[IC] Aether Eternum

[FujiwaraPhoenix]

Marcus shook his head in a dazed, half-awake state as he sat up on the ground, still struggling to wake up as he looked around. It took a few moments, but when he looked around, alarm bells immediately started going off in his head. By no means was this considered "normal"- no, rather, this was anything but. He had just graduated college and was just about ready to go off to search for a temporary job to keep himself afloat, but...

"What kind of a prank is this!?" he shouted, moving to stand up among the strange field he seemed to have just been sleeping in. His clothes, too, had been replaced with some kind of... Well, even then, he hesitated to call it clothing. His memory, though still somewhat hazy, pointed to the clothes originating from pre-industrial- no, pre-Renaissance era levels of technology. So some jerk had decided it was a good idea to go and drop him in the middle of nowhere and swap out all of his clothes AND leave him with nothing... Why? Just for shits and giggles?

Though incredibly close to just blowing up on the spot, Marcus decided to take a deep breath (or ten) to calm himself down. He'd figure out why he was here, for what reason he was here, and how he'd get back at whatever dropped him here in the first place. Though... the colored grass seemed to take hold of Marcus' attention for the moment. As far as he knew, there was no way to paint each plant as they were with such fine detail; maybe they were genetically engineered as such?
...
No, that couldn't be it. To cultivate such a field and not have people knowing about it, ESPECIALLY in the area where he was, was absurd. That, coupled with the fact that he wasn't exactly the soundest of sleepers, probably meant that something was quite amiss. After all, he was pretty certain that he had never seen any plains that were host to these varieties of plants before... Well, that and the fact that he was pretty sure that he hadn't drunk a single drop of alcohol in his entire life, nor touched a single milligram of any illegal drug before.

Well, such worries could wait for later. It seemed to be early morning, given by the location of the sun in the sky, which meant he would have some time to go before being forced to craft some sort of makeshift shelter. The plains around him seemed to expand outwards as far as he could see; that didn't seem productive in the least.

Would he just have to pick a direction and pray for now...?

[Zombehs]

A startled shout snapped Adam awake as he snapped up and immediately took in his surroundings. Any trace of sleepiness was banished by the utterly alien environment around him. Though the other individual didn’t go unnoticed amidst the grassy plains, Adam was content to ignore him for the moment and gather his bearings instead. It was easy enough to remember the events that had happened before he fell asleep last night, and his fingers dug into the soft soil beneath them at the disparity in his current situation and what was remembered.

The sensations were real enough and Adam knew for a fact that he must have been drugged for someone to have ferried him away from home without him awakening. With numerous thoughts on his mind, Adam naturally made to stand as he found it more relaxing on his feet rather than seated. Despite no problems with the body, a frown nonetheless formed as he noticed that he was a bit taller than he was supposed to be…

It was the first real time he’d taken a look at himself since he awoke, and he didn’t quite manage to suppress his surprise. “Holy shit…” The old clothing style was noted, but more concerning were the red tattoos that swirled over his skin. Tracing them with a finger, their texture was somewhat rough, and he quickly discovered that they spread up and beyond his arms. His fingers fumbled with the clasps on the leather jerkin before it was discarded onto the grass behind him and quickly followed by the baggy cotton shirt. As expected, the red tattoos sprawled over his chest and, though he couldn’t see, Adam could feel some on his back as well. His hands shot up to his face afterwards and a small sigh of relief was had as he didn’t feel anything too exotic.

With the changes his body had apparently gone through, he figured a bit of stretches would help focus his thoughts while discovering any other differences. Flexibility came first, and as he put his new body through several movements of yoga Adam wondered exactly how he’d ended up here. That train of thought quickly came to a halt at the realization that he didn’t really care about the how or why. As far as he could tell, this was either his new reality or the most realistic dream he’d ever experienced, there wasn’t any real way for him to tell the difference. So naturally his mind switched to the what. What was and what should he do now in this bizarre and inexplicable situation?

As he switched to testing the body’s limits, dropping to the ground and going at it with push-ups, he figured the best idea would be to try and find civilization. If the clothes he’d awoken with were any indication then the time period wasn’t exactly modern, and his thoughts couldn’t help but wander to some more fantastical ideas. Heroes summoned to another world and all that jazz. With a grimace, he pushed those thoughts aside and put his clothes back on as he finished determining just what his new body was capable of; which was apparently much the same as his “old”. Figuring now would be as good as a time as ever, he called out to the other individual a couple hundred meters away. “Hey, you know anything about this?”

