Rina yawned and stretched, then her eyes widened as she took in the area around her. Okay, so that wasn't just an awesome dream. That was... interesting, she wasn't sure if she should feel excited or scared. If this was real than that goddess chick was real as well. Which meant that she was something greater than human and that she was basically immortal at this point. In addition if she wanted to return home she would have to kill bad guys to gain more power. She stood up and stepped out of her capsule thing seeing two people nearby, Rina took a step forward but stopped when trails color wafted in front of her. Looking at the origin she was surprised to see they were coming from herself! Now more of them appeared and they slowly began gathering into a shape, and in a small flash of light they condensed into something.

Some sort of shiny metal humanoid, "W-what are you?" she managed to squeak out in surprise. "I am Aron." the strange figure replied, the voice identifying itself as masculine. "Do you know where we are?" he asked clearly understanding about as much of this as she did. "Not anymore than you do, uh, I think its called the Cradle of Divinity though." Rina replied still getting used to the creature that had popped out of the earth in front of her. She decided she would call it a golem. "I'm Rina," she said introducting herself to the golem. Rina looked back at the two other people there, "Um, hi. I'm Rina and this is Aron I guess. Who are you?" she asked eager to ground herself here in some way. According to her dream, well perhaps vision was a better word for it, might made right. Of course there was strength in numbers right? Aron silently stood next to her taking in the situation around him.

Elizabeth was consternated for a moment. How should she respond? She didn't actually have any of these useful skills. She could, truthfully, blame Angela for not knowing any of that, say things like 'can't get blood from a stone'. But that'd still be admitting own faults, and that'd require much more desperation than she was experiencing.

Instead, Nathaniel's prior words gave her an idea. Elizabeth shifted back into berating gear as she marched up to Vestus. Standing on her toes, which certainly looked interesting wearing heels, she did a decent attempt at towering over him, being just slightly taller by default.

@Blackmist16

"Excuse me? Do you need food? I don't. Do you need a fire? I don't. Look at how I don't."
With her last words, Elizabeth pointed a hand at the floor and shot out a ray of cold, tracing a chilled line on the floor.
"I'm a cold one. Of course, it's likely that someone here can be a hot one, ask them for a fire."

In the meantime, Angela wandered off, failing to contribute to the conversation. It was like that all the time - any time she was talking to more than one person, the other people just ended up talking to each other and she didn't see where could she add anything. Noticing that the boy from before also wandered off, she sidled up to him.
"Hey. I don't believe I ever got your name."

@gammaflux

Libé stood up, he gestured the girl to do so too as he pointed at the purple light.
"That's how we got here too. So we just poof into existence here. Interesting.."
He looked into the pod. Another little girl. Though, here girl meant 'young women' and little 'just kinda short'.
A beautiful girl who, Libé noticed, was waking up. Libé had found the way he had woken up comfortable, to see the world around him before being confronted by other confused people. "Better give her some space to wake up at her own pace."

They stood back as they watched the girl climb out of the pod, looked around, and before she could do anything magic happened. Some creature manifested from her. Was she summoning? This could be a familiar? Or a guide?

"I... I'm Alison," she said to the nice woman. Was that a robot standing next to her? "I think... my princess powers are to make the thing appear." She drew in a breath, steeled her face, reminded herself that a princess had to have poise and grace in the face of uncertainty -

And the centipede exploded into black wisps, which flowed back into her hand. She bit her lip to avoid giving out a yelp when she felt how cold they were, like ice water pouring onto her palm. "The woman said we have magic, so I think I must be given a quest. I saw some bad guys in my dream, a dragon and a water woman and things like that, and the pretty woman said we must beat them so we can go home."

She looked around again, at the gleaming rows of metal pods and the futuristic room. Softly, Alison let out a sigh. "In books, the princess always wants to go home, but... I don't want to go home." She wanted magic. She wanted to learn, to make unicorns and princess fireballs later. Even the wriggly tentacle squirming under her skin, begging to be set free, was cool in its own twisted way. She almost thought that it was a bad power, which meant she must be a supervillain, but then she remembered that Unicorn Raine had taught her that if you use your powers for good, you're a superhero, even if your powers are bad themselves.

Briefly, so fast it was barely a flicker, Alison glanced at the door, her eyes widening slightly at the sight of trees and grass beyond. What was out there? What more magic was there to be discovered?

