"I, the Keeper of the Keys, shall give the key to the locked room to those who ask.

Unfortunately, I may not be able to get to your request immediately, but will try to check at least once per day..."

((OOC Notice: The Keeper may not respond to any posts after she has given your character the key, so you probably won't want to make any posts that would require her follow-up unless you're very patient!))

Edward is a lonely, but driven man. In a twisted way, it's lucky he found himself on the lonely beach. His mistress, the ocean, constantly washes up various bits of litter from other worlds for him to clean up. His wish to do greater things, is trumped by the realization that he is only a janitor, and a janitor he will stay. You might be wondering how Edward found himself cleaning the lonely beach.

You see, Edward used to work aboard a cruise ship. He enjoyed his job, and always believed that keeping the ship clean was it's own reward - even if the passengers didn't seem to agree. One day he was mopping the hallway outside the presidential cabin, when Don Carlito, the mob boss, in his drunken stupor, slipped on the wet floor. The Don, not wanting to admit to his lack of balance, told his foot soldiers that Edward had smacked him in the nose with his mop, so that night, they threw him off the side of the ship, along with his mop and bucket. Edward drifted to shore, and found himself on the lonely beach. Not wanting to risk adventure, decided not the explore, and went straight back to his job, cleaning.

Elyon tiptoed slowly up the staircase, running her finger along the smooth wall as she went. She wasn't usually this curious, but something really made her want to know what was at the end of these stairs. After climbing for what seemed like an hour, she reached a door. She turned the handle and tugged gently. It was locked. Of course, she sighed inwardly. Just my luck. She glanced around, but saw nothing but the same dull grey she'd seen far too much of lately. "Um...." She said out loud to no one in particular, "Is there a key somewhere?"

A hooded figure emerges from seemingly nowhere - perhaps the wall as her (?) cloak appears to be the same color as it. She extends her hand and offers two keys.

"Elyon, I give these keys to you so that you might see the secret places in my world. If your friends wish to visit these rooms, have them speak their wish here."

The moment Elyon takes the keys and looks away from the Keeper, the figure is gone.

Rei was most certainly lost. She had gone to sleep last in her dingy little apartment overlooking the highway, listening to the insistent symphony of impatient drivers, late-night travelers, drunks howling out profanities, and junkies sobbing over the last of their stash. Now here she was, waking up in a castle. Perhaps it was all a dream... some strange, insistent, intensely realistic dream. Whatever the situation, she wasn't going to just sit here and do nothing. Rei had been running from too many things in her life to just sit back and let life wash over her without at least standing against the surf first.

Hearing a female voice call out something about a key, she started, wondering if maybe they were locked in here. She fidgeted with her lace gloves nervously as she called out a tentative, "Hello?"

Though Rei does not see a figure, there will be a cool breeze that touches her back. To add to the surreality of her present existence, she'll suddenly feel a slight weight around her neck as a leather chord gently digs into the tender flesh under the weight of two small keys.

"You will want these to continue forward. Good luck, Rei."

If there is anyone around when Rei looks, they don't seem to be close enough to have put the keys around her neck.

Mantis found a castle. He'd actually managed to find a castle! Now, whether or not it was human had yet to be determined. He ran up the side, into a tower, his speed and claws letting him climb with easy. He hated flying.
"Interesting." He said, in his oddly resonating voice. "Wonderful architecture!" He brushed a claw on one of the inside walls.

"Excuse me," says a hooded figure, stepping in the opening of the window. "You seem to be an explorer. These keys will help you in your quest to investigate this castle."

The slender hand that sets the keys on the windowsill in front of Mantis may or may not be green. Do mantises see in proper color? In any case, it was too quick to tell.

"There are other explorers, if you look," the figure says, and walks away without giving Mantis time to respond. If he looks, all he will see of the figure are shadows that merge into the more natural looking shadows.

Mantis takes the keys, setting them into a bit of chitin and making sure that they were secure. His eyes, made strange by whatever made him larger, saw everything in a distorted set of colors. He didn't really pay attention to more than movement with them. His other senses were also boosted, but unimportant.
"Thhhank you." He says, his voice echoing oddly.
He starts to explore, hunting for the room the keys went to.

*Ember had awoken in the tower, holding her head. She had no idea how she had gotten there, but she assumed that the scientists of Haven were behind it. They were always messing with her life, her body, and her head; why would this time be any different?

