SDNWorld Redux: Prologue thread.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Alright, please reserve this thread for introductory, not-necessarily-timeline-connected posts by people entering the game as we fill things out, please, and make all further story posts in the story thread.

[WesFox13]

As the flash faded from view. Wesley looked around. He was back in his room and he was back to his 20 year old self. He opened a window to look outside. Everything was as it was when he started here in vulpesia. He then heard a voice say, "Well, looks like you've come back.".

Wes looked behind him to see a pale grotesque female human standing right behind him. Wesley screamed and ran back into a corner. He was shaking in fright and said, "Please don't hurt me.". The woman spoke, "I won't hurt you.". Wes then said, "Who are you and what do you want?". The woman said, "I'm Marina, I've been chosen by Q to act as a emissary to the others in this game.". Wes thought for a moment and said then remembered, "Marina? As in the "Duchess of Zeon" Marina?" Marina nodded and said, "I have something else to tell you, Earth is now pretty much devoid of human civilization except for a few scattered encampments, 600 years have passed there.". Wes then had a shocked look on his face, "600 years? You mean all of my family and friends back on Earth are....". Tears started to well up in his eyes, thinking of his father, mother, older sister, and younger brother. Sure when ever he tried to get into a serious discussion with them they acted like fools, having walls of ignorance so thick they'd rival the Great Wall of China, but he respected the way his mother and father raised him. He also remembered all of his childhood friends. He then looked to Marina and said, "Could you leave me alone for a while, Marina?". She nodded somewhat understanding what a shock it was to Wesley's mind and she dissappeared.

Wesley then walked to his porch and started to cry with his head down his arms covering it, mourning the loss of his family and friends.

[KlavoHunter]

Royal Palace
Muzaffer, Klavostan

"Good morning, James. Time to wake up."

His eyes opened, his head back against the pillow, as the voice spoke, breaking him from sleep. As a swirling mix of memories that had not yet shared a conscious mind until this moment poured through his head, he sat up, and sheer terror ran through the man's guts at the sight.

Pale and looking just so not-quite-human as to send one tipping into the Uncanny Valley, the woman frightened the hell out of him. Base human instincts, as well as those honed by unremembered combats, led to him to recoil, hands clumsily grasping about for a weapon or a handhold, anything to defend himself or place more room between this sudden intruder and him. A fragment of a memory cast across his brain, reminding him of something, causing a cascade of other thoughts. "Oh God!" he exclaimed, venting his initial terror, letting rational thought return to him.

I'm the Sultan, I'm in the palace, I must have guards! he thought, and then shouted out with the first whole breath he'd taken since his gasp upon seeing her. "GUARDS!" he bellowed, staring dead-on at her.

"Always reaching for guns or trying to summon guards, you people. Maybe it's just because I've startled every one of you with my appearance... Anyways. I've stopped time for everyone but us, subjectively. Now calm down and recognize me, James." she spoke again.

He blinked. James...? No. James wasn't his name, yet it was. Close enough. The initial racing of his heart calmed down to an agitated beating, as he waded through memories, as if his mind were flooding with too many of them, like knee-deep water in the basement. Wait. That face. Quite unmistakable, that one. Marina. Yes.

He exhaled slowly, blowing out a breath. "Marina. Shit. You scared me." He paused. "How'd you get here?" Here? No. This wasn't Washington. This wasn't Wisconsin, either, for that matter. No, here was.... Here was... Klavostan? Yes. Oh god.

"Yes, you're starting to remember. Well, not so much remember, but experience the mind of the person you've been overlaid onto." She chuckled. "Quite a thing to watch."

He sat up, sheets falling to his waist, and he shook his head to clear it.

"Fuck. I'm the king of an entire nation."

"Well, the title is Sultan, strictly speaking. And yes, you are. Q - you should know who I'm talking about, geek as you are. John de Lancie fellow. He's instated many of you as the leaders of the nations of this world, and myself as... 'moderator' of this grand game. Welcome to the new world." Marina spread her arms wide in a gesture that seemed to expand everything he could see.

"... That's it? That's his idea of a game? To put someone in charge of a nation, whose greatest previous job experience is tending a salad bar for a few hours a night? Foisting the lives and futures of millions upon the decisions of someone completely unqualified for the job?" It was a sinking feeling in his stomach as he thought about it, as the weight of responsibility began to succumb to gravity.

"... Well, when you put it that way... It DOES seem fit for the amusement of an omnipotent being. But don't give up hope. You'll find the other contents of your head pretty useful, once you get around to them. And check the DVD in the drawer of your desk, that'll tell you the rest of what you need to know.

He paused, letting the information sink into his fuzzy mind. He pursed his lips. "Will you be back, Marina?"

"Maybe. It would be better for all involved, though, if I didn't have to come back. But I fear I will be back, yes." She nodded solemnly, sighing at something. "In any event, good luck with your first day on the job." Suddenly, she was gone.


There was a moment of silence, and then came a creak as the door to his bedchambers opened, yielding an exotically beautiful young woman in eye-catching skimpy garb. He blinked, confused for a moment.

"Ready for your morning shower, Sultan?" the woman asked, making her hair sway with a little cock of her chin, an eager smile upon her lips.

... Wait. There's a Royal Harem, he thought, as other memories washed over him. Friggin' sweet. He kicked the sheets off from around his legs, and stood up.

"Some days, it's good to be Sultan... But some days, it's very good to be Sultan," proclaimed Sultan James Klavo III, before he took that invitation.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

Royal Palace, Ashford City
Duchy of Langley

"Time to wake up and smell the ashes, Lelouch Lamperouge."

"I'm already up," Lelouch drowsily replied to the voice as he struggled to rise from his extremely plush bed. "Marina, I presume? I was expecting John de Lancie to appear before me instead."

"You presume correctly, Mr. Lamperouge," Marina said. "Mr. de Lancie, as you refer to him, has picked me to be the moderator of this iteration of the game. That headache you're having right now is a byproduct of a lifetime's worth of memories of this country's sovereign flooding your mind."

"Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that," Lelouch groaned, still strained slightly by the weight of those new memories.

"It'll pass in time," Marina said nonchalantly. "Since you've already played through once, you should know the rules of the game already. Those implanted memories will be useful, though I'd suggest looking at these as well." She handed over a DVD case and a bulky-looking manila folder packed with various documents and reports to Lelouch. "Have fun."

With that, Marina vanished, leaving Lelouch to ponder his new situation. He heaved a sigh of relief, the pain from those implanted memories flooding his head now long gone. "Yes, have fun," he said to himself as he opened up the folder.