I'm Basil Exposition, from DoD Intelligence! (Prologue >_

[Bean Bandit]

Ignoring the explanation for a moment, Sai approached the woman, drawing her aside. Nodding to Remy, he put his 'hands' behind his back and cleared his throat.  "I wanted to ask a favour before I agree to help you.  If I help you, I am leaving someone back home.  Someone I want to know what is happening to me.  I will not pull a Matt on her."  Sai scowled at the name.

The woman regarded Sai seriously for a long moment, and her neutral expression softened. "All right." she agreed, smiling. "I can arrange for a message...or did you have something else in mind?"

"Well, if you can do it, and you probably can, I woulnd't mind seeing her right now."  He smiled a bit at the thought of seeing his fiancee again.

The woman nodded. "I can...but what you're asking is potentially dangerous....If I assume you mean bringing her here as you are now?"

Sai nodded.  "Yes.  I haven't seen her in a bit, and if I am going to risk my life for you, I want to see her one last time."

She smiled a little more. "I understand...but you should know...Human beings are not talented in mental disipline, by and large....the only reason you need not concentrate to maintain your astral form is that this room does it for you." She paused, looking at him seriously "I will protect her, if I can...but you must keep the time short...lest she get drawn into the feud as well."

Nodding, he agreed. "I understand."

She smiled and nodded. "Then I would be happy to grant you this." She glanced at the short man, and, seeing him busy with explanation, she raised her own hand. Light swirled and danced in her palm as she began to repeat Remy's earlier spell...

OOC: This is happenning off to the side, for everyone but Cy. You can watch, and make observations, but not hear what's being said.

[Carthrat]

Carthrat goes back on his last words as another question pops into mind..

"Hey, when we get warped into our new bodies or whatever, we won't be with each other, will we?"

[Bean Bandit]

Remy frowned. "That all depends on whom you choose to be placed into." he answered, after a moment.

[Carthrat]

"We can choose? And here I was thinking you were going to pick them," replies Carthrat. "I *so* bag Xellos."

[Bean Bandit]

OOC: Introducing a new player! Here's Ra-chan, part one! XD

It looked to be another boring day at work. Actually, it looked to be an EARLY day at work.
Damn 7am shifts. Rachelle, often known as Ra-chan and even more often known as Inuyasha-chan, wasn't too happy to be gracing the store's presence even before the sun had decided to rear its ugly head over the horizon. But hey, one didn't argue with work, did one? Not really. But truth be told, Ra-chan wasn't the most awake of people at 7am and as she stumbled around the store, she was thinking how much she'd rather be in bed. It had been a weird morning already. Usually her fiance was still awake when she had to work this early. He hadn't been around online when she dragged herself out of bed though, for some odd reason.  Well, maybe he had fallen asleep. Or he was 'resting his eyes' or something. Ra-chan smirked slightly at the in-joke. He ALWAYS did that. Ah well, I'll just talk to him later then. No big deal.

Pulling a ladder over to one of the shelves, the still-tired woman climbed up to reach something on a top shelf, many things -but- work on her mind. Perhaps she should have been paying attention. Perhaps she should have been holding onto the ladder better. Perhaps she should have just stayed in bed that morning and called in sick to work. Whatever the case, as she was standing up on tip-toe to reach something just barely out of her rather extensive reach, her foot lost it's purchase and she began to slip.
Usually a tippy ladder wouldn't be so bad, but hey, this was Meijer and the equpiment wasn't all that great to begin with. As she grabbled to keep herself upright on the defective piece of crap, her hand reflexively reached for the shelf she had been close to. Not having much purchase, her hand slipped off and she found herself falling backwards towards the rather hard, tiled floor, the ladder rocking dangerously above her.
She took it remarkably well. With a sigh, her eyes shut and she waited to hit the ground. Ah well. I should have known it was going to be one of those days. With that, she held her breath and waited for the impact with the floor.
And waited....
And waited.....
And....nothing.

[Bean Bandit]

OOC: Here's Ra-chan, Part 2!

"The hell?" Not sure what she'd find, the woman opened an eye, expecting flourecent lights and finding....something completely different.

