Well Great, What Do We Do Now? (A.S, NES, SWL, Col)

[ParamountKeymaster]

With a prominent click, the door to the Summer Snow Apartment was unlocked and pushed open...

Carter, awoken from his nap, lifted his head up off the couch and turned to face the door. The first thing he became aware of was the smell. Something nearby smelled... musty. Then he heard a crinkling sound, that of newspapers being unfolded and laid out on the floor. Then...

"Hey. I'm home."

"WHOA HOLY S***!"

Evan stepped into the apartment, head hung low, eyes averted, his new gelatinous form in full view for his dog to take in. Prior to his and his companions' arrival at the complex, Evan had requested that they change his slime body back to blue to avoid causing any damage with his acidic orange form. Sure, staying solid was much more difficult when he was blue, but it was the only other color he was familiar with, and he didn't feel up to experimenting with the other gems, partially to stop Arti from wasting them but mostly to avoid whatever potentially dangerous effects the four remaining colors might inflict.

As he shuffled inside, Evan looked down to discover that two of the newspapers Eric had spread along the carpet had predictably stuck to the soles of his feet. He scowled at the sight, then shrugged it off and continued into the living room, nonchalantly squeezing the Paramount Key into the slime of his hand in the meantime. "Hey, Carter."

The Berner tilted his head. "...Evan?!"

"Yeah, I just had a really long day..."

"No s***! What the hell happened to you?!"

"I'd rather not talk about it until everyone is around to hear it..." Evan sighed, staring wearily at his hands.

[ThePopcornFairy]

"Oooooh... Fancy digs you guys got here," Eric mused, pacing around the apartment once he had laid out of trail of newspapers to walk on. Didn't want to get slime on this nice carpet, after all. Blue stuff stains like crazy. "Pretty nice. It looks a-pretty niiiiice."

He then let out a tiny gasp at the sight of the Bernese Mountain Dog standing next to Evan. "Carter!!!"

Not missing a beat, Eric rushed over to Carter and started playfully scratching him behind his ears. "Awwwww, how ya doin', buddy? Didja miss me? 'Cause I missed you! You're so cuuuuute! And Evan's made of slime now! Ain't that a punch in the pants, huh? Oh, and this guy's here too!"

[DanteMGalileo]

Arti had seen quite a bit of weird shit. He saw weird shit in Massachusetts and the humid penis-shaped hell. He saw weird shit in SBURB. And there was plenty of weird shit in New Massachusetts, the piece of the Atlantic formerly known as Florida, and the rest of the rebuilt world. So getting used to the slimey Evan was not that big a deal for the pasta-crazy man.

Upon seeing the inside of the apartment, his lack of surprise continued, although he was glad for Eric putting down newspaper to keep the slime off the carpet. Even if it was likely some chap carpet, Arti does not want to explain the gunk on his shoes to the cleaner again.

"Not too bad. I thought you lived under a bridge," Arti said. "Hey, don't look at me like that! You oughta check out my penthouses when slash if you're back to normal! I've got them in Boston, Atlanta, SanFran, Toronto, Tokyo, and at least a dozen other places I can't remember off the top of my head."

Oh, hey, a dog. "Hey puppy! You wanna treat? I got nothing unfortunately."

[ParamountKeymaster]

Oh boy. Eric. Carter whined a little but nonetheless allowed their guest to pet him, if only because it felt nice. He opted not to question Eric's presence on the island; the kid defied rational explanation, after all. He hardly even paid much attention to Arti's comments about treats and his lack thereof. All he could think about was the slime man in the room.

Evan frowned at Arti, then turned back around and shook his head. He didn't feel particularly inclined to defend their Dimensional Island living arrangements or even comment on the knight's lavish lifestyle. He just felt agitated by Arti's continued insistence that he may be stuck the way he was, a possibility he did not want to consider.

In regards to that, Carter craned his neck to warily look around Eric and stare at Evan again. "Well... Can you at least give me an abridged version? 'Cause this is kinda freaking me the f*** out."

Evan rolled his eye-shaped indents, grateful that no one else could hear what was coming out of Carter's filthy mouth. "Something fell outta the sky and turned me into something weird. At this point, can you honestly say anything surprises you?"

"Er... No, I guess not." Once Eric finally finished rubbing his ears, Carter shook himself off and gestured to the coffee table with his nose. "Bearing that in mind, you may wanna check those out. They appeared there out of nowhere a few hours ago."

