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Yelling was the first thing Julian registered when he sat up, and his hands went up to rub his nose and adjust his glasses out of habit. The second was the number of people around him, all of whom he didn’t recognize. The third was the forest itself, and he felt fear sink its claws in because though he knew next to nothing about forests, he’d seen enough Oregon woodland to know that this forest, with its sprawling trees and vividly-hued flowers, looked nothing like the pine one he’d walked into.

Sitting up, he patted himself down rapidly, exhaling in relief when he found his phone still in his pockets. Pulling it out and turning it on, however, saw his face fall: There was no signal. 

[color=#FEDA00]“What. The fuck.”[/color] His hand dropped, his eyes flicking over the people around him again. They looked around his age, maybe slightly older, and a few struck him more as adults than high schoolers. From what they were saying, it seemed none of them knew where they were either, much less why they were here, and [i]fuck[/i] that girl was loud. 

Looking over, Julian saw that the girl shrieking appeared to be stuck under another girl—one who was wearing the same clothes as her, but with pink details instead of green. Were they freaky twins or groupies, then, and why had they thought matching outfits was a good idea?

Thankfully, two people had arrived to help her, which meant that she’d finally shut up for a second. Her rescuers were both guys, one red-haired and one brown-haired, and Julian put them down as simps as he stood, pocketing his phone and dusting his pants off. The red-haired one, who’d been closer to Julian when he woke up, introduced himself as Marcus, and the other was identified as Brenton by a tall black guy nearby, who apparently knew him as a kid. Brenton confirmed this, naming the childhood friend as Wale like the rapper, and Julian squinted at the taller guy, wondering if Wale had named himself after a rapper. Given that ‘Wale’ didn’t really seem like a given name, he was inclined to believe so, but maybe he was jumping to conclusions. After all, it could easily have been Wale’s parents who’d named him, and if that was the case… They were some type of boomers. 

As he stood, the twins identified themselves as Aina and Hannei, but they were already Pink and Green in his book. Their Japanese sounded fast and fluent enough for them to be natives, but who knew these days. Still, them being here with everyone else was strange, and it was even stranger that no one here looked like a stereotypical Oregonian, but then again what did a stereotypical Oregonian look like anyway? A hiking enthusiast with something against umbrellas? 

Two girls, one head to toe in punk rock fantasy and the other freckled and dark-haired, started talking about how they got here, and their words pinged something in Julian. The last he thing remembered was… walking into the forest, which had still been a bit drippy from the rain the previous night. Forced by his mom, who’d unplugged his Playstation in her insistence that he go spend some time outside, he’d been wandering, kicking at stray leaves and branches. It was around then, while he was thoroughly annoyed by his congested nose and muddied shoes, that he’d glanced up at the sun filtering through the trees and then… this.

He swiped at his nose with a knuckle, whispering a curse under his breath as he refocused on the talking few. A girl with purple hair had started speaking, and for some reason she decided to sit down midway, like some pouting kid tired out by their tantrum. Whether or not she was actually mad or tired, Julian couldn’t tell from this angle, and the boy with the longer hair who started talking next was no more helpful. He brought up someone named Venassa, pronounced like some weird combination of Vanessa and not winning the spelling bee, and his story was vague enough to not bring anything new to the table. 

[color=#FEDA00]“I was walking into the forest from my grandparent’s house, and…”[/color] Julian’s mouth went dry as he realized the number of eyes on him, and his brain caught up to him. Shit. Why’d he open his mouth again? It’s not like he had anything new to say, and his story was as useless as Venassa dude’s, and their conversation was going nowhere anyway, and—what the fuck had he been saying before?

Whispering a slew of curses, he focused himself, clearing his throat. [color=#FEDA00]“I-I’m Julian,”[/color] he said, fixing on a glare that dared anyone to comment as he shut his mouth, intent on not digging his awkward grave any deeper.