You were unconscious before everything, body floating around in the infinite gentle embrace of the void-sea, weightless, formless, comfortable. Indeed at least death itself didn't seem that painful, but that comfort would be quickly stripped from you as a bright light flashed against your closed eyes. Perhaps you'd hear yelling near you. Perhaps you'd be the first to yell or maybe the last but you'd most certainly hear the sharp ripping of wind past your ears.

So there you are, falling from the sky. The ground rushing up to you. If you had time you'd perhaps be able to spot the vast continent's features, The mountains, the flat grasslands. The great walled city, many of the spectacular landscapes which you could see from the lower stratosphere. But what was most pressing was the vast green canopy right beneath you. Something that you'd be falling towards at a terminal pace. Of course your not the only one falling in fact it seemed a good smattering of other individuals are falling nearby.

I hope you thought of your landing strategy!

---

World discovered
????
A Strange new land filled with mysteries yet untapped! What could possibly await you when you get on the ground!

An ear piercing screech ripped through the atmosphere, she had just been hit by a car? Wasn’t she? Where was she know? Why was she falling? A billion questions echoed in her mind as she looked at the grassy land that was getting closer and closer by the second, wait, how was she gonna land here without dying? She had just died once, she didn’t want to die again!

As she tried to angle herself to land on something that would hurt less she looked down at her legs, which only sent another shriek tearing through the air . Legs? These don’t look like legs? These look like goat legs? Am I a goat now? While she was distracted by her legs she didn’t notice the fact that she was getting closer and closer to the ground and by the time she looked back she was so close to the ground she thought it was over.

Luckily, a cradle looking thing was formed from plants right bellow her. It stretched closer and closer to the ground and just as she was sure it was gonna break, the cradle rebounded and sent her flying back up... Thats when she noticed the other people falling as well, she ignorantly thought they would be able to help her, not even thinking about the fact that they probably need to focus on their own landing strategies and that her voice is probably drowned out. “HELP MEEE!!”

The last thing that Lin could recall was fading into unconsciousness, the feeling of every one of his ribs stabbing into his organs burned into his memory.

Now, though, there was none of that. Instead, the feeling of falling endlessly was what met him. Though he had not yet opened his eyes, the young man found it odd that the wind was blowing against his face. No, more than that, the fact that he was falling at all was too odd to ignore. Opening his eyes, in turn, had led to an instant realization of two things.

First: that there was a long, lizardlike mouth that extended from where his own was, complete with a pair of whiskers.
Second: that he was ACTUALLY falling through the sky, with a few other people(?) in a similarly unfortunate position.

Panic would have ordinarily been the first reaction, and Lin found it odd that instead of frantically trying to process what to do, his mind was telling him to simply ride the wind... Whatever that meant. There was a brief moment thereafter that he seemed to hang in the air for a moment, though, before another part of his mind, instinctual or not, told him to try snaking through the air instead of simply falling.

Following that instruction, facing downwards as he was, caused his descent to accelerate; ordinarily, this would have been far worse for him, but the general "idea" on how to handle his descent had already rooted itself in his mind.

Snaking downwards through the air, Lin immediately glanced at the others falling and made a move to try and help the ones who were most likely to become red stains on the ground. One of them, a girl with white hair, he barely caught the clothes of with one of his newfound (and comparatively stubby) arms; another, a child with horns, had landed onto his face and promptly used one of his new whiskers as a makeshift rope. Given how close the group was now to the ground, the last thing that the dragon could manage to do was grab the small child who was screaming bloody murder for aid with his remaining spare hand and attempting to slow the group's descent towards the ground.

The weight of the three of them at once, though, proved too much for him to sustain on his own, though, and despite his best efforts to stay afloat, Lin began to fall towards the ground. His pace was considerably less than terminal velocity, though, so by the time he "landed" the worst of the damage was from his own body hitting the floor.

"That... Could have been less painful..." Lin groaned, letting go of the two in his hands as he lay on the ground. "And to you, hanging from my face: could I ask if you could please let go before you tear that off of my face?"

@Suneli@Rune_Alchemist@VitaVitaAR

The child who was screaming bloody murder suddenly felt herself lift up into the air and paused for a moment, staring up at the dragon who had picked her up from out of the air. Her body instinctually stiffened seeing the dragon, but she relaxed a bit once she realized that she would die sooner without him grabbing her.

However, right as she relaxed they began falling from the sky once again. She nearly started shrieking again but instead held on for dear life, if the dragon was a human she would have drawn blood.

As they hit the ground she heard a loud thump, she didnt feel much so assumed the dragon had taken most of the hit. She didnt let go immediately, not trusting her senses even after the dragon let go of her. Though, after she looked around a bit more and made sure they were on solid ground she released her trembling grip.

"Th-Thank you... dragon?" She spoke with uncertainty, dragons shouldnt exist, right? However after she looked at the other two children and seeing that one had horns and a tail while the other looked like a doll she began getting more and more confused. Her eyes drifted back down to her hooved legs, staring at them with wide eyes. "What...?"

@PKMNB0Y

If only I had more time...

That had been the last thought in my head.

