Dead.

Did she really die?

It didn’t seem possible, not with what she could remember last. They were safe, everyone was. There wasn’t any danger anymore, nothing great at least, yet here she was. Somehow she had died, a way that Meracle couldn’t remember, and she awoken in a strange place.

Jumping up and letting out a growl, her ears flatten against her head and the feline backed away from where she had woken up. It didn’t smell great here, and because it was a new, strange world, it was hard to tell if it was safe.

There could be dangerous animals lurking around, or beings, and she wouldn’t know what to keep an eye out for. Her long, blue tail with a white tip flicked, swaying around as she aid close attention to the sounds and smells around her.

When she heard the sounds of footsteps, the hairs on her neck stood up and without wasting any time, Meracle fled the area she was in. She had to find somewhere safe to hide. Because there were so many daunting thoughts entering her mind, along with confusion, the feline didn’t notice that someone was in front of her and —

— BAM

Jake's already awake! There's no need for him to try to wake up when it's been established he is. He's been awake for several moments, trying to figure out where the bloody hell he is.  There seems to be a outfit change at least, which right now, He's very thankful for.  The last thing he needed was to have to wonder around without any pants so his old outfit he used to wear is very welcome right now.

Now if the whole dead thing is true, He's not quite sure how to feel about that. It might be better than that blasted game, if he's to be honest. It actually makes him feel slightly guilty that He's died and left everyone behind to deal with the fiasco that was happening  It also at the same time makes him feel a little bit relieved that he doesn't have to deal with that.

the sky was so bright before he closed her eyes.

she felt an aching throughout her body, an unimaginable pain shooting through her nerves, dulling into nothingness, fading into black. it was a peaceful sleep, she thought, and she would have stayed asleep forever. but, even death does not let a weary soldier rest, and her eyes flutter open as soon as they were forced shut. instead of towering trees, there`s only an empty train station. a chilling air wakes her further, and it`s a stark contrast to the humid forest surrounding her final battle.

she remembers, vaguely, of a terrifying giant, its singular eye fixating upon her. her head pounds with each moment being recalled, until she feels as if her heart is about to burst from her chest, and she crumples over in loud, piercing sobs. she is dead, her friends are dead, and there`s nothing she can do.

"heichou," she manages to choke out between sobs. "heichou, i`m sorry..."

This was no afterlife, and she was getting out.

As Tali stapled the last leaf of paper to the wooden post, she let out a deep sigh. For the last several weeks, the quarian had been experimenting; testing the limits of this fogbound town. She had tried everything she knew: from the most scientific experiments involving the generation of various types of barriers to her more recent endeavor of angrily throwing rocks at the town limits. It was only after this that she had come to the grim realization that she was incapable of accomplishing any further studies on her own, so she had begun a campaign to recruit allies. She had decided to accomplish this by plastering posters with her intentions around the town, hoping to garner the attention of anyone else desperate to leave the valley.

The main problem, however, was that Tali had almost no idea how to write any human language. Which is probably why said posters ended up saying this:

WANT: UNHAPPY DEAD NEED: SKILL WITH TECH PATH: GET OUT FOG TOWN TALK TALI'ZORAH VAS NORMANDY (SUIT ALIEN. ACCENT)

it was dark, everything was dark.  what had happened?

a voice rang out in her head as she forced her eyes open: "you are dead."

it wasn't a voice she was used to either, not the voice of Kuchinawa, nor the voice of any humans she knew of.  she couldn't place her finger on it.

that wasn't important though.  who would do something like this to Nadeko? why would they do this to Nadeko?  she just couldn't figure it out, but there had to be a reason right?

maybe someone around here would know what was going on.  the problem was finding someone.  this place was pretty barren.

she pulled the visor on her hat down, not wanting to be in a position where someone surprised her out of nowhere.  it would be better to keep her head down and not become a "target"

after a good 10 minutes wandering around she finally saw someone else.

"um"

"um" she muttered shyly, "do you-"

[ From what Kano's been able to see, it's easy enough to determine that while the shadows can be aggressive, some are also not so smart. Kido can go undetected by them with her ability in use, isn't that right? This makes him wonder what else can be done to bypass their volatile nature, and so the obvious choice of action is to inspect this himself, naturally!

With an excuse that he'd be out getting food or supplies or whatever they needed and spending an hour or two studying them from the sidelines in one of the murkier parts of town, he has concluded that the shadows are, in fact, an enigma. There's not much sense he can make of them other than that they're somewhat primal, but also rather cunning- a daunting duo!

Still, watching them has gradually lost its appeal, and so Kano rises to his feet with the intention of leaving, until a sudden thought halts his steps. With her ability, it's no wonder Kido can manage to avoid them easily- but is that because she masks her presence entirely? Would they attack their own--? ]

-"Aah.."

[ He hums in thought for a moment, determining whether or not this is going to prove to be a good idea. If they're already dead, then what more could a shadow do to them, right? With this in mind, he wheels around on the heel of his boots, a bright red flash suddenly filling the alleyway.  

With his activated Eyes, Kano will now appear as one of the more human-looking shadows instead of his usual self- and he'll just be lurking by the real creatures from a questionably safe distance, waiting to see if his masked presence can be detected so easily.

All the Reaper could see was a dark void and large red letters reading "YOU ARE DEAD" seeming to float around in the nothingness. Which come to think of it was pretty impossible. He couldn't be dead. The Lord of Death couldn't just...die. There had to be a good reason for it.

The cloak figure sighed and shook his head clearing away the thought. The Reaper's white mask stared off into the new surroundings. This place would look pretty pleasing if it weren't for the damn dense fog. A large white hand amazingly suspended by a spindly arm appeared from Lord Death's cloak and cupped his non-existent chin.

"Well this certainly is a pickle." He said, matter-of-factly. Lord Death glanced around looking around for a poor lost soul to interrogate.