[IC] Welcome Back to the Guild

[HylianRose]

She watched the other two as they seemed to agree with her. She let out a small sigh of relief, glad that it had worked. They needed the supplies, but she was more concerned with trying her best to delay the inevitable. She watched again as Euclid started wandering off in a random direction. The exact opposite of the Nurse's Office. "You know... you're heading towards the Elevator, right?" She said, a light chuckle visible on her lips. She shook her head with a small laugh and then turned to face the Nurse's Office. "The Nurse's office is this way." She told them and began walking.

As they walked, she turned to Leon. "You know, there are a ton of empty classrooms up there, plenty of room for people to make beds and rooms, not to mention the dorms outside. It's very possible for us to make this some sort of base. After all, we seem safe enough here. Safe from anything that can't fly, anyway." She explained, watching where her feet were stepping. Everything had stopped growing more grayscale and there was a faint tint of the hues left on the surfaces. The walls were still faintly red, almost pink. She sent Leon a smile and then looked over at Euclid.

"I know you didn't ask but, I think it's rude if you don't introduce yourself. I'm Rose." She told him. After, she came to the realization that she really had nothing to say after that. It wasn't like she didn't want to tell him her life story, but did he even want to hear it? Probably not. He just wanted to get the supplies and leave them more than likely. Well, from his tone anyway. Then again, maybe he really was this... dreary. But... the way he refused Leon's help told her a little bit differently. He wanted to be independent. That didn't necessarily mean he was paranoid, but she couldn't help be get this sneaking suspicion. Well, maybe she was reading too much into it.

It was a few minutes later, but eventually they made their way to the Nurse's Office. Rose stood in front of them and held her arms out, her palms facing them. "Ta-Da!" She said, shaking her hands enthusiastically. There had to be some humor in all of this, right?

[Neobullseye]

"Tch, fine," Leon muttered as 'Euclid' walked away -- or rather, dragged himself along. Well, whatever; if the guy didn't want to be helped, there wasn't a whole lot that Leon could do about it. Realizing this, he shrugged and followed the other two, making sure to stay close to the newcomer in case he wanted to try anything. Not that Leon expected the guy to be able to do much other than moan and grunt, considering his injuries, but still. Circumstances made it so that he couldn't quite trust people immediately. ...Which raised the question; why did he trust Rose immediately? Well, for one she didn't suddenly appear out of nowhere. Second, she gave a far more realistic name. And third, she didn't look like she fought a cat -- with the cat winning. On the other hand, she was pretty hell-bent on staying in place. Hasn't she ever seen any horror movies? It's one of the most basic rules, right after 'Never split up. Ever', to never stay in the same place for too long. No matter how safe the place looks, the monsters will find their way inside.

His train of thought was interrupted by the strange man asking for their names. Leon wondered how he should answer; on one hand, he really didn't trust this guy. On the other hand, if he was in the same situation as them, then id stood to reason that he wouldn't trust them either. Maybe he should just give the guy the benefit of the doubt?
Before he could say anything, Rose decided to do the latter, pretty much forcing Leon to do the same. ...Well, maybe this would convince him to give them his actual name. "My name's Leon. Now, Euclid What's your name? Because honestly, I doubt that any parent would give his or her child a name like that." Of course, there were some pretty crazy names out there, but still, 'Euclid'?

...Speaking about 'crazy', Rose sure was enthousiastic about having found the nurse's office. "Uhm...," Leon muttered, unsure about exactly what to say, surprise and confusion practically dripping off of his face.

[Euclid]

Having arrived in front of the nurse's office, Euclid decided to answer Leon's question. "The name is obviously an alias," he replied, slowly becoming accustomed to the pain that was now dull in his ribs. Stretching out a bit more, he found himself able to stand straight. "I have an actual name, but I don't care to use it. Now, before I start to ramble on about things you won't even begin to care for, I'd like to bandage myself up."

Shut up, he thought to himself. You're being rude.

