It started off as a typical day. You were going about your life as you always had, facing your expected struggles, be they big or small. There was no way to know that this would be your last day on Earth.
The tunnel appeared in different forms. For one of you, it was a literal tunnel, down the rabbit hole, that you crawled through. For others, it was a tunnel of darkness around your vision as the life faded from your body. And yet others were sucked bodily off their feet, hurled through a wormhole, a tunnel in space and time.
Some emerged from the far side exactly the same as they had entered. The rest felt themselves changing, bodies shrinking or growing, features shifting about as they transitioned into something different than they were before. But for all of you, your lives will never be the same again....
Multicolored lights swirl about you as you plummet, careening out of control. There is nothing to arrest your fall, no handholds to grab, no lifelines to cling to for support. You fall, and fall, and fall, for what seems like an eternity, but then, the ground rushes up to meet you--
*THUD*
You landing is less than graceful, but at least the ground is soft. The cool, damp grass of a forest floor, littered with leaves and pine needles. The air is crisp and chill as you get your bearings.
Your seem to be in a temperate forest, moonlight filtering in through the canopy of the trees overhead. A ring of standing stones encircles you, each one rising seven to eight feet in height. The stones are inscribed with runes, glowing faintly with green light that is already fading away.
And you are not alone. There are five of you in the ring of stones, and some of the others look very strange indeed...
Felitcia didn't know what had just happened. She was walking to her room, at least she thought she was, maybe it was stumbling, she didn't know just then. She knew she was alone as she couldn't find a man or woman worth taking her home for the night at that lousy party. She at least got to drink herself stupid before getting a ride home from her chauffer.
Her hand was just starting to fall into her bed, still dressed in her party dress because she was to drunk to notice, and as she fell something happened. Suddenly she was falling through this brightly lit tunnel, tumbling end over end, and could feel her stomach heaving from the motion while the lights played tricks on her eyes and mind. She could swear she was hearing vices as she fell and it wasn't until she hit the grass, limp limbed that she yelled, "WHOUL YOU SHUT THE F~%@ UP WHILE I'M FALLING!"
Felitcia belatedly realized that she had just stopped falling and brushed her hair out of her face as she started to try and stand. She unfortunately just moved a bit more than was safe and her stomach revolted as she muttered, "I don't feel so good," and promptly threw up on the ground. Fortunately she was saved the indignity of getting it all over her as the ground sloped down from her she was aimed.
Felitcia was wearing a short, red, cocktail dress of silk with stiletto heels and had on some of her best jewelry from a night on the town. There was what resembled a metal folding fan with silk on between the ribs that was tucked into a matching belt around her waist. She was also obviously very drunk.
There is suddenly a downpour of slime!
As fortune would have it, not a droplet touches Alice’s body. This is fortunate, as there is no change of clothing in Alice’s size.
She looks up, up at the giant woman atop the hill. But not a hill giant, given the size of the nip, and the label, and the pen… Alice does not question that the woman who stands somethingteen times her height is indeed five feet and inches. That would make Alice merely inches. Definitely more than one.
She is blonde-haired and fair-skinned and blue-eyed and carrying a pen more inches tall than herself. And what exactly is she wearing? It appears she would be naked but for a label that says DRINK ME draped over her tiny body and fastened in place with a string. The her impossibly diminutive hands, the string might well be a rope.
She calls up in a decidedly proper, probably British tone, “Pardon me, dear woman. Are you feeling ill?” Alice can see droplets of the slime on the woman’s lips. It is vomit, she is certain. She does not address her narrow escape from being vomited upon, in the interest of sparing the woman’s feelings. “Well, perhaps you are feeling at ease after letting it all out. That’s always worked for Edith.
“Oh! Where are my manners? I’ve given you my sister’s name without having yet provided my own. Alice Liddell.” For the first time, Alice heard her own surname as ‘little.’
Felitcia heard Alice speaking but couldn't seem to figure out where the voice was coming from. It wasn't an American accent, and it sounded really small, but Felitcia would be damned if she could see the person talking. She tried to sit up a little but just moaned and lay back down as she said in a slurred voice, "I'm hearing thingsh again."
