[Espy]

Sky was battling the final boss quite nicely and had cut down half its HP when she noticed her email tab flash orange. I'll check that after I finish this, she thought, jabbing F1 on her laptop.

The special attack was deflected.

Of all the--! Sky had enough time to mash a few more buttons before the boss landed a blow on her character and it flew at her screen, producing a glass-shattering effect.

Suddenly the MMO window winked out. She could've sworn her character's shadow stayed for half a second too long. Dammit. I'll have to rerun that dungeon later. Reluctantly, she opened the email without reading the subject line.

Still furious about the boss battle, the blinding light emanating from her screen didn't quite register in her mind.

[Tiva]

Deva giggled as the portals blinked one by one, "One.... Cat... Two... Light....Three... Dark... Four... Dragon... Five.. Fox.... Now just my last two to be found, my two winged ones... The Butterfly and The Bird." She hoped that they would arrive soon, the twins had come back with the other five animals in tow and though she had little to make a mess of they always made one.
The cat was laying on her lap demanding attention, while the twins were pulling on the dragon's tail jumping away right before he breathed fire at them, again. The fox was trying to chase after the bird but he would fly a little to high for the fox to touch. The butterfly was in her hair before landing in the cats nose, swatting at it before rolling over the great warrior whined so he would continued to be scratched. Yes these were the great guardian animals, they acted like a bunch of children and Deva, the keeper, had to be their mother to keep her area from being destroyed by them, again.
"Please let them be what we need... otherwise this is all for nothing."

[Broken Muse]

Theresa was quite confused and on guard when she opened her eyes. When had she closed them? The room surrounding her was windowless and a faint purple hue. Her eyes landed on the female in the center of the room. "Who are you?" She hissed slightly confused. Something was off with this whole thing, more off then her normal blackouts. "And where am I?" Theresa was trying to take it all in but for a sparcly funished area it was a lot to take in.

[Poggio]

Thin, fingers slid themselves into the knot that kept the apron around his waist. Audrey moved his way through the throng of people to the counter. He folded the black tray under his arm as he slipped behind the tall coffee silos hiding away from the demanding people. Ever grinning, he didn't mind serving them. It was just a means to meet an end. His boss motioned for him to take his leave while he could. Audrey escaped through the back taking with him his ipad and an assortment of orders that were never claimed. Outside some one had been gracious enough to set up a table and chairs for the cafe chain smokers. He placed the food in an elaborate spread not really intending to eat most of it himself. He plucked a turkey club out of the pile of sandwiches and munched silently while checking the latest game stats.

[Alpha]

Fallon woke up and tried to clear his eyes. He tried to stand up, but became instantly dizzy and was forced to eventually sit back down. After about ten seconds by his count, though it seemed infinitely longer, he started to distinguish small bits of the room he was in. His attention was drawn immediately to the chair in the middle of the room, though he quickly noticed the presence of someone else in the room....two someone elses in fact. He looked at both in turn and asked, "Who are you and where am I?" He then realized that there were creatures running around the room or settled in different corners. All of a sudden he found a cat unlike any he'd ever seen before rubbing up against him, demanding his attention. He started to scratch and pet it, with it eventually curling up in his lap and putting him slightly at ease. With that he started to study his surroundings more closely, and noticed that sitting in the middle of the room on top of a computer-esque chair, was a stunning female. She looked to be about his own age, but she looked too good to be true.
How did I get here? he wondered, Maybe it was that flash of light, but what was it? Did she have something to do with it? For now I think I will sit here and wait to see what happens. Oh well, at least this cat will give me something to do and is keeping my lap warm.

[Obbiesan]

As Trace and Iris reached the apartment Trace quickly opened the door and scurried off to his room to begin his work. As he booted up his coding program a small bird flew across the screen he wasn’t quite sure why but put it off as the logo for the new software. As he coded a few minutes later another bird zipped across his screen. Now things were getting weird, he turned on his anti-virus software and then quickly began a scan. The program quickly scanned all of Trace’s files nothing was wrong with it so why was there a bird appearing on his screen. He was so confused but decided to see if it might be coming from his e-mail. One e-mail stood out, an e-mail from someone called Deva no one Trace knew but maybe they were Iris’s friend he clicked on the e-mail only to be enveloped by a white light.

