It was dark. Bina could barely open her eyes. It... Her face hurt, and her body felt heavy. Too heavy. It took a while before she mustered the strength to just feel around, until eventually she managed to fumble across something sitting on a plate. Whatever it was, it felt... Solid? Very solid. But Bina was starving. How long was I out, she thought, as she took a bite from, whatever it was. It tasted like... Iron, mostly, even if she couldn't identify what anything else in it was.
Whatever the mystery food item was, it was filling. It just... Felt? It felt, good. Soon enough, her body stopped... Hurting, and she could open her eyes. She looked around, taking in her surroundings. It wasn't Shell, that's for sure. Definitely. It looked like... A bedroom, of some sort. A wooden one, wooden walls, floor, furniture, even the roof was made of logs. She was on a decently sized bed, with a dresser to the right and an end table to the left, and a Mirror on the far end of the room. She got out of bed, the unusual click of her feet on the floor not concerning her at the moment, and took a look.
She did not see herself. She saw... Some sort of robot? Was she a robot now? Was she? That was. Huh. She went back to the bed. She laid down, covered up. And looked at her hands. Still... Metal. Like some sort of shell. Some sort of... Weird, metal bug. Her mind was just empty. She just stared, and stared, and stared, trying and failing to process it all. She's in Shell, trying to hide from Rjinder, when he sends skin knives right at her face, and right before they hit... The world goes sideways, and she wakes up as a robot in a wooden cabin.
She looked towards the night stand, where she got her... Snack. There were a few more there, and... That was really just, metal. Not some shiny candy or anything, that looked like a bunch of different kinds of metal just mixed together. Iron, copper, some of it looked like just stone? And some dark, almost black grey that she couldn't identify. She picked one up, and took a very, very experimental bite. But, it tasted the same. Same texture, same taste, same strange alleviation of her aches and pains, just as filling as before. She finished it up, grabbed a second one, and just went out the door into the hall.
The rest of the... House? Building, was just the same. Wood, wooden furniture... And a few picture frames. All sorts of different... Things. A kid, an actual human child, in one- Another, some being made of fire. Another had... A robot, like what she was now. Were these all just ordinary things here? Where even is here? She didn't know. But she had to be cautious. She kept walking, slowly and steadily. Eventually, she found a door, with writing on it... That she didn't understand. It wasn't English, that's for sure.
But she slowly peered in, and... Ayo was there. At least... She thought? It's like Ayo was transformed alongside her- She was turned into a robot bug, and Ayo was turned into... Some sort of engine. She crept in, slowly and steadily, and saw... The other monsters. They were transformed too, all of them. Red was... Green, now, Rixis was more golden, Guuzy was... Guuzy was just bigger, and blue-er.
They were all in pens- Small, wooden ones, short ones too, but with signs on them. What looked like some sort of charts, with pictures of the monsters and... Their partners. Bina wasn't sure just what her friends were turned into just by looking at that, but at least she'd know who was who. She went over to Ayo, and just... Gently nudged her. "Ayo? Are you awake?"
Ayo didn't respond beyond opening her eyes, and groaning... Up close, she looked hurt. Bent and dented all over, with a few spots even leaking steam. She wasn't sure what to do, but- If these metal candy bars could get Bina from barely alive to up and moving, then they wouldn't hurt Ayo at the least. She just gently placed the bar near Ayo. The heart (engine?) monster leaned down, chewed, and swallowed. And... Bina backed away a bit in shock. With a rather loud pop-pop-ding-ding-pop, the bumps and dents in Ayo slowly reversed themselves, and the steam leaks sealed up. Soon after, Ayo stood, and grunted, shaking herself more awake.
"You good to, go?" Ayo looked around, and nodded. "We should... Try and take the other monsters with us. I'll get Rixis, you get Guuzy." Ayo just... Stared at Bina. Deeply. Bina was about to say something, but before she could, Ayo just hoisted up Guuzy. "Okay, so. Monsters found, now to... Escape." She looked towards Red (now some... Unpleasant corpse-blood green) and Greenie (now looking far more... Gooey, and red.) ... She picked up Greenie. She wasn't sure if she even could move Red.
"Alright. Let's go. Quietly, as quiet as you can." She said, stepping lightly. She explored room after room with... Painfully little luck. The only other people she sorta-kinda-recognized that she found were Lulenski, Maugras, and Rjinder. Lulenski and Maugras were both human, the arm monster guy (who seemed... Mostly human) but Rjinder... He was in a seperate bed from the two. It was like he was stretched out. She took a step in.
Rjinders skin writhed, just a bit, pointing at her ever so slightly.
