Base Sequence: Human Genome Confirmed.

Fingerprint, Voiceprint, and DNA authentication cleared.

Magical Circuit Assessment: Complete.

Username: Matched.

Identification complete. Welcome to Chaldea.

It's like suddenly awakening after dozing off mid conversation, or perhaps shaking off a half remembered dream. She's in a hallway, but not like any hallway she's ever seen; the floor is polished to a mirror sheen, and the light from above is entirely wrong to be any sort of fire. On the ground in front of her is some kind of fluffy white creature, staring up at her with black eyes - a squirreldog, perhaps?

Blink blink.

Blinkblinkblinkblinkblink.

"You're not Appa," she accuses. "Wait, where am I?" She was- where was she? Fleeing the temple, and they went into a cloudbank to lose them (clouds, not smoke, don't think about the smoke.)

"Fou! Fou Kyuuu!"

Whatever assessment it might have been making of her before appears to be over, because it starts trying to lick her.

Which is right when a pink haired girl comes running around the corner.

"Fou? Where are you- oh, there you are. You shouldn't go running off like that!"

She scoops up the ball of fur, which it - Fou? - doesn't seem to have any objection to.

"I'm sorry about that, he should know better by now."

"Uh, hi. Who are you? Where are we? I am very lost and confused." Dechen is wearing swishy silk robes, dyed vibrant yellow and and orange. Blue arrow tattoos mark her forehead and arms, disappearing up into her hairline and into her sleeves.

"Oh, right, introductions. I'm Mashu, Mashu Kyrielight."

The girl bows to her in greeting.

"You're at Chaldea base! Didn't they have a briefing when you got here? Or do you mean where it is on a map? I can't help you with that one, it's classified."

She bows back. "I'm Dechen, of the- I'm Dechen."

"And uh, Fou was the first one I saw." She indicates the creature in Mashu's arms. "I just showed up in the hall here, kinda."

"Oh no. I know everyone's busy today, but the least they could have done was get you a pamphlet or introduction video."

She abruptly straightens, and takes on a serious expression; her voice flattens as though reading off a prepared speech.

"Ahem. The Chaldea Security Organization is a UN agency, mandated with ensuring the protection of the world. Operating out of a top-secret location to avoid any collateral damage or sabotage, Chaldea is humanity's last, best line of defense against catastrophes. Our top of the line equipment, supplied in partnership by the Mage's Association, the Holy See, and the Atlas Institute, offer an unparralleled degree of sophisticated capabilities to deal with any imaginable threat; to fulfil this mission, the world's best and brightest stand ready for any eventuality."

Her cheeks turn pink at the last bit. 

"Though, um, that's not really talking about me."

Cute blush.

"I see, I see," she nods. "...I have never heard of any of that before. Is this some Earth Kingdom thing? It sounds a bit Earth-y."

"I don't think so? I've never heard of the earth kingdom before, but there's a lot of things I don't know about the outside world. We don't just work for one country, though, the United Nations is supposed to be a way for all the countries to work together. We have people from all over the world working here."

"That sounds like an Avatar thing. Someone definitely should have told me about that."

Oh no, another thing she's never heard of. She's getting a bad grade in being a human stop it.

"What's an Avatar? And, I guess someone agrees since you're here now? They're usually really selective about who gets invited, I think."

Another person rounds the corner of the hall.

"Mashu? You know you shouldn't be running off like that, there's not much time left."

His eyes take in her companion.

"Oh, you're with someone - and not someone I recognize, either. I believe that makes you Chaldea's newest recruit, master candidate #48? I'm Lev Lainur, one of the technicians here."

Fou has made himself scarce.

"Uh, if you say so. I guess I must have missed a letter or something. Mashu mentioned a briefing? But I didn't get that."

"Wouldn't this have at least been covered in the training, even if someone decided they were too busy to handle onboarding? How would they teach you without... nevermind. I knew some people were trying to rush things with the public applicants, but I didn't think it was this bad. The director will be very unhappy with them, even if it did mean we got to fill out our roster in time."

He glances at his wrist.

"I'd be happy to answer any questions you have - it's the least I can do, for someone who got dragged into this - but unfortunately Mashu and I need to get to the command room for the Director's announcement. You should attend too; it would be irresponsible to send you out on deployment without any training, but at the very least you could meet some of your coworkers and get a sense of what your job is like. Once things have calmed down a bit we can explain everything."

"Not like I have much else to do right now."

Then Lev will set off at a brisk pace down the hallway he just came from. It's a bit confusing to navigate with how similar so much of the place looks, but he doesn't seem to have any issues and as long as she doesn't fall behind she won't either. 

There are already a number of people there! Front and center is a group of seven eccentric-looking people that Mash makes her way to.

While Lev heads off towards a group at the far right. Judging by his gestures, she's probably supposed to be in the middle, near the back?

The front part of the room is taken up by an enormous glowing globe, hovering inside a protective array of rotating rings. It's rotating, but almost too slowly to notice; it would take a full day to make a full revolution. There's a podium arranged in front of it, but they seem to have at least arrived before whoever was going to be speaking.

That's. Uh. That's not what the world looks like. Dechen's an Air Nomad, she knows what the continent looks like from above. And it's not like that.

Well. Her world doesn't look like that. She is increasingly coming around to the idea that this isn't her world. Whether some sort of spirit trick, or an Avatar vision, or, or, or whatever. On the one hand, there doesn't seem to be any Fire Nation trying to kill her here. On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be any Fire Nation here that she can stop from killing everyone else. So. Yeah. Let's just put that in the back of the closet and think about it never.

Is the announcement thing gonna start soon or else is there someone around she can chat with to kill some time?

That's about when the director arrives, yep.

"Good, it looks like we're all here. For those of you just joining us, welcome to Finis Chaldea. I'm the director, Olga Marie Animusphere.

"You have been selected or discovered from each nation due to your unique talents. Some of you are top class magi with bloodlines going back hundreds of years, others brilliant scientists and engineers with the ability to operate on the bleeding edge of technology, and a fortunate few are simply blessed with an inherent compatibility with pseudo-spiritron conversion. Whatever the case, know this: Chaldea - and humanity itself - is counting on the efforts of each and every one of you.

"Unfortunately, I can't just end things there. The Near Future Observation Lens, Sheba, has discovered an anomaly in its efforts to measure humanity's history; a wrinkle in the fabric of space and time that stretches and distorts the past around it. The existence of such phenomenon has been theorized before, but never directly observed, and even the worst case assumptions don't explain the rate at which the distortion is expanding. This phenomenon, which we have dubbed 'Singularity F,' is in the process of growing into a genuine threat to the fabric of history. We are not about to let that happen. Solving this situation will be the inaugural mission of the Chaldea Security-"

Whatever she was about to say was is cut off as the ground under her feet suddenly decides it wants to be somewhere else as swiftly as it can possibly manage. There's a flash of bright light, followed a fraction of a second later by an enormously loud noise; shards of metal fly off at high speeds, shredding everyone unfortunate enough to get in their way. Smoke roils up from the floor, obscuring the impact zone from sight. A detached observer might also be able to notice a second explosion set off in the support staff seating, or feel from the vibrations the retort of even more distant explosions elsewhere in the facility, but it would be a rather large ask for anyone in the room themself. They'd be too busy dying.