It took Cassidy a long time to get used to "Otherworld". It was like she had stepped into a fantasy book, but books don't tell you how to struggle to survive when you have no idea what you're doing. If it hadn't been for a few kind souls who recognized her as the outsider she was, she probably wouldn't have lasted long. Now that's what she tries to do; find those who ended up here like she did and help them. Whether they're trying to get back home like she is, or just try to help them survive, it doesn't matter; she feels a strong need to pay it forward. After all, she refuses to believe she ended up here as some random cosmic joke; there had to have be a purpose somehow. Maybe that purpose was helping others find their way? Who knows, she thought. Currently she was on an island called, ironically, Avalon, and was trying to find a blacksmith to fix her sword. Damn goblins had scratched it about a week before when she was guarding a merchant's wagon on his way to sell his crap-er, goods. What kind of self-respecting man travels around selling lace anyway? Regardless though, there she is, trudging through the rain and ankle-deep mud in an overcrowded, smelly, open market. At least there the people watching was decent entertainment. A fishmonger to the left was being loudly berated by a rather angry looking gnoll, but his underdeveloped physique proved that it must not be much of a fighter. Straight ahead a man and his wonderfully beautiful but rather melancholy wife were looking at produce. I wonder if she might be a selkie. After many wrong turns and unhelpful stall tenders, she finally reached her destination and dropped off her sword, along with five silvers. Good grief, she thinks to herself, this guy wants an arm and a fricking leg!

Chika looked up at the sky, he and his twin sister, Chiki, were at the outskirts of a town, and, by tue looks of it, it was pretty busy. The boy sighed, he was Chika, the older brother of his sister, Chiki. 19 or so years old, Chika was very reserved, and was the smarter of the two. He has woken up earlier than usual. So he was waiting for Chiki to get up so they could be on their way. Chika sighed again, then ran a hand through his dark brown hair. His Han made contact with the bandage on his eye. Touching the bandage, he looked at the green grass. What was it like to look at the grass with 2 eyes? He thought sadly. Chiki was lucky, so were his other brothers. They got both eyes, he was stuck with a cursed one.

Impatient, he started to nudge the sleeping, brown haired girl beside him. The girl grumbles in her sleep, but didn't respond. Pissed off, Chika shook her.

"Chiki! Wake up! We need to go!" He said.

After a few more shakes, the girl started to stir, she sat up groggily, rubbing one eye. This was Chiki, the younger and stupider on of the two. She specialized in entertainment, and fixing things. She was also 19, just a few minutes or so younger. The small tuft on her head twitched slightly in annoyance, as if it were a body part of it's own.

"Chika! I was having a good dream too!" She complained. Though her dreams usually involve oranges and other stance things. Chiki stood up, and dusted herself off. She wore a long pink sweater, pink boots with yellow polka dots, and some kind of strange goggles on her head. She and Chika also had scorpion tails. These two, put together, are the Scorpion Twins, toxic, but entertaining. She packed up her things, and looked at Chika.

"Geez Chika! At least clean up!" She whined, as they walked towards town. As they got to town, she cleaned the dust off of Chika's long white shirt. After that, she started to set up for the show. A small crowd of people started gathering, and Chika was providing short skits to entertain them as Chiki got everything ready.

After waiting about an hour for the blacksmith to repair her sword, Cassidy decided to follow the slow trickle of villagers to just at the edge town to see what was going on; after several minutes of pushing through some very rude(and none too pleasant smelling) plebeians, she reached a small clearing inbetween the wooden buildings. In a circle empty of spectators were two kids, and judging by their clothes, they were obviously from Earth. That is, until she noticed they both had scorpion tails. Fairly intruiged, she decided to stick around during their performance to talk to them. Besides, she thought, maybe they're hungry, and I do have some money left over to spare for a meal. She noticed on the young man's face a bandage over one eye, and wondered if he had been attacked by someone, and following that train of thought, wondered how long they had been in Otherworld.

Maybe they need more than a good meal, she mused. It's been far too long since I saw someone from home. I wonder where they're from? During a quiet moment, she took a bright new silver and tossed it at the girl's feet, staring her in the eyes and motioning with her head that she would be waiting for them in a small bakery not too far away.

Chiki looked down, she saw something shiny on the ground, picking it up, she looked around for someone who could've dropped it. A pair of eyes drew hers in, then followed the gesture to the bakery. Chiki licked her lips, she looked to Chika, and pointed to Cassidy, then to the bakery, Chika nodded. Now, filled with newfound energy, Chiki and Chika went to their designated places.