[Tiva]

Veda smirked as she pulled on the 'golden hair' of Rapunzel walking up the side of the castle of stories, soon no one else would be able to get up here. Upon reaching the top she tilted her head to the side as Rapunzel gave her a confused look "No dearie I am not your prince, now hold still."
Creating bonds of rope Veda around the poor girl's wrists before taking out her sickle and cutting off the hair letting it slide quickly of the roof and fall to the ground.... hopefully that prince was at the bottom of it to get crushed. "Now my dear, don't worry... it is all for the best. I can't let you leave here or the children would have no story would they?"
She then opened the window walking inside, "now to go add a bit more thorns to the roses....."

[Broken Muse]

Theresa took a step backwars so she could view both people at once. "I'll answer your question," She frostily informed the newly appeared male, "As soon as you tell me who you are yourself and as for your second inquiry, I have no idea myself." Her tone become less hostile as she talked and her eyes seemed to be a bit lighter as though a trick of the light. Theresa hated admitting that but she felt the other would be a bit more likely to associate with her if he felt they where in the same boat. Also, the more allies she had the easier it would be to escape if things suddenly went south.

[Funkduder]

Originally Posted by Funkduder

Tony looked at the email and frowned. He turned on his virus protection and scanned the email, only to find it to be safe. So this isn't a scam of some sort. After checking the time on his clock, he looked back at the email and shrugged to himself. He closed up his last case just today, and it would hurt to have some security for the next month or so. He opened the email, and was engulfed by a bright light.

And immediately hit the floor on his bottom. It was as though his chair had disappeared from under him. Looking down at the floor a moment later, he realized that not only was the chair, but the floor and walls were different: windowless but nonetheless bright.
Tony then stood himself up, grateful that his coat muffled the sound and cushioned his landing. He wasn't sure if the sound of his boots gave stares from any of the other three people in the room that he saw while standing, but in case they did, he made sure to keep his professional attire and refrain from making any comments about it.

Instead, he raised an eyebrow to the woman in the middle of the room. The dazed look on the faces of the other two were reason enough to ask her of the situation instead of them.

"And I suppose that you sent me the request," he said to her. A thousand thoughts raced across his mind as he examined her attire more closely: She seemed young, but the look in her eyes had shown familiarity, as though she had been in the alien place for longer than he had been in his own apartment, and seeing her work scattered around her in holograms only gave her greater legitimacy. Did she know how he got there? Does she know how to get back? Where was he? Who are the people around him?

And why was there a small dragon on his shoulder?

The tiny lizard seemed to radiate warmth as he rested on his shoulder. His folded red wings were so realistic that he couldn't call it a robot, but then again, the age of technology was moving fast. He wasn't sure of the advances.

[Alpha]

"Fair enough. My name is Fallon." He almost hadn't answered her, but something about the cat sitting in his lap made him feel that he could at least let his guard down enough to tell her that. All of a sudden he cursed not having his sword with him, and worried that if something went wrong he wouldn't be able to defend himself. He still had plenty of martial arts training to fall back on, but he still preferred to keep anyone he was fighting at a distance. All of a sudden he felt a slight pain coming from his leg...the cat had extended its claws slightly to get his attention again. Apparently he had stopped petting it. Just as he started to pet again, a new comer had appeared. He looked to be older than him or the girl he had been speaking with, though it seemed one of the creatures had taken to him as well.
"Well, welcome to the party. From what I'm seeing around the room we can expect at least three more people before everyone is here." He chuckled a bit, realizing that the stranger seemed to be tense and on guard. With this realization he started to sum the guy up, thinking of different strategies for fighting him if things took a turn for the worst or he started to threaten anyone.

[Mizeria]

Iris went to work cleaning the mess from the night before. The once the dishes were clean she folded her clothes. Then she settled down into the sofa and pulled her laptop close.