She then quickly stretched out her wings, surprised that she had room for her 19 foot wingspan. Snapping her wings back against her spine she walked over to the door and touched it with a gloved hand*

Oh Keeper of the Keys, will you please lend me a key to gain entrance to this secret room? I promise to treat them both with the utmost respect.

*She had used her mind voice for she was mute, and the way she "spoke" was in the elegant way of her home world of Solistar*

Well then, a beach, Seeker certainly wasn't expecting that. Long fingers shaded his dark eyes as the tall black clad figure stepped out of what appeared to be a small purple changing tent that had not been on the beach several minutes before. Was that a man sweeping the beach? Laughing softly, Seeker moved with some determination in his long stride toward the stranger.

" 'Ello," he called out, grinning broadly "Is this erm, your beach?" He glanced briefly inward as he spoke, seeking out a house or other residence for this stranger, one hand slipping automatically into the hip pocket of his black leather jacket. This place was most strange indeed, but he trusted that the stranger would have at least a few answers for him.

Kai sighed, shrugging and rolling his shoulders, fixing his black jacket into a comfortable position on him. "Mmm..." He slowly took a drag from his cigarette. Kai took a look around the dark alley he was in before exhaling a cloud of smoke into the air, "Much different than my town..." He brushed his arms off and looked around. He tipped his Fedora forward, running a finger along his red strip on the black fedora and then tightened up his tie. His black suit undone in the front, exposing the white button-up underneath. "Mm, time to get to work here then..." He turned his head side to side, "And make this place feel a bit more like home..."

Waking up in a daze, her head was pounding so hard it felt like she had just been in a head on collision with a brick wall. "Ungh..." Pulling her hands to her head she pushed them against her skull, in some desperate hope it would numb the pain. Sitting up she blinked over and over again, Dammit is this unit already busted? What happened? After a moment or so you could hear a faint lens clicking sound. The images she was now becoming used to returned into her field of vision. Much like the screen of a video game she could see clearly but in the frames of it all it displayed various things like location, date and time. Unless her mind signaled to, that was the minimum it would display at one given time. Her location was unavailable for a moment but then the red letters popped up. Multiverse City.

"Multiverse... City?" This was a place she never knew of, and it sure as hell wasn't anywhere in her country. Pulling herself up off the ground she slowly realized she was in a shadowed alleyway. Taking a moment to readjust to her footing, she walked toward the glowing light at the end. The noises of passing cars and shouting citizens was getting louder as she drew nearer. Coming to the end of the passage she looked around, her eyes widening. Not just cars but, spaceships and airships that she had only seen in movies were passing by her vision. "I'm lost.."

This had to be some kind of training session that her parents came up with. Possibly a simulation? Quickly she approached one of the passing strangers and shoved her hand into him, thudding against his clothed arm. Apprehensive as to why this girl had just shoved him he beamed an angry look in her direction. Oh no, this isn't a simulation. Now in complete shock she booked it down the sidewalk, shuffling through crowds of people in search of some sort of phone booth or map.

"That key I shall give you, Ember, the phoenix-hearted. That key and one other."

The voice came softly from nowhere and two keys appeared and hovered easily within the grasp of Ember, spinning slightly as they waited to be taken.

As The seeker started trying to talk to Edward, a large wave started to form pulling some of the trash back out but before it could fully return to the Ocean the wave broke with great force. Which should have just brought the trash higher onto the beach but instead of Edwards mistress playing with his trash it threw him a dead body.

The small waves quickly breaking after the large wave would almost appear as if the ocean was saying take it, take it, get it outta my water. If one were to take a closer look at the body they would see a man in a baggy tan wind breaker, with a hole in the front of his face the size of a small fist with broken skull behind it and a small hole in the back of his head, the face isn't recognizable because of the hole and the big beard.

Michael Landed on the Roof of this strange Grey Tower, Quickly his wings shot back into him. He talked out loud to himself since he was on the roof of a tower and obviously no one would hear him sound crazy "This strange world always weird things sitting around never know when i am gonna randomly end up here or leave here again"

He walks around the roof of the strange tower "I wonder what type of people from what type of world I'll meet this time" he snickered and grinned "maybe this time big breasted amazon women" He smacked the wooden sword twice "I bet you wouldn't mind that Syer" He laughed to himself while viewing the surrounding areas, he sat down on the tower, His wooden sword tied to his stomach this day.