Libé nodded, confirming Alison's words.
"Right. I'm Libé and we both just went trough the same thing you did. I'm in no hurry yet. Feel like exploring this new and strange world together?" Libé was calm and friendly, which made his offer sound strange. Rather than making it sound like an epic quest of dire importance, he made it sound like he asked her if she wanted the last chocolate chip cookie.

Libé pointed at the forest outside. "I think we're supposed to start by going outside. I have a feeling that's when the 'game' starts. Whatever it is."

I’ve been jogging into the forest for a while now. It’s odd, but I don’t seem to have much need for rest… all the better to get away from the morons who think they can control me. Assholes. Anyway, I’ve slowed down now mostly through necessity - the landscape for presumably miles around is obscured by trees, and I can’t really hear any significant sounds beyond birds chirping and insects flying around. Am I going to have to start punching trees? Or, like, flying up to attack the birds up there? Am I even able to fly, or is that not one of my powers? Maybe I can emulate it with one of my other powers, but I’m not entirely convinced that flying is in and of itself one of my abilities. That being said, maybe attacking some birds is a good idea. If I get more powerful just by fighting, then I will need something to fight, won’t I… if I can find a bird of enough strength to take out, all will be well. Ideally.

Rina repeated the names to herself mentally to help remember them. It would be embarrassing to have to ask for their names later, and she would hate to offend the only two, well three people that she had seen so far. Rina looked at Alison surprised at the small black tendrils. It seemed that she had already, at least partially, figured out how her 'magic' worked. Rina had no idea how to even begin figuring out what magic stuff she could do. She gave a small sigh of relief when Libe offered to explore together, it seemed he had the same idea she did, strength in numbers.

"I guess so, nothing to be gained by sitting here after all." Rina said cheerfully. Aron spoke up then, "I will lead the way to make sure it is safe." and he began walking towards the forest outside cautiously. "Um, that works I guess." Rina said still unsure of the golem and began following him. He certainly looked stronger than anyone else here and was probably more capable. In order to get more powerful and to get home they had to defeat things and absorb their essences. Rina wasn't sure she liked the sound of that but there were probably things out there that would try to do the same to them, so if she acted out of self-defense Rina supposed it would be all right. Rina stopped a moment and asked Alison and Libe, "That is if you two are alright with Aron leading?"

Vestus

Vestus flinched a little when the woman shot a blast of cold and sweat went down his brow, he tried to act cool as if he hadn't been afraid but he was smiling through clenched teeth so to speak.

@Minnakht

"The cool one eh well that's a little to cold for my taste why don't we turn up the heat?"

He was wondering awhile back why he felt so warm and fiery on the inside and at times he realized within him he was radiating a little bit of heat and he now thought about what else he could do so he for a second scratched his head and thought what any person would do if they had some kind of heat power so he switched his gaze to his hand and he extended it forward so the group may see and focused intensely on his hand he felt a slight tingle in his hands as he started focusing harder and after a minute small flames danced across his finger tips and then they got larger until the blaze was surrounding his whole hand and it didn't even effect him it only felt slightly like he was being tickled.

"And I'm the hot one!"

He said looking at everyone as they stood there and the he made the fire die down as he lessened his will and let the fire douse.

"My body feels like a furnace at times"

He explained how it felt in short and he enjoyed how flames only tickled him now which deeply amused him though life would not be the same as it ever was.

Vestus wondered what else he was capable of other than lighting himself on fire and being extremely resistant to it.

Darius watched with caution, still stanced in a defensive position as the bear made its retreat with the girl. She should've made a move to try and fend off the bear, but her inaction earned her death. He felt perhaps a little sense of guilt, but there wasn't much he could do. He just had to count on the girl reviving at the shrine, just as the goddess of the realm had told them all. Grant charged after the bear immediately, but it was of no use. The bear could outrun the man any day. Darius surveyed the aftermath of the event: the group was down one person, Grant was having some sort of epiphany about the ordeal, and John Eidolon was unconscious. Just great... The brunet grimaced. The current situation wasn't ideal. Or it might have been, depending on how helpful John and fish girl would be.

Darius took a look at Grant, the taller, blue-eyed, blond man that contrasted completely with Darius's own complexion, height, eye color, and hair. What a complementary duo. The boy only hoped that he and Grant could work together somehow and build enough trust to form a strong team. In the meantime, Grant was all Darius would have. The shimmering, steaming blade that Grant once wielded had disintegrated completely. Interesting... The boy at least took note. Grant could summon a sword, and Darius had some sort of power with ice and water. His face took on a more thoughtful expression as he committed to memory their abilities and internally mused about them. Grant turned to Darius, and the motion drew his attention straight to Grant's face.