The realization of what was happening had barely struck me before the moment of impact had occurred. I didn't feel anything, thankfully. I had a moment of understanding, which was horrible. But I didn't actually feel it. I understood what was about to happen to my body, I understood I was about to die.

I understood, in that moment in the air as the truck's enormous wheel bore down towards me, who had done this to me.

There was some solace in the fact that the scumbag was going to face the law for this. But that was hardly enough in face of my incoming violent death.

Everything I wasn't going to get to do flashed through my mind. They say you see your whole life flash before your eyes, but I somehow managed to see everything I'd never experience.

Having a wife. A family. Moving up in the world.

I'd never see Nanako's face again, huh...

... If only I'd had more time...

...

Ravy

I didn't understand what went through my mind at that moment. Ravy? It sounded like a name. But why was a name going through my mind?

... Why was I still thinking, for that matter? Had I reached the afterlife? I didn't disbelieve in such things, but I wasn't exactly avidly into the supernatural either.

Hold it. Something was majorly wrong. I could feel air whipping past my body with every moment. It was like I was in a wind storm. But that wasn't all... I was-

"Falling?!"

My eyes snapped open, and for a moment my heart stopped dead.

I was hundreds of feet in the air, above a sea of green. It looked like a forest. But really, there wasn't any time to think about the fact I was suddenly above a forest when I was hurtling through the air towards my death!

"WHY?!" I cried in terror, some part of my brain registering that my voice sounded completely different and then filing that information away swiftly to be used later in the event I wasn't reduced to a red paste against the the earth. I could comprehend how I was still alive, but the fact was that wasn't going to matter much longer if I didn't do... do...

What could I do?! How did I survive this?! Was this some sort of awful dying dream!?

Who did I make angry to have this as the last thing going through my head?!

But, before I could die twice before even coming to understand my situation, I suddenly was given salvation. Something was in my hand. Something I could grasp and take a hold of. On instinct, without even comprehending just what it was, my fingers snapped into position and I grasped it.

Whatever it was felt strange, rigid, almost like a cat's whisker but a thousand times larger. It hung down under my weight, but I immediately reached up to latch both hands onto the object, looking upwards.

The fact my hands were oddly small and delicate didn't quite register to me at the moment, filed away with my voice. No, no, what really took all of my attention was the fact that my rescuer...

... Was a dragon. There was no mistaking it. This was definitely some sort of dragon. My eyes widened and my mouth opened and shut several times as my impromptu ride swiftly descended towards to earth.

The landing wasn't exactly gentle. By which I mean I was swung about, eyes shut tight and my voice coming out as a terrified squeak. Which was strange, because while I didn't exactly have a deep voice I wasn't known for squeaking before. I was a grown man, after all. Grown men weren't the squeaking type.

But when I came to a halt... I heard the dragon.

The dragon was talking to me. He was asking me to let go before I tore it off.

There was a moment in which I didn't even understand what he was talking about, but slowly my mind caught up to my situation and I realized he meant his whisker.

"... A... ah... yeah..."

I trialed off, both of my hands still shaking as I released his face from my fearful death grip.

My heart was still pounding in my chest. Just a few moments ago, I thought my heart was going to stop beating in general, but now it was proving it was alive and kicking.

"... W... w-wait... I..."

My voice was totally different. Now that my life was not about to end, I was capable of understanding this. It was... cute? The sort of light, childish, soft voice I could almost expect from some kind of cutesy anime character. I had to be out of it or something, right?

But then my eyes traveled to my hands. My tiny, pale, delicate hands. My... small, childish body... the cute dress I was wearing... And I felt something swishing behind me.

Frantically I looked over my shoulder and saw a tail.

"... Th... that's..."

I raised my hands to my head. My lengthy hair was up in long pigtails, and on closer inspection I realized it was also silver rather then black.

"... I-I'm a little girl?!" I exclaimed, staring down at myself. Yes, yes, indeed, I had become a little girl. With a tail. I hadn't the faintest clue what the tail was about, but the fact I had become a little girl was quite obvious. "No... this can't be real, right? This is a scenario so utterly stupid it can't possibly be real. Oh, of course, about to get hit by a truck? Become a little girl to escape! That certainly makes plenty of sense, right?"

My heartbeat had only quickened by now. My legs were shaking and I felt weak. Ah... were those tears in my eyes?

Suddenly, my legs simply gave out, and I collapsed onto my rear end, staring at my hands.

"I... I... I'm a little girl... a-and I almost died... I... almost..."

@VitaVitaAR@Suneli@PKMNB0Y

---

Well now.

This was odd. And she probably looked quite odd, legs folded, arms across her chest, a troubled expression on her features.

She had been indulging in some Beluga Vodka, and she had been struck by a particular bit of inspiration. She remembered running out, running into...something? And then blacking out. Ah, she must have been really wasted. She hadn't been quite that wasted since she was a little tyke when she sneaked some out of her babushka's cabinet. Had she died? She felt like she had, but then how could she be here?

Falling through the air, the scream of wind passed her ears. Did someone spike her drink? This was one helluva trip. She hadn't experimented with those sorta drugs since she got into university and focused more on her passions. A shout from nearby pulled her out of her thoughts.

