[IC] Aurora, The Land of Twilight and Falsities

[Guilty Spark]

@Zombehs@Damiann47

“No… I suppose I wasn’t,” Adam muttered, looking at the angelic statue with wide eyes. He hadn’t actually thought there was a mystic puzzle to be solved, it had been bitter sarcasm. Now, with the evidence of a real purpose to the statues, he once again found himself wondering just what sort of mess they had all fallen into. He nodded absent mindedly as Valair suggested they look for more hints, still wondering how the statues needed to be moved. Maybe we need to switch their positions around? Maybe the wall will actually tell us where they need to go? His musing ended as Rena came to stand next to him.

“Uh, yeah, it’s also the only woman out of the lot,” he said, but she seemed distracted by something. Adam watched with curiosity as she reached out and touched the statue, then reeled back, confused. His brow furrowed with worry as she moved to the next statue and the statue after that, touching each of them. She was either on the verge of a realization, or was losing her wits, and he hoped for the former. When she found herself at the final statue, next to him, she stopped and told them what she had discovered.

“You mean like… periodic table elements? Copper and gold and such?” he asked. It sounded far-fetched, and he’d have been more comfortable if she sounded confident in her knowledge, but he didn’t see anything to be gained by knowing what they were made of. Then again, why make six statues out of six elements unless there was a reason? Scratching his chin, he looked down, deep in thought, and his eye caught something where the silver statue had been standing. He knelt in front of the statue, looking closely. “Hey, there’s a loose tile… thing… under this statue, I can’t read what it’s marked with though, like the plaques on the statues,” standing back up, Adam moved to the horned statue that Rena was by and easily pushed it out of the way, revealing a similar tile set in the ground.

“Well, I guess we’re making some sort of progress. What did you find over on the wall, Valair?” He asked, seeing this as actually being a puzzle for the first time.

[ImNotADamnRobot]

Max |@MonkeyBusiness@Mcmolly

Max stood there and contemplated exactly when the whole situation was turned on its head, of all the ways to die in a volcano he hadn't really expected "drowning" to be it. The torrent was closing in fast and he'd rather not get swept up and hit some nasty rocks or fall into some deep pit. He opted to follow the example of PansyBoy and grab onto the railing by the others.

He grunted and steeled himself for the upcoming force and looked to the others and sighed, "Well, here we go..."

[VitaVitaAR]

@Kangutso, @Shikaru

The bright red baseball bat was currently held at the ready.

Tsubaki didn't know where she was. Or why it was so damn gross and sticky in here. Or why there were creepy... she didn't even know they looked like elves or something. It was weird. Which meant this was probably a dream or something, but that didn't stop it from ticking her off. Why the hell would her head come up with this freaky crap? Jeez it made her angry! She'd already walked for a bit in the gross as hell tunnels trying to figure out how to get out of this place, but if it was dream it probably didn't end or some kind of dumbass trash like that. And on top of that, the stupid creepy elf things with tails kept getting up or something and staring at her. Were they dead or alive?! ... Well, it was a dream, so they could be either. Still, by this point, Tsubaki was ready. Just because this was a dream didn't mean she couldn't do her best to beat the everloving crap out of whatever ticked her off.

Gripping the handle of her bat in both hands as she faced the possibly corpses lying around, the tip of the blunt implent waving in the air as she wound up. Just in case, you know, one of them approached her being all creepy. Of course, she was prepared for something coming from behind her as well. She'd been streetfighting for years, an assault from behind would be met with an instinctual baseball bat to the face the moment they got close. Just because this was a dream didn't mean she was going to let it make her helpless or whatever. Sure it was a dream which often made people as powerful or as helpless as... whatever, she didn't know how dreams worked, but screw letting the scenario her mind had come up with(what had she eaten to make herself come out with this?) control her!

"Oi oi oi, you wanna do that to my face you cowards!?" she declared, glaring at the fallen bodies. "Or do you only wanna do your creepy staring crap when you think you can get away with it?!"

[Shikaru]

@VitaVitaAR@Kangutso

Erich mumbled to himself ever so often and to John, seemingly just talking to himself. Completely absorbed in his work. In this strange new world he could invent and work without tools or any other necessity normally needed.

