"I can help." Books offered as she attempted to help prop Muse up. She slightly shivered, but she didn't know the reason why. She had fairly good upper body strength due to trust fall exercises while acting. Most of the time she was holding up people bigger than her. She flipped her blonde hair so it was over her other shoulder, she didn't want to get it caught in anything.

Flinching slightly as Books draped her hair over the tiny thing, the small creature brushed the stuff off of itself and quietly scurried down the roleplayer’s body and into her pants pocket, which it seemed to deem safer.

——

“You’re right.” the leader nodded towards Rae. “Dangerous beasts roam these forests. We wouldn’t want anyone to stay out here without protection.” she continued. “And while spirits like yourselves probably normally don’t fear the beasts, we realize your guide is currently less-than-capable of defending himself…” she trailed off, eyes landing on the unconscious lizard-boy. “We apologize again.” she told Rae. Then, as she struggled to watch Books lift him up, she calmly put up her hand, gesturing for her to stop. “Allow us.” she told books. “Girls,” the leader spoke up, and the other two huntresses stepped forward and gently took Muse from Books, one taking hold of his shoulders while the other grabbed his feet. The two of them seemed to have a much easier time lifting him than the small girl, which was probably to be expected as they were designed to survive in what seemed to be a rather savage environment.

Now having a strong handle on Muse, the leader of the tribal women led the group into the tunnel, making sure to go back and close up the entrance behind her once everyone was inside. Once underground, the group wouldn’t take long to adjust to the relative darkness, as the tunnel was lit fairly well by large, light-blue mushrooms, each about three feet tall and each glowing brightly enough to illuminate the cave like a well moon-lit night. The tunnel, consisting of only dirt walls and floors, led further underground, mushrooms lighting the whole way. The leader gestured for the group to follow.

After a short distance, the group stopped descending as the floor below them leveled out. The tunnel then seemed to lead out into a much larger chamber, but the path was blocked by two male guards. They seemed to cover up a bit more than the females — each of them wearing enough animal skins to cover up their torsos and everything from their waists to their knees — though that was probably at least partially due to the cooler temperature underground. Each of them held a crude spear, and simple body paint — only two red, vertical stripes on their faces, going down over their eyes, and similar bands of red around their wrists and ankles. Their faces lit up with shock and fear as they saw the roleplayers and Muse, and the two men quickly drew their spears in preparation to attack.

“Calm down.” the leader of the huntresses commanded. “These are friendly spirits who came here seeking shelter.” she explained. The two men did not speak in response, but they seemed unsure about the explanation. The leader sighed. “Allow them to explain themselves.” She then stepped aside and gestured for Rae and Books to step forward and speak to the guards.

Rae allowed the women to take Muse from her and followed them into the tunnel. it was well lit enough that she didn't mind it. it seemed to take much longer then it really did though. She balked at the sight of the 2 men but as they didn't appear to believe the 3 women, she didn't want to Books on the spot, and Muse was in no position to explain, she took a deep breath and stepped forward "please, gentlemen, we mean you no harm, we were simply looking for somewhere to rest, this ..." she looked at Muse, trying to think of the appropriate word "creature, is our guide, he didn't react well to a dart the huntresses shoot him with, hence the state he's in now, we mean to pass on out of your territory tomorrow, but we aren't safe out in the wild and ask for entry, just for the night" she was exhausted, too much talking, she couldn't wait till Muse was recovered, she really hoped it would be the next day as she was sure the people would have questions. she waited, impatiently for a response.

With Callum running as fast as he could, somehow not being crushed by all the buildings. Or not tripping over something since he couldn't really see because of all of the dust. he just kept running, thankfully Mk Ultra was right next to him. He looked behind him for a second, The GM was a giant wolf. "Oh I'm going to die!" Callum kept running, screaming almost all the way through. Where was Kole? Callum turned around again and stopped completely. Kole was pinned, Callum didn't know what to do. It was as if he was frozen.

He watched in absolute horror as he saw Kole ripped in half. He probably would of gotten sick right there if it wasn't for the fact that a part of him knew he had to hide. He quickly dived behind a collapsed building. Trudging in through a broken door. Watch MK ultra come in with him. He then, proceeded to get sick then. Unless there was some weird twist that this wasn't real. (Which he really hoped was true) Kole had just died. Right in front of him, someone he knew had just been torn in half. And the monster who had killed him was coming after Callum next.

