A Whole New World [Open]

Aidan stepped out of the portal, bow strung over his shoulder, quiver on his back and his leather armour screeching quietly as he moved. With tears falling down his eyes, he crouched down and watched the portal, awaiting for his sister to appear so they can be together in safety in this unknown place. His green cloak wrapped around him as the wind continued to blow and more time passed with no sister to see, he watched intently as he noticed the edge of the portal starting to shrink, "No... No, No, No!" he thought as he watched it slowly shrivel up and still did not spew out his sister, Aidan remained hopeful though and continued to watch all the way up until the portal had dissapeared, at this point he was past anger and was in disbelief, he dropped to his knees and the thought of what could have happened to her, the outcomes could not have been good. More tears fell down his cheeks as he looked around to see where he was, he seemed to be in an alleyway of some kind, away from the watchful eyes of the general public. He leaned against the wall and thought back to his whole life before this very moment, it had been fairly easy, all he had to worry about was learning the ways of a hunter and gaining the skills to be able to wield the bow that he currently had on him. After a while of reminiscing about the good times and bad times of the past, he opened his eyes and thought about the future, here he was in this whole new realm, everyone here seemed to wear very interesting clothing, clothing that would offer no protection from a sword or arrow, he had no family anymore, he had no allies, he had no servants, he had to start from fresh all over again.

No matter how hard he tried though, he could not shake the memories out of his head, they would haunt him forever and there was nothing he could do to quell them unless he could somehow get back there and find out what happened, although the odds of that being possible was next to none. Aidan pulled his hood over his head and walked out onto the street, where should he go? What should he do? He felt like an ant inside an extremely large maze and he had no idea what the first thing he should be, right now though he just wanted to walk and hope that this whole thing was a nightmare of some kind. He walked through the crowd receiving dirty looks from passers by, he was the one who should be looking at them funny though, how did they expect to win any kind of wars with the garments that they were wearing, some bystanders praised him for what he was wearing though, calling his outfit "Awesome" and "Cool", Aidan assumed these were compliments so he simply nodded and walked on. The sight of all of these new things began to scare Aidan, metal contraptions were passing him on the streets, they looked like wagons, but they were not powered by horses and were certainly not made of wood, he would then think these people were crazy for talking into a small device of some kind, talking to yourself is fine, but in public it can be looked at strangely.

His eyes veered into several windows as he walked down the street, so many new things and so little time to take it all in, his head was starting to hurt and he wanted to dart into the nearest alley to clear his mind, but he decided to press on, he did not know why though, he had no idea what he was doing.

Charlie was in the dancing studio, her hair pulled back into a braid and her medical wristband glinting slightly due to the plastic’s reflection. The skirt of her leotard spun out daintily as she preformed her routine. Charlie’s partner moved expertly and almost intimately with her movements. The woman seemed to move flawlessly, which she did. No mistake in the dance, if they even had to start over it was generally the guy’s fault.

Soon the clock struck the hour and everybody began to leave. Charlie’s dance partner waved goodbye and soon she was left alone to clean up the studio. She didn’t mind cleaning and locking up. There was a list for her after all. Scrubbing windows and things like that.

The girl with memory loss made her way back to the bathroom and changed into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. With that she began to clean up the mess, starting with the scrubbing of windows.

aAsmall group of  five school girls in uniform - students from a Chicago prep school on a 'field trip'- were gathered around a taco truck. The girls had a ton of shopping bags; Xiao was among them, and looked at the box of tacos she was given. Her classmates definitely were an odd bunch, buying from the classiest stores and being driven around in a limo, but having to stop a taco truck for a snack. Internally she thought that this was too much to eat, though before dealing with that, she decided to give the hot, steamy food a try... not bad. She could acquire a taste for mexican cuisine.

One of them took off her blazer. "Wow, like, you know, it is alot warmer here in L.A. than Chicago."

"Yeah..."

Xiao simply listened to the girls. She was only starting to grasp that a field trip on a friday involving one of her wealthy classmates, a flight to L.A. and a shopping spree might not have been sanctioned by the school. Another one of the girls turned to see the archer, while still sipping some iced tea.

She walks up to him, and spoke like any typical valley girl ."Oooh! A cosplayer! like wow, look at the detail you put into your costume! But, who are you supposed to be? I don't recognize you from any comic or anime... maybe some european MMO? Can i take a picture?" She asked, whipping out her own iPhone. Xiao of course, would eventually notice, and catch Aidan's scent; he did not smell of this world.

