"Hold still, buddy." Georgia said, slipping the big leather harness over her velociraptors neck, working his arms though the little loops they fit inside, and buckled the thing together just under his stomach. Snopes's harness wasn't just a way yom control the excitable animal in the midst of what were undauntedly a bunch of exiting new smells and keep those jarheads waiting on the runway from shooting her beloved partner, he was also carrying all her supplies. Food, water, changes of clothes, soup, the normal stuff she'd carry into unknown territory. 

She slipped her through the loop on the harness, tying it with practiced automation. She barely even had to touch it to tie her boys leash on. It was a good thing too, because the second the cockpit opened and all the new scents hit his nose Shops tried his best to leap out of the cockpit with an excited, ear piercing shriek. Snopes was not a light animal. He may have been only half her height but he more than made up for that in poundage. Age he leaped up on the side, his claws digging into the body of the ship, Georgia jumped up beside him and jumped out just a second before he could.

She hit the ground and threw up her arms as he came down matter her, catching him with a soft "oof" and holding him there while he wiggled in her arms. His head swung this way and that as he cast had a look at the strange new world he'd bee thrust into, letting out happy screeches and kicking his legs where he thought the ground would be.

She held this giant lizard as it struggled to get away and run off to who knows where, probably the nearest source of food, with casual ease. She worked her hand up under his chin to give him a good scratch, and slowly but surely the shrieks became quieter and the struggle became half hearted. Only when he was all tuckered out did she finally set him on the ground, to breath a little heavier and move around at the end of his leash to explore his surroundings in a less manic way.

Georgia took this time to take a look around too. For one thing, she was surrounded. Moat of these folks were definitely military, but she was surprised to see two boys, not much older than her, standing in command of these men. That wasn't such an odd thing in her world line, mostly because much of the adult population of mankind had perished in the reordering. There were others, though, that seemed like they were in the same position as her. A sharp dressed young man, an old guy dressed much less lavishly who looked like he'd seen his fair share of hardship, another guy slightly younger than the last with sharp eyes, and a cocky looking red haired dude.

She started forward, being lead by the small dinosaur as it clicked across the floor toward the two boy as they introduced themselves. Snopes powers his head and sniffed at Giorgios's boots as the Wizard waved his hand and suddenly the shabby looking man was decked out in the splended regalia of a soldier. She looked down at herself to see if she'd been dressed up in some kind of bal gown or something for this meeting, but to her disappointment there was no change. She sighed, "Come on, no fancy clothes for the rest of the class?" She said wistfully as they were led inside.

As she walked she let her path take her into the middle of the group. Better to be with the people in her position. "Hey all." She whispered. "I'm Georgia. Y'all got ahold of those keyblades too?" She asked, before letting her focus shift to the old guy." The armor suits you. You know, I've met actual knights in shining armor that didn't pull off this look half as well as you do. Have you been here before?"

[hr]

The military guys only got more intimidation the more lavish the palace became, until finally they we're standing in the fanciest looking room with the most intimidating men. Men in black set her teeth on edge, and Snope's caught a new scent in the room, lifted his head, and started methodically sniffing the air. Then he caught something, and painted his head toward a particular pair of those guards. Georgia raised an eyebrow. It was a reaction he had to the scent of an undiscovered species. 

There were cryptids in this room. 

She didn't have time to contemplate this before the emperor launched into an explanation of why they had all been gathered here. An explanation of the true history peaked her interest. It wasn't that out there at first. It was regular thought where she was from that there was more than one timeline, world line, going on right beside their own. It had all been explained by a time traveller that had come back for an IBM 5100 before the end, but like most truths back then he had been dismissed as a hoax.

That bit about all timeline being originally one was new, though, and alarming. That meant that the many worlds model was, intrinsically, a falsehood if it were true. That would drive Mios up a wall, he had been trying to compile the worlds metaphysics for ages. More alarming than that, though, was the hologram the mage conjured. One where she could see, on one of the small screens, the image of the actual Mios and...of, that was her brother. All nine scaly feet of him with his claw planted right on top of the greys large head and squeezing just hard enough to pinch his loose skin together. She shrank back a little with a regretful grin. Maybe she should have at least gone back home before running off on her next adventure, no matter how urgent the moogle had insisted it was. Mios wasn't the type that could explain why she'd left in such a hurry at all tactfully. 

Beyond all that though, she didn't like that these people had been watching them. She thought back to that letter, the line about the enemies that were watching them in particular. "So," she started, pulling out a spiral notepad from the pocket of the stock still Snopes (who had not stopped pointing himself in Felix's direction) and flipping it open to take notes. She'd need to find a way to verify everything she was taking down independently. "What is a heartless, then? I know they're a lot like ghosts, but are much more physical than that. They have more weight than other spectral entities, and not as many restrictions on where they can manifest. Are they intelligent? How do you tame them?"