Callum put his hand over his mouth, he was panicking at this point, his hands were bleeding from the glass on the floor. He turned to his head to MK-ultra as he was shaking. "Any plans!" He whispered. "Turn into something cool? Any tricks with you?" His eyes glanced around the shattered building. It was quite dark, thankfully the building was basically complete seeing as it had fallen down. The hole from the ice was covered in crumbled building. "He's scared of you in some way shape or form. But does that actually matter now that we've pissed him off...Well...I....Kole....I don't l..." Callum's head pushed into his knees. "help...."

MK Ultra wagged his tail curiously, as if thinking about something, as he listened to Callum’s plea for help. The gray cat then placed his forelegs on top of a piece of debris in front of them, allowing the creature to pull his head up to glance momentarily at the monster that GM had become, the giant wolf eagerly sniffing out his next victim, before MK quickly brought himself back down to the ground. Crouching down, eyes on the floor, MK made a low growling sound, though it sounded more sad than it did angry — as if the poor cat was admitting defeat, saying that there was nothing else he could do.

The feline’s ears perked up barely a moment later, though, and MK sat up quickly, tail wagging again — though this time more eager and excited — as his eyes locked onto Callum. The cat scurried over to the roleplayer and then, slowly, hesitantly, placed his paw on the back of Callum’s hand.

Briefly, the two became enveloped in a bright light, as everything became… ambiguous — the landscape seeming to shift and change as the two of them saw the world in ways that didn’t seem possible, and hardly describable, as millions of impossible perspectives flashed in front of their eyes all in a single second.

When their surroundings made sense again, MK and Callum clearly saw GM standing a short distance away from him, though the beast seemed… apprehensive, snarling at them with his ears pinned back like a frightened, hostile animal — which he was. Most peculiarly, though, the two of them weren’t exactly looking up at GM, and instead seemed to be about eye-level with him. Also interestingly, GM didn’t seem to be quite as large as he was before, and neither were the buildings surrounding them, as everything seemed to have been shrunken down a few levels.

Confused and astonished, GM glared back at the beast in front of him. He saw a cat — a very large cat — a tiger-like creature about the same size as him, adorned with stripes of dark gray and darker gray, and blaring fangs hanging out of his mouth. Clearly, MK had transformed, but where was Callum? Well, the young roleplayer wasn’t simply riding the cat. Nothing of the sort.

Callum was the cat.

Joined harmoniously, the two of them had achieved a form powerful enough to face GM in direct combat. Callum had been given the body of a mysterious feline with huge untapped potential, along with all the limitless possibilities of a roleplayer’s mind — and although he still couldn’t fully understand what made this cat so special, he at least had his body. And he was in-control.

Books looked at the men. She didn't know what to say. She was terrified of them. This day was already long enough but now with these two men in front of her and Muse out cold she was scared that something bad would happen. She rubbed one of her wide eyes.

Meanwhile, several miles above eceryone else, a certain young man was getting very bored. In between not wanting to touch GM's laptop, his new master not returning for quite some time now amd the room he was in being as tiny as it was, Leon had absolutely no idea what to do. By now he had paced around the room what felt like three dozen times (not that he was actually keeping count). He really wanted to do something to get his mind off of the boredom, but what? He could take a look at the computer again, but there was no real saying what GM would do to him if he came back and caught his minion messing around on his computer. On the other hand, simply sitting here and waiting for god knows how long would likely drive Leon even further down the path of madness than he already was, for as far as a thing like that was even possible. What to do, what to do...
,
,
,
You know what, screw it. With resolute steps, Leon took a straight line for GM's laptop, before he could change his mind again and drive himself even crazier in doubt -- or in thinking up ways in which GM could maim him, for that matter... "Now, where to look at first...,"

The screen on GM’s laptop remained exactly as he’d left it — still on 2D display mode (like a normal computer), open to Google Images as he searched for some design inspiration. Interestingly enough, though, the browser he’d been using hardly seemed recognizable as any browser the roleplayers would know. It had all the basic buttons that a browser should have — an address bar, tabs, bookmarks, etc — but the exact layout didn’t seem to resemble Chrome, Firefox, or any other well-known browser. Even scrolling down to the grid-globe icon resting on the taskbar didn’t seem to help any, as the program’s name was apparently only “Browser”.