[SadCubone]

Luke Woke up, muscle aching and hearing people groaning. He was indeed getting to old for this. As his eyes starting to open more and the pain settled in but that's not what bothered him. What bothered him was where he was. The problem with where was, was that he didn't know and now Luke was starting to have one of those inner freak outs. But Luke played it cool. He started to get up and saw a bunch of kids around him, some getting up and some not.

Luke , after stretching first, decided to check around the area for food. Unannounced to the others Luke was gonna make breakfast if he could find something to eat. Luke didn't find much however he did find some sticks and a dead deer. It would have to do for now. He started to collect rocks to make spears for the group. If they were gonna be in the middle of no where, they were gonna need protection.

As he was sitting there watching the others he was trying to figure out the situation. How did he get here, who are these people, what were we doing? He shook it off, all that mattered now was survival. It's not that Luke was BAD at survival it's just that Luke would prefer to be in a none survival situation. He liked home, the bar, the sweet smell of his tavern was second to none. But he couldn't get caught up in that, or he would lose hope.

He went off again (leaving the spears in a pile) to go get some grass to tie them together. Luckily he was surrounded by a lot of grass. The big kind perfect for tying. Now all he had to do was wait for them to wake. What was he gonna do while he waited? What was he gonna do about this situation? Luke sighed and put his head in his hand.

[Tokki]

The young priestess' eyes fluttered open in response to the shouting that came from all around her. Rae was still in a daze as she slowly sat up on the grass bed where she seemed to have fallen asleep. The grogginess of deep slumber left her, as her eyes properly adjusted to her surroundings that seemed just a little too surreal. The tall grass she was surrounded by reflected an unnatural light under the sun. Needless to say, she was in utter disbelief. She carefully scanned her surroundings and spotted three others who had woken up before her- whether there were more of them present, she couldn't tell. The vegetation had obscured most of what happened to lay close to the ground, and not only that, but it spread as far as the horizon.

The crimson grass continued to sway carelessly as the wind blew, with only her and a few other men scattered around the field, as they scoured the area for help. Rae-Ah decided to finally pick herself up, until she'd noticed a couple of things that struck her as absolutely peculiar. Standing up, she could feel a soft, feathery texture at the back of her ankles. Dark talons protruded from her nail beds instead of the well-polished keratin. Reaching a hand behind her, she grabbed a handful of fur. Examining further, she realized that the fur belonged to herself. A growth extended from her rump, in the form of a long, platinum tail. At that moment her stomach was in knots. Frustration, confusion and desperation hit her all at once. With too much to comprehend, she knelt on the unfamiliar terrain and proceeded to shove her head in her hands to relieve some of the stress and perhaps figure out what on earth was going on.

Two more unfamiliar growths of muscle covered in fur came in contact with her hands. As if Rae didn't have enough to worry about, she also knew that the body she once had was gone. She had no way of looking at her own face, but at that point she realized she probably didn't even want to. Priorities were non-existent; she didn't even know where to begin. There were much too many questions to ask, but time was running out as the sun fell closer to the horizon.

A perplexed Rae ran towards the hefty man who seemed to have been harvesting the grass; the closest out of the three. She could see the second man run towards another who was further off than the rest- perhaps they could rally together soon enough. Naturally, she didn't think being alone in this type of environment was the smartest thing.

"E-excuse me?" she called out as she ran towards him. For a moment she didn't realize that she had no questions prepared for him. There was too much for her to cycle through, so she acted on a whim. Covering her face, she continued, "Do you know exactly where we are? My name is Rae-Ah, and I live-- lived in Kijong-Dong, North Korea..."

[SadCubone]

@TokkiLuke was sharpening one of the spear heads when he he saw girl running towards him. Luke looked closely at the girl running towards him and noticed she was screaming something. All he got was she was Rae-Ah and she lived in North Korea. When she got closer he said in a cheerful and welcoming tone, "Well howdy there Miss Rae-Ah, names Luke, Luke Harrison. What can I do ya for?" As cheerful and upbeat as he wanted to sound he was honestly confused and not happy about his whole situation. But he had to keep a cool head. He towered over the girl but she seemed innocent enough. He tried to be as kind and approachable to this girl. Up to this point, it was the only person he had spoken too.

