The five people in the shrine begin waking up at the same time.

Each of them lies inside one of the many medical pods in the room, made of smooth curves of glass and white metal. Numerous faintly glowing circuit-like lines of purple lay crisscrossed upon the pod's surfaces, pulsing in sync with the heartbeat of the person inside. The pod is roughly cylindrical in shape, lying horizontally, its bottom half opaque but its top half transparent. The inner surface of the bottom half is padded by some unknown white material that is smooth and silky to the touch, yet pleasantly cool, with the person lying on top and the material itself acting as an exceptionally soft and comfortable mattress. The remaining open space in the pod is filled with a nearly-transparent energy of the faintest greenish white, periodically washing over the person's body; it feels like the gentlest waves of the sea and smells of clean, fresh air. As the pod's transparent upper half opens without resistance, the healing energy quickly drains away, and the pulses of the circuit-like lines gradually slow down to a halt.

As the five former humans get up from their healing pods and look around, they do not see much else in the spacious room. In fact, the only things they can see are more healing pods, a total of nine rows of nine, with about two meters between each row to allow for easier navigation. Each pod looks long enough to support a person of 2.5 meters in height, and wide enough to just about fit in two normal-sized people, but there is quite a bit of space around the pod, as though it is anticipating possible expansions in size. Aside from the healing pods, there are only walls, a ceiling, and a floor of the same white metal, with similar glowing lines and runes of purple. On the walls are numerous large windows, through which lush green trees can be seen, along with the outlines of some impressively tall mountains. An ornate, futuristic door is found on one of the walls, while a smaller door is on another wall perpendicular to the larger one.

For a moment, the room is almost silent, with only the sound of the breathing of the five people inside. The goddess's presence is nowhere to be felt, and the whole encounter is beginning to feel like a dream. However, the purple symbol that is on the walls and every healing pod, identical to the symbol found on the goddess's clothing, indicates that this is no mere product of someone's imagination. Then again, this may be a dream within a dream... but it's probably best to not go too deeply down that line of thought.

The five people look at one another, unsure of what to do. Perhaps the situation has yet to fully sink in. Regardless, the goddess has stated their goals, but not given any further instructions. It appears to be entirely up to the (former) humans at this point.

Such a weird dream, and John wasn't sure what to make of it. He never payed attention to such random, trivial and useless stuff like dreams. After all, they're nothing more than a mishmash of mind's experiences while the body is in it's "maintenance mode". Except this time, it felt real. And you could remember clearly after waking up. Besides, something was... different. John felt different, and his bed felt different. Where is his blanket? When he opened his eyes, the answer was clear.

He was in really fancy medical pod, one he could really use himself. Except it was just a prop. It had to be. It had to be some kind of fancy prank show that's all the rage these days. They were being filmed right now. But kidnapping, drugging people, this is just insane. "Alright, whoever thought your cute little prank is funny, is going to be sued back to the stone age!" he shouted while looking around for any hidden cameras and getting out of the pod. However, the green lush lands beyond the window and the symbol just like the one of the "goddess" was everywhere. If this was a prank, and this room was just full of props, then this is some Hollywood level quality.

But with each passing second, where he expected laughing men to burst in and point the camera locations out, he believed that theory less and less. The four others, the dumb looking mouthbreathers who shared the same fate were just as clueless. "Hey kiddos, look for hidden cameras and faces to punch and sue." he said to his drooling companions. But it was unlikely it was an elaborate prank. It both scared and excited John. He wasn't one those close-minded scientists that discarded everything not proven. After all, there are many secrets in the world, you just gotta find them and learn all about them. This world is most likely vastly different from the one John came, but all of this made it even more exciting. No longer burdened by bothersome biological needs, John could achieve so much. Even if it ain't Earth.

A huge grin, even sinister grin appeared on his face. "Well kiddos, I'm going outside. As much as I would like to believe it all being an elaborate prank, it is extremely unlikely. So, you can either stand there and drool, or you could go and start the greatest achievement of your life - exploring a brave new world." And with that, John headed outside.