…Speaking of which, was the word “taskbar” even appropriate? Sure, the thing seemed to fulfill the basic function of a Windows taskbar or an OSX dock, but was the computer a PC or a Mac? Or neither? Sure enough, it didn’t seem to resemble any well-known operating system, either, and the machine itself wasn’t marked with any sort of logo to distinguish itself as any familiar, “real” computer brand.

At any rate, the not-taskbar seemed awfully bare, besides. It contained only a scarce few icons: “Browser”, a Windows Explorer-esque graphic simply labeled “Files”, “Settings”, and a graphic resembling a swirling ball of violet aura labeled “Designer” — still running, by the looks of things.

It was up to Leon what he wanted to poke around in first.

The men seemed skeptical at first, their eyes moving between Rae and Books, as they were unsure whether or not the “spirits” could be trusted. A glare from the head huntress, though, seemed to make up their minds for them. The two guards then glanced at each other and, hesitantly, nodded and stepped aside, allowing the group to continue through.

The tribe’s dwelling closely resembled what many would probably imagine a Native American village to look like, except all held underground in a complex that looked like it could’ve been built by giant ants — all lit by the glow of neon-blue mushrooms. The group entered into a large, spacious chamber, from which many other tunnels led out. Here, much of the village activity took place, as children played and adults conversed and, eyes landing on the returning huntresses, many seemed shocked and a few even stepped back nervously as their gaze landed on the strangers.

The lead huntress sighed, sounding somewhat annoyed, before addressing the now silent crowd. “Do not fear.” she spoke sternly. “These are friendly spirits.” she told them, watching as the apparent leader of the tribe overall, an older woman in her 40’s at least, approached the group. “They request lodgings.” she spoke, now addressing the chief more than the group.

The chief glared at the head huntress. “You brought no kill?” she hissed. “There has been no fresh meat in days, and the season of fruit will not come for many more moons-”

“We couldn’t find anything.” he huntress snapped. “The beasts that roam the surface make food more scarce by the day. We thought we saw something, but it was only one of the spirits in disguise.” she reported, gesturing towards Muse.

The chief seemed to contemplate it all for a moment before replying. “Fair enough.” she spoke reluctantly. “Take him to the men’s chambers.” she told the two subordinate huntresses, and they proceeded to carry Muse away down one of the corridors. The chief then glanced back at the lead huntress. “You may lead the other two to their temporary dwelling.” she told her, before stepping aside and allowing the remaining group to proceed down another corridor.

As they began to walk, the huntress spoke towards the two girls, “Do you have any preferences regarding the nature of your room?”

——

Meanwhile, the small rodent-like creature from earlier shyly poked its head out of Books’ pocket, but only for a second, as it quickly noticed that the roleplayers weren’t quite alone yet. The creature had been successful so far in gaining access to the underground, but it would need to wait a bit longer before coming out of hiding.

Books shook her head. She didn't really care about rooms anymore. She just cared about sleep. When was the last time I slept? She thought to herself with a slight frown. She was hoping that Muse would be okay on his own but she wouldn't be able to know for sure.

Rae sighed a breath of relief as the men decided to let them past. it was an amazing place to be sure, but all the people made her a little nervous. she reached back for Books hand, hoped the girl wouldn't mind. the village seemed rather busy, there were a lot of children, that set her nerves on edge, she wasn't good with children, she tried hiding it as they stopped and the huntress spoke to the crowd. the older woman, the leader, was an impressive figure and Rae was very happy when she said they could stay. she opened her mouth to argue when they started taking Muse away but she stopped herself, he would be fine, right? she really hoped he would be fine.
she had to stop and think of the huntress' question "i can't really think of anything, me and Books should probably share a room, unless she has some objection, so we don't take up too much of your space, but otherwise, anything will do"

