Not Until We Are Lost

The first thing that Zera realized, before her eyes even opened, was that it was day. She was not indoors. She did not feel the full brunt of the sun on her flesh - that would have hurt a lot - but she was aware of the smell of it, and the danger of moving even a little. What if she were not under any sort of significant cover and an arm slipped into a ray? She would have shuddered, if she had not been so tense that no muscle was even twitching. She might have been a statue, laying there.

Slowly, Zera opened her eyes. This was mostly because of how bright she knew it was going to be. Her eyes were unused to sunlight these days, and highly sensitive to boot. Strangely, though, the light did not hurt her as much as she had anticipated. It made her recall the days when she'd been alive, walking out of the house into the bright summer.

The vampire noted that she was in some kind of forested area, shielded from the sun by some kind of lean to, and over that, a thick expanse of tree branches. She thought she could probably wander maybe 5 feet away from the structure and be alright. The second thing that she realized was that this did not smell like home. Home smelled like oil and cars, and people, and rot. It smelled of life as it had evolved to be. This was... she didn't know.

Zera pulled herself to the edge of the lean-to and pulled her knees up, hugging her arms around them and resting her chin on top. She couldn't really go anywhere or explore right now, and she didn't feel quite safe enough in this spot to sleep again. So ... she'd wait.

The snow had been nice, and Sam might have slipped in a little puppy dog time while he was at it. It was a little silly, but who didn't need to be a little silly sometimes?

The sun felt strange on his skin. The warmth wanted attention as much as it began to lull him back to sleep. His arms tightened around the body near him, and his eyes widened to stare at the blond hair in his face. He was naked again, with some random woman?

He didn't move for a few moments; he did take that time to sniff. He also realized that he wasn't completely naked, just barely dressed. Pair of pants and some sleeveless shirt; the body he held seemed to be dressed as well. There was a soft laugh when he knew who he held in his arms.

"Betsy?" He hoped that it was her. He didn't have any reason to doubt his senses.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way

The songs of the season were not what Sam expected to wake up to. The last thing he remembered was a little hunting and a little running. There might have been a few strange humanish scents along the way. Carols were not high on his list of things to wake up to; they weren't low either. They really weren't on his list at all.

Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh, hey

The voices were a little higher than he expected too. When he finally opened his eyes, he was a little disappointed to see that there wasn't a blond head of somewhat sagging curls not far off. He'd grown used to her being around. Evan was fine, and his hunter friend too, but he was growing accustomed to Betsy. He laughed softly at the idea before rolling out of bed.

The air was a little nippy, as if the heater was just about to kick in because it'd gotten below the set temperature. He hadn't had many of these sorts of winters. He'd had a few, but he didn't get that many in Louisiana.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way

The cabin smelled of the holidays, and it almost made him sad. He wasn't spending it with friends and family back home - well, friends anyway. He missed Bon Temps when things like the holidays or sense memory triggers came. As a shifter he had a few more senses in play, or he paid a hell of a lot more attention to his senses than normal types.

He knew he could go out in some warm creature's fur, but he wanted to see the world as a human for now. He put on some warm clothes, not bundling up too tightly, and headed out to find someone, anyone.

Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh!

Sam found himself humming that song, throwing in a few Batmans and Robins now and then. He sniffed a little at the air, catching something faintly familiar. He also smelled food in that direction, so he opted to find out what that familiar smell was.

Sam stripped out of the pants that Jack had offered him. He wasn't sure if this was the best idea, but he supposed letting the new wolf run with another...wolf wasn't such a bad thing. It might help the guy find his way in his new world.

"This might take a little bit. I haven't done this in a while." There were many explanations for it. One big one was the way wolves felt the need to create an order. With a slight stretch, he looked around pulling up the memory of being a wolf, being round wolves, knowing what it was like to be that particular animal.

"Would you like to turn first?" He looked around again, as if he half expected the women to come out from the trees. They had all agreed that a little run would be good, and while he felt bad for Betsy, an elephant running with the wolves just didn't seem ideal. Plus, he felt better knowing that the human of the bunch had a shifter along. Or maybe he liked the idea that Betsy had someone who looked like she could look after herself along.

"Or we could do this together." It was certainly not the strangest thing he'd asked in his life.

He woke up naked.

Again.

Evan very carefully assessed his surroundings before he decided to move. There didn't seem to be anyone nearby, and there was no overwhelming smell of blood indicating that he'd slaughtered poor, innocent petting zoo creatures again. He slowly sat up and had a look. His nose filled with the scents of others. Other animals that were just animals, but other animals who were more along the lines of himself. A quick glance informed the new wolf that he'd been left with absolutely nothing.