Better than trusting someone and being betrayed... again.

Shuffling past the two, he pushed his way into the nurse's office, finding it to be dimly lit inside. He propped himself up on a cushioned table and rested for a bit. As he did, he gazed over to the others as they surely made their way inside, wondering of who they actually were.

"If you don't mind me asking," he started, glancing over to Rose. "You seem to know about this place a lot more than I do."

Obviously, idiot. He shut his eyes, realizing his misuse of words. "Where am I, exactly?"

---

The chains rattled slowly, the echoes bouncing off the cavern walls. At the source hung a figure, chained and suspended in midair. Its breath was heavy and the wisps it formed danced in the cool air. Every so often, a low and soft growl could be heard, followed by frantic movements as it tried to wrench itself from its restraints. Slowly but surely, the chains were giving way, cracks in the cavern walls getting wider. Soon, the ensnarement would be broken.

Soon, Bellua would be free.

[HylianRose]

She let out a quick sigh and followed Euclid. He certainly wasn't... dull. She smiled as they walked into the Nurse's office, looking around at the room that held quite a few memories for her. Memories of her character's first interaction with Xavier... Lily's entire body had been burned trying heal him... Emily chuckled at the though of her character being followed around by Xavier after that. He'd even tried to follow her into the bathroom where the Nurse's had to bath her. Her eyes grew more blank, her mouth straightening. Her poor character. She was so strong yet everything was against her. All she'd ever wanted was to be loved... to be needed. But no, she had to 'die', to lose her Grace and for what? People that didn't really even like her. Sure, some of them had cried for her but did they ever try to help her?

Emily almost didn't even hear Euclid ask her where they were, or that she knew more about this place then he did. She turned to look at him. "Oh... Oh yeah. I know about this place. I helped create it after all." She told him. She paused, looking at him with a small smile. "This is Kalmaysia Academy. The home for people who don't belong anywhere else." She explained and then began walking around the room, touching the bed. For a place that shouldn't exist, it held a lot of memories for her... too many.

[Neobullseye]

An alias, huh? Well, at least 'Euclid' was being honest about it this time around. On the other hand, he wasn't exactly civil in the way he said it -- which, to be fair, could be excused by the fact that he was pretty beat up. Most people would be grumpy in such a situation.
Not knowing exactly what to say without further escalating the situation, Leon silently followed the two into the room, where the stranger managed to lift himself up on a table and asked Rose some questions about where they were. The latter, however, seemed to have spaced out a bit, reacting much like someone who's been interrupted while reading a good book.
Leon subconciously shook his head when Rose answered. No, Rose, you didn't 'help create this place'. This entire area was created by some kind of lunatic with too much money and far too much free time. If anything, you only gave him the inspiration for it. Not that he was going to start about things like that right now; at the moment, they had more important things to worry about than semantics, such as fixing up Mr. Alias, and deciding what to do next other than waiting in place and deciding what to do next.
"So... Euclid? Can you tell us anything about how you got here, or anything else you know about what's happening?" Leon broke his silence. "If you don't want to tell us who you are, that's fine. It's just that we're all trying to figure out exactly what's going on, so every bit of information helps. In return, we'll do the same -- or at least I will; Although I don't think she has any problems with it, I can't speak for Rose." He then turned to Rose. "In the meantime, is there anything I can do to help?"

[Euclid]

Euclid was already in the midst of bandaging his arms when Leon asked about how he'd got here. Flashes of memory came to him in shreds - the vines that pulled him beneath into the corpse of a dead Elder Root, the shadow that waved goodbye, its sickening grin.

"I woke up in some dark room," he started, cleaning his right arm with peroxide. "Kept lighting a fire. There was a symbol. An "at" symbol, if I remember correctly. I pushed open a door that wasn't really there and fell into..." Visions of the planet ran through his head; the beauty and majesty of it all. "...Atlas Novus. It was a planet I thought up not long back for a roleplay I was doing."

A roleplay? Why did it come to life?

