Hello! I'm brand new to this forum and this is both my first post and thread on here. I'm going to be perfectly honest: I'm here primarily to expand my reading audience as well as to seek out additional feedback to the works I am currently writing, starting with this.
This fanfiction is called <Digimon Generations>.
It uses digimon from several different series, even a few ripoffs and originals, and all of the human characters are my own.
Basic premise: An American town vanishes from the real world, reappearing in the Digital World. Two years later in the real world, people from the town return to the real world accompanied by Digimon, where they reveal that 500 years have passed for them.
If you like this idea, keep reading, and I hope you enjoy it!
--------------------
“I subscribe to the anthropic principle: there are an infinite number of infinite universes, each with slightly different physical laws. Only some of them have the right parameters, such as gravity the right strength to allow stars to be born and live long. Where the charge on the electron is right to allow complex molecules to form, etc. Ours is one that allows intelligent life to form, so that the universe may wonder at itself. We *are* the universe, in wonder of itself.”
- William Donelson
“If an AI possessed any one of these skills—social abilities, technological development, economic ability—at a superhuman level, it is quite likely that it would quickly come to dominate our world in one way or another. And as we’ve seen, if it ever developed these abilities to the human level, then it would likely soon develop them to a superhuman level. So we can assume that if even one of these skills gets programmed into a computer, then our world will come to be dominated by AIs or AI-empowered humans.”
- Stuart Armstrong, Smarter Than Us: The Rise of Machine Intelligence
<Data Set A-1: New is New, but Strange is Perspective>
[At almost precisely midnight of March 14, 2015, the world paid witness to a great flash of light in upper New York state. It lasted for but a moment, but its image was burned onto both the retinas and memories of all who saw it. The satellites orbiting above recorded it, and the few smartphones on the scene taped it live, before the owners of these phones uploaded the videos onto the Internet for all of the world to see. Soon, everyone would learn of the mysterious demise of the small town of Blood River, as every man-made object within a three mile radius of the town center was lifted out of existence, including the roads, and even some of the natural features vanished as well, such as the town`s namesake river. No one knew how or why the Displacement happened, which mostly left nothing but a crater in its place. Two years would pass before they finally found out. But by then, everything had been irrevocably changed.]
--Blood River, Day 1--
When daylight floods though your bedroom window right when the grandfather clock in the living room downstairs literally strikes twelve, you just KNOW that something went ape-shit crazy.
For Maria Fulbridge, forced to suddenly turn away from her computer screen where she`d been checking her Facebook page so as to shield her eyes, the only thought that could go through her mind at that moment was Holy shit! Who turned the Sun back on?
After blinking her green eyes a bit to adjust to the light that now fell gently on her short blond hair, pale skin and lithe, athletic figure, she crawled off her bed to open the window and get a good look outside. Casting her gaze about, all of the familiar things in town that she could see were still there. Living near the town`s very outskirts on a hill may have been a pain in regards to putting too much distance between her and her friends for her liking, but Maria always thought the view was compensation enough, as she could pick out almost everything in town from where she lived.
All three of the church steeples in town were still towering over everything else. She could see Route 71 passing straight through town, noticeably cleaving it in half, with most of the residential areas on her side of town, as well as Blood River Public School, servicing all of the grades from Kindergarten through senior year of high school. She could pick out the imposing stone courthouse (she always thought that whoever built it that way was compensating for something), the similarly intimidating public library, the Retro Neon Diner (actual name) and the YMCA center. She could also note the latest addition to the town, the nearby Prometheus Technologies, which had set up shop nearby to bring new jobs and business to the town when the factories and mines were on the verge of shutting down in the face of increasing federal and state regulations. Finally, she could recognize the gently flowing stream from which the town had taken its name, as it meandered along the eastern edge of town, coming down from the north and running underneath Route 71 and the Tecumseh Bridge before continuing southeast.
She could see all of this, but her eyes were currently fixed on the mountains that were surrounding the town.