Felitcia lay her head back down, or tried to, and realized that her pillow wasn’t there, nor was her mattress, did she fall on the floor? She wasn't sure she cared too much but she didn't remember her floor being this soft or prickly. Kind of managing to shrug one shoulder she mumbled out, "Hi disembodied voice, I'm Felitcia...."
Richard comes to, his head spinning. Not but moments ago he'd been giving a lecture and now...wait, his hands were green. Why were his hands green? And his arms, his legs, they felt so strong. He reaches up and feels his face. His goatee is there, still, but massive tusks protrude from his jaw. His glasses, too, are gone, yet his vision is clear. Better, even than he remembers it being when he was a boy.
His voice is so much deeper than he remembers, "What in the...where am I? What am I? I was in the middle of giving a lecture...just minutes ago."
He clambers to his feet and he realizes he's tall. So, so tall, taller than most people ever got. When Alice starts talking he jumps slightly, the body language of a much smaller man seeming almost comical in the body of a large, brawny orc, "How...what? How are you so small? All of this is so confusing..."
The man takes a deep breath, "My name is Doctor Richard Farthington. I suppose you're not a student, so you can call me Mr. Farthington, or Richard if you'd like."
His gaze falls on the well-dressed woman, "Oh, ma'am, let me help you up." He reaches down, extending a large, green, roughly calloused hand. Richard doesn't recognize it, even slightly, as being his own.
Alice takes it the Felitcia is lowering herself to the ground to rest, but the position is convenient.
Alice stands before the woman, tapping her on the nose with her finger to catch attention.
“I am not entirely disembodied, simply, I am less, Felitcia. To be entirely candid, I’ve not come to terms with my predicament. But I wasn’t eaten by a rabbit and I found a label. It’s quite fashionable, don’t you think?”
Alice twirls, though she of course knows the label is horrid. She is trying to find humor in the circumstance. Else what? Drown in tears?
Felitcia looked cross eyed at Alice when she stood before her. Her gaze was very blurry but she could just make out the tiny figure was there. What did stand out was the lable that said "Drink Me". "Ohhhh, you want me to drink you? Ok!"[b] She started to reach out to grab Alice and try to drink her like a shot glass but the newest figure interfered before she could do so.
The big hands of the now green man grabbed her arm and Felitcia didn't seem to realzie what was going on as she was lifted up. She would normally have panicked and lashed out at this kind of manhandling but Felitcia was in no fit state to do so. Felitcia was easily hauled to her feet though it was equally obvious that she wasn't going to stay that way if Richard let go of her. She gave him a blurry look and muttered, [b]"Oh, you came to make shur I wash alright Jsheevesh?"
...I'm not dead?
The tattooed woman's eyes spring open when she hears the sound of voices--but these voices are even stranger than she could imagine. They weren't the smooth brogues of her clansmen or even the harsh Latin of Roman troops, but she could yet understand them all the same.
Her hand flies to her stomach, where there should have been a cold and unfeeling shaft of wood.
"...I should be dead." She finally says, standing up and looking around. When she sees the others, she blinks a few more times as if trying to clear her vision. A large man, broad and tusked and green-skinned (A fomorian?), a tiny fey woman, and a dusky-skinned young woman with the dress and bearing of a drunken Roman noble, among other things?
"Or mayhap I am and this is what awaits me." She sighs and pulls herself up to her full height, her blue woad tattoos contrasting nicely to her fair skin, dark hair and hides. "I do not know how I can understand you all, but my name is Siobhan."
Alice is relieved by Dr. Richard’s intervention. “I don’t know how I got to be so small. I don’t mind it, though I suppose I’d like to be a bit bigger.
“But I am a person and not a beverage. Please don’t be confused by the sign I’m wearing. I believe it is evidence of Prince Leopold’s groundskeeper having a fondness for the bottle, though I will tell you right out he is no less a gentleman than the prince himself. He has a fondness the queen mother ought attend to.”
