[IC] Dragon's Awakening

[Noire]

"Are you awake yet?" Connor was sitting in a wide, grassy field, staring up at the sky. Clouds were scattered around the brilliant blue expanse. To the right of him, a foamy blue sea smashed against rocks, battering itself against it. By him, a young girl, maybe ten, was lying by him. Her face had a wide, giggling grin set against it, highlighted by azure eyes. She slowly got up, rumbling her skirt. "Come on, we've been here foreeveerrrrr." She groaned. Connor blinked, and slowly raised a hand.

It was flesh and blood. Veins ran through it, and the fingers were long and rough. Skin covered bone and muscle. Not the hard! seemingly disjointed rocks of some stone goliath. He raised himself, dusting off dirt. Lime green grass stains covered his knees and arms. His daughter stood beside him, holding his arm. "Can I ride on your back? I'm tired." She said, grabbing onto his shirt. Shirt..? He had clothes on. Clothes. He wasn't bare naked. "I'm tired, Ellie. Can it wait?" He said, reluctantly. "Nope." His daughter grabbed into his back, climbing up with surprisingly agility.

"Alright." Connor took several long strides, holding his daughter on his shoulders. He actually felt himself smile, and a hot, wet tear rolled down his cheek.

Connor awoke with a start, it wasn't yet morning, but he had awoken. Connor scratched his shoulder, feeling the stone grind against stone. He had become accustomed to it over the past few days, like his joints creaking as if he was 50 and not 30, or the fact that he was almost three times the height he was before, or the fact that he had the blood of multiple lives on his hand. It was just becoming routine. Something that he had to deal with each morning, just like drinking coffee.

The cave was still dark, the blackness pressing in all around him. He could make out some faint figures. Tony, Ralph, and the new guy. Outside of the cave, he could make out the silhouette of the cage and Verlassën, who seemed to be snuggled up against two blurry figures. Probably the foxes that had come out of nowhere when they last fought the wolf. The wolf. He regarded her cage with pure anger. He had almost never held a grudge against anymore, but now he felt more rage than ever.

Connor sighed, lolling his head back against the cave wall. He supposed he would just wait until morning again.

[Riddles]

Ralph opened his eyes slowly, and looked around. Tony and Deravan were both asleep, but Connor seemed to have woken up. Val was still watching over the cage, along with her foxes. She'd been awake for a pretty long time. Ralph was surprised she hadn't gone to switch places with Deravan yet. He knew that if he was on watch, he would have probably switched with someone else already. His gaze shifted to Connor. He could have easily just stomped on Michelle and ended the fight right there, but he didn't. It obviously wasn't because he didn't want to kill her, because he'd voted to do so later on. Ralph could clearly tell that there was something about Michelle that bothered Connor, but he wasn't sure what it was. He figured he would find out eventually, though.

The sun still hadn't come up yet. Ralph didn't know exactly what time it was, but he knew he had at least a few more hours to rest. He needed as much as he could get. He had no idea what could happen tomorrow, and it would be dangerous for him to be half-asleep the whole time because he didn't get enough rest.

[Lugia]

[Robert]

dream sequence

What am I doing here? I ask myself as I make my dream self look all around the landscape. There was some sort of strange, greyish, flying snake thing looking down on me... something told me that it was mad, VERY MAD. The creature reminded me of pokemon, yet, it looked much larger than I thought it would be, and the area itself? It was Issac Newton's worst fever dream, that is, if his dream happened to include an M.C. Escher painting... well, a painting that had a limited pallet of purple, grey, and black... heck, a look at myself in this dream revealed that even I wasn't immune to the effects of this odd land, as for some odd reason, my entire body was grey, and it wasn't the body I knew, no, not my current dragon body, and certainly not my old human body. What the heck is going on here!? I ask myself in my dream as my dream self decides to speak "You claim to be helping others like me, but, at what cost? I won't allow the others to lose their world just so 'my' race can live on!" These weren't exactly my words, but they were spoken through what could be considered 'me'... at least, in the dream. The creature laughs, and then disappears into the shadows, almost instantly. I had no clue how the other me thought he was going to defeat this thing, but, a moment later, the thing came and struck my dream self hard. Thankfully, I couldn't feel pain, with this being a dream, however, I could tell simply due to the fact that my dream self was launched forwards some distance.