[FujiwaraPhoenix]

Marcus was pleased to hear the voice of another person in the area, but the man who it had come from didn't exactly calm him much, if at all. The tattoos patterned across his tall, muscular body made him hesitate for a moment, but the fact that it was English- clear English, no less- that let him let down his guard. maybe this simply WAS an elaborate prank, planned by his peers to cause him to freak the hell out.

That was most certainly not the case, though. In fact, it was more likely that this person, given his question, was caught in the same situation; why else would he be asking him for information?

"Nah, got no clue where the hell we are, nor when the heck we arrived here. Doesn't help that the place has absolutely zero landmarks to give us any indication of where we are." Marcus responded, walking closer to the man as more people around them seemed to making up around them. The older man, who, to Marcus, seemed to be some sort of rancher, was already at work making some sort of weapon. Through Marcus was about to ask where he obtained the shafts for the spears in the first place, the sight of the next person- if she could even be called that- caused him to check his eyes to see if they were working correctly.

"That... That is... A fox girl. Okay. I'm... Pretty sure this is some sort of joke. Gotta be, right?" he asked himself incredulously as he looked at her.
Moving animal ears. Check.
Moving fox tail. Check.
Well. Something was definitely weird here. Hopefully, he wasn't the only one seeing this; the ol' rancher-looking guy didn't seem too fazed by it at all.

[Zombehs]

Well it wasn’t too surprising that the other man seemed to hesitate once Adam was noticed. It wasn’t too easy to tell from the distance, but he figured that he had at least a few inches over the other individual. Thankfully rather than turn away, the other man decided to approach by himself; frankly Adam wasn’t sure what he would have done otherwise. “Can’t say I expected much else,” he muttered more to himself than anything. He might have introduced himself, but a rustling that wasn’t simply just the light breeze made him turn around.

It’d been hard to see with the grasses’ height and his own lack of attention, but there were a few others besides the two of them. ‘The hell?’ Given there was jack shit but grass as far as his eyes could see, it was somewhat of a surprise that an older man had somehow managed to scrounge up the wood to make spears. Beyond that was the corpse next to him and Adam’s eyebrow rose questioningly. Did these things just drop out of the sky conveniently for them?

Naturally his attention shifted towards the latest person to approach and his previous questions were pushed aside as he took in her appearance. “Oh yeah… that’s definitely a fox girl,” he replied as he dug his fingers into his palm and blinked furiously. Pain aside, the girl’s tail continued to sway side to side and hell even her ears twitched occasionally. “Ok, whatever I can roll with this.” Hands thrown up as if giving up on trying to make sense of this world, Adam let them drop almost immediately afterwards with a heavy sigh. Between the three others here, he gave a small wave and briefly introduced himself with, "Name's Adam."

For now he’d make sure there wasn’t anyone else still fast asleep in the sea of grass that surrounded the group of four. Taking note of where Marcus and Rae had run from, he marked those bearings as clear for the moment. Which, really, still left him with most of the circle to search. An annoyed click of the tongue aside, Adam stood to his full height and slowly began to walk forward away from the three, eyes scanning for any breaks amongst the sea of red and white that might have indicated a body.

[SadCubone]

Luke looked around and noticed some other people up and looking his way. He tried to wave them over in a friendly way. He wanted to get a group together so that he could have company. He didn't like being alone. After he waved he looked down at the deer, he started to start cutting. Someones got to do it. It's a mighty gross job but if he is going to feed himself and now all these people, this deer has to be emptied out. When he opened up the deer his face cringed because the smell was so putrid but he kept going. He knew this was the only way. That he could think of. Blood was splashing all over his arms and shirt.