His first several attempts were failures, the Ryfle simply falling apart when the trigger was pulled. Gradually he got the hang of it, and the Ryfle was built. He laughed in amazement, firing a few quick rounds to make sure it really worked. It did.

He continued to not even notice his surroundings, or care much beyond the first hour or two of awe. Mumbling to himself, typing on his laptop and designing. He glanced up ever so often, staring at the odd, dead creatures. At times he could swear they were alive staring back, he figured they were and they were just playing a trick on him.

Meh. He typed furiously, making adjustments to the design until it was absolutely perfect. With excitement he stood up and laughed, displaying the laptop to the dead and not dead creatures. He decided he'd show off his design, even if they WERE really dead and not just being completr dicks.

"It's done! It's absolutely PERFECT!" He shouted absent mindedly. "The perfect modern suit of armor! It's just a prototype of course but...everything has its testing phases you know?!"

He placed John on the ground, screen turned towards to piles of metal scattered around. He stretched his arms out and the first two chunks of metal lifted into the air. Confident he had a feel for his abilities he quickly began his work. Bending the metal, shaping it to his design, embedding circuitry with small electricity arcs.

It took him a while, far longer than the Ryfle, but it was eventually done. ARM0R Mk1, the first prototype powersuit to ever grace the world shy of video games. He stared at the design on his laptop, and the rusty ragged piece of shit he had in front of him. Damn, he muttered under his breath.

It was quite evident he didn't grasp his powers as best as he thought. He sighed and walked over to the armor. He struggled to put it on, and eventually did. Despite its outward appearance he could move quite freely, if not more quickly than normal.

He walked over and grabbed his Ryfle and John, depositing John in the crude compartment on the front and balancing the Ryfle on his shoulder. Finally, he decided to set off and explore the area, confident he could take on anything.

He walked through the cave system thingy, taking aim ever so often when the dead creatures decided to be not dead and stare at him, shooting a few of the corpses. "Nope! Coulda been friendly earlier but noooo you just sat there playing your mind tricks, isn't that right John? We don't take nicely to jedi mind tricks, nope! I bet this entire thing was orchestrated by the government to get my guard down so they could steal my designs and John!" He shouted to the on and off again creatures, shooting at them ever so often.

"Where are the cameras, HUH?1? WHERE ARE THE CAMERAS?" He shouted madly, shooting the celing of the cave. If anything that wasn't a super secret government spy creature set out to end him was around, they'd probably hear the noise he was causing.

[Ashifili]

Cutting open the window? With those knuckled knives of her, seaweed head would probably have a better chance of breaking it open than cutting a perfect hole in it. And Darius was much more influenced towards the former than the latter. It'd probably be a horrid screech, like nails against a chalkboard.

Before Darius could hammer the church window any further, however, the existence of another person was made known. A child wearing a...plague doctor's mask? Were they in quarantine or something? Was this land of hope infested with some sort of disease? Suddenly, Darius decided that, perhaps, staying inside was better after all. But Joel had already acted, swinging the doors open and triumphantly tasting the air, before asking the oddest question?

Were they in heaven?

"Of course we aren't," Darius replied, ultimately stepping out of the church beside the blond, "Heaven isn't a place where plague doctor kiddos ask random strangers for help, after all."

"But I have to ask: why are you so..."

Oh, wait, right, he didn't actually care, so there was no point in asking. Trailing off and awkwardly killing his curiousity, Darius instead took stock of the area around the trio. It was a murky sky, but despite that, he still felt better than before, in the dim sunlight that penetrated the clouds.
@Card Captor@WaddleDaisy

[OwO]

@daltar@Anderiel

The ground began to shake all around the group of 3. Hana, being so close to one of the 'trees', quickly grabbed onto it for balance. The ground shook more, but Hana didn't fall. The tree began to glow. Hana was completely lost on what was going on. Then came the large roar. That roar was atrociously loud. It hurt to hear it. Then came the wind. The wind was absolutely brutal. It had even ripped out a few of the 'trees' from the roots.