*She gently grabbed the keys, smiling widely. She bowed to where to the keys had been, unaware to where the Keeper was*
I appreciate your trust and me and I will be sure not to break it.

Banished from her home, Maria had been walking for days. All the legends said that she should have been eaten by now, but alas, she wasn't so lucky. Her bare feet ached, and sunk into the sand with each step. Wait... sand? Maria looked down, and for the first time in hours took in her surroundings. When had she stumbled upon a beach? She had no idea where she was, and the idea of a beach was so foreign to her. She had never seen the ocean, or a beach, but only heard of them in the fairytales some of the elder women in her village told.
Maria stopped, and with the cease in her movement, the bells around her left ankle went silent. She rubbed her eyes, wondering if she was already dead and hadn't realised it. How could she possibly be at the ocean? According to everyone in her village who had ever travelled, the ocean was hundreds of miles away. There was no way she could have travelled that far. She scanned the horizon, and noticed two figures ahead of her.
She took a moment to think, and then began to move again. She couldn't manage more than a stumble, she was too sore. But even stumbling through the sand, she would reach the people eventually. And then, just maybe, she would get some answers.
By the time she got close, one of the men had moved towards the other, and seemed to have spoken. She stopped a small distance away from them, in case they were dangerous. But before she had the chance to interject, a body washed up from the water. Maria's eyes went wide, but she didn't react much further. People died all the time in her village, and no one had the luxury of distancing themselves from such an event. With so few people in the village, everyone had to help get rid of the bodies quickly, to prevent spread of disease. She had wrapped more than a few corpses in her short lifetime. From where she was standing, Maria could clearly see that the man was undeniably dead. Unsure of what to say, or how to react, she looked back towards the two living men.
"Could one of you tell me where I am?"

"Well I'd say you're on a beach." The dark haired figured murmured with a smirk, even as he knelt down to examine the apparently dead body more closely. This was indeed an interesting beach! With dead bodies washing ashore and beautiful bell clad women showing up out of no where, it promised to be an interesting time if nothing else. He began patting his person down, dipping long fingers into the many tiny pockets of his jacket while leaning in close to the holed face and wrinkling his nose slightly.

"To be more precise, M'lady" He glanced up, offering a fetching smile even as he produced a small baggy and began scraping t the edges of the face. "This beach, this whole.... realm... appears to be a gathering place of sorts. How fun don't you think? Strangers...and dead people, brought together by some mysterious fate." The Seeker sounded almost giddy, dark hued eyes alight.

At that Moment Michael Cra's brain fully healed and the inside of his skull healed up enough for him to be living, in great pain but alive. His body restarted it's self and with a gasp and then a Moan, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME!" as the seeker was scraping his face, but what everyone might of heard because of his broken face would sound more like WAHHH RHHH YAA EWIN TAA MEAAHH!

Michael Tried to open his eyes but that was where part of the hole was and his eye's had not regenerated yet, he tried to get up but he was still to weak to get past rolling over. Then realizing he was on a beach and the waves were still hitting him, he tried to gather his thoughts of what was going on what happened before he died, this time. He remembered guarding part of the back of the boat of the guys is had tricked into letting him become part of their group, he realized one of them must of been on to him or he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got a bullet to the back of the head.

Michael Just laid there on his back for that moment thinking, he figured it must of just been a crab picking at his face.

"Oh uh... sorry there mate..." The Seeker muttered, his attention turning fully on the not so dead man laying on the shore's edge. The odd janitor hadn't spoken yet, but perhaps the poor fellow was in shock over the recent events. Withdrawing a digit from the holed face, he offered an uncomfortable laugh and wiped the goop on the healing man's shirt. "Interesting ability, I think I'll just let you handle the rest." He gave an affirmative nod, taking a moment to consider his situation once more.

The Tardis had brought him to a beach this time, but not on some known planet, this place was different some how. From what he had gathered, it was a nexus of sorts, a place where figures from many dimensions gathered all at once. The Seeker wasn't a fan of alternate realities, things tended to get...mushy reality wise. Still, He's already met some rather interesting characters, and he KNEW there were more facets to this place, having noticed what looked like a tall grey tower off in the distance back lit by the flickering haze of a large city. So many places to explore in his search, and so many interesting people to meet along the way.

Shaking his head, he began rummaging through the pockets of the man in the middle of healing, maybe the guy had something interesting on his person after all. "Well then, beach, janitor, jingly woman and not so dead guy. I think today has started off marvelously! How about you thr...err two?" After all, dieing was never marvelous, the Seeker knew this first hand.