Aidan had been keeping himself to himself, he was well known throughout his old home that he could stop and talk with most of the people that he walked by, but it was clear to him that these people were not as nice. He was starting to get sick of the people giving him dirty looks and wondering why he looked so weird to them, his first job was to certainly attain some new clothing. He was stopped however by a young girl with a strange accent, he almost found it impossible to understand, especially when she was using many different words that he did not even understand. "Cosplayer? I do not know who this Cosplayer is, but I am Aidan Sylvafall, heir to the Sylvafall clan from the Randorf region, I just came here from my own realm and I am not familiar with everything here, it is all certainly strange for me. If you think this is a costume, you are sorely mistaken, this is the actual armour of a Sylvafall hunter, we must all wear it to protect ourselves" Aidan noticed the girl take out one of those small devices that he as seen so much of, the girl stood beside him and aimed the device at the both of them, she smiled at it and Aidan just looked slightly confused by it all.

"Excuse me my lady, but I must explore more of this place if I am to be living here from now on, good day" Aidan bowed slightly to the girl who blushed slightly, he turned away and continued to walk, he was still confused about everything that had happened just then, he wanted to get far away from them more than anything as he was getting slightly scared by this large place and the people inside it, there was too much noise and too many people for his liking, he needed to get away from it all. He darted into the first door that he could find that was open, he closed the door and leaned against the wall, breathing heavily with his eyes closed. He opened them again to find himself in an empty room with only one person who was cleaning the windows of the place, "Oh... my apologies miss, I just needed to get away from all of that" he said as he gestured the hustle and bustle outside.

"You do not mind if I just stay in here for a short while before continuing on, do you?" he asked as he pulled his hood down to reveal his blonde hair.

Charlie was scrubbing at a particularly difficult spot on the window when she heard the bell tinkle.
"Hello?" She asked turning around and catching sight of the strangest man she had ever seen. His hood was drawn up and he had several weapons slung across his back, armor glinting faintly in the sunlight.
"Uhhh," Was all she said. Charlie did not have a 'what to do when a weirdo walks into the dance studio' section in her journal. Then he pulled off his hood, showing his face and longish blonde hair.

"Yeah, just don't touch anything," Charlie stated, going back to cleaning the windows. The poor guy was probably having a spasm from seeing so many girls clad in short shorts, Charlie included. After finishing with the windows, Charlie started sweeping the floors.

The door to the studio opened again, and in came Xiaolongnu, following behind Aidan. Unlike her overly eager classmates, she approached the situation with a bit more finesse. She looked around and surmised from the windows, the mats and the mirrors on the wall that it was a dance studio.

"This is... a nice place. I used to dance when I was younger." She said to the girl, apparently the owner or a dancer here.

She walked over to Aidan, as she listened to him speak with Charlie. "Oh um... hello. Looks like you can speak... english..."

"I can tell you're not from around here. I am sorry for my classmates, they're... not that open minded. I'm Xiaolongnu. Are you hungry?" She offered him her last vegetarian taco in the box and a friendly smile.

"Thank you" he said as the woman cleaning allowed him to stay inside for a short while, he stepped back and leaned against the wall, leaning his head back and closing his eyes as he tried to make his heartbeat lower, he took deep breaths as thoughts of his past life returned to haunt him, he wiped the sweat from his forehead, as well as any strands of his blonde hair. The silence was broken as the door opened again, he assumed the place was closed as this lady was cleaning up at the end of her day of... whatever she did, but it appeared he was wrong as someone else had come in. He immediately recognized her as one of the girls that he had met earlier. Apparently she used to come here to dance, it became clear to Aidan that this was some kind of dance hall, the girl then approached Aidan who was still leaning by the wall, "Yes, English is my first language" he said bluntly to her as it seemed obvious from when they were last together.

"I think it seems obvious to most people that I am not from around here" he said as he looked outside at all of the "normal" clothed people and he compared himself to them by looking into a wall mirror on the other side of the room. "And no, I am not hungry, but thank you for the offer" he said as he declined the girls last taco. Immediately he began to wonder why she had come in, this place was clearly closed and there was nothing happening besides a man standing against a wall and a woman cleaning a window, nothing to get too excited about. He wondered if she came in here because of him and if it was, did she simply come in to apologize on her friends behalf? Or was there something else that she wanted from him, if there was something else, Aidan was not interested, he had been in this new place for no less than two hours and he was not particularly searching for friends right now... he did not really know what he was searching for to be honest.

