as if they had only just come to their senses as well.
He didn’t even have time to get his bearings before a large screen ignited to life, displaying a man named Juno who would soon give a far-fetched explanation as to what was actually going on.

“No way…dreaming?”

Gyo had trouble believing it as everything around him felt so real and vivid. He’d heard of lucid dreaming, but nothing like-

“-wait, that might work.”

Quickly waltzing over to a nearby building, Gyo would stare at his reflection intently. He’d heard that if a person isn’t certain if they’re dreaming or not, that looking in a mirror would reveal imperfections in the world.

“It can’t be a dream. It’s too real…”

He stared at his perfectly mirrored reflection for several seconds, leaning in closer and closer to see if any distortions were present.
Suddenly, when he was mere inches away from his reflection, his right eye suddenly slid down several inches on his face.

“AGH!”

Gyo stumbled backwards in a panic while grabbing at his face. After the initial shock faded, he quickly realized that… he was fine.
He hesitantly lowered his hands and looked back up at the reflection. It was also normal. Everything was fine.

“It’s… not real.”

As if the young man needed any more convincing, his eyes finally locked onto the blood red moon hanging in the empty sky above the city.

“I’m actually lucid dreaming…”

 

[Jayblade]

"Yeah, I hear ya man. Well, I suppose it's just best to see how this works out." Kazemi, although still skeptical of the situation, went through with forming this pact; firmly clasping the hand of his 2-D classmate.

Woah, what is this...feeling?

What had felt like a sudden surge of adrenaline suddenly overcame him. Being as mellowed out as he was, this was definitely not a feeling that came so naturally to him; the impact most likely strengthened because of this. The abrupt surge of energy wasn't going to be the final surprise, however. Ahh man, what is it now? After just experiencing the sensation of feeling alive, Kazemi was even further surprised to see that his body was enveloped in a golden aura.

And eventually, when the intense energy began to fade, so did the golden aura that accompanied it. It's like everything i'm seeing here is screaming out to me that none of it's real. But what i'm feeling is telling me otherwise. Trippy... Kazemi looked towards Takeda after some needed composure. "Hey, Takeda. You felt all of that right?"

 

[=Nightshade=]

The handshake was extremely awkward for all of two seconds, during which Inja tacked up everything up until this point as her hyperactive imagination making its presence known through a ridiculous lucid dream— when suddenly her vision went green. She jerked like she’d been burned, but didn’t break hand contact as a flood of ones, zeros, and complex functions began scrolling past her eyes, too fast for her mind to comprehend. It felt like forever, but was probably only a couple seconds.

As the bright green symbols faded, leaving momentarily fluctuating imprints on her vision, Inja realized that something felt different. Off, but not necessarily in a bad way. She felt lighter somehow, her vision clearer, and… in some places, matter had been broken down into code? Her eyes flicked to the right and down, then traveled all around her peripheral vision, noting with surprise the sudden appearance of a health bar and descriptions of loose items if she looked at them long enough. She felt a lopsided grin spread across her face. Now this was cool. Had to be a video game, or a dream that looked like one.

A gut feeling prompted Inja to glance down at her gloved hand, and she blinked curiously down at what looked like some sort of futuristic, floating computer terminal, past the jittering, chromatic glitch of her arm’s outline. She finally broke the handshake, realizing she’d been clasping the other girl’s hand with increasing force as her apprehension, fear, and excited surprise mounted. As she moved, the slightly tilted black screens that had appeared followed her. She didn’t know what they did yet, or what she could do yet, but she imagined if she took a couple minutes to go one-on-one with the device, she’d be able to figure it out rather quickly.

“I’ve got no idea what the hell is going on,” Inja began, “but I’m not sure that I don’t like it…”

 

[DevVoid]

Upon grasping his now allies' hand and shaking it, Kin had felt no different. At first, at least. As the moment he had let go, he shook back as his body begun changing drastically. Not.. morphing or something, but.. his head throbbed immensely, as if a strong headache had just popped up out of nowhere within his mind. His eyes begun glowing brightly, emanating the same amount of light as a table lamp, and together with his apparel, had begun rapidly shifting in colours like a sped up RGB Computer or like a certain plumber after having picked up a living, bouncing star. This lasted for a few moments as Kin's own mind felt like it was being torn into multiple pieces. And the screams of his somehow sentient emotions didn't help one bit, either. All this overwhelmed him and forced Takeda to fall over. He wanted to maintain standing, clutch his head and scream - but his body didn't obey him suddenly and thus forced him to lose balance and land on his back on the ground. And just like that.. upon impacting the ground.. it was over. His eyes had stopped glowing, his person had stopped changing colours and his mind stopped hurting so much.

'HEY! WHAT THE HELL WAS ALL THAT?! FELT LIKE I WAS GETTING RIPPED APART OVER HERE!'
'Yeah, same here! If that's what it takes to power up, death would have been the preferable alternative!'
'..let's be honest... we probably deserve it..'
'Y-yeah, no. N-n-no one s-should be deserving of... THAT.'
'Look at it on the bright side, people! Now we are stronger than before! ..whatever that means.'
'Courage is right, everyone. Kin, you alright?'
'I.. think so? I mean, that hurt like hell, but.. I don't feel any bleeding or something.'
'...'
'...you guys were feeling pain?'

Getting his thoughts back together, the pale boy stood up once more and dusted himself off, sighing. Honestly, as if a first day of school wasn't nerve-wrecking enough, now he wasn't just trapped in some otherworldly dreamscape, but now he ACTUALLY had his nerves wrecked. Noticing that his ally was speaking to him, the tall boy was quick to respond.

" Yeah, I felt it alright. But, it's ok. The feeling of actually being mentally split apart is just another Tuesday for me, y'know? " Takeda had responded, trying to play off what was just happened via joking.