PROLOGUE::
You were fairly certain that you were in the wrong place. The feeling could have been chalked up to first day nerves of course. Technically, it was your orientation day for your new job at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. It took you three months to get accepted into the College Internship Program here at Disney, but you made it through and now here you were.
Sitting in a crowded room.
Feeling completely and totally out of place.
You felt fine this morning on the bus to the casting building with your new roommates, but now that bubbly excitement in your gut had fizzled away to confusion. You let your eyes glance around the painfully quiet room. There had to be over a hundred people in the room altogether, yet no one spoke a word. They all sat at their tables, minding their own business, wearing shades of black and gray professional wear. That was another reason you felt out of place. Whereas everyone here wore monotone professional clothes, you were wearing a bright red dress with business heels and a white blazer.
Once again, you had fit in this morning with the others on the bus, but now you stood out like a sore thumb. You shifted awkwardly in your seat and glanced over to the girl on your left. She wore a business suit and she began to slowly sink in her chair as if she could feel your gaze and was mentally trying to slip under the table to avoid you.
You quickly turned to your right and spoke up, “This is a Disney Orientation meeting right? I didn’t like walk in on a funeral?”
The girl on your right stared at you without speaking a word. Her face held the emotion of confusion and distaste. She was probably a couple years older than you, and she definitely acted as if she were better than you. You were hardly surprised when she turned away from you with a roll of her eyes.
“Alrighty then.” You mumbled under your breath and released a small sigh. You glanced down at the paper in front of you one last time. It was a small white printout of your name, orientation number, and arrival date. When you first got to the building you were hoping that you’d have the same orientation class as your roommates, but that was quickly shot to hell when you were dragged away from them after giving your fingerprints for a background check. At least you’d get to see them for lunch.
The sound of a door opening startled you and you straightened in your seat to see what was going on. At the very far end of the room, a man walked through the doors and stopped at a small glass podium. He cleared his throat before speaking into the microphone in front of him, “Good morning.”
“Good morning, sir.” The entire room chanted in unison.
You narrowed your eyes. Maybe it hadn’t been a funeral you walked into, but rather some form of Disney cult.
“I’m very proud to see you are all here and have made it thus far.” The man continued to speak. You were too far away to make out details of his appearance, but you knew he had dark hair and a boring suit on. “This is the final step of your training, and I am positive you will all do to the best of your ability.”
“Final step…?” You mumbled. This was your very first day here, you seriously doubted you were supposed to be on the final step. An employee must have noticed your confusion, or had decided to finally check on the crazy girl in the bright dress, because you were approached by a woman in formal attire while the man continued to speak.
She leaned toward you. Her light brown hair was pulled into a tight bun and unlike most of the other Disney employees you had seen throughout the building, she didn’t smile. “Are you supposed to be here?”
“Good question.” You replied. The girls at the table shot you dirty looks.
“Name please?”
You handed her your paper, “[Name] [Surname].”
She took the paper from you, glanced over, handed it back, and then pulled out a phone from her pocket. You sat patiently as she typed what you assumed to be your name into the machine. A few more seconds passed before her eyebrows scrunched together, “It says you’re allowed access here.”
“So…this is right?” You questioned.
“Obviously.” She replied sharply, “The system would not make a mistake in this situation.”
You held your hands up in mock surrender, “Well, excuse me.”
The woman held back an aggravated sigh before walking away. You focused your attention back to the man at the podium. He clapped his hands together once, “So now let the test begin.”
You mouthed the word test and watched as employees began to pass out packets of papers and pens. You had not been told about a test. The main reason you decided to do the Disney College Program was to avoid an entire semester of tests. What would it even be on? A packet was dropped in front of you and you stared at it as if it were a severed hand.
The entire room around you had already started on it and you could see a large digital timer had been activated at the front of the room. You had 90 minutes to finish this mysterious test. Hesitantly, you pulled up the cover page to look at the first series of questions.
Question One: Two ants are at a common point at time t=0, the first ant starts crawling along a straight line at the rate of 4 ft/min. Two minutes later, the second ant starts crawling in a direction perpendicular to that of the first, at a rate of 5 ft/min. How fast is the distance between them changing when the first insect has traveled 12 feet?
“Oh hell no.” You breathed at the sight of a math word problem.
The next hour and a half could have possibly been the most humiliating hour and a half of your life if you had actually tried. However, after the second calculus problem came up you threw in the towel. You did not come to Disney for this. Most of your answers consisted of puns and doodles. There had to be some kind of mistake no matter what that lady said. This was not where you were supposed to be.