Hana didn't really pay attention to Mabel dropping her dice, but watched as Mabel fell over trying to retrieve the said dice. A slight smile filled her face, but by the time that Mabel got back up, the smile extinguished back to its usual sheepish frown. She looked down as Mabel talked to her. "I don't know," Hana said, her voice slightly louder than before, "but we should find Tsukino and find out what all this is."

[daltar]

@SilverDawn@Anderiel

"Hey you two!" cries off from a distance Rin as she runs towards the two... glad to see they are alright though her face shows fear and concern for the shaking and the glow from before "What was that? I saw a glow from here and suddenly there was the shaking!" continues to yell Rin as she runs towards them... a few seconds later getting to them, supporting herself on another tree to avoid falling.

[Rin]

@Grey Star@kapuchu

Fiona Swanhilde - Within the Forests on Gorlock

"...W-wah!"

Fiona squeaked in panic as a loud noise boomed out nearby, almost jumping out of her skin in fright. Thankfully, when she actually turned to look she found the source of the noise was a rather high-spirited Asian girl wearing... She'd never seen clothes like that. Was she a native? The girl's cheerfulness seemed a little infectious, as Fiona's mouth subtly curved up into a small, nervous smile.

Any attempt to respond was cut short, however, when the man-faced deerosaurus... Sniffed her. As she resumed trembling, it let out a soft cry, and before she could react to this a small swarm of strange animals begin surrounding her, Tamaki and... And she hadn't noticed the other girl until now, but... Well, honestly, "girl" wasn't the right description for her. "Woman" was a bit better, but "amazon" seemed to be more accurate. Fiona couldn't help but feel something mildly unpleasant inside her when she looked at the two others, especially when she looked down to her lap and saw the chair once more.

"...H-hey!" ...And as she did so, one of the creatures lept on. It looked almost like a squirrel, really; a squirrel that looked like it had been caught in an explosion in a paint factory, but still. In its paws it held some kind of nut, maybe the local equivalent of an acorn, which it seemed to be presenting to her. "Um... F-for me? Um... Thank you, eheh." Reaching out a slender hand, she took the nut before gently patting the little rodent on the head, as a wider smile than before spread across her face.

"Um... I'm... Fiona," she mumbled, as the other two introduced themselves. "Fiona Swanhilde, and... I don't know where we are either, Chloe. And, um... _{Th-that would be, um, nice, Tamaki, um...}"

[Anderiel]

@SilverDawn @daltar

"Your plan pissed the world off, and now it wants blood for blood." Mabel stated bluntly to Rin.

The girl then carefully paced towards the larger spire at the forest's center. The dice hummed with power, though a confused Mabel didn't really know what that meant. Finally she reached her destination, the towering structure hummed brightly and winds continued to intensify as the earth came to life.

"Maybe if I climb up here, get my bearings... Hey, do either of you have a compass or something?" Shaking her head at the thought, Mabel began to climb the tough jagged surface. High enough, she began to realize they weren't on a where, they were on a what.

[MonkeyBusiness]

Filip was glad that they had slightly resolved their issues between themselves when suddenly the large doors that they had been trying to figure out had just swung open. "See, that wasn't so hard." He started when he felt movement in his right hand and saw that the salamander was moving up his arm, to his torso and down his leg before moving as fast as it could go for some safe ground. That was never a good sign and that was when he heard the sound of a large amount of rushing water heading their direction.

He saw that the other two were grabbing on to a bar that had been let down from above the gate and knew that was a better idea than just trying to outrun the water. "This is going to hurt." The dutch man muttered as he grabbed a hold of the bar and drew in a breath just as the water slammed into his chest and it took all his strength to hang onto the bar.

[Grey Star]

@Rin@kapuchu

Tamaki Asagami - Within the Forests on Gorlock

"Yosh! Friend acquired! Glad to meet your acquaintance, Fiona!" Tamaki pumped her arm even as she and the others were being all but swarmed by friendly woodland creatures- big and small. If anything the girl got even more visibly excited, trembling all over through sheer exhilaration especially after the man faced deer walked on water. Everything was so new and fresh while at the same time not so totally out of whack that she couldn't compare them to her old life. The animals themselves looked like more fantastical versions of beasts found on her world, though much friendlier it seemed. Naturally, she was an easy-going girl and thus simply relaxed herself and enjoyed the Snow White like moment she found herself in. No singing though. She had standards.

