@Laue
The young, hot-tempered Agrellon exploded in a verbal fit of rage at John in the instance John's nastier magic manifested and preached death to John. The immediate shift in demeanor made Darius take a few guarded footfalls backwards, but the captain and Syldric quickly curbed Agrellon's wrath to prevent escalation.

That display of restraint soothed the high school student, and he felt his shoulders relax. Under the boughs of the surrounding arcane trees, the elves pressed further into the interrogation. Darius looked above at the flora, which he had only recently acquainted himself with, in curious fascination while John cut into the details of the journey thus far and the dreams of the godlings. The minutiae of the dream John had correct to the letter, but in the discourse about the cosmology of the world, John swayed into uncertainty and misunderstanding. Yes, John was knowledgeable on Earth, but his knowledge of their current whereabouts was limited. Out of social intuition, Darius surmised that John could neither comprehend the world they found themselves in nor defect from the precepts of his earthly perspective.

"Now, uh, hold on," the young man interrupted before the conversation imparted from the current tangent, and he readied himself to qualify all the assumptions. "We are not from the Planetae." Great Barrier... Planetae... wandering star cities... Taking a marked glance aimed directly above, he hastily pieced together his thesis then and there before speaking again. "I assume that the Great Barrier is like an atmosphere of sorts... this world has an upward bound that cannot be crossed. And the Planetae are not beyond the Great Barrier, but they are rather under it. So," Darius paused to look in John's direction and then at the elves who now became the target of the teenager's dialog, "the Planetae are basically floating cities and islands. We are not from there. We are definitely from beyond the Great Barrier and beyond this world entirely."

Darius paced around for a short while and attempted to fix glasses on his face but was met with skin. "Oops, I don't have glasses anymore." His sight was much clearer without glasses, so much so that he mistook his new clarity for glasses. He pondered what he knew then about that foreign place, and he drew a long breath of focus while he created a way to convey what he wanted to say without creating further confusion. "No. We indeed come from a world beyond the Great Barrier. I can understand that it runs contrary to the world you know, but it runs contrary as well to the world I knew."

He stopped in his tracks and turned to look Syldric in the eye. "That woman. She, or somebody at least, brought John—" Darius briefly gestured with an open palm at his acquaintance then held his hand to his own chest, "and I here to this world. Where we are from there is indeed no magic. The question of god in our world is disputed." The brunet waved his hand in the air at the wildlife, saying, "Here, obviously, the opposite is true. Suffice to say, the certainty of those facts here is more comforting to me than the shakiness of opinion in my world." Shifting his weight to one foot, he brought his hands to his sides and peered into the captain's eyes. "I know that what John and I have said sounds wrong and blasphemous, but please be patient with me." He wished in earnest for the elves to hold back on their scrutiny. If they saw his innocence and his benevolence, perhaps they would be more relenting. "May we, uh," Darius cleared his throat stiffly, "make peace?"

"It appears the problem is a little intrusive person being loud. I've got a plan, and it'll help find out more about our bond." stated Elizabeth without any observable hesitation. I looked at her. "What is it?"

"First, you start walking towards them, then begin speaking." I'll dictate you the words, just repeat them while I relocate to a better position. Now go.

There wasn't time for me to consider opposing as Elizabeth dropped to all fours and moved away in a rather inhuman way. Or rather - there actually was time, but it took me a moment to realize that the last sentence she spoke she didn't speak and it took a mere moment to be realized. But then it was time for me to begin taking steps towards the apparent elf holding up the rest of what I consider my allies.

"A ship?" I repeated as the words appeared in my mind. "It's an affront that you'd consider we'd use means of travel you could observe. Magicians, remember? And I hear you've got pirate troubles - we might've considered helping you out, but there you are, standing against the ten of us, thinking yourself capable of achieving anything - at which point, I'm sure you could drive said pirates out single-handedly. Why don't you go and do that?" I rattled out as I approached the elf. I wasn't sure where'd Elizabeth go - possibly to a side.

