[zapdragon555]

"C'mon, Dave! We're wasting daylight," John laughed, prancing forward, the snow that was falling blending in with his white fur. John figured, since they seemed to be stuck in this strange new land, they might as well explore it. He walked up to the gates of what seemed to be a nice-looking city, painted shades of silver and white. "Mehh... dih... cai? Medicai," he read on a sign near the gate. Adjusting his glasses with a paw, John turned around to his friend. "Hey, Dave! We found Medicai City!... whatever that is."

John figured he might turn into a human again once they were inside the city... though he was still getting the hang of doing that. And plus, he would be warmer with fur. Still, it was a little... strange. John was sure Dave didn't feel any better, being covered in feathers. Or maybe, since Davesprite was covered in feathers, Dave was okay with it, since Davesprite was Dave, and Dave was Dave, and-- Okay, now he was getting confused. "Let's go inside," he said, wagging his tail in excitement.

[6]

[Thunder]

(OOC: Dunno if you might want to tag for language since Dave curses like a sailor? xD)

Stupid. Goddamn. Snow.

Dave grumbled to himself as he flew behind John on his metal feathery asshole wings. He had tried walking, but his short little bird legs weren't exactly primed for trudging through white, fluffy, freezing crap. He had to admit to himself that his feathers kept him warm, but still, he hated the snow. He grew up in Texas and was used to the heat of the city. Snow was definitely more of John's thing.

"Medicai huh," he said, his boredom clearly present in his tone. Dave gazed up at the tall, white buildings of the city, the bright colors darkened by his shades. He never took off his shades, even when it was snowing and there was no sun to be seen. It would be uncool not to wear them. Besides, John had given these shades to him as a present, and wearing them constantly was basically the greatest form of appreciation he could muster without being cheesy and sentimental. He glanced back at John to see his childhood friend rapidly wagging his...tail. Dave still wasn't used to the idea that they both somehow became fucking furries upon arriving in this world. Jade would surely have some fun if she was here. He sighed and flew over the gates, waiting for John to follow.

[zapdragon555]

(Ah yeah, I'll do that~ xD)

John chuckled good-naturedly at his friend's grumbling. Dave clearly wasn't built for snow, human or bird. John figured the snow would be less deep inside the city, what with people trodding all over it. He watched as Dave fluttered over his head and over the city gates, then quickly padded after him. As he passed through a spear shot out in front of him, blocking him from moving any further. "W-whuh?" John stammered, looking around wildly. He found that the spear was being held by a rather imposing Kuchi Nagi guard with a steely expression on his face.

"Trying to sneak in without having your medical records checked, are we?" the guard said suspiciously. "We have all the medical records in Evelon in one huge database in this city. Tell your friend to fly down and get himself checked, too."

John looked up at the sky and inhaled. "DAAAVE!" he shouted. "Get down here! We've got trouble!"

"Oh, it's no trouble," the guard said. "We just need to make sure you two are in the database. What's your name? First and last, if applicable, please."

"J-John Egbert," the Sahound said, brow furrowing in worry. "And my friend's name is Dave Strider." There was a pause as the guard took out a little machine from his waist pocket and punched a few letters into it.

"Ah, yes. Very good. You two check out fine, no serious illnesses that could contaminate the citizens. Move along, young man," the guard said with a reptilian smile. How the heck are we in the database? We aren't even from Evelon, originally... Creepy, if you ask me. John managed a strained grin at the guard and nodded, then padded away faster than normal.

"Dave! It's okay, I got us in," he shouted to the sky again. "Gosh, they must be pretty strict about sickness here. Wonder why..."

[7]

(So where should we have them go first? Or do first, rather. I forgot if we had anything planned... xD;;)

[Thunder]

(I don't think we have much planned xD; So uh...go with the flow I guess?)

Before Dave could fly any further, he heard Egbert hollering his name. He rolled his crimson eyes and did a U-turn in the sky, landing on top of the gate. Apparently this lizard man thing wanted their names to check medial records, for whatever reason. Dave questioned whether he and John would even be in the records since they weren't Evelon natives. But lo and behold, their names somehow registered, which was pretty damned disconcerting. Who the hell did they hire to find out this stuff?