This, Alice says with righteous indignation. Her luminous skin flushes red, but not simply a maiden’s blush. She lights brightly as a devil’s birthday candle. It is as if her very aura paints the white flowers red.
Not wanting to make a fuss, Alice adjusts her skin-glow to a soft amber. “Oh, but you, Doctor are not like the prince or the groundskeeper at all. Perhaps you can cure Miss Felitcia before she drinks me up.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, Siobhan.” She follows the woad knot, trying to discern which end crosses what link to where. Despite her upbringing, Alice finds this woman—whose body would be no less exposed under a DRINK ME label of appropriate length and girth—fashionable in her own right. “If I may be so bold, you should definitely not be dead. I don’t think Queen Victoria’s burliest guardsmen have such a physique as yours.”
Richard rubs the back of his neck, saying rather bashfully, "Well, I'm a doctor of folklore, rather than of medicine. I wouldn't know the first thing about helping her, unfortunately."
His eyebrows furrow, "Well this is very strange. What years are you all from? Siobhan looks Pictish, if my knowledge of Gaelic cultures is correct. And Alice, you speak of Queen Victoria as if she were still alive."
"Aiiieee!...urrgghhh, ugggg..." A heavy brown coat lands in a heap on the ground, large enough to fit on a mountain of a man. The entire heap bounces a full foot off the ground as it lands, coming down again with a second cry from within. The heap bulges and twists around, and a long jagged green ear sticks out. "Hrrnnggg...urrrfff!" The green ear proceeds a green head, and the small leather creature with an oversized head and wide tooth-filled mouth force his way out of a sleeve, kicking the oversized coat away. "Ha!" It cried triumphantly, before turning and promptly falling flat on its face.
It groaned on the ground for a moment, one ear pointing upwards as its face rotates enough for one beady red eye to look around. "Hrrrkk.." It's throat quivers, and with a hard swallow it rises to its full height of maybe just over four feet. "Uhmm...urp...whew, must have been some night." The creature, somewhat now recognizable as a 'he', positively reeks of booze. His voice is a weird mixture of (recognized by those from more modern eras) old American west, and the squeaky nasally pitch of a child, reminiscent of a child doing their damnedest to play the part of a cowboy.
He swivels around, eyes slowly taking in the entourage present. He double takes at the green doctor, shrugs, and his gaze levels to Felitcia. Immediately recognizing a fellow hangover, and in spite of his complete lack of memory, he assumes that they probably had gotten acquainted last night and he slowly drags himself over to her side. "So, uh...looks like we managed to drift away from town a bit, don't reckon you know the way back?" He reaches over to put an arm around her shoulder, frowning as it just reaches the small of her back. Darn, hell of a tall broad. Not that he minded.
Of course what the others might mind is the problem with the oversized clothing that no longer fit him, is that he was stark naked, and seemingly completely oblivious to the fact.
Siobhan blinks in utter confusion as Alice speaks of someone called 'Queen Victoria' and the green man (Doctor Richard Farthington? Is that his name?) asks what years everyone is from.
It's the mention of the word 'Pictish' that causes her eyes to narrow in suspicion. "...that's what I've heard the Romans call my folk. And I don't know who this 'Queen Victoria' is--the only queen I've ever sworn to follow is Queen Boudicca, may the Morrígan grant her victory."
She was going to say something else when a bundle of clothes suddenly fell next to her and caused her to jump away a step.
Felitcia finally noticed the newest addition to their motley crew of Siobahn and understood not a word of what she said. She just stared at the other woman's outfit, and teh fact that by modern standards she likely wasn't too clean, and asked loudly with exaggerated words, D-O Y-O-U S-P-E-A-K E-N-G-L-I-S-H? Y-E-S O-R N-O?"
Felitcia, despite being drunk, was quickly starting to sober up whether she wanted to or not. This was all weird, even for her weird dreams, and she was starting to feel worried. While she could pass Sioban off as a cosplayer or something the tiny Alice and the big Green man did not fit into her world view...well OK, the big green guy might be The Hulk maybe? And maybe the tiny girl was supposed to be The Bug or the Tiny Spider or something.