...some sort of...goat girl?

"...ah, I suppose maybe I should lay off the Vodka this late." She grumbled, but that was almost certainly an empty thought. Still, it didn't look like this was going to be something so easy. If this was a dream, it was awfully realistic. Not just one of those dreams you were falling endlessly and woke before you hit the ground...if this wasn't a dream...then this was actually a pretty dire situation, wasn't it?

"Well I suppose this is at least, more interesting than running into the truck." Was her thoughts as she plummeted towards the ground, terminal velocity. Not a single negative or terrified thought found its way into her head. In fact, she couldn't help but to feel a wide grin form on her face as she spread out her body, and she would have been laughing had she been able to.

"Ahahaha, in fact, this isn't so bad!" The feeling of the wind rushing through her hair, her clothes flapping in the air as wind rushed passed. It was frigid up here so far in the stratosphere, but oddly it didn't bother her. "I shall have to try skydiving more often, haha - blef?!" Her cheerfulness came to a halt as something wrapped around her, ceasing her revelry of the free fall. The back of her skirt had been caught, not only dangling her nearly upside down, but giving everyone who happened to be looking quite the fan service of her undergarments.

Wait that was dragon!?

"Blyat!? What the hell?" What the hell was an understatement. She could accept dying. She could accept free falling only to go splat later. She could even accept what looked to be an adorable little goat girl. But a dragon? A full blow lizard thing? That was where she drew the line in strangeness. But it was a blessing at least. The dragon slowed their fall, hitting the ground with a loud thud before releasing them from his claws.

"Ay, ay," She hit the ground, landing on her stomach as she was released from the dragons grip. "Give a girl a warning before you grab her by the skirt." Standing up, Vladlena dusting off her clothes, blinking as she realized what she had said. "...wait, why am I even wearing a skirt?" Looking down at her body, she fell silent.

Those were most certainly not her jeans, boots, and sweater. The hell was she dressed as some...fancy floozy? Well, not that she could really complain, they were pretty snazzy looking.

"Weird...eh?" Her eyes then traced to her fingers. Fingers weren't supposed to have visible joints. She wiggled her fingers in front of her face. It looked so...unnatural, but didn't feel weird at all. Those were definitely her hands. She quickly lifted up her skirt, once again, unintentionally giving everyone a bit of a show. Odd, her knees had joints too. She briefly tested their range of motion, before being satisfied. "...Well I have no idea what's going on here. Mhmhm, but I suppose thanks are in order, friend." Vladlena gave the dragon a playful smile and a salute. "I think I shall try skydiving with a parachute next time, hmm?"

The snap of ropes, followed by shouting, had been her only clues to the chaos unfolding. But considering Jasmine Carson, an average post college white American, was too busy listening to Dragonforce's Through the Fire and Flames to hear the sounds overhead, those clues were missed. By the time she could have looked up, it was over. The piano slammed into the young woman's body with enough force to send shards of it all over, probably hurting others, and definitely cracking her body to pieces. Mercifully, it killed her on impact, so she didn't have to deal with the horrible pain for more than a split second.

And then, she felt the wind. Or well, felt was the wrong word. There was a sensation of the sound of wind, but she also felt it more "distantly" now. Everything felt partially...disconnected. But then, her eyes shot open, and Jasmine realized what she was hearing was herself falling. Thoughts of why or how she was falling through the air when moments ago she'd been walking through the streets of New York were banished as she felt her body flip over, from looking up at the clouds overhead, towards the...forest below? Or green fields? It didn't matter, instead, a thought flashed through her mind. All those superhero movies she'd watched in college to treat herself after work. Most of the flyers...had a special landing trick? Or when Terminators came to land? At that same moment some of her hair flapped past, and the sight of white hair made her wonder just what the hell was going on. Was this some sort of Marie Antoinette type shit? But the ground was getting closer. At the same time she realized she wasn't the only one around. A dragon falling and grabbing others...eastern she guessed? Odd despite others screaming as they fell, she wasn't screaming.

(...Okay, think fast, and hope this isn't some cosmic joke...) Focusing, Jasmine moved her body more, only now becoming aware that her usual jeans and a t-shirt were gone, replaced by some sort of loose black top, and black leggings. And black...gloves...and weird hot pants? Not her style for sure. But the thoughts were wiped away, as she kept dropping, but feet first, then she bent forward, one hand closing into a fist. And she prayed internally the timing was right...

The impact between Jasmine and ground happened in a flash, as her form slammed into the ground, the surface shattering, cracks rising up as ground was flung around from the sensation of an object striking at terminal velocity. The resulting debris cloud thrown up hid her from view, but amid the falling dirt clods, dust, and plant life, Jasmine let out a groan, and fell over. She had landed just like one of those super heroes, one fist striking the ground to somehow steady herself, but now that she was on the ground? She was just there, on her side, breathing in and out slowly. By the time the cloud of debris had finished its own version of a take off, she was pulling herself back to her feet, feeling even odder than before.

Internally, some part of her felt distant, like she was more a jockey, rather than fully there, and yet, as she found herself gathering her breath, she realized something.