Slowly, he stood. Slowly, he brushed himself off. He was waiting for some kind of trap to be sprung, if he was completely honest with himself. Or for somebody to come out of the foliage, laughing and holding a video camera. Allowing his senses to do their thing, he eventually realized that he was alone in the immediate vicinity.

The only thing to do, then, was walk. And walk he did. He passed a strange sign in Latin that gave him some information that made him more than a little uneasy. It rolled through his head again and again. Why would anybody do that? What was the point? Was he a zoo animal now? He hoped they got fed regularly.

A breeze lifted up and two peculiar scents. They were mixed up in with human things. Evan guessed that they had to be like him somehow. They were close by. Evan, quite boldly, stepped into the path so that they could see him.

Sam stretched and stopped as he felt...naked.

The shifter sat up to look down at his very naked body in the middle of an area he did not recognize. It had mixing smells, none of which filled him with a happy feeling. They were familiar in that he could name them, but unfamiliar in that they didn't have that special distinctive individual smell that identified person, place, and thing.

He stood slowly and dusted himself off a little but soon stopped when he realized just how ridiculous it was to dust off his bare ass. With a soft sigh, he started walking. Being someone who often woke up naked in the middle of a so-called wilderness, Sam's feet were used to barefoot walking. He sniffed at the air, hoping this wasn't some Naked and Afraid thing. He wasn't afraid, but he really didn't want to be walking around on anyone's tv in his birthday suit, even if it did get fuzzed out.

There was something in the air that finally smelled familiar. Because he didn't know what sort of place he'd actually landed in, he opted to stay potentially embarrassingly human. Now, was the scent he followed who he thought he'd find?

He walked a few more feet to find a pathway and a sign. His head tilted much like his canine self might in confuse. It was a nature reserve meant for those seeking a more natural way of life. For the mutant speciem, alia figura, animalis autem homo, lupus hominis, etc.

At least she'd gotten used to the bouncing around from planet to planet enough to not freak out and elephant all over the place now. So when Betsy woke up to a new environment, she was able to keep calm and assess the situation. She still found herself wishing for Brian. Her twin was the world to her, and she'd not seen him in a very long time now.

The room was nice, and she found clothing in the closet and drawers that was acceptable. The note was not really important to her one way or the other. Betsy hoped that Jo was here, Jo was about the only friend she had. She knew it was partly her own fault, she hadn't exactly opened up to a great many people.

Looking out the window, Betsy thought that she might like it here. The note said all the trouble was on the other side of a wall. So all she had to do was stay on the right side of it, and nothing bad would happen. Which meant that hopefully she could swim without fucking fish eating her.

Betsy checked her hair in the mirror and dabbed on some tinted lipgloss before she left the room. The air was nice and warm, and the staff she passed were friendly enough - though she didn't pay much attention to them, really, they were staff, after all. Admittedly, she was a little afraid of looking for Jo, because she might not be there. Betsy had no idea how she would handle things if it turned out she was all alone again.

As much as she liked to be independent, Betsy hated being alone.

While she walked she munched on some grapes that she'd found in the dining room, popping them into her mouth thoughtfully. She'd spied people here and there, and had ducked away before she could be seen in return. Betsy wanted to get a better idea of the facilities before really settling in. She wondered if they had a spa. A massage would be awfully nice.

Sam woke with a start, and found himself staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling. He sat up, and was further disoriented to find that he was staring out a window at a city from high above, giving him a weird sensation of vertigo because of the simple fact that he'd no recollection of being so high off the ground. It passed quickly, thankfully, and he took stock of the room, relieved to see that it was far more modern than the medieval accommodations he'd gotten used to.

He had a phone, and even more importantly, running water. He tested the faucet in the bathroom, and turned it off, turning around to check out the shower-- after days of feeling ill and sore and dirty in more ways than one, there was almost nothing he wanted more in the world than the feeling of hot running water washing over him-- but stopped, going entirely still when he heard a noise. And then he realized something that he probably should have realized immediately: he wasn't alone.

There were many possibilities for who his company was. Most preferable was one of the members of his family, or at least one of the people from his group, and the chances of that were probably decent enough. But there were other, less nice possibilities as well-- the worst of which was the angel in a new vessel, also a distinct possibility, or even a native human of this new world who might have expectations of Sam that he wasn't prepared for. Thankfully, he had woken up still carrying the knife he'd acquired in the last world, so as not to be totally defenseless. Not that it would do him much good against an angel.

He had been moving quietly, except for turning on the water, but he had to assume that the other person-- or being, as it were-- was aware of his presence. All the same, he moved silently out of the bathroom and through the bedroom to the other door, which was closed. Standing with his back to the wall beside the door, he reached out and turned the handle to open it a crack, peeking out. He held the knife ready, in front of his chest, in case they came through hot.