From that, you'd expect the other me to be knocked out, as apparently HE felt the pain, yet, he just got back up, and even had enough energy to deliver what was probably the most overused one-liner in history "Is that the best you've got?" Well, I knew I couldn't vouch for this guy's intelligence, given that he just taunted a monster that's more than twenty times his size, and had the power to instantly teleport and then attack using another teleport... of course, this prompted my dream self to materialize some sort of grey vine, and, I'm not even kidding, run up to the creature which looks as though it has the power to instantly destroy him, and bash him on the head with it. Oddly enough, that seemed to damage the beast, almost more than the shadowy, teleporting move hurt my dream self. I guess my dream self wasn't too in over his head with this fight, then. The creature then slashes at the other me, and almost instantly he seems to counter with that vine thing again, this time not doing any damage, but actually cancelling out the creature's attack. The battle went on for a while, with my dream self slowly gaining ground against the creature, and eating some sort of either small fruit, or large berry... it looked kind of like an orange, but blue... anyways, he ate that whenever the battle seemed to be too much for him, and, soon enough, the creature was defeated... much to my surprise. Just when I thought my dream self was out of danger, some sinister laughter could be heard just beyond the edge of the chunk of land that this fight took place on... odd... though, the dream just sort of ended right there, with the sinister laughter.

I woke up and thankfully didn't scream or shout. The day was bright, which made it seem as though the dust from yesterday settled, and some of the light woke me up as per my usual daily routine... though, I did take a quick look at myself, revealing that, yes, I was still a dragon. The dragon part wasn't a dream, but obviously, the weird snake thing was. I yawned, stretched, and got out of my bed, and take a shower before putting on some clean clothes, and heading downstairs, with the only difference being that my clothes now had holes in them from that first day, when I modified them to fit better. Of course, the differences between today and a couple days ago started to become more apparent when my stairs creaked and cracked apparently no longer really able to support my weight, which, I suppose I could understand given that there were giant holes all over the wood. Yeah, sure, I was actually lighter like this, but the stairs were much weaker from some unknown attack on them. I end up breaking one of the stairs and decide to just sort of fly down, where I saw Miles basically melted onto the hardwood floor that covers the downstairs portion of my house, and Elena still fast asleep in her sleeping bag. I didn't really want to wake either of them up, yet, as it still seemed early... of course, I had no idea what time it was, given that all of my electronics kinda stopped working, recently, but, I just had a hunch that it was still very early in the day.

---

[Tony]

I woke up after a dreamless sleep, and take a quick look around, mainly making sure that everything actually happened, and if it did (and it did) to also make sure that Michelle was still in her jail cell. I quietly make my way past Val and her canine helpers to find that she was still there, and asleep. I notice a weird rock formation that wasn't there last night, and just assume that it's Connor, who, I'm guessing is still asleep... which I suppose means that rock monsters actually require sleep. Ralph and Deravan weren't too far away, but I suppose that was to be expected, given that we haven't actually done anything with the base yet, well, save for the support beams that we made. It was weird, but, unlike that other time I fell asleep on a rocky floor, I didn't really feel as though someone hit me on the back with a hammer several times when I woke up... heck, I felt as though I just got out of a soft, feathery bed, somehow. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that I'm no longer human, or maybe the fact that I can control rocks, somehow... I guess my answer will come as soon as one of the others wakes up, but I didn't really feel like making someone wake up because every one of my teammates has some sort of advantage against me, and I didn't really want to be drowned, burned alive, or crushed today. I secretly take over for Val by making sure that I keep a good eye on Michelle, who, again, was asleep... okay, fine, I just sort of sat there, waiting for someone else to wake up so I could do something.

[Absol]

Verlassën's ears twitched as something moved nearby and she cracked one eye open to see Tony sitting nearby. Teal and Russet were still asleep, their forms curled around her. If she moved now, she'd wake them up. She lifted her head slightly, opening the other eye she yawned, placing her head on her paws and watching Tony. "I haven't heard her move at all while I was dozing - I've made it a habit of mine to have my ears on alert in case anything moves by me while I sleep." Verlassën said, sounding pretty tired - she didn't remember the last time she had a proper sleep, and her light dozing didn't do much to easy her sleepy state. At least now that Tony was awake she didn't have to be as alert, so she closed her eyes and sighed, her ears perked in case Tony wanted to chat. She hoped he didn't as she couldn't really keep a good intelligent conversation going in her current state. She eventually succumbed to sleep, and she had a dream for the first time is what was probably weeks.