"I heard animals respond badly if they're excited so it would be best for you to relax... I don't think they'll really harm us anyways, they have the look of curious children..." Tamaki laxly told Chloe even as she nuzzled into the deer's pelt, enjoying the warm and fluffy softness. "And as for you question, if I had to guess then we've been plucked to an entirely new world for some strange superfluous purpose that we don't know about yet but will no doubt discover in our long journey through the world. I read stories kinda like this." Giving a cheerful shrug as she remembered all those light novels with the same plot line, she wondered if this world operated on said logic. Still, having a template to follow, she wasn't as nervous as the other two. "If not, then I suppose we'll just have to figure it out ourselves. Or ask for help."

Picking up her plastic bag, the now more toned down high schooler rummaged through before pulling out a store bought out a tiered bento box she had bought from the specialty store just prior to being transported, lifting it up to reveal a rather nice looking spread of prepared greens over rice. "Kami-san, might you tell us about our circumstances? We seem to be lost." Giving the great being a cute grin, she pushed the box towards the beast. "An offering for your services if you do." Being Japanese, the girl was used to thinking in a certain way and was rather spiritual, having the belief that gods and spirits existed in nature. Seeing the obvious intelligence shining in the being's eyes, Tamaki tried to test her hypothesis and gather information at the same time.

[daltar]

Rin frowned at Mabel's words, looking at her straight in the eyes "Hey, nothing happened and no strange light and earthquakes happened when I broke off some branches. What did you girls do?" She asks, standing her ground and clearly perceiving that Mabel had a problem with her.

However, given the movement of the whole place Rin didn't exactly have time to confront the dice bearing girl much longer... instead she gave her cellphone over to her "I'm not sure if the compass on it may work on this place, but give it a shot and tell us what you see"

[chukklehed]

@malmshodes@ProfessorNV

"It's quite a view, isn't it?" Free asked after a while, not even looking back at the two others on the roof. She was too busy staring out over the expanse of the city, her feet almost hanging over the edge of the roof as she gazed fearlessly over the abyss. She said nothing more as she contemplated the horizon, turning a small silver locket over in her hand as she seemed to wrestle with some profound thoughts.

Without warning, she drew back her hand and flung it forward, tossing the locket carelessly over the edge into the city below and watching it as it fell, farther and farther down, before it was lost to her sight. She continued staring at the spot she thought it would land until she saw it splash down in the placid water, the only movement visible in the whole city. Somehow, just throwing the locket away seemed to take some weight off her shoulders, and she stood a little straighter as she turned to greet whoever it was behind her.

"My name is..." She began to introduce herself, but stopped midway, as if considering, then continued. "I am Free. That's what you should call me."

[Zombehs]

@Guilty Spark@Damiann47
“Joy to me,” Valair murmured as he noticed the carving was actually quite larger than he had expected. Oh, and it was also covered in frost and his hands were already quite cold. He picked through his backpack for a moment and grinned in success at discovering a metal ruler. Not quite an ice pick, but better than frostbite on his hands. While Adam and Rena talked about the statues, he scraped and chipped away at the thin layer of ice on the walls.

“Ah…” The exclamation came as he cleared away another portion of the diagram. A glance between the center of the room and the blurred image through frost and Valair grinned at the end of the puzzle in sight, redoubling his efforts to expose the full diagram. He didn’t pay much attention to his two companions until Rena called for his attention. Given he was basically done with his task by this point, only one corner left, he gave her his attention and tried to warm up his hands with the small break.

With Adam’s little discovery, it couldn’t be helped that Valair raised an eyebrow and said, “Well, I guess you were dropped here for a reason Rena. We’d probably be here a lot longer without you.”