[WeepingLiberty]

Skylar sighed contently as she lay in a bed of soft grass, not bothering to open her eyes. It was comfortable, the most comfortable she had felt in a very long time. The world around her was relatively quiet, the only voice belonging to the wind brushing through the grass she lay in. Without opening her eyes, Sky could tell that a grass around her grew to a decent height, towering above her current lounging position. Movement nearby caught her attention, the grunts and moans of a person struggling to wake-up, increasing in numbers as more and more people registered their surroundings. "I guess this isn't a dream after all." She mumbled to herself, the increasing noise from voices disappointing her slightly. Sitting up, Skylar finally opened her eyes, taking in the bizarre sights. Crimson colored grass as far as the eye could see, people standing around her that didn't quite look like normal people. "What is going on?" She asked out loud to no one in particular.

Looking down at herself Skylar took in the strange outfit, obviously made of materials no longer used in the modern world. "Cool." She nodded her satisfaction, jumping a little as something white fell into her vision. Sitting in shock for a few moments, Skylar reached her hand up to touch the silky white strands, discovering that they were indeed a part of her own head. "Okay, white hair... I can deal with this. Odd clothing... A little creepy that I don't know who changed me but bearable." Closing her gaping mouth, Skylar scanned the area around her, slightly impressed by how clear everything looked to her... Certainly her vision had improved, as well as her hearing. She could have sworn the others sounded closer, but when she looked around, they were a fair distance away from her. Despite the odd appearances of a few others in the plain, as far as Sky could tell everything looked real. It certainly felt real and that was enough to bring a smile to the girl's face. Pushing herself to her feet, Skylar swayed slightly, unused to standing at such a height. "New hair, new clothes, new height... Guess I shouldn't be all that surprised." Slowly Skylar raised her hands to her face, gently brushing them over her skin to get a feel for her new appearance. Her face didn't feel too different, perhaps the bone structure was a little sharper, more defined than she remembered but nothing too inhuman. Next they ran through her hair, happy to find it to be the same length as she was used to. What caught her attention, however, was a large bulge around the side of her hair. Pulling all her hair to one side, Skylar investigated the side of her head nervously, almost jumping out of her skin when she reached her ear. Of all the things, her ear stood out the most to her. They felt thinner, longer than the average human ear. A realization dawning on her. "I-I'm an elf? She breathed excitedly, doing her best not to dance around with joy.

It was clear from the movements of the others that they weren't quite as excited as she was. More confused if anything and maybe a little frightened. Her excitement might be taken the wrong way if she expressed it. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Skylar removed her facial expressions and replaced them with an indifferent, calculating look. She had never worn it before but somehow it felt right on her, as if this new existence was exactly what she needed. This is an amazing opportunity. A new look means I can be a whole new me. No more shy, nice girl. You are an elf, a regal creature to be respected. Sky thought definitively, even considering a change in name to accompany her "transformation".

[Tokki]

Gods, hear my pleas...

"Well howdy there Miss Rae-Ah, names Luke, Luke Harrison. What can I do ya for?"

The man's response almost shocked Rae-Ah to the point that she thought this was all a massive test to find out how faithful she was to the gods. A part of her thanked the man for ignoring her new-found beastly counterparts. But how could he have been so... cheerful? Especially at a time like this? Is he not as confused as the rest of them? Rae-Ah watched him as he continued to hack away at the deer, turning away in disturbance. The girl pondered on his reaction for a moment until another figure rose up from beneath the tall grass.

Silver hair, with sharp and elongated ears. Is she from those folk tales Rae had been narrating to the temple's children throughout the past 6 years? Needless to say, disbelief could not come to par with what she felt at the moment. As the wind continued to blow harder, a lock of hair came into view as it swayed the motion.

"White... hair?!" That was the last straw. Rae shrieked as loud as she could, hoping that the gods would hear her and feel an ounce of pity. It had only been a couple of minutes, but somehow she'd managed to grow a tail, a new set of ears, claws and her luscious brunette locks had been bleached. Her tail slumped as her screaming stopped, completely drained of energy and all sense of logic.

The weary girl looked up at the sky, noticing that not much of it has changed- at least. For a moment, she thought of her parents and a single stray tear dropped onto her long, white gown. The sky was the only thing normal she'd seen so far, excluding the men she'd seen earlier. Everything else was so new, so vibrant, so... terrifying. Rae-Ah reminisced on what the masters had taught her back at the temple. Back home. 'Whatever the gods give you, you take it respectfully and obediently! Those were the exact words they preached not long ago.