“Time is up. Pass in your tests.” The man spoke as the countdown ended. You threw your test to the girl next to you as she gathered the others before handing them to the table near yours. Once all the tests were passed to the front he smiled, “We will break for lunch while we look over these tests. Be back at approximately 12:30.”
You basically jumped out of your seat and ran to the door. If you were moving any faster down the hallway to get to the cafeteria you had passed when you first came in, you’d be leaving trails of fire. The cafeteria itself was crowded with people around your age and you were relieved to see they were wearing colorful outfits and actually speaking with smiles on their faces. You spotted your roommates at a table in the middle of the room and decided to just sit with them rather than get lunch at all.
“[Name]!” Kairi was the first to notice you with a smile. Her red hair was pulled up in a loose bun with strands framing her face. She wore a light pink formal dress and black heels. “How was orientation?”
“Terrible.” You replied and dropped into the seat between her and one of your other roommates Namine.
Namine, a petite blonde, wore a white dress with her long hair down. Her blue eyes widened in worry, “Really? How come?”
“That test just killed me is all.” You sighed and leaned against your arm. Across the table from you were your three other roommates. Selphie had on a form fitting black dress with her short hair lightly curled. Beside her was Xion in a purple blouse and khaki slacks. Her black bangs were pinned away from her face, but the rest of her hair was too short to pull up. Your last roommate, and the one you actually shared a room with, was Olette in her light orange dress. Her hair was braided in an updo.
“Test?” Xion questioned, “The past hour and a half for us was filled with Disney trivia and jokes.”
“Yeah, well mine was filled with mostly pain.” You forced a tight smile.
Olette frowned, “What kind of test?”
Selphie giggled, “You would ask that.”
The conversation immediately took a turn toward the lighter conversation of playful teasing. You sat with a smile on your face as you occasionally stole a fry off Namine’s tray. You had only been in Orlando for a week, only known these five girls for a week, yet it seemed like you had known them for forever. The six of you grew close almost immediately and for that you were thankful.
The apartment was a three bedroom three bathroom with two girls to each one. Namine and Kairi shared, Xion and Selphie shared, and you and Olette shared. All of them were 19 just like you and had just finished freshman year last spring.
“Excuse me, Miss [Surname]?”
The table grew quiet as you glanced over your shoulder questioningly. Standing behind you was a man with neat blond hair that partly framed his face and was partly combed back. His sharp features and skin tone put emphasis on his light blue eyes. He wore and expensive looking gray and white suit.
“Uh yeah, that’s me.” You nodded.
“Come with me please.”
You glanced at your friends before standing up and following him out of the cafeteria. The two of you walked in silence with you tailing after him. As you weaved around others to keep up with him you straightened your white blazer and tried to rub away the wrinkles that had formed. You felt like you were wearing a garbage bag standing next to him in his fine pressed suit.
The moment you stepped outside into a fairly empty hallway he turned to face you with what looked like a forced smile, “My name is Rufus Shinra and I’m here to speak with you about your test.”
“What about it?”
“Well to be frank, it’s the lowest scored test I’ve ever seen. In fact, the only question you got right was your name.” He replied sharply.
You shrugged, “I guess that’s what happens when you draw tulips as the answer to ‘who was the 19th president of the united states.”
Rufus Shinra did not look pleased at your attempt at humor. He rubbed his jawline before stepping closer, “Where did you complete your training?”
His voice was stressed and his words were confusing. You narrowed your eyes, “Training? I was told I didn’t need any training to do this?”
“No training to do this?” He scoffed with a voice of disbelief, “Just what exactly do you think you’ve come for??”
“To avoid my fall semester of sophomore year?” You answered honestly.
There was a pause of silence where he just stared at you. A small smile graced his lips, but it was the type of smile that made you think someone was probably going to get murdered. He nodded his head, “You’re here for the Disney College Program.”
“Well, yeah.” You confirmed his outward thought.
Rufus glanced behind him and looked around. He waved someone forward and you watched as an employee with a bright Disney smile bounced up, “Hi, how can I help you?”
“She was placed in the wrong orientation group. Put her with the CP children.” He said smugly.
You didn’t like his tone of voice or the fact that he referred to you as a child. The woman pulled out her phone to look up your information as Rufus Shinra began to walk away.
“Hey”, You called out, “What was that class for anyway?”
He stopped mid step and glanced over his shoulder at you, “Nothing someone like you should be concerned about.”
That sentence annoyed you more than his last. You watched him march away before focusing on the woman who was helping you. She rattled on about a random subject before letting you know that you were going to be in Orientation group C which you were fairly positive all your roommates were in. You gave her a thankful smile before heading back into the cafeteria where your friends were. Thoughts about that strange class bubbled away and was replaced by excitement.
