A Warning and a Check-in

[ninjayeehaw]

[There's a sense of mild panic flashing onto the network.]

Anyone else with giant lizard wings-- be careful out in the sun. 'less y'all wanna risk gettin' turned back into a statue.

[And then it cools off a little, sounding calmer as he continues.]

If anyone needs a hand with bein' a Stonefolk, I got a whole heap 'f info on 'em dumped in my head, an' I don't doubt other people do too, so make sure t'ask if y'all ain't sure on somethin'.

But I s'pose the better question is, who have we got kickin' 'round the Investigatin' side a' things? This is Kinji, fer all the new folks, I'm up on Thunder Mountain.

Comments

[runawaystory]

This is Rosalie. I'm investigating. Still human.

[a pause, and then she continues]

This is for the vets out there. Yensid sounds...familiar, right? It's not just me? We've been here before.

[leftbehindagain]

I'm a hedgehog. Whose bright idea was this? [Guess who already hates everything ever about this jaunt!]

This is Naoki. I seem to have figured out that 'be yourself while you have an overlay' thing; it's more disorienting than I expected. [And this is after de-infiltrating Kanji in Greece, so he was expecting it to be pretty weird.] If anyone in the woods needs help getting settled, I can do that. Nashi, if you're asking for me out loud.

[knightceties]

I'm a squirrel...

[otomechapilot]

Sara Smith checking in, and it looks like I'm one of All The Pretty Little Horses.

[She opens up an image livestream to demonstrate, looking in a clear, reflective pool and showing off this:]


This is so cool you guys.

[claudiometer]

Claudia Donovan, still myself and very much human-shaped.

Helena's not answering. Neither is Thorne, for that matter, but... what's this about 'turned back into a statue'?

[She's less worried about Thorne, but if statues are a thing that's happening she's really worried about Helena.]

[reincarnatedprince]

This is Mamoru Chiba checking in. It's my first jaunt, so I'm glad I get to investigate.

I seem to be a fox on two legs.

[senpaidol]

Rise reporting. Quick check says we should all be in the same world this time, but we're pretty spread out.

Also, this isn't the most flattering set of bunny ears I've ever been in but I'm weirdly more comfortable with it.

[itsananimalthing]

Riddick here. I'm one of the Stonefolk, up in the mountains. Seconding what Rosie said, pretty sure we've done this one before. Also got a lot of info about this group, a little bit about Forest Folk, not much about the local humans.

[pretentiouself]

I appear to be investigating and I am absolutely hideous. I look like my father and I think I'm balding. [Yes, Leo is very freaked out by this. It would probably be less strange to be Stonefolk or Forrest folk./small>] I suppose this is what it's like to be human.

[rebellioninbloom]

Hello! This is Haru here? I - don't seem to have changed in any way. I must say, this is quite exciting...

[razorblade_empress]

Yukino Mayuzumi here. Investigating, currently a giant purple reptile, and thirding that this place seems really familiar.

There's some kind of excavation site right near the festival - I keep hearing something about amulet fragments?

[brokers]

There are too many humans here.

--That isn't an objection. I believe Rosalie is right; we have been here before. And the population demographics were very different then.

[helborn]

Casper here. I'm... I'm a dog.

Bob's here, too.

We're both pastel and it's weird. We're near a forest, I think?

[runs]

I'm still myself, but Cynthia looks different.

[hatefuldays]

*Hyun-ae here, we talked back out in the weird bone forest. I guess I'm investigating?

This place is beautiful.

[stopinthenameofawe]

I'm investigating as... Stonefolk, you said this was called? [Melissa does not sound happy, but then again she rarely does.] I haven't got a fucking clue what I'm doing, so I'll take whatever you know.

[scarsolderthanyou]

So this is investigating, huh? I apparently don't look any different than usual, I'm still gray. But nobody seems to mind.

I'm Stone, in case anybody hasn't run into me yet. Don't think that's a very normal sort of name around here, is it? Should I be trying to make up another one?

[loyalrebel]

Malik here.

Definitely not human either.

[uzoda]

Kenzaki here! I'm human! [Well, human-looking, at least, and that's good enough for his purposes.]

I ran into Tachibana. Looks like he's infiltrating. Haven't seen Hajime, though... he must be infiltrating, too. Someone let me know if you've seen him?

[hazardlight]

Amanda here! Roadrash and me are present and accounted for! And in our own skin. Er. You know. Skin or ectoplasmic skin substitute. Nothing exciting species-wise going on here.

[A few minutes later:]

Hey, uh, anyone who's getting the whole local knowledge thing, do you know if there's a suitably "distant enough to be foreign but not super exotic" country that it'd be safe to claim to be visiting from?

[haremtrap]

I can personally confirm that I exist. Sup.

[failgoyle]

I feel NAKED!

[haveabiscuit]

I'm aware of myself. But I seem to also be in one of those stone lizard bodies.

[fearinahandfulof]

This is Cassandra. I'm still myself, still... in my normal form.

[Just camouflaged as usual - at least, no one's pointed out her ears or anything.]

[theflyingone]

I am Altaïr. I look like one of the Stonefolk, tall with wings, but I think some of my face is still recognizable as me. I have no shirt. This might be for the wings. I will be at the festival and making a trip to the home mountain. It seems that, for the festival, Stonefolk are disguising themselves as humans disguising themselves as Stonefolk. Are they attempting what we call 'Malik Gambiting'? [ Heh. ] We must respect the reason for their discretion. Perhaps humans hunt them.

Tonight I will be learning how to pass as one of them in every way, as well as testing the limits of my form out of sight of humans. If anyone wishes to learn with me, let me know and I will meet you.

Kinji, I will expect a full report on Stonefolk daily customs and manners before I return to the mountain.