'I'll have to try my best, then...'

As Rae-Ah struggled to make her way to the pair of men who had already been conversing, she shamefully looked towards the ground, aware that her appearance was not something to be proud of. Looking at them, she realized they haven't mutated as badly. One man was marked with tattoos, and the other who looked fairly normal. Her confidence had depleted to a near-0, but she mustered up enough strength to squeak out a few sentences to them.

"May I know your names? Please... I do not know why we are here, nor why I am like this," she gestured towards her ears. "but I believe we are stranded... do- do you think we can call everyone together?" she sheepishly looked towards the elf and the man who split open a deer.

In embarrassment, she turned around as soon as she finished.

Are the gods listening?

@PKMNB0Y @Zombehs

[VitaVitaAR]

"Mmmnn..."

Her eyes slowly opened. Jeez... since when was her bed so... so uncomfortable? It felt like she was lying on a bed of grass or something... As she blinked the sleep from her, eyes, the girl slowly began to realize that was the case. Sitting bolt upright, she swiftly noticed this was not, in fact, her bed. It was a field. Why was she in a field. Why could she possibly be in a field?! Awareness coming to her more quickly now, she looked around. There was some commotion nearby... was that...? Was she kidnapped?! Were those the kidnappers? She glanced down at herself quickly, and realized a few things immediately. She was in a dress she'd never worn before, and she hadn't even gotten any sort of bottoms. Well that was great. Were the kidnappers trying to use embarrassment to incapacitate her?! Well... that didn't matter. She'd get a weapon. There might have been a stick or a small log or something, they hadn't bound her hands or her le-

Rika's awareness suddenly reached full when she tried to move her legs. Everything from her thighs down felt... it felt... Slowly she looked further, past her upper body and slowly, slowly realized what had truly happened. No, her legs had not been bound, just as she had suspected. She no longer had anything to bind. For in place of her legs was a massive serpentine tail, complete with delicate scales. For a few moments her mouth hung open in pure shock as she stared at it, unable to fully comprehend that it was part of her. This... this was just plain impossible, right? Nothing like this could ever happen, there was no way. But... but it sure felt real... and that commotion, it sounded like human voices...

Rika took a deep breath. Calm. Calm. Her father, clutz that he was, had told her what to do in these kinds of situations. Well, not when she was suddenly half snake, but she had some idea of what to do. The kidnapping was seeming more and more unlikely, really, given she had somehow become a fantasy creature. Rika had some idea of the fact that the only reason she wasn't outright panicking yet was because of shock, but hey, at least that had its uses at this point. Make her way to the voices. THEN freak out. There. That sounded good.

The tail wasn't too hard to get used to, surprisingly. It was a chain of thoughts Rika had never believed she would think, let alone apply, but hey. Slowly, trying not to scream her head off, the naga girl slithered towards the voices...

[FujiwaraPhoenix]

"Name's Marcus. Marcus Chen. Just graduated from college before this... Mess, I guess you could call it." Marcus sighed, trying to rationalize everything before the ear-shattering scream from the fox-girl shot his eardrums into oblivion. Well, THAT certainly hurt; felt like someone shot a gun right next to his ear without any earplugs. Needless to say, his ears were ringing for a good few seconds afterwards as he tried to recover his sense of hearing.

"Oh, geez, that hurt like a bitch. That kind of scream's meant for horror films and stuff, not blowing out everyone's ears before you even meet them..." he complained, shaking his head as the ringing subsided... For the most part, at least. As the girl seemed to recover her own sanity and he, his hearing, Marcus turned to face the fox-girl who now decided to approach him and ask a few questions. Well, at least she wasn't still screaming. At that point, he'd just up and quit on this mess, plain and simple.

"As I've said, I'm Marcus Chen. And... I think... This should be everyone...?" he asked, hesitating to give a definitive answer. It was very likely that everyone WAS up, but... There was no guarantee of that. Just to be sure...
"But it might be better to check around just to be safe."