"I was attempting to figure out how I got here when I got pulled into this world. Slammed into a large pane of stained glass and shattered it, landing in the library, I think. There's glass everywhere in there. I'm surprised I didn't die."

He sighed, finishing up the bandages on his right arm. "Now, I'm here, in some academy with people that I don't know and couldn't readily say were real. I don't know if I'm in a dream, or some twisted person's imaginings, but I really don't want to be here. I liked being in my room, by myself. Sorry if that seems rude, but it's just something I've grown accustomed to."

Looking around, he pondered. "You guys haven't seen anybody else here, have you?"

[Ebil Bunny]

The landed next to a couple of others, and Muse transformed back to his human form. Ignoring one of the two entirely, he ran up and began acting like a complete idiot in front of the other. Ebil didn't care all that much, he was just glad he wasn't getting rained on any more. He sat down with his back to a nearby tree, and lay there, wondering when he would be back. As he looked him into the sky to rest, he saw a floating island with a building on top. It was quite recognizable.
"Is that the Kalmasyia Academy Roleplay?" Ebil asked in wonder. Hey, if he was going to be stuck in this virtual world, it would be nice to see the Roleplay he was in. After all, unless you picked a fight with some minotaur, it was quite safe.

[Evilorber]

While gathering wood, Evil noticed in the darkness a figure flying towards them at a rapid speed. It landed and changed into a human. It seemed to have some companions with it too. It ran up to the man Evil had been traveling with.

Evil stood in awe. "Wh- What?" he uttered to himself, as a dragon changed to a human before his eyes. He dropped the wood he'd been carrying, as his backpack was full and ran over. He heard the "dragon" talking to his companion about how he recognized him, or something similar. He couldn't really make it out, the man was talking so quickly. Evil was very surprised at the strange "Morphing Ability" this man seemed to have, and it reminded him of a roleplay he had been in where he was a werewolf. The man himself He noticed the "dragon" had come with a few passengers. He walked over to one near a tree, and noticed how wet he was. He turned to the roleplayer. He seemed to be around his age. Brown hair, , gloves. He hoped this Roleplayer had the answers he sought.

"What just happened? A dragon just turned into a human before my eyes? You were on his back, c-can you explain please!?" he spoke in a tone louder than he had expected it to come out in.

[HylianRose]

She let out a small sigh, watching the two. Maybe she really was more of an observer? Her attention was first turned to Leon when he asked her if there was anything he could do to help. "Well, we should probably start making first aid kits, if there aren't already some here." She told him and jumped down from the bed. With soft steps, her weight leaned forward toward her toes, she walked over to a cabinet and opened it. She looked through the cabinet and with a smile pulled out a small orange box that read "First Aid Kit" "See! Found it." She told him with a smile.

She turned to Euclid when he asked if they'd seen anyone else. She turned to Leon and told him, "Just start by pulling out two more of these." She held up the box and then continued, "We'll add more to them. as we see fit." She turned to face Euclid again. "I haven't seen anyone besides you two." She didn't feel like her seeing Matt had any significance for now. Maybe it did, but she didn't see anyone now. "I mean, there should be a nurse in here right now. Unless they all just... left."

[nautilusmp]

It didn't take a long time after they set the bonfire that finally something was flying above them, that Nautilus noticed due to the sudden darkness that it brought to the ground he was standing on. The flying thing descended toward them, and Nautilus still couldn't figure out whether the flying thing came to their rescue or was a threat to them. Upon hearing the sounds of the youngster running back toward him and looking back to confirm that this was indeed the case, Nautilus became increasingly convinced that the flying thing was coming to their rescue.

As the flying thing reached the ground, the bonfire Nautilus and the youngster had created simply died out, to a little disappointment of him. He then saw that there were two people who rode the flying thing and now had been standing on the ground already. "Who are you, and what are your intentions?" Nautilus asked the bigger of the two people that previously rode the flying thing. However, before he got an answer, and probably before even the man he asked did notice that he was being asked, Nautilus was distracted as soon as the flying thing said a word to him.