The power to manipulate the world how I see fit, eh...
Fucking finally. It took reality long enough to give me what I wanted. All I need to do now is kill those pricks at the top, and I can be free of everyone and everything if I like. Unless this is some sort of goddamn coma state, and I'm going to wake up back in the real world sooner or later with nothing to my name. If that ends up being what happens, fuck reality. I will strangle reality if it does that to me. I like having this strength... this power inside me... it feels good. Oh wow, that sounded gay as fucking hell. At least I didn’t say it out loud, or these assholes would probably go ahead and try to jerk me around for saying it. Can’t let that happen, can’t give them any hold over me…
And then there’s this one fucker in a labcoat who thinks he’s better than everyone else. Every time, there’s someone who looks at the world and says to himself “well, clearly these people aren’t worthy of my time, I’ll just go ahead and stare down my bird-beak-for-a-nose at them”. People like that shouldn’t exist. They get in the way of my ability to not have to rely on people. It’s like, they’re the managers in every company, every fucking company, and if you want to do well, you have to suck the cocks of the dickbag on the rung above you until you get to their level, and then it’s the same all over again with the managers of the managers, and over and over until you eventually get to a point where people actually vaguely begin to understand that you’re not a goddamn retard baby who can’t take shits on their own without either giving them diapers “just in case” or having somebody coach them through it like a pedophile teaching kids about anatomy, and even if you finally become the C.E.O. and get some degree of ability to make your own choices, you still have to rely on the people below you not to screw up their jobs and give them your hard-earned resources to make sure they don’t fuck everything up for you, and then they start looking at you up top like you’re the asshole for having been shit on for so long, and it all goes round and round in a loop of dumbfuckery and eating your own infinite turds plus those of everyone around you, forever.
I refused to jump those hoops of horseshit in my previous life, hence my choice of income as an extension of my hobbies; I refuse to do it now, hence why I don’t even bother saying anything to the other idiots in the room as I calmly walk out after labcoat. I’ll have words with him, and they’ll be very definite about who the fuck is in charge of me. It’s not him, that’s for goddamn sure.

What a dream.

Darius's initial waking thoughts were proven wrong by a quick examination of his surroundings. Four others besides himself, all rising out of pods, and a pristine facility, filled with said pods, confirmed the truth of the situation. Whatever goddess had spoken to him in his dream was not bluffing. If that were the case, and her words were true, then Darius would at that moment be no longer an ordinary boy. Then Darius would be a young man on the path to godhood. He felt the new power of which the goddess spoke surging through him like the sparks of otherworldly feelings and ulterior urges that had rarely possessed him in the reality he had known, only the new power he felt within him was stronger than anything he'd ever known. There was a new hope. Still, Darius was a boy torn from the only world he'd ever known and the only place he'd ever actually learned to care about, and the nature of his predicament brought him to anxious thoughts. He wondered if he would ever make it. He ran a shaky hand through his dark brown hair and looked at his body that was now cooler to the touch and more brawny than the physical weakness he had become accustomed to. His skin was the same tan shade, but it appeared flushed and immaculate. Darius Sterling was distraught, and the face of worry took root quickly.

That other man, the man in a labcoat, ditched the party immediately to venture into the unknown after rambling about lawsuits and pranks and falling into his delusion of grandeur, and just like that another blond went storming after the lab coat with a less-than-well-intending expression on his face. That happened fast. Against the stress of the hour, Darius tried to keep his cool, pun not intended, amidst what would likely be a new series of introductions with the remaining two people in the room: a girl who was... green... and a relatively ordinary-looking man of Swedish descent in a suit, who remarked about the lab coat with the same slighted feeling Darius probably felt. "Hey. Uh, nice to meet you, Grant. I'm Darius." He sat back against a pod, and he made eye contact with the other two. "Well, according to her," Darius answered, with a pointed look at the symbol on the wall, "We're supposedly going to become gods and escape this place by defeating her and... her pantheon..." He looked dismayed and distantly out the window at the lush forest.

As John and Rick approach the large futuristic door, it smoothly and almost soundlessly slides open. As previously seen through the windows, a lush forest vista greets the two former humans, accompanied by the sounds and smells of the wilderness. However... After closer inspection, it quickly becomes clear that this is unlike any ordinary forest found on Earth. In fact, it's also more than clear that they're no longer on Earth at all.