Verlassën padded through the ruined city, her violet eyes watchful. It had been three days since Teal, Russet and her had parted ways and she missed them terribly. Part of her craved for social interaction, while the other part was secretly glad for the time away from everything. A clatter sounded behind her and she stopped, violet gaze looking behind her as she sniffed at the air, her limbs quivering as she looked around carefully. "Who... Who's there?" She asked, but she only got a growl in reply. A dog, it looked like a true dog, but it had mutated into having a scorpion-like tail and sharp teeth that made Verlassën take a few steps back. She looked to the side for an escape but she saw no escape. The dog lunged and Verlassën yelped, jumping to the side. The dog took account for this and landed, it's rear spinning around as it jumped at Verlassën's side. They went down in a flurry of teeth, fur, horns and claws. Verlassën got away from underneath the dog and scrambled away, shooting an ice shard at her attacker. The dog yelped and scrambled away from the frosty attack, but it was quick to recover.

Verlassën shot another ice shard, but the dog dodged the attack and lunged for Verlassën, getting it's teeth around her scruff. It lifted her easily and Verlassën's vision ebbed. She summoned a solid spear of shadows that impaled the dog, it's teeth coming out of her side as it yelped. The spear hit home, spearing the dog's ribcage and through it's lungs and heart. Verlassën whined and moved over to the dying dog, her violet eyes apologetic. "I'm sorry..." She whispered, her jaws biting down on the shadow spear. She put a paw on the dog's chest, before shoving the spear through to the other side of the dog's body. It died soon after. The shadows dissipated and Verlassën took one last look at the dog's body, before walking away, her head down and eyes scanning in front of her.

Verlassën's eyes opened as Russet twitched in her sleep and Teal was awake, looking at Verlassën curiously. She got to her paws and stretched, yawning. Not a whole lot of time had passed, that dream had woken her right up, and she was too restless to get to sleep now. That was my first time killing something since I mutated... Verlassën thought, recalling the dream dimly. Shaking out her fur, she sat down next to where Teal was sighing in boredom. "It get's boring sitting around doing nothing while everyone sleeps." Verlassën said, trying to make idle conversation as she looked over to where Tony was. She had gotten about a ten minutes sleep - not much, but it was enough.

[Evanist]

Elena had some problems sleeping during the night. She had waken up multiple times from nightmares,seeing her parents get impaled and slashed repeatively by something, hearing the voice of her brother moving farther and farther away from them. When she finally was able to get back to a normal sleep, it had been from a dreamless sleep, without anything happening. Time passed as she slowly woke up during the morning, seeing Robert that was awake now. She sighed and grumbles as she gets out of the sleeping bag, and shakes her head, before letting out a large sighed.
"Ugh... did not sleep well at all." she says annoyed and not that happy. She breath deeply. She then got up and stretched her whole body, cracking a bit her bones from being that stiff from being stuck in the sleeping bag that was not that large for her. She spread her wings slightly and sighed. She looks at Miles, who was a pile of goop on the floor at the moment, and then at Robert.
"Good.... morning." she says.

---

Deravan all night had been sleeping but waking up here and there, his ears twitching from any movement that would happen. It had taken lots of time for him to actually wake up properly at the moning. He looked around a bit, cracking his neck a bit, making the blood flow circulate better as he looks around. He breath deeply.
"Sorry if I did not really go full guard duty.... I felt too tired to do much." he says, a bit annoyed at himself for not having given Verlassen a bit more time of rest. He sits down and sighed, thinking now about everything that happen and trying to figure out what to do about all this. He looks at Tony.
"I guess we need to wait for everyone to wake up before we plan our next move...." he says calmly and sleepy.

[Noire]

Connor's eyes slowly reopened from a dreamless sleep. He was still curled up on the stone, cold floor. "Eugh." He said, tasting a bitter sensation in his mouth. Morning breath. His eyes still felt heavy, and his legs sore, but at least now he had a good night's rest. Connor turned to the side, and saw Ralph, still sleeping off in the cave. A slightly brighter light than earlier flared in the corner of his eye, and outside of the cave, he saw Deravan, Tony, and Verlassen awake. Tony was keeping an eye on the wolf.