"Okay, that's weird...I'm breathing in and out, but I wasn't even winded when I landed, just in shock..." It was at that point she realized that she felt fine. Running her hands all over that she could reach, she found strange breaks in her skin, often times at places where she would be expected to have like, joints or points to bend forward. It was only then she decided to lift one of those hands, and examined herself. Strange glove like material covering her arm aside, she traced the cracks in her body she could see, and examined her top more closely as able, then looked at her other arm, then leaned forward, examining further down her body.

"Okay...if this is some idea of a joke...its not funny..." If not for the fact she remembered a sudden surge of pain right before...it was then she remembered what must have happened. She must have been kidnapped by Predators! It explained everything! The thought that she was actually in the Predators vs. Aliens universe had her excited, but then reality set in. If that was so, she was going to be hunted...and it didn't explain the clothing change. Or the strange breaks in her body. And then, she recalled the other people, and Jasmine's head whipped around, scanning her surroundings for those shapes. But she wasn't moving from her crater just yet, as if her shock was leaving her rooted in place.

To the others, the Warforged that looked way too human to be chance design, probably looked like it was having some sort of weird stroke as she examined herself, talked to herself, and began basically looking all over. Probably disconcerting. But she was in one piece, and clueless to what was really going on. Hell, she didn't even know what had brought her here...she was just assuming it was some sort of weird variation on the Predator's game plan, or a race like them pulling this...! How dastardly!

Given his own less-than-stellar landing, Lin found himself somewhat pleased by the fact that his efforts had not all been for naught—moreso after the little girl who had been hanging off of his face for dear life had finally let go, but pleased nonetheless. The mild soreness that reached throughout his body (which, upon closer inspection, was notably longer than he was used to), coupled with the remarks from the child who had been screaming moments earlier, caused him to glance behind himself.

It was fairly obvious now given that he was no longer falling through the sky, but as far as he could tell, he was a dragon. An Eastern dragon, obviously enough, but a dragon nonetheless.

"Mmm... So it seems," he said, lifting himself off the ground to get a view of the forest around them. "It is quite odd, given that I was most certainly not one minutes ago... What was it that Zhuangzi about whom the analogy of the dreaming butterfly was penned? Well, whatever the case may be, it certainly seems that this is who I am now."

Being lost in his thoughts for a moment (and ignoring, to the best of his ability, the child who was rightfully panicking after being placed into such a situation), Lin Quan calmly shook his head and nodded towards the other girl—one who, by all means, was taking this far better than either of the other two had.

"I would think that skydiving with one in the first place would be something to remember," he replied, a single eyebrow raised as he glanced at the group around them. Small as they were to him now, Lin could only assume that he was the only one not not look in any way human. For better or for worse, that had been their salvation, but as things were now, it was far too inconvenient to attempt to move about again.

As he contemplated the matter to himself, though, Lin's body began to glow, and after a few moments the dragon had been replaced by a young Chinese man with long, black hair and a set of robes. It was altogether particularly convenient for him, and with his arms crossed, Lin nodded in acceptance.

"Hm. Interesting; so I can shift forms at will? Something to remember for the future," he said to himself, nodding before turning towards the three girls in front of him and bowing.

"In any case, before I forget: my name is Lin Quan. Given these odd circumstances, I would like to ask if anyone else had any clue as to what has just transpired, but..." he continued, trailing off before glancing around once more. "Maybe it would be wiser to seek a safer place than the middle of these woods for the moment?"

@Suneli@VitaVitaAR@Rune_Alchemist

I tried to wipe my eyes. I had to. This was no good, crying in front of these random strangers. And yet I couldn't help it. Was it because I was happy to be alive, even if my body was completely different? Was it from stress? Was it from fear of falling? I didn't know, but I could absolutely feel those tears rolling down my cheeks as I desperately attempted to try and wipe them away. Looking like an actual little girl wasn't helpful at all, was it? Even like this...

And yet...

Ah, I just couldn't stop, could I? My heartbeat was so fast, my small frame shuddering as I sat on the grass, sharply taking air in as I tried to stem the flow of tears.

I couldn't stop tearing up... at least until I looked up.

My eyes were greeted by what could only be called one of the most bizarre things I had ever seen in my life. The dragon had turned into a human. Which... fine, fine. Dragons could do whatever they wanted. When you accepted that dragons existed, you began to believe that they had nearly any abilities that could be ascribed to them. Frankly, it was a lot easier to deal with a dragon in the shape of a human as opposed to a huge serpentine fantasy creature.

No no, what was strange was the doll girl lifting her skirt without even the slightest hesitation.

"... You... what, are you some kind of exhibitionist?" I found myself saying, even as I tried to clear my tears away. This time it seemed to work, possibly due to the sheer absurdity of the situation. "Have some shame..."

I couldn't help it. Who did something like that? Even if they were some sort of living doll. For that matter, why was there a living doll hanging around here? Why did I have a tail? Why was there a dragon? What was with the girl with sheep legs?

I took a deep, shuddering breath, my eyes drifting back down to my body. These delicate, tiny legs... this small body, these thin arms and slight hands... It was so strange. I could feel my body. I could feel that it was me. But the view looking down was so totally different it was almost impossible to comprehend the situation. How had this happened? The last thing I remembered was the truck bearing down at me, then I was in the air.