Michael could barely hear the man talking inches from him his ear canals must have been damaged and not done healing yet, and it felt like his face was crushed in but different he thought to himself "I guess that is what it feels like when your face explodes out then." He'd have Laughed if he wasn't in so much pain and he didn't then feel the man from before Probing through his Pockets. He'd have try to shake the guy off him or at least harden his aura but he didn't have anything on his person that mattered enough to care about.

As he was still thinking to himself, Syer punched in with "hey there." with a bit of Contempt in it, "did you seem to realize something was missing dumb ass, you're laying on your back." Michael realized what was missing and let out a groan of rage, his sword was gone, but he couldn't get up and look for it and he'd be down at least one more day before he could see again. He thought to himself, "those bastards don't even know what that sword is they either threw it over or will use it as firewood."

Michael tried to grab on to The Seeker to see if he couldn't ask him for any medical attention so he could heal sooner or even some food to regain his strength but all that would come out were unrecognizable groans and noises.

After Michael Cra had himself properly and comfortably seated, a hand reached over him, holding a chain with two keys dangling from it. The keys dangled about an inch from the tip of his nose.

"If you're going exploring, you'll probably enjoy having these," said the owner of the hand. "These keys open rooms in the tower."


If Michael turned his head to look, he'd see the shapely figure of a busty woman wearing grey Amazonian-style armor. She also wore a hood that covered or shadowed most of her face. She was smirking and gave the impression of raising an eyebrow.


"I wish you luck in your travels," she said, releasing the chain if it was taken, or otherwise hanging it from the grip of his wooden sword. Then she walked up the slope of the roof and disappeared over the top.

Elijah would have barely finished his thought before he'd hear a dull double thump of small pieces of metal on wood. He'd find his eyes drawn to the table beside the door where he'd see two keys.

"If you take these keys, you'll be able to go through that door and one other. But you may not find guidance there. The world is for exploring. I wish you luck with it."


And then the voice said no more to Elijah.

Michael Nearly Drooled over himself, then saw her Get up and walk up and seem to Vanish. He jumped up and yelled in a desperate tone almost "Hey Hey! Beautiful where did you go don't Run away" He forgot about his voice and at that moment it came out as a 20 year old man while running up the slope after her, to find nothing.

Michael Decided to Force his aura through the roof of the Tower to see what he would feel was inside of it. It's not like seeing but it would give him a sense of what was below him if he could do it.


((Just in case this is Old Man Cra))

Slinking around in the water of the sewers looking for any tasty treats Croc O' Dile continued to Patrol the sewers day and night, never really hungry but always craving something that might be tastier than what he normally eats in the sewers.

Maria chose to ignore the man's comment about being on a beach. That was obvious, and she chose not to let it annoy her. Despite coming from a small town where most everyone was just above stupid, she got annoyed when people assumed she was just as dumb. But this man had no reason to assume such a thing, so she figured that he was just being... what was the word? Sarcastic.
She didn't understand the concept of a "realm" as the man called it, but she understood a meeting place. Like the village square, where the farmers met to trade their crops so everyone had some of everything. Except that she had nothing to trade, nor any help to offer. She'd ended up there on accident. Before she could reply to the man, the corpse began... talking? His words were too muffled to make any sense. But then, a dead man talking didn't make any sense. Maria took a step back, the sudden jingling of her bells seeming to sound alarmed.
"Why are you not afraid? Is the dead coming to life normal here?" Maria asked. She was unable to hide the tremor of fear in her voice, but that fear was beat out by curiosity. She wasn't one to run from the grotesque, unless she deemed it necessary. She watched for a moment, unmoving.
"Should you really be going through his pockets? Are you some sort of thief?" Maria asked. She wasn't about to try and stop him from going through the man's pockets, in case either of them were dangerous. But from what she'd seen so far, she didn't think she needed to worry too much.
"Marvelously? What does that mean?" Maria asked, having never heard the word before in her life.

Rei flinched, suddenly feeling the weight of the keys around her neck. "Just a dream," she murmured as if trying to reassure herself. She slipped off one of her gloves and touched the keys, hoping to tap into any strong memories lingering within them.

Where had they come from, anyways? There didn't seem to be anybody nearby who would have put the keys around her neck. This might be a dream, but maybe her "talent" would still work and give her a little grounding.