Callum was too busy sobbing to notice MK-ULTRA touching him, but he did notice the extremely tripping event that happened right afterwards. "Woah..." Was all Callum said as he looked around...something was different. Everything seemed smaller, The building were smaller, The GM was smaller. He seemed higher up from the ground. He couldn't see MK-ULTRA anywhere, not to mention the fact that his feet had now turned into paw-

"Oh...." Callum muttered as he looked around. "So...Is this like, Dragon Ball Z fusion shit happening here? Are our minds melded together or something? Hello?" Callum tilted his head for a second. Before he looked up at GM, his confused face turning into a grimace. "You...Killed....Kole" Callum almost went back to crying but held it together. "You killed him just like that! He had a fucking family! Well...Probably. He had friends!...Well...Probably. HE HAD A LIFE....Well...Probably. You killed him in cold blood!...RIPPED HIM IN HALF!" Callum took a step forward.

"You, There is no point in this. For fuck sake! There is no point to this. You....You....Killed him....And you've probably killed others...You've made Leon crazy...well probably. NO! You definitively made him crazy!"

Callum lowered his body...well, Their body to the ground. "I'm...I'm.....going to KICK YOUR DIGITAL ASS!...Hesitantly...maybe...probably...Hopefully Like dragon ball z...FOR KOLE!"

Callum suddenly jumped into the air. He didn't really know how to fight...while in a giant cat's body. He hoped he would learn before it was too late. "SOLAR FLARE BITCHES!" Suddenly a light formed in front of Callum. A light that was around about six million times brighter then the sun (and a little bit more) Shinging in every direction. Aside from Callum's obviously.

Callum was mad, and while also wanting to curl up in a corner and cry like a baby for the rest of his life. He was also mad.

Suddenly Gravity took over, and Callum's body was sent hurdling GM's way. "SCCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW YOOOOOOOU!" Callum screamed.

So... Now what? The program that was open was obviously a browser, but it didn't really look like any one Leon knew about -- and, being the nerd he was, he knew about quite a few of them. Regardless, it seemed to be just a browser, nothing really all that interesting. It didn't came to Leon that this could possibly be a way to contact the outside world. Well, he could always come back to this later.

As for the other option on the very bare-bones taskbar -- Wait, wasn't this supposed to be a ridiculously advanced computer? It looked all shiny and moderny with the holograms and thingajingers before. But now it just looked... boring? Nothing like what it was before. Well, maybe the programs themselves would be more interesting? Hopefully?
A first glance on this sbject seemed to point in the opposite direction. Files were generally boring if you didn't know what was what and where to look, and messing around in the settings would be even more pointless. But...
.
.
.
...Oooh, shiny! Shiny, purple and shiny! Because that is totally a good way to decide what to check out on a computer with possibly world-ending properties for all Leon knew. But still, shiny!
With the problem of deciding what to do resolved, Leon clicked the ominous swirling ball of violetness. Multiple times, because shiny.

The huntress nodded. “As you wish.” she told them, leading them down a corridor lined with small chambers, each one lacking any real door of course but with what seemed to be some sort of animal skin draped over the opening, serving as a sort of curtain. She led the roleplayers down to one on which the makeshift-curtain had been pulled mostly out of the way. “This is a spare dwelling place.” she said to the girls, gesturing for them to enter. The interior looked extremely bare, with all the walls, ceiling and floor carved completely out of dirt, and there didn’t even seem to be any clear distinction between the surfaces as the entire alcove had a sort of rounded shape. The only things it contained were two bench-like structures, seemingly beds of some kind, carved out of the walls, and a small trio of glowing mushrooms planted in the closest equivalent the structure had to a corner. It wasn’t much, but at least it had two beds.

“Please let me know if there is anything else you require.” the huntress told them, trying to sound polite though her voice had a sort of wariness to it, as if she felt more obligated to provide for the ‘spirits’ than willing to, or even able to.

——

GM tilted his head, his face shifting into the best expression a wolf can possibly manage to convey bewildering confusion as he listened to Callum talk to himself about Dragonball Z or something of the sort through the mouth of a massive feline beast. The sight was… unexpected, to say the least.