As you got to your table you were startled to see four new faces. The first was a guy with light brown hair and sky blue eyes. He wore a bright grin along with his red dress shirt and dress pants. The guy beside him had silver hair and aquamarine eyes. His smile wasn’t as large as the other guy’s and he wore a white button up with dress pants. The other two apparently knew Olette because the three of them looked incredibly close.
“Hey!” Selphie noticed you had come back, “These are the guys that live in apartment 12304, it’s on the third floor of our building.”
“Oh, cool.” You smiled, “Nice to meet you guys, I’m [Name].”
The first guy threw his hand out for you to shake, “I’m Sora. This is Riku, and that’s Hayner and Pence.”
“Hayner and Pence go to the same college I do back home, [Name].” Olette laughed, “I had never seen them on campus, but I didn’t even know anyone else from home was coming down here.”
You took your seat again, “Well, here’s some more good news. I am in Orientation group C now.”
Kairi turned her attention from Sora to you with a smile, “That’s awesome! You get to come to the park with all of us now!”
“Park?”
Namine nodded, “After lunch we find out where we’re going to be working and then they’re taking us to the Magic Kingdom for a tour.”
Your face lit up in excitement. Another perk of being down in Orlando working for the big mouse was the fact that you could get into any Disney park free of charge the entire time you worked for them. This would just be the first free trip to the Magic Kingdom of many. Plus you were also excited to see where you would work. You had zero job experience, but that didn’t seem to matter to them when they hired you.
“So, [Name], what are you majoring in?” Riku asked from across the table.
You shifted in your seat, “Well umm originally I was majoring in pre-law, but I switched over to pre-med a couple months ago. Though I think I might switch back.”
Sora’s eyes widened, “Whoa so you just can’t decide between being a lawyer or a doctor?”
“More like my parents cant.” You mumbled and then quickly let the conversation move on to something else. You didn’t like talking about the future. It was always murky and confusing. You let the future stay back in the far recesses of your mind where it couldn’t give you a headache.
The entire table talked for about another twenty minutes before everyone was herded back to their conference room for the rest of orientation. You followed your roommates happily and didn’t give the hallway you had originally come down a second glance. This conference room was built the same way with round tables and what not, but this room was filled with an energy the other didn’t have. People your age were talking and laughing, the walls were decorated with bright colors and Disney designs, and all the employees you saw looked genuinely happy to be there.
Xion pulled you into a seat between her and Selphie as the employees began to hand out envelopes. Selphie danced in her seat briefly, “Oh guys, I can’t wait to see where I’m working. Maybe I’ll be a Disney princess!”
“You have to try out for that, Selphie.” Namine replied.
“Well then I hope I’m at least in the Magic Kingdom!” She retaliated.
Each person at your table got their envelope and quickly began to open it. You pulled yours open and your nametag fell out. It had only your first name on it and the name of your college underneath it. You set it aside and pulled out the letter.
Kairi cheered before you could fully read your words, “Guys! I’m merchandise in Magic Kingdom!”
“Me too.” Olette nodded, “Where in MK?”
You focused on your own letter as they continued to speak. It said you were working Quick Service which meant food. You had no problem with that considering you were going to be allowed into the parks every day for free. The location was also Magic Kingdom like Kairi and Olette, but where their shops were in Storybook Circus and Frontierland, you would be on Main Street USA working at Casey’s Corner.
“Ok, so I’m at Animal Kingdom as custodial.” Xion rolled her eyes briefly, “Kairi and Olette are merchandise at Magic Kingdom. Namine is merchandise at Hollywood Studios. Selphie is Quick Service in Epcot-”
“Out of all the places I’m stuck at Epcot?” Selphie pouted, “Who even goes to Epcot?”
Xion ignored her outburst, “Where are you, [Name]?”
“Quick Service at Magic Kingdom.” You grinned.
A woman stepped in front of the podium and began to congratulate everyone on their new roles in the show called Disney. She spoke about some other things like rules and making magic, but your mind was trying to remember what Casey’s Corner looked like. It had been a while since you visited the park. You had only been about nine at the time and all you really remember from the trip is falling over and burning yourself on something. Although, that wasn’t necessarily true. You didn’t remember falling over and burning yourself on anything, that’s always just what your parents told you. It was easy to believe them considering the scar you had on the right side of your ribcage.
“Now”, The woman clapped her hands, “Who is ready for their tour?” The room erupted in cheers and you clapped along with the others. Hopefully this tour let you ride a couple things before it was over. “Good. If you could just reach into the basket on your table, each person gets a small radio and an ear piece. It’ll be hard to hear us so just stick that in and we’ll be golden!”