By this point, all of this was far too real to be a dream.

"... I..."

What did I say? The dragon had introduced himself. He was the reason I was alive. At this point, I felt like I owed him some kind of introduction.

"... M... my name is-" I hesitated. Certainly I had another name, the name I had before being pushed into traffic, but...

"... Ravy."

Aries chuckled while staring pointedly at the other child, she had to say that was a pretty good comeback. The girl looked around 5 years younger than her, but that didn't mean they couldn't be friends. At least she wouldn't have to be friends with the doll-looking girl who just flashed everyone. She didn't leave much time for her to talk herself down and immediately walked over to the little girl with horns and a tail.

"Little girl? Are you okay? Do you need a tissue?" She reached over into where her bag almost always sat, only to find it missing. At the moment, she didn't find this very surprising. She had goat legs for fucks sake, a missing bag was the least of her worries. "I think I'll have to take back that tissue offer." An awkward smile had made its way onto her face as she spoke.

She would admit, maybe she should have checked what was on her before making any offerings to other people. You couldn't blame her either, she always had the damned bag with her, she never would have thought it disappeared. Aries knew she wouldn't get it back anytime soon, at least not until she figured out what in the world was going on with her legs.

She reached up to scratch her head, only to hit her hand against something hard. "Son of a..!" She muttered a curse as she shook her hand. The whole scene looked rather peculiar coming from a body that looked no older than 10. After the pain dulled she reached up again, feeling around the horn she had hit her hand on. She tried to pull it off, only to be met with a jolt of pain. "Does anyone have a mirror?"

Aries quickly forgot about her previous problem when she heard Ravy speak again, a suddenly realization hit her that nobody would know her old name here. She could become an entirely different person, not like anybody would be able to call her out on it. After a moment, she said the first name that came to mind.

"Aries, my name is Aries. Nice to meet you, Ravy."

With feet on soil, and hopefully with all of your vital organs still inside of your body, you'd be able to survey your immediate surroundings. You were in a forest obviously, that much was immediately certain given the extent of natural foliage around you, The Ash trees with twisted trunks, The soft leaf-bed covering the soil beneath your feet. The dew on the grass confirmed that this place was at least moderately humid.

Those with more alert ears would note the presence of running water. A nearby stream was located north-east to the land spot. Following it would certainly lead to a river and eventually civilisation. There was also a some path of trodden leaves in the opposite direction, as if it was a well worn path. Both of these could perhaps lead somewhere. But for now all that would be present would be yourself and the adventurers around you, for any animal that would of been nearby would of been scared off by the mighty crash.

---

Discoveries

Discovered Red-Ash Woods

What was once the site of a great battle has since been overgrown by Trees and foliage. The grudges of those that died in war is said to have been responsible for some of the more twisted tree-trunks one can find in this forest. Ghost sightings are also pretty common in this woods!

Discovered Poor Maiden's Stream
A small freshwater stream that runs through the Red-Ash Woods that connects to the Wood Elves main trade route, The Heritage River. There are common folk tales about this stream but the one that gives it is namesake is the sighting of a lonely maiden whom sometimes flocks to the streams edge in times of war.

@VitaVitaAR@Suneli@PKMNB0Y

---

"Ahaha, shame is for those who lack self-esteem, little adorable rebenok." Vladlena replied heartily. "Besides, this new body is odd. I have half a mind to take everything off and do a thorough inspection, heh!" She laughed, flashing a playful smile towards Ravy. "But I can do that once we have a bearing on our situation, hm?" The doll twirled in space, her skirt billowing out as she happily breathed in. Or would have, had she the lungs to do so. Ah, that was going to take some getting used to! She didn't seem to need to breathe, yet here she was still trying too. She was busy contemplating the functions of her seemingly new body as Lin transformed, barely even mentally registering that it happened.

"Ah, silly me." She stopped her twirl, smiling at the other three present. "I am Vladlena Belyakova. Just a simple college student studying engineering from the greatest motherland on earth!" She made a rather over dramatic bow as she introduced herself. "A pleasure to meet you Ravy, Lin, Aeries. I can expect we all arrived here by similar means? Accident and then just found ourselves plummeting to our second demise?" Humming lightly, Lena glanced at the forest around them. Well, she was sorely out of her element in a forest like this. She was used to living it up in the city, working with machines, computers, and drinking her body weight in vodka.

"Hmm...but perhaps Lin is correct. We should save any in depth discussion until we have a better handle on our situation." Alternatively, looking at it, this could be a fun challenge. She had never done something like surviving out in the wilderness before, or even building a basic shelter. She had no doubt she could, but it was all theoretical, and putting theory into practice was always a fun time.

"Poshli! Waiting around gets nothing done!" Without waiting to see if any of the others would follow her, Lena began walking into the forest, away from their impact zone.