When the roleplayer’s words shifted towards Kole, though, GM’s more confident demeanor took over, as the giant wolf yipped and barked as if he were laughing. “Ah, you’re right, I killed him!” he replied, still holding back laughter as he taunted the enraged boy, prancing around as he kept himself a few steps away from the feline. “And you know what? It’s been a reeeaaal long time since I killed someone myself! I hadn’t even thought of that! I mean, all the lives I took before — most of them were indirect. And I thought that was enjoyable enough, but, man, I can’t believe I almost forgot how amazing good-ol’-fashioned bloodshed feels!” he chirped, reveling sadistically in Callum’s fury as he laid his forelegs out on the ground in front of him and wagged his tail in the air like an excited puppy. “And as for Leo? I like him better this wa-”

GM’s taunting was then brutally cut off as an unimaginably intense light suddenly appeared in front of him, causing the wolf to yelp pitifully in pain and flinch so badly that he wound up rolling over backwards, his body sprawling across the dirt and debris. “What… what happened — what’s going on?!” he hissed, squinting as his eyes gave off a violet glow that struggled to compete against the solar flare’s blaze, as if GM needed to extend much of his strength just to maintain his basic senses. As the wolf sniffed the air madly, struggling to keep track of what happened around him, his eyes widened as, at the last second, he saw MKallum fly towards him, and he couldn’t act quickly enough to do anything about it. GM let out another scream, this one more human-like and pain-filled as the cat tackled him to the ground.

——

As Leon switched programs and Designer took up the screen, a single key on the keyboard, labeled “holo”, lit up, glowing with GM’s favorite color. Meanwhile, the screen displayed a 2D version of the same sort of display that GM had left off with when he was working with those 3D hologram models. While the program appeared in front of Leon displaying a model of the new Rin, the last project he touched, GM, in his carelessness, had left a whole slew of other tabs open, all of which were labeled with the names of the files they displayed. The tab that Leon opened to was labeled “newRin2 (mod)”, and the names written across the remaining tabs were “newRin2 (raw)”, “Basilix (mod)”, “Basilix (raw)”, and “Leo (raw)”. All these, in addition to the typical File, Edit, etc clickable options that lined the top of the screen, laid ready for rifling.

"Thank you ma'am." Books said looking at the huntress. She had stopped looking awake and alert and now just looked tired. She didn't remember the last time she had slept. She was thankful that the huntresses we're letting them stay there.

Rae looked at the girl "you should get some sleep, you've had a big day" she walked over to one of the 'beds' and felt it "a little rough" she pulled her purse off and rummaged, pulling a few objects out and setting them on the bed before walking over to books and handing it to her "here, you can use this as a pillow, it'll be a little rough, but hopefully it's better then the rock" she smiles at the girl, then went back and grabbed the stuff she had set down and found pockets and places to set them to the side before sitting on the bed.

Ah, now this was getting somewhere. It still lacked a bit of the amazingness that GM was showing off earlier, but it was better than the bland windows-style thing it was before. Now to look around a bit more in this new thing-- Ooh, a button went all glowy! Without a moment's thought or hesitation, Leon pressed the purple glowing button...

Yay, it was back into shiny-moderny mode again! A wide grin was forming on Leon's face, his eyes practicaly sparking from the joy that is shinyness. Now to actually do something with the thing. Not that he had any idea what was what, but hey. Now, let's see... well, the ones about Rin2 were the wolves, that much was obvious. A memory about him getting mauled in a quite horrible fashion made it so that Leon really didn't want to touch that one. Similiarly, Something told him that it would be a really bad idea to mess with the Leo file, figuring that if that was what the bit that was left of his mind thought it was, he REALLY shouldn't be touching it. That left just one tab... Or rather, it left two versions of what was likely the same thing.

"Let's see. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe... That one!" With this totally logic-based reasoning having finished its task, Leon clicked on the (Mod) version of the Basilix file.

The rodent from earlier poked its head out of Books’ pocket once again, blinking and sniffing the air curiously. Its ears perked up as it started to come to the conclusion that the huntress was gone, leaving it alone with the unfamiliar girls. Learning this, the tiny creature crawled out of Books’ pocket, scurrying down her body and onto the dirt bed, its butterfly-like wings unfolding and stretching themselves out in the neon light of the chamber, revealing a hot-pink color on top and a deep blue underneath. The small mouse of only about an inch or two tall cleaned its face the way rodents do as it looked up at the two girls, blinking curiously.