Namine handed a radio and ear piece to everyone at the table. It was just a small black box with a knob at the top. You turned yours on, stuck it in your blazer pocket, and then put the ear piece in your left ear. Immediately you could hear the woman speaking through her own microphone. She wasn’t saying anything of importance yet though so you tuned her out.
The entire room began to rise and follow the woman out in to the hallway. You and your roommates had to pause there, but you spotted a group of familiar faces. You raised your hand, “Hey! Sora!”
Sora turned and smiled at you. He reached through the crowd to grab someone and soon him and his roommates were making their way toward your small group. He was beaming, “So where are you guys working?”
“Kairi is merch in Fantasyland, Olette is merch in Frontierland, Xion is custodial in Animal Kingdom, Namine is merch at Hollywood Studios, Selphie is Quick Service in Epcot, and I’m Quick Service on Main Street, USA.” You answered quickly.
“No way!” Sora cheered, “Where on Main Street? Casey’s Corner?”
You nodded, “Yeah.”
“Me too!” He lifted his hand for a high five and you happily obliged. His type of energy was contagious. “Riku is at Hollywood Studios as attractions, Pence and Hayner are both custodial at Magic Kingdom.”
Hayner had his arms crossed irritably, “Came all this way to sweep up fallen ice cream cones.”
“At least you’re in the Magic Kingdom.” Selphie argued.
He shook his head, “I’d rather be in Epcot like you! Epcot is where the party’s at!”
The two of them began to argue lightly as the group moved down the hallway and out the building towards where a bus was waiting to take everyone to the magic kingdom. It was enough to fit your orientation group and one other. Sora, Riku, Hayner, and Pence were forced away to follow their own orientation group to a different bus. It only took a couple minutes to load and then you were on your way.
(little time skip here b/c I’m trying to avoid giving out to many Disney “secrets”, I’d rather not get like fired or something over this. I mean, Disney sees everything guys. Everything.)
Main Street, USA was something else. The entire road was lined with shops and decorated buildings. It had a warm feeling to it and an air of excitement. Down the road to your right was Cinderella castle itself in all its glory and to your right was the train station entrance that shielded Disney from the rest of the world. It was unsurprisingly crowded, but despite the swarm of people moving around you, you weren’t uncomfortable.
You glanced over to see your tour group was moving down the street without you. You spotted your roommates using their phones to take pictures of the castle discreetly. You took a rushed step toward them but stopped as a wave of dizziness overtook you. You felt short of breath for a second and your sides ached.
“[Name]!” Someone called out to you. You glanced up to see Kairi waving you over with a smile.
You nodded, “I’m…I’m coming!”
The woman leading the tour was rambling in your ear. You grabbed the piece and pulled it out of your ear in annoyance. What the hell was that? You slowly began to follow after the tour group. The dizziness was gone along with the other random symptoms. You heaved a sigh and glanced over the setting again. You were admiring your soon to be work place at the end of Main Street when you noticed two people arguing off to the side. They didn’t physically stand out in this crowd of people, but something about them made you keep your gaze on them.
The first was a woman probably a couple years older than you. Her black hair traveled down her back and her bangs brought out her light blue eyes. She was lightly tanned and wore a tank top with shorts. The guy in front of her had spiky blond hair and blue eyes as well. He was tall and well-muscled with an annoyed look on his face. He wore jeans and a plain shirt with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Come on, [Name].” Kairi had jogged up beside you and looped her arm through yours. You gave her a tight smile before letting her drag you toward the group who had already made it halfway to the castle. As you got closer the dizziness began to return. “You ok? You look kind of pale.”
‘Another generation occurs.’ Your eyes widened at the sudden words ringing through your head. You reached up to pull the ear piece out only to realize you had already done so earlier.
“Is she alright?” Xion questioned as she walked up to you and Kairi.
“I’m fine.” You answered for yourself with a shake of your head, “My head just sorta hurts.”
‘The last of this era had been chosen.’
“Do you need medicine?” Olette questioned. You suddenly realized all your roommates had come to gather around you. Even the tour group woman was making her way towards you.
You shook your head, “No I- Do you hear that? The voice?”
They shook their heads and you became short of breath again. Something was very, very wrong. You clutched your right side as it began to burn again.
‘She shall usher in a time of prosperity and destruction.’
The crowd around you became suffocating. They were speaking to you, asking if you were ok, but all you could see were their mouths moving. Static filled your ears as your side began to burn even hotter. You let out a small cry of pain and clutched the lower half of your ribcage. You fell to your knees and glanced up just in time to see two people rushing over. The man and woman you saw arguing.
The static suddenly stopped and the voice returned.
‘Welcome Commander [Name] [Middle Name] [Surname].’
Sound of the concerned people around you came back for a brief second before you fell to the ground unconscious.