Looking down at the table, Evan found a glass bottle containing orange fluid, accompanied by a note, instantly recognizable as Rainflower's handiwork. Knowing them, this potion could've been just about anything, but Evan at least had some experiences with potions this particular color. Best case scenario, it was the phobiosis cure, bearing in mind that Swift had travelled to the rainforest where Evan had contracted the disease. Worst case scenario, it was another engorgement potion, because that's what Evan needed that day: more humiliation.

With a hard glare, Evan picked up the note. The writing was predictably illegible, but after squinting at it for a while, he managed to make out what it was trying to say...

K͢endall ̸t̨o̡l͘d͟ ͏m̕ȩ y̷ou ͡m͢i͘g̢ht̨ ̷ne͜èd͝ t͞h͠is!͝
~̕RF̶

"Did he? Did he now?!" Evan snarled at the note before lifting his head to scream at the ceiling, "YEAH, DID YOU ALSO TELL THEM I WAS GONNA GET TURNED INTO A LIVING PILE OF SNOT?! HUH?! DIDJA SEE THAT COMING, YA DANG TIME ANGEL?!"

Then Evan forcefully flung the note back down on the table... along with a good chunk of his arm. Scowling at the sight, hissing out a prolonged "FFFFFFFFFF..." Evan leaned over and reattached the mound of slime to his upper arm, the note still firmly clinging to it. With a series of guttural noises, he waved his arm around in an effort to loosen the slip of paper, and when this failed, he yanked it off with his other hand, the note predictably sticking to it in turn. Finally, he shouted in exasperation, "SOMEONE GET THIS THING OFF ME! I'M GONNA GET ANGRY!"

[ThePopcornFairy]

"Aw, come on, Evan. It's not that bad," Eric cheerfully insisted as he peeled the note off of Evan's hand. "Don't you remember how much butt you kicked out in the woods? You can make good use of that!"

He rested his hand on Evan's shoulder, oblivious to the fact that it was slowly sinking into the slime. "Plus, I gotta be honest. If it was me in this scenario, I'd be having the time of my life. Being able to change my shape, looking all cool and see-through and shiny, all the different colors I could turn into... plus, you know me. I love me some Jell-O. I'd probably be tempted to eat myself! And if I did, the parts that I ate would just rejoin with my body, wouldn't they? Ha... Well, bottom line, I happen to think you've turned into something pretty sweet! Might as well enjoy it!"

[DanteMGalileo]

"... Dumbass has a point, ya know." Arti blinked at that. Walking around to try and pet Carter, the knight leered at the blue, gooey arm stuck to the table.

"Yeah, it sucks getting stuck to everything. But you could be an immobile blob. Or made of glass. Or French. Or have no mouth and yet yearning to scream." Placing a hand under his chin, the knight thought. "You got any more of those gems? Maybe one of them is a tad less sticky." Beat. "Or you can get your slime all over everything and dub this your sticky situation room. Y'know, for when you can't use the dire situation room."

[ParamountKeymaster]

Evan sighed and briefly looked around the room for the case of gems that Eric had carried home. When he couldn't find it, he decided that Eric must have been storing it in hammerspace. Not that he actively wanted to experiment with the gems. At least not at that given moment. "While the idea of not being so... fluid... does sound nice, I've just about lost my tolerance for weird crap for one night."

"Then you're in the wrong dimension," Carter grumbled.

Shaking his head and stepping away until Eric's hand was out of his chest, Evan looked down at his feet, confirming that the newspapers were still glued to his soles, then began a lethargic shuffle down the hall. "Listen, if you guys need me, I'll be in my room. If everyone's gonna be all 'Oh my God, Evan, what happened to you?' we might as well do it all at once."

[ThePopcornFairy]

"Okie-dokie," Eric responded, waving to Evan with the hand that was now covered in a thin film of blue gunk. "We'll hold down the fort for ya, pal! Try not to have a meltdown!"

Once Evan had disappeared into his bedroom, Eric sat down on the couch and, sure enough, pulled the case out from behind his back. He set it down on his lap and lifted the lid, smiling at the six different-colored compartments of about twenty gems each. "Gotta say... I hope Evan pulls himself together soon. I'm excited to see what the rest of these babies do."

He plucked a purple gem out of its slot, smiling giddily and turning it over in his hand a few times. "Mah faaaaavorite..."

---------------------------

"Well, that was... emotionally devastating."