The first and most immediate difference is the sky. Instead of the familiar blue, it is a shade of light purple, with the same hue as the symbol of the goddess found everywhere inside the building. Thankfully, the clouds are still white, as is the Sun, its radiance vaguely visible through the canopy. The trees themselves are also noticeably different, some of them bearing glowing fruits, others having slivers of glittering crystal seemingly embedded in their barks. Most of the trees still possess green leaves and brown trunks, but there are subtler hues of blue, purple, and even red interspersed among the earthen colors. Every branch and leaf is infused with an otherwordly energy, which the former humans can now seem to feel through something entirely separate from their ordinary five senses.

More interesting to John and Rick, however, is the large grizzly bear standing less than two meters away from the two men. For certain definitions of "interesting".

And of course, that's no ordinary rabbit bear. Or, more specifically, it is an ordinary bear with what appears to be dark green vines wrapped around its torso and limbs, and a cape of leaves on its back. Oh, and it has bright, almost glowing green eyes too. From the way it moves, it almost looks like the bear is physically joined together with the vines, in a slightly disturbing display of symbiosis.

The bear's green eyes gaze upon John and Rick with a primal hunger. It opens its mouth, displaying a set of impressively sharp teeth, and... a tongue that is in fact a wriggling green vine. The bear takes an experimental step toward the humans, letting out a low growl as it does so; vines begin extending from its body and moving as though having wills of their own.

---

[OOC: I'll do the intro post of the other group later.]

Meredith was still confused, she had visions before but none had been this vivid. Had she finally got herself killed? No, that couldn't be it, she could remember the talk with the goddess, she had to be alive. Unlike the others which were reacting and exploring the ground Meredith kept staring at the odd symbol, trying to remember the exact words of the goddess and maybe understand what was going to happen next. It didn't matter, as all the time she spent idling didn't result in any interesting idea or memory.

At first she barely reacted to the people around her, at most she gave an annoyed glance to the delusional man who believed this was a prank, she hated the loud types, specially when they were wrong. She knew this was a new world, she could feel it, her body also felt different, even if she could not point out exactly how...

"Wait" she hadn't fully inspected herself yet and when she did she had found out that indeed something was odd "Why is my hand with this lime color?" she whispered to herself, she was always pale but she couldn't remember to ever have this soft green hue on her hand. She looked back to her pod but the green light there was of a different tone. Once again she found herself distracted, however this time it was short lasting, the sound of the door opening caught her attention and the girl couldn't help but to take a step closer to the two man near it.

The landscape was odd, wild, perhaps not as wild as the marsh but surely a highly dangerous place, however the oddest thing was the bear, the vines were clearly connected to it, as if its mind also extended itself to the plant. The sight worried her, bears were vicious creatures, using the persons in front of her as a bait against something like a wolf could work, a bear however? It probably wanted to see all the group killed and wouldn't settle with less than that. The worst thing was that they had no equipment, the bear was also close enough so that trying to run towards the forest was suicide.

"Can it be that I'm already dying as soon as I started my new life?" she sighed in a low voice tone, she was clearly anxious and her vicious biting of her nails was making it clear... Had her nails ever been this hard? Was her teeth always this sharp? Something felt odd

An alien world indeed! John was so excited! And as luck just happens, some sort of mutant bear stood in their way, looking forward to make him and his dull companions it's lunch. It seemed to be fused with vines, and even the bear's tongue was a vine. That's not how biology works, at least on Earth. It would be wonderful to examine and dissect it, to learn it secrets! But the lot of them were woefully unarmed. Or were they?

Ever since he awoke, John felt a bit different. Or rather, felt something completely new within him, something that was hard to explain. Some sort of power. Magic. Of course it was magic. But how to use it, John did not know. But somehow, he wasn't worried. The scientist felt that it will all come to him naturally. What would he do if he possessed power of magic? Probably emulate and enhance something that occurs in nature. After all, most of humanity's problems were solved by looking back at nature. You simply can't ignore millions of years of evolution. But human flesh is weak and fragile, with neither scales nor thick fur to protect it. Scales, yes, if only John had reinforced scales. Like a reptile. But looking at fiction, there is the well-known Xenomorph and it's acidic blood. While acidic blood sounds neat, it would mean John has to be hurt first, which is not ideal. But what if scales had two layers, with a softer one on top, and acid in the middle? Provide protection and punish the attacker. Ideal. In these seconds John spent visualizing all of his possibilities, it actually started happening. A tingling, pulling sensation all over his body as skin hardened and turned into black scales. Within them could be seen some sort of... liquid? Moreover, his all body was numb, yet just as flexible. But aside from the fact that he just magicked away the nerve endings in his skin and turned it into black scales, it felt awesome!