Because last she checked, one, the town only had mountains on its northern and western peripheries, two, they weren`t overgrown with what looked like a weird mixture of a tropical jungle and a redwood forest with a snowcapped peak, and three, she they weren`t the size of the freaking Rockies.
She blinked, rubbed her eyes more aggressively, and looked again.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Still there.
Overcome with shock and awe, she backed away from the window. She turned back and scrambled onto her bed to check her computer. All she found on the screen was static. Panic rising in her chest, she went to her nightstand where her smartphone sat and turned it on, and immediately went to get on the Internet. No access.
Her breath quickened, as she checked her phone`s cell reception. Five bars. She calmed herself down a bit and decided to try calling her best friend Danielle, who lived nearby the school. The phone rang. And rang. And-
*Click* “Hiii,” a voice said groggily from the other end.
“Oh thank God!” Maria breathed out. “You have no clue how freaked out I am!”
“Why, what`s going on? It`s midnight, and, wait, why`s the Sun up already? Whaaa- HOLY SHIT!”
“You can see those mountains too? Thank God I thought I was going crazy!”
“What`s going on?” Danielle asked, with audible fear in her voice. “You have any idea?”
“Maybe, although it sounds really nuts,” Maria replied, forcing herself to calm down further for the sake of her friend. “The power is still on thanks to the power plant and we still get reception from the cell tower nearby, but the Internet is out, so I don`t think we can contact anybody outside of town. So, for now, I think our town just got transported to someplace else, Ring of Fire-style.”
“You mean we`re in another world?” Danielle inquired.
After a moment of thought, Maria replied, “Most likely.”
Right then, she heard knocking on her door. “Hold a minute, Dani. Yeah?” she called out.
The door opened and a man stepped in, decked out in a deputy officer`s uniform, giving her a look of worry and care in his own green orbs. “Hey, Maria, you alright?” It was her dad.
“Yeah, I`m fine, Dad. Just a little surprised that we`ve got someplace new to go hiking for a family trip is all, heh-heh,” she said nervously.
“Okay. I need to head out to the sheriff`s station to find out what`s going on and so that I can help in keeping things in town from getting out of hand.”
“What about Mom?” Maria asked.
“Your mother called me as soon as it happened. She`s gonna stay at the hospital to help anyone who might suddenly come in. Meanwhile, we both need you to stay and watch your little brother.”
“What about my friends? I can`t just leave them alone!”
“And you don`t have to,” he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. “If you want to help them, call or text as many of them as you can, help them to calm down if they need to and try to get them to help in any way they can.”
“Is that it?” she said, shrugging his hands off her shoulders. “Babysitting my brother and making calls? Is that all I`m good for?”
“Absolutely not,” her father replied. “I know better than anyone else aside from your mother just how strong you are. It`s just things have become very confusing right now and I honestly don`t know what else we`re supposed to do. Listen,” he bent over to look her levelly in the eye. “This is what I need you to do now. When we know more about what`s going on, I`ll let you know what else you can do. Until then, just sit tight, try to help people keep their heads on straight, and be ready for anything. Okay?”
Maria understood what her father was saying. She could also sense his own frustration with all that was happening, and his genuine fear for her safety. She nodded. “Okay, Daddy.” She stepped forward and hugged him tight, and he embraced her in return. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he said, kissing her on the head. Letting go, he turned and walked out.
Maria stood there for a moment, looking at where her father had walked out from.
“Wow, your Dad really trusts you, huh?”
Suddenly, she realized that she ended her phone call with Danielle, meaning she`d heard the whole thing.
“D-don`t you go spreading any rumors or I`ll beat you six ways through Sunday!”
“Ha-hah! Thanks for calling, Maria. I needed that. And I`ll help out in any way, you just take care of yourself, okay?”
“Yeah. You too. Bye.”
“Bye.” Danielle hung up.