Connor got up, and his stone feet pounded against the cave floor loudly. If Ralph wasn't awake by now, then he'y probably be awake from all the noise he was making. Connor laid a hand against the cave wall, and rested there for a moment. His entire body was slumped up against the wall, just trying to regain his balance. Then he took a shaky step forward. It was becoming a daily ritual for him to try to get balanced, considering his massive size. Some days were better than others.

Finally Connor got a good foothold, and he returned to a steady, rhythmic walking. He walked out of the cave, still working out the kinks in his system. By now, he'd usually be eating breakfast. Then again, he didn't really "eat." He had tried to eat before, back the same day it started, but the food had just seemed to slide down his throat without any chewing. He never really felt hungry, so Connor imagined that he'd hopefully never have to eat. That was one thing he was glad about when he mutated.

"Morning to you people." He said, scratching his back. He looked back at the cage. Looked like the wolf was still there. Still only had one opening. None of them looked dead, considering they were all standing up. Looked like there were no problems last night. "So, what are you planning today? Get supplies? Raid a shop? Hunt for food?" At the word food, Connor could've sworn he heard some small voices in the forest muttering to themselves. The forest really was packed full of people.

[Riddles]

Ralph was awoken by what sounded like boulders crashing onto the ground. He instantly woke up, thinking there was a cave-in, only to find that it was only Connor stumbling towards the rest of the group. "Jesus Christ, Connor." He said. "You scared the crap out of me."
He flew outside, joining the rest of the group. "Now, I don't know about you guys, but I'd like to get something to eat before we do anything else. Let's see if we can find anything in the forest first. If we really have to, we'll try the city, but I don't want to go there unless it's absolutely necessary."
Ralph still wanted to avoid the city as much as possible, at least until they were better prepared. All of the psychos had probably killed each other off by now, so that wasn't what he was worried about this time. What worried him a lot more was Michelle's group. They certainly didn't sound like an ordinary gang of thugs. Apparently, Michelle was weaker than the other admins, and since they had so trouble defeating her, they'll have a lot more dealing with the others. They were probably outnumbered as well. The forest was definitely a safer option.

[KaBling]

Y'know, I could get used to this.

Sleeping felt like I had just slept on the President's own bed. My God, the floor was somehow comfortable. Perhaps it was just me and forming over flat surfaces.

Speaking of which, as I woke up, I found that the floor wasn't vinyl. In fact, it was hardwood, but it was so dirty that it actually looked like vinyl. Anyway, apparently, I had evolved in my sleep, growing some weird tentacles with small appendages that would constantly swipe at the floor. I felt rather queasy, which quickly turned to hunger as deformed the things and let them seep back into me.

"Well, that was a nice night. That, and I... cleaned your floor, pretty much. Breakfast, anyone?" I joked a bit before realising how the world was still in the shit yesterday - outside, some things stopped burning, but some buildings had collapsed that night. Now, the suburb that presumably had many houses looked more like wrecked fields with campfires. Of course, there were still plenty of houses, it was just that there was more empty land than usual. Oh, and graves and unburied corpses. I suppose it would've been morally wrong to consume them, holding myself back while I turned to everyone else again. I had went from some predatory slime mould into a slime dragon again (please let this be the last time I use the word 'slime dragon').

"Well, what do we do for today?"

[Lugia]

[Robert]

I decide against a cheesy line I thought of in response to Miles' question, and simply say "Well, good morning, everyone," apparently, my dad and Berta were still asleep, as they weren't around at this point. I did eventually answer Miles' question with "I... guess we should look for another one of these shard things?" I didn't sound all too confident that we'd find one, given that the last one we found just sort of randomly appeared... I guess we could always search for idiots who think they can rule the world, or something, but, given that we only had one shard so far, it's not like we had a pattern established yet. I then get up off of the couch I was sitting on, and notice that the floor was a different color in the area around Miles, who apparently cleaned it... odd, though, was that this must have meant that Berta, who was an OCD clean freak, would have let it get like that... of course, it could just be the whole 'apocalypse' thing that just happened. I mean, it can't be easy keeping the floor clean at or after the end of the world, right? Maybe she just sort of gave up after the third or so riot and or break in hit this house. I then open the door, and completely forgetting breakfast at this time, say "Alright, let's get outta here. We've got a mission to do," this time, I actually sounded confident with my words, after all, if we weren't going to save the world from jerks who have other plate pieces, who will?

