Intro Log

[progressmods]

Who: Everyone!
What: Your first magical day
Where: Progress City Tranport Center
When: Right now
Warnings: None planned!



[Today you found a ticket to a theme park. It seems relatively normal, except that it reads: Lifetime Parkhopper Pass to Progress City. ”The Most Magical Pocket Dimension in the Multiverse!” This is not a theme park you have ever heard of, if you live in a world where theme parks are of the norm.

For some reason you’re drawn to the ticket. There’s something… magical in this piece of paper, and you can practically hear it calling out to you, and you feel compelled to pick it up. It’s strange, but it’s a piece of paper, what’s the worst that could happen?

However, the moment you pick it up, you feel yourself being pulled. There is nothing pulling you but there is an overwhelming sensation that something is pulling you by the chest into the ground. You don’t have time to process what’s going on before you suddenly fall over, the strange feeling going away the moment you hit the ground.

It takes a few moments for you to regain your bearings, but as you look up you are suddenly hit with the fact that, wherever you were before, you certainly aren’t there anymore. It appears to be a transport station of some sort, and a very sleek and new one at that. Monorails pass by the station every couple of minutes, with small, slower moving vehicles consistently move in and out of the center.

The innermost wall, right behind where you stand, is lined with portals. It appears that you came in through this portal, but if you try to go back the way you came in, you’ll find that you are unable to enter it, no matter how hard you try.

While the realization that you are now trapped in this strange place, you will soon find that you also have a strange band strapped to your dominant wrist. No matter how hard you try to take it off, it seems like it’s stuck on there.

At least you’re not alone, along with a bunch of other people who arrived around the same time you did, there are humanoid people who seemed to be intrigued by your arrival. They’re all generally nice, but get confused if you ask them why you’re here and why you can’t leave. They will, however, happily tell you the name of the place you’re in if you ask:

Progress City.]

Comments

[spazzed]

( ( well. perhaps there will be regerts —

but for now. )

heeeey, good leadership thinking there, pal! it's a line of thought that this one here might have gotten to eventually, but he's never been that kind of forward-thinker, and. probably part of the reason the black lion had literally refused to acknowledge his presence. and will likely never acknowledge his presence. but that's neither here nor there.

at least keith is trying to relax, even if it's just a little bit, and at least narration can say that an attempt was made. that's the point. ) Weird name for a place. ( he says like they haven't been to weirder sounding places. ) But it's as good a place to start as anywhere, I guess. ( a shrug! he's easy. especially when it means he isn't making any sort of decisions himself.

he grins, though. ) Lead on, leader.

[pushdagger]

[ hey, he's at least. trying to do something productive even though his base instincts want him to act first without thinking, potentially getting them both into trouble. ]

I think it stands for something. Experimental Prototype – something. [ should have been looking closer at the map. he doesn't put more thought or energy into worrying about that because the sign at the nearest train station spells it out for them both anyway.

( he does, however, wince a bit at being called leader and hopefully lance doesn't see that as keith hurries ahead of him. ) ]

[spazzed]

( neither of these idiots need to be caught acting first and thinking later, especially since they both have a tendency to be a liiiiiittle hotheaded at the best of times, especially when there isn't any sort of space dad to play referee and keep everyone out of trouble.

so. yeah. good job, keef. you're doin' it right. ) Prototypes? The heck kind of place is this, anyway — ( shut up, lance.

and thankfully, due to his lack of peripheral awareness he does just miss the way the other winces, though if he had seen it, he would have felt. guilty is one way of putting it. perpetual-case-of-foot-in-mouth-syndrome is another, especially at the worst of times —

sheesh. off to a great start, there, sharpshooter. but he's trailing off after keith anyway, just so he doesn't lose him in the crowd. )

[pushdagger]

Maybe they're scientists.

[ he stops once to check that lance is still within sight before moving to the nearest platform, aiming for the thinner part of the crowd. they're surrounded by confused murmurs and equally concerned looks, so at least they're all... together in this madness. not that keith is any sort of optimist here.

the flashing signs tell them that the train is two stops away so he at least can return to his usual state of standing with his arms crossed over his torso. two stops. he can wait that long. right?

come on, keith, don't start foot-tapping. ]

[spazzed]

Sounds creepy. ( he's stuck on prototypes, keef. good luck getting him off of the weird train of thought that has now sent him spiraling into a whole handful of what-ifs that probably don't even exist, but since that's just how his brain tends to work, he's. stuck with it.

but at least they really aren't alone in all of this weirdness, even if he doesn't so much notice the others' confused looks around him as he barely manages to keep within visual range of keith, and it's really anyone's damned guess how he does manage in the first place.

two stops. we're waiting on that foot-tapping, buddy. and expect a nudge and a you're doing it again if you do. )

[pushdagger]

Lance.