Dave swooped down to John and perched on his friend's furry back. Flapping your wings constantly was pretty tiring. "What the hell was that all about?" he growled. "Dudes wanna check me for STDs cause bitches can't resist my Strider swag?" He tried to smirk but quickly realized that bird beaks weren't exactly great for smirking.

Dave glanced around the city again, noting that everything seemed ridiculously clean. There was basically no trash in the streets, and even though his stupid bird nostrils could hardly pick up a scent, there seemed to be a sort of antiseptic smell permeating the air. Were there a crapload of hospitals here?

[zapdragon555]

(STRIDER TRANSMITTED DISEASE. /shotdead)

John grinned as Dave rejoined him on the ground, or rather on his back, and flicked an ear back toward the guard. "I dunno, really," he said in response to the first question, and stifled a chuckle at the joke. "But I'm glad he let us through. That guard scared the pants off me!" John paused his gaze flickered around to his lower canine half. "Er, well. If I'd had pants to begin with."

John took this time to look around the city as he padded down the pristine white sidewalk. The smell of cleaning products hit his nose as he inhaled, and promptly coughed until his eyes watered. "Ughh..." John muttered, sniffing. "It smells awful, huh? Or can you... er, smell anything? I don't know much about birds." John rounded a corner and stopped in front of what looked like a small row of shops. From the smell of things, someone was cooking some pretty weird stuff in one of the shops. Medicine, maybe? He wrinkled his nose and padded past, fur fluffing up as a gust of cold wind hit him. "You alright back there?" he called to Dave, then sat down on his haunches. "Welp, here we are, a good ways into the city. Where should we go first?"

[8]

[Thunder]

(I would totally love to contract a Strider Transmitted Disease XD *bricked*)

"Yeah yeah," Dave grumbled at his friend's lack of pants. "We're all naked ass furries here, don't need to be reminded." It was pretty awkward walking/flying around without any clothes, but thankfully there wasn't anything to be seen on either of them.

"Can't smell much with these stupid nostrils," he commented as John sniffed the air. "But I guess that's fine if it stinks that badly." For whatever reason, there seemed to be a lot of people running around in white coats, doctors perhaps. It was clear that healthcare seemed to be very high priority in this city. As they walked through Medicai, Dave also spotted a good number of hospitals and pharmacies. When John sat down, he hopped off of his friend's back and onto the ground.

"It just looks like a bunch of medical related crud," he commented. "I dunno, chill at a random hospital and hit on some nurses? I honestly have no idea what the hell to do."

[zapdragon555]

(xD!)

"I was actually able to turn back into a human once," John murmured, furrowing his brow. "Not sure what caused it. But it only stayed like that for a few days. Maybe there's some way to control it..." John shrugged and watched as Dave jumped to the ground. He smirked at his friend's suggestion. "Not a bad plan," he said. "But for one thing, we're both... well. Animals. And another thing, we're thirteen." John angled his head to a rather large hospital perhaps a mile in the distance. "The most they'll do is probably call us cute and ask us if we want a sticker or something."

Besides, John hated hospitals. Needles, tongue depressors, those creepy things that they wrap around your arm that get tighter and tighter and... John shivered thinking about it and curled his tail around himself. "Nothing against stickers or anything." Still... there didn't seem to be much else besides hospitals and other medical buildings. "Medicai..." John groaned in realization. "See, it's got the word 'medic' in it. So no wonder it's so full of hospitals!"

John narrowed his eyes. "There's gotta be some kind of information center here somewhere. They could tell us if there was anything neat-- and non-hospitaly-- here to see." His ears perked as an idea hit him, and he turned to his feathered friend. "Hey Dave, could you fly up there for a sec and see if you can see any buildings that look... I dunno, important? Information-ish?"