With her father`s confidence and Danielle`s reassurance, Maria felt more sure of herself, although still nervous about her situation. Walking back to the window, she watched as her father just about jumped into his cruiser and drove off to town. Looking out at the mountains, she now began to wonder what was really out there, and now began to feel excitement at the possibilities. She turned her gaze skyward as she reflected on that.
I don`t know what`s going on, but I can`t wait to find out!
Then she found out something.
“Why does the sky have grid lines?” she said to herself.
Just then, she heard branches rustling. She turned to the one tree in the house`s front yard, and saw the weirdest thing she`d ever laid eyes on.
It was a bird. A pink bird with blue-tipped tail feathers, a pink-and-blue-striped curled feather perched on its head, a bright red beak, three red claws on its arm-like wings, and the biggest pair of blue eyes she`d ever seen. It was easily as big as her little brother Zack.
And it was looking back.
After a moment of silent awkwardness, Maria gave voice to the one thought in her head:
“Are you a Pokémon?”
It tilted its head in obvious confusion.
“What`s a Pokémon? And are you a human?”
--March 14, 2017--
The moment the gateway appeared, her mind immediately flashed back to that horrible moment two years ago, when the white light that caused the Displacement took Ben away, her boyfriend of three years.
They had been on a camping trip with friends, and the girls and guys had to sleep in different tents. Feeling restless, she had gotten out of her tent to get some air, despite the slight chill. She saw that he had been similarly restless, and had just pulled out his flute to play. He had noticed her coming out, and turned to her to smile at her. Her heart would always melt when he smiled just as he did right then. She walked toward him, ready to help comfort him on a cold night.
However, before she got halfway, a wall of white light blinded her for but a moment, and when she could focus once more, Ben had vanished. And so had the guys` tent.
She would only fall asleep the next night, when hours of searching and screaming herself hoarse in an effort to find Ben yielded nothing for her except for dry, red eyes.
After that, she became as like an emotionless automaton, as she pushed her knowledge of mathematics and science far beyond what she had previously been capable of. Her effort and drive would land her a place in the Displacement Investigation Project, or DIP, as part of efforts to precisely diagnose the cause of the Displacement. By the time the second-anniversary approached, scientists, her included, could only come to two key conclusions: First, the town had not been destroyed, as there was no evidence in the land, water, or even air in the surrounding fifty-mile radius to suggest such a conclusion. Second, interdimensional physics were involved, as this was due to the detection of strange residue energies detected in the area that appeared to be in violation of every scientific law known to man.
That time was the most frustrating and depressing in her life. She and the other scientists on the project had to contend with research that almost seemed to be actively opposing their efforts to make sense of it, nut-job extremists of every stripe that endangering their well-being, greedy corporations seeking to financially exploit them, bastard reporters out for a sleazy scoop, and grand-standing politicians threatening to slash the funds. And while the military had been helpful in providing them support and protection all the while, she couldn`t help but feel there were a few in their ranks that were trying to find something the project was working on to turn into a weapon of mass destruction.
Staying up that night, she was ready to commemorate the second anniversary of the Displacement with tears, something which she had only permitted twice before: the night of the Displacement, and its first anniversary.
When the gateway appeared, it did so at the very center of where the Displacement had occurred, a bit of distance away from where DIP had set up their official headquarters and research center. She and the others had to rush on over with the help of the SUVs they`d brought, while escorted by the jeeps and one tank the military had loaned for protection, just in case of a scenario like this one.
Approaching the gateway, there were several observations that were instantly clear: It was easily wide enough to bridge a three-lane highway, tall enough for a truck to pass through without any problems, was colored a pulsing aqua blue with rippling lines of green coding swarming all about its face, and it was stable.
As Irena watched, she noticed some of the coding begin to coalesce around the base, forming ten distinct shapes. Shapes that began to move forward and detach themselves from the gateway. The scientists watched in awe as the military trained their weapons upon them.
Five of them were human. The other five… weren`t. The ten of them had clearly organized themselves in pairs, one human and one monster (it felt more appropriate for some reason and alien felt too cliché) each.
