The Temple of Artemis(Pre-Event/Intro Thread)

[Belle]

Belle pinched herself a second time, but the world before her eyes refused to go away. She tried again, harder, but the only difference appeared to be a deeper, stinging pain on the skin of her arm.

"Excuse me," Mickey said, a note on concern tinging the edge of his voice, "but why are you doing that?"

She reluctantly turned her eyes to the anthromorphic creature. All the weird people that were around her, she knew she could deal with that. She'd been yanked to this dimension, after all, it wasn't a completely alien experience to be surrounded by strangers. The gigantic armored... thing and some of the more bizarre creatures she was a little more leery about, but at least they seemed like they could be human under the surface - or something humanoid, at least.

What she couldn't deal with was seeing a small cartoon character fretting over her. Oh sure, she'd watched the shows when she was little. What kid hadn't? And what kid hadn't imagined those characters crawling out of the television or movie screen and playing with them?

The problem was that she wasn't five anymore, and she didn't remember the movie of Mickey and the Spooky Deathbattle Arena Ghost.

"Just trying to wake up, Mickey," she said, dully. She caught the mouse's eye and held up her hands, meekly surrendering to the insanity that was Mickey-goddamned-Mouse sharing existence with herself. "Nevermind. What's your take on all this?"

She felt if anyone was going to be a moral authority, it was Mickey. He didn't disappoint. "Well," he said. "I think we should help, obviously."

The little mouse's eyes flicked over to the side, to a strangely clad man nearby. Belle followed his gaze, examining the red-helmeted man that was chatting up a be-halo'd woman. The man looked like something she'd seen when she was younger. Something about fighting robots...? Aha: Power Ranger. That was right. "Someone you know?" she asked. "I don't remember him from your cartoons."

"You could say that," Mickey agreed, laughing with a wave of one gloved hand that was almost as big as his head. He paused. "Cartoons?"

"Yeah. You were always on when I was little. Mickey and Minnie and Goofy and Donald. And Pluto!" She tapped her lips in thought, trying to remember the last time she had seen them. Then it came. "Last time, you guys taught me an important lesson: no smoking."

Mickey gave her a weird look, then smiled. "Well, I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm sure glad if I was able to help you."

"That's right. You're an original hero, aren't you?" she mused, talking into the ether. "When did you get pulled here, anyway? Not this room, I mean ... You know. This place. Omniverse."