There were a lot of things Natalie hadn't expected to do that day. Those things included, but were not limited to, being transported to Dimensional Island, fighting an invasion of ravenous wyrm creatures, spending an afternoon navigating a below-freezing mountain range, and delivering an injured catboy to a hospital. To say the least, she was drained, and as she led Elsa back to the Summer Snow Apartment, she was more than ready to put this day behind her.

"This is gonna be one heck of a recap for the rest of the gang," she muttered as she knocked on the door. "I can only hope their missions weren't as distressing as ours."

When the door opened, Natalie was greeted by a familiar face, that of yet another thing she hadn't expected to happen today. "Hey, Nat!"

"Eric?!" Natalie choked up, staring wide-eyed at her purple-eyed, dimwitted teammate. "How did-?! When did you-?! You know what, never mind, I don't wanna know."

She rubbed her temples and entered the apartment, promptly kicking her shoes off by the door before stepping into the living room and sitting down on the couch. There were bound to be a lot of things that needed explaining as it was. Eric's presence wasn't one of them.

The messy-haired, bespectacled guy standing nearby on the other hand... that was a new one. "Uh... Hi?"

[DanteMGalileo]

...

Okay, as far as not-normal people go, I come in second, for being organic.

"Yo!" Arti said, walking up to the new arrivals, and without waiting for a confirmation, shook Nat's hand as a way of introducing himself. "I'm Dante M. Arti, just call me Arti! I got called here by Evan while I was enjoying some quality time in Atlanta and one of my penthouses! Something about needing a lot of firepower." Releasing the likely-confused girl from the handshake, he began to look over the two women.

"I'm going to assume one of you is this Nat person Evan told me about. Who's the crystal girl, then? Oh, yeah. Evan's in his room. It's kind of a sticky situation. And a dire situation, but sticky is the best word for now."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Man... For as long as I've been exploring this island, I've never actually visited the gang's apartment," Elsa chuckled as she stepped into the room, removing her jacket and hanging it up on a chair. "It's nice. Kinda small compared to the houses in Summer Snow, but I can see the appeal."

She turned to greet the other people in the room, pleasantly surprised by the guy who had let them in. "Hey, Eric! Long time, no see, dork!" she teased, giving him a friendly but still somewhat forceful punch on the arm. Then she gave the Bernese mountain dog a pat on the head. "Hey, Carter! Hey, buddy, heyyyyy..."

Elsa then looked up as Arti introduced himself, smirking but otherwise unfazed by his blunt behavior. "Yeah, that's Nat. I'm Elsa." She leaned against the back of the couch. "Guessing Evan brought you home with him, huh? What's he doing hiding in his room?"

Not waiting for an answer, Elsa turned towards the hallway and hollered, "YO, EVAN, GUESS WHO NAT RAN INTO UP NORTH!"

"UH... Hey, Elsa!" Evan called back from his room. "J-Just gimme a moment! I'm not decent!"

The diamond girl couldn't help but snicker at his response.

[ThePopcornFairy]

"ELSA!" Eric cheered at the sight of the diamond-skinned girl, absolutely elated to see her, even in spite of the mildly painful, albeit affectionate punch she had given him. "Great to see ya, DD!"

Natalie choked back a yelp when Arti forcefully grabbed and shook her hand, her expression one of obvious, supreme discomfort. "Y-Yeah. Natalie. Nice to meet you. _Pleasleggo."

Once her hand was free, she took a moment to wipe it off on the couch in an effort to rid it of the sweaty, restrained sensation. She then moved into the kitchen to wash her hands, not just because of Arti, but because she and Elsa had just returned from a hospital. And also for the sake of her OCD. Never could be too clean.

Over the sound of the running water, Natalie asked, "So what's wrong with Evan?"

Eric beamed. "They slimed him."

"...What?"

"Ha! Too bad Patrick isn't here! He would've gotten a kick outta that! Say, where is he, anyway?"

Natalie gritted her teeth and glanced down the hall, still confused and concerned about Evan's predicament. Then she turned back to Eric. "As far as we know, Pat and his new girlfriend were headed east. They should be back here pretty soon."

"Patrick has a girlfriend?!" Eric excitedly shook his fists and jumped for joy. "Ooh, baby, it's about time!"

[DanteMGalileo]

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

There were more people coming by? DUDE WHY DID NOBODY TELL HIM.

"You guys got any chips and dip here? 'Cuz I found that everything goes a lot smoother over chips and dip. ... You think Evan can still eat?"

