Who, Where and Why?

[Mathias Karlsen]

Mathias' vision continuously focused and unfocused. The bright lights of the city centre stung his retinas.

Wait...City? He swore he was in his flat in Copenhagen going off to sleep after a few beers so how in God's name did he end up in the middle of a city? Maybe he was dreaming. He had to be.

But everything felt so real. The noise of people jabbering on to one another; the loud music blasting out of shops and car windows; the smells of petrol emissions and food from restaurants; the rushing wind coming off of speeding traffic rippling through his shaggy, wild hair and his uniform. No...not his normal uniform he wore to meetings...a...school uniform?

"...I've drank too much again haven't I?" he chuckled. He couldn't remember how many beers he had that night all he knows is that he took a couple of packs of beer to the couch, switched on the television to something interesting and let himself chill out. Afterwards he knows he went to bed tipsy and feeling jolly from the alcohol in his system.

He put a hand onto his forehead only to feel and hear a piece of paper crumple in his grip. Mathias lowered his hand down to inspect it. An address and a school name. World Academy W.

So...his dream was about going to this Academy? A school? This was confusing him so much more than he needed to be.

"Ha, well. I guess I gotta go or this dream will go nowhere."

Mathias took his first step forward, only to collide with some hefty suitcases, labelled with his name and flight tickets. Kneeling down he inspected them.

"Mathias Karlsen
København, Danmark til Tokyo, Japan"

So he was in Japan? He shook his head. He might as well get on with this increasingly confusing dream of his so he could find out exactly what was going on before he woke up with a massive hangover. Mathias picked up his bags, looked both ways down the street and made off in a random direction and praying to God that he would find someone who knew what was going on.

[Lukas Bondevik]

Waking up in the middle of a foreign city centre was the last thing the Norwegian had expected, but, as Lukas Bondevik continued to look around, he realised that was exactly what had happened.

It confused him to no end how he ended up in the city, surround by thousands of strangers, and have no memory of ever getting there in the first place. He remembered quite clearly going to bed, in his small house just outside of Oslo, after his usual routine; a mug of coffee and whatever happened to be on the television at that time.

Plus, he was no heavy sleeper, so that ruled out the idea of this being some cruel joke.

He sighed, and rubbed an eye with his hand. The bright lights and loud noises were starting to give him a headache. It was then that Lukas also felt the piece of paper digging into his other palm. Blinking, he unfolded the slightly crumpled sheet, to be greeted with an address, and the name of a school; “World Academy W.”

Frowning, He looked over the paper again. And again, then turned it around to inspect the back, which had nothing to tell him.

This not understanding of things was beginning to irritate the Norwegian, and when he went to place the sheet of paper in one of the pockets of his uniform, he realised, with even more shock, that he wasn’t clad in the formal attire that he regularly wore to meetings, but a school uniform.

A school uniform.

With a groan, he brought a hand to his face. This was all too much for him to take in and make sense of. Running the hand through his neat, silky blonde hair, he raised his gaze to the sky, exhaling slowly, before returning his vision to what was before him; busy street, filled with people milling about, greeting each other, walking into stores, and the like. Music was playing, and lights were flashing.

‘Where the hell am I?’ Lukas wondered. The people looked Asian. How on Earth could he get from Norway to, what, China?
Gingerly, he took a step forward; and nearly tripped over some conveniently placed suitcases.

“Oh, what now?” Lukas muttered aloud, taking a step backwards so not to complete the possible fall, and kneeled down to investigate the suitcases. He took hold of one of the tickets connected to the handle, which read;

“Lukas Bondevik
Olso, Norge til Tokyo, Japan”

Okay, so he was in Japan, close enough. He was still no closer to figuring out why he was in Japan, or how he got there. All he did know was that he had to find this “World Academy W”, if he wanted to have any clue as to what on earth was going on.

Sighing, he picked up the bags, took one final look around himself, before heading off in any direction, praying that he’ll come across someone who actually has some knowledge as to what was happening.

[Mathias Karlsen]

The Dane stumbled through the crammed streets, making sure that what he assumed was his luggage not not to hit anyone. God damn why was the place so full of life at...What time was it anyway?

Mathias searched for his watch to no success but found one larger than he expected on a video advertisement on a nearby building

11:05 pm Saturday March 05

Hold on. He was sure the date he went to sleep at was Thursday March 03. Just how...

"God dammit Mathias pull yourself together. It's just a dream. Dreams totally screw with your sense of time....or something."

Ignoring such bizarre change in date he took a look at his change in destination. So this was Tokyo city huh? When going to meetings in Japan he had gone to smaller districts in Tokyo, or even completely different towns and cities like Kyoto and the likes. So being slap bang in the middle of the capital overtook him slightly.