"Did I hear them right, captain?" Syldric blinks, and puts a finger into his ear, as though checking whether his hearing is blocked. "The woman this man just described... Doesn't that sound like the Two-Faced Goddess?"

"What? Did you think we were stupid?!" Agrellon growls. "You're not only brought here from beyond the Great Barrier, but also by the Goddess herself?!" He nocks an arrow on his bow, and the arrow's tip begins glowing with a green energy. "Enough with your lies, demon! I'll-"

"Agrellon! Put away your weapon!" The elven captain shouts, having finally lost his temper. "There will be no more patrolling for you today! Return to base at once, or you'll no longer have the right to be a village guard!"

"Captain, I-" Agrellon begins, but then meets the captain's furious eyes, flinches, and forces his mouth shut. He shoots a murderous glare at John, then turns around and stomps away. Soon, his form can no longer be seen among the trees.

"Sorry about that," the captain says, looking ashamed for both Agrellon and himself. "It's just that, well, our home has been under assault by demons for the past few weeks, and most of us are on edge. However... If you're really sent here by the High Goddess herself, a force above the Blightmother, then I suppose you can't really be the Blightmother's minions, can you?"

"But captain... Should we really trust them?" Syldric asks, looking clearly uneasy. "The words of these two still are very far-fetched, no matter how you look at it."

"...no, we shouldn't, at least not yet," the captain says after thinking for a moment. He looks at Darius and John, warily, and wearily. "You're here to defeat 'six powerful beings', you say... I assume you're referring to the Holy Trinity and the Abyssarchs? Such a thing sounds as impossible as extinguishing the Sun itself, but that's beside the point... Though they're gods, we have no love for those six, given how much destruction and suffering their accursed followers have brought to the Middle World. If you mean to fight the gods, I won't stop you."

"Captain! Surely we aren't going to help those two in a war against the gods?!" Syldric asks, his eyes wide.

"No, no, of course not." The captain shakes his head, and sighs. "But if they want to get to the gods, they'd need to go through the gods' servants, wouldn't they? So if they must take care of the demons for us along the way..."

"I'm still not sure about this," Syldric murmurs, half to himself. But it sounds like he knows he doesn't have anything more convincing to say.

"Neither am I, Syldric. Neither am I..." The older elf looks at the two transhumans. "As long as you don't cause trouble for us, strangers, we won't cause trouble for you. And if you're new to our world, and want somewhere to stay..." For a second, he looks almost hopeful, despite his weariness earlier. "Help us, and you earn our gratitude and trust. And we're in rather dire need of help at the moment... What do you say?"

---

Faced with Alison's furious assault, at least two spiders fall victim. Another of the spiders abruptly finds itself impaled by Aron's spear projectile. Emeka pounces toward a third spider, his strengthened fist easily bashing through the creature's exoskeleton, the heat of his magic rapidly melting its flesh. Five spiders are now down, and only one remains.

The surviving spider is becoming aware that it's clearly at a massive disadvantage in this battle. Perhaps retreat is a concept too much for its primitive mind, but the creature is at least capable of some form of tactics. Instead of fighting Alison, Aron, or Emeka, who have all proven themselves to be dangerous combatants, the spider leaps toward Rina, who hasn't displayed any form of offensive magic so far. Given its agility, and the fact that everyone else has just finished attacking, it seems that no one can act quickly enough to defend Rina...

Except for the orcs. The fire-wielding male orc, Olaghog, hurls an orb of bright orange flames at the spider, the fireball propelled by a stream of red heat to move at incredible speeds; its path even curves to seek out the spider. As the spider is struck by the ball of fire, it is pushed off its leaping trajectory, falling to the ground a meter or so away from Rina as a charred corpse.

"You alright?" The orc shouts, and begins rushing toward Rina, clearly concerned for a member of the group of strangers that had just helped the orcs fight off the spiders.

[Helltank asked me to write the scene above for his character's development.]