[ProfessorNV]

@chukklehed@malmshodes

Free's voice took Dominic by surprise, causing him to turn around and look at the girl who had spoken, standing at the edge of the building with what looked like a locket in her hands. He began to wonder just how long she had been there, just standing quietly. He watched her as she reached back, and without hesitation, threw the locket off the edge, watching it fall all the way down, splashing into the water. He was confused as to why she would do such a thing, but he didn't really care to ask. Not like it bothered anything in his life. She turned and spoke to him, beginning to say her name but stopped, changing course and saying her name was Free.

It was obvious this wasn't her actual name, but if she wanted to keep her name a secret, it was her choice. Dominic gave a small grunt of notice before looking back into the abyss of the city, "Dominic" he said in reply to her.

So... Not just him here then. He didn't know if that was good or bad... Regardless he came to the decision that he should find a way into this building, after looking up and seeing the coming rain clouds that were forming in the sky. He turned and began to walk toward the roof access door that was not too far from where he was standing, toward the center of the roof.

[Damiann47]

@Zombehs @Guilty Spark

For the most part they seemed to have believed her, maybe she was convincing enough, or more likely maybe they were getting desperate for any answers, no matter how insane they may sound. Valair was onto something, all they probably had to do at this point was match the statues with their tiles, although it all did hinge on her being right, really because normal people can't instinctively identify elements like her. Rena nodded. "Suppose that does make sense right? So we move a statue, take the tile from underneath then replace it with the correct element?"

Rena practically ran to Valair and his chart, with a potential solution in sight they shouldn't waste time. She already had an idea what to do and wanted to confirm this. First she touched one of the squares, then found her suppressions weren't far off, the teacher was probably right that this chat did mark where the tiles were supposed to be.

Rena looked to Valair, wanting to make sure he was paying attention, then started to identify each of the squares, only this time she call out their names. "This one is... iron... then this guy looks to be cobalt, we got boron here... and uh titanium, and zinc here, and finally... " She got the corner that was still covered in ice, but it was no biggie as it was a real simple case of elimination. "Can't tell what this square is, but obviously it has to be silver." Hopefully Mr.Gentleman can remember which one is which.

Without wasted effort Rena made her way to the center of the chamber, here she recited each statue's element, while also pointing to each one in turn. "The angel is silver, the rifleman is iron, the hatboy is zinc, the beast is boron, the masked boy is cobalt, and lastly the horned boy is titanium." Rena was starting to feel more confident, by a whole lot actually, the more she talked the more she was absolutely sure of herself, and if she were wrong... well then they can always try something new.

[Guilty Spark]

And there you have it, puzzle solved, Adam thought, seeing the chart Valair had uncovered. Confident that those two had a pretty good grasp of the details, he decided that he’d stick to his strong suit and move the rest of the statues off of their respective tiles while the others talked it over. With the angel and the horned boy moved out of the way he continued his rotation, counter to the way Rena had walked, and effortlessly slid each statue about a foot backwards. He made it to the rifleman as Rena began calling out the elements that she associated with each of them.

“Rena, you want to come identify these tiles?” He asked, once she had finished speaking. As he moved the rifleman back, he paused with the tile barely exposed and an expression of confusion spreading across his face.

“Hey, if this is iron shouldn’t it be heavier?” As it was, Adam hadn’t thought about their weight until just then, but they seemed to move awfully easily given what they were supposed to be made of. They were probably made to slide, but unless they were also hollow he wasn’t sure that it would make so much of a difference. And if they aren’t hollow… well, maybe she has no idea what they’re made of? he thought.

Squatting low in front of the statue, he wrapped his arms around its legs, then carefully lifted upwards. He struggled for just a second, then the weight seemed to lessen and he gingerly brought it upwards until he was standing nearly straight. It wasn't light, but it couldn't be iron. With a confused laugh, he set it back down. "Well... I think our theory might be a little off. Either of you wanna give it a try?" he asked, gesturing towards the statue.

[Zombehs]

@Damiann47@Guilty Spark
Just as Adam was a bit confused, Valair watched curiously as the other man moved the statues about with no real difficulty. All of the elements that Rena had rattled off weren’t exactly light even if they had been designed to be moved apparently. “Silver and cobalt should be heavier than iron,” he pointed out, recalling the tidbit of information he recalled from science classes, as he made his way over towards Adam.