There was so much to look at. The restaurants were full to the brim with hungry customers, local and tourist alike. The advertisements on the buildings declaring different brands of drink, perfume and new cars with bold, bright kanji. A few news channels were broadcasting on some of the screens too, but to Mathias' displeasure, had no translation onto either English nor Danish so every word said was plain gibberish to him. And was that a--?

THUMP

He dropped his suitcases in shock, staggered and tripped over them into the concrete pavement. The collision with the smaller man left him dazed on the ground. He hastily pushed himself up onto his feet, cursing in Danish as he felt pain in his back from hitting the corner of his case.

"Shit dude sorry! Kinda got distracted and didn't know where I was going and bumped into you and I-"

Wait. Short blonde hair pinned up at the side with a cross barrette, cold, expressionless blue eyes....

"Lukas? ....Norge??"

[manon janssen]

Okay, so beds were supposed to be soft. And warm. And usually, they had blankets. So what the heck?

She didn't drink much; her older brother always gave her hell when she did, so she usually deemed it as not being worth the trouble. And there wasn't any headache, so that ruled out most any explanation her groggy mind could come up with.

But she wasn't groggy for long. The shocking realization where one realized that they were indeed not waking up in the same place that they had fallen asleep (not that she could even remember falling asleep in the first place) was more than enough to jolt senses. In a heartbeat, she shot into a sitting up position. Unfortunately, she really should have checked to see where she was going first; her forehead was greeted quite abruptly by a low-hanging tree branch over the bench that she found herself to be laying on. "Ow!" Her hand flew to the point of collision, and she rubbed it tenderly. That's going to leave a bruise... There were important things to worry about, however.

Such as her surroundings. The big city scene was certainly nothing out of her homeland of Belgium, and she hadn't recalled ever seeing such a distinct place before. Swinging her legs around until her feet touched the pavement, her hands found the edge of the bench and gripped it on either side of her as she gazed around. Actually, it kind of reminded her of what her older brother had described Japan to look like. Wait, Japan?

There was no way that she could have forgotten about getting on a plane and flying nearly halfway across the world. There was no way she was that clueless. It was then that she saw out of the corner of her eye a rather large and official-looking suitcase, complete with wheels and a long handle. At least she'd thought to stuff it away under the bench before passing out, she thought wryly to herself as she pulled the thing out and inspected it closely. It was hers all right, and the tag on the handle confirmed what she'd been thinking just a minute ago.

"Manon Janssen
Brussel, België naar Tokio, Japan"

The girl swore she could feel a vein twitching somewhere as she stood up roughly, and grabbing onto the suitcase beside her. She was usually cheerful enough, sure, but that demeanor was quickly slipping with all of this crap that made no sense at all. How had she managed to drag herself all the way to Tokyo, and why had she wanted to in the first place? She'd never really took the time to visit the place before, and she couldn't think of any reason why she might want to visit Kiku. Augh. Maybe all of it was a dream. A really messed up fantasy because hey, perhaps she'd accidentally inhaled too many of the fumes from those pipes her brother was always smoking. Life was easier if she could just blame him for things.

So Manon set about to wander the city, hoping to run into something or somebody she might be recognize. However, two steps to her left and she felt something dig into her leg. What was in her pocket? Apparently, either a badly-folded or carefully crumpled piece of paper, with only a name and address. World Academy W.

It wasn't as if she'd heard of any place like it before, but somehow repeating the word in her head just felt right somehow. As if reading the address called her to it, as crazy at it sounded. Only then did it occur to her that she wasn't in the attire she last remembered wearing -- it was now some kind of red plaid school uniform, one that she'd also never recalled seeing before in her life. But by now, everything was peculiar and the mysterious change of dress had very little effect on her. "Dang it, Ned, I'm gonna kill you after all this is over with," She grumbled, stuffing the paper carelessly back into her pocked and starting off again. Because even if everything felt so real, it couldn't really be reality.

Her eyes were sharp as she moved, determined to find something she might recognize. And she made it a fair block and a half before she hear something like a distant thud come from a little ways down on the other side of the street. A squint later and she thought she recognized both of the males who had apparently bumped into each other. That sealed the deal for her; a moment later she was at a full run, weaving and pushing through the moderate crowds of natives as she leveled herself to where they stood across the way. Once there, she didn't even bother looking twice before darting into the road -- cars honked angrily but must have stopped seeing as none hit her (because she certainly wasn't checking to see how close they were). Her suitcase rolled with a rickety sound and her emerald eyes flared as she made an abrupt halt between them.

