---

---

Christmas squeaked and spun around in a slow circle, making sad mouth noises as he tried to resist the inexplicable urge to take a dust bath and scamper into a dark corner somewhere.

Everything was so large from his tinier vantage point, like things weren't terrifying enough when he was human-sized.

He also couldn't speak, which made him panic all the more and he eventually hid behind a building corner, waiting for things to stop being completely ridiculous.

His whiskers twitched and when he realized he had an extra appendage (a tail), and Christmas ducked his head down and tried hard not to think about being a chinchilla for however long.

Why was this even happening?

(And why couldn't he have been something less small?)

---

---

What was this strange feeling? For a moment, it felt like all of her humanity was slipping away from her grasp, returning to the primal instinct of an animal. Angel no longer felt like being tied to the earthen bonds the land had to offer. She wanted to expand her now-quite literal wings and fly off into the distance, free from the worries of causing harm and being used as a weapon.

Obviously, the now crow-turned singer was one of those from the makeshift zoo that had become Ground Zero who had been the most difficult to handle, despite her size. Whenever she saw the gaze of the guards drop for even a second, the crow tried to flew off, only to be caught by just how many times already inside a large net. It wasn't easy, trying to contain her. Whenever she was caught, she'd just let out an angry cawk that pierced the air and pushed away the pursuing guards.

If the angelic crow wasn't busy hoarding whatever glittery things (why the hell was she doing that anyway) that littered Ground Zero's floor or try to escape, remnants of her past self would direct her anger towards one particular tall man and peck Fredric. Deep inside, she felt like the dickhead was the one to blame for how everyone turned into.

---

Marcus Howell

---

---

Marcus was having himself a lovely time. He’d been given a ball of yarn to play with and keep him out of trouble (chestnut colored of course, but he wasn’t complaining) and, for now, he was happily batting the thing back and forth, without a care in the world.

Then he got turned into a lynx, which was pretty weird.

When the guards burst into the room, he’d basically done the work of restraining for them. A lynx, tied up with chestnut threads, trying its damnedest to free itself without opposable thumbs. One of the guards laughed at the sight, before clearing his throat and trying to look as professional as he could given the circumstances. They didn’t even pack him into a carrier, they just lifted him like a small child and carried him out, much to his irritation.

---

It had taken a fair amount of time for Marcat…er…Marcus to get himself untangled, especially after he'd been unceremoniously dumped on the ground, still in a mess. When he did though, there stood the most triumphant looking lynx in a three mile radius. It was an interesting feeling to say the least; he was fast and agile now, a skill he tested by nimbly bounding through some of the ruins with an odd sense of glee.

Now though, he was hungry. Something in his mind stirred. He didn’t want the food laid out for him, he wanted to hunt. There was certainly enough prey around, but also a few predators he didn’t want to piss off; especially the few dogs that wandered around.

No! Those were his classmates! He didn’t want to eat his classmates!

But some of those birds did look delicious…and that little chinchilla he’d seen scurry off; that probably wouldn’t be too hard to track down.

Hey! Knock it off, brain! Stop it!

Maybe he’d try and find a nice sunny spot, instead. Somewhere up in one of the buildings, where the warmth collected just perfectly. Yeah: that sounded nice.

It started off as a day unlike any other. To sate her hunger, Callan was in the process of pulling a bag of beef jerky out of the cupboard when, all of a sudden--

Salad.

Salad? No... not just salad. Grass. Shrubs. Leaves. Bark. Flowers. Hell, a whole tree.

Callan tore through the cupboards with significantly less grace. Boxes of cereal, bags of jerky, and various other snacks fell to the floor before she finally noticed the tiny... paws? Claws? What the hell were these? And why were they green? She blinked and her ear twitched. Twitched?

She needed to go look in the mirror. Now. Spinning around (or, rather, hopping around), something heavy crashed through the kitchen cupboards near her... feet-like things. The wood splintered loudly. As she jumped around to see what had happened, Callan successfully leveled the rest of the lower cabinets. Among the chunks of wood, snacks and several of her hidden pillows littered the floor.

She barely paid any attention to the damage as her eyes fell on what was unmistakably a tail.

What the hell's going on?

Chief Tater Tot was barking like mad in the other room, which didn't help the chaos. She took a deep breath to try and calm her racing mind, but the air felt off as it traveled through her nose. Everything about it felt off. Her nose, the way her chest expanded, and, finally, the way her mouth moved as she attempted to call out for Marcus and Siena in the other room. The sound that she made was akin to one of those anti-smoking commercials where some poor lady with no larynx tells you about cancer-- only Callan couldn't seem to form any words. To top it all off-- staring down at her stomach, her breath hitched in her throat-- there was a hole in her gut.