"Hello, sweetheart." Sai greeted.

"EH?" Out of all the faces Ra-chan had been expecting when she opened her eyes, her fiance's was not one of them. A manager, yes, another employee, perhaps....but Cy?

"Wait, wait...I hit my head, this isn't real, right?"

The woman, standing slightly behind Cy, smiled faintly. "She may need a moment to adjust...just as you all did." she told Cy.

"Yeah, I know." Turning back to Ra-chan he smiled. "It's not quite a dream. We are here in spirit one could say."

Nervously, Ra-chan rubbed the back of her head, as if that would discover some sort of bump...or something. This didn't SEEM real. In fact, Cy was positively.....see-through. "Right, right....but I was at work!"

"And I was sleeping at home. Someone with a lot of power, pulled us both here. She has a job for me and some others." He semi-pointed to the others.

"Right.....okay.....right." Noticing the woman with a brief glance, then glancing around the rest of the room, she took into account the other ghostly figures. One looked familiar, as if she had seen a picture a long time ago of him, but other than that, Cy was the person she recognized.

"Yes, some of them might seem familiar. We have a genuine Soulriders gathering here."

"Oh?" Her eyes traveled around again, then stopped. "Oh my God! It's KWOK! Okay, this is definitly not a dream because the day I start dreaming about him is the day I stab myself in the foot." Noticing her own ghostly state, Ra-chan probed her shirt, tugging at the horrid aqua-colour she was forced to wear every day at work and fingering the ghostly nametag that proudly displayed the phrase: 'Rachelle F. I can help!'

Sai smirked. "So it is him. Well the rest are Karthuratsu Tanewaki, Ginn, May, Bean, Shukuen and Ryder." He pointed to each in turn.

She sighed. "Not exactly the clothing I was hoping to be wearing to meet my online friends but....eh....hello. I guess."

The woman blinked. "Our number isn't full to capacity..." she allowed. "I can see you do have some of the necessary knowledge...."

Still feeling sorta giddy over the whole thing, Ra-chan just sort of shrugged and reached for Cy's hand. The shock was wearing off, slowly, and while normally she would have launched herself at him, she wasn't sure how well that would go over, considering her current state of being.

Sai turned to the woman. "No... I don't..." He stopped and looked at Ra-chan debating internally.

"I guess it depends...."

The woman eyed Sai. "I will stand by your wishes..." she told him softly. "But she could be an asset...."

"What?" Trying to grab for Cy's hand, Ra-chan only found that hers passed through it and she shuddered at the odd sensation that came with it. She pouted, then tried again. Still, nothing. "Damnit all! What's the point of SEEING you if I can't TOUCH yo-wait, what? Asset? What do you mean?"
Frowning a bit he answered. "It's her decision. I want her safe, but I won't decide for her. She's free to do what she wants."

Waving her incorporeal hand in front of Cy's face, the dog-girl tried to get his attention away from the woman. "Hello! What are we talking about now?"

Looking a bit upset, he told her. "She wants you to join our merry little band."
Hmmm, 'merry little band,' eh? That didn't sound promising. "So, ummm, merry little band as in we're just going to hang out or as in D&D sort of getting-attacked-by-monsters sort of stuff?"

"The second. Probably."

"Probably? What's that suppose to mean?"

"We're not sure of the way the 'contest' is supposed to happen. But hearing about the other 'player', the one that sets the challenges, it's most likely to get dangerous."

"Player? What player? And what contest? Look, the last I knew, I was falling off a ladder at work. Now I'm all ghosty-like with a bunch of people I don't know.....and you. But I have no idea what's going on."

"Well, it seems that two 'divine/semi-omnipotent' beings, decided to have a contest over the fate of a multi-verse. This woman, Order, and her brother, Chaos. If we win, nothing changes. If he wins, the multi-verse that they're contesting over will eventualy destroy itself."

"Wow....ummm.....cheerful." Pondering this for a minute, Ra-chan tossed her fiance a serious glance. "You're going to help, right?"

He nods slowly. "I hate to say this, but yeah. Dunno why exactly. Maybe it's some long buried honorable instinct?"

