The Forgotten Zodiac

((I have NO IDEA how to title this, or how to even make a prologue. BUT.

Basically, it should start with us roleplaying as ourselves. And eventually, we will bring out...-dundunduunn- one or two of our own characters from any roleplay we've done so far! >:3 The bad guy will be played by whoever wants it (probably me, as usual), and our ultimate goal is to get rid of said bad-guy who is also one of our roleplaying characters. Also, the police and a detective may or may not get in our way as we try to figure out what's going on. So obviously, this will be a modern-toned roleplay. -derp-

For this, we're NOT related in any way, shape or form, and we can pretend that we all live fairly close to each other. Also, Trin, you are allowed to put this up on dA for the world to see.

OKAY. I'M STARTING EET.))

Things were awfully stiff and silent. It was mid-fall, meaning the birds had already headed south for the winter. The ones that remained were terribly silent, which made the entire forest seem creepier than normal. Bun sighed heavily; she was tall and thin, with straight brown hair and matching eyes. She scanned the forest in curiosity. Didn't the others say they would be here? Next to the giant oak...a breeze brushed past, making the girl shiver; she was wearing a short sleeved grey shirt and jeans, along with a light blue scarf that didn't seem to want to stay around her neck.

Her white sneakers crunched against the dead leaves and twigs on the forest floor as she started to walk away. Oak. Right. Bun had actually been standing under a large redwood, which was definitely not an oak tree at all. She felt rather foolish as she set about searching for an oak tree. She still wondered why she had called this meeting; something was bugging her about her friends. It might have been the fact that they had never met in reality (communication over computers was much prefered by all of them), and Bun just wanted to meet with them. But she doubted her own reasons.

And especially her own methods. They were to meet under a giant oak tree. The location of which, Bun had no idea about. No, she wasn't the smartest out of all of them, but at least she tried. Sometimes.

((YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYY!!!!))

When Bun finally found an oak tree, it still seemed as though no one was going to show up. For several long moments there was an uncomfortable quietness in the forest. Suddenly there was quiet giggling in a large tree to Bun's right. It wasn't an oak, nor was it redwood. A large Catalpa tree that still had most of it's leaves. "Hi!" Tasumi called, waving at Bun when she turned around upon hearing her soft giggling. Tasumi was hanging upside-down from a thick limb. Her brown hair seemed much longer than it actually was when it hung off of her head like that. At least the top layers of her haid did. The lower half of her hair was in two thin braids. Tasumi pulled herself back up, hugging the branch she was sitting on and in the process getting dirt all over her dark denim jeans and dark blue plaid shirt. She smiled widely down at Bun, definitely a little hyper and giddy.
"I see you!" She said, laughing lightly, sitting up on the branch and hugging it with her legs so she wouldn't fall off. "I would join you down there, but I'm up kinda high and I'm not sure how to get back down without jumping. I'm not gonna jump." She said, lightly scratching the back of her head. "So...I don't guess you've seen anyone else yet?" She asked, looking down at Bun and slowly sliding back against the tree trunk. "I'm just glad I seem to have found the right oak tree. It would've been bad if everyone met someplace else and I was just stuck here, huh?" Tasumi laughed lightly and sighed, rubbing her bare feet agains the tree's truck absently. Trees were much easier to climb when bare foot, as the soles of Tasumi's shoes were a little soft and they slid across surfaces sometimes. So her grey shoes were sitting against the tree trunk on the ground. "I hope the others get here soon." She sighed, looking at Bun again.

((So, in this roleplay as we roleplay as ourselves, I feel I should only warn you that you are about to get a severe dose of my accent. And I will most likely be typing whatever I first think. So this will be great.))

((And also I just realized how weird it will feel to refer to myself in the third person.))

She had been tempted to drag her sister along into all of this. Not only for the reason that she was feeling a mix of nervous and giddy, and that she (for some reason) always felt that she needed to show off herself and prattle on and on and on about her own life and such (mostly because her reaction to nerves was just to talk off the ear of the closest person), but for the simple fact that she was not exactly sure she could identify an oak tree. Sure, the ecology camp that her sister had just gotten back from was the same one she had gone on two years ago, but two years was two years. A person could forget a lot in that time.

This, of course, was Hannah. She was wandering aimlessly, but with purpose, through the woods, her eyes set on the trees as she tried to pick out one that could possibly (was that it?) be an oak.

Fall was her favorite time of year, but the leaves on the ground that crunched under the brown sandals she often wore meant really only one thing right now - that there were no leaves, or at least only sparse leaves, left on the oak tree she was supposed to find. Which made finding it only harder.

She drew her pink and white jacket closer as the wind picked up, and watched as a little shower of leaves played tamborine as they skittered across the ground.