She took a step right back out. That room waits for later. She just crept along, Ayo behind her, until she found... "Abel?!" It... Looked like Abel, even now. Even without the photograph to confirm, she'd buy it. She gently shook him, looking around. There was... A small cup of golden mush on the night stand, with instructions on it and a spoon in it. She didn't want to touch that yet, but... "B-Bina? I can't... I can't see." Her face scrunched up. "Abel? Open up, please. I've got, I've got food."
Once he opened up, she just, poured a bit of the golden... Applesauce? Into his mouth. After just a swallow, he grabbed it and gulped down the entire thing, his entire body seeming to... Brighten, just a bit, after that, as he got out of bed. "What, was that... Bina?" He was staring at Bina now. He took a step back. Bina did as well. "I know I don't look like myself. I, I am Bina. You don't look like you either, check the mirror. Please." She didn't want this to fall apart now, please universe-
"Why the & ^! am I a bird?!" "You just- Are? Rixis looks weird too, all the monsters do. Ayo is a steam engine, Guuzy got big- All the monsters got weird." He groaned. "Where even are we? This doesn't look like any place in antler pine, it's certainly not Shell." She shrugged. "I'm, not sure. The other monsters are in a sort of, vet clinic place? And there's a lot of personal photos here." She opened the door, to reveal Ayo.
That is at least who she intended to reveal, but Ayo was not on the other side of the door, that person was instead some... Thing. He... She... They? (It. Bina just felt like "It" was the best term here) looked like... Abel, actually. Short, black feathers, white... Not feathers, with bits of gold here and there. It spoke, but... Bina couldn't understand, as calm as the question (was it a question?) was. "I- Uh- I'm sorry for intruding. I don't know how I got here. Did you bring me here? Are you why I'm a robot?"
The stranger tilted its head. It spoke, again, still calm, what seemed like a statement, then a question. They stepped into the room, causing Bina and Abel to step back... And then they stepped to the side. The door clear and unblocked, Ayo on the other side. Abel was first to speak up at that. "... Thanks, bird-guy." He and Bina stepped out, Rixis finally waking up to perch on his shoulder. The bird-guy just... Tapped on the walls, stepped back a bit, tapped again.
"... Is it- Is it asking us to follow it?" It then started making pspspsps noises, like to call a cat over. "... I think it is, yeah." Bina was a bit concerned over why the pspsps sounds were actually sounding like something to follow, but... Rixis was awake, Ayo was awake, and they weren't being dragged around. She let herself feel just a bit safe, just a bit.
"Let's follow, I guess- Best way we can get to figure out what's going on." "Bina, that. I don't even know anymore, how long have you been awake?" "About fifteen minutes. I ate some mystery metal to wake up, found Ayo and Rixis and the other monsters, and then found you. I'm as in the dark as you are, but- This is... A new level of weirdness. Ayo, Rixis, the body monsters- That's one thing. But now we're... God knows where we are, we're turned into these things, and we don't even know what we are. Whatever language that guy is speaking, we don't speak it. Who's to say we're even in antler pine anymore?"
At that, Bina followed the bird, with Abel in tow. It was a bit of a lengthy walk- Past more and more photos. Every time a human was in one of them, it was always the same one, and they seemed more and more haggard through the years the photos were taken. Eventually, they reached some sorta living room. There was a computer, a television, plenty of chairs, and a table. The bird guy gestured to the table, and there was some paper on it. It wrote on it, and Bina wrote a phrase herself (who are you?), but... It seemed neither could understand the other, even through writing. The bird tried a few more languages, a few different types of letters, but none of them were something that made sense to Bina.
Eventually, it seemed to try... Pictographs? An arrow to itself, a drawing of a father, mother, and kid (with the father circled), A... raven, it looked like, and a heart. Bina stared, Abel doing the same. "Pictures? What does it even mean?" Abel asked, as Bina wracked her brains. "... Well if we're being really, really literal here, then it says 'father raven love', but I don't-" And 'Father Raven Love' just Rapidly Nodded. It pointed to itself, and said "Fadir Ravenslove." That much, a name, Bina could get. "... Bina Blum." "Abel Flores." 'Fadir' just nodded, sharply, twice. Then, it flipped the paper over, and kept drawing. A sketch (a very very quick, rough sketch) of... Bina, Abel, the monsters... Everyone in the lab, really, except for anything that'd look like... Kera. Or Julie. Just in a circle, asleep. She thinks asleep.