@Tokki@Zombehs

[Zombehs]

Pausing mid-step to listen, Adam was about to nod in understanding, when instead he winced at the sudden shriek. “God damn woman!” he cursed, slowly opening his eyes with a grimace as he felt for Marcus who’d been even closer to the fox girl. A quick scan revealed a lithe figure some distance away; snow white hair, sharp but fair facial features, and, perhaps most telling, a pair of pointed ears. “Great… an elf.” Glad to see that he wasn’t off the mark with the thought that he was officially in fantasy land. Reluctant to simply march away in search of others when there was someone so obviously distraught close by, Adam ran a hand through his hair and turned about to return.

By the time he was next to Marcus, the girl seemed to have regained most of her composure and moved close enough that casual conversation without raising their voice would be possible. “Mah…” It was pretty damn clear the girl had some confidence issues if her posture was any indication, but Adam could hardly find it in himself to blame her. Between the craziness of the situation and her more drastic shift in appearance, it would have been odd to see everyone take it well. Then again he was never too good at reassuring others, so maybe Marcus would be better at helping her out of the slump she was in. Still, it couldn’t hurt to try and be a bit friendlier than usual given the shit all of them had been put through.

“So you can speak without blowing out our eardrums,” he joked with a slight smile, hoping the girl would feel more at ease. With how out of it she seemed, it would probably be safest for him to clarify before she took it personally. “It was just a joke by the way, call me Adam.” Still… he had heard English when her lips certainly hadn’t moved that way didn’t go unnoticed, and with her Eastern Asian appearance it was quite possible that she had spoke some foreign language instead. ‘Translation magic?’ Certainly not unheard of in this type of setting, and definitely a point towards the existence of magic.

Wandering off immediately after that didn’t seem to be the best idea, so with a sigh he took a few deep breaths. It wasn’t exactly often that he used his “drill” voice, gods it’d probably been a few months now; didn’t just lose it without use either though. “Might want to plug your ears a bit for this,” he warned the two before taking another deep breath and barking out, “Rise and shine! Everybody get over here!” Too bad there weren’t any nearby mountains, Adam would have loved to hear if he’d been loud enough to get an echo. Instead though, he focused on scanning the surroundings for any others that hadn’t yet poked their heads above the sea of grass.

@PKMNB0Y@Tokki

[VitaVitaAR]

Okay, the voices were around here, right? This grass was so tall, so tall she could barely find her way through it. But she could hear the sound of the voices. Rika was following the sounds as best she could. Someone was... calling for people to wake up? That's what it sounded like at the very least. What, were they camping or something? Well... they'd... get a weird surprise when she appeared... but she desperately needed help. Especially with the whole 'snake tail for legs thing'. Maybe they couldn't make her a regular human again, but they could probably take her somewhere safe or... whatever. And tell her why she was suddenly in this dress she didn't even own. And maybe why she was half snake. Yeah. It was a small hope, but in her current disoriented and shaky state it was really all she had. Part of her less friendly side arose, considering that these people might be totally useless idiots or something. But Rika decided to judge them when she found them, rather then look upon them as idiots before even meeting them. Now was not the time to treat them in such a manner, she was not at all prepared to fend for herself in the wilderness as a naga.

Seriously, how could this even happen?

Unfortunately for Rika, and one of the people in the grass, it was hard to judge where they were with how thick and tall it all was. Slithering through the grass, Rika suddenly found herself breaking out into an area where it had been smashed down by people. In fact, it was where the people she'd been looking for were! And one of them was right in front of her! ... Very... very close.

Close enough to collide right with their back. Thanks to her new form, Rika did not fall over, but she did knock her head into them.

"Gah!"

She reached up and grabbed her forehead, knocked out of her panic temporarily.

[SadCubone]

"Hey since you guys are all awake I got good news!" Luke stood up, blood covering his arms and shirt. "I just finished skinning and cleaning out this here deer so there's no more organs, bones, or skin just good ol' fashion venison. So if you guys are hungry, I got some food for you!" Luke Harrison sat in the grass and picked up one of the spears. He cut himself a slice of venison, while the smell was putrid, it was all he had. He took a bite, and shivered but swallowed it anyway. Luke knew that in order to survive he had to eat some foods that he didn't like. He had been in worse situations. Well not really, but he was trying to make himself feel better. Luke sighed again.

