Welcome to Haven:

[fluxscapemod]

What: It's moving day for everyone.
Where: Haven MagLev Train/Haven Train Station and then Jerry's Info Booth for the Newbies.
When: 04/28 - Morning
Warnings: There will be swearing, probably mentions of violence. Will update as needed.

This FluxOver starts a lot differently than the others. For starters, everyone and we mean everyone is waking up on a train. No one's waking up in their homes. The first sound anyone hears isn't an alarm clock. It's the steady hum and squeal of the MagLev train just barely skimming it's rails as it makes a turn towards the Haven Train Station and then a deep, gravely, lightly accented male voice saying:

"Haven Train Station! Last stop! Everyone off!

And then the grinding of brakes as the train slows down to a bit of a harsh stop. With so many people stuffed into the train like sardines, it's probably hot and crowded, and everyone wants off. It's also very likely you're going to wake up leaning on someone. Do you know them? Are they a stranger? Let's hope you didn't drool while you were sleeping, or snore too loudly.

When the doors open, the heat probably gets a bit worse and the crowd is very eager to get off the train. Jostling and bumping, it seems as though no one cares who they smack into, they just want off. Since it's the last stop, it's probably best you depart, too. Should you choose to stick on the train, you'll find that while it does depart the Haven Train Station eventually, it just goes through a foggy area that seems to lead right back to the Haven Train Station. It'll keep doing so until you depart the train. Once the last person is off, the train will roll away and disappear in the distance.


For all the newcomers, you'll feel an impulse to go right to the very ramshackle-looking information booth, where a gentleman named Jerry has your information packet. For everyone else, your phones will start buzzing and a voice will start giving you directions, leading you back home and we're sorry to say it, but your homes have taken on the external appearance of everything else around them. Pieced together, rusty. Built more for survival and less for visual appeal.

Again; externally. Internally, you'll find that nothings changed and home is just as you remember it. And for anyone that got anything for FluxMas, you'll find your stuff waiting for you in the kitchen of your homes. Unless it's a vehicle. You'll find the keys to that in your pockets, shortly after stepping into your houses.

Settle in. Explore. Find your friends.

Welcome to Haven.

Comments

Jean Grey | OTA

[iseegoblins]

A. ARRIVAL

Sometimes you don't realize how tired you are until you get unceremoniously woken up after getting just a bit of sleep. Jean rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and looked around the train with a look that betrayed her exhaustion and confusion.

"Where..." she muttered to herself as a voice came on to announce exactly what she was wondering about. As it came to a stop she stayed seated, waiting sleepily for everyone else to clear off. A tiny voice in the back of her mind was wondering if she should be more concerned about all this. That voice was quickly shut down by the stronger voices that told her there really wasn't much in the multiverse that she actually should be concerned about anymore.

Besides, it didn't seem like there was much she could do about it at the moment. The best thing to do was to get off the train and check out where she'd ended up. The first thing she did as she looked around was reach her mind out to scan the minds of anyone she could touch. Everything she got from the people around her was disturbingly similar to what she'd gotten for years back home: distrust and a dislike bordering on disdain for all the strangers around. The same sort of thing mutants got on a daily basis.

"Some things never change, I guess," she muttered under her breath as she headed over to Jerry's information booth. Talk about something else that had seen better days...

"Uh...thanks for the information..." that she promptly dropped onto the floor. "Shit. So much for my reading material."

B. Wavering Road Apartments Exploration

[ At first glance the apartments were definitely...lackluster. It wasn't just that she'd gotten used to living in the mansion either. Honestly, more than anything, it's most off-putting feature was just how loud it was. That was the problem with being a telepath, people's thoughts were loud especially when they were all squished together. Sometimes it was hard enough back home in the mansion and she knew everyone there. This was a place where she didn't know a single person and now she was going to be living in the same building as a bunch of strangers. It'd been a long time since she'd done anything like that.