In the middle was a tall, full-bearded, blond, green-eyed man who walked with a powerful, commanding stride, dressed in flowing robes of red and orange, with something that looked akin to a stunted, orange, cartoonish raptor walked beside him.
To his right was a *naturally?* blue-haired, sapphire-eyed woman in a travel-ready amethyst dress who exuded grace and elegance in her steps, and a strange, white-furred creature with purple patterning laid across her shoulders.
To the man`s left was a mere child, no more than a boy. Wide-eyed curiosity and awe were clear to be seen in his *pink?* eyes, and he was decked out in greens and purples from his goggles to his sandals like some impish prankster, and at his side was what looked like a stuffed bear with the head of a jack-o-lantern and a green, ragged cape.
To the man`s far left was a dark-skinned, gold-eyed girl, no more than a teenager, with spiky hair that seemingly defied gravity and held bright stripes of yellow in its brown locks. She was dressed simply, in a comfortable-looking set of tan clothing, with the only accessory being a gold-chain necklace. Hovering by her side was what looked like a giant, armored, honeybee.
The pair that really caught Irena`s attention, however, was the pair on the man`s far right.
The monster of the pair had the appearance of a black-furred, gray-patched, bipedal fox, with maroon markings under its eyes and its arms had blood red *gloves?* with golden gothic crosses sewed on.
The young man it walked beside was nothing short of the embodiment of what a bad boy wanted to be. He wore black from head to toe, from his fedora to his long coat and shirt, and from his fingerless gloves to his jeans and boots. He also appeared to be the only one with visible weapons, in the form of a pair of long and thin, katana-like swords strapped to his hip. The only color in his outfit came from steely gray embellishments on his coat, belt, jeans and boots. But the eyes he had were a burnished orange.
And they were fixed dead square on her.
Then the man spoke, drawing them to the speaker.
“Greetings, one and all! We the people of Blood River have finally returned to the Real World! By the way, you wouldn`t happen to know today`s date, would you? We may have lost count in the last five hundred years or so…”
Just like she would probably have done in his place, the young man in black, in perfect unison with the fox, face-palmed.
This fanfiction is called <Digimon Generations>.
It uses digimon from several different series, even a few ripoffs and originals, and all of the human characters are my own.
Basic premise: An American town vanishes from the real world, reappearing in the Digital World. Two years later in the real world, people from the town return to the real world accompanied by Digimon, where they reveal that 500 years have passed for them.
If you like this idea, keep reading, and I hope you enjoy it!
--------------------
“I subscribe to the anthropic principle: there are an infinite number of infinite universes, each with slightly different physical laws. Only some of them have the right parameters, such as gravity the right strength to allow stars to be born and live long. Where the charge on the electron is right to allow complex molecules to form, etc. Ours is one that allows intelligent life to form, so that the universe may wonder at itself. We *are* the universe, in wonder of itself.”
- William Donelson
“If an AI possessed any one of these skills—social abilities, technological development, economic ability—at a superhuman level, it is quite likely that it would quickly come to dominate our world in one way or another. And as we’ve seen, if it ever developed these abilities to the human level, then it would likely soon develop them to a superhuman level. So we can assume that if even one of these skills gets programmed into a computer, then our world will come to be dominated by AIs or AI-empowered humans.”
- Stuart Armstrong, Smarter Than Us: The Rise of Machine Intelligence
<Data Set A-1: New is New, but Strange is Perspective>
[At almost precisely midnight of March 14, 2015, the world paid witness to a great flash of light in upper New York state. It lasted for but a moment, but its image was burned onto both the retinas and memories of all who saw it. The satellites orbiting above recorded it, and the few smartphones on the scene taped it live, before the owners of these phones uploaded the videos onto the Internet for all of the world to see. Soon, everyone would learn of the mysterious demise of the small town of Blood River, as every man-made object within a three mile radius of the town center was lifted out of existence, including the roads, and even some of the natural features vanished as well, such as the town`s namesake river. No one knew how or why the Displacement happened, which mostly left nothing but a crater in its place. Two years would pass before they finally found out. But by then, everything had been irrevocably changed.]