But now he needed something to go on the offensive. Tooth and claw - the most used weapon in the animal kingdom, sometimes combined with venom. Claws. Turning his hands into huge claws, coated with venom? Or maybe not venom, a paralytic. After all, John doesn't know what exactly is venomous to this... bear. Paralytics are rather universal since they target the nerves instead, which this creature should possess. And with that line of thought John's hands changed into huge bone claws, something akin to a monster movie. As expected, they were covered in and excreted a thin layer of something, which most likely was the paralyzing agent.

Full of confidence, he started walking towards the bear, considering his avenues of attack. "Let's do science, kiddos!" He shouted as his battle cry, charging towards the bear. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? If worst comes to worst, he'll be reborn anyway.

Instead of meeting John head-on, the bear instead extends numerous vines from its body with impressive speed. Before John can get a real hit in with his claws, the vines have already wrapped around all four of his limbs with a strength that seems far too great for the vines' relatively diminutive thickness. A second later, the vines pull John toward the bear with all their strength, while the bear snarls and thrusts its right paw forward.

A sickening sound of flesh being torn.

Though John has received superhuman powers, he is clearly very far from invulnerable. The bear's clawed arm is now messily impaled through John's abdomen, its incredible brute strength having broken through the black scales and crushed the man's bowels. However, any potential screams of pain from John are blocked out by the bear's own, as it finds its hand covered in both the acid and the infectious black blood from John's body. With a deafening bellow, the bear pulls its arm free, taking out bits of internal organs with it. Immediately after, the vines holding John hurl him away from the bear; he slams into the shrine's metallic wall behind him with a painful crunch. The bear's right hand is now quite gruesome to behold, with chunks and patches of flesh bloodily melted off, and other parts already rotting and festering.

The bear is leaving John and the others alone for now, as numerous other vines extend from its back and tightly wrap around the wounded arm. From the small gaps between the leaves, some unknown green balm can be seen, secreted by the plant matter onto the wounds.

---

The five other people, in a different shrine somewhere far away, also begin waking up at the same time.

Had they known about the first group of people, and the shrine they'd arrived at, these five would've seen that the two shrines are almost identical. The same metallic floor, ceiling, and walls. The same futuristic healing pods, taking up most of the room. The same windows and doors. Only...

There is still a forest outside. But unlike the other one, there are no outlines of mountains visible here. Instead, between the trees, the former humans can see patches of what must be an almost sparkling blue ocean, and some pale yellow sand.

Again, the goddess left no instructions. There is simply the world out there, waiting for the visitors to make their move.

Weakly stumbling out of the pod, he lands roughly on all fours, but managed to work himself about so that he was propped up with a single foot, with the shin of the other leg lying underneath him. His mind was haze, and his memories were a mess. As he looked around bewildered, the fact the surroundings were blurred did not help, he could tell from the odd mosaic of colours that it was not anywhere he ever was before. His fingers unconsciously reached into his breast pocket expecting for his glasses to be in there. When his fingered grabbed air, he looked down and patted the pocket itself. No evidence of his glasses were to be found.

At this point he was slightly panicking. As his hands swept across the smooth floor, thinking he accidentally dropped them during his fall. When no progress was made he habitually pressed his finger against the glasses set upon the ridge of his nose to push them back up. The fact only hit him a few second afterwards, which caused him to sit still for a moment before he slowly took off his glasses in order to make sure they were the same.

The brown, rectangular frames were unmistakeable, but what really surprised him was the world beyond the glasses was considerably sharper now. The only sound able to escape his mouth was a dull "huh". Collapsing the arms of the glasses, he slides them into his breast pocket before placing his hands once again onto the hard floor. Pushing himself up, he unsteadily maintains his balance, but his legs feel at least a bit more steadfast than they have in a long while.

Not wanting to push himself unnecessarily at the moment, nor wanting to take in too much information at once, he slowly walks himself to a nearby wall. Using the wall as a crutch, the unfamiliar wilderness outside a nearby window captures his attention. "... It's... pretty."