"So, you can throw ice spears then." Grant quipped half-heartedly.

"Yeah..." Darius gave a hesitant chuckle and an uneasy smile. "And, uh, you have a cool sword." He ambled casually over to Grant and stood next to the older man. "Any ideas for where we go from here, uh, Grant?" The day was young in the Cradle of Divinity. They had eternity here until they could overpower the pantheon and escape. He just wanted to go home. He didn't want this. He didn't want to feel mediocre in a contest against other godlings. He was... a nobody. He was just an average kid. The young man said just above a breath, "As for me... I wish I knew why this had to happen to me. It feels fucking awful."

Rina, Libé and Aron... all such weird names.

That proved it, then. In fantasy books they always had weird names to show that they were magic and not normal old fuddies like her brother Drew or Mr. Clarkson her very tall tutor who always told her that what they did was a secret just between them. Alison glanced up at Aron again, slightly nervous at its flat gaze and unsmiling visage. Wasn't that how the Terminators always looked just before they killed you?

"That is if you two are alright with Aron leading?"

The bulky robot started to march forward to the center, and Alison quickly hurried forward and ahead of him. "Hey, wait up!" She shot a glance at the robot again, then at Rina and Libé.

"I'm the magical princess, so that means I have to prove my bravery by going first," she explained. "If we let Aron go first every time, nobody will believe I'm a real princess, and all the unicorns won't like me, especially since I'm not pure any more." Taking a deep breath to calm herself plus a quick reminder that she was a real princess and nothing could hurt her, Alison pushed the door open.

Outside was the forest as seen through the windows; airy, inviting. Beyond lay flat grasslands, with long billowing blades of grass that swayed back and forth in the wind. They blended together seamlessly, somehow forming a perfectly angled picture that made Alison's breath stop. This was even better than her trip to the Grand Canyon. She let out a pleased sigh.

The roiling sensation was inside her hand again. It felt more like a kitten pushing against her palm than anything. She looked at her hand and giggled. "Should I call you Kitten? No, you're a... snake or octopus or something. Anyway, not a kitten. What should I call you?"

Libé shrugged. He was fine with one or the other. He did want to go outside though.
When the little girl declared her presumed royalty Libé just smiled and shot Rina an adult look saying 'Don't break the illusion.'

He followed outside trough the door. Into the open world. He absentmindedly reacted to Alison talking to what he assumed was like Aron, a familiar of sorts. "You could call kitten Azraël after Gargamel's cat, from the Smurfs." But Libé's train of thought was obliterated when he took in the open world outside. In awe he staggered out of the futuristic building to see rolling plains at the edge of a forest. A beautiful forest. One like the ones you only see on vacations to faraway lands. It was probably magic too. Because when isn't it a magic forest. He remembered the fantasy stereotype. Now he was really in a fantasy world. And he liked the idea that the woods were probably filled to the brim with the weird and wondrous. The plants and trees were alien. So was the sky.
Dumbstruck with wonder Libé stared at the splendor around him. It's glory evoking inspiration of staggering proportions. The earth rumbled and waved softly along with Libé's breath. It felt like the ground pulled at his mind and fingers, and moved when he pulled back. Hesitantly a shaky pillar of earth rose from the ground while the level around it gradually lowered. He could move the ground! Absorbed Libé played with the material as it bend to his whims. His eyes sparked with excitement while he mumbled something about magic.

Fidgeting around a bit nervously I once again examined the strange room I was in. It felt so foreign seeing all these pods. In fact it seemed like something practically out of a movie. I mused at the thought before I felt a slimy warm tentacle grasp my leg. "You sure there's nothing wrong all?"

I stared down at the slime, and frowned a little bit. "Well, I guess I'm, I guess I'm a bit self-conscious about the way I look." I responded.

"What? but you're not bad looking at all." The slime said beginning to bounce up and down eagerly.

A slight smile formed on my face at the compliment. "Thank-"

"You make such a lovely girl after all."

"..." I paused for a moment in disbelief. "Uh, I'm a boy you know."

"Sorry sorry, I couldn't resist teasing you a little. I know you're a boy. I just wanted to have a little fun is all."

"Right..." My voice trailed off, not actually sure if the slime was totally serious or not. Though in the end I figured it couldn't be helped. The slime didn't even have a gender after all, so if it wasn't joking, maybe it just got confused or something. Suddenly I heard a voice coming from my left.