--Blood River, Day 1--
When daylight floods though your bedroom window right when the grandfather clock in the living room downstairs literally strikes twelve, you just KNOW that something went ape-shit crazy.
For Maria Fulbridge, forced to suddenly turn away from her computer screen where she`d been checking her Facebook page so as to shield her eyes, the only thought that could go through her mind at that moment was Holy shit! Who turned the Sun back on?
After blinking her green eyes a bit to adjust to the light that now fell gently on her short blond hair, pale skin and lithe, athletic figure, she crawled off her bed to open the window and get a good look outside. Casting her gaze about, all of the familiar things in town that she could see were still there. Living near the town`s very outskirts on a hill may have been a pain in regards to putting too much distance between her and her friends for her liking, but Maria always thought the view was compensation enough, as she could pick out almost everything in town from where she lived.
All three of the church steeples in town were still towering over everything else. She could see Route 71 passing straight through town, noticeably cleaving it in half, with most of the residential areas on her side of town, as well as Blood River Public School, servicing all of the grades from Kindergarten through senior year of high school. She could pick out the imposing stone courthouse (she always thought that whoever built it that way was compensating for something), the similarly intimidating public library, the Retro Neon Diner (actual name) and the YMCA center. She could also note the latest addition to the town, the nearby Prometheus Technologies, which had set up shop nearby to bring new jobs and business to the town when the factories and mines were on the verge of shutting down in the face of increasing federal and state regulations. Finally, she could recognize the gently flowing stream from which the town had taken its name, as it meandered along the eastern edge of town, coming down from the north and running underneath Route 71 and the Tecumseh Bridge before continuing southeast.
She could see all of this, but her eyes were currently fixed on the mountains that were surrounding the town.
Because last she checked, one, the town only had mountains on its northern and western peripheries, two, they weren`t overgrown with what looked like a weird mixture of a tropical jungle and a redwood forest with a snowcapped peak, and three, she they weren`t the size of the freaking Rockies.
She blinked, rubbed her eyes more aggressively, and looked again.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Still there.
Overcome with shock and awe, she backed away from the window. She turned back and scrambled onto her bed to check her computer. All she found on the screen was static. Panic rising in her chest, she went to her nightstand where her smartphone sat and turned it on, and immediately went to get on the Internet. No access.
Her breath quickened, as she checked her phone`s cell reception. Five bars. She calmed herself down a bit and decided to try calling her best friend Danielle, who lived nearby the school. The phone rang. And rang. And-
*Click* “Hiii,” a voice said groggily from the other end.
“Oh thank God!” Maria breathed out. “You have no clue how freaked out I am!”
“Why, what`s going on? It`s midnight, and, wait, why`s the Sun up already? Whaaa- HOLY SHIT!”
“You can see those mountains too? Thank God I thought I was going crazy!”
“What`s going on?” Danielle asked, with audible fear in her voice. “You have any idea?”
“Maybe, although it sounds really nuts,” Maria replied, forcing herself to calm down further for the sake of her friend. “The power is still on thanks to the power plant and we still get reception from the cell tower nearby, but the Internet is out, so I don`t think we can contact anybody outside of town. So, for now, I think our town just got transported to someplace else, Ring of Fire-style.”
“You mean we`re in another world?” Danielle inquired.
After a moment of thought, Maria replied, “Most likely.”
Right then, she heard knocking on her door. “Hold a minute, Dani. Yeah?” she called out.
The door opened and a man stepped in, decked out in a deputy officer`s uniform, giving her a look of worry and care in his own green orbs. “Hey, Maria, you alright?” It was her dad.
“Yeah, I`m fine, Dad. Just a little surprised that we`ve got someplace new to go hiking for a family trip is all, heh-heh,” she said nervously.
“Okay. I need to head out to the sheriff`s station to find out what`s going on and so that I can help in keeping things in town from getting out of hand.”