"Yuri Monmusu~ Yuri Monmusu~" Kaoru sang, practically dancing down the street. It was finally the release of Yuri Monmusu Ni: The Silkweb Story. It was the long anticipated sequel to Yuri Monmusu: Through Darkness comes Light. Kaoru in particular was excited because the main antagonist, Lady Ashewell Silkweb, was set to be the protagonist this time! It was early in the morning so that meant one thing. "I have all today to play!" The college student cheered while heading towards the trains quickly. Sadly, the game just wasn't downloadable even with all the modern amenities of the internet so one must go to the store to pick it up.

That however is how tragedy befalls Kaoru. In an attempt to make it home faster, Kaoru took a side street. Construction was going on here but one could still get by them through a small passage allowed for foot traffic. As the Otaku passed by some weird things happened. A brick crumbled to dust, the edge of a jack hammer chipped off and flew in Kaoru's direct, a steel beam rolled off the top of the pyramid where it was sitting and lastly Kaoru almost stepped in a pothole. In response to all of this, Kaoru merely looked on with worried eyes and spoke inwardly. "I'd really hate to have this for my job with all this stuff happening."

All in all, Kaoru came out of the experience unscathed. That however was just the tip of the iceberg however. Moving back on to another street, the Otaku continued towards the station when an old lady's voice from above could be heard. "Oh criminy! That darn AC fell again!"

As Kaoru looked up there would be a noticeable object falling at a high rate of speed. There was no reaction time fast enough to get fully out of the way of the on-coming object and it crashed into Kaoru. There was a great pain in the student's chest as a heavy old model window AC unit rested there. There was an amount of blood spilling onto the ground as Kaoru's hands clutched the game in them. "I'm sorry. Lady... Ashewell." With a slow closing of the eyes, that was the death of one Kaoru Ushikata.

---

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!" Kaoru screamed. This was a weird dream for sure. Falling? Well, this wasn't the first time in this sort of dream. What was the meaning of falling in dreams again? Insecurities? Yes, something like that. What was there to do? Kaoru flailed around for a little until something weird happened. Some weird feeling came from behind. Not so much getting hit by something but rather shooting something out. "Uwaaaaahh!?"

Soon though the world started to move different. Instead of the ground coming to meet Kaoru it started to move to the side before eventually going away again. There was a pit growing in Kaoru's stomach as the same scene started to repeat itself until finally there was a certain realization. "Am I spinning around something?" Eventually the spinning came to a stop and Kaoru was just hanging in midair teen feet off the ground before a loud audible snap was heard and the Otaku smacked into the ground feeling naught but a small bit of pain.

"Owowow." Kaoru said, pushing up off the ground. "What the hell kind of dream is this?" Thinking on the death defying spinning that was just done, Kaoru couldn't remember many of the dreams that went like this. Hell, how could this happen? Humans couldn't do anything to make them spin around a tree like that! Well, it was a dream after all. Perhaps that had something to do with it. A hand went to Kaoru's head and massaged it a bit, trying to relieve some of the stress from what just happened...

"Geez, my hand feels glossy. That's weird." Taking a look, Kaoru discovered something... Interesting. "Ehh? Eeeeeehhhhh?! What the hell? What's with my arm? It's all glossy and like... I don't know what it's like!" Kaoru looked around noticing many things different. "What with my chest?! My hair?!" Pure white hair and a somewhat large chest. Two things that weren't there before. "Wait..."

Kaoru then noticed something even weirder when trying to stand. "My legs are... There's... Eight?" Kaoru twisted "her" new body around to take a look behind. A spidery abdomen and eight legs. Hell, her vision was even... She furrowed her brow and reached up with a hand to feel. There were in fact eight eyes. "Ummm... Ok. This is a weird dream. did I turn into a Drider or something? I must be having the weirdest most lucid dream I've even had. This is probably just because I'm too excited for Yuri Monmusu Ni. I'm just dreaming that I'm like Ashewell. A good silly dream."

Kaoru just expected that a good silly dream would disappear soon after it was discovered to be one but that didn't happen. Kaoru waited a minute for something to happen but nothing did. Against her better judgement, Kaoru tried standing. It was extremely awkward at first but. Standing and walking came naturally, truthfully. Well, it did after some grueling trial and error. It was refreshing somehow.

The Drider started walking in a direction to make sure there were no problems with her legs. After that fall, it wouldn't be surprising if issues arose. Instead of any bodily issues, however, there was one problem practically staring her in the face as she walked through the tree line. There were a ton of things here. A man, a sheep, a girl? Another girl and a little devil girl? It was hard to make out at this distance. She wasn't sure if introductions were the best idea or not. Well, she was well enough to run should the need arise. "Umm. Hello there?" The look on her face at the moment was "confused" if one wanted to be generous. "Worried" if not.

Lin stood by as he listened to the three girls in turn, nodding his head in response to each introduction. While the girl with the horns and tail—Revy, her name was—seemed to have calmed down to some degree, none of the three had any better of an idea than he about their current situation. As things were now, the four of them were rather out of luck when it came to information about this problem.

"Ravy, Aries, Vladlena... All right, I should be able to remember that without much trouble," he stated, glancing around the forest before sighing. "Well, I can't say that your hypothesis seems that far off the mark. Given the name and your manner of speech, I'm going to assume... Russia? You certainly are taking this entire ordeal quite well, though..."

