INTRO ♚ FEBRUARY

[boardmaster]

WELCOME TO CAISSA

We’ve all had those dreams: you wake up on a table, to blurry, ominous images and the certainty that you are absolutely buck-naked in a room full of strangers. This is not quite it.

Instead, you come awake to the sun on your face. The soft burble of water nearby. The hustle and bustle of a busy street and the faint, fortifying smell of bread. You open your eyes and there’s no one there at your bedside, but there is what appears to be the end of the world happening just beyond your window.

There’s a crack in the world across the sky, the “sun” is the totally unnatural light spilling from that crack straight into your eyes, and someone’s left a neatly pressed and folded uniform at the foot of the bed that isn’t yours. Somewhere in the room, there’s a strange clatter like beads, the click of claws on the floor.

Something’s in here with you.

Also, you are naked.

ONE ♟ Settling In

Welcome to Blanc! You wake up on one of the beds inside the Hall of Glory. You might still be feeling a little light-headed, but sudden dimensional travel will do that to a body. You could have sworn visions of a fantastic world flashed before your eyes not long ago: monsters, magic, and a mission to save the world. You can't quite recall much beyond the basics, but could this be it?

Save your questions for later! The room nannies are quick to urge Heroes into their uniforms (with their beaks if necessary) and to point them to the pick-up locations for their Blanc-issued Weapons and Carriers. Hopefully, nobody but the pigeon’s watching you change. On the other hand, maybe you're the type to turn every roommate into a new friend before you even step foot outside the room.

As you make your way down the halls, you might notice strangely familiar faces around you. But don’t linger too long to chat—the people in charge of the armory and the menagerie have gone through many Heroes before you, and still have many more to go after you. NPCs need meal breaks, too! If you don’t make a decision in time, the random Weapons and/or Carriers they pick for you can be just a little odd.

And if you’re hungry? No matter how rich you were in your homeworld, you’re penniless now until you earn some colle. Thankfully, the Hall of Glory provides free meals to Heroes and those associated with them! Sunday’s breakfast and lunch are bananalicious and seafood pasta. A friendly visiting scholar may have a word of advice for you: “Beware the dining hall on Mondays.”

But you’ll barely have time for lunch before guards come and round you up. “For the parade,” is the only reason they’ll give you.

TWO ♟ Welcome Celebrations

Trumpets sound, cymbals clang and the crowd roars as the parade gets underway! What’s all the fuss about? Well, you Heroes were sent by the gods to save Blanc, right? Of course they’d celebrate! Smiling and waving at the citizens of Caissa from your uniquely crafted float might be a chore, but hey, they love you. Are you really going to let them down, or lose the spotlight to the fellow Heroes sharing your float?

The reception after the Prime Minister’s speech is like some kind of idol session, with Caissa citizens coming up to shake hands and welcome the Heroes warmly. Some are even asking for autographs!

There’s a lot of things to do in festive and lively Caissa, even late into the night under a light fall of snow. Sparrow Town is all lit up, ready for another festival next week.

While some shops are closed for the holiday, others have buffet tables or are giving out free samples to the Heroes. The food stalls here are way better than the bizarre cafeteria menu at the Hall of Glory! Why waste the opportunity to finally gorge on real food? The shop owners have done their best to impress, showing off their local cuisines proudly along the city streets: from the local hamburger joint to the exotic L'adderan curries, you'll find a little of everything to whet your palate. Your growling stomach will likely thank you for the food. … Oh, wait. That wasn’t you? You think the fish sandwich on your plate just sang? Nonsense. That just means you had a marvelous piece of fish bread. Please remember to visit them again sometime when you have the colle, okay?

Various stalls with games and activities have also been set up. Maybe you can impress the crowd by nailing an apple with an arrow or by sacrificing your friend(s) at the water tanks! An unusual Go-style stall offers something like fish scooping, but be careful: touching the fish with your bare hands will leave you feeling funny… Wow, you’ve never seen that color before! But whatever it takes to impress the children, right?

Said children might try and get you to dance in the falling snow. Better not mess up, though, because everyone in Caissa seems to be watching.

THREE ♟ The Day After

Hopefully, you didn’t sleep too late after yesterday’s celebrations! Or maybe you slept badly, since it felt like something was watching you…

The free breakfast that awaits you at the dining hall is… something special. Please enjoy it to your heart’s content! Remember: no food fights, and leave no leftovers! Nothing will save you from the chef’s disapproving mustache swirl if you do!