So their kidnapper was a whole tier above the elven enemies. The plot thickened. John felt like a fantasy movie protagonist. He and Darius were the main characters, Darius being the sidekick buddy. But relying on movie tropes being true here was low, as the encounter with the bear suggested. Either way, they requested help in exchange for their trust, and that was a fair trade. "Very well, I will help you. As for Darius, I will let him make a choice for himself."

The scientist looked at Darius briefly. "The powers of magic I have, as amazing as they are, unfortunately are yet inferior to things we have back in our world. Even without magic, we created many wonders, as well as terrible weapons. Weapons that can erase a city from the map from the other side of the world." He sighs. John was never a fighter. He abhorred direct conflict partly because he was physically frail. Avoiding physical activities added to John being horribly out of shape. The thought of physical exertion scared him a bit, even if in this world he doesn't really need to deal with exhaustion. The scientist preferred shock and awe approach, to strike the enemy so brutally once, as to dissuade them from any further actions right there and now. The Preta Project was one such thing, being as much as a physical and psychological weapon. He was a fan of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - the show of force which forced an immediate surrender, and Japan was better off for it. But in this world, there are no such things. John's magic will have to compensate. "But since none of that exists here, I will help you with my flesh and blood."

John stepped forward slowly. "It is a custom in our world to perform a handshake with acquaintances and people you made a deal with. It is a gesture of trust and solidarity from both sides. Would you accept this gesture?" he asked while raising his hand for a handshake. It was very risky, so John kept his distance, waiting for the captain's reply. He was not sure why he was doing it, but it felt like the right thing to do. Something to make this whole ordeal go on the right foot somewhat.

Rina let out a screech as the spider leapt towards her Aron turned to head off the spider, but its sudden change of tactics caught him off guard and if the orc hadn't intervened Rina would've been done for. She managed to stutter out her thanks and Aron did likewise, albeit more calmly. "T-thanks mister, I'm okay thanks to you.", "Thank you for your quick assistance, I am Aron, may I ask your name?" Aron had quickly made his way back to Rina's side before polity inquiring and waited for the orc's response. Rina took deep breaths to calm down her rapidly beating heart. This was exactly why she wished she knew how to do this magic stuff. She would have to ask Aron to stand closer to her next time they got into a fight, she didn't want to get into a situation like that ever.

@Laue
One more outburst from Agrellon, and the captain mercilessly sent the raging elf back to their base. Although that elf had an extremely hot temper, their captain exhibited full control and authority that could not be challenged by his subordinates. Agrellon, despite his indignance, submitted completely to the captain's orders once it was clear that the captain's mind had been made. The captain's steely gaze was disarming, penetrating even. That left only the captain, Syldric, John, and Darius, and there would be no more interruptions from then on.

"I proposed the peace; it would be absurd of me to fail to meet your demands." Darius showed complete willingness to reasonably proceed and do what was asked of him. After all, one could not ask for something from the wood elves without recompense. They would not give him aid so wholeheartedly without expecting something in return. The brunet glanced at John guardedly, unsure of his personal ability to put trust in John. John's words sounded hawkish and tactless whereas Darius, in that regard, would be John's polar opposite; Darius lacked a significant thirst for worldly things like money or power. Rather, he strived for peace and understanding. While his strong moral convictions kept him from pursuing bolder actions and led to his hesitation and indecision on numerous things, Darius at the very least could maintain his humanity and stay wise and woke in times when it was most important.

The boy too stepped forward involuntarily and offered a similar gesture. Only his, on the other hand, was an attempt to understand their culture. He approached Syldric and the captain more directly and stood close, within the appropriate distance for conversation. "Like John said, where we come from, it's normal to grip the hand of the other person and give a firm shake. Does your society do something similar?" Darius asked.

She whirls around and leaps at Rina and Aron, wings boosting her flight. Seeing the orc approach her, she slashes Predator in an offensive motion, stopping it barely centimeters from cutting the orc. "Get away from her!" she shouts, leaning over Rina. "Rina, Rina, are you okay? Did the spider get you?"

Without waiting for an answer, Alison cranes her head and gives the orc a hard stare, even though she knows her eyes won't be seen through the shadows of her mask. "You!" she says. "What were you trying to do my knight?!"