Which...actually made her weirdly hesitant. She stopped at the door into the apartment building and then decided checking out the inside could wait. Instead, she wandered around to the back to check out the clubhouse and the pool. That was something she hadn't quite expected to find here. It made sense, the heat didn't really bother her right now but she could see how a dip might end up feeling pretty nice eventually. After that she went back to dismally glaring at the apartment building before deciding she could do with some more wandering around this desert Haven she'd been tossed into ]

C. Night and Leaving?

Jean was making her way towards the walls with the intention of trying to see what was beyond them when night came. She stopped in her tracks, near the wall, and looked up at the sky. It was beautiful and it reminded her of flying through space. A sadness and longing washed over her and for just a split second a fiery glow surrounded her as she lifted off the ground.

"It's beautiful," she said just as she caught what she was doing. "Shit." It'd only lasted a few seconds at best and she was pretty close to the wall. Maybe nobody saw. How many people were stupid enough to want to leave the walls just as night was falling? It couldn't possibly be that many, right? Hopefully. She really wasn't sure if she wanted to deal with having to explain that to anyone. Not that she actually knew how people would react to mutants here. Or how they'd react to her particular set of powers. Nobody ever reacted well to that.

[ooc: If you'd like to continue a TDM thread here we can do that as well! If you'd like anything else let me know via a discord dm/pm! ]

c. night and leaving

[morethanatrickster]

continued from here

"That sounds like a strangely specific pastime." And such work. It was true, he held many things against his brother, and against their father, but to bend reality? It seemed an extreme. "And pointless, truth be told. What purpose would that serve?"

[iseegoblins]

"Yeah, it does, doesn't it?" It was weird because she got the sense that he didn't actually have any sort of memory of that. Not just that but it almost seemed like he found it weird? For some reason she actually believed that he meant it when he said it seemed pointless. That just made everything a new layer of weird and confusing.

"You'd have to tell me," she narrowed her eyes at him. "I didn't hear much, but a lot of it sounded like messing with your brother. Who happens to be a really nice guy, by the way. He had some wise words for me about how big the world was." Looking back on it now, she wished she'd thought more about what his brother had to say about Xavier. At the time she'd still been stuck on hoping the Phoenix was just her being crazy and that Xavier was her savior that knew everything. Funny how wrong a person could be.

[morethanatrickster]

"Yes, well, 'messing' with Thor is a pastime." But he'd never go that far. His brother was pompous, overbearing, convinced beyond reason that he was right about everything...and he was the best king their people could hope for. For all their disagreements, he did love his brother in his own way. He wouldn't torture him mentally in such a way...would he?

"I'm certain he did. We've both visited several worlds, though you could do with better role models." He couldn't go about complimenting his brother at ever turn, could he?

[iseegoblins]

"Kinda weird pastime." She got not getting along with a sibling to a tiny extent. The way Kitty and Bobby argued you'd think they were siblings sometimes. What she didn't get was making it some sort of twisted hobby. How bad was someone's childhood to end up in a situation like that? It also really raised the question of just how much someone disliked their sibling.

"So have I." Well, she passed by them. She didn't really stop to spend time in each one but she'd learned a lot more than she ever thought she would. "I wouldn't really say he was a role model. Just someone with some relatable words when I needed them."

[morethanatrickster]

"Clearly you've never had siblings." Or at least they'd never been your rival for a throne, or for attention. You were never in their shadow for centuries.

"He does have a habit of being in the right place at the right time." Annoyingly so. "This power of yours then is akin to a god's?"

[iseegoblins]

"You're right, I haven't," she admitted. Even if she had though she couldn't imagine treating them like that. Or even halfway like that. Or a third. Argue? Sure, maybe. But make it a hobby to mess with them? That just seemed intense and over the top. It also didn't really seem like it had an actual point in it. Didn't he have better things to do?

