[A forest. Birds are chirping merrily, leaves are turning greener at a speed that can only be percieved over days, and animals are going about their business. In the distance, two animals go about their business, one dying and another killing. There are six people laying on the ground in a clearing. They might be dressed strangely, if you're not from the early twenty first century.] [They might also be adults. This also depends on whether or not you are from the early twenty first century.] [Four men, or boys, and two girls, or women. Why are they lying on the ground, apparently asleep, in the middle of a forest? Perhaps, if you ask them, they will tell you. Look... one of them appears to be stirring now.] [El WHAT?! 2: Answer to a Neverending Story] [Chapter 1: Rhymes That Keep Their Secrets] [Session 1... START] * Almost as though triggered by that first movement, all six people begin awakening. * Emmet sits up, shaking his head slowly as if waking unwillingly from a deep sleep. He is a sturdy, brown-skinned youth of about five and half feet--though presently a fair percentage of this height is sprawled horizontally beneath him. He looks around the forest with large, dark eyes; his broad features express confusion that quickly gives way to a calm, collected attentiveness. * Sophie is a very pretty young woman, about average height. Her hair is blond and straight, falling to her waist. Her eyes are bright and blue, and there's a very small mole under the left one. She's wearing a white T-shirt with a green stripe and jeans, and designer shoes. She blinks a few times as she gains consciousness, then when she realizes what her surroundings are, sits up suddenly. * Fadi is about six feet tall with deeply tanned skin, who is heavily built and clearly Arabic. His hair is black and well-kept, and his eyes are dark brown. He's wearing baggy blue-jeans, a black T-shirt, and a matching black leather jacket. There's a number of chains leading from his belt-loop to his pocket. He sits up and rubs his head, obviously thinking something is wrong. "Man, did someone get the number of that bus?" * Harold is an American teenager, definitely Caucasian, with strawberry blond hair. He's wearing what is obviously the uniform of a Catholic school, grey slacks, white button-up shirt with the school crest emblazoned over the chest pocket, and a blue suitjacket. He's tallish, and thin without really suffering from the lankiness so many boys his age do. He wears glasses that make him seem a little bit older than his true age of 15, but the leather backpack he totes definitely identifies him as some kind of student. He landed face-down, and emits a groan as he pushes himself up to a kneeling position. His hands fly over his glasses, trying to make sure they made the transition intact (they did). * Nick is a fair-skinned, somewhat handsome teen, almost six feet and somewhat solidly built, his looks only marred by the various scabs, scrapes, and bruises from a life of living a little *too* vigorously. He sits up abruptly, rubbing his dark blue eyes out and ruffling his messily bowl-cut brown hair. He's dressed in a black T-shirt, jean pants, and heavy red sneakers, all in various stages of disrepair. "...Eh?" * Tiffany, a beautiful girl in her mid-teens, opens her sky blue eyes. Her raven hair looks recently styled and compliments her off-white feminine suit, displaying an impecable sense of fashion and showing off a small butterfly tatoo on her left ankle. Both are looking rumpled from an unexpected nap in the grass. * Emmet struggles to his feet and pats himself down as if making certain that every limb and possession is accounted for. Scuffed and broken-in black sneakers, ordinary, faded bluejeans, a short-sleeved navy blue tee shirt, and a similarly colored backpack with a reinforced bottom. Apparently satisfied with everything he finds, the young man now turns his attention to the other moving bodies scattered around him. * Harold seems satisfied that he's physically intact, and pushes himself up to his feet. He turns around to regard the other five people who landed along with him.... * Tiffany sits up slowly, her hands shaking, and looks around the clearing. Her hair lays gently on her shoulders, and frames her startled eyes. * Harold 's eyes lock with Tiffany's. He doesn't say anything yet, he just looks at her as if he expected her to be able to explain everything. * Nick seems half-asleep, blinking repeatedly and rubbing his knees, where large ragged holes replace denim fabric. His shirt is minorly torn, and his shoes are being held together with lots of duct tape, and quite a bit of luck. * Fadi gets up and brushes himself off. He checks his wallet and nods to himself as he notices the other people on the lawn. "That's the last time I trust... Where the hell am I?" * Sophie gathers her stuff: a semi-full backpack and a long, thin black case, and looks at the others expectanty. * Tiffany looks at Harold and breaks the gaze, as if unsure of how to answer his unsaid question. * Harold sighs and looks down, adjusting his glasses (which don't really need it). "... I guess it'd be reasonable to assume that none of you are supposed to be here, either?" * Tiffany stands up. "Where... am I?" * Sophie pulls herself to her feet. "Quite obviously. What's going on? I want an