"Yo. Welcome to the first performance of the Scorpion Twins!"
Chika bowed respectively, making a few young girls half swoon.

"Its PLAY TIME!~" Chiki yelled, using a pole that Chika has stuck into the wall, she grabbed on the metal with her hands and swung around. Once on top, she lowered her scorpion tail. It was a simple gray, with bright oranges at the tip. Suddenly, Chika grabbed a hold of it, and, using a lot of her strength, threw Chika up on her shoulders. They wobbled a bit, then Chika came down on the pole, only to hang upside down since the two scorpion tails were intertwined. This got a few fascinated "oohs" and "ahhs" from some of the people. The switched, so Chiki was now hanging upside down on the pole, her tail wrapped around the thick metal. There was a bag below them, and Chiki actually started to take items from the bag while hanging. Chika jumped down from the pole, and Chiki came down also. In Chiki's hands were fruit. She started to throw them at Chiki, who actually started to juggle them. The watchers were fascinated, Chika was also cutting the fruit at the same time.

[Too lazy to put the rest.]


Once the twins were done with their performance, they collected the small change that was thrown to them, and made their way to the bakery.

Chiki looked at Chika,"What do you suppose the person wants?" She asked,"She doesn't look like she's from here, from where we once lived perhaps?" She guessed, no knowing she was right.

Chika shrugged,"Dunno, not like I care, maybe I can get home with her help." Was his response. They walked into the bakery, looking around. It smells nice here, such a long time since I've even been in a bakery... He thought sadly, inhaling the scents of the pastries as Chiki went to browse the windows.

As the two walked into the bakery, Cassidy had a table reserved and had ordered a slab of bread and cheeses. She stood up and waved them over, as well as motioning for a young woman to come over for drinks. She already had a glass of wine and a large roasted chicken partially eaten in front of her. Luckily for them the busy market kept most of the villagers occupied, and they had the bakery mostly to themselves.

As they seated themselves, she held out her right hand for the young man to shake, saying, "My name is Cassidy." After shaking his hand, she held it out again for the girl. "I assume you're not from around here?" It looked like they were about to respond when the waitress walked over, and quietly asked what they would like.

"Could you get them some wine, and a refill for mine," Cassidy said, wondering if they were even old enough to drink. Probably not, she decided, but what does it matter here?

Turning back to the siblings, that was clear enough just by looking at them, she restarts the conversation. "Damn waitresses always seem to show up at the worst time, don't they?"

Makoto at this point was wandering throughout the land with the heavy rain pouring onto his head, causing his bright red hair to flatten down in front of his face. He had always hated the rain since the beginning of his life, this was one of the reasons; he never really liked having his hair this way due to the fact that it was always get in front of his eyes and make it extremely difficult to see where he was going. After walking for a few more minutes, Makoto had let out a quick gasp as he felt how his right foot sunk right into a large puddle of mud. Glaring down at his sunken and no doubt about it..dirtied boot. He gave a little sigh as he began to try and pull his leg out of the puddle. As he continued to struggle on getting his leg out, his leg wouldn't budge a single inch due to how much it was stuck. Giving another sigh but this time of annoyance, he stared up at the dark sky shaking his head. "Why does this have to happen to me?....huh..?...why?" he asked himself while still staring up at the blank sky. Slowly Makoto closed his eyes as he slowly looked back down at the muddy ground; while his head was down with his eyes closed the way they were, a burning feeling overcame his body from within as he just as slowly reopened them only to show that they were completely changed into a dark orangey redish color of a phoenix. Letting out a loud screech his entire body bursted into flames as he bolted into the air, but not for too long. With all the rain still pouring onto his burning feathery body, it was able to extinguish the flames rarther quickly as he came back onto the ground onto his own two feet, only to change right back into his humanoid form. Panting heavily Makoto glanced around the area he was standing at now, only to realize thankfully he was out of the mud. "Finally." he stated before shaking some of the rain out of his hair and beginning to walk onto the direction he was heading. After what seemed like half an hour, Makoto had finally reached a little small village as it seemed. Glancing left and right, he noticed how people here didn't seem to mind the rain too much. "Hmmm...maybe I can get some grub around here?" he asked himself with a slight whisper in his voice as he rubbed his stomach a bit; it had been days since he had actually gotten a meal, and within his head, he continued to hope that there would be food around here. Wandering throughout the small village, he turned left and right before his nose had caught the smell of fresh bread. Turning over toward the direction of the smell he noticed how it was coming from a nearby bakery; the fresh smell of bread baking caused his stomach to growl at him as Makoto just held onto his stomach nodding and approached the bakery. Stepping into the bakery, he scanned the entire room noticing how there didn't seem to be many people in here as he just took a seat at the table nearest to the window awaiting for the waiter or waitress to take his order; unless this was just some bakery you would buy food and leave. Besides, he needed a break anyway from all this walking.

