Nerdstein [complete!]

[will_be_god]

Characters: Cyrus, Django, Jupiter
Time period: 1000 AD
Location: Millennium Fair
Time of day: Early evening
Content: An empty fair with a robot and a disembodied head. Insert slow music box music and you have any given horror movie ever.
Warnings: Paranoia! Surprisingly unrelated to most of that.

Comments

[solar_boy]

Django gave a disappointed sigh as he looked around. He hadn't expected the portal to lead him home, but he had really hoped it would.

He looked around. He'd never been to a festival before, having grown up in a world where humans were nearly extinct, but he knew enough about them to recognize them. Weren't they supposed to be full of people, though? This place was kind of disturbing.

It wasn't long before he spotted another person. A strangely-dressed man eating ravenously from a table of food. Django approached the table and picked out a sweet (careful to avoid anything with fruit, as the non-solar fruit of the last place he'd been hadn't tasted very good), and said "Hello" to the man.

[will_be_god]

Cyrus froze momentarily, twisting around to see the newcomer. "...This place..." he muttered, settling somewhat. "It confuses me. What purpose is there to an empty square? But the food appears to be safe."

With a sigh, he turned back around. "I apologize. I have been without proper sustenance for longer than I believed. If this is yours I will repay you for what I have taken."

[solar_boy]

Django shrugged. "From the way you were eating it, I figured it was here for the taking."

He looked around, feeling slightly guilty about taking the sweet. "Did you come from Dorino? Is anyone else here?"

[will_be_god]

"I know not of that place," Cyrus admitted. He'd slowed down, but had grabbed an apple. "And I've not seen anyone else either. So you are not with the fair?"

[g3_jupiter]

The sight of the portal had made Jupiter shiver, for it had immediately reminded her of that fateful moment when the Gods had been summoned...

Still, she reasoned, if the Gods were on the other end, she was going to give them a piece of her mind. And if the portal led to the cramped hideout she called her home, that would have been welcome as well.

Surprisingly, going through the portal felt a lot like using one of those teleport platforms in the Galactic Headquarters. She hadn't registered the feeling the first time, and being reminded of the most glorious days of Team Galactic made her smile pleasedly.

Once past the portal, she blinked.

She had relived her memories before, but they had never been so odd and so realistic at the same time.

[will_be_god]

Cyrus had started to doze off, seated on the steps connecting the flat square to the rest of the festival. It had been a long day, and he'd had far too many of those lately. But a flash of blue brought his focus back. "Django?" he asked. The boy had wandered off, probably through the portal, and he had intended to follow but decided to rest instead.

No answer. He rose, hoping it wasn't one of Bekkler's minions. That sort always had minions, didn't it?

But instead he saw a tall woman staring back at him in disbelief. "...J...Jupiter?"

[g3_jupiter]

"C-Cyrus? ... Sir?" the woman stood rigidly, but there were tears forming in the corners of her eyes, wide with incredulity.

The cave, the town, and now this, had all to be parts of an illusion, a hallucination, the different scenes of a dream illogically linked together. He couldn't be there, standing right in front of her. And in such a surreal place, too... "... Is that really you?" she asked in a weak murmur.

[will_be_god]

He snapped to attention, face retaking its usual grim look. "It is, Commander. Your report."