[WeepingLiberty]

Skylar was quick to cover her ears, the distance no buffer against the screams of the hysteric fox girl. "I certainly hope that wasn't directed towards me." She scowled, approaching once she had stopped screaming. Casting a sideways glance, she noted the old man's work, trying not to puke at the sound and smell. Refocusing her gaze, Sky noticed a shifting of the grass behind the two men who had been speaking to each other before. Opening her mouth to say something Sky didn't have a chance to speak before "Adam" began shouting again. The sound of his voice was painful on her newly sensitive ears, Sky wincing noticeably as he shouted for the attention of anyone nearby. "Are you crazy? What if we're not the only ones out here? You've just let everything in a hundred mile radius know that we're here." Folding her arms across her chest, Sky had almost forgotten about the movement in the grass. By the time she remembered what she wanted to say, a woman appeared from out of the tall grass, crashing into the back of one of the men. Well, woman wasn't quite the right word... Like most of those standing there, this person also looked like she might have gone through some fantastical change. "Don't look now, but I think Adam here has summoned a she-snake." Much to her own surprise, the arrival of this new character didn't frighten her. Instead she was intrigued about the girl, which seemed to be one of the mythological creatures known as the Naga.
Interesting. I seem to be an elf, I'm pretty sure she is a Naga or something of the like... The screaming girl, a Kitsune perhaps? Could this get any more exciting?" Skylar thought to herself, finding it a little more difficult to hide her excitment as a small smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

[Tokki]

Rae-Ah blushed as the two men prodded at her shrieking from earlier, which led even more blood to rise up to her face, roughly giving her the vibrancy of a tomato. The man with red markings introduced himself as Adam, a seemingly normal, human name that generally didn't fit in with his outlandish tribal tattoos. Other than that, she was sure he meant no harm to the rest of them. The other seemed to have retained his human form as well, with no deformities of any kind. They were normal.

“Might want to plug your ears a bit for this,” Rae carefully wrapped her hands around each ear in an effort to decrease the noise, “Rise and shine! Everybody get over here!”

Her ears twitched as she sensed another being heading closer from behind her, as the grass rustled violently. With her new ears, the sounds other entities made were amplified by a tenfold. It hurt to listen to Adam yell, but to her surprise, a woman rose from the tall grass. She was supported by what resembled a snake's lower half, with a human's upper torso. The reptile slithered towards the tiny group, and then bumped into one of the men. An... ophidian? No, another being that came from her story books. Why were they like that? Why couldn't they have retained their original forms like Adam and Marcus?

At this point, Rae-Ah was done being shocked for the day. She wanted answers, but it seemed like no one else knew how to provide them.

"My dear, are you alright?" she shakily asked the serpentess.

Another gust of wind brought over the scent of fresh meat, coming from the elder man's direction. Earlier, she had been disgusted. After a couple of minutes, her head felt hot and heavy, almost as if her forehead was being burnt away. The fox watched as the man who called out for the venison dug into the meat. She expected the bile to rise up to her throat after witnessing that, but her hunger only grew worse as she began to salivate.

The gods aren't listening.

@VitaVitaAR @PKMNB0Y @Zombehs

[FujiwaraPhoenix]

"Adam. Gotcha." Marcus said, nodding his head before glancing warily at the raw deer. yeah, that still didn't feel right. Dude was eating raw deer that he just picked up from... Somewhere...
The stench was... Well, bearable, considering how he used to go to the market with his parents back when he still was in contact with them, but there was definitely something off about the meat. He gave a once-over of the deer and sighed before shouting at the idiot who was still chewing on the stuff.

"YO. THAT'S ROTTEN. GOOD LUCK." he shouted just as Adam decided to make his own declaration... Next to him. Well, at least it wasn't as ear piercing, given he had time to cover his ears as the shout resonated around them. Still hurt a bit, but it was better than making him go completely deaf. As he shook his head a bit to get rid of the remaining disorientation, he felt someone... Or something knock into him from behind. Marcus stumbled a few steps forward before recovering (just barely stopping himself from falling over) and turning around to face whoever had done that.

"Oh, come on no-" he began to say before he was cut off by the girl's appearance. Well, that half-snake body was... Certainly strange.
Okay. A naga... Or something of the sort, WHATEVER! They went by so many different names that it made no difference to him. The elf-girl's remarks, though a bit snide in nature, had truth to them. Shit. Maybe yelling like this wasn't the best of ideas, especially given that they knew nothing of their current location.