[9]

[Thunder]

"Hey, stickers are pretty badass you know," Dave commented. "I'd totally waltz into a hospital just for a goddamn sticker. Though I'd really appreciate it if someone around here knew how to turn us back into people. I turned back once but that didn't last very long at all."

Dave fluffed up his feathers and then soared into the air off of John's back. He flew up to a tall, white building and perched on the roof to gaze down at the streets below. Yeah, there were a crapload of pharmacies and hospitals around. Most of the people walking through the city looked like doctors. He guessed that they didn't let too many people in to keep everything sanitized.

One of the advantages to being a feather asshole was that Dave now had really sharp eyesight. He spotted a sign with a letter "I" in a circle, which he assumed stood for "information". He flew back down to Egbert and re-assumed his previous position on John's back. "I saw an info building a little bit ahead," he cawed. "Maybe we'll find something there."

[zapdragon555]

"Yeah... since there's a bunch of doctors here and all, maybe they could help us with the whole human thing," John said, tilting his head thoughtfully. I wonder if they'd have any Con Air stickers... John thought to himself as Dave fluttered up to the sky. He might just risk going into a hospital for one of those. That'd be soooo sweet. He pondered this thought until Dave returned to the ground. Well. Returned to his back.

"Oh awesome!" John exclaimed. He blinked and looked in the direction he was supposed to go. "Sooo... that way, huh?" he asked, not waiting for an answer; he stood up and padded rather quickly towards where Dave said the information center was, still unnerved by the smell of antiseptic that infected his nostrils.

It didn't take very long to reach the building, a huge silver structure with white columns holding it up, and a large circular sign spinning on the top with an "i" inside. "Yup, that looks like an info center to me!" John piped, padding up the white marble stairs to the door. He nosed his way inside and took one step, and was greeted with a wet, squishy, foul-smelling substance beneath his paws. "Ugh! What the...?" John looked down to see a rubber mat-like thing covered in bristles, as well as what looked like soap and rubbing alcohol. "Eww..."

"'Eww'? Honestly, my furry friend, it's for the best. This will help both your health and the health of those around you!" A young woman sat at a desk a few yards from the door. "And do tell your little Corbine friend to wipe his feet as well, hm?"

John blinked in bewilderment and sniffed a paw tentatively, then recoiled sharply at the stench. "Yeah, alright..." he muttered, motioning with a toss of his head for Dave to hop onto the cleaning mat. While he waited for his friend to, hopefully, comply, he glanced across the room to the woman at the desk and offered a canine smile. "Uh, hi there, ma'am," he said. "Could we ask you a few questions about this, er... Medicai place?"

"Of course!" the woman laughed. "That's what this building is for, after all. Ask away!"

[10] Level up!

[Thunder]

Sitting on John wasn't exactly the smoothest ride, but Dave really didn't feel like flying. He didn't enjoy the sensation of cold air blowing underneath his armpits. Or wingpits. Whatever the hell they were. His friend walked at a brisk pace, and it didn't take long for them to arrive at the information building he spotted from above.

Suddenly, Egbert let out a loud "Ugh!", and Dave glanced down at his friend to see what was going on. Apparently John had stepped on some really weird, gooey, soapy shit. Again, Dave found his nose pretty useless, but he raised an eyebrow at the sight of the stuff. "The hell is that?" he grunted. These people really took sanitation to a crazy level. Dave tentatively hopped into the slime, grimacing as his bird feet met the solution.

"We wanted to know if there's anything to do here aside from look at hospitals," he said to the woman. "Like, I dunno, is there a movie theater? Or some stores?"

[.:Random Event 2:.]

A doctor hurried down the street, aware that he was terribly late to an extremely important surgery, perhaps the surgery that would make or break his medicinal career. From what he had been briefed the night before, he was to perform surgery on a young girl who had tried to permanently lose her Lucain form, but in the experiment she had been left with dog ears and the tendency to woof without warning. The ‘woofing’ could be solved through therapy, but it was his job to remove the animal qualities of the girl.
Unfortunately for the doctor, he was new to the city and was completely lost. Fortunately, he had just heard two kids mention an information center, so without trying to make his failure obvious,  he tailed the two boys. Upon reaching the center, he bustled past, nodded at the desk woman, checked the city map and then ran out of the center. What he failed to notice was that he had dropped his lucky Red Feather, which floated lightly out of the man’s pocket and landed neatly by John’s foot.