Felitcia looked at Richard and said, somewhat less slurred, "Who are you supposed to be? The Hulk? Don't think you're supposed to have horns though." Her gaze was still bleary but at least Felitcia was able to talk better than she was before, more aware too. At Richard's question about when they all came from Felitcia couldn't help but stare at hin as she said, "Um, the present, duh."
When the pile of clothes suddenly appeared and stepped out of them as a small, green, naked man who then promptly put his arm around Felitcia's waist the drunken woman was no longer drunk at all, at least for the moment. One hand lashed out at Jedediah' cheek as she cried out, "Keep yer hands of ya perve!" She obviously still not entirely sober but seemingly on the mend as she continued, "and put some clothes on!"
“Alive, yes.” Alice is surer of this than of her own state. “She had graced the garden party with her presence, not that I saw more than her voluptuous hairdo what with the entourage and the elder minglers.”
Of the goblin being asked to dress, Alice says, “At the very least, kindly don a label.” She jests, but averts her eyes.
"D-O Y-O-U S-P-E-A-K E-N-G-L-I-S-H? Y-E-S O-R N-O?"
Siobhan gives the drunken girl an unimpressed glare. "I understand you, ya drunken sot. Can you understand yourself?"
The little green man putting his arm around the drunk does elicit a chuckle from the Celt, if only because of how high she jumped.
Richard's voice lights up. Gone is the fear and apprehension. Now, it was replaced by an almost childlike joy. A human from long ago, here with all her knowledge of life then, "The Romans, you say, and Boudicca? Goodness, you must be from...far in the past. I suppose the Gaels might have been a better word to speak of your people with. The time I came from, the Romans were long, long gone, and I suppose that the Gaels did survive, in one form or another."
He shakes his head in amazement, looking down at his now far too tight slacks, shirt, and blazer until his staring is interrupted by the falling bundle of clothes and the old-western goblin within them.
Jedediah spun a full 180 degrees upon being struck. Perhaps when a bit more sober he would have remained standing, but as the case was he hits the ground for the fourth time in the span of a minute.
Well, at least this confirmed that she did know him. Only women who already knew who he was greeted him with a slap.
"Mhmm, yup, yup, pardon the forwardish, missh." His s's begin becoming slurred around his painfully throbbing tongue, that he had apparently bitten upon landing. He stands, managing a faint blush that hints at some semblance of shame from him. He scampers off to the pile of clothes, picking them up with a frown. Always knew these were big on me...must have stretched out quite a bit. He throws the pile over himself, and in a few moments with scrunched up sleeves, his limbs emerge.
And now he appeared like a green child pretending to be a cowboy while wearing his father's coat, the bottom half dragging along the ground and the sleeves constantly unscrunching, and the neck so high that he has essentially zero peripheral vision.
He turns and sees the big green guy, moving about carefully in his too-tight clothing. Jedediah looks down at the sleeves covering his arms. Then he raises one sleeve and waves it vaguely towards the good doctor. "Say pardner, I have a proposition for you." He waves the oversized sleeve in a tantalizing manner.
Siobhan gives the drunken girl an unimpressed glare. "I understand you, ya drunken sot. Can you understand yourself?"
Felitcia glared back and said, "Of courshe I can undershtand myshelf." Felitcia tried to make a rude gesture, at least for when she was from, at Siobhan but her sudden lack of balance along with her slurred words showed the liquor was winning again. Sadly her balance did not last and she fell into the big green Doctor before she could right herself again.
Fortunately Jedediah managed to somehow get his clothes back and Felitcia stabilized herself as she started to look at her surroundings more. She was tottering on her stiletto heels on the uneven ground and it wasn't helping her balance any but she somehow managed to stay standing. It started to dawn on Felitcia that she wasn't in California anymore and she had no clue where this was.
Alice tries to find a direction a proper lady might look in as the two men exchange outfits.
Up at Siobhan is her choice. Alice puts her hands on her hips in mock outrage. “Oh, Siobhan, have you gone and felled the Roman Empire? Oh, but I suppose they’d had it coming.