---

[Tony]

After a bit of conversation with Val, the others finally wake up, and Connor asks what we're going to be doing today. I think about it for a moment, and end up saying "Well... I think we've got HER trapped... so, we'll separate. Val, her pets, and Ralph will head off into the forest to find some breakfast, Connor and I will head off into the city to hopefully recruit others to help our cause, and Deravan... well, I guess he'll just follow either Ralph or Connor, his choice," I then check our captive, who was probably a late riser, and was fast asleep at this point. She occasionally twitched, but, it's not like she was going to get out of that cage any time soon. I then thought that it might benefit us to learn something more about our enemies, though, I don't think anyone really knew about them yet... I mean, they just kinda formed out of nowhere on the first day after Earth's transformation... like us. For all I knew, the wolf lady was bluffing to keep us away from their group, though, somehow... that kinda felt unlikely... either way, whatever information we could get on this group would be nice. I then head out of the cave, and towards the city that it was near, knowing that Connor would probably follow. I think I made a decent choice, given that Ralph didn't seem to like the chaos of the city, and Connor was big and intimidating... it was probably going to be tough to attack someone when they have a giant rock monster backing them up. Val would most likely be better off hunting with her keen sense of smell... and I couldn't separate her from her pets if I tried. I didn't really know that much about Deravan, even in relation to the others in my group, so, he'd probably be better off choosing to follow either one of our mini-groups.

[Evanist]

As Elena hears Robert saying that they should go, and Miles said something about breakfast, she breath deeply. It seemed they would not get breakfast this morning anyway, with the amount of things that happen these days. Resource wise they probably would need to skip some things like breakfast and such. She moved close to the door, and looked back at Miles.
"Well, I know we might be hungry, but I don't think we really have much food to spare now that we are kinda in a apocalyptic state...." she says before leaving through the door, looking around the place. It was surprising that Robert's house actually survived all that.... She would have expected everything to be in ruins now because of how everything was now. She sighed a bit annoyed by the sight that she was seeing so much death and ruin everywhere. She kinda wished she could stop all this chaos... She breath deeply and looked at the sky. After all this is done, she just hoped there would be something that was left to save.

---

As Deravan got up, he looked back at their prisoner, seeing her still asleep. He did not want to just leave her there but... if they did not get food or people, then how will they fight and beat that group.... They needed to be prepared instead of going blindly into a fight. He got up and looked at both group. Now where to go.... he could help in hunting for some food, but Val was already able to probably sense animals. She already could use dark energy, as same as him. Then there was Tony's group, which Tony could use stone magic, and Cornor was more physical he guessed.He could help by adding his dark powers in the group.. He looked at both and though about it....
"I think I will join your group Tony. I think later on when we come back I might go hunt." he then says, before walking to Tony's group. He breath deeply.
"And I feel as if it might be better to try to get more people so we can do more afterwards. With more people, we could make bigger hunting groups, and maybe later on even expend our fight to get everything out of this chaos and back to order.

[Riddles]

They split up into two groups, each one headed to a different location. Ralph, Val, and her foxes were to go out into the forest to search for food. Meanwhile, Tony, Connor, and Deravan were headed to the city to do some recruiting.
"Sounds like a plan." Ralph said. He hoped the city group would bring back more members. The more people they had in their group, the higher their chances of survival were. It would also mean they had more mouths to feed, so the forest group would have to bring back enough food to feed their current group, plus a few more people.
"Alright, let's head out." He said, flying up into the air. With him watching from the sky and Val watching from the ground, they were sure to find something.

[Absol]

As everyone disbanded, Verlassën got to her paws, waking Russet. The red fox stretched and then came to join Teal and Verlassën at the edge of the woods. Teal put his nose to the ground and sniffed around before stopping at one point and looking back towards Russet and Verlassën. Trotting over, they got the scent as well and Verlassën looked up to see Ralph fly overhead. Looking back down to the scent she followed it for a little bit, with her foxes at her side. She finally got a good scent and looked back to Teal and Russet. No words were needed to be spoken between the trio as they formed into a triangle with Verlassën at the point. She jumped over a log and stood up tall, her violet gaze watching carefully before she put her nose to the ground and smelt around some more. Now sure she had a scent, Verlassën looked back at Teal and Russet, who were dancing on their paws, impatient to get going. Chuckling quietly to herself, Verlassën nodded to them and the two foxes paced forwards, ears perked and paws placed carefully. Finally, Teal set off into the woods, followed by Verlassën and then Russet. They drew up close to a small clearing, and Verlassën looked around cautiously. "Teal, Russet, wait here." She said, stepping forwards carefully. The fox looked around, her form held low to the ground as she stalked out, her dark fur hidden by the grass and shadows. She looked around and was rewarded with a quiet rustling nearby. Her ears perked up and she pointed her nose that way to see what it was. It smelt mildly of rabbit, but it had a tinge of something else. Looking up to the sky, Verlassën hoped that nothing dropped on her while she was hunting, that would be the last thing she needed.