“What about Mom?” Maria asked.
“Your mother called me as soon as it happened. She`s gonna stay at the hospital to help anyone who might suddenly come in. Meanwhile, we both need you to stay and watch your little brother.”
“What about my friends? I can`t just leave them alone!”
“And you don`t have to,” he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. “If you want to help them, call or text as many of them as you can, help them to calm down if they need to and try to get them to help in any way they can.”
“Is that it?” she said, shrugging his hands off her shoulders. “Babysitting my brother and making calls? Is that all I`m good for?”
“Absolutely not,” her father replied. “I know better than anyone else aside from your mother just how strong you are. It`s just things have become very confusing right now and I honestly don`t know what else we`re supposed to do. Listen,” he bent over to look her levelly in the eye. “This is what I need you to do now. When we know more about what`s going on, I`ll let you know what else you can do. Until then, just sit tight, try to help people keep their heads on straight, and be ready for anything. Okay?”
Maria understood what her father was saying. She could also sense his own frustration with all that was happening, and his genuine fear for her safety. She nodded. “Okay, Daddy.” She stepped forward and hugged him tight, and he embraced her in return. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he said, kissing her on the head. Letting go, he turned and walked out.
Maria stood there for a moment, looking at where her father had walked out from.
“Wow, your Dad really trusts you, huh?”
Suddenly, she realized that she ended her phone call with Danielle, meaning she`d heard the whole thing.
“D-don`t you go spreading any rumors or I`ll beat you six ways through Sunday!”
“Ha-hah! Thanks for calling, Maria. I needed that. And I`ll help out in any way, you just take care of yourself, okay?”
“Yeah. You too. Bye.”
“Bye.” Danielle hung up.
With her father`s confidence and Danielle`s reassurance, Maria felt more sure of herself, although still nervous about her situation. Walking back to the window, she watched as her father just about jumped into his cruiser and drove off to town. Looking out at the mountains, she now began to wonder what was really out there, and now began to feel excitement at the possibilities. She turned her gaze skyward as she reflected on that.
I don`t know what`s going on, but I can`t wait to find out!
Then she found out something.
“Why does the sky have grid lines?” she said to herself.
Just then, she heard branches rustling. She turned to the one tree in the house`s front yard, and saw the weirdest thing she`d ever laid eyes on.
It was a bird. A pink bird with blue-tipped tail feathers, a pink-and-blue-striped curled feather perched on its head, a bright red beak, three red claws on its arm-like wings, and the biggest pair of blue eyes she`d ever seen. It was easily as big as her little brother Zack.
And it was looking back.
After a moment of silent awkwardness, Maria gave voice to the one thought in her head:
“Are you a Pokémon?”
It tilted its head in obvious confusion.
“What`s a Pokémon? And are you a human?”
--March 14, 2017--
The moment the gateway appeared, her mind immediately flashed back to that horrible moment two years ago, when the white light that caused the Displacement took Ben away, her boyfriend of three years.
They had been on a camping trip with friends, and the girls and guys had to sleep in different tents. Feeling restless, she had gotten out of her tent to get some air, despite the slight chill. She saw that he had been similarly restless, and had just pulled out his flute to play. He had noticed her coming out, and turned to her to smile at her. Her heart would always melt when he smiled just as he did right then. She walked toward him, ready to help comfort him on a cold night.
However, before she got halfway, a wall of white light blinded her for but a moment, and when she could focus once more, Ben had vanished. And so had the guys` tent.
She would only fall asleep the next night, when hours of searching and screaming herself hoarse in an effort to find Ben yielded nothing for her except for dry, red eyes.
After that, she became as like an emotionless automaton, as she pushed her knowledge of mathematics and science far beyond what she had previously been capable of. Her effort and drive would land her a place in the Displacement Investigation Project, or DIP, as part of efforts to precisely diagnose the cause of the Displacement. By the time the second-anniversary approached, scientists, her included, could only come to two key conclusions: First, the town had not been destroyed, as there was no evidence in the land, water, or even air in the surrounding fifty-mile radius to suggest such a conclusion. Second, interdimensional physics were involved, as this was due to the detection of strange residue energies detected in the area that appeared to be in violation of every scientific law known to man.