"Oi!" She managed to throw out before taking a moment to catch her breath. Although, she hardly had the patience to finish before going on. "You two -- you've got suitcases and uniforms on, too." Her breath was at least evening out a little by now. "I don't suppose you have any clue why, do you?" Taking a moment to actually think things out, a part of Manon wondered if the two of them even recognized her. It's not like she ever really mingled with the Nordics much; she'd never had a reason to. But she at least knew they faces from across the table at world meetings, so surely at least one of them would do the same. But even if they didn't, it wasn't like she was going to be dissuaded. Not if the alternative was wandering around the surrounding huge city looking like some idiot foreigner. There was no way she was going through that alone.

[Lukas Bondevik]

Lukas found himself unable to look away from the flashing lights; the bright billboards that lined the streets of the Japanese city, with neon kanji proclaiming something that was alien to the Norwegian, who could not speak a single word of the language. The sights and sounds were a far cry from Oslo, which was generally a quiet city, though certain areas bustled with life. No, Tokyo was much more like, say, New York City; jam packed streets and constant traffic.

The whole thing was starting to make him feel a little home sick, and extremely alienated.

Still, this dilemma had him captivated, and he found his gaze and mind wandering from billboard to billboard, shop to shop, and person to person. He really didn’t understand a word of anything, but this was all enough to keep him fairly interested, to a certain extent. Yet it did nothing for the headache that was beginning to grow.

During his mind’s wanderings, there was one certain billboard that stood out to him. So much so that he had to double take at what it said. Next to the flashing kanji was a date and time.

The date was March 5th.

As far as Lukas could remember, he went to bed on Thursday the 3rd of March.

Well, apparently he could also time travel. Brilliant.

A sudden jolt that almost floored him for the second time that day snapped Lukas out of his thoughts, and he managed to stable himself before he could collide with the pavement, but a loud thud to his left alerted the Norwegian that the person who had bumped into him had not. Once he had completely regained his balance, he turned to face said person, and his eyes widened in shock.

Standing before him, cursing heavily in Danish, and muttering quick apologies between each curse, was a tall, blonde, blue eyed young man who was far too familiar to Lukas. He blinked, and shook his head, before settling his indigo gaze back on the Dane.

“… Mathias? How did you… What is going on?” he asked, looking the taller man up and down. He was clad in the same clothing as himself, but whether that was a good or bad thing was unknown, as of yet. Knowing Mathias, that would not work in the Norwegian’s favour.

Before the other got a chance to answer, another voice cut in the conversation. A female’s this time, and it took a second for the voice to register in Lukas’s mind. Luckily, when the owner of said voice; a young, blonde haired woman with bright, emerald green eyes, and a red ribbon headband holding back her hair, he quickly made the connection.

“You’re… Belgium, right?” He had seen her during meetings, seated next to her older brother, Netherlands, a firm friend of Mathias. Whether she recognised himself and the Dane was another story. The only thing they had going that she could connect to herself was the uniform.

“I could ask you the same question…” he muttered, looking down at the pavement while letting out a small sigh. He returned his attention to the Belgian. “Honestly, I have not the slightest idea what is going on. All I do know is that waking up in the middle of Tokyo must have something to do with this World Academy place.” He paused, thinking over the name of the school. “… I’ve never even heard of this place, have any of you?”

[Mathias Karlsen]

"I dunno! I have no clue oh God Norge!"

Mathias was so happy to have found another nation, especially one he was extremely close to. He wouldn't be alone or confused. Well...maybe still confused at the current situation but nonetheless.

The Dane was just about to envelop the Norwegian in a warm hug when a young, blond haired girl shouted from his immediate right, distracting Lukas from him. Dammit he was so close.

He recognized the blond girl. She sat across the table from himself and the other Nordics during meetings, always wearing a catlike grin whilst chatting with her older sibling Netherlands who also happened to be one of Mathias' close friends. "Whoa hey Bel? Dude what is going on with all you guys being in my dream?" he furrowed his eyebrows. "So if you're here Bel then Nethy must be somewhere..." he scanned the crowds of people but couldn't spot the tall Dutchman anywhere. He let off a long sigh. Oh well I'll see him when I wake up and meet him at the bar... he thought.

Mathias returned his attention to the two other nations, placing his hands on his hips. "So...none of you guys know what's going on huh? God damn. And I thought I was going to get some idea of what this is all about..." he blinked a few times, taking is the appearances of Manon and Lukas a little more. Something seemed....different about them, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He just had a feeling that...

"Hey guys I bet you're gonna think I'm fucking crazy but," he took a long pause. Hey, it was his dream wasn't it? I could say anything and not seem crazy. "did you two get younger or something?" He looked over them, taking in little details in their appearance. Lukas: His hight seemed to have changed from the previous time the Dane had bet him, and his fringe seemed a tad shorter as well. Manon: Her hair seemed longer, only a little bit but still noticeable, and her hight has also changed slightly. But both of them shared the same definite things, and that was the youthful glow which they radiated. "Yeah. I'm dead set. You two look younger."