[I sincerely apologize for not posting in so long. Schoolwork took up quite a bit of my time, and I was never good at time management.]



"It looks like our worlds aren't as different as they first seemed," says the elven captain, as he extends a hand to accept Darius's handshake. However, a keen eye may still notice that the elf is considerably warier about John than Darius, likely because of the "Blightmother's taint" that they suspected the older man of having. The captain's fingers are long and thin by human standards, though they can still easily pass off as human. His skin is fair, but the hand is calloused, and suggests a wiry strength born from years of hard work. "My name is Druindar."

"...and I'm Syldric," the other elf says, after a moment of hesitation, and gingerly offers a handshake to John.

"We call ourselves Nature's Scions, but to the other races we're simply known as 'elves'," captain Druindar says. "Though I'm afraid a small village like ours can't boast the magical power that name suggests..." He looks at the two transhumans, and his wariness seems to, at least partially, give way to curiosity. "What are your names? And what do you call your kind?"

---

Olaghog tenses as he is threatened by Alison's razor-sharp tentacle. For a second, it looks almost as though he's about to attack Alison, but he then grits his teeth and stops himself. But that doesn't stop a sheathe of red flames from bursting into existence all around him, enveloping the orc's body. Along with his musculature, it makes the orc look rather imposing, not to mention the fire is already beginning to scorch away at the tip of Alison's tentacle that is dangerously close to Olaghog's skin.

"As if you are the one to talk, demon," Olaghog growls. "You're the one who failed to protect your companion, while I saved her." His gaze bores into Alison's eyes, as if daring her to escalate things further.

"A pleasure to meet you, Druindar and Syldric." John replied. As much he didn't actually like them, he knew he is not (yet) at the top of the food chain. Not that he even considered harming them, no. John wasn't an evil madman, he just despised people... less intelligent than him. Back on Earth he was surrounded by the people he hand picked himself to work in his lab. People he tolerated and couldn't actually hold a proper discussion without confusing them. "It's weird really. Back in my world, Elves were just fiction, a fairy tale. Many poets and writers included them in their works, with many different versions, and yet the most popular, most accepted Elven appearance... How did Tolkien know? I don't suppose there are short, wide, beardy people called Dwarves as well?" He then turns to Darius, grinning "Or, you know, a ring that we should throw into a volcano."

But first things first. Before John was to help with any demonic nuisances or other pests, he needed to get some sort of handle about the flora of this world. And maybe fauna. So far, even with magic, this world has followed the fundamental rules of the universe. Gravity worked just as expected, Newtonian physics also applied to this world, as John has found out rather painfully. It only made sense the fundamental structure of matter remained the same. And hopefully, the periodic table was the same. He turned to the captain. "I would like to request one thing, however. Back in my world I was a... healer of sorts. I made medicine which cured people. I was familiar with the effects of many substances and their variations. And yet, this world is completely alien to me. If your village has some sort of a healer or a potion maker who is familiar with the flowers, herbs, roots and their properties, I would be delighted to learn from them for a bit. If the matter of this world follows the same rules mine does, I will be able to teach you many useful things as well. If you don't trust me, you can always keep someone on watch."

It was a gamble. They did not trust the scientist. John was trying to find the words they could understand and simplify this speech. Of course, he did omit the part where John was making deadly plagues as well. And Preta. As much as John worked on it, it was still nothing more than theory. It had SOME functionality, but at that point it was nothing more than a harmless tapeworm that just dies after a day of doing completely nothing. Not exactly nothing, sometimes it did exert some noticeable influence over the host. Nevertheless, it was an exciting project, regardless of the rights or many, many wrongs of it. It did keep John's lab well supplied however, allowing him to take on side projects. It also did allow him to make several improvements to existing drugs by noticing some trends on Preta, either by making them cheaper or more effective. Of course, the actual price of them didn't drop, the CEO of the place he worked at was an asshole. Dumb, ignorant, greedy asshole. John really wanted to punch him sometimes, as that douche-bag loved to prance in the labs to feel superior the "nerds" there, the very same "nerds" who are the reason he actually has a company to manage. If Preta was ever close to reality, John asked the military to let him use the CEO as the first test subject. Nobody would miss him, and the CIA is good at covering things up.