"And for some odd reason you don't want ME to go?" She tossed him another look. "Look, sweetie, I know you'll worry about me, but I'd worry about you too, knowing what I do now."

He gave her his special smile. "Yeah, I know. That's why when she asked, I said that it's your decision."

With a slight shrug, the brunette inclined her head towards the other soulriders. "I'm coming along too. What do I have better to do? Work? Psha. I'd rather hang out with you guys. Even if it is dangerous." With a small smile in return, she slipped her hand so that it would rest in his....if they weren't both incorporeal. It wasn't the same, but at least it felt better.

"Welcome to the 'team' I guess. Though I use the term 'team' loosely at the moment."

She tossed a glance over to Kwok, then did a sort of half-smirk, half-grimace. "I understand."

"I still think it's frustrating being this close and not being able to touch you though...."

"Well, if everything goes through quickly, we should be able to do that in a little bit. Just have to finish our mission briefing with the lady here."

The woman smiled slightly. "First, we should bring her up to date." she suggested, then proceeded to outline what she'd already told the others...

OOC: There! Ra-chan, you can use everything said before your entry as IC knowledge now...Assume she told you everything. You can ask all the questions of her you need, too. Ask quick, cause things start happening very soon. >_>

[Bean Bandit]

Bean double blinked, eyeing Carthrat. "You should really rethink how you phrase things like that." he observed. "Hmm...Who should I take?"

[RyderHakubi]

OOC: Welcome to the fold Ra-chan...

IC: "So, when do, y'know, get these bodies... I know of at least 5 people that are sick of being incorpreal right now, me included." Ryder mentioned dryly as he continued to lean against one of the walls of the Observatory.

[Music-chan]

ooc: Thank you! Beware my propensity to type too much! >_>

ic: Ra-chan eyed Ryder then arched an eyebrow. "Only five?  Who here actually wants to stay intangible?"  The woman sighed and ran a hand through her shoulder-length hair.  "I'm not so much worried about who we get to be, but how we're expected to run into each other again once we are who we get to be."

[Carthrat]

"We could tie that in with who we pick," points out Carthrat. "If we made sure we spread ourselves so that a few of us are all from the same series, it should work out."

[RyderHakubi]

OOC: And beware inner monologues... you should have seen the stuff in the original DoD I had cooked up... ^_^

IC: Ryder grinned and replied, "Well, I said I KNOW of 5... You, Me, Sai, Imouto-chan, and May-chan.  Kwok can stay a ghost for all I care."

Thinking about that last statement, he added, "Oh, I'm sure Order has a way around that problem y'know.  It seems she's got everything under control... except Kwok-baka, but who ever has control of him?"

[Music-chan]

Always the skeptic, Ra-chan somehow managed to look both optimistic and worried at the same time.  She wanted to think that everything would work out okay but a part of her knew differently.

"It would be nice, to be able to choose like that, wouldn't it?"  Tossing a glance towards the woman, the brunette shook her head and muttered softly under her breath.

"But Order has nothing on Chaos sometimes."

[Carthrat]

Carthrat shrugs at that. "We may as well work it out, anyway. If it works, all is good. If we end up being randomly dropped in.. well, what have we lost?"

[Asrana]

May hummed, smiling slightly as she tried to tap her foot against the floor. "Running with Rat's thought. Considering most contingencies of contest, we're looking at a combat team, and maybe a puzzle team. If it comes down to something like strength or speed in a race or weightlifitng competition, we'll have to rely on the abilities that come with a combat team. There aren't enough of us to split up much further and still be effective as a unit."

Shrugging, she glanced back around at all of them. "And yes, I know this is all a tad obvious."

"First though, who feels like working in a potentially similar way to a military unit, and who feels like a brain teaser?"

OOC: Welcome Ra-chan!

[Kwokinator]

"Grr..." Kwok leveled a flat stare at Ryder. "Just wait till I get my hands on you..."

"And you know me, May-chan," he grinned as he turned to the ghostly girl, his attitude having seemingly taken a 180 turn. "I'm all for kicking ass, and probably won't be any good in brain teasers anyway."