——

After the ‘holo’ button was pressed, the light of the screen shined harshly into Leon’s eyes — the 3D hologram mode reactivating, but left at an odd angle as the laptop wasn’t sitting with both halves lying flat on the ground, as it was when GM used the hologram mode earlier. The hologram mode was still usable, though, even if askew, and so the screen buttons that floated in the air would still react to a good poke like a touch screen of some kind.

After Leon switched to the “Basilix (mod)” tab, the image of the wolf that occupied the screen space previously was replaced with a 3D model of what seemed to be some sort of reptilian humanoid, donning scaly green skin with some black, tiger-like stripes. The creature was mostly human in shape, though certain features added to its non-human appearance, such as his slightly clawed fingertips, snake-like eyes, and, most distinctly, the tail tat hung idly behind him, reaching down to his feet. It certainly wasn’t GM’s dragon of the same name. In fact, it didn’t look much like a dragon at all, more like some sort of… lizard. Beyond that, it didn’t look nearly as beast-like as the dragon Basilix, as this Basilix seemed far more… human, for lack of a better term. Sure, his yellow eyes glared back at Leon with a sort of cruelness that suggested a rather ruthless and predatory nature, but aside from that, its face suggested that a rather human brain hid behind it, as the rest of the face carried a very human-like shape, and the head was even topped with a scalp covered in messy blonde hair. He dressed in a somewhat more human-like manner, too, wearing dark pants and a leather vest that still left some of the creature’s yellow reptilian underbelly visible. The clothing, plus the lizard-man’s muscly build, made it very clear what sort of player he would be in the fantasy world he seemed to be from — a warrior.

If Leon’s mind was sharp enough, he might’ve been able to recall when GM pulled the file up in the first place — which was when he gave Leon the respawn ability, and copied some text out of Basilix’s raw coded file in order to share said ability with Leon. Other than that, though, GM had seemingly never mentioned him, despite having a green dragon of the same name. The model of Basilix floated in the air in front of him, glaring back at the boy with his yellow, reptilian eyes, almost as if he were waiting to see what Leon would do. While no editing options seemed to hover in the air next to him, perhaps Leon could recall that GM seemed to be able to conjure up such displays and modify a creature just by touching and interacting with the design’s hologram. Additionally, two small tabs were visible in the bottom-right corner of the display. The current tab was labeled ‘Form 1’, the other, ‘Form 2’. (Spoiler alert: Form 2 is not Basilix the dragon.)

Callum crashed into the GM with a fumble, but he got up first. "How you like being hurt you two side non-existent asshole!" Callum pull his/their paws backwards. Suddenly the earth and concrete cracked and giant spikes of earth was coming out of the ground. In Gm's direction. Of course Callum had to be ready. The GM was still god. if not a slight surprised one. "Maybe we can talk and ask some questions of how the hell can you take people into a roleplaying site...Before I wreck your shit" Perhaps he was angering the GM. Maybe that was part of the plan...He didn't know. He didn't have a plan.

For a split second before something else happened. his mind wandered...into it's self. He wanted to ask something.

So...like, Can I actually speak to you since we're linked or something? Are you even there? Or are you still going to say meow....and purr...and cat stuff. Also how the hell can you do this. If I should even be surprised to be honest. but...Like...hello? anyone in there?

MK Ultra offered no response. It didn’t feel like a cold shoulder, though, so much as it seemed as if something was… blocking any response he could give. In fact, it seemed as if MK hadn’t provided any indication that he, in spirit and mind, was even still present since the two had merged — he offered Callum his body, and then, seemingly vanished.

GM, meanwhile, kept his squinted eyes locked onto MKallum, panting as he struggled to keep up with the creature’s attacks, nimbly dodging the spikes that shot out of the ground. Nimbly, yes, but still only just barely, as it was clear that his confidence and competence in this fight wasn’t nearly as high as his last one.

“How the fuck is that even possible…” GM growled, seemingly ignoring Callum’s questions as he glared into his opponent’s eyes. “I thought I sealed you up. How can you even do any of this shit?!” he barked, though still keeping on his toes in case he needed to defend himself. “Well?” he pressed on. “Can you hear me in there, kitty-cat?! Fucking say something!!”