If you want to make money (to get away from Monday’s Horrors), there are now jobs up for taking at the Hall of Glory and the Poisoned Pawn! If there’s nothing to your taste, check back again every so often. Something new might pop up!

Heroes not in the mood to be errand-runners (it’s understandable, you’re Heroes after all!) can hang out in the parlor, read in the library, or express yourself in one of the Hall’s many studios or other rooms.

If lying back and taking it slow isn’t your thing, you could train or spar! Being summoned to a new world takes a toll on the body, and some Heroes have lost abilities familiar to them. Besides, it’ll take a while to get used to your weapons. Some of them might even be disobedient, backfiring at worst and unresponsive at best. Try not to hit your fellow Heroes (including yourself), or you’ll either have to find enough Heroes to cast weak healing spells or carry the wounded to the infirmary. While the snow has been cleared overnight, it’s still very cold!

INFO ♟ Welcome!

Welcome to Crosscheck's grand opening log! For any further questions, please see the FAQ or reach us at the Contact Us page. Have fun!

Comments

[myfairlily]

... So put some clothes on. I can't stay like this forever.

[The vaguely disgruntled response is very muffled, probably because it's coming from under a layer of sheet peeking out from over the side of one of the other beds -- there are two pointy lumps under the sheet, and if you look very closely, you could see them twitching just a little bit.

Bernard's definitely a stranger to dying or being erased from existence; in fact, he's also very much not used to waking up without an exact idea of where he's been or what he's been doing, even as unpredictable as things have become lately. Nevertheless, instinct is the one thing he's still wearing; his wake-up was spent less on stretching and more on rolling right off the bed, sheet and all, to have a safer vantage point on his surroundings. He'd stopped short of going under the bed, of course. That wouldn't have been dignified.

So, all things considered, he'd had a brief look around. And maybe he accidentally caught some fox skin, but you'll never take him alive...! (He's learned by now that the best offense is sometimes a good pretending-it-isn't-there.)

All in all, the first thing he did after he got a modicum of his bearings back: pulled his sheet down over his head to cover his eyes before he got any more of an eyeful. It has the added bonus of also muffling the totally unnecessary screaming.]

[mikooon]

[Right. ...Right. That's a good point. She will put clothes on, worry about existence and reality later.]

Hmph... you'd think they would have more sense than to summon me without my clothes on, who do they think I am...

[Upon grabbing the strange uniform placed on the bed, she pulls up the covers and begins putting it all on frantically while underneath the blanket. Which means she doesn't see the room nannies flying in...

Have fun, guys.]

[topkong]

[ While Bernard may have possibly seen some things... Wukong DEFINITELY had been watching the entire time with the biggest smirk on his face. He can definitely appreciate foxes, his best friend on his world was also one--- though maybe not as appalled by people seeing her without clothes.

He can appreciate this. What a wonderful experience he's having already!

Then again, he also doesn't mind being naked--- like animals wear clothes? But he's smart enough to cover his decency by hiding most of himself underneath blankets, just like Bernard, only he's kept his head uncovered. ]

You're a married woman? Where's your ring, then?

[ He knows enough about human traditions, though he's aware he's not ogling a human... ]

[mithrarin]

[WHERE THE HELL IS HIS HAT]

[HE'S IN SERIOUS DANGER OF MAKING EYE CONTACT HERE]

[THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE]

Fidget? Ahrah?

[All joking aside, Dust's first concern is not for his lack of clothing or his suddenly changed environment. That surprises him, but less than one might imagine. Given who he was, what he was, the fact that he'd come back after death isn't beyond the impossible.]

[But had he come back without his friends? That, too, isn't impossible, but it isn't something he intended to just let go without checking. So paying no attention to gratuitous and oddly furless female nudity nearby, or to the others in the room at all, Dust begins tearing through the sheets and blankets of his bed, checking beneath them to make sure neither sword nor nimbat are buried there somehow.]

[He knows what he's going to find, or rather, what he isn't going to find. They'd have said something. (Fidget DEFINITELY would have said something.) But he has to be sure.]