Her shadow began to solidify. Oh no, Callan thought in a panic. A small black mount started to rise from the inky black. She took another breath, already feeling more accustomed to the way her body moved. Just before she let the shadow disappear, however, she stopped. Its shape wasn't quite right. What was that?

Out of curiosity and poor judgement, she allowed her shadow to finish summoning.

There among the rubble sat a very tiny, very adorable, black bunny with glowing eyes. It looked so soft. The curious green marsupial slowly reached out her paw. Before she could touch it, the tiny creature let out a blood curdling squeak and launched itself across the room. It tore viciously at the couch, smashed the TV, and kicked the coffee table at the window.

Shit! Callan de-summoned the tiny monster as quickly as possible. Thankfully, all of this happened before the guards came crashing through the door.

Whisked away, Callan watched as Siena and Marcus were also extracted from their suite. Somehow she was able to tell them apart and something about Marcus filled her with the desire to kick his lights out, but she managed to brush it aside. Once in the same vicinity as everyone else, she found that to be a common urge. Every time one of the dogs wandered a little too close, the muscles in her legs tensed. Even more than delivering a swift kick to the ribs, she wanted to run-- but that was just silly. She was strong enough to kick any one of these animals in half. Probably.

She resigned to hopping around and eating whatever shrubbery she could find. While maybe not the most natural thing to do, it seemed to be the least likely to get her in trouble. But then again, she had no idea what could be classified as natural anymore. She was a fucking kangaroo and for whatever reason this grass tasted a m a z i n g.

Brent was fine with losing. It was pretty shitty, of course, and pretty dislikable, but losing was just a part of winning, and thus, no matter how many times he was defeated, the Arbiter had no trouble with bouncing back.

But there was one exception.

Brent refused to lose to himself. Even if he had to tear his body and mind apart, there was no way that the Brent of the present would allow himself to be weaker than the Brent of the past. No matter what, he would, at the very least, match himself in any task he performed. He would not surrender, not settle for anything less than his very best.

And yet, and YET!

THIS TAIL OF HIS.

HE COULD NOT FUCKING CATCH IT.

Hazel Baker

She was a goat.

There was no going around it; Hazel was a pink goat.

Why was she a pink goat? Was there any special meaning? Was this what they wanted? What use would a goat have in such a situation? She had thought long and hard, first about how she was turned into a goat, then the why of it, and then finally, she thought about what she was going to do.

The last one was more easily answered.

What was she going to do? Why... she was at Ground Zero. She was going to... she was going... This was her territory now! Aggressively butting anything and everything that dares trespass into her territory, her hallowed ground, she let out a terrifying scream.

"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

---

---

Of course the students had remained animals until evening, with a chinchilla cowering behind various bowls of nuts laid out on the ground nearby as a lynx pawed playfully at it. A crow was still terrorizing the guards and trying to peck Fredric's eyes out while nearby a kangaroo was busy literally tearing up dirt and sending chunks flying with every superpowered hop, spraying most of the gathered group with concrete and soil.

In the distance, a feisty Pomeranian faced off against a furious goat, the dog managing to get a hold of an iron pipe somewhere along the way and boosting it into some kind of super wind tunnel. The pipe was pitch-black and glowing ultraviolet now, and every time the dog blew a breath in, powerful winds buffeted the deranged goat.

But the goat was undeterred.

A hoof turned transparent and it slammed down a massive, pink projection that the dog barely managed to avoid, losing half of the pipe in the process as the deadly goat hoof eliminated whatever matter it touched.

Angry barking ensued and the Pomeranian seemed to grow even poofier, hunting around with rapid steps of its tiny feet and looking for something else to boost.

Right then, of course, the shifter mage's spells wore off and the students all burst back to human form with a cacophony of thooming noises that sounded like multiple old TVs turning off--if the TVs were the size of buildings.

They simply switched back to human form. One second an animal and, with no transition, the next second a human.

And all of them were naked.

Fredric took care of the more "dangerous" students, first, directing guards to recuff the squabbling Brent and Hazel (the former still making noises that sounded suspiciously like barking) and leaving the more awkward, but harmless situations to sort themselves out. In particular, the lynx had managed to corner the chinchilla, and now it looked like a bad romantic comedy as naked Marcus stood (legs spread and arms raised) in front of a cowering and equally naked Christmas.