The lackadaisical attitude that Vladlena was displaying was a bit jarring in its own right, but immediately heading out did seem to be the best course of action to take in his eyes. With a slight nod towards the other two, Lin began to follow off after her, making sure to keep a keen eye out for anything helpful. Ideally, they could find an unoccupied cave or something of that sort to reside in for the moment before moving out to find civilization, but then the problem became supporting all of them.

Before he could walk too far, though, the sound of someone else speaking up—an unfamiliar voice all its own—caused Lin to turn around, only to see what could only have been described as a drider approaching their position.

Despite that fact, though, Lin didn't seem particularly fazed, and had instead simply turned around, walking closer to the two who hadn't left the area yet. The expression that the newcomer wore was not one of aggression, but it didn't hurt to be wary despite that fact.

"Hello there, ma'am. Hm... Are you, by any chance, a resident of this forest? Or were you unfortunate enough to have also been unceremoniously thrown down from the heavens like the rest of us?"

@Rune_Alchemist@VitaVitaAR@Suneli@Pyromania99

Little girl...

Being called that was surreal. Especially by a child. But... it was also accurate right now, wasn't it? I couldn't look at my body and not acknowledge that fact. I could feel my tail, which was even stranger then being a little girl if I was to be honest, swishing back and fourth behind me. What did I do next, exactly? I had introduced myself, and so had everyone else who fell here. Did we all come from the same place? No, the doll girl sounded Russian. And way too relaxed given the situation we all had found ourselves in. Was it even a good idea to tell them where I had come from?

I eventually decided to just leave it at 'Ravy'. Maybe that named suited this new form better anyway. I didn't feel entirely comfortable just revealing my actual name to anyone just quite yet. Not when I didn't know what was going on.

"... You really are some kind of exhibitionist," I murmured, when the Russian Doll mentioned that she would strip down right there for self-examination if she felt so inclined. This was already too weird, even though I'd managed to calm myself down... and then it got even stranger.

There was a spider lady now. A spider lady. Everyone else was at least currently mostly human-shaped, but no, this was a spider lady. I was growing more lost by the second.

In this situation, there wasn't much else I could do, except ask...

"... What now?"

@PKMNB0Y@Pyromania99@Rune_Alchemist@Suneli

While others had their time to converse, and introduce themselves, Jasmine had come to one conclusion. The others were probably elsewhere in the forest, as compared to where she had landed. With how the woods were, she thought she could hear voices nearby, but the direction was hard to pinpoint. Too many objects to bounce off of, so she had given up trying to figure out where the people were currently. She instead had returned to examining herself, before deciding to wander off, following the sound of water, and eventually, found the source, a stream. Bending over it, Jasmine gazed into her own reflection, assuming the water could reflect such, and considered what she could see. White hair, pale skin, eyes of a nice coloration, her outfit...

"...Okay now I'm tripping. I look like a Nier character." She'd never played a Nier game, but she had seen plenty of artwork of the characters. She'd always seen herself like 2B, with that grace and poise. So the thought of instead looking like A2...well it sat odd with her. Cosplay was one thing, but to actually be maybe a robot now? Okay...so now that she'd had this time to think, the Predator theory seemed less likely. More like...

"Fuck, I died, didn't I. Weird forest, falling from the sky, new body, sensation of pain right before falling...this feels like one of those Japanese manga where people get hit by something and wake up in a new world." Was this what had enfolded? Her waking up in an alien world, now a robot? Well, if there were dragons and other monster like beings...that probably meant this wasn't some sort of high tech world. It was then she internally regretted never buying those DnD manuals with all their monster details, it would have come in handy to try and guess what she was...maybe a magical construct? It would explain the cracks. Maybe...

"...A Warforged would make sense if this is a fantasy setting. Unless I'm a Terminator who likes cosplaying Japanese characters..." A more advanced Warforged, like some sort of special next generation Envoy was a thought that went through her mind. Only really one way to find out, and that would be to well...find someone who could do some sort of check to confirm. The thought of the other people did come to mind, and that made Jasmine, who was now certain she had died and gone to some sort of second life where she got to be an ass kicking super robot, turn around, looking to see if anyone else had decided to check out the water. And then she also made a split second decision. She needed a kickass name, Jasmine was nice, but...

"The name's Glaive, just Glaive." The bad joke falling flat, Jasmine sighed, and flopped down against the bank of the stream, and just kept mulling. One way or the other would lead to civilization, but that also begged the question what kind. Were robots even known to this world? What if they were in the middle of a robot uprising, and people hated robots? What if...okay, way too many what ifs. She'd just have to...take things as it went. No use getting flustered when her face barely changed its expression. Great, she probably had an epic poker face.

So yeah, she was freaking out on the inside, while being stoic as hell on the outside. So much to consider, so much to wonder. But for now, sitting beside the stream seemed the most logical thing to do. Until her head stopped mentally doing cartwheels. Which could be...awhile. Hooray.

Aries looked at Revy saturated with curiosity, her demeanor was largely different from her appearance. She seemed a bit like an old man on the inside, but that was just ridiculous... right? As she heard Lin speaking to someone she turned to look at the woman he addressed.