“Well, far as school taught me, Rome ceased to be a power fourteen and a half centuries prior.” She adds, “To my time.” Then she adds, “1871, year of our Lord.”
Siobhan's harsh look towards Felitcia abruptly shifts to one of concern as she nearly falls over. "...how much did you have to drink, lass?"
“Oh, Siobhan, have you gone and felled the Roman Empire? Oh, but I suppose they’d had it coming."
"Aye, that they did." Siobhan nods, her lips quirking to a smile that is not at all supported by the worry in her eyes.
"The Romans, you say, and Boudicca? Goodness, you must be from...far in the past. I suppose the Gaels might have been a better word to speak of your people with. The time I came from, the Romans were long, long gone, and I suppose that the Gaels did survive, in one form or another."
“Well, far as school taught me, Rome ceased to be a power fourteen and a half centuries prior.” She adds, “To my time.” Then she adds, “1871, year of our Lord.”
Richard's and Alice's words strike the Celt like a pilum. Her stomach aches for a moment.
"...how--how many centuries? All I know is that I've seen twenty winters..." She asks in shock.
"And longer still to mine, the year 1953. It was..." He pauses for a moment. Math was never his strong suit, "1893 winters from your life to the moment I was taken from my life. Odd, though. I had seen 61 years, but my body now.." His voice trails off as he feels the raw power of his new form.
He looks back to Siobhan, "The land I am from is across the great ocean at the edge of your islands. It it called America, and my, hm, my tribe as you would understand it, was called California."
He then gives a glance down at Jedediah, "Well, I'm not sure what you are, but I'm not sure what I am, either. What's your propostion?"
Alice walks up to the mountain of a woman. “Oh…! But you’re still young as I, and though the past is past, you’re not alone. Why, 1953 is well beyon—”
It hits Alice. Felitcia didn’t vomit on her. The universe did.
She tries not to weep; the British way or some rubbish.
But Alice isn’t in Britain anymore.
“Oh, my dear sisters,” she sobs. “I pray they led full lives. Surely they got on without me.”
At a loss for words, Siobhan stoops down and offers a hand to the tiny Alice.
All this talk of worlds far beyond Ireland and time and not having a clue where I am--or when...
She takes the time difference more stoically than Alice, if only because she knows her time was supposed to end yesterday.
He then gives a glance down at Jedediah, "Well, I'm not sure what you are, but I'm not sure what I am, either. What's your propostion?"
The little green creature pulls himself up to his full height. "Jedediah Janson, free-hearted spirit of the West. Expert card player, storied lover, legendary gunslinger. The best man to have on your side, and the worst to face!" He cries out proudly, puffing out his chest and deepening his shrieking voice.
"Well looks to my eye like you're starting ta outgrow your clothes, and looks like I'm starting to ingrow mine." He frowns. Ingrow? Undergrow? He shrugs. "Well I'm offering you the illusttrious trade of my stories and expertly hand-tailored coat in exchange for your quickly-failing garb. Mutual interest the way I see it, and for the cost difference I suppose you can find a way to pay me back later." He grins at his extremely generous offer, once again waggling the sleeves enticingly.
Siobhan's harsh look towards Felitcia abruptly shifts to one of concern as she nearly falls over. "...how much did you have to drink, lass?"
Feliticia thought about Siobhan's question and giggled a bit as she said, "Tshree long island ishe teash, sheveral fireballshotsh, f$*! if I know what else now."
When people started rattling off year Felitcia looked at hem like they are nuts and said, "Whatever you've been using must be some good s@~$. better than booze. It's 2021."
Siobhan stoops down and offers a hand to the tiny Alice.
Alice takes her pen (which is surprisingly easy to handle though it surely outweighs her), and she does not hesitate to sit in the giant hand.
She dabs globules of water from her eyes, and tries to be strong for the others.
“Thank you, Siobhan. The funny thing is, I meant to lift you up… metaphorically, of course.”