"Well anyways seeing as how that one girl hurt your feelings I'll go and mess with her. This is going to be so fun." Said the slime rather mischievously as it slowly moved over behind a pod.

For a second I thought about stopping the slime, after all while her comment did hurt a bit it was something I was used to. My slime friend didn't really need to go out of its way to help me or anything. Before I could stop the slime I heard a voice coming from my left though. "Hey. I don't believe I ever got your name."

I looked over to where the voice was coming from to see a girl with paint stains all over her clothes. Oh, it's that girl, the one I saw from before in the pod. I looked back up to the girl's face and nervously responded with "M...my name's Azorel, and yours?"

***
(Slime POV)
Oh man, I can't wait to see the look on her face when I approach her. Carefully readjusting my body, I made a perfect copy of her within a couple of seconds. Well, somewhat. There were bound to be a few errors here and there, but I doubt anyone would really notice as they didn't even really know her all that well anyways. I think? These people were new right? Or maybe I'm the new one? Oh whatever, let's just try this.

Walking over to the woman known as Elizabeth, yes that was her name right? I reached out with my finger and tapped her on the shoulder from behind. "What is the meaning of this you impostor?" I said, venom dripping from my mouth. "To think you would take my beautiful form and parade it around and make a mockery of me. You have some nerve. Hell, you didn't even get my appearance right. It's close, but you didn't even manage to capture my true beauty, some shapeshifter you are, next time try harder. Now get out of my sight unless I have to make you." I glared at her with a rather serious face, only on the inside I was laughing my he- well I don't really have a head. Doesn't really matter though, her reaction is probably going to be hilarious.

A stunning performance if I do say so myself. While my voice didn't exactly sound like her, it was close enough as well, and I figured most people wouldn't even noticed, unless they had super hearing or something. Whatever the case, I figured this would frighten her off for a while, or at least confuse her. Oh I hope she gets really confused.

@Minnakht

"Very well." Aron said compliantly and dropped behind Alison. Rina was about to ask about the whole princess thing until she saw the look Libe gave her. After-all perhaps being a magical princess wasn't a description too far off, and whether or not there were unicorns here was also in question. Shrugging she fell in behind Aron marveling at the landscape, it was even nicer than her view at home. Her sightseeing was disturbed by the grating sound of earth moving, turning to face the source of the sound she Libe focusing intently on a pillar of earth. Well that was just dandy, it seemed Libe and Alison already had figured out how to use their magic and she still had no ideas. Aron could probably use magic as well.

"Looks like you both have figured out your magic stuffs, guess that means if we get attacked we should be safe. That being I guess we head into the magical forest?" she questioned, at some point or other the would probably find something they would have to kill. Hopefully though they can find some sort of settlement first though, if those even existed here. Rina adjusted her glove nervously as she looked at the forest. Her best friend had the other glove, Rina would have to make sure the pair was reunited.

Darius watched Grant fumble around in his pocket for nothing. Smoker. The teen expected that kind of habit from someone in business or law, a description that Grant definitely fit by the looks of the fancy clothes. Darius looked Grant over a little more, a man that didn't look too shabby. Definitely handsome despite the mode of dress being inappropriate for the occasion. Reminded Darius of an American tourist packed for a developed country like a safari expert. Well, it might not turn out so bad. The idea of Grant fighting monsters in a suit was a little entertaining, but an outfit meant to look professional and attractive really didn't suit the battle scene. The boy chuckled to himself, and then Grant finally spoke after a few moments in thought.

He'd said, "We should see if... John? Yeah, I think that's right. We should see if John is alive. Maybe he's a doctor or scientist - he could know something about this place." John... Darius stared at the unconscious man who was on the ground and wearing a labcoat. He felt uneasy about that idea, but he offered it a little more thought to humor Grant.

Finally Darius developed an opinion. "I'm not so sure. He seems a little... uh... unstable. Y'know..." He paused for a short few seconds to gather his words. "John might be a little... apathetic. Or two-faced. He seems a little headstrong." Yeah, so Darius wasn't the most articulate person in the world, but he made it clear to Grant that the teen didn't really trust John for whatever reason, maybe the brash charge out of the shrine or the general lack of appeal of big business. In agreement with Grant's proposal to break the ice, however, Darius did supply a matter-of-fact 'Yeah' and a casual nod. The lawyer held out his hand, and Darius gripped it softly with his own, shaking Grant's hand slowly. "It's nice to meet you. My name's, um, Darius. Darius Sterling." He released Grant's hand after what he felt was an acceptable amount of time, his hand trembling from a little anxiety. "So, uh, do we just tell each other about ourselves? Should we do the walk-and-talk?"