explanation." Her accent is unmistakably British. ..Did I fall asleep in algebra and go to Heaven? * The forest around you is cool, but not cold. The trees are composed almost entirely of deciduous trees, and the ground is soft, but not muddy. * Fadi scratches his head and picks up his backpack. "Nope." * Tiffany moves over to help Harold off of the ground. "Can't say I am supposed to be here." I somehow doubt this is Heaven. * Nick stands up, does a few basic stretches, and slings his oddly-lumpy backpack over his shoulder. * Harold allows Tiffany to help him up. He doesn't really need it, but Tiffany will be able to tell just from touching him that he's incredibly tense, on the verge of shaking. Staying cool and calm is probably taking every bit of willpower he has. Eh, so much for wishful thinking.. * Tiffany is also trembling, and her strength is barely enough to help him up at all. * Emmet keeps looking around, apparently not too distracted by his surroundings to effect an answer in accent-neutral English. "Doesn't feel familiar to me either." * Sophie looks around the forest, one hand on her hip. "Hardly looks that way." * Harold's accent is definitely American as he speaks. "There's nothing like this where I'm from. ... how did we get here?" * Fadi looks at the ground, then around him. His backpack looks very light, almost empty. He's surprisingly calm, given his situation. He speaks almost perfect English, but with a easily identifiable Arabic accent. "I don't know. I'm betting some punk popped me one and dumped me off somewhere." * Nick possesses something of a faint Southern American accent. "This doesn't look like such a bad place.." Yes. It's a perfectly nice place in the middle of no where. * Tiffany speaks, holding her voice strong. She has no accent. "So... if nobody knows where we are... how did we get here?" Her hands idly check that her purse is in place, denoting her nervousness. It may not be bad, but that doesn't make it good! We need to go find someone and figure out where we are, immediately! * Emmet grunts faintly. "Everywhere is in the middle of somewhere. Just have to figure out where that is..." An excellent idea. How do you propose we should do that? ... eheh... Hmm. ..I have no idea. * Emmet looks at the girl who addressed him, as if seeing her for the first time. * Harold tries very hard to give the impression that he's thinking, rather than absolutely lacking in ideas. * Fadi hmms... "I think we should go find someone who *is* from this area. They'd probably know how we can get back." Well, I suppose we should start with introductions... my name's Tiffany... and I'd guess I was headed to the debate meet, though I don't exactly recall. * Nick is scratching his head and trying to be subtle in looking at Tiffany. Harold Essner. I was... I guess I was going to school... or maybe from it? I can't remember that well... * Harold sounds troubled by this sudden revelation (or lack thereof). * Emmet shifts his attention to each of the others in his or her turn, and waits for the round of sudden introductions to reach him. * Sophie sighs, then stands in perfect posture. "Very well. My name is Sophie Asher of the Liverpool Ashers. And I was... was..." * Nick suddenly looks extremely panicked, digging through his backpack. After a minute, he sighs with audible relief, zips his pack up, and slings it back over his shoulder. * Sophie looks down at a loss for a minute, then holds up the case she's carrying. "Clearly I was on my way to fencing." * Harold eyes Nick, almost warily. * Nick grins at Harold. "Rollerblades." * Fadi looks at each person as they introduce themselves. "I'm Fadi Al-Sabir. I... was probably in class. No other reason I'd be carrying around my backpack. Damn teachers never know when someone leaves." * Emmet takes a cue from everybody else and slings his backpack from one shoulder. He opens it with one motion, peers inside, and closes his backpack again just as efficiently before putting it back on his shoulders. * Fadi 's eyes go wide for a few seconds as he checks one of his (many) pockets, then breathes a sigh of relief. Roller... blades?... * Nick looks at Harold as if he was from another planet. Emmet Broussard. Pensacola Florida, United States. ..Please tell me you're kidding, man. Rollerblades... I can't imagine. What on earth is a rollerblade? *blink* ... I know what they are, but why are you worried about them _now_?! * Fadi looks around. "A lot of good Rollerblades will do you here." * Emmet looks around the forest again, but briefly, before looking back at the others. * Harold seems suddenly very flustered. They're good 'blades, man. Gotta keep my priorities straight. He's right. Not a lot of pavement around. Or any other sign of civilian... I mean, of civilization. * Sophie nods to Emmet. "Mmm yes, that does seem to be a problem." Don't get yourself worked up over something that you don't need. * Tiffany looks around somewhat timidly, waiting for the remainder of the introductions, but clearly startled by the environment in which they are occurring. ..Right. 