((*shot for the horrible context of the reference?* Anyway. xD Congrats Zap~ You’ve successfully tamed a new kind of pet. ^o^ You’ll find it in your inbox shortly.))

[zapdragon555]

(A Homestuck reference from RE2? 8D  That's amazing.)

The woman visibly relaxed more once Dave complied and stepped on the mat. "Oh yes, there are plenty of interesting attractions here!" she piped, leaning forward in her chair a bit. "Well... a few attractions. But you can bet that they're interesting! You just have to know where to look~" she sang.

John glanced at Dave with a disbelieving look on his face, then worked up a smile as he spoke to the woman again. "Well that's good news," he said. "Do you uh... have a map or something?"

"Of course!" The woman disappeared behind her desk for a few moments, then popped back up with a pamphlet in each hand. "Gather 'round and I'll point out a few neat things to go see." John nodded and padded forward, rearing up on his hind legs once he reached the desk. He had to place a paw on the desk to steady himself, another thing he wasn't used to. He felt so short! Well... shorter than normal. The woman opened up the three-fold pamphlet and pointed to a certain section on the map.

"Over here, in this area, there's a market of sorts. Lots of different shops lining the street; it's not that one near the entrance, that one only sells natural medicines like herbal remedies," she said, grinning. "Smells kinda gross if you ask me." John managed a smile at this. "Aaaand over heeeere... is a food court..." The woman explained about five more attractions after that, pointing to each one and giving her own opinion on the place. By the end John's head was spinning.

"Hope I can remember all that," he laughed, hopping back down on all fours. "Hear that, Dave? Now we have something fun to do here! I was worried it was all hospitals." He shot a glance up at the lady at the desk. "N-not that there's anything wrong with... hospitals. Or anything."

The woman smiled and held the pamphlets out to John. "Here, young man! Glad I could help you." John blinked and stared at the pamphlets, reached up with a paw, then hesitated. "What's wrong?" she asked. "No human form?"

"Well," John began, sitting down on his haunches. "I'm pretty sure I have one... but I don't know how to, er, access it? My friend has one, too, he says, but has the same problem."

The woman put a finger to her lips in thought, furrowing her brow. "Hmm... Don't think I can help you with that, sorry," she murmured. "A doctor might know, though. I'm just the secretary!" she laughed, then cleared her throat. "Still, you should take these with you. Maybe your Corbine friend could hold them while you walk around?"

"Yeah, that'll work," John said, figuring Dave wouldn't mind volunteering to be the baggage carrier. After all their only baggage was two folded pieces of paper. Dave could manage. Yeah. "Thanks, ma'am!" John took the two pamphlets in his mouth and padded back over to Dave. "Luhks lahk wa're on our wayh," he muttered behind the papers in his mouth. He quickly spat them out near the mat (but out of the way of the bubbles and such), and waited for Dave to retrieve them and reassume his position on John's back.

(Looong post. xD)

[11]

[Thunder]

((B-but Jade's ears are so cute ;_;))

Dave didn't really expect any super interesting attractions, so he just shrugged at John's disbelief. He listened in as the lady started talking about attractions, didn't find many of the named ones particularly unique. Basically all cities had marketplaces, and of course they had to have a food court. What the hell would everyone do without food? Food was pretty damn vital, after all. Dave himself wasn't really hungry, so he felt no need to go look for something to eat.