Charlie arched an eyebrow but didn't say anything. That was when the second girl walked in.
"Sorry, we are closed." Charlie stated, arching an eyebrow and hanging up the broom on the wall.
Then she turned around with her hands on her hips. None of this made any sense in her brain... The sign did indeed read closed as it face outwards towards the bustling street.
Her hazel eyes stared hard at them each, in turn. Like a wall that was nearly impassable.

"Um... Sorry for barging in then. I won't take long." Xiao apologized and bowed quickly to Charlie, not noticing the closed sign. Xiao looked at the mirrors, and saw not her reflection, but the inner 'dragon', towering over Xiao.

"What do you think you're doing? He's just a lost little weakling, a mortal. We have nothing to gain by knowing him. He's better off fending for himself." Xiao blinked at her 'reflection' a few times, shaking her head only slightly.

"I... I suppose I'm just trying to talk to you because I also came to this country not that long ago, alone. Back then I had someone who helped me... I guess I'm just paying forward their kindness. You're probably confused, need to sort out what you need to do. If you... need to talk to somebody, I'm going to be around for a couple of days. Also, is there any chance that maybe, maybe you're still in trouble or being followed?"

"Pathetic. The weak coddling the weak." Her inner dragon said, the callous nature of her inner beast a stark contrast to her human morals.

"...I'm Xiaolongnu, by the way. You said you were Aidan? I can... help you find some basic things...shelter, food, information... if you want..." She offered her hand this time, the buddhist girl compelled to be kind.

Aidan realized that he had not noticed the closed sign on the door either, he too had just barged in unannounced, but he had managed to figure it out on his own that this place was not open. He noticed the girl looking into the mirror slightly longer than any normal person would, he looked at her through the mirror and noticed she seemed to be in some kind of trance before shaking herself out of it. He listened to her though as she talked about how she had been in the same predicament as him one time before, he hardly thought she was brought here from a completely different realm though, she was probably just talking about coming here from a different region. Aidan did feel like a very independent man though, even though he did feel lost without his family who were no doubt all dead now and he was in a completely different realm, but he had never talked to this girl and now she suddenly knew the exact situation he was in and she wanted to help him and be his friend? A highly unlikely story. He flashed a look over to the woman who was closing up the studio, it was more of an apologetic look than anything, he only wanted to take a breather for a few minutes before leaving again and now two people were having a casual and strange topic'd conversation in front of her eyes. "My apologies miss, yes I am new in this place, but right now I am not looking for a friend or a shoulder to cry on. This place has my head spinning, but after being here for an hour or two, I do not think I am ready to trust someone who claims they know who I am and why I am here..." he said bluntly, he had manners but for now they were out of the window, he could not trust anybody other than himself right now, and it would stay that way until he could get himself on his feet.

He turned back to the cleaning woman as the girl lowered her hand, "Thank you for letting me into here temporarily" he said as he pulled up his hood back over his head, he took a step back and bowed in respect to the two women still inside the studio before leaving and rejoining the busy streets.

Charlie nodded, still vaguely confused by this entire situation. What on earth were they talking about.
"No problem," She stated lightly to the blonde-Aidan, she corrected herself. Then Charlie swept up the dirt. As she finished cleaning she waited for the other girl to leave before locking up.
Then she packed her jornal, sitting on top of the music speakers, into her bag along with a few other keys.
It was later in the day when she was walking back into the center, ready for a good nap and a possible sandwich. Charlie was minding her own business when the bag with her jornal got stolen right off her shoulder.
"HEY! THATS MINE!"
Charlie took off after the thief, surprisingly fast for a mentally disabled girl. She followed him into an alley, the trash bins quivering, quite literally as she walked by.

Xiao sighed, and apologized to both Charlie and Aidan for the inconvenience, bowing respectfully as they were both her elders too. She leaves and rejoins her school friends on their 'field trip'. Once they were fully rested, their shopping continued, this time for shoes- as the first leg of the day was devoted to new clothes. The schoolgirls eventually ended up at an Asian Milk Tea shop on the other side of the block of Charlie's Studio. The young Filipino-american owners cheerily serve the rich girl's clique some biscuits as well, seeing as they were acquainted.

Most of the bystanders simply watched as the theft took place too quickly, the snatcher sprinting for his life through the alleyways. Demonstrating some degree of parkour skill, he takes a sharp turn then wall-hopping to quickly scale a tall chain-link fence in an attempt to lose Charlie.

The thief paid no heed where he was going, as he violently ran into the table where the school girls were having their milky beverages, spilling milk, tea, sago, sweets and girls onto the pavement. The thief quickly recovered, and grabbed Charlie's bag... only to be grabbed by the wrist by a very tall, and tea drenched Xiaolongnu.