[Noire]

"The city it is." Connor said, already beginning his long stride into the forest. Each step he took, he felt a slight quake in the ground, and a slight shaking of the trees. The smell of morning dew wafted past, with slight hints of ash in the air. Probably some dragon spewing fire somewhere. That wouldn't be surprisingly. The vast expanse of emerald leaves and notched trunks reached out for miles. His feet seemed to pierce the canopy of leaves, leaving a large, empty hole.

In the distance, Connor would make out several tall, spiraling tower heads. One of them, one of the tallest, was very visibly missing a large chunk of it. The smell of smoke was beginning to become stronger. At least it didn't seem to be on fire, showing that at least some of the anarchy had ended since he had last seen it. Connor hoped that maybe the other golem wasn't there anymore. Around the beginning of it all, he had spotted a giant, iron wrought humanoid.

The golem had lumbered about, and each step it took, it seemed to wipe out a massive crowd of anarchists. It didn't seem to be really seeing anything going around it, and if it did, he doubted it cared. Dragons had flown around the thing, spewing fire and trying to take it out, but the flames had simply covered chunks of his arms with grey ash. The golem was probably the size of a skyscraper, and nothing seemed to be on par with it. He was lucky it didn't stomp him.

After milling about the city for a while, the golem had decided to rest a hand against a skyscraper. This, as expected, caused a chunk of the massive tower to fall, nearly crushing Connor if it had just been a little closer. After that, Connor decided to run far away from that part of the city, and maybe hide out in another area. Maybe another golem it's size decided to fight, and they both died. Or maybe it tripped and impaled itself on an electrical tower. Connor continued his walk, getting closer and closer.

[KaBling]

I let out a brief sigh, not really enthusiastic about saving the damn world again. "What?" I really wanted to stay and eat, but that wasn't the main problem... "Robert, do we have any idea where the other plates are? Do we somehow use our current plate as a compass?" I didn't like pointing out problems, so without further words, I stepped on the now-moist carpets and brushed by Celes in the doorway, entering the landscape that was once West Metropolis. Things looked slightly better than yesterday, but overall there wasn't too much to look at from here on. At least most buildings stood broken, rather than stood gone.

We've got a moon world to save. Better not waste time trying to disagree with others. I'm sure there were resistance groups going against... er, let me rephrase that. I'm sure there were groups going against anarchy and such. I wish I tasted alcohol before all of this, 'cause I would take up drinking just so I wouldn't be able to look at the world. Regardless, I realised everyone was still inside the house - how stupid of me. I think I was already blind beforehand. "Yeah, I'm hypocritical. Can we go now? Trying to save the world rather than standing around?"

[Lugia]

[Robert]

Elena said something about my family not having enough food to spare for us, and I had to agree with her, saying "Yeah... I guess you're right. Kinda funny, though, I almost forgot about breakfast," I then hear Miles ask me if I had any idea how to find the other plate pieces, and then suggested that I use the one that we already have to locate another one. "That might actually work... I mean, we might as well try, right?" I say in response to that. I then take out the plate piece, and try to focus on it... shortly afterwards, a sphere of stone surrounded me, not that I actually took much notice, as I was still focusing on the piece. It gets to the point where I close my eyes, and start to have some weird sort-of-dream. I could see everyone, including myself... or, really, the stone sphere that surrounded me... out of nowhere, 'I' started to fly out of the house, and off towards the... I suppose 'west', and for quite a ways... heck, until I could see the coast. Once the vision reached that point, I saw a huge tower, one that must have been somehow built during this crisis, and one that had a giant sign saying 'Carl Corporation'. I then made sure to take a good look, and noticed a broken-down 'Hollywood' sign in the far distance. I took a quick look back at the tower, and noticed a white glow on the very top of it... almost instantly after that, I snapped out of the dream, and finally noticed that I was encased in a stone sphere. As soon as I wanted to escape said sphere, it seemed to return back to the ground. I felt a little weird after that, but I managed to say "California..." adding to that "Hollywood... giant tower..." I then sat down for a moment, wondering what just happened, and also wondering why I actually felt tired after that.