"You!" the flying thing said loudly.

Well, everyone could speak English inside the Guild, and this thing is probably not an exception, he thought, But why did it open a conversation with a stranger that way? At this point Nautilus was doubtful that the party that came toward them was friendly, but just at that moment the flying being shifted into a human form, a man in a rather gothic dressing. It feels like a deja vu to me, he thought. He should have remembered that this was the man that claimed to be able to fly and he indeed met this man inside the Guild before what looked like a destruction of the Guild, or at least the setting, occurred, but he simply couldn't remember it. He had serious problems remembering and knowing people, and that was what made people around him tend to dislike him. He was not hesitant to call someone he had ever met before by a generic term or even a number if he couldn't remember the man's name. Ironically, he often did this in response to people's negative reactions that he often received when he honestly told them that he couldn't remember their names. It took a long time before Nautilus said "Me? What?" to the shapeshifting man.

“Youyouyouyou!!”, the shapeshifting man said happily.

Nautilus was still reactionless. The man might have known him before, but to Nautilus this man was a complete stranger, and he did not really understand why would a stranger inside the Guild took matters to him that personally. Nautilus thought that if this man really knew him, the man would say something similar to 'Hey buddy, remember me?', but instead the man grabbed him here and there. To Nautilus, he perceived it as an act of bodysearching a stranger, and he was completely not happy about it. He didn't even listen to the man's claims that he knew him; he already perceived this man as hostile. He waited for the right opportunity before finally trying to push the man as far away from him as possible.

"YOU! WHO THE HECK ARE YOU?" he shouted the loudest he can. The fact that he was among the ones who hazed the college freshmen earlier this academic year certainly helped him saying it very loudly. He then turned towards the youngster he had been with for the last hour or so. "They're not rescuing us, let's move away," he told the youngster while tapping him in his right shoulder. He had already taken a few steps back and was ready to run away from the hostile party at any moment.

[Ebil Bunny]

"Personally, I'm not sure what's going on. It turns out that the link we," Ebil motioned to all of the people nearby, "clicked got us stuck inside the guild. The dragon person is Muse. No clue where he came from, but he can shape shift into anything, and is trying to get us back to reality."
Then the guy who Muse was poking and prodding at told the boy talking to Ebil that Muse, Ebil, and John weren't actually here to rescue them.
"Is that so?" Ebil told Muse's "friend", "What makes you think that? You know, besides the weird actions from Muse..."

[Neobullseye]

I see. So he's likely from RPG as well. That marks another one. Whoever is behind this likely has a lot of control over the site. If only we could put out a warning, so that other people don't get lured in by Mr. Kidnapping Jerkface too. That was, of course, assuming that the site had anything to do with it at all -- even though it became more and more probable with each bit of information he heard, there still was no certainty about it. If it did, though, it was only a matter of time before a kid got dragged into this.

"Okay, will do." Leon nodded at Rose as he started to search around for more of the orange medkits. "Well, as I promised, Euclid, I'll at least tell my part." He paused for a second, then continued. "To be honest, I don't know all that much more than you do. What I know is that I clicked on a link on a site named Roleplayerguild; next thing I know, I wake up in a ghost city. A bit of exploring in the hope of finding some help caused me to land here -- involving a headache-inducing tunnel which somehow linked up with this place. From what I can gather, a similiar thing happened to you too?"
He paused for a second to reach for a medkit, which was placed on an inconveniently high plank. After giving it to Rose, he resumed his explanation. "Now, I don't believe we're actually in the Guild itself -- that would be all kinds of impossible," he continued, conveniently forgetting about the fact that this area itself should be impossible, with the fact that it's floating and all. Then again, there was probably some logical explanation for that too. "To me, it's more likely that some kind of asshole with far too much money and free time got bored and decided to kidnap us. I don't know how, nor do I know why, but at least that doesn't require breaking every law of reality. That's why I don't want to stay here for too long; I need to find out what's going on, and why." Not to mention the fact that, if they did indeed get kidnapped by a bored sociopath, then Leon'd rather keep on the move himself than be forced to move by the kidnapper. Scenarios like that never end well.