Well, that happened. I imagined that we wouldn’t be attacked almost the moment we left the shrine, but, uh… no, apparently this really is a fucking deathworld we’re on. Which of course means that I don’t have to be upset about killing as much shit as I possibly can, and I certainly don’t have to worry about the labcoat asshole getting a new asshole torn open. Fucker had that coming to him, didn’t he? In which case, I guess I’ll not try the thing I was going to try just now, which would have involved me grabbing his head and spitting in his eye, amongst other things.
And then a couple of the other douchebags in there come out of the building, one of them putting his hand on my shoulder and asking me my name and whether I can help out. Ahaha, yeah, no, that’s not happening. I have no incentive to help them out, and I certainly don’t want to be stuck with them later on. So…
“No, and no.”
I shrug off the guy’s hand, then begin jogging away from the shrine at a reasonable rate, ignoring whatever yells or insults they might throw at me. I don’t need them, I certainly don’t want to make friends with them, and the labcoat fuckshit deserves everything bad that happens to him, so that settles that.

The mere sight of the man rushing against the bear was almost comical for her, had his mother never told him tales of bears and hunters? Those creature's claws were strong enough to slice knights in metal armor, it was amazing that he was creating some sort of scale or chitin but she was sure that those wouldn't be enough. She even tried to raise her voice to call him out but her anti-social nature took the best of her.

Less than a minute later she was sighing heavily at the sight of the man being gutted by the bear. The man's effort was mostly useless but it gave her an insight. She started to link her new lime skin color with the same type of change the man went trough, she was surely going trough the same type of transformation, but, just like a hunter should never go hunting with an untested firearm she was not confident on trying to attack the bear with her mysterious changes.

Her reasoning was interrupted again by noise, there was this person making up plans and treating her like a child and another man acting like an obnoxious brat, a bit too similar to the man who had just been gutted. This person annoyed her to the point that she actually rose up her voice "As if snack number one was not enough it seems we have another person eager to feed the wildlife" she scowled.

The other person did seem less toxic than him, but she was unsure if they grasped the situation "Don't worry, a bear won't try to hunt while it is injured, even if it heals the most likely prey is snackpack number 2 there" she pointed at rick "Do you think the man will survive this? A human would be dead with that, but we are not humans anymore" she extended her hands showing him her nails slowly growing into a claw-like shape

It certainly did not go as expected. John's pride was his hubris. He has never been in a fight, after all. He knew about the results of various fights however, as he examined a lot of corpses. The powers that he possessed should have been enough against some mongrel mutant bear. His Black Scales should have been enough. But they weren't, and John got disemboweled. Of course, the vines did act on their own and constrict him, allowing the bear to land a free blow, which really pissed John off, who was in a world of pain.

Pain... John never really experienced physical pain in his life either, well he did, but it was the trivial pain from common cold and the likes. Of course, there were the migraines in his med school days, but he fixed that via his own little independent project. But disembowelment - now that was fucking painful.

Even more painful was the bear pulling it's paw out, mangled by acid... and something else. He only got a brief glimpse of it as he was flung into the shrine's wall by the vines, which probably crushed his spine, and took even more of his guts out. Despite all the agony, it was really curious - the bear had John at it's mercy, surely acid alone couldn't have stopped it, only make it angrier. And then he noticed that his blood was black. And it was not regular bleeding either, it was spraying out like out some cheesy brutal action movie, like a sprinkler of black blood. And the most gruesome of wounds on the bear's paw was were the black blood touched them? Sure, it was neat and repelled the bear, but it also really crippled John. The only thing stopping him from screaming in pain was his pride - he could not be seen weak.

But his body was completely limp. Both the scales and the claws disappeared. Crushed spine indeed. But the bleeding, or rather spraying was rapidly stopping, even internal one. Another feature of his new powers? Blood that infects wounds of the enemy by spraying, and aids the healing of your own? Second best thing after acidic blood, which John already had, sort of. John could barely move his head, and all he could do was grunt in pain, trying his hardest not to scream. But he could see the more sinister looking mouthbreather just ditching them. Good riddance - one less idiot to babysit. Besides, he'll perish quickly on his own. And as much John hated incompetence, he kinda hoped the two people left won't be a complete dead weight. Well, either after John is reborn or somehow recovers. Back on Earth recovering from such a wound is barely possible, and even if you somehow do, you're a cripple for life, at best. But at least for John, things were a bit different.