Dimitri sat in the rain a while. He enjoyed it really. It reflected the world, or at least he thought, very sad, but giving new life always. Without rain, plants and crops would not grow, people would not eat and the entire world would die. MAny people don't realize this.
At the performance, Dimitri noticed the "Scorpion Twins" were not of this world, their souls said it. This world's people had souls that had more of a magic essence to them, even if the people did not use magic, but the twins were somehow connected to this world, an ancestor perhaps. They had left with another "Outsider" he knew as Cassidy. He didn't know her personally but people did talk about her. She was supposed to be a very adequate fighter. He entered a small bakery and sat down in the far corner, and slept for a bit.

Chiki looked at Cassidy, then to Chika,"Yo there~" She grinned,"I'm Chiki!~" Guesturing to Chika, she added,"This is my brother, Chika, uhhh, we come in peace?" She laughed, and Chika sighed in embarrassment.

"Pleasure to meet you Cassidy, you are right, we do not come from here, I feel that you are the same no?" The waitress brought the wine in front of the two twins,"Ah, thank you." He took a sip, and cringed at the bitter flavor. He shook his head at Chiki, who went to take a drink.
"We believe we have ancestors here, which is why we are back at their homeland." Chika thought of his home back on Earth, his older brothers must be having a stroke at this point now.
"So, what is your buisiness of inviting us here Cassidy?" He deadpanned, looking at Cassidy with his one good eye.

Once the waiter had approached his table; Makoto glanced over at the younger male as he tilted his head with a little smile. His own hair still drenched from the rain, but rather than shaking it to make it a bit more dry; he just left it the way it was. "What would you like sir?" the young waiter asked holding onto what seemed to be a white small towel in one arm, while the other being free. Makoto on the other hand just gave a little nod and turned his head to look back outside at the pouring rain land onto the muddy ground. "If you dont mind, would you happen to have any herbal tea here?..hot..and a slice of fresh banana bread?" he ordered as the male just gave a nod of confirmation before walking off behind the counter and prepared the drink first off. Makoto liked everything he ever ate hot, no matter if it was about 200 degrees outside or whatever; being a phoenix eating hot things never seemed to even affect him much. Although, when it came to cold food or drinks, he would always begin to shiver; even if its just one ice cube in the cup, he'll start to be able to see his own breath due to how his body was never truly used to the cold.

Cassidy laughed, truly enjoying having someone around who was from her home. At Chika's question, she immediately sobered and looked at him straight in the uncovered eye.

"I'm trying to get home. I was hoping you might have some idea how to do so, but, then again, I wouldn't exactly be surprised if you didn't" She shrugs. "And if you can't, maybe I can help you. I know how hard it is for someone to get used to this place. How long have you two been here, anyway?"

While waiting for their answer, she carefully eyed the two men that had just walked in. Neither seemed like they would be causeing trouble any time soon, but she casually shifted in her seat to face them more fully. It was hard to tell sometimes who was "good" and who was "bad." It had taken her a very long time, but eventually Cassidy had learned that good and bad were all a matter of perspective. Getting home was all that mattered, and on her quest to do so, she had learned and done a great many things people would call "evil." But she didn't care; all that mattered to her was getting home to that little boy.

Once his drink and food had returned to him, Makoto took his attention back over toward the waiter as he nodded taking his tea and bread. "Thank you." he replied taking a small sip of the tea noticing how it truly was burning hot; just the way he liked it. Placing the cup onto the table, he began to scan the room a bit more as he noticed how one of the females in the room had turned her seat a bit, seeming to eye both him and another male that wasn't too far from his own table. Whatever the reason she was doing that, Makoto wasn't about to let her take away his time to relax. Ripping a small piece off the bread, he placed it right into his mouth but immediately felt a shiver go right down his spine. Wrapping both his arms around his body; he hugged himself close from noticing how the bread didn't seem to be as fresh as he thought it was. It seemed the bread was only at a warm temperature rather than a hot one, and even warm was a bit too cold for him. The bakers had made it a bit less hot due to the fact that they didn't know that Makoto was a phoenix and liked things extremely hot. They had thought more of him of a human since he didn't really look like a phoenix anyway; at least..not in this form. "Waiter! I asked for fresh bread! Why is this warm?" he called out, as the young male returned to his table bowing in apology. "Sir, that is fresh. It just came out of the oven; we had to let it cool down a bit." the young male replied as Makoto just went on and shook his head. "Bring me a different one, but this time. Don't bother to let it cool down; just bring it out immediately when its out of the oven." he explained, the young male's eyes just widened up in curiosity of why anyone would want to eat something that hot; but instead of asking anything, he just nodded with another bow and went back off into the kitchen telling the bakers the order.