"L-l- le- Let me go!" he said, stammering in anxiety, looking up at the girl who was easily a head and a half taller than he was.

"...I was just helping you up. Are you hurt?" Xiao said, seeing that the hooded figure was just a young, scrawny teenager. He smelled of the streets and sewage, and had likely not bathed in nearly two weeks, much to the detriment of Xiao's heightened sense of smell.

"Ch..child?! I'm fine!" He retorted, swiftly taking back his arm from Xiao and the bag, fumbling with it.

"Ow! That really, really hurt! And you got tea all over my uniform! Hey, that's like, a lady's bag." One of Xiao's friends pointed out, even as she was tissuing off the milk from her uniform.

"...It's my... mom's, alright?!" He said, too clear a lie to fool even a few students.

"Yeah right! Why were you running from out of the alley in the first place, a* hole?" Another of the girls asked, slowly coming to her feet and incredibly angry at the person who ruined their afternoon tea time.

"SH- SHUT UP, PREPPIE!" He said, taking the bag and trying to take off- however, Xiao found her fellows' suspicions valid, and blocked him off.

"...Look, you should calm down, and return that bag..." Xiao suggested, trying to diffuse the tense situation.

"...No, NO! YOU DON'T GET IT! I NEED THIS!" He protested. People were crowding around the cafe now, the thief's behavior way too suspicious and drawing attention. Cornered, panicking, the thief was rooted in place trying to look for a way out.

Aidan's adventure through this place continued and he had learned some more information about where he was, it was a place called Los Angeles in a region known as America, when he asked what world he was on, he was given a very strange look, but he eventually found out he was on a planet called Earth. Aidan had used the portals to move between his own world, but never has he moved between two, his sister must have used every bit of energy she had to open it up and keep it open for as long as she had, whatever happened to her afterwards was unknown, Aidan continued hoping that she was still alive somehow, but when he tried to think of reasons why The Axiom would keep her alive, his mind drew blank which saddened him. Aidan was keeping to the alleyways now as he did not particularly like walking along the streets, he would draw looks from strangers and would face abuse from several people who looked like they were without a home.

Aidan kept his hood up and his hand grasped firmly on the string as it was slung across his body, it was his most prized possession right now, that and the bracelet tightened around his wrist that was given to him by his sister many years ago. He could hear a woman shouting not too far from where he was, but there were a lot of shouting people in this city, so Aidan didn't take much notice of it, his attention was grabbed though as a man knocked over some metal tins containing garbage and was gripping tightly onto a black satchel and was closely followed by a woman that he could not quite recognize from where he was. What seemed to be a chase sounded like it had come to an end as there was quite a ruckus just around the corner, Aidan leaned on the corner and peaked around as he noticed the man being questioned by many different people through a chain link fence, the man looked quite worried, more so that he was caught doing whatever it was he was doing because he also looked extremely nervous, Aidan's curiosity got the better of him as he decided to stay hidden in the alleyway and see how this situation played out.

Charlie screeched to a halt in front of the chain link fence, the kid had jumped it rather professionally. While the thief jumped Charlie’s eyes went curiously blank. Then she blinked after he cleared the fence, grinning crookedly Charlie wall jumped over the fence, much better than the little thief had. Carefully she moved towards the crowd, “It’s mine and I’d like it back.”

Boy, did she look pissed. The thief panicked and tried to bolt again but he seemed to be stuck to the floor. Charlie wordlessly stretched out her hand and waited. Charlie generally wasn’t that scary of a person, unless she was mad. Which right now, she was. Her eyes were cold and hazel as they bore down on the thief.

Left with little choice, the teenage thief looked at Xiao, the angry preppies and then at Charlie. Several moments pass, before he tosses Charlie's bag to Xiao, then pushing Xiao out of the way to make his escape down the sidewalk, just as the police arrive to question the people gathering around.

Xiao's classmates entertained the policemen, while she went to Charlie and returned the bag. "...Here you go. It's sad to see such misguided youth. Are you alright... um... I didn't catch your name..."

Xiao may have heightened senses, but that didn't mean she was fully aware of her surroundings- the thief had made off with Xiao's mobile device, and slowed to a walk after getting out of their sight. He would do this a bit too carelessly, as he would stop to inspect it near the alleyway Aidan was. "Heh, this thing is worth more than that chick's cheap bag... wonder if I can sell this instead."

The device rings. Ellie was calling. The thief fumbled with the thing as it blared out a popular Kpop tune. "Oh crap oh crap oh crap... how do I ignore..."