[ParamountKeymaster]

Elsa shrugged and moseyed into the kitchen, where she proceeded to root through the cabinets. Hey, this was the Summer Snow Apartment. She was a Summer Snow citizen. This place was just as much hers as it was Evan's. "Knowing these guys, there's gotta be some decent snacks around here somewhere."

Upon emerging victorious with one bag of Ruffles and one bag of tortilla chips, Elsa turned to Arti with a raised eyebrow. "Wait, why would Evan not be able to eat?"

"WE'LL TALK ABOUT IT WHEN EVERYONE ELSE SHOWS UP!"

Elsa shot a blank expression in the direction of Evan's voice, then warily shrugged it off and started digging through the fridge. The guy seemed agitated by whatever he was hiding from them. She was concerned, sure, but that guy could overreact about anything. Whatever it was couldn't have been that bad, given how calm Eric and Arti were. If anything, that just made Elsa more anxious to know what was going on, but she was nevertheless willing to wait it out. The rest of the gang would be back soon enough, right?

---------------------------

A good fifteen or so minutes later, the five were quietly seated in the living room, having already decimated a fair amount of chips and dip. While Carter rested next to Eric, Elsa lazily stirred a tortilla chip in the salsa, head in her hand, expression utterly bored. Her eyes flicked between Natalie and Arti, knowing the former wouldn't say anything and wishing the latter would. Or even Eric. Something to ease the tension in the room.

Eventually, she shoved the soggy chip in her mouth and indignantly raised a finger, fully prepared to break the silence. And of course, that was when the front door opened. "Oh thank God."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Hey, gang...!" Swift wearily called out as she stumbled inside and kicked the door shut behind her. "Did we miss anything?"

After slipping her shoes off and rubbing her itchy nose, Swift walked over to the group seated around the coffee table, ears flat and eyelids heavy with exhaustion, arm raised slightly as she cupped something in her palm. Once there, she surveyed the group, greeting each of them with a low mumble and little time for any of them to respond in between. "Hey, Nat... Hey, Elsa, where ya been...? Eric, surprised to see you here, more so than I probably should be... Arti, hey, you got mixed up in this too, huh...? That's great... What do we have here...?"

She picked up the potion bottle sitting next to the chips and dip, cautiously studying the orange fluid before popping the cork out and giving it a sniff. The scent was dull, watery with only subtle traces of lavender, but instantly recognizable. "Oh God, yes. Never thought I'd be happy to see a Rainflower potion."

Swift tilted the bottle slightly, lowering it to her raised palm. "Okay, buddy, take my word for it. You're gonna want a sip of this. Neither of us need to be getting sick from that swamp water."

[ColArana]

Ranuen was a teeeensy bit intimidated when he heard the noise and sounds from the room. A feeling he immediately chided himself for immediately after. He chalked it up to social stigma. Swift probably knew all the people he was hearing at this point, he knew none of them. He was the stranger here, he was sure. A very exhausted and tired stranger, albeit not as tired as Swift. Unlike her, he'd gotten something of a ride on the way back, and hadn't had to expend much of his own strength. No, what was killing Ranuen was the constant expenditure of magical energy to repair a set of broken ribs, courtesy of their little adventure in the rainforest.

Well. He was sure Swift would handle the introductions and he'd be introduced to her cast of friends soon enough. For the moment that Swift entered the room with her greetings, he stayed quiet, letting her make her way to the group without saying anything, seeing what he could glimpse between Swift's fingers. He saw a shimmering, sparkling woman (so most certainly not a vampire), a younger looking boy with striking, purple eyes. A woman, whom he couldn't really discern any particular details of note from his position in Swift's palm. And then there was a guy with a dog tail. Huh... There might have been others, Ranuen wasn't sure, as Swift's hold, while concealing him from the eyes of the others present, also kept Ranuen from getting a good look at anyone.

Oh, and there was also a dog that he noticed. A huge ol' mutt, though he wasn't familiar with the breed. Ranuen liked dogs well enough but learning their breeds was one of many subjects he'd never taken much time to study.

When Swift offered Ranuen a drink, mentioning it'd ward off any illness from the marshy den they'd explored, Ranuen readily accepted, procuring several droplets of the potion, as though it were morning dew, to consume. "Thanks Swift." He responded. "That's the last thing either of us need." He noted, not immediately considering the bizarrity of a voice emanating from Swift's hand to the others in the room. Swift had also referred to several of the people gathered here by name, though Ranuen had regrettably missed exactly who was who.