'nyway, I'm Nick Anderson. From Tucson. * Harold exhales sharply, suppressing his irritation. "Meh. I could understand if it was something _useful_, like a map or a compass..." * Emmet nods at Nick's introduction, but gives Harold a dubious look. A compass wouldn't help us much unless we had some kind of landmark to go with it. Rollerblades are useful. Well... well, it would be something! Or a water purifier. I wonder how close we are to the nearest highway. A topo map would be great, though. I can think of quite a lot of things that would be really great right now. * Harold looks around, trying to see if there's any signs of... well, a point at which the forest becomes something other than forest, in the distance. Well... I don't know about you all.. but I'd suggest we try to figure out where we're headed and go there before it gets dark. I don't think that a matress of leaves and twigs will be good for my posture. But I'd rather focus on what we have instead. I'm very busy, and don't have the time to be stranded in the middle of nowhere any longer than necessary. Eh, no use talking about something you want unless you can get it. Precisely. * Emmet seems relatively unruffled as he looks around at the possible paths away from this place. "Which direction are we marching? Moving?" * Tiffany moves over to stand next to Sophie. "In any case, perhaps one of the guys would like to climb a tree and see if there's any civilization to be found in this area." * Fadi snerks. "Then let's find out how to get out of here." * Sophie nods to Tiffany. "Yes, that sounds like a good idea." She watches the men expectantly. Climb a _tree_? What if we fell?! And why does it have to be one of _us_? * Emmet immediately looks for a climbable tree. * Fadi rolls his eyes. "Then you get back up." ..Yeah, falling's usually temporary. * Many of the trees around you look perfectly climbable. If you don't want to get yourself all dirty, then one of us can do it. * Emmet looks, more importantly, to see whether any of the climbable trees are significantly higher than their neighbors. But if you got injured out here, there'd be no way to get help. * Fadi looks around and starts climbing one. "Only one way to find out where we are..." * Harold glowers at Nick a little at what he takes as a mild jibe... but he also doesn't offer to go climb a tree himself, either. I'm sure you'll be all right if you're careful... I'll help if you need it, but I'd rather not ruin my nails if the debate team's still waiting for me. * It's difficult to tell from where you are, unfortunately. The trees are in full leaf, and seeing to the top of them is difficult, if not impossible. There are a few trees that are significantly larger in circumference, however. * Nick shrugs and tries to scamper up one of the larger trees. Your nails mean jack out here. * Emmet keeps his eye on an alternate climbing tree, and waits for Fadi or Nick to either fall or provide some sort of useful report. Just because we're in a rough situation, that's no excuse to treat the ladies unkindly. * Fadi looks for one of the bigger trees and starts climbing it. "I'm just concerned that we're doing more work than we need to because she wants to keep her nails in one piece." * Tiffany looks scandalized. "Thank you, Harold." Well it's nice to see that at least one of you has some manners. Yes, thank you Harold. * Nick scampers all of five or six feet up one tree, then a big of bark breaks off under his foot and he lands unceremoniously on his bum. * Emmet winces sympathetically when Nick falls, but makes no move to help him up. * Tiffany hurries over to Nick and helps him up. "Are you all right?" * Harold 's edgy demeanor relaxes a bit. It appears to be getting replaced with moderate amounts of 'smug'. * Nick shrugs off her attempts to help. "Nah, I'm fine, I'm fine.." I've fallen from higher. ^_^; If you're sure, but don't take any unnecessary risks. * Fadi climbs slowly up a tree, taking his time, and it pays off as he climbs above the general tree line. * Nick attempts, once again, to climb the same tree. * Tiffany stands close, in hopes of helping him if he falls again. * Now that he's been warned by nature to take his time, Nick manages to make it up to just above the tree line. * Fadi looks around for any sign of civilization. * Nick also scans the horizon. See anything up there, guys? * Harold glances up, but doesn't ask a question. It wouldn't do to let on that the tree-climbing might have been a good idea. * Fadi shouts down. "Nothing at all. Looks like we're stuck." I see something. ..Sort of. Maybe. * Emmet looks up at Nick when he claims to have spotted something. Sort of??? Looks like.. Smoke? Well, that's a sign of a campsite... I guess. And where there's camps, there are people. Smoke! That's good, smoke means people! It could be the people who put us out here. Yeah, too small for a forest fire. If they put us out here, why would they remain so close? We don't remember them... so why tempt us to find out their identities? * Harold pauses as he considers what Emmet said very seriously. ... nnn... that's true, but I don't see any other options.... Ya found something? Good, that means I can get down now. Perhaps they don't know that we don't remember them. * Fadi slowly makes his way down the tree. I suppose. But it still makes them our only link to civilization. * Nick also attempts to make his way down the tree. They could have used a drug on us. There are a few drugs that affect short term memory. * Emmet doesn't really seem horrified by the idea. * Fadi scowls. "If they did, I'm carving them a new one." Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt us to investigate any more than it already has. * Tiffany checks her purse, and noticing everything is in order, closes it back up. ... drugs? What kind of drugs? * Harold 's imagination seems to have seized on that horrifying concept. I don't know the names, but I know they exist. Apparently it's pretty easy for somebody to slip one in an uncovered drinking glass. * Nick jumps off about five feet above the ground, grabbing his backpack. "Hey, look on the bright side. We could've been abducted by aliens." * Tiffany smiles wryly. "IF you believe in that sort of thing." * Emmet is unimpressed by Nick's comment. "The aliens would have to be very unprofessional to drop us all in the middle of a forest." * Sophie eyes Nick, then sighs. "Or maybe we all just walked here without knowing it. How about instead of wondering why we are here, we go find out?" * Fadi nods and says sarcastically "Gotta watch out for the aliens all right. They're out to take over the world!" See? He's got it. * Tiffany appears anxious to get moving. "Well, point the way, Nick." * Emmet nods at Sophie's statement and ignores Nick and Fadi. He adjusts his backpack on his shoulders and watches Nick for directions after Tiffany asks for them. ... yes, let's just get moving. * Nick laughs at himself slightly, flashing a big grin. "Sure. It was.. that way." He points off in the direction he saw the smoke. * Fadi reaches the bottom of the tree and hops off. "Nothing we can do about it now. We gotta get going if we're going to get there in any reasonable time." * Tiffany nods and sets off, waiting briefly a few feet away from the group to make sure people are following. * Sophie follows the others. "Honestly, this is such a hassle." "Hassle" seems to be putting it lightly. * Nick follows Tiffany, flashing Sophie a puzzled glance. * Emmet hikes in the direction Nick pointed, though he takes some care to check his pace if the others move more slowly. * Harold (somewhat conspicuously) makes sure to stick closely to the others. * Fadi starts hiking in the general direction along with the group. It's kinda strange, but it's a nice change of scenery. * Tiffany returns to walking, almost proudly forward. She pulls a small mirror from her purse, and freshens up. "I suppose, but I prefer Newfoundland in the Spring. Nothing like it." It's hardly anything unusual. There's a forest like this right behind the backyard at home. Not for me.. Sand and dust, far as the eye can see... Oh, I wish there was something like this back home. Nothing but concrete and steel as high as the eye can see. * Emmet checks over his shoulder once in a while, and finds to his dismay that the others are wandering off course, in some cases wildly so. This way, guys. * Nick nods and makes sure to closely follow Emmet. * Fadi follows Emmet, but at a little distance. * Tiffany gives Emmet a warm smile. "Thanks, guess I should pay less attention to vanity and more to the path." She puts away her mirror. First thing I've heard you say that made sense. * Emmet smiles briefly at Tiffany's demurred thanks, and then turns his attention back to the hike ahead. * Tiffany scowls at Fadi. Hey, everyone's got their own little problems. I think, first off, we should agree to be pleasant and cooperative with each other. Where were you boys brought up to treat a lady like this. Honestly, Sophie, how are we to deal with them? We don't know where we are or what's going to happen, so we may be forced to rely on each other for survival. I'm not entirely sure. I try not to deal with uncouth men like that. Well, you guys seem pretty cool so far. * Emmet keeps his expression calm, though the faintest of grimaces betrays the fact that he is probably thinking he'll have to take care of everybody if they are stuck in the wilderness for very long. * Fadi sighs and rolls his eyes. "Nothing like dealing with the 'upper crust'." Any embarrassing hygiene problems I need to know about before we have to make camp or something? I should hope not. * Emmet grunts and speaks over his shoulder. "Any time you say 'hygiene' and 'problem' in the same sentence, it pretty much has to be embarrassing." * Tiffany smiles and her voice takes on a facetious tone, "Only if you consider massive internal bleeding as a response to insults as a hygine problem." Eh-heh. * Sophie smirks. * Emmet grins despite himself, and keeps marching. * Fadi chuckles to himself. * Harold doesn't seem to know what to make of being mostly ignored, and just sort of sighs. However long it takes him to get back home is really going to be entirely too long. * Nick continues walking, occasionally staring up at the sky. * Sophie walks along. "Well." * Tiffany turns to Sophie, inquisitively. "Well?" * Emmet scans the horizon as he marches along, trying to spot the smoke if and when they draw nearer to it. * Nearly an hour of banter and a little sweat later, our heroes emerge into a small, circular clearing. In the center is a wooden cabin, and from the chimney rises the thin thread of smoke that brought them in this direction. On what may well be the front door of the cabin is a strange emblem consisting of a circle, half black and half white, with a moebius in the center, also half black and half white. [Session End]