Mustering his remaining strength to speak, he spoke to the two remaining folks nearby. His vision was blurry at this point however, when he had the strength to keep them open, so he couldn't make out their features. "So, ugh... I'm John Eidreon.. Aargh.. You might have heard of me... back on Earth." Words were hard to speak out, but he will NOT show weakness. "As you can see I'm a bit disemboweled, and my spine is shattered... Urghh... So if you try to move me, do support what's left of my back." Bit by bit, second by agonizing second, John could feel his strength slowly returning. Wierd... He could have swore his guts were far more damaged than that. But... It was still very bad, but there was a bit less damage to his body overall than a few minutes ago. A pain in his back slowly begun to rise, like a million sharp shards, just very faint. But that pain was slowly increasing. Did John move his toe a bit? What?

Regeneration? Yes, that is another thing that humans normally lack. A very useful thing. But John isn't human anymore, is he? Neither are all the others. "I think I possess some kind of regeneration, so I might be fine, urgh, given enough time..." This sentence came easier than the previous ones. A bit easier. "Just don't touch my blood, it seems to have been altered as well." Case in point - all the grass where his blood was spilled was beginning to wither, black veins slowly getting brighter and brighter within their leaves. And now, John was at the mercy of his company, and/or his own powers.

Just before he passed out, he could some a lime colored shape getting closer to him. No, it was there to begin with, it's just John just noticed it. Who could it... Fade to black.

Darius was fixing to say something else, but the loud crash interrupted him. Grant and the green girl started out the chamber door into whatever calamity was happening outside, and Darius shouted after Grant, "Wait, wait!" But the young Sterling was too late. Why can't we just stay put for a little bit and figure this out before getting crazy? Darius shook his head and then looked around the room, at the now-empty shrine, the recently-vacated pods, and the symbol on the wall. Well, he supposed that the group wouldn't go anywhere just staying inside, so he might as well join it outside. His steps to the door were silent and measured as if cautious approaches were his specialty. The door quietly pushed open to the rich beauty of the forest where dim sunlight filtered through the canopy and illuminated the forest floor.

Beautiful... The forest met the definition of exotic with overachievement. It was more than amazing. It was truly magical. Fruits and curiosities of all sorts decorated the forest. Of course, the beauty of it all was very deceiving. Darius knew there were probably more than a few things in that forest that could kill people easily. The door slowly fell shut behind him, and Darius's new form was bathed in the light and air of the forest, a refreshing feeling washing over his body. He shook himself from his internal musings about the forest and turned to the task at hand. Lab coat was on the ground, rambling again and probably dying. John Eidreon was his name, and his name was a name Darius had never heard before and definitely a weird one, given the last name. You... kinda deserve that... Fish girl, on the other hand, was just acting weirder and showing off her claw hands. That's... kinda disgusting... And Grant was there, in a fighting stance. The other man was running into the unknown in the distance, and who knew where the hell he was jogging anyway? Darius took a deep breath and calmed himself before speaking. "What's going on here? Don't—Don't move his body. Not a good idea."

[Fun fact: did you guys know I’m also helping to parse this game? Because I am.]



Whilst the group has been chatting, the bear has apparently cured its injuries with some form of balm secreted from the leaves of the plant; not only have the injuries healed over- though seemingly not regenerated outright upon closer inspection, shown for instance through the bear’s thinner-than-previous right paw- but there seems to be no sign of John’s infected blood taking effect anywhere on the bear’s body either. It glances over at the escaping Rick briefly, then seems to decide that several stationary targets are easier prey than one retreating target, and turns its attention back to the larger group, sending a multitude of vines in the direction of the three standing targets, apparently with the aim of surrounding and grappling them given the chance.

Ethan

'You must awaken' The voice was odd, a mixture of something that he had only heard in his imagination and a reality. It only spoke in his mind, but it didn't seem like he was talking to himself. 'Wake up' The voice in his mind spoke again, but he shrugged it off, still partially in the grips of whatever strange fever dream had conjured the strange goddess into his mind.

"Wake up" The voice was different this time, actually sounding in his ears and it was then that Ethan finally opened his eyes. To his surprise, against a backdrop of strange glowing lines he saw a visage he had never expected to see, something that had sprung full blown from the same corner of his mind that had spawned the costume he was still wearing. A woman stood beside the open pod, looking down on him with brilliantly luminescent silver eyes.

