INTRO.

[ultrapenumbramods]

You wake up feeling like you’ve had a rough night’s sleep… maybe a bit jet-lagged, if you’re familiar with the feeling, or perhaps like you, uh, had a little too much to drink last night. Either way, you’re probably not expecting to wake up in a forest clearing, so that might be even more disorienting. It’s not an unpleasant place to wake up, mind. It’s sunny, and there’s a pleasantly cool breeze blowing through. The grass isn’t tall enough that you could get lost in it or that someone could be hiding in it… or something.

There are, in fact, a lot of somethings surrounding you--a veritable menagerie of creatures, some of them adorable, and some of them intimidating… but they seem to be as disoriented as you are. And then, well… you realize something’s a little off about yourself. There’s no pond to look at your new appearance, but… maybe the ground’s a little closer. Maybe you don’t actually have arms and legs at the moment. Maybe you don’t have eyes anymore?

Regardless, something’s definitely up. Fortunately, there’s a path leading out of the clearing, so once you get your bearings and speak with some of the other weird critters you’ve woken up with, you can find… somewhere you can get answers. Well, hopefully, anyway.

Comments

[whatsmytalentagain]

[. . . Wow. Rantaro can't exactly refute that argument right now. Not enough evidence.]

... Okay, I'll bite. What do you think happened to us?

[bornfromanger]

You've all died and became yokai.

[Ha! Think? He absolutely knows! What else could this be? ...Sure, he's never...seen the human to yokai process before...but it's not like anything else makes sense.]

How fortunate for you, even this strange donkey form is probably more powerful than your pathetic human one. You should be grateful.

[whatsmytalentagain]

Yokai...?

[Rantaro knows what a yokai is, he grew up in Japan, but from what he knows and what his anthropologist friend casually told him during his free time, he's pretty sure a dead human would become a humanoid yokai?

Hell, even staring at this dog person, he's thinking he might have seen it somewhere on the internet like... Once?]

Wait, so you're saying people randomly turn into whatever when they die? Like you suddenly became a dog and stuff?

1/2

[bornfromanger]

Not randomly, no, the new form normally has something to do with the person. I believe. Animals normally don't change, but humans...humans are versatile. They--

[bornfromanger]

[Wait a minute, what the hell is he implying?]

Eh?! NO, I didn't die!! I was always dead-- I mean...I was never alive-- I WAS BORN A YOKAI!!

[The very nerve that anyone would even think he was human! Disgusting!]

[whatsmytalentagain]

[? ? ?]

How the hell were you born a yokai?! That doesn't make sense!

[bornfromanger]

[Hakai's fur bristles.]

Huh? Yes it does. What do you know? You didn't even know you were a yokai five minutes ago! Suddenly you're an expert?

[whatsmytalentagain]

Hey! I'm not claiming to be an expert here! But as someone who lived in Japan and knows a guy who studies folklore, I'm pretty sure that's not how yokai work.

Besides, you just asked me how to punch people with paws. That means you had hands, right?

[bornfromanger]

Are...are you suggesting yokai can't have hands?

[And why would he believe someone who studies yokai over an actual yokai?! Hakai's completely baffled by this, but he can't be too surprised. Sometimes humans just be like that.]

[whatsmytalentagain]

No!?

[God, how does he explain this without getting punched by a dog?]

But it still sounds like you used to have hands!

[bornfromanger]

.....Oh!

[Okay, wait, time to back it up.]

I think I understand the confusion. You are correct, I did have hands before waking up here, this is definitely not my original form.

I mean, look at me. What sort of destruction am I supposed to perform like this? Ruin someone's overpriced fancy furniture? Wow, how intimidating.

[whatsmytalentagain]

... I guess you can be an attack dog?

[Those are a thing.]

But anyway, if we all became yokai, and you were already a yokai, then why are you suddenly a different yokai?

[bornfromanger]

[Oh no, the very thing he doesn't have an answer for! That sudden sureness fades away, all he has are theories!]

Yes, it's...certainly something that's been eating at me. If I had to guess, it's some sort of punishment.

[whatsmytalentagain]

Uh huh.

[Whelp. So much for that theory.]

Maybe we'd have a better explanation if we looked around. If there's nobody in the area then maybe there's someone living down the road we can ask? [Or, like, a town of Pokemon. Not that anyone knows that yet.]