---

[Tony]

After walking around in the city for a little while, and asking random people if they wanted to join our cause... and somehow generally getting a 'NO!' response from them, I had almost given up until I spotted a very... familiar trio of creatures. Firstly, there was that bronze golem, though, he looked a little dented, the gryphon, who was now sporting a black eye patch, and a bandage covering the middle of his body, and finally, the dragon... who I could have sworn died by Connor's hands... he looked the part too, somehow looking sort of like a zombified version of himself. His red scales seem to have lost some of their original sheen, with several flat-out missing to reveal the dull grey skin underneath... even his originally yellow wing membrane looked dull and greyish. He also appeared to be missing a couple of claws, and one of his horns. "Well, well, look who decided to show up," the golem says to both Connor and I as he and his group walk towards us. "Look, I don't want any trouble, alright? Also... I think we've proven that we're capable of absolutely destroying you, in case you need to remember THAT," the gryphon, er, Mark, I think his name was, then adds "Yeah, yeah, but last time we just fought for the sake of fighting... now we have a cause. We can't lose this time, now that we fight to bring order and law back to the world!" ...hold on... what did he just say? The dragon runs towards me, but before he could get to me, I shout "HOLD IT!" Shocking everyone on the opposite side. I then calm down, and add "Funny thing... that's kinda what we're fighting for now... so... bygones?" I sounded a little sheepish, and the dragon, who walked back towards his group, responded with "I don't know... I mean, YOU'RE the reason that I'm a zombie, and that's a little hard to forgive," I then turn towards Connor, who had earlier shown surprising speed with his running towards this part of the city... I mean, sure, he was still easy to catch... but that's not the point, I was almost certain that he'd help with negotiations in some way or another.

[Evanist]

Elena looked at Robert a bit worried afterwards, having seen him use quite some energy there. It was so strange that he just suddenly lost so much energy in so little time. That plate piece probably had some weird powers, and could tell them where to go next.... it was worth the try it seemed. Elena breath deeply before looking at the group.
"Well, best be going.... Or else we would be sitting ducks until the world ends." she then points out, going to move forwards, but making sure Robert could fallow. She knew where they were going. Tourism.... for once those studies actually helped more then for her job.... job that, unfortunately probably won't stay and exist after all this is over. Job that will have people laugh at if she did try to do it. Seriously, almost everyone could explore the world now with a faster speed. At least.... with wings and all. Those without them were stuck on the ground. Unfortunately for them. She breath deeply and continued to advance slowly.

---

As Deravan had been asking around town also with Tony, the usual response was a no... which was pretty bad for them to say the least. No one wanted to keep back order when things were going badly. Then... they met a strange group of a golem, a gryphon and a dragon that looked zombified. As he listened to what was being said, Deravan started to think more.
"Look... here is the thing. There is something that was probably self defense that had happened. They probably just wanted to try to stay alive in this chaotic place. Now.... because of this, you think that it's their fault? They are actually defending themselves. So ya.... let's please not hold grudges with this. They might have done a mistake by going to hard, but things must begones." he then says calmly, breathing deeply.
"And with how magic works now, we might find a way maybe to get you back to a more lively and less dead.." he then says.

[Noire]

"Oh, great." Connor said, staring at the patched up trio in front of them. He was sure that he had killed that dragon, but it was now standing right in front of them. It's once brilliant ruby scales appeared lifeless and dull, without the same sheen. And the bronze golem he had fought yesterday. He thought for a fact that it was gone. But now it stood in front of them, with large dents and cracked bits scattered across it's body. It also seemed to lack the sheen it once had before.

The gryphon seemed to have gotten the least of the brutal attack. Some dirty gauze was wrapped around it's mid section, and they had somehow managed to find an eye patch for it. While the golem seemed to have lost a lot of it's sturdiness, and the dragon seemed just about half-dead, the gryphon just seemed to have gotten some broken bones and a lost eye, and maybe some minor spine injuries, but he still flew. Maybe that was because Connor didn't attack the gryphon. Probably.