The next 'panel' they're all loaded into stretchers, and into some... Sky cars, pulled by- Dragons, of course it'd be dragons. Then, put into bed, 'Fadir' doing... She can't tell what that is from just a sketch, and now here and now. But then Fadir goes back to the start panel, and draws an extra rectangle. "... For what happened before that? Should we tell it?" "... Let me do it. I'm, good at art." And, Abel began to draw. A rough sketch of just, the utter chaos right before the 'shift', Rjinder in full skin monster mode, about to kill Bina, everyone else either throwing things at Rjinder or trying to hold him back...
Fadir didn't outwardly react much, just watching the drawing. Letting out an "Mhm.", it takes the pen, and draws... Another rectangle, before that one. And once that is filled, another, and another. Soon enough, most of what happened in the lab is 'drawn out', even if not very well. Fadir nods, slowly, before standing, and going to the... Kitchen? The kitchen. It opens the pantry and pulls out some sorta, beef jerky, handing it to Abel, and some sorta shiny gemstones and metal bits, which go to Bina.
"... Are you just going to, eat that?" "Probably, yeah. Nothing that looks like actual food has looked appetizing, so... I guess this is just what robots eat." She grabs a few of the shinier ones, and just bites down. "Wow is that just a bunch of sugar in my mouth- Gah-" As she tries to desperately quell the party in her mouth, there's a thump. VWOP. Then another thump, closer. VWOP. Then... Further, then- VWOP
"Rjinder please please PLEASE stop they didn't do this-" VWOP. Rjinder enters the room, stumbling about, skin feeling around like some horrific beast from the void itself. But, one wrong teleport later, and the new Enderwalker walks right into Fadirs outstretched foot, falling onto the couch. Abel, Bina, Ayo, and Rixis, all spring into action, as does Wanda- The former moving to attack Michael, the latter moving to defend him. And then Fadir just shoots out of its seat throwing a blanket over Rjinder, and just holding the blanket Firmly in place. It's yelling now, but- Well, by the look of things, Wanda doesn't understand either. Director Maugras runs out from the back rooms, looking over the area. "Did- Did someone get Rjinder? What happened to his skin, what happened to him? It's unprecedented!"
"I- Abel is a bird, I'm a robot, and that guy is- Also a bird? And its name is Fadir ravenslove." Bina just, blurted out. She didn't even know who to trust anymore, but- Fadir had Rjinder handled, and she had Ayo, and Abel (and by extension, Rixis.) She was nowhere near as worried as before. "None of us know where we are, or what this place is, or why we've been transformed- Why aren't you two changed?"
"I'm sorry- What? A robot? A..." The Director finally takes good stock of the situation. Rjinder is being subdued by what looks like some sort of, bird person, the host of the Eye monster- Abel? Is also a bird person. Bina is now some sort of... Robot, and the Heart monster- Ayo? Ayo, is now some sort of machine-like being as well.
"... Is this- ... I am going to ask you a question, and I can only ask of you to please, please, be honest with me. Is this... Some form of- Practical joke for revenge? Sticking everyone in funny costumes to mess with everyone in shell?" Abel just looked around. "I- No. These wings are real, I can feel them, and move them, Bina's been eating metal and gemstones, whatever... This, is, it's real."
"... How do we know that you aren't- Okay, no, that's- Stupid, if you had the ability to do this all this time then we'd have never been anywhere near as good as we were at stopping you." She wasn't calm yet. Ayo, Rixis, All of them, still tense just in case a fight breaks out. But then, Wanda spoke. "... Can I propose a truce?" "What?" "A truce. If this... Really is some, unprecedented mystery situation, where we've been... Stuck in some monster dimension, I think we can afford to not constantly fight if that's what it takes to, get back home."
It was... Hm. One less threat. If it's true. One less thing to deal with, and... If this is some weird science issue then having the scientists on their side would be... Useful. But... "On one condition. Rjinder also has to agree to it. If you can get him to stop doing..." She gestures to the ball of blades that is, somehow, being contained by Fadir. "That, then... Maugras was pretty openly against, everything, back in the lab, and you're... We can take you, no offense, so Rjinder is the only one who can really just murder us."
"Deal."
Bina stuck out her hand. Able put his on top, and Wanda and Maugras... Hesitantly also grabbed on. "To... Surviving this, whatever it is." "Agreed." "If we can." "We'll survive. If nothing else, we'll survive."
And, a knock on the door. Fadir opened it, and... There was the human, from all the pictures on the walls. He didn't... Look, human, though. Whatever he was saying, Fadir was visibly attempting to look as innocent as possible after hearing it, speaking in an oh-you-surely-cannot-be-mad-at-little-old-me tone of voice.