"And the right suggestive words. I probably should have listened to him more then." But she hadn't. Lessons learned. She rubbed her neck. "I didn't say anything about power. Just that he had some relatable words. About...life." Yeah. Life. She could just be honest and say it was a gods power, but she really wasn't sure about throwing that out there to people she'd just met.

[morethanatrickster]

It was all in good fun, at least it had started out that way. When they were boys, they pranked one another with no ill intentions. Somewhere along the way, the rivalry had turned to jealousy, but he actually thought he might be past that now. He would still play tricks on Thor, but they were a team. They saved their world together...and then ended it together, but they'd come together to do it.

He couldn't if he thought about it, though, what this other Loki had done wasn't too dissimilar to his goals on Earth, but that had been under duress. The Loki of this world from which Jean had come may have had some similar influence, he supposed.

"You did not, but it is about power, isn't it? You want to hide this thing of yours. You came out here because you didn't want anyone else to see."

[iseegoblins]

"Kind of assuming a lot there." But his assumptions were actually pretty accurate. She ran a hand through her hair and let out a low sigh. "Guess that didn't work out for me, huh?" Now the problem was she really had no idea what to say or do. Maybe it wouldn't be particularly bad for her to at least say something about her powers but she didn't know how people would react here. Then again, this guy was Loki, it wasn't like he'd be afraid.

"In my world humans don't really deal well with powers. Even some of my friends were a little freaked out by me. I just didn't want to cause a scene. Or have to explain my powers to people." Something told her he was going to keep asking though. "I'm a mutant and uh a bit more."

[morethanatrickster]

"I'm good at reading people," he gave her a smile, though his blink made it clear he didn't quite understand the significance of her admission.

"I'm afraid I have no idea what a 'mutant' is, at least not in the specific way you clearly intend."

[iseegoblins]

"It's complicated but basically a species of humans with special powers," she replied with a tilt of her head, it was kinda weird that he hadn't heard of mutants. Super weird actually and kind of concerning. "Your world doesn't have anything like that?" She'd gotten the impression things were different, but that was a lot more surprising than she'd expected.

[morethanatrickster]

"Yes, thoroughly complicated. Perhaps you should slow down." That sarcasm was evident as he spoke, though her question brought forth a shrug. "None I've heard of, though the Earth I know seems rather keen to make its own monsters. There is a man by the name of Banner who becomes a green beast of rage when angered."

[iseegoblins]

"That's as slow as I can take it, if you can't keep up well..." she smirked. It wasn't really something she wanted to spend too much time trying to explain and, well, her description seemed good enough to her. "I guess that's on you. It's a good enough description to describe most of them. There are some that get powers from other places, but that's more rare." She was among those, but she wasn't fully sure if she wanted to admit that just yet.

Her expression made it obvious she recognized something about what he said. "Oh, the Hulk? Except the one I know of is kind of more of a gross grey color."

b. wavering road apartments exploration

[alphabeticalplans]

[Making his way home from work, he typically wouldn't have paid much attention to anyone loitering around the entrance to the apartment building. A lot of the natives tended to do it, and it had started to remind him enough of the Slums of Sector 7 that he just accepted it as part of the scenery.

Though this particular woman had shockingly red hair he hadn't seen around the area, and seemed to be avoiding the building actively. She didn't look lost exactly, but she definitely didn't look like a local.

She looked...angry at the building, but also sad? It wasn't pretty, sure, but it was better than nothing.]

Hey. Everything okay? I haven't seen you around here before.

[iseegoblins]

[ She probably should have paid more attention to people coming and going. How was she supposed to do that though with so much going on in a new place? It'd take time for her to adjust to a new place with new minds. New unhappy minds. She really should have noticed someone approaching way faster than she had.

She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. ]

Yeah, everything's great. I love weird kidnappings. This one's definitely miles above the last few I had. [ That was actually pretty true. The last ones involved her powers being cut off from her and her being forced to work as a killer for shady secret organizations. At least this place didn't seem that bad so far. ] Uh, yeah, I haven't been here long.

