John wakes up. His head hurts like hell. He has trouble getting up, as if he had a hangover. The floor feels like dirt. Getting to his senses, he smells a vague smell of straw and... Animal waste... in the air. After removing the dust from his eyes, the first things he sees are bars. Big, metal bars. Is he in a prison? Had he done anything wrong? He can't remember a damn thing. The bars, however, are wide enough for him to escape. It'll be silly to place him in a prison he could easy escape, and besides, outside the bars, he could see pavements, leading to other animals in similar "prisons", with instructions to "not feed the animals". John begins to realize he is in one of Minneapolis' many zoos. Or its only zoo. Doesn't matter. Turning his head, he saw the real thing. This is the thing they're trying to imprison. Not John, but a lion. Yes, a lion, placed a few feet from John, sleeping. John's pupils shrunk. His skin whitened somewhat. John can't remember how the hell he ended up sleeping with a lion, how no one noticed, and how John isn't in the lion's belly. It doesn't matter right now. He needs to get out. Harry is the first to realize the seriousness of the situation, and begins to give John his best advise...

Harry: Listen very carefully, John. This is serious. You could die. I suggest you go get out of that cage carefully and go and find a zookeeper! Ask him why you were in a lion cage!

"Oh no, not you again..." Mutters John. "At least you suggested something reasonable. Do you want me to just sneak out without waking up the lion? Sounds risky, but whatever you say." He says.

Harry: Well, try and be quiet about it. If worst comes to worst, just leg it!

(Harry has no skills that can help John sneak around. Rolled 55. Success is 85-100) John stood up, and attempted to exit the cage. Unfortunately he slipped and fell on the ground, making a "thump" noise, and causing John to mutter "Shit" under his breath. The lion slowly stands up, making some growly voices, and looks at John. John quickly stands up, but freezes in his place. "Great plan, sherlock", he mutters. He quickly comes to his senses and runs out of the cage without a scratch. Harry failed a roll, it's Sandra's turn. @darcs

~~~ void ~~~

"The penguins?" John thought. "Might as well, I have nothing to lose." He concluded, and rushed to the nearest sign or person to let him know where he might find the penguins. Fortunately, he found a map, hanging on a wooden wall next to the lion cage. The "arctic animals" showcase in the far right of the zoo. Rushing towards the cage, John can't help but notice how the zoo is completely empty of humans. No matter where he looked, he couldn't find but one man, woman or child walking about the park, but the animals are still there. It doesn't matter. The voice wants John to find the penguins, and so he will! Reaching the "arctic animals" showcase, what John found was building with the title "ARCTIC ANIMALS". Entering it, John found a museum-like exhibit, filled with TV screens hosting videos of seagulls, polar bears, and other arctic animals, with some info snippets next to them. "Well, they didn't get penguins," John thought. "That could've been a good use of my tax dollars." He said, jokingly. After a few minutes of searching the exhibit, he found the "penguins" section. It included some images of penguins on the wall, a video, and some information about penguins: where they live, what they eat, their numbers, and all the boring facts no one likes. "Okay, here I am. What's next?" John asks the voice, begrudgingly.

"B... Burn it down?!" John said to himself in shock. Under normal circumstances he would be careful to say that out loud, but since there's no one here, he let himself go. "How? There aren't any matches or... Wait a minute." Exiting the museum, John circled it to find a propane tank, possibly fueling some exhibits. He didn't know why anyone would keep such high explosive around freely, but he didn't care. He grabbed the tank, circled back around to the front, and thrown it as far as it could, hoping it'll explode... (You have no skills that can help John skillfully throw the tank or ignite it. Rolled 47. Success is 85-100) John throws the tank into the museum. Unfortunately he didn't throw it fast enough for it to combust. Instead, it just begins to leak out gas into the exhibit. "Shit..." John cusses in his head, "Well, now all we need is a match"... Sandra failed a roll, it's Vlad's turn. @Snarfulblast

"The fu-" John said in shock, "Your friend just told me to burn the building!", John continued, angry and confused. Still, he didn't want to stay in a place where flammable gas is leaking out, so he obeyed the voice, if only out of personal instinct. He ran out of the exhibit and back to the heart of the zoo, where he found the map to the place beforehand. "Okay, what's next, smartass?" He exclaims.

"Right, out of the zoo..." John thought, stressfully. Finding the entrance on the map (or, rather, exit), he rushed towards the gate, trying to escape the zoo and back to his home's comfort. Reaching the entrance, he found a brick wall with a gate in the middle of it. To his left there was a ticketing booth, empty and abandoned, like the rest of the zoo. Looking at the gate, John was surprise to see it closed. Trying to open it was futile - it was locked from the other side; locked pretty damn hard, while we're at it. From between the gate's metal bars (which had little space between them), he could see yellow tapes covering the gate. "I can't exit like a regular human being," John said sarcastically. "And it seems this place is abandoned, too. How am I going to escape, then, sherlock?"

"No shit..." John mutters under his breath. Climbing over the wall would be impossible for someone like John. He tries to find ways to climb on the ticket booth. No ladder, no nothing. What was the other suggestion? Oh, right. Yelling. John starts yelling as loud as he could: "Help! I'm trapped in here! What's going on!", repeating those slogans for about a minute or so. Suddenly a man rushes to help him. He's about 20 years old, pretty tall and slim, with short dark hair. "Wha- How did you get in here? This is a contaminated area! Are you hurt? Let me phone 911 for you...", The man says quickly and pulls out his iPhone to call 911. "No, no, I'm fine..." John says, "Thanks for your help", completely forgetting the option will bring the po-po to his location.

"JOHN. JOHN. JOHN. JOHN. THAT GUY. HE LOOKS LIKE HE HAS A THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE THAT CAN ONLY BE QUENCHED BY SPACE. RECITE THE PLANETS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. BUT KEAVE OUT JUPITER. JUPITER SUCKS."

The guy puts the phone next to his ear and tries to get someone to answer him. In the meantime, AGAG advises John to recite the planets of the solar system. "What?! How will that help me right now?!", John thought. "Might as well, though, you know best", he concludes. He calms down, reminds himself the planets in his head and begins to recite the planets to the caller. In the meantime, just as he gets an answer and replies: "Hello? I found a guy here, trapped in the contaminated zoo--" He puts down the phone and asks John quietly: "What's your name again?" (You have a skill for that. Rolled 54. Needs 50-100 to succeed) "Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune!" John shouts to the caller, as his face turns from concerned to horrified. "Hello? Who's talking there?", John hears a voice from the phone. "Uh, no one, just...", the caller tries to direct the conversation away from John, who then behaved like nothing had happened. The caller continues the call, and mutters silently: "There's a crazy dude here trapped in the contaminated zoo, you have to do something!". The conversation continues for a few minutes, after which he puts his phone back in his pocket. "Right, listen, man, there'll... There's gonna be an ambulance here soon, just... Keep your cool." He said stressfully, and ran away.