Crazy life it was, looking back on it. The military on his back, hoping that John can continue the work of deranged Nazi scientist. The very same military actually agreeing to let the scientist more or less toy with his employer's body if he succeeds. And now he's in a strange land, acquired magic powers and is talking to actual elves. When he gets back, John will write a movie script. Hollywood will eat that shit up.

@Laue
"It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance, Druindar," Darius replied as the young man shook hands with the captain. Unlike Druindar's, Darius's hands were as soft and small as a child's skin, and though that was the case, Darius still gave a nice, firm handshake. They fit nicely into almost any pair of hands as if the teenager's hands belonged in someone else's. He released his grip on Druindar's hand and introduced himself. "I am Darius Sterling," said he. "And this man is John Eidreon. As for our kind, we are called humans."

Darius chuckled to himself as John talked about some earthly pop culture that the elves would not understand. The boy held some nostalgia for the Lord of the Rings and the work of Tolkien, and he wondered then if that world had an equivalent of Minas Tirith or the Shire... He pushed his elven fantasies to the back of his mind. If Darius pondered any more about the world of the elves, he'd find himself sooner overwhelmed by the pure eccentricity of the world around him, even by the present reality of the stuff which he had before only dreamed of. Unsurprisingly, John launched into a bid for some hands-on experience with the natural world, and in his mind Darius shook his head disapprovingly, not that he hated scientific pursuits. Not that at all, but rather that he abhorred John's brash nature and conviction to exploit all science could offer.

On Earth, Darius enjoyed reading about the latest discoveries and theories, flipping through headlines about the great achievements of mankind. He recalled last reading about some advancements in the quantum model, he remembered the ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. Yes, the world Darius left behind was ever-changing, tumultuous, tempestuous, but even against the light that showed all of the world's sins and crimes, the young man truly believed that in his lifetime, he'd developed a deep fondness for humanity. Mankind pushed constantly forward and stopped at nothing, and mankind exceeded its limits and sought solutions. Mankind made great inventions look like mere stepping stones to a larger purpose. For all its flaws, Darius loved sentient life. He saw the Earth as an embellished entanglement of crossing lives, a kintsugi of all that was and all that could be. And like any real love, it kept Darius guessing. Perhaps John was not the type for that kind of reflection on humanity, but Darius saw mankind as a species that, at the end of the day, was neither good nor bad but had the potential to be.

"Very well. If John has clearance, might I ask that you introduce me to your culture and later include me in the plans to subvert the enemy?" Darius earnestly asked Druindar, with a genuine interest to familiarize himself with elven culture and with the current objective.

@helltank@Grimoire

Rina took a step back and hid behind Aaron. "P-please don't fight." she squeaked out quietly from her safe location. Oh this was no good at all, why was Alison being to mean? Fire and shadowy tentacles, oh this was heating up to no good. Aaron simply watched quietly, seemingly unwilling to do anything but observe. Alison was ruining any relations they could hope to have with the orcs, and more importantly the chances of getting any information about this place.

[@Eklipse]@helltank

Well the girl, Alison was still being hostile towards the beastmen. An unfair treatment from his perspective, allies at least should be given a basic honor, even temporary ones. It had been clear that without the Ork, the group would have had a hard time defeating the spiders. Not that they would have gotten involved either, but that was an issue for another time. In the end, it came down to the group not being strong enough.

"He speaks correct, Alison," said Emeka. "I once an old man tell me that actions showed more truth than appearance, and our friends actions are definitely good" he said as he made his way in between the beastman and Alison.

Turning to the beastman,"Greetings, Thank you for your aid, I am sorry for my allies behavior, she is young and still not aware of the world. I hope you will excuse her" he said. " I am called Emeka" he said..