It might help if she took out her Ipod.

She extracted the black earbuds from her ears and wrapped them around the blue case, then shoved the device deep into her pocket, where there was also a pack of spearmint gum. That was really all she felt she needed to get by. Well, it would have been nice to have a sketchbook or something to draw on, but she didn't actually feel like bringing a bag on a hike into who knows how far into the woods, and it didn't exactly fit in her pocket, but... it was fine.

Hannah sighed, wondering how long it would be until this action made a little cloud in front of her face. It wasn't quite that cold yet, but it was cold enough.

Where on earth were they?

Just after this thought, she heard a giggle, and a smile turned up the corners of her mouth. "Is it strange that I actually have a good guess for who that might be?" she said aloud, coming upon the tree where her friends stood.

She'd pondered before what she should say, what the first impressions should be, but she settled on something that (at least in her views) was the perfect thing to say.

"Hey there, y'all. Nice to finally meet you."

Sage walked through the woods, nervously looking over his shoulder. He'd checked that everyone got the invitation, and he'd been included in the decision upon the meeting location, but he still wasn't wild about meeting online people in a non-public place. He'd voted for the library; since he was pretty sure he'd already, accidentally, met several of his friends there. He was there frequently enough; they were a fairly unique group. It all worked. Of course, he also understood the need for privacy.

Musing on all this, he walked along, tightly-laced boots crunching in the dry, fallen leaves. "You do realize there's more than one large oak in the forest, right?", he'd asked the others. They'd been sure they could find their way. Now he was nearly lost. Tucking his hands in the pockets of his jeans, he looked around before spotting the three girls around the tree. "Hey, guys? Is this an oak? If not, I'm probably just being a jerk and interrupting, but, erm... I'm Sage. If that makes any sense." He shifted slightly, uncomfortable with what was currently going on. He really couldn't tell who they were, and that was quite awkward.

"EEEEK!" was the next sound to be heard. The rapid sound of boots crunching over leaves followed, then Bun found herself in a tight back-hug. "Bun! BUN! It's YOU!" the familiar voice of Trin said, practically sounding like a tea pot about to boil over. Or a whistle. Either one.

She clung tightly to Bun, then spotted the others, her curly red-brown hair flipping wildly with the movement of her head turning. She was wearing a red shirt that said 'Ventarix' on the front in white letters and a pair of jean-shorts. The army-style hikeing boots on her feet seemed misplaced with the outfit (and one size too big), but she didn't notice. Her pale skin was dotted all over in thousands of freckles, her curly hair knotted in a few places. "Tasuuuumi!" she said, running over and hugging the girl, then Hannah. "My friends! You don't know how long I've been wanting to hug you all!" She spotted Sage and glomped her way over to him, nearly purring as she nuzzled under his chin. Then it was back to Bun and practically hanging off of the taller girl.

"Ah, no, Trin!" Bun yelped, falling over on top of the curly-haired girl. She laughed and sat up quickly, looking up at the others. "You must be Trin," She grinned, then looked up at the others. "Hannah, Tasumi, and Sage! We're all here, then." She giggled, standing up and brushing herself off. "I'm so glad we're finally meeting. And how about that, Sage? None of us are knife-weilding freaks who try to cut off your face the second we see you." Her morbid sense of humor definitely showed in her quiet jab at Sage's paranoia. "I'm Bun. Oh, hang on..." She rummaged through her bag and pulled something out, placing that something on her head. It was a headband, which sported tall white rabbit ears made out of a satin-like material. "See? Much easier to recognize me now."

Tasumi laughed lightly at the scene Trin's loud entrance created, then looked up at Sage. "Yeah, we wait a couple seconds before we cut your face off." Tasumi added to Bun's teasing Sage, smiling happily at him. She had gone back to hugging her branch, watching her friends from above. "Much easier indeed." Tasumi said to Bun, giggling softly as she slid over and hung upside down from the tree limb, holding on with her arms and legs. Looking at Hannah, she smirked a little. "Was your guess right?" She asked, letting out a light laugh. After a moment she turned her head to Trin and grinned. "I'd love to hug you too, I'm just kinda stuck right now." She sighed as she started to pull herself back into a sitting position in the tree. "This was a good idea, Bun." 

"This was a wicked awesome idea," Hannah concurred, smiling as she was huggled by Trin. She glanced up to Tasumi. "Can't get down? How'd you get up? You're certainly more cat-like than I expected," she said.

((I has the shortest post so far.))