[Kaga]

Muse couldn’t believe how quickly Nautilus shoved him aside, daggers going through him as the companion he thought he’d lost suddenly didn’t recognize him – or maybe he had the wrong guy? – no no, couldn’t be possible. I never forget a face… Muse thought, climbing back to his feet. Maybe he’s got holes in his memory, given recent events.

“Well, um… uh, sorry about that.” Muse spoke up awkwardly, hastily wiping tears away with his sleeve before looking back to the rest of the group. Along with the two roleplayers he’d dragged down with him for no apparent reason, they were accompanied by a youngster who appeared to be Nautilus’ companion, and he was clearly already confused. “Well ya see, I guess I’m sort of what you’d call a ‘shapeshifter’. I’m only a dragon when I want to be.” He answered. “Oh! That reminds me!” his attention then instantly shifted to the remains of the fire those two had probably put plenty of effort into constructed before he put it out in his sudden display of emotion. Thinking fast, he inhaled deeply, and shot out a thick stream of flame from his mouth, re-lighting the charred remains. “Sorry about that.” He apologized awkwardly again. ‘I’m assuming that fire was kind of important to – hey! Wait a minute!” Muse called after Nautilus when he noticed the young man turning to leave, running out and standing in front of him. “Look, I realize I probably didn’t make the best first impression, but, I need to, I mean –” he stuttered as his thoughts and emotions remained as scrambled as ever. “…You guys are still roleplayers, right?”

[John Walrus III]

The dragon joyride didn't help John's migraine, or his stomach. And the abrupt landing didn't help either. Leaving the others to their own devices, with Muse practically dancing for one of the newcomers, he stepped aside subtly, keeping it of the way. He dug though his pockets, the noises playing daggers on his mind. He finally located a bottle of painkillers, only to discover the contents to be missing. Grumbling in annoyance, he tossed the bottle aside, only to hear it rattle slightly. He frowned and grabbed for the bottle, finding just enough for one dose. John shook his head. The migraine was getting to him. Not that the fact that he was in a world of fiction helped. He chuckled slightly. Seems like there was a lot of stuff but getting right now.

After downing the pills, he sat for a moment before looking up at the great creation above them. No way that this was real. But then, he just got a ride from a transforming dragon-person.He focused back on the conversation before him, which appeared to be deteriorating quickly. John stood and stretched, before approaching Muse and his apparent friend. "I'm not sure what it's worth," he said as he walked toward them, "but I'm fairly confident in placing my word on Muse here." He realized he had started running his die through his fingers. "Even if he can turn into a dragon on a whim. Speaking of which," he continued, gesturing to the behemoth in the sky, "I believe we should focus on getting over there."

[Evilorber]

""YOU! WHO THE HECK ARE YOU?" his companion shouted at the strange man.

He turned to Evil and said "They're not rescuing us, let's move away," This disappointed Evil, although he trusted this man more than these strangers.

"Personally, I'm not sure what's going on. It turns out that the link we," The person around Evils' age motioned to all of the people nearby, "clicked got us stuck inside the guild. The dragon person is Muse. No clue where he came from, but he can shape shift into anything, and is trying to get us back to reality."

Evil turned to leave, as the strange man. What was he called again? Muse? He began walking in the opposite direction, back into the forest as the man, Muse, pleaded with Evils' Companion. Evil really wasn't paying attention, and almost fell over himself when a ball of fire rushed past him, and half-lighted, half-destroyed there fire they had been building. Small bits of wood were blown a few meters away from the fire. Muse had Evils' attention now. All he did was apologize, so Evil once again turned to leave, and half-jogged to keep up with his companion.