At some point he got distracted by various photos and signs hanging up on the building's walls and stopped listening. He only turned his attention back at the sound of John's voice and watched as John attempted to take the papers in his paw. "Haha, sucks not to have thumbs does it?" he taunted. He could imagine that talons were also bad at picking pieces of paper up, though. His claws would probably just rip right through them. He smirked as John carried the pamphlets over to in his mouth but grunted when John dropped the papers for him to pick up. "Gross, man. Now I have to pick up these fucking dog slobber covered papers with my beak." Despite the comment, Dave still took the papers and hopped back onto John's back. "So whur thu hell er we goin?"

[zapdragon555]

"Hmm," John mused, sticking his tongue out as he did. "I'm kinda hungry, I guess. Might wanna grab something to eat, first?" He stepped on the mat again with a squelching sound-- followed by a groan of disgust from John-- and pushed the door open.

"Oh, wait! Just a moment, please! Excuse me, for one moment!"

"Bwuh?" John exclaimed, spinning around to face the secretary desk once more. The door closed again and hit him squarely on the behind, causing him to yelp in a very canine way (which was understandable, given the circumstances). She was waving her arms wildly and already speeding towards them urgently. "What's the matter?"

The woman looked suddenly serious. She bent down and took one of the pamphlets from Dave's mouth. She opened it up, retrieved a pen from her back pocket, clicked it, then drew a circle around the top right corner of the map. "See that there? That area with no attractions or info?" John nodded. It was a pretty big piece of the map, kinda hard to miss. "I have to warn you, you really don't want to go there. Especially you, being only boys and all. Even adults stay away from that place!"

John's ears flicked in annoyance at this. He could very well take care of himself, even for a kid. Playing Sburb had proven that. Still, she looked pretty serious. "What's out there?" he asked.

"Well, it's... We... We don't know. Exactly. We haven't really been out there all the way, but anyone who goes there..." she dropped her voice an octave and narrowed one eye. "Never comes back."

John stifled a giggle at her performance. "Really?" He tried to sound frightened, but honestly it just sounded like someone was too lazy to fill in the whole map. "Well, we were planning on going to the food court anyways. Right, Dave?"

The woman relaxed a bit and nodded. "Good," she said, standing up and walking back to her desk. "Between you and me, the hot dogs here? Nasty. Don't try 'em. All the people here are health freaks; can you believe they tried to make a hot dog out of mushrooms?! I tell ya..."

John glanced amusedly at Dave and nodded to the woman. "Well, thanks so much for your help, ma'am," he said, opening the door again and stepping outside. "Bye!"

John heaved a sigh of relief as the door closed behind them. "Ugh, that smell in there was really getting to me," he complained, snorting several times to get the smell out of his system. "Bluhhhh... Anyhoo. Food court, right... Dave, since you're the one holding the maps, wanna be the navigator?" John grinned. "Heh, it's like we're on some kind of adventure. Pfft, 'navigator.' Like some kind of ocean voyage." He blinked and shook his head. "Haha yeah, so which way should we go to get to the food court?"

((So maybe Dave can decide they should explore the uncharted area while they're eating? :3))

[12]

[Thunder]

Dave was about to get a piggyback ride out the door on John's back when John suddenly turned around again at the lady's voice. The door made quite the impact on John's rear and almost caused Dave to fall off his back. The Corbine cawed in agitation and flapped his wings to regain his balance, which he eventually did. Dave huffed and adjusted his shades. "Dude, watch out," he growled. He became a little more annoyed when the secretary ran up to him and just yanked one of the pamphlets from his beak, and he rolled his eyes behind his shades.

But his interest grew once the woman described the forbidden area. "Neffer come out, eh?" he muttered. "Uh yeah, sure, we're just goin to the fud curt. No messin arund in dangeruf places fer us, no siree." But of course, Dave was already getting ideas. Good thing he had a great poker face.

Dave got the pamphlet back from the secretary and smoothed his feathers as John walked out. "Yeah sure, I'll nafigate," he said with a beak full of paper. He struggled with his stupid bird anatomy a bit as he tried to get one of the maps out from his beak without dropping everything. He finally managed to unfold one map on John's back and peered at it closely. "Streght," he replied, "then turn leff. S'on the right of the street."

((Sure o3o))