He sat up, taking a brief moment to look around the room as he did so, seeing other open pods where people were beginning to stir as well. "What is going on?" His initial response was far from eloquent, but that was excusable, he had been visited by a strange apparition in his dreams, awoken in a strange world, and had one of his characters from a story standing beside him.

"I don't know," The woman's voice was as beautiful as her appearance, a rich and flowing sound even as a similar expression of confusion appeared on her own face. "But we need to find out." A hand extended and he took it, letting her help him to his feet before he looked around once more, trying to take it all in.

Awakening from my sleep I slowly opened my eyes. What a strange dream I had last night, I mean, me, of all people becoming something more than human? Becoming a god? The thought was too far-fetched. I wasn't anyone special, far from it, so the whole thing was kind of comical really, though I suppose the thought isn't really all that bad. It's kind of nice in a way actually. As my eyes finally opened fully and my vision came back into focus I found myself in some type of sleek metallic pod, though the top part seemed to be transparent. "T-this is, well crap."

I wasn't sure what to think. Sure the idea of it seems pretty cool, but when it comes down to it I'd probably get my butt kicked numerous times, and now a mortal wound won't even ever kill me. The thought of receiving pain really wasn't all that great, not to mention I had never actually been in a fight with anyone in my life before. Wait, calm down, maybe there's something that can help me out in this room? I looked around the room to see rows and rows of more pods, and while most of them were empty, there were a few pods that actually had some people in them. One of them was a very tall young adult who must have been around six feet tall. He also seemed to be royalty of sorts? The next guy happened to be about average with glasses that sat on his nose to help him see. His appearance seemed to give off the impression that he'd be somewhat friendly, but could I really trust my own judgement on that? There was also a petite girl who seemed to have paint splotches all over her clothing. Her appearance wasn't all that impressive honestly, but from my guess she may be a bit outgoing. Not afraid of what others think and such. Finally there was a man that looked very strong and athletic. His clothes seemed to be a bit torn and tattered, but were otherwise decently cleaned and ironed. Whatever the case, he looked decently reliable. Now then, just how do I get out of this pod?

I carefully examined the pod's see-through top and white metal bottom. Nothing out of the ordinary and no switch. Maybe if I just touch one of the walls...

As my hand graced the clear shell of the pod a door opened up allowing me to escape. Stepping outside into the shrine room I took in all of my surroundings. It was kind of eerie to be honest, and while I didn't exactly want to stay here any longer, the outside forest kind of scared me even more. Whatever this place was, this wasn't earth, it's either a dream world formed from my own subconscious or imagination, or some different place entirely, most likely the latter.

Before I could really walk and take a look around I heard a thud as I watched the average looking guy with glasses fall onto the ground. While he didn't hit the ground particularly hard, his somewhat panicked expression caught me off guard. Why was he looking for his glasses? He was clearly already wearing them. I walked over to him, about to ask if he was okay, but before I could do so I felt something wrap around my leg. I turned around and looked at my leg to see a tentacle comprised entirely of slime. It's grip was rather firm, but it let go as I tried to escape its grip. The tentacle of course, was attached to a green slime which looked rather standard, excluding some of the slow moving green energy which appeared to be inside it. It moved like a current floating throughout the entirety of it's body. As I stared at the creature it started to hop slightly from side to side, remaining just a few inches above the ground at it's max height. Was it excited? No, it had to be angry, perhaps it was some sort of monster I was supposed to kill, the first fight of many. But how do I fight an amorphous blob without any weapons? I looked around the room, unable to find anything remotely of use. The slime inched closer which caused me to cautiously take a step back. Like a slug it inched towards me once again, this time, moving even faster.

Nope, I'm not fighting this thing without a weapon, or something. I'm not even sure something physical would even hurt it all that much. I was pretty much screwed. Turning around I quickly sprinted away from the creature, but it seemed to keep up right along with me. For a bunch of goo it was pretty fast, but I couldn't just give up and let it kill me. So I quickly sped up even more, but this just seemed to egg it on as it started bouncing and hopping after me. The chase continued for a few moments as I circled around and through the pods, with the slime hot on my tail. Surprisingly I still didn't feel even winded at all, was this due to the power I now had inside of me?

"Why are you running away from me?"