[alphabeticalplans]

You've got me there, it's pretty weird.

[And he didn't miss the fact that she wasn't lying about other kidnappings. He was starting to get the idea very few of the people here lived 'normal' or 'happy' lives, himself included, but kidnapping wasn't something you heard everyday, even in Midgar.]

Well, I'm Biggs. [He offered a hand to her.] And...welcome to Haven, our new home, until it sends us somewhere else.

[iseegoblins]

It's saying something when I think something is weird. My life is kinda just a series of weird things. [ It was like one weird event after another and it seemed like there actually was no stopping it. Thinking that things would stop because she merged with a god probably was stupid on her part. Maybe it'd have made more sense to think things would get more complicated there. ]

Nice to meet you, Biggs. [ She took his hand and shook it with confidence. ] I'm Jean. Thanks for the welcome...I think. Does it decide to send us somewhere else a lot?

[alphabeticalplans]

[That got a chuckle out of him at least.] I'll keep that in mind if I ever need a litmus test for weird.

[He couldn't say his life had been especially weird before being dragged to this reality, but it hadn't been boring.]

I don't know about "a lot", but when I showed up in this group of people, we were in a resort town called Driftcrest. I went to sleep one night and woke up on a train to Haven with everybody else. People who've been here longer say it's happened before.

[iseegoblins]

You're in luck, I'm a walking litmus test for weird. I've been all over weirdland. [ And done some pretty weird things, like swapping two people's minds. One of them had deserved it though!

Okay, she kind of almost laughs at the name Driftcrest. Sorry, she tried not to but it just sounds so...well, weird. ] Driftcrest. That's a name and a half. [ She rests her hands on her hips. ] A resort town sounds a lot nicer than this. [ Bummer she got this instead. ] Does anyone know what controls the changing?

[alphabeticalplans]

Yeah? Is that North or South of Crazytown?

[It was meant as a joke, if the smile was any indication. He was trying to be comforting, to let her know it wasn't a big deal on his end, either. Sure, it was probably one of the strangest things that had ever happened to him, but he was managing.]

It fit the place. [He shook his head.] Not that I know of, no. If they do know, they're not talking, which just means they're on the other side. [If there were sides, that was.]

[iseegoblins]

They overlap. [ Her expression darkened though at the word crazy. That was something she could do without hearing ever again. ] I'm not though, crazy. Just to make that clear. [ Did it make her seem crazy to immediately say that and protest? Now she was even second guessing that. ]

There are sides now?

[alphabeticalplans]

[He raised his hands to still any further protests.]

Hey, I wasn't calling you crazy. It was a joke.

[But he took her change in subject to heart, shrugging.] As far as sides, I don't know. It's hard not to see it that way. There's a group of people who get shuffled around to different places, apparently the other people stay the same visually, but might as well be different people. They don't remember us, and they don't remember the place the way it was before. That can't be chance. Somebody planned it, but they aren't sharing. People who are on your side don't keep secrets.

[iseegoblins]

[ She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly and bit down on her lower lip. ] Sorry. I've just...had bad experiences with that. [ Bad experiences that left her with barely any fingernails still. What did it say about someone that they ascended to become some sort of god and still bit their fingernails all the time? Probably that they were just a bit crazy.

She shook her head at his explanation. ]

That's super weird. I know someone who had powers that maybe could have done something like that but he's...well. Gone. You're right though, people on your side don't keep secrets. Secrets just mess everything up.

[alphabeticalplans]

No problem. I didn't know, either. [He raised two fingers to his forehead in mock salute.] So, copy. No Crazytown.

[He smiles to let her know he didn't mean it, but nodded.]

Secrets leave you wondering who you can trust, and we don't need that around here.

[iseegoblins]

I don't like to advertise it, you know? [ She forces a weird little smile, her best attempt to cover up how awkward she felt now. ] No Crazytown, please.

[ She lets out a little bitter chuckle. ]

Yeah, that's...really true. You have experience with something like that?