Angel, across the field from them, was gnawing on the nets she had tangled herself in, punching holes through the thin fabric with frustrated screeching and Callan was spitting out dirt and grass, clawing at her tongue to clean the green and brown bits from it. Her teeth, though, were probably too far gone to save.

With a sigh and a slow rub of his temples, Fredric had the guards cuff the remaining students and escort them back to their rooms wrapped in large towels.

---

Edited the list of co-GMs in the rules (at long, long last).

Removed the (already revoked) Discord link in the rules section following disturbing reports of people committing felonies through apparently random and creepy Discord raiding. (Cheese pizza is a crime, even in the literal sense.)

If you somehow lose access to the Discord server (moved to a new computer, etc.), PM/DM the GMs--hey, that rhymes!--for an invite link back.

---

Edit:

CC1/USARILN East is located (more precisely now) in a corner of North Carolina. Info post has been updated to reflect that.

Callan Points Updated! Status Updates Soon To Follow...

@RedDusk @Riffus Maximus @Snagglepuss89 @Piercing Light @January @Chasers115 @PapiTan

Siena gained a friendship point! +
Siena gained a friendship point! +

Angelique gained a friendship point! +

Sander gained a friendship point! +
Sander gained a friendship point! +
Sander gained a friendship point! +
Sander gained a friendship point! +

Lawrence gained a friendship point! +

Kusari lost a friendship point... -
Kusari lost a friendship point... -

Christmas gained a friendship point! +

Marcus gained a friendship point! +
Marcus gained a friendship point! +
Marcus gained a friendship point! +

Sander’s next upgrade unlocked. He can now convert the blood he consumed into a backup power source of sort and draw from them at will. The storage lasts up to a day. He can also select which stage he would like to be in and spend the appropriate amount of blood to stay in that stage. New infusion of blood will go into maintaining and prolonging the stage he has chosen. The maximum amount of blood he can store is equivalent to the amount he needs to reach stage 4 normally. The telegraph for this is wisps of red smoke rising from his torso. Here’s some graphic reference.

Statuses updated!

@RedDusk @Riffus Maximus @Snagglepuss89 @Piercing Light @January @Chasers115 @PapiTan

Christmas upgrade unlocked. He can now choose to heal someone or not.

Ernie upgrade unlocked.

Ernie's rope now has a length of 10 metres. He is able to toggle between his standard rope and a new 'auto-latch' ability with which he can automatically manifest a tight noose around any target in his range. For human targets the noose wraps around their necks, while for larger, non-human targets, it simply appears around an appendage. If he latches an inanimate object, the rope will manifest in a manner that grips the object properly. However, he is unable to move from his spot while his rope is on 'latch' mode. On the other hand, almost nothing can move him. Durability while rope is active has increased to the point where he would be mostly unfazed by a building collapsing on him.

Rope now lasts 20 minutes. Cooldown remains the same.

When his rope and durability are active, Ernie emits a subtle, golden glow from his body.

Timeline for Interaction Week 2 (Post-Flag Football Collabs)

Can't be bothered double checking the links. Have fun.

Chris upgrade unlocked.

Chris now has more mental control in his Dragon form and hardly feels that violent urge now. His fire breath now only needs 30 seconds between each use.

Siena upgrade unlocked.

Siena can now draw two names without the cost of potency, but they now last far shorter and likely cannot effect anything that would require set-up. She can still choose two draw two names at decreased potency for a longer hold.

Limiters have not changed. Particularly strong names will always fade very quickly.

Telegraph remains variable.

Same vision as before.

Will add this to the CS when I'm off work /hollow sob

Marcus Upgrade Unlocked.

Marcus can now activate his powers twice before a 'cooldown' is required. The abilities can be chained together for rapid movement, but he must wait for one 'jump' to completely finish before entering into another one. Both powers are still on separate cooldowns.

CS Updated

Max's picture to Marcus has been added into his CS.

Zoe upgrade! Radius has increased again to 45m around her.

Angélique's power upgrade!

Angel upgrade unlocked.

Angel now has more fine control over her power. She can choose to fire more concentrated sonic blast at single targets (precision shots). However, it takes mental effort and aiming to focus these blasts.

Edit:
Changes have been made into the CS.
-Added Angel's power upgrade and the vision that came along with it in the Power section of the CS.
-Changed Angel's Nightmare part to reflect what she will be dreaming about IC from now on.
-Added some new clothing into the Appearance(Clothing) section of the CS. Yeah, might as well said she found a Hot Topic to shop to.
***-Added new opinions for the people Angel has interacted with during the IC week***

Wow you guys are so great everyone gets a like! This is totes not a prank.