Landing at the outskirts of the small town Viori folded her wings in a she walked past the gat. Puling the hood of the clock up and the edges more tightly around her to hide her wings. hearing people talking about a performance near a makeshift stage by “the scorpion twins”, made Viori wonder what had brought people from the other side to this world.

Smelling the heavenly sent of fresh baked bread coming from a small bakery deciding to have a bite while she waited. Once she interred the building the ora in the air changed. Cereus Viori chows a table near the back where the shadows wood counsel her a beet, and looked around to see what would have caused the change in the air. When water walked up to take her order, “I’ll have a cup of worm tea and a muffin.” As the water walked away to feel the order Viori notated a young woman sitting with two teens. ((So Cassidy really is here. Interesting. Guess things well be getting interesting around here.)) The water drops off the tea and muffin, while Viori sets bake and try’s lessoning in the conversations in the room.

Chiki's tail swished in the air, looking at the two curiously,"Home? You mean Earth? I'm not going back, Chika is!" She exclaimed,"I like it here, feels all homey."

Chika pinched the bridge of his nose,"Chiki, we are going go figure out how to get home." He said with venom. Chiki pouted, and leaned back on her chair. Chika sighed, his sister was hard to control sometimes.
"Yes, we, well I'm trying to figure out how to get back to Earth. We have some leads, but they are very vague." Shaking his head solemnly, he looked back at Cassidy. We are in need of your assistance, though money is not an issue for us at the moment." He and Chiki held up some bags full of change from their performances. "We would like to figure out how to get home and come back as well, since our ancestors once resided here, Chiki wants to know who they were exactly before going home.

Chika looked around him, with his good eye he spotted some peculiar people glancing at the group once in a while. His other eye, the cursed one covere by a bandage to keep it closed, twitched in pain. His hand went up to his bandage and rubbed it, and winced as the pain got worse. Evil, bloody thoughts raced through his head, trying to persuade him to do unspeakable things.

Cassidy looks around the small dining area, carefully taking note of all the sudden newcomers. "Well, kiddos, it looks like we can help each other out, then. I have a friend of mine that sent me a message just yesterday saying he may have an idea on how to get back, but he's notoriously hard to get a hold of. He said he'd be just about a day's travel from here, but, “she shrugs, "I think actually finding him will be the hard part."

She leans back and thinks silently for a moment, then looks back at Chika. "I think a good place to start looking for your ancestry would be in the Tarag Desert, but I've never been there. Maybe we can find a guide of some sort after talking to Sparrow." Seeing the confused look they shared, she elaborated, "Sparrow is the friend I need to see. I don't actually know his name, something about him losing his honor, so I just call him Sparrow or sparrow knight."

Cassidy lifted her hand, flagging down the serving girl, pulling several coins out of her purse and laying them on the table. "We should probably get going. Do you two have supplies of any sort? Tents or sleeping bags? Or a horse?" Standing up, she carefully assesses all the Otherworlders in the bakery, planning on sending the twins out ahead of her so she could talk to them; see what the hell they wanted.

Chiki looked back and forth at Chika, then Cassidy. She then nodded vigorously,"We have some supplies, but we usually just sleep on the ground. Tents are something we don't have, horses are afraid of us, and sleeping bags get ripped too easily by our tails." Looking toward her twin brother worriedly, she patted his head. "Tarag desert huh? Sounds far..." She stood up, taking Chika's hand, she smiled,"Well, we'll go on ahead and get some food for the trip and such, see you later Cassidy!" She dragged Chika out with her and went off to the market, their backpacks waiting to be filled with food.

After seeing the twins leave Viori seat her cup of tea down along with some coins for the food and drink. Standing up and walking for the door, when she past Cassidy she said quietly “when you finish up in here and still want to speak with me I’ll be outside. It be nice to talk of…” cutting herself short Viori stepped out of the bakery.

Leaning on the side of the bakery wall Viori waited, while watching the people walk by.

Frowning, Cassidy slowly gets out of her seat, wondering what the hell the winged elf woman meant by what she said.

I guess I'm about to find out, she thinks.