"Alright, if that didn't wake everyone else up, I don't know what will. I think this is all the people here right now..." Marcus said, scanning the grass for any more signs of life.
...
Nope. Nothing.
"Yeah, that's probably everyone. I vote we go somewhere with a bit less... Well, grass. I'd really like a chance to get our bearings straight right now, and this infinite field of red and white grass ain't giving us any clues as to where we are. All in favor?"

@Tokki@WeepingLiberty@Zombehs@SadCubone@VitaVitaAR

[Zombehs]

The sight of the older man actually eating a slice of raw and possibly rotting meat was enough for Adam to make an expression of disgust. How that seemed like a good idea was beyond him and the notion was quickly dismissed. Instead he turned to glance at the elf that had approached and raised an eyebrow at her comment. “Doubt it, even if they’ve got better ears like you apparently. Voices don’t travel th-”

Stumbling a bit in surprise as something bumped into Marcus beside him, he spun around as he planted a foot behind to steady himself and blinked a few times in surprise. This… was probably the most dramatic change out of the six that had gathered. He spared a moment to glance towards the elf at her remark, but anything more would have been pointless.

Straightening out his posture, Adam took a few steps away from the lamia, or whatever, just to be safe from her tail. The mass of muscle would probably have no problem sweeping his legs out from underneath him even if it was purely on accident. As for Marcus’ suggestion, it wasn’t like there was any other real choice for the six of them. Surviving out here would be damn impossible even if one of them had somehow scrounged up a corpse of questionable quality. “It’s not like we have a choice, we aren’t going to last long here. Assuming the sun still rises from the east and sets in the west,” he gestured at the rising sun to his back, “that’s probably the direction I’ll be going in. If any of you want to follow along, feel free to. Name’s Adam once more, for those that missed the first two times.”

He spared a moment to readjust the clothes he'd been left in this world with, tightening his boots and undoing the leather jerkin so as to hold it instead. While it wasn't terribly hot yet, the additional layer would probably be problematic once the sun really started to heat things up. He figured that was long enough for the others to decide if they wanted to follow along, so Adam turned around and marched off at a brisk pace without another word. There was nought but grass until the horizon and no telling how far the plains would extend past them; every minute was precious until a water source could be found.

[VitaVitaAR]

Rubbing her forehead irritably, Rika straightened and blinked a few times. Everyone was looking at her. Well, that wasn't too surprising, given that she was a snake from the thighs down. But that didn't mean some of the other people here didn't seem a bit... weird. Was that a kitsune? And an elf? What was with this place? Why was everyone fantasy creatures?! Why was she a fantasy creature? ... Why were all the guys not fantasy creatures?! She could feel the tip of her tail twitching unconsciously in agitation. Jeez, first she was freaked out and now she was annoyed.. why did everyone else get to keep their legs and the ability to wear underwear!? At least the skirt wasn't short like some kind of perverted fanservice anime character or something. The absurdity of the situation was so great that it was almost impossible to register. It was ridiculous that she was thankful for having decent clothing when she was half snake, and yet she acknowledged that, indeed, that was exactly how she felt.

It seemed like everyone here spoke Japanese, at least. One time she'd tried to help a foreigner with directions and got incredibly fed up with him. No matter how simple she made things seem, including trying to use English, he just didn't seem to get it and got increasingly annoyed at her. It was the last time she offered to help someone like that, and thankfully that didn't seem to be the case here. Small favors, at least. When she was a damn naga.

Now she just had to stay calm and not turn into a wreck when she spoke. She was doing well so far.

"... I'm... I'm Kobayashi Rika," she began, her voice wavering as her nerves rose. She just needed to not flip out. That was all. Don't scream, stay calm, don't-

What the hell was that guy eating?! How didn't she notice that before? Now the awful smell seemed to permeate everything, gah! It was even worse then the time her father had found a dead fox when they were camping, and that had been sitting out there for days! Clapping her hands over her nose, she couldn't help herself.

"What are you doing!?" she cried, shock, annoyance, and disgust forcing out fear, "Why are you eating that?! That's disgusting! You're going to get food poisoning or worse, you idiot!"