' Just one paper to write and then I'll sleep....' she thought
Working full time and going to school was hard, but you do what you have to to survive. She was half way through her paper when her email flashed at the bottom of her screen.
'One unread message....? Maybe its Trace.' She thought and opened her email up. It wasn't his email. She scanned it fast and nothing popped up.
She opened it and was consumed by light.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

When she opened her eyes she wasn't home anymore. It was Wizard of Oz, but with her instead of Dorthy. The room was a faint purple. There were people and animals... She wasn't in Kansas anymore Toto. She sighed. Time to make the best of this... even if it was a dream.

" What is this place? Whats going on? "

[Mirror Gardens]

The scent of food roused the slumbering man from his sleep. With a groan a large grimy form rolled out from a nest of garbage bags with all the grace of a drunken bear. After lying on the cold pavement for a moment, Tasunke finally sat up and yawned before getting to his feet. He wore a tattered old trench coat that smelled of gasoline and dirt, had hair that was far from being clean and the grizzly looking beard made the young man look about three times his own age. Staggering over to the small table, he plopped down on the unoccupied chair and pawed through the feast on the table. After a minute he finally settled on two turkey clubs, three cold cups of soup and a pickle. Starting with the soup he downed two of the servings before belching loudly and then grunting in the general direction of the boy with the iPad as a thank you, then proceeded to move onto the sandwiches.

[Broken Muse]

"Theresa," She answered as soon as Fallon had given his name, not knowing what had promted her to give it to three almost strangers. She was just glad she had gotten it out before the other female had appeared. A sudden warmth and coolness desended on her shoulders and she glanced curiously at them. On her right shoulder there was a throbbing orb of white energy, it was the one emmitting heat. She turned to face the colder shoulder and was surprised to see a suspended ord of what she first assumed to be darkness but then relized was nothingness. The complete lack of anything corpral was fasinating but Theresa did not allow it to distract her from the others.

The others, includding Fallon, had not yet proved to be trustworthy. Therefor, they were to be treated as guilty until proven innocent.

[Poggio]

The boy didn't look at the man instead he continued to type out something on his Ipad. Eventually he shoved an unopened bottle of sprite towards the man, this was his way of saying your welcome. When he reached the end of his sandwich he reached out for another one, but realized majority of the food was gone. Shaking his head Audrey abandoned his belongings and his company infavor of going back inside to fetch himself some more dinner as well as desert for his guest. They had a carrot cake on special today.

[Alpha]

Looking at the newly arrived female, he decided he might as well share his name with the other two since he had already done so with Theresa. "Well, my name is Fallon. As for where we are, your guess is as good as mine. Two more to go and we should have the full party, at least if those portals on the walls turning gray after you arrive are any clue."
He mused, Why am I sharing this with complete strangers? I've never met these people before today, but for some reason I feel inclined to share details with them and at least try to strike up a conversation and ease some of the tension in the air. This all started after this cat sat in my lap, could it have something to do with it?
He then noticed to two orbs floating over Theresa's shoulders, and wondered if they were much the same as the cat in his lap and the dragon on the stranger's shoulder. He then looked to the center of the room and asked the stunning female sitting there silently, "So, do we have you to thank for us being here? If so, why did you bring us here and what are these creatures?"

[Broken Muse]

"The creature are similar to familiars I'm assuming." Theresa said before she could stop herself. She gave an almost inauble sigh and figured she might as well continue. "They seem to have chosen just one of the arriving people to become friendly with. If they were generally friendly creatures we would have been visited by them all, but the cat went right to Fallon, the dragon right to you," Theresa inclined her head towards the one with a dragon on his shoulder. "And the butterfly right to the newcomer." She neglected to mention her own companions because they did not fit the pattern she had just laid as two had come to her and their arrival had not been as soon as she had arrived. "I'm willing to bet the creatures who are not with us are waiting for the others to arrive." Now Theresa was sure she was just making this up as she went along, there was no way this insane stuff she spouted could actually be true.

Theresa then ran a hand through her hair, a nervous tic she had never quite gotten rid of. "So, what are you peoples names?