Navigating her way inbetween tables and patrons of the bakery, she stares intently at each one of the unusual men still sitting. Obviously not villagers, she could only conclude that they must be adventurers like herself. With a mental shrug, she pushes open the door and steps into chilly outside air. Immediately to her left is the woman, and Cassidy takes a few steps away from the door and crosses her arm, her face not expressionless but very calm as she addresses her.

"What is it you couldn't say inside, then?"

Turning her head with the slightest smile touching her face Viori lets her hands rest just above her blade guns. “I was going to say that it would be nice to talk of the other world, but there were a lot of ears lessoning in that might not have been too beneficial at the present moment. If I heard correctly in there you’re going to be heading for Tarag Desert right, if you like I can act as your gide. No charge, just some information. It’s up to you.”

Now turning fully and looking Cassidy in the eyes while keeping her wings out of range of any attacks that might come if this warrior in front of her decided she didn’t like what she was hearing. “So what’ll it be?”

Honestly, Cassidy was surprised.

I must have some good karma today, she thinks.

"What kind of information?" Even though she was trying pretty damn hard, the suspicious tone was still there in her voice. She'd been approached like this before, and it usually didn't end particularly well. "And how well do you know the desert? As well as the natives?" Her spidey-sense didn't like that she wasn't asking for payment, either. Greed was just about the greatest motivator, so what could she want besides money?

Shrugging a beet Viori tried to appear a beet more relaxed and welcoming. Yet wasn’t able to completely keep her voice from sounding a beet too hollow and detached. “I’m seeking information on the Avian and the Grail. The purpose behind my seeking this knowledge is my-own. As for the desert, I know it somewhat well; I have done several jobs out there before. As for the local’s I have not interacted with too many; sense I have been told that they can be hostile to outsiders.” Slumping agents the Belding one more with a sigh she said “I can understand if you don’t want to trust me, what person would trust another that has no gain in the outcome of what is being undertaking.”
Laughing under her breath to herself “Ya how would take the word of a drifter like me?”

Cassidy raised her eyebrows in surprise. "The Grail? As in, the Holy Grail?" She thinks for a moment and continues, "And I've never heard of the Avian. Is that your god or something? And, you're right, I don't trust you." She shrugs nonchalantly. "But I don't trust anyone. That's how you don't get curses and all kinds of other nasty things thrown at you" Thinking back to an old memory, she rubs her left thigh and grimaces. "I won't tell you no, though. I could use you, however briefly; I've only been to the outskirts of the desert."

She looks back into the bakery, wondering what that odd assortment of men were doing, all arriving at the same time as she had. It always seemed to work out that way, oddballs and misfits gravitated to her like drunkards to a pub.

But she knew she would help them, if they asked. It was something she knew she had to do. While some days it felt like a burden, on others it was a relief to help someone else, especially when she herself couldn't be. It seemed like each day the face of her son grew fainter in her mind, and some days she wondered if her previous life was all a dream, and if her current realm was the place she truly belonged. But it only took one glance around her to know the truth. She didn't belong where she was; her whole body cried it out when she took the time to listen. Something about this place made her feel tingly and strange, like her whole body had gone to sleep, or like she'd put a fork in an electrical outlet.

Smiling a beet Viori sighed to herself “well this might just be a beet interesting” “k. here’s the jest The Grail are a race of elves that live in the mountains, but that’s all I know; and the Avian are a race of beings that have wings and deferent eyes, I believe you’d call them angels.” Shrugging she scratched the back of her head “At least that’s all I know at the moment”

Leaning against the building once more Viori looked at the sky then nodded to herself “well even if you might not have any information for me that’s fine. I might learn something on this trip any ways, so I’m still going to help you out. That and the air around you intrigue me. Hehe.” Pushing off from the wall she polled the hood of her cloak forward to hide her face and readjusted the rest of the cloak to keep her wings concealed.

Starting to walk away Viori turned her head back and said “I’ll be waiting by the gats leading out of town you and the kids can meet me there in the morning once you prepared.” When she finished saying that she walked off down an ally shrouding herself in shadows. "I wonder what this feeling is"

As the sun’s rays peeked over the roofs the town’s buildings Viori made her way through the early morning traffic of people going about their morning routines to get to the gat. Finding herself a spot of earth that was not too wet and where she’d be out of the way from any one walking by, and sat down leaning agents’ a supporting peeler. Keeping a wary eye out for anything amiss and enjoying the lush warmth of the sun rays heating some parts of her wings that were exposed from beneath her clock. (“Wonder how long it well tack them to get here? Something doesn’t fell right.”)