“Well, Rena seems to have gained the ability to read materials through touch, and the puzzle seems to be designed with that in mind. Maybe you got stronger so someone could actually move them around.” With that in mind, Valair didn’t try to pick up the statue, but tried to simply the tip the piece over. He had to put a decent amount of effort to tilt it even slightly and the thud as it crashed back to the floor, dispelled any doubts of the statue’s composition.

“Yeah… seems like you got super strength,” Valair said with a nod. “Damn it’s cold…” he muttered to himself as he could no longer keep himself from shivering. Well, there was a solution in sight for their problems, so best get to work rather than stand around and do nothing. Even if he couldn’t move the statues as easily as Adam, he could pick and choose. "I suppose those small sigils mark which statue goes over them then."

[WaddleDaisy]

@Ashifili@Card Captor
Mana was extremely confused by the mysterious boy who had appeared out of absolutely nowhere in the chapel, she took a look at the doors fly open as her eyes widened. This definitely wasn't home, weird and strange magic things are happening out of the blue. She listened to him mumbled about, that all of us could be dead or something? She didn't believe him one bit, but this could possibly be the opposite of heaven if you take a good think about it. Eh, maybe not due to the chapel being there. She noticed that this boy had asked for help.

Help? He needs help? Mana thought to herself before taking a look over to the freckled boy who had answered his question. To be honest she agreed with him, a creepy kid just appearing out of nowhere would be awfully strange in a peaceful environment.

Mana walked outside the chapel to take a look at the surroundings, it was murky and full of these fairy tail creatures.

[kapuchu]

@Rin@Grey Star

Chloe Richards - Forest of Gorlock

A few minutes had passed--or at least that was what it felt like--during which Chloe had seated herself on the ground, sword on the ground beside her, and watched the myriad of animals all around them. At the same time she kept an eye on the strange deer, not quite yet sure what to make of it, but still fairly convinced that it was not here with the intent to cause her, or either of the other two, any harm.

As she sat there the smulled over the different options; both of how they came here, and what they were supposed to do. We all appeared here suddenly, is what it sounds like. Neither Tamaki nor Fiona knew anything as to the how and why. We just... appeared... in this place. Together. For whatever strange reason. Her brows furrowed, frowning thoughtfully. Her gaze moved to the sky above them, just visible through the hole in the canopy. Tamaki seems to think that that 'Deer' is some sort of spirit, even intelligent. I've no doubt that it is intelligent... but how much? Hardly more than your average doe or stag, I would think.

"That's oddly specific," she said out loud, directed at Tamaki. "Your theory as to how we came here, that is. It's... What should I say... Very fantastic? Out of the ordinary? Not that anything here is--" she looked around, pursing her lips "--ordinary." She stood up then, picking up her sword as well.

She started heading towards the treeline, but stopped just short of it and turned back towards the other two. "I'll go take a look around, see if there's anything interesting." A gentle smile spread across her lips. "I'll be within earshot, so if you need me just shout and I'll come." With that, she turned around and passed the first few trees, wishing that no branches would decide to snag at her yoga pants or tank top. I really would prefer not to end up exposing more skin than just my stomach.

As fate would have it, she passed a thorny bush and ripped a small hole in her 'pants'. It wasn't too bad, but enough to annoy her slightly. It wasn't a bush she had seen before, nor were any of the trees she noticed. A few looked like oak or maple, but either the colours were off, the tree was too large or small, wrong patterns on the leaves, or any combination of those. She found a bush with some berries and plucked a few, stuffing them into her tanktop, hoping that they wouldn't end up getting mashed into paste before she got back. That, and hoping that they were edible. Heavens knew they would need to know what could be eaten by them one day.

She continued wandering around, keeping within earshot of the other two, and their flock of animals. At one point she used her sword to hack off two thick branches from a tree, cleaning them of twigs growing from it. Should make fine walking sticks, if it comes to it, she thought, and continued her search for anything interesting.

All the while pondering what that strange feeling in her gut was. As if she wasn't quite... "just her" anymore.