‘I’m assuming that fire was kind of important to – hey! Wait a minute!” Muse spouted.

Evil didn't pay any attention at all. He didn't even look back. He glanced at his companion, who was the only one he trusted. If we're in the Guild, they could be anyone, they could be free roleplayers, casuals or... arena players... He didn't want to take any chances and end up getting himself killed, and considering this stranger, Muse, could breath fire, well that gave him a huge advantage over them if they got into a fight. He would however, be a powerful ally. What did that one kid say? He was going to get us out of here? How? Impossible! R-right?

Suddenly Muse said something that made Evil turn his head to face him, and having not been paying attention to wear he was going, he tripped over a log and landed hard on his bottom.

"“…You guys are still roleplayers, right?”

[nautilusmp]

“You guys are still roleplayers, right?” said the shapeshifting man.

The man's question struck Nautilus somehow. It wasn't that easy to tell the difference between a non-powered character and a roleplayer, but this man just could identify the roleplayers quickly. The last time he changed his mind was when a tall man wearing glasses about as thick as him somehow knew that he was a roleplayer, His mind was still struggling hard to cope with the man's sentence that he didn't remember that he was accompanying a man younger than him until the youngster fell to the ground after tripping over a log, after which he quickly helped the young man to get back up and after that, he faced the shapeshifting man. It took a quarter of a minute before he responded to the question.

"Yes, it is, and it seems we are no more than political tools here!" he said, hoping that he didn't get his ideas lost in translation when he spoke that sentence in English. "We are tools of the power struggles in this land in the middle of nowhere! Before this there was a wolf speaking and claim... Wait," Nautilus continued, but suddenly stopped as he started gaining the lost memories after saying the last couple of words. "Wait, wait, wait..." he attempted to buy time for his memories to arrange itself properly, and also holding the youngster, preventing him from running without his approval. He then looked at the shapeshifting man in black again. "Have I seen you before? Do I know you?"

[Kaga]

Nautilus’ words hurt again, causing Muse to almost flinch a bit as his expression faded further. Political tools, he said. Muse almost refuted that statement, but the worst part of it was that his claim even seemed to hold some truth to it; was he really treating these roleplayers as nothing more than chess pieces in his fight against Godmod? Unintentional as it may have been, he couldn’t help but feel horrible about it.

A flicker of hope rose up in him again, however, as Nautilus’ memories seemed to return. “Yes, yes!” he exclaimed. “Don’t you remember? It’s me, Muse! I tried my hardest to keep you and the other roleplayers safe, but I spent too much time running around and not enough time teaching you what you needed to know to survive on your own, and before I knew it that damn Godmodder showed up in that fucking wolf skin and…” he took a moment to catch his breath, offering his hand to help Evil off the ground before continuing. “I thought you were dead, man. So sorry if I’m not as upbeat as I was the first time we met – so much in fact that you didn’t recognize me – but seeing so many people be murdered in cold blood while you’re helpless to stop it can kind of be a downer.”

Looking around the group, and listening to his own words, he realized what a terrible job he was doing of saving this batch, making all the same mistakes and more. Evil and Nautilus were doing surprisingly well on their own, and he’d probably done more harm than good to John and Ebil… “Listen, guys,” he spoke up, directing his voice to the whole group. “I know you’re all probably really confused right now, and I’m not doing a very good job of helping you, and worst of all, you have plenty of reasons to not trust me, so…” he trailed off, looking back up at the floating land mass in the sky. As much as it pained him to not intervene, he needed a change in strategy. Muse walked to the front of the group, positioning himself so he could look directly at all four of them. “I realize now that I can’t keep running around like I own you, or act like I’m above you. I can’t keep, uh, railroading, for sake of roleplaying analogy.” To demonstrate his level of sincerity, he dropped to his knees, hands on the floor, head down. “Ask me any questions you have, or tell me what you think I should do for you. So long as it’s within my knowledge and ability, I will comply.” He told them, before lifting his head to look them in the eyes. “I am at your service.”