Sage scowled at them all slightly, moving to push Trin back in a friendly way. "Don't hug me. I just met you. You know my rules about hugs." With that, he turned to the tree Tasumi was stuck in and began climbing up. Within a short period of time, he was at the top of the tree. "I can get you down. Watch my footing." Easily, he began climbing back down the tree, moving slowly so she could follow him. "Also, as one of the two, I think, military kids here, I'm the one cutting off faces." He pulled a multi-tool from his pocket and held it up for the others to see. "Behold, my weapon of mass destruction. Or just facial removal."

Trin peeked over Bun's shoulder at Sage, stare-glaring at him. "I'll hug whoever I want and you'll get it whether you want it or not. Or I'll hug you when you're asleep and it'll be even more awkward." She nuzzled Bun's shoulder, glancing around at everyone else. "So whassup?" she asked, shifting from foot to foot.

"The sky," Bun said sarcastically, grinning. "And Sage, I have one of those in my bag. Swiss army knives are actually fairly common. Regardless, I don't think anyone should be cutting anyone else's faces off. We're all friends here, after all. Now then, who wants snacks?" She started rummaging through her bag at once. "I have gummy bears, a few tootsie rolls, and a special something I whipped up myself. Caramels!" She pulled out a small handful of the brown balls of melted sugar, each wrapped in bits of plastic wrap. "They're not the greatest, but I made them myself. I think they're pretty good." She smiled, offering them to her friends."

Tasumi came down slowly, clinging to the tree as she moved down. "Thaaaaank you, Sage." She said once her feet were on the ground. She sighed shakily, then grinned up and hugged Sage quickly, after he'd put his knife away and it was too short of a hug for him to react. She then moved on and hugged Hannah, then Bun, and then Trin. All very happy, very tight hugs. "Ooo! Oooo! Can I have gummy bears? Pleeease?" Tasumi asked, spinning around when Bun offered snacks, hand raised as if she had a question to ask. Tasumi had some odd habbits.

Hannah didn't expecially like  caramel, only in certain cases, but she decided that this may be one of those cases. "I'll take one of those," she said, hand outstretched towards the caramels. "You made them? How do you even do that?" she asked. Hannah's expertise in the kitchen only covered fudge, cheesecake, and sandwiches (and cereal, of course, three your olds can do cereal), so she was genuinly curious.

Sage shrugged and sighed slightly, not having expected these people to be so... Contrary. "There's a difference between in a bag and in your left hand pocket. There's also a difference between as sharp as it was when it came from the store and razor sharp as of this afternoon when I sharpened it." Once he reached the bottom of the tree, he walked over to Bun and took a carmel from her. "My mother makes this to dip things in, but she's never gotten them into a solid form. How'd you do that?"

"I like gummy bears, but only the heads," Trin said, going for the tootsie rolls instead so that Tasumi could have the bears. The whole bears, of course. "Their bodies taste gross." She unrolled a roll (lol) and popped it into her mouth, munching contenedly as she leaned on Bun. She was obviously hopelessly attached to the girl, closing her eyes and nearly purring as she rested her chin on Bun's shoulder.

Bun handed the bears to Tasumi, then looked towards Sage and Hannah. "Sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, and some other stuff. I had to watch the temperature as it cooked, and I would go from high heat to low heat and then right back to high heat. It was hectic, but that was the result. Do they taste good?" She asked, then looked back at Trin and smiled. "You're like a leech, you're holding onto me so much!" She giggled, then looked up at Tasumi. "Do you know how to get a leech off? I'm pretty sure you pull...wanna help me?" She said jokingly, grinning away.

Tasumi laughed quietly at Sage's pointing out a couple differences, then she shrugged as she took the gummy bears from Bun. "Thanks, Bun." She said, smiling, then laughing again as Bun talked to Trin and Tasumi, teasing both of them a bit about Trin's clingy-ness. "I don't know. The leech seems pretty happy where she is." She said, grinning along with Bun.

"You are almost exactly like I expected you," Hannah said, though who she was talking to wasn't clear. It was likely that she meant all of them. "Nice to find out how 'in-character' you all are online. Lawl," she said, snickering a bit to show that she was joking. She slipped the caramel into her mouth as an excuse not to say anything more, as she felt a little awkward and not exactly sure what to say. When Bun asked about the caramel, she simply nodded. It tasted pretty good. And this was going well so far.

((Yes. Yes, I do say lawl.))

Bored of standing still, Sage re-climbed the tree and hung upside-down from his knees, temporarily baring his midriff. He quickly pushed up his shirt, then turned to the others. "Well, I do aim to please. Not necessarily you, but I aim to please in general."

"Nooooooooo, don't make me leeeeeeeeeeave!" Trin wailed, clinging even tighter to Bun. She consented to let go, however, contenting herself with taking Bun's hand and swinging the girl's arm slightly. "So," she said, her curls bouncing with the movement of her arm. "What's our next plan of action? We've met, we're awesome, and we had candy. Next stop?"