“…sheveral fireballshotsh, …”
“Would a fireball shot be something like…”
Alice puts the pen down on Siobhan’s palm, stands and brings both hands to one hip, shoves them forward—and a three fireballs actually shoot from her hands!
Each fitzes to sparks twenty feet overhead.
Alice sits back down, takes up her pen, and says, “I cannot for the life of me explain why I thought that would even work.”
"…It's 2021."
Alice dangles her legs from Siobhan’s hand and gives Felitcia a mischievously catlike grin.
“Is it?”
Siobhan watches as Alice sends a trio of fireballs into the air, nonplussed.
Right. Never speak ill of the Fair Folk--lest you speak out of turn, and are damned.
The conversation is interrupted as two small humanoid creatures slink out of the shadows behind one of the standing stones. Each of these creatures has warty, blue skin, big heads, and beady yellow eyes. They snicker as they brandish their swords!
Before you can react, the creatures rush in to attack! They gang up on the biggest and toughest-looking of your group, Richard, stabbing at his legs!
Felitcia ignored Alice's teasing about what year it really was because right about then two little blue men came running at Richard with swords! Most women like Felitcia would start freaking out if they saw this happening but fortunately Felitcia, drunk or not, wasn't one of them. She pulled the fan from her belt and snapped it open before taking a few stumbling steps to get behind the nearest creature to her and lashed out with the fan.
The blue creature turns to Felitcia just in time for her fan's razor-sharp edge to slice open its throat! Its eyes bulge as it chokes on the blood bubbling from its neck, some of it spraying on Felitcia's dress. It falls to the ground, lifeless.
Jedediah's eyes go wide at the attacking creatures, despite the fact that they looked like a small blue version of himself. "What in the holy hell..." He squints at the creatures, then slaps himself in the face. Am I...am I actually sober right now?!? His heart jumps up further as one is sliced open by the very same women he had brazenly approached earlier. And then...
A sharp, echoing crack shatters the air, originating from Jedediah. The little bastard has a damned gun! Be it a small flintlock one though. The end is smoking and who on god's green earth knows where the bullet landed, because it definitely missed the little blue guys. Eyes wide with fear he start reloading!
Alice screams! She wants to hide behind her friends because they are colossal whereas goblins are merely gargantuan. But Felitcia’s action bolsters courage.
“The pen is migh…”
Alice had to admit that the adage was a fib in this context. A sword could do much a pen could not. However, the phrase ‘fireball shot’ has presented a solution.
Alice believes words may help. “Have a fireball shot.”
Her aim is perfect. This is easy!
“Make it a double!”
She might have accidentally killed a flea with those other shots.
Nope. Just beginner’s luck then.
Siobhan raises her axe and lunges at the first little blue creature!
Finally--something I can hit!
Though Jed's bullet flies off into the night, Alice's spark burns the second blue creature's face! As it shrieks and recoils, Siobhan rushes in and brings her axe down on its head, splitting its skull and finishing it off! The battle quickly comes to a close.
"Must've been more fomorians." Siobhan puts her axe away and surveys the battlefield.
"At least I've been dropped into the hell reserved for warriors." She says with an appreciative glance towards the drunken Felitcia.
Richard’s face grows pale and he yelps in pain at the wound. ”What…what were those? They stabbed me, rgh, they stabbed me!”
He looks down at the wound. That would’ve killed his former body, easily, yet with this new form…it hurt, certainly, but it felt completely manageable.
Taking a deep breath he says, ”It seems this new body is stronger than my old one. I can carry on, at least for a while.”
Jedediah, eyes wide, wheels about to face the others. "Well, that could have gone worse, all things considered." There appears to be a new, somewhat bullet-sized hole in his ear. How he managed to hit his own ear, and not notice it, is a question not easy to answer.
He scampers over to Richard, looking at the wounds, then scampers over to the little blue corpses, poking them with curiosity and caution. Then he raises his hands and really takes a look at them.
"Why am I greeeeeen?!?"
Alice wills her skin to glow green. “It’s not easy being green, perhaps, but who’s to say green can’t be pretty?”
