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Played by Mystaira: Ernie Russel Ortiz - This gentleman reminds you of a regal dragon. He has almond-shaped scarlet eyes. His thick, straight, umber hair is waist-length and is worn in a carefully-crafted, weird style. He has a narrow build. His skin is light-colored. He has nearly-nonexistent eyebrows. His wardrobe is strange and businesslike, with a mostly red and black color scheme.

Played by thyPOPE: Elias Franco - This man puts you in mind of a flutering butterfly. He has deep-set brown eyes that are like two bronze coins. His thick, curly, white hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a flower's petals. He's got a small moustache. He is very short and has an overmuscled build. His skin is black. He has a small mouth. His wardrobe is mysterious.

Played by TanuKyle: Jasper Charles Wilkinson - This man puts you in mind of a noble eagle. He has hooded red eyes. His thick, straight, royal purple hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a sea urchin. He is very short and has an elegant build. His skin is cream-colored. He has knobby ears. His wardrobe is plain and professional, with a lot of green.

Played by Silver_tigress18: Debra Adeline Morse - This generous lady has slitted white eyes. Her thick, straight, very long hair is the color of rust, and is worn in a simple style. She is very tall and has a wide-hipped build. Her skin is china-white. She has a crooked nose and long-fingered hands. Her wardrobe is simple, and is completely brown and yellow.

Played by Yvessa: Yesenia Miranda Logan - This woman reminds you of a hunting tiger. She has wide green eyes that are like two emeralds. Her thick, curly, chestnut hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a flowing stream. She is tall and has a plump build. Her skin is dark. She has high cheekbones and a weak chin. Her wardrobe is strange and complicated, with a mostly gray color scheme.

Played by Antique_Mesh: Hiram Nestor Gomez - This courageous gentleman has narrow amethyst eyes. His luxurious, curly, night-black hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a seashell. He is tall and has a broad-shouldered build. His skin is dark. He has delicate ears. His wardrobe is weird, and is mostly purple and gray.

Ime

"Have a nice trip!" The irritating voice of CaTDOS chirruped cheerfully as the airbus zoomed away, the engines whisper-quiet as they whined into the distance. Ime scowled at the ship, then back at his ‘expedition’, jutting his jaw out just a little so that his tusks caught a little more of the sunshine that filtered through the trees into the clearing below. The trees made bizarre shapes as they twisted towards the sky, and their leaves reminded the tekimi of ferns, but big ones. The air smelled fresh and clean, much better than the stale, artificial air of the interior of the labs. He wasn’t sure if he liked it, it felt strange in his nose and probably carried all sorts of bacteria or something that was harmful. The plants here were glorious. He wished that he knew what they were called; the riotous growth was already creeping up the base of the beacon’s pole, and had eaten most of the path back to the labs.
Perhaps they would find some rare species of flower to take back. That would be a treasure.
But that wasn’t likely.
These people looked kinda useless.
Ime’s communicator cracked again, as did that of his group. The artificial voice spoke again. “Alright, adventurers~ It's time to begin~ Everyone, remember to keep your data transmitters active at all time~ It will constantly analyze and stream information back to us, so make sure you don't lose it, no matter what~ Take a moment to introduce yourselves, but then please begin~ You are to enter the jungle away from the previously cut path~ Your goal is to find anything of interest that you can, particularly new species~ Please remember, be very careful~ Who knows what's lurking out there~? CaTDOS out~!"
That damn robot was far too cheerful.
Ime scowled at the communicator, then back at the group.
Introduce themselves? Why should he care who any of these things were? There were six of them in all, four men and a woman, dressed in their newly issued lab attire.
He peered at them closer, ignoring the awkward silence that had stretched on for quite a bit. There was one guy with redish brown, waist-length hair – he looked weird. Didn’t he know they were in a forest? What a stupid hair style for an expedition. There was a short muscled guy who kept twitching, like a butterfly. He was dark skinned, but his hair was white. How odd. He would probably get eaten by something, he sure stood out.
Another guy had purple, spiky hair – but his nose and eyes reminded the tekimi of a bird of prey. He might be dangerous, he was certainly hard to read.
The women both had brown-ish hair, but one was certainly more conservative than the other. One was very tall – she towered over Ime, so the tekimi scowled at her more deeply. Just because she was tall didn’t mean that she would lead the expedition. He was boss. She’d bette know it. The last guy had black hair and dark skin – perhaps the most normal of the group. He tended to blend into the back ground.
Ime decided he should say something rather than scowl at the group for another twenty minutes.
“I’m.... uhh... Ime. I’m boss, so don’t forget it.” And with that, he turned and stalked into the forest.

Actually dangerous was pretty far away; what hawk-face-crest-hair Jasper was actually feeling was closer to panic. Oh god why had he let his father persuade him into this (It'll MAKE YOU A MAN Jasper, finally bully some sense into your flighty little brain!) it had been a bad idea there was a flarping TROLL leading the expedition he bet it was already planning the best way to haul them back as loot to it's orc buddies! Oh cthulu oh cthulu oh cthulu dice were not going to help him here there was no RPG game-master to save him oh CTHULU!

"Jasper."

And yet his voice came out smooth and silky - whatever analogy you wanted: dipped in sin, velveted beauty - all of them had been used at some point. Honestly genetics were sometimes so much of a hassle - if he were small and wore big glasses with freckles and knobby knees everything would be so much easier.

As the group moves into the jungle, the ground begins to slope downward, noticeably. Patches of the ground seem to be less overgrown, and after a few minutes it becomes apparent that a sharp divide has occurred here - perhaps a fault or a shifting of the ground. What this has created appears, after a time, to be a sort of a bowl in the ground; the trees are sparser, and grow crookedly, as though having fallen over then resumed their expansion.

The rim of the 'bowl' reveals dirt in some sections, but in others it reveals coarse, banded stone. Here and there, a bit of a shine seems to be seen in some of the bands, but it could possibly be a trick of the light.

Safe Active Phase: Roll 1d10 for investigation if desired. Otherwise note "PASS" at the bottom of the post. Goal is: low roll.

"Sure~"

Jasper delicately dropped to the ground in a swishing of folds and elegance that was at total odds to the nervous kid he was inside - though rocks were pretty safe and they were rather pretty all shiny as they were. He began digging at the sides of the stone gently, hoping to excavate it without damaging it.