"I'm sure, eh.." Connor thought about it. He could work it out with them! but he didn't feel too comfortable, considering he was sure that he had killed a chunk of the group yesterday. "This can work out, maybe." They could be strong allies. While the dragon looked rotted, it could still probably breathe fire. The golem was still massive, and could probably easily crush anything underfoot. The gryphon.. could serve as a useful scout. But he doubted they were really that trustworthy.

"I don't know." Connor admitted, shrugging his shoulders. "We could work this out. Assuming we don't try to kill each other, and we both our groups work together. This could work." That was just about all the thought he put into the subject. He didn't want to have to kill the dragon twice. It already looked broken enough as is. He wasn't entirely sure how the dragon was still alive. Connor was pretty sure he had completely caved it's body in, but after about a day, it looked fine.

[Riddles]

Ralph looked down to see if Val had found anything. She was in a small clearing, and it seemed like she was sneaking up on something. Ralph quickly flew to a different part of the forest, not wanting to scare away whatever she'd found. Unfortunately, he wasn't having as much luck as she was. His transformation into a phoenix had enhanced his sight, so he would be able to see even a small animal from this height, but nothing was coming out.

Just when he was about to give up, he saw some movement on the ground below. Looking closely, he saw a racoon walking around, seemingly unaware of the giant bird soaring above it. Ralph quickly swooped down, picking up the racoon in his talons. The racoon began biting at Ralph's legs, trying to free itself, but after it lost enough blood it stopped struggling and lied motionless in Ralph's claws.

Ralph assumed that Val would have caught what ever she was sneaking up by now. He began to fly over to where he last saw her, but was stopped short when an arrow pierced through the joint connecting his wing to the rest of his body. He spiraled downwards, dropping the racoon as he hit the ground. As he looked around for his attacker, he saw a large wood golem walking towards him.

"This is our turf, assh - AH!"
Ralph shot a fireball at the golem, interrupting him mid-sentence. As Ralph expected, the flames began to spread across the wooden golem's body. He tried rolling on the ground to put the flames out, to no avail. Screaming in pain, the golem ran off into the woods, dropping his crossbow on the ground. Ralph could faintly hear a splashing sound - he assumed that the golem had just jumped into a river, or something. Ralph tried to get up, but a sharp pain where the arrow hit him prevented him from doing so. Hopefully Val had heard the screams.

[Absol]

Just as the fox was about to pounce, a sharp cry from Ralph spooked her prey and made her stand alert. Verlassën took off in that direction, her paws carrying her over logs as she jumped a shallow ditch, landing on the ground with one paw in the air, her nose to the sky as she scented for the burnt smell of the phoenix. Pointing her nose towards where she smelt Ralph, Verlassën let out a single, short bark. Teal and Russet raced over, each one taking a position beside her as she raced over, jumping over a log and landing in the clearing, with the two true foxes coming soon after. She moved to stand beside Ralph, her hackles up as she pulled her lips back and growled, her teeth on show in a display of intimidation. Her tail lashed as she felt the floor vibrate from the footsteps of a wooden golem that walked into Verlassën's sight. It was soaked, and it had a large burnt patch on it. It took a step towards them and Verlassën's growl intensified, three flames appearing, one at her nose and one above each shoulder."Come on then, try it." She threatened, Teal and Russet taking positions at her sides, each one in an intimidating stance that made the three of them look bigger than they were.

[KaBling]

"Cali... what?"

Well, for one, California was quite a certain distance away. For two, who's to say we wouldn't die one the way there?

"Robert, are you alright? You nearly suffocated in that floating rock or something." I could tell that Robert wasn't delusional - he was being serious. I mean, how does one get encased in stone from a magical plate in this world? Divergence was already a problem, but at least we were getting somewhere. "Right, anyway... any means of transport anyone? We'll be quick to die flying or even walking there."

Of course, I remembered though electricity didn't work anymore, magic still worked. Though, we weren't magicians... thankfully, before the time of electricity, there was steam. If I got attacked by an airship in a roleplay based off this, we would be attacked sooner or later. While making Robert's floor rather oily, I did think about the airship. Problem was, that was much later in the roleplay... I couldn't remember how we got to the second world.

Oh yeah. Teleportation. "I got a crazy idea - let's all hold the plate at once and see what happens."