She looks upon the dead creatures with a degree of pity, though Richard was struck by the devils.
“Shall we vacate the premises before we get more of the same? I’m not sure if civilization exists here, but if we’re to ‘rough it,’ I’m at least good for building a fire.” Her eyes give Richard’s wounds the once-over. “I’m afraid burning’s all my magical glow is good for. If there’s a way my little hands can patch you up, I’ll get on it—on like a prom dress!”
Siobhan takes a look around the location they're all in.
Looking closely at the standing stones, Siobhan notices a marking carved on one of them. It appears to be an arrow pointing into the surrounding forest.
"...huh."
Siobhan approaches the standing stone and looks at the arrow carved into it, then looks in the direction the arrow is pointing. "Looks like we're to go this way."
Jedediah is busy trying to scrub the green off his skin, succeeding only in irritating it. "Alright this has been all well and fun but the jokes not funny anymore." He raises his voice, calling out loudly. "I'm sorry if I cheated you out of money, or cheated you out of free drinks...or made your old lady cheat on you, although that's usually more your fault than mine, but come on! What darn drugs did you even put me on?!" He finishes with a high squeak, jumping at the sound of his own voice.
Alice steps over to Jedediah. She looks up at him with genuine pity in her eyes. “Oh, Jedediah Janson. Whatever unfair play might have occurred over a game of cards, tea time, or in the company of elderly women, I don’t think you’re being punished nor is there an entity to whom you might register a complaint.
“Perhaps the arrow points to answers. Shall we find out?”
A spark of his old vigor returns for a moment. "Well not old women! Well not particularly young either...actually one did have false teeth, so maybe..." He shakes his head, looking down at the only creature here smaller than him. "Uhh, you know what? Sure. Let's dance. Shaping up to be the weirdest of my wake up stories, and that's a tall order."
Jedediah spins on his heels, draws his pistol, and twirls it in an impressive display of dexterity. "Let's follow that trail!" He cries triumphantly, jabbing the end of the pistol at the arrow. At the same time the gun erupts, making Jedediah jump as much as anyone else, leaving a perfect center-struck hole in the arrow. Jedediah slips the pistol away with a sheepish grin. "New hands, promise I'll get used to them." He doesn't mention he hadn't quite mastered that pistol twirl trick with his old hands either.
Alice giggles at the reaction. She gets quite the start from the pistol’s accidental discharge. But she plays it up, making a mock pistol of her thumb and forefinger. She points her ‘hand-gun’ at the arrow and purposely shoots a fireball at it.
“Bang.”
Siobhan jumps back a foot and raises her shield as a sudden bullet hole appears in the middle of the standing stone arrow, spraying shards of rock everywhere.
"LUGH'S BALLS!" She yelps before turning and shooting an enraged glare at the little green man.
She stomps off into the forest, her axe trembling in her clenched fist.
Richard is as startled as the rest of the party at the noise of Jed’s gun, ”Goodness!”
The meeting with the mites had scared him, but his new body was big and strong. Ready for anything. He looks around, picking the biggest fallen branch he could find. He takes a deep breath. This new world was stranger than he could imagine, but he would face it like an academic and learn all he could, use his strength to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. Protect people like the man he used to be.
He hefts his makeshift club and nods to the rest of the group, ”Off we go, then.”
Felitcia was stunned as the blood gushed over her and her dress when she slit the creature's throat with her fan. She'd fought before, in training, and to defend herself on the few occasions someone wouldn't take no for an answer, but Felitcia had never killed anything before, another person or otherwise.
Fortunately the others took out the last attacker because Felitcia stood there staring at the dead body. Felitcia missed Jedediah freaking out over being green, and Siobhan stalking off towards the woods. She didn't even hear the gun go off unexpectedly when Jedediah was showing off. As the realization sunk in that she had just killed something Felitcia dropped to her knees, leaned over, and dried to get sick again. Felitcia wasn't drunk anymore, and there was nothing to come up as she tried to get sick, but she also was in no shape to move just yet as she broke down over having killed something.