[ a voice to hopefully interrupt his wild train of thought, a bit too harsh if only because he knows ( sort of ) how lance mcclain's brain works. ( he's just scratched the surface on that, but he has at least been! paying attention! ) ]

How long does this thing take?

[ you're on land, keith, not zooming into hyperspace on a castle-ship. stop it. ]

[spazzed]

What? It does! ( he scowls a bit for a second, but look! at least that was enough to disrupt that chaotic train of thought and keep it from spiraling out of control; it means something, you know, that keith has been paying attention well enough to even bother in the first place.

but we'll expound on that later. probably.

his arms are folded now, too, and he looks almost like a taller mirror image of the boy next to him as he peers in the direction their ride is supposed to be coming from. now would be a great time to say ( or just think, maybe ) patience yields focus but he is so very not shiro and that is a very shiro thing to say ( or think ) but patience is a virtue and this water isn't going to boil as long as you keep watching it.

calm down. ) It's been like two minutes. ( nudge. ) It'll be here soon.

[pushdagger]

[ as soon as keith realizes that they have pretty much assumed the same position, the train does finally roll in. monorail, as it's called. it's a sleek, pristine white thing, reminding him a bit of some of the vessels he has seen in space. the door slides open and, with a glance over his shoulder to his friend, he boards the first car. the interior is just about the same, blue and white all over, and he slides into the bench, glancing out the window. ]

Hm.

[ he looks thoughtful and his arms are at least unfolded as others assemble in the car after them. ]

[spazzed]

( of course the thing would come around once they've assumed the same position, but it doesn't take long for mister long-and-leggy to step in behind the other, and then there are others crowding in behind him. this thing looks like it's built to be fast, which should be right up keith's alley — and any measure of conversation might end up taking some of the edge off the other boy, and you know what?

lance is that kind of friend, man. he glances out a near window himself, humming thoughtfully. ) This thing looks like it could go pretty fast. ( he offers as an opening, peeking over at keith out of the corner of his eye. you gonna take the bait, buddy? )

[pushdagger]

[ keith is silent for a long pause, staring out the window as the train pulls out of this station towards another new destination. he doesn't fold his arms at least, hunched over with his elbows on his knees, hands limp between them. ]

Looks like it's probably going forty miles per hour, [ he finally answers, sparing lance a glance. okay, he will bite this time, if only because ... they are weaponless and stuck in a place with no way to fight back since they don't currently have anyone to fight. ]

[spazzed]

( lance, right next to him, has opted to lean back — well, it's almost a slump, really, but of course it is — hands resting in his lap, peering out the window across from him as the scenery goes flying by, nowhere near as fast as he's used to with the lions.

ah, yes, good. he took the bait. even if it's just for humor's ( or boredom's ) sake at this point, he's considering it a win and you can't take that away from him. ) Hmmm. ( he hums, almost like he's trying to pass off being bored but keith has always done a much better job of that, even if he has to give him credit for humoring him presently. ) Too slow, then. I mean I'm not as impatient as you but that's really slow.

( coming from the kid that has probably never learned how to like. drive a car. you don't really want this boy driving something on land, anyway. at least in the air or space there's little to bump into. )

[pushdagger]

I wonder if you could make it go faster.

[ of course that's the way he thinks, not just because it's keith but because they're paladins and they tend to goad each other on in one way or the other. they would find a way to access a monorail, pidge and hunk would find a way to reach its maximum speed potential, chaos would ensue. they're teenagers, after all.

he taps his knees with his fingertips. but back to the subject at hand. ]

So, we've all got these bands. I overheard some people saying they thought it was a science experiment. There's no real explanation for why we've just been sucked into this other world or dimension or why so many of us came here at the same time.... [ laying down the facts he does know doesn't help at all, actually. he sighs. ]

[spazzed]

Dude, you can always make something go faster. I bet if Pidge and Hunk were here they could overhaul it in like five minutes. ( even though pidge and hunk are engineers and not mechanics, it's all the same to him in the sense that he doesn't really get any of it, and all that techno-babble and machinery nonsense gets lumped into the same category.

he's still convinced they could do it. because they can do damn near anything when they're working together.

lance listens to the other rattling off what he knows, or what he thinks he knows — what he's heard above all else and while it might sound a little wacko, he can't say that it sounds much different from the sort of things they see as paladins. still — ) Better than thinking whoever brought us here is out for everybody's mortal soul. ( were you expecting him to expound on that? he isn't.

he's had some really weird conversations today, keith. it's scary that this is the most normal one. ) What kind of crap can you get out of an experiment like that? Like. You do experiments to collect data or whatever, right? What's anybody going to get out of dumping a bunch of random people together in a theme park?

( he's thinking about this too hard already. you might want to stop him before he hurts himself. )