---

Meanwhile, high above Muse’s group, narrowed violet eyes scanned Kalmasyia Academy from above, searching for signs of life. “Rocks don’t fall on their own…” he mused, tossing the small piece of earth up and down in his hand; the thing had nearly killed him. Basilix’s nostrils flared. He growled at the academy like a dog, blood-stained maw hanging open as he lowered his head down to the school courtyard. “Oooooh human scents, you say? Recent?” Godmodder guessed excitedly. Basilix nodded. “Excellent!” he chirped, hopping off the wyvern’s head and onto the floating terrain, dropping the rock at his feet. Eager as he was to toy with the residents, tearing the place up with his dragon would be too boring – over with too quickly. “Bassie, you sleep for a bit.” He ordered. “I’ll explore on my own.” At Godmod’s words, Basilix’s entire body vanished almost instantly – only an incomprehensible purple blur visible to the naked eye before he disappeared. A grin on his face and a devilish sparkle in his flame-eye, Godmodder made his way towards the nearest entrance. “Let’s see who’s home…”

[Ebil Bunny]

Ebil felt awkward as Muse bowed to them. Ruling him? Hardly. All Ebil was doing was following Muse around like a puppy. Muse didn't make him. Besides, that dragon ride was worth it.
"Um... Okay, here's a question. Do we get tours? Because Kalm... I mean, that flying building looks like a great vacationing spot," Ebil said, trying to ease the tension.

((sorry for the short post :( ))

[John Walrus III]

John expected a few things from Muse. After all, he was practically on par with a god it seemed. Kneeling was not one of those things. John felt... well, scared was a good word. But then, so was impressed. John thought for a moment, trying to think carefully on his words so he didn't sound like an ass. "Well... you seem to talk about some impressive stuff that you can teach us?" He glanced at the group for a second, slightly more nervous. "Maybe we could start with that kind of thing? Nothing crazy, but..." Yes, he was certain he sounded like an ass now. "I'm not exactly keen on dying." John rubbed the side of his head, his migraine noticeably subsiding. He glanced at the die he was turning. Natural 1. Luck didn't seem to be in his favor right now.

[nautilusmp]

“Yes, yes! Don’t you remember? It’s me, Muse!" said the shapeshifting man.

Nautilus completely forgot what the man's name was, but he remembered a bit about the man's face, and the answer confirmed that he indeed had seen his man before. During Muse's previous interaction with him, the man claimed to be able to fly, and that was the only thing that Nautilus remembered from Muse. But Muse kindly retold the full story for him, helping him regain his memory.

"I tried my hardest to keep you and the other roleplayers safe, but I spent too much time running around and not enough time teaching you what you needed to know to survive on your own, and before I knew it that damn Godmodder showed up in that fucking wolf skin and… I thought you were dead, man. So sorry if I’m not as upbeat as I was the first time we met – so much in fact that you didn’t recognize me – but seeing so many people be murdered in cold blood while you’re helpless to stop it can kind of be a downer.”

Muse's speech made Nautilus thought for a while. He finally remembered that there were other roleplayers in his previous interaction, and he hadn't seen any of them since the 'restart', or so Nautilus called it. He waited for an opportunity to ask the question about the fate of the other roleplayers, but apparently Muse went on a filibuster. Can we just finish this and move on? he thought, but suddenly Muse kneeled down in front of him and three other people, all likely to be roleplayers. "Stand up, comrade," he told Muse as he tried to pull him back up, using the term 'comrade' as both the generic term and to reflect his view that there was no hierarchy in the five-man team. "No one's above or below anyone else here. As for questions, though," he continued. "Mine's rather a request than a question. Would you please introduce yourself clearly to this young man?" Nautilus asked, pointing at the youngster he had been with, "I think he may be confused with all these things". But soon he remembered the question he had been holding up, "Oh yeah, I forgot to ask you one question. Have you seen the other roleplayers? Those in the forest the last time we were before?"