"Nope." Libé said while he held his arms apart and the floating clay stretched like silly putty to follow both arms.
"I'm only just now starting to figure it out." The earth suddenly hardened and fell to the ground to loudly shatter.
"Ehrm.. I need practice with this.."
Libé sat down and crossed his legs and arms. With a deep breath the earth he was on slowly rose in the shape of an almost perfect pillar, elevating him to eye level. "And to be honest, I do want to explore with you, but I want to explore my magic first. So if you want, you can stick around and practice too, or you go ahead and I'll catch up. If something goes wrong you can always come back here."

@Blackmist16

Elizabeth began clapping her hands slowly. It also made a weird clicking sound, rather unlike what normal hands would make. "Well, isn't this just splendid, big guy? Now you can be a happy camper, singing songs and roasting over a fire. Here, I'll show you the door." Elizabeth pointed. "Want to be outdoorsy, go right this way."
Elizabeth's tone of voice made it very clear that she considered the concept idiotic in the circumstances.

@gammaflux

"My name's Angela. I said it earlier. I guess you could have done so too and I didn't hear it, so it's fair." Angela stated. Then she shuddered and turned around to look at Elizabeth.

A moment ago, a black aura surrounded her head briefly and her mind raced, some part of that getting to Angela herself. Thinking too quickly to word her thoughts, Elizabeth decided to keep her composure up for a little while longer - then attack. It helped that her face appeared to just freeze rather than adopting an expression appropriate to her true feelings, any actual expressions being kept a layer below. Their shameful hilariousness was safely hidden away.

"Why yes, this is a beautiful form - if it wasn't, I wouldn't be donning it!" Elizabeth said, her mouth not quite matching up to the words she made at first. "And while I admit the original isn't quite as cool, I believe my take on it to be an improvement." Elizabeth raised her hands to point their palms at her double. "Here, try it out!" she said much more loudly, although not quite at a shout, as she shot rays of cold from both hands.

Angela stared at the conflict, the slight admixture of emotion spurring her into action. "What are you doing?" she shouted as she began running back there. "Why's there two of you now?"

Vestus

Vestus thought Elizabeth was being quite rude so he stood where he was and glared at her for a moment as she pointed into the forest.

@Minnakht

"Why don't you go take a hike sister and see what you can find I am staying right here!"

Vestus said sarcastically although also annoyedly and he stopped taking and listened to the conversation at hand interested.

But otherwise it was boring him just standing around he stood for a little while opening and closing his palm making the fire appear and disappear he tried to control his body heat a bit and it worked he cooled himself down a little as he continued practicing his new ability.

He didn't like the way Elizabeth was she seemed very odd to him almost suspicious and he found the way she clapped odd the sound was a little off he didn't like Elizabeth at all in fact he would rather burn her into a crisp rather than let the fool freeze.

Watching the display of oddity he could help but feel his excitement growing. Magic seemed very real in this world, and Vestus himself even started to use it easily. Fire... Maybe I should try a fireball. The idea was to create a classic application to magic, a simple sphere of fire.

Holding his left wrist level in front of his face he closely watches his palm with his fingers curled slightly. Not knowing what to do, he just thought about having energy flowing towards his hand, before thinking about a small spark above this hand. When he did so, flames rushed from his palm to form a flowing yellowish-orange sphere of fire.

Taken aback, he closed his hand, extinguishing the flame in a matter of milliseconds. Opening his hand hesitantly he did not see any marks even indicating his skin was on fire.

Determined to try again, he held his hand in front of his face as he created the fireball yet again. It was relatively simplistic, the width of him palm. It gave off heat. Not an oppressive one but rather a warm feeling. His palm was generating the flames themselves that lead up to the sphere, before they somehow were drawn in. Seeing if it was possible to move his hand, whenever he tilted it the orb kept parallel with his hand until the point he pointed his palm down, which extinguished the flames.

For the third fireball, he tried flexing his fingers, seeing if that would extinguish the flames or not. When he played them out, it increased the size of the orb, with curling fingers decreasing the size. Is this our 'power'? Even more intrigued, a few moments of messing around and he realized he could change the size and heat just by concentrating on those aspects, also.

@Blackmist16

Wary of pushing himself too far when experimenting in case it went out of control, he instead returned to his simple fireball. Holding his hand towards Vestus, Nathaniel spoke in a interested and slightly excited tone. "Vestus. It seems we might actually share similar abilities."