I stopped for a moment and looked back at the slime in disbelief. "Y...you talked." I stammered as the slime stopped right beside me as well.

"And so did you, but why are you running away from me?" Again it repeated.

"Y...you're not going to kill me?" I asked, surprised.

"No? Why would I? Besides, don't you feel the connection we share?" As it asked this question the slime extended a tendril out to me suspending it in mid-air.

I cautiously examined the tendril before slowly grabbing, and gingerly shaking it, similar to a handshake. The slime's body was rather moist, but it also felt warm and comforting in a way. Not only that, but I could sense something. Something I couldn't explain was connecting us together, as if by destiny or fate. This slime wasn't my enemy, it was my friend. Realizing this I couldn't help, but smile slightly. At least I know I have one ally.

"I feel it, we really are connected aren't we? Uh, I'm sorry about running away from you earlier, it's just that, yeah..." The slime just stood still as I said this, probably confused, so instead I tried to change the subject. "So, what exactly do we do now?" I asked concerned about our predicament. "Do you know anything about this place at all?"

The slime stayed silent for a moment before flattening out slightly and returning back to it's normal shape again. "I don't recall anything. The only thing I know is you, and your life, and even then I don't know all that much."

I paused for a moment to scratch my cheek with my index finger. Maybe someone else knows. I thought to myself, as I slowly approached the guy with glasses. Though, strangely enough he seemed to have taken them off, even though he was just searching for them a while ago. As I got closer and closer to him though, I started to freeze. How exactly do I even interact with this guy? I looked back over towards the slime, but it just seemed to sit there, most likely watching me from afar. I thought to myself for a moment, repeating the words I wanted to say in my head. Hi, my name is Azorel, do you know what's going on here? Where are we? Only as I started to speak it came out much different, as my shyness and social ineptitude really started to show.

"H...hello, m...my name is As-as-as-Azorel. Where are w...we headed?" I glanced over to the side and clutched my left arm out of embarrassment. I probably sounded like an idiot. I can't even do something this simple correctly, why did I even bother trying. I should have let him approach me first instead, at least in some ways it would probably be better. Whatever the case though, there wasn't much I could do now, but to roll with it. I glanced back at him, still clutching my arm rather timidly, waiting somewhat nervously for him to respond.

Vestus

Vestus felt awfully uncomfortable for some reason that he did not know but when he opened his eyes he didn't awaken in his bedroom beside his girlfriend he instead was greeted by a cramped space and a small window.

"Well then"

He thought to himself angrily.

"My life keeps getting better and better!"

Vestus tried to see out the small window and he saw a forest and what seamed to be an ocean in the distance, he ran his hand along the window and then he decided he was going to try and bust out of the thing that he was in, he realized after a little bit of contemplating that he had been sleeping while standing up which deeply confused him but he decided he should try and get out of the thing that he was in.

So Vestus pushed forward with both of his hands but before he even touched anything he realized that a hatch was already open above him.

"How odd"

Vestus thought, but he lifted himself out and realized he was in some kind of pod of sorts which kind of freaked him out but he initially got over it.

He checked his pockets and he found nothing not even his wallet or even his pocket knife for that matter was in his possession, he only had his clothing on which he had not worn to bed and his beard was a little more apparent.

Vestus us looked to the left out into the forest and all he saw in the distance was a the blue sparkling waters of the ocean, he groaned in utter annoyance and grief but mostly disgust that he was completely and utterly lost except when he heard a voice in his head, it sounded like himself yet more confident and powerful almost if he was omnipotent in his mind except he knew that this was himself not anything else talking to him.

"Vestus, we are no longer apart of the past"

The voice said to Vestus in a sharp and blunt manner.

"B-but where are we?"

Vestus had said to himself.

"We can not tell you"

And then the voices faded and Vestus instantly realized he had been whispering to himself, he smacked himself in the face and nothing happened and Vestus sighed and sat on the ground to find that when he looked around once more he was near a shrine he had never seen in his life and he also saw other pods around his he counted about four more out of all of the pods he stood up quickly.

"Were we all kidnapped?"

He thought to himself but by the sound of it was less and less likely because he now knew he was nowhere close to his world or home which confirmed that they couldn't have possibly been kidnapped.

Curious about the other pods he began to walk around the shrine mainly to see if anyone else had gotten out of their pods or if anyone was in any of the pods.