But instead all he saw was a person, one that seemed vaguely familiar. He wasn't getting any hostile vibes right off, so he lowered the knife to his side, holding it carefully hidden behind his wrist and forearm as he stepped out. "So," he said, finding himself somewhat at a loss for words. Frankly, he'd have known better what to do if this was a hostile encounter. "Hi."

This place and these people did not leave Finn in a very good mood. He'd had to hold himself back from turning a few people into toads or inflicting more... subtle curses on them. Subtle curses were his bread and butter, to be certain. He always preferred the revenge that crept up on a person, slowly making them miserable. And yet, he had to figure out where he was and why he was here. These people and their archaic ideas about what men could and couldn't do were an irritation but they weren't the real threat here. No, he had yet to see the real threat. And if Niks was correct, the real threat was far bigger than he would have preferred. The threat was quite literally alien in every meaning of the word.

So for now, he would be a 'good' faerie and was simply observing. Currently, he'd had a long day and he sought out some sort of libations. The ales here paled in comparison to what he was use dto back home, but they would have to do for now.

He strolled into the tavern without a second thought for the looks that he got at being a man out on his own after dark. Instead, he grabbed a seat in one of the tables furthest away from the crowd of people and attempted to catch the attention of the man who was currently serving the denizens of this backwards place.

He even managed to keep the open disdain off his face for the time being. Instead, he just sat and listened to the conversations around him in the hopes of learning a little bit more about his surroundings or better yet, his captors.

It delighted Betsy to wake up on the ship, though she'd been afraid at first. The initial coming-to had been in something of a medical facility. The strange instruments had frightened her until she'd been assured they weren't for her, and that most of them were not quite as deadly as they appeared to be. She was told by a strange creature with porcelain skin and big black eyes that they would be happy to make her sleep while she continued to heal if that would help her feel better, and Betsy had taken up that offer without hesitation.

When she awoke again, she was in a room that had a very large feather bed and elegant draperies. And that's when the delight came in. It was her bed. The room was big enough to house an elephant. Within it were all the beautiful things that she had come to collect over the different planets. This, then, was her home. She had the idea that whatever she gathered on the places they put her, it would all be here. She no longer had a worry that she would never see certain things again. Indeed, here was the jewelry box filled with vintage 40s items that her suitors had purchased for her.

Betsy took her time getting ready, finding all her makeup in place and playing with colors as if it were the first time she'd ever done so. She showered and dressed herself in a playful 40s knee-length dress and some heels that the 40s had never even dreamed of. Her hair was curled and her lips were red.

Then and only then did she leave her room to explore the rest of the ship. The circular hallway with doors that matched hers did little to pique her interest. So she pressed the button for the door that was different and was delighted to find an elevator. It only had two buttons. She guessed that she was up, so she pushed the other. Indeed, it took her down. When the doors opened, Betsy was introduced to a breathtaking scene. People she had met and... aliens. She stood for a moment, taking it all in.

Mikey had already explored both floors that he could get to extensively. He'd also already discovered the food that he could get by just walking up to a window and asking for it. They never stopped giving it over, either. Every time he asked for something, he got it. Then he took it back to his room and ate it.

Restraint was not one of the things Mikey was good at.

So he eventually found himself laying on the floor of his room - what a glorious room, all the things that the birds had given him, the stuff from Simon, the stuff from Niks, all of it there! - with food remnants around him, and a bellyache.

It was not comfortable any way he turned, no matter which position he tried to lay in. His stomach complained loudly. He complained loudly. Yowling and groaning.

"Help." Mikey said it softly, fearing that if he tried to yell, he might throw up. "I'm dying. Dying. Dyyyying."

The catboy whimpered, studying the bones of what amounted to several whole chickens and two pie platters that were nearby. How had he eaten all of that?

The island had been better than the black and white world. The island made Eva feel a little more sane. Being on the ship, however, did nothing for her. She was glad to see her own clothes again. Surprised to see the things she'd had before the island, and the island stuff, mixed into all of it.

But she left the room to explore some.

She wanted the hell out of this experiment. She didn't want to be a part anymore. She didn't want to go to new and interesting locations and meet monsters that she'd never even dreamed of. She wanted Gotham. Normalcy. A lab.

It didn't take long until Eva realized that she was going in circles. Circles and circles and doors and doors.

She sat down in the hallway, unsure if this was really happening, again wondering if she'd just become totally unhinged. Not seeing Olivia since the black and white, she was really unsure if the other woman even existed. That did not help.