[myfairlily]

[Ah, what an absolutely staid, put-together room they have already. Clearly, everyone knows exactly what they want and exactly what they're doing here--

Bernard had, of course, noticed their other two companions; the funny thing is, having a room full of what looks almost like (but likely aren't, logic and his gut whisper to him, unwelcome) fellow denizens of the Country of Beasts means he's a little more settled than he would be otherwise. Between the dubious-looking monkey and the fox-rabbit-mouse(?) that had joined Tamamo in trying to make a mess -- or a nest -- of the beds...

Well, they hadn't seemed to be a threat to him or the resident hysterical lady for the moment, so they and any of his own nest-building tendencies could keep for later.

Unfortunately, as good and pure and true as one's intentions are, you never know what might come along to test them.]

--Excuse me! [And with that, Bernard throws his blanket right off, though he keeps his eyes and even his ears averted out of reflex and his head down. He'd heard the flapping of wings, and as much as he would've liked to give Tamamo more time to get decent, it really isn't practical to face a possible new threat with a blanket on his head.

Of course, the pigeon is instantly attracted to the movement, so instead of a bednest Bernard gets a pigeon attempting to investigate his head and ears for a roost.] Wh-- Hey! That's not-- What is--

[Don't mind him, he'll be joining the general chaos of the proceedings by falling on his ass trying to evade the mysterious mechanical monstrosity...]

[mikooon]

[Something's going on. Jesus, she can hear the bump of Bernard hitting the floor, along with the distress in Dust's tone, coupled along with another horrifically familiar voice asking something far too impudent. As she pulls the uniform over her chest and makes sure her hips are covered, she throws the cover off her face.]

My marriage doesn't need to be sealed through the material! Being married to a deity such as myself goes beyond such superficial ideas. [She turns her head to Wukong, noting he's a monkey. Yeah, she's not too surprised, actually. As if she's seen him before, and expected it.] Of course, I suppose a howling jungle animal wouldn't be able to understand that.

[OUCH

Okay, but seriously, what the hell is Bernard doing. Her eyes flit down, then avert right back up to look away from poor man struggling on the floor.] What's this pigeon doing here? ...Wait, it's not a real--

"HEROES! PLEASE GET CHANGED INTO YOUR UNIFORMS!"

[The grating, pre-recorded message blares across the room. Right next to Bernard's ear too, probably. Yep, yep.]

[mithrarin]

None of you have a sword or a nimbat stuffed away over there, do you? [Again, Dust knows the answer. Again, he is obligated to ask.]

[He's ignoring the message, ignoring the pigeon and the antics, and mostly ignoring the other three still, because this one fact still has his full attention. He needs to know. He needs to be certain they didn't make it here.]

[myfairlily]

[There is still way too much happening at once, and most of the dialogue goes flying right over Bernard's head, or is handily batted away by the really loud tinny screeching straight in his ear?! He flinches bodily and very nearly does dive for the underside of the bed that time, but contents himself with flattening his ears and reaching up to try and pluck the pigeon(?) from where it's probably somehow tangled in his (relatively short) hair.

He's also instinctively covered himself with his tail, so at least he isn't actually flashing the whole room and possibly everybody through the window (mooning, though, might be another story -- but beggars and choosers, you know?). The pigeon(?) creaks ominously and flaps and--]

"WARNING. PLEASE DO NOT DISENGAGE THE AUTOFLIGHT SYSTEM! YOUR UNIFORM IS NOT ON--"

That's enough!

[Never let it be said that Bernard can't handle himself with wild(?!)life, because once the pigeon starts trying to pluck at the sheet tangled under him and his hair to chivvy him towards the bed, he finally manages to disengage it from his person and-- ah, there it goes.

It won't need the autoflight system anymore for a time, probably, because he's just thrown it blindly across the room. Hopefully nobody was in the way......]

[topkong]

[ For the past x number of minutes, Wukong has been doing his best to not stare at anything but the familiar looking fox-earred lady... or blink. Heck, it's clearly obvious when the insult goes in one ear, out the other and he vacantly nods.

Is he dreaming? No, no. This is too pleasant to be a dream, or is it supposed to be the other way around...

... nope, everything sucks. Suddenly, a bird. A loud and obnoxious bird, and it's repeating its shrill words in his face. With an annoyed shriek of surprise, he hurls it right back.

He's still not clothed, but the bird's words are still in his ears. ]

... we have uniforms? Ugh. Clothes.

[ He shakes his head. Too good to be true. ]