Aries stared at the spider lady, a cold dose of fear shooting down her spine. So far everyone looked human, for the most part, so suddenly seeing someone like this only served to push the point that she was no longer in her world. She shuffled over to the dragon man, Lin, was it? Well, he seemed like the most reliable here so she clung to him.

"I-I dont think this is the time to chat; running seems reasonable. L-let's run, yeah?" She tugged at his sleeves, trying desperately to make him listen to her. Anybody would be beyond terrified if they saw a giant spider shambling towards them, much less a little girl. Her head swung back and forth rapidly, looking for a place they could escape to.

"The forest seems nice, let's go there." She stared at the spider that was gradually getting closer, her as began watering as her fluffy little sheep ears plastered themselves against her head. She considered escaping alone, but with what she had already seen, she doubted she would be able to get far without this group.

Kaoru looked at the group. This... Well, it was going a bit better than it should have. Really. Luckily, the one guy seemed to not have issues with her being what she was. "Resident of the forest? No. I'm... Stuck in this wonderfully weird body." She looked around the group and got an idea of who each was. She then laid her eyes on some cute and adorable thing. Well, there were two of them but only one looked extra soft and had horns. All of her eyes blinked as she quickly moved on all legs over before grabbing the girl up and hugging her close to her chest. "Adorable~ Just like something out of Yuri Monmusu!~~~"

It was a solid hug and the spider never let go. At some point, she let go with one hand and started petting the satyr's head. "Cute adorable little thing." Kaoru mentioned before looking around at the others. "Oh, anyhow, how do you do? Kaoru... Well, that person doesn't need to be here. Call me Ashewell, if you would." There was a smile across the spider-woman's face as she looked around to Ravy. "Did you want a hug too?" She the turned to the male and looked him up and down before patting his head as if to say "sorry not you."

@VitaVitaAR@Suneli@PKMNB0Y@Pyromania99

---

"Aha, Indeed. Russia. A student at Moscow State University. Top of my class, even." The doll smirked, chuckling proudly at the statement. Was she taking this well? She supposed she was, considering the reactions of the two kids here. The little...demon child? Seemed like she was taking it particularly hard. "And we're alive, aren't we? Better than I was apparently doing on earth." The forest was something else, wasn't it? Certainly far unlike those on earth. The air seemed tinged with a wondrous, almost inviting adventuring quality to it. It was enough to make her feel excited at any rate.

She was so caught up in her own thoughts, she almost ran face first into the spider.

"Ah-geh!" Stumbling over her feet, Lena jumped backwards, holding her arms defensively in front of her until she realized she wasn't about to be jumped. "Aha, it's a spider. Sorry about that, I was lost in thought." Said spider went on to accost the sheep, before introducing herself as...Kaoru? Or Ashewell. Weird. Was she the only one here with a relatively normal name? Well, aside from Lin. Maybe they had some reason to use an alias? Eh, not important.

"Well, little rebenok, there's no reason to shy away from someone in the same boat as we are." She patted Ravy on the head, before approaching Ashewell. "Privet, friend! You are in the same as us then?" Lena smiled brightly. Come to think of it, her body seemed to be made of wood, so how was she even able to make facial expressions? Hm, a thought for later. "The more the merrier I say. We were just on our way to see about finding civilization or a shelter of some sort. Care to join us?"

Given how the newcomer had been reacting and Aries' own fear regarding the situation, Lin had (somewhat discretely) moved to stand in front of the other two girls. He had no real intent to get into combat, given how unsure he was about if he could even handle himself in a fight, but some part of him compelled him to act as a bit of a protector. When the spider-girl began to rush towards him, though, Lin adopted what felt like a combat-ready stance for martial arts.

Of course, when the end result was Aries being hugged like some sort of plush toy, Lin stared blankly at the pair for a moment before dropping the stance entirely. Hearing the words that came out of the spider-girl's mouth soon after, though...

"What the heck are you saying?" he asked in Cantonese, baffled enough to lapse into his mother tongue as he tried to make sense of the situation. "Did you land on your head when you fell?"

After a brief pause, though, Lin quickly regained his composure and shook his head, deciding that the spider-girl—Ashewell, given her own comment—was not someone to actively harm the children. Her subsequent petting him on the head, though, caused the young man to take a step back in mild annoyance. Being treated like a child by a complete stranger was not something he liked all too much.

"Hm. Well, in any case... Moscow?" he finally asked, turning back towards the doll and nodding. "I grew up in Guangzhou and went to America for further education, but I do think that your comment about 'being alive' when I was clearly... Not after that accident would give a reasonable theory about our current situation. Reincarnation, I would think, would be an apt descriptor. Or, rather, the transmigration of the soul into a new body...? But yes, we are alive now, and I do agree with your sentiment; travelling as a party would likely cut down on possible issues regarding safety and manpower. How about it?"

If she was like them—in short, a recently deceased person in a new body—then the moral standards of Earth would likely apply. Hopefully, that meant that they were normal enough to work with...

@VitaVitaAR@Suneli@Pyromania99@Rune_Alchemist