Welcome to Gaia! ::

Alex waved back in response. "Thanks. I have a bunch of gear set up so I can change it up when necessary. So if I need lighter or heavier armor, I'm able to adjust."

Theo looks over his shoulder for a moment.

"Nothing further for now, Wolf. I do still have some questions for you, but we can speak later...Alex's discovery may warrant further investigation. Go ahead with Rune and Sapphire; I'll catch up to you three if something develops."

Theo gingerly took the vial into his hand and immediately sensed the unfamiliar energy emanating from it. Holding it up to the sunlight to examine it further, he swirled the strange, dark liquid around in its container. As he continued to examine its properties, he raised his eyebrows and rubbed his temples with his free hand.

"This is certainly nothing like anything I've ever seen here in the Garden in all my years with the Guild, though I can't say for sure that it's foreign, either. Every time I think I know all there is to know about this place, something always proves me wrong. However, it is also a distinct possibility that this somehow came from one of the many portals in the garden; it does seem quite otherworldly, and I myself have never seen what manner of flora and fauna are on the other side of any of them."

Theo turned to Yen and offered her the vial to examine.

"How about you, Yen? Does any part of this seem even remotely familiar to you?"

"But - but - but! ... ...Aw~" Again, if Yen was an animal like that of a house pet, her disappointment would've been easily expressed with her drooping ears and hanging tail. Rune's relationship with Yen is rather complicating, no one knows whether it's a super-tight-knit one, or a distant one-way adoration/respect (Yen respecting Rune) because of status differences. All one knows is that the two enjoy each other's company whenever they see them together.

"Remember to take good care of yourself out there, ok Rune?" Yen doesn't know where the two people be heading, but she hopes it'll be places that are the least active. "If I sense any sort of trouble, you can bet your luck that I'll be there!" Within a snap of a finger even, but maybe it wouldn't be a good idea for her to show up in troubling times since Yen often ends up adding more to the trouble than necessary. Poor thing has such a good heart, but always so troublesome. But, thinking back in many of the worse case scenarios, Yen was able to pull the whole team out of their impending doom.

"Hey. Hey, hey, hey~ I've been here the whole time." Yen said to Theo as she start swimming across the pond to catch up with the others. "This pond provided me an escape from my earthy prison, haha. And its' all thanks to Rune for that." Out of the water now, the turtle walks up to where Theo, Alex, and Wolf are standing.

Yen was about to tell Wolf about how she'll kick his butt if he does something stupid out there with Rune, but is reminded of Rune's words just now, so she decided to hold back the comment and ignore him for the moment. The conversation between Theo and Alex seem to catch some of her interest/attention from the other traveling team though.

"Sure, let me check out its contents." Yen looks at the vial as Theo places it down on the grass for her convenience (being a turtle and all that). Hm... She nudges the vial with her head a couple times, seeing it reacts negatively in return. The turtle was about to nudge it again but stop midway when it sees the black liquid hissing back at her. "Ugh! How rude!" As if sensing the comment she made just now, the liquid moves around inside the vial in a haughty nature. Oh, what is this? You're taunting me now, aren't you? ...Oh ho ho ho... The two starts sending off dark aura (turtle and liquid in vial) at each other. If this was some sort of whacky cartoon/anime comic, you would've seen the sharp sound and shiny light effect coming from the two's eyeballs (if the vial had eyeballs).

"Hey!" Yen calls out to Alex before catching up to him. "I'm coming with you. Who knows what will happen if you tinker with something that shouldn't be there."

The turtle turns around to face Theo after pondering for a bit. "Right. ...Theo? I have some sort of idea as to what this thing might be, but like you said, it is pretty new - if not a wee bit familiar to me. Hm, if my assumptions are correct, the garden is cooking up a challenge for us, no matter it be for visitors or for its current residences." Somehow, Yen couldn't help but feel as if she's going through a de-ja-vu moment. She has a very bad feeling about this.

---

OOC:

You're free to quote me if you want, I don't mind. I used to participate in a guild rp where each rpers would do the same. If you want me to do the same in return, I'll do so. Right now, this rp didn't start out like that, so I am trying to get the rp's timeline into some sort of order that is understandable.

To anyone reading this post: Maybe in the future, I'll only quote people if I need their characters to react to my post (to get the story going). Are you guys ok with me quoting you guys as so? Do remember, I will only quote you when necessary. I won't quote you if my post slightly mentions your character on an off-hand sort of way.

Wolf smiles as he goes and joins with rune and sapphire, he does hear the conversation a bit with Alex, Theo and Yen, when hearing the thing hiss at Yen he kind of worries what it is, especially as they start to walk off to the location alex found it. Wolf quickly turns over to Rune "Hey rune.......im kind of worried"

"Hm... Mm-hm~ I agree. Lets go." The turtle starts tornado-ing her way across the ground/grass to catch up with the walking paces of her new exploration team, not forgetting to keep the vial secured in her hand (cough, stored away safely inside her shell, cough). This is a good time to get to know more about Alex, and yeah, it's no fun when you're just catching people crossing the line in the waters. Seriously, kiddies these days just don't know why things are the way they are.

"Before I answer your question... Alex, was it? Let me introduce myself properly. I'm Yen. My friends refer to me as that random whacky turtle shape-shifter who likes to go over the board sometimes... ...I think." Yen wasn't too sure whether her friends think of her that way or not. The garden likes to mess around with her head sometimes, so it's kinda hard to keep her sanity in check. Right now, she's working on keeping her emotions under control. Behavior too. And to stick to only one characteristic persona... "As for you, what is your occupation and status?"

The turtle widens its eyes in awe. "How interesting. At first, I thought there was something about you when it comes to combat, but your specialty is actually in the tactical field. This will be one heck of an adventure."

So, Alex is the most likely candidate for the leader role of the team of three. Yen and Theo, being aquatic creatures (somewhat), are more experienced with the garden than Alex, she wonders what slot they'll take for the team. Usually, Yen relies on her own luck since she's pretty unstable so maybe she could act as the team's wild card. ...Eh, the team's rather small for a wild card. And I always end up being the wild card. The turtle quickly shook its head to rid of its thoughts.

Staring at the dark mass before her, she starts speaking out whatever info she had gathered from it so far:
"Misunderstood. Originates from the garden. Unable to be identified... Rude and strange. It doesn't seem to do much unless provoked. Due to its dark matter, one can only assume that it contain multiples of negative elements. Hm. What with it being in liquid form too, one can also assume that it can take on any shape."

The turtle turns its head as if it's looking off into the distance.
"The garden says it appeared when the turtle woke from its slumber."

... ..... ....... Wait a minute.

"Boys, I got a good feeling that we're dealing with doppelgangers."

-

OOC: I have to change my text's size. All this bold/green thing is getting on my nerves, lol (and me typing too much). Hope it isn't too small for you guys to read. xD

As Alex and Yen discussed the possible origins of the dark mass, Theo looked back and forth between them with an increasingly worried expression.

"So let's assume for a moment that we are dealing with something potentially hostile such as doppelgangers; here in the Dry Lands, I'm not exactly combat-ready. If we do find ourselves in such a precarious situation, my assistance would be...limited."

He sighed deeply as he became a bit frustrated with his own limitations.

"You see, my metaphysical abilities are limited to domain over water; which, up here in the Dry Lands, is often quite irrelevant. I used to have a Cape of Levitation for this sort of thing, but unfortunately it was destroyed years ago. Be that as it may, you can be sure I won't leave you two to fight without me. I'll do whatever it is that I can."