That time was the most frustrating and depressing in her life. She and the other scientists on the project had to contend with research that almost seemed to be actively opposing their efforts to make sense of it, nut-job extremists of every stripe that endangering their well-being, greedy corporations seeking to financially exploit them, bastard reporters out for a sleazy scoop, and grand-standing politicians threatening to slash the funds. And while the military had been helpful in providing them support and protection all the while, she couldn`t help but feel there were a few in their ranks that were trying to find something the project was working on to turn into a weapon of mass destruction.
Staying up that night, she was ready to commemorate the second anniversary of the Displacement with tears, something which she had only permitted twice before: the night of the Displacement, and its first anniversary.
When the gateway appeared, it did so at the very center of where the Displacement had occurred, a bit of distance away from where DIP had set up their official headquarters and research center. She and the others had to rush on over with the help of the SUVs they`d brought, while escorted by the jeeps and one tank the military had loaned for protection, just in case of a scenario like this one.
Approaching the gateway, there were several observations that were instantly clear: It was easily wide enough to bridge a three-lane highway, tall enough for a truck to pass through without any problems, was colored a pulsing aqua blue with rippling lines of green coding swarming all about its face, and it was stable.
As Irena watched, she noticed some of the coding begin to coalesce around the base, forming ten distinct shapes. Shapes that began to move forward and detach themselves from the gateway. The scientists watched in awe as the military trained their weapons upon them.
Five of them were human. The other five… weren`t. The ten of them had clearly organized themselves in pairs, one human and one monster (it felt more appropriate for some reason and alien felt too cliché) each.
In the middle was a tall, full-bearded, blond, green-eyed man who walked with a powerful, commanding stride, dressed in flowing robes of red and orange, with something that looked akin to a stunted, orange, cartoonish raptor walked beside him.
To his right was a *naturally?* blue-haired, sapphire-eyed woman in a travel-ready amethyst dress who exuded grace and elegance in her steps, and a strange, white-furred creature with purple patterning laid across her shoulders.
To the man`s left was a mere child, no more than a boy. Wide-eyed curiosity and awe were clear to be seen in his *pink?* eyes, and he was decked out in greens and purples from his goggles to his sandals like some impish prankster, and at his side was what looked like a stuffed bear with the head of a jack-o-lantern and a green, ragged cape.
To the man`s far left was a dark-skinned, gold-eyed girl, no more than a teenager, with spiky hair that seemingly defied gravity and held bright stripes of yellow in its brown locks. She was dressed simply, in a comfortable-looking set of tan clothing, with the only accessory being a gold-chain necklace. Hovering by her side was what looked like a giant, armored, honeybee.
The pair that really caught Irena`s attention, however, was the pair on the man`s far right.
The monster of the pair had the appearance of a black-furred, gray-patched, bipedal fox, with maroon markings under its eyes and its arms had blood red *gloves?* with golden gothic crosses sewed on.
The young man it walked beside was nothing short of the embodiment of what a bad boy wanted to be. He wore black from head to toe, from his fedora to his long coat and shirt, and from his fingerless gloves to his jeans and boots. He also appeared to be the only one with visible weapons, in the form of a pair of long and thin, katana-like swords strapped to his hip. The only color in his outfit came from steely gray embellishments on his coat, belt, jeans and boots. But the eyes he had were a burnished orange.
And they were fixed dead square on her.
Then the man spoke, drawing them to the speaker.
“Greetings, one and all! We the people of Blood River have finally returned to the Real World! By the way, you wouldn`t happen to know today`s date, would you? We may have lost count in the last five hundred years or so…”
Just like she would probably have done in his place, the young man in black, in perfect unison with the fox, face-palmed.