Esmee, the Witch (staged by JustCat) >>>

Age: Somewhat 700 years, yet she was asleep for the most part because she accidentally sipped from her own sleeping potion - which was when she discovered, that potion brewing was indeed not her thing.

Character traits: Esmee is a very kind-hearted, smart, and determined witch, yet her clumsiness sometimes stands in her way.

Abilities: Her power lays within her strong will to reach her goals, which let her catch up with about 500 lost years of wizardry and spell casting in a very short time, mastering many spells of different kinds. Yet, she may have bitten off a little more than she can chew and clumsy as she is, she may remember the one or other spell slightly wrong. She can read moods, but her empathetic heart never let her grow as far as ignoring them, so whenever someone feels off, she pretty soon does, too.

Companion: Herb, the male shadow fox, which she first encountered when he was still very little only 30 years before she fell into her long sleep. The two bonded immediately which still mesmerised Esmee, everytime she thinks of it, since he‘s not a creature to bond with everyone quickly so naturally it still breaks her heart to think she left him alone for so long. When she finally woke up, she found him still waiting by her side sensing his relief of seeing her finally awake again. He had gotten himself something to eat and fetched a bunch of herbs and vegetables for her, too, knowing she doesn‘t eat meat. Using his telepathic communication abilities he will only use if he truly approves of a creature, he showed her that he has been doing this, fetching food in case she ever wakes up, on a daily basis, ever since she fell asleep. Other than that, he seldom left their site, to protect her with all that he got in case anything happens.

His personality: calm and slightly vain. He‘ll take his time making new friends but if he finally approves of you, you can always count on him and his abilities. His abilities: bursting flames, sensing temperature and weather changes, brilliant smell and increasing his own physical seize to three times it’s original statue in fights, which will exhaust him increasingly the longer he stays in this state.

Myra, the Alchemist (played by ulalena) >>>

Age: 25 (and staying eternally youthful if she can brew up the „tincture“ aka finding the Philisopher’s Stone and derive the Elixir of Life from it!)

Abilities: Myra is a good alchemist, specialized in healing potions and elixirs. Transmutation isn’t her forte yet she tries… Several Wayward Squirrels adventures developed her destillation and mixing skills and she became an expert in explosive materials.

Character Traits: Myra is a lovely and nice young woman, very empathetic and with a deep love for animals. However, she is also stubborn, competitive and a little bit of a know-all yet imperceptive to these streaks. If you know her well, you can calm her down with a mug of hot cocoa with cream, freshly brewed. Though when it comes to glaring injustice or animal abuse, you can’t placate her any longer and her emotional state of shock quite often leads to a bout of fury which means there’ll be shouting and the occasional breaking and exploding of inanimate things or even the accidental injury of persons (albeit most of them have it coming and are served just right).

Companion: Shimmershadow, a male unicorn, 318 years old now which means he is still a colt when it comes to unicorn terms. Myra rescued him out of a poacher’s trap and they bonded instantly. Shimmershadow is about the size of a Siberian Husky and reaches almost Myra’s hip now. He learned to fly not before the last Wayward Squirrel adventure and can now transport light things like letters, flowers and food (if he doesn’t eat it by mistake). His fervent wish is to fly with Myra yet this will take a long time until he gets his wish fullfilled, at least 200 years more. He hopes that Myra found the Elixir of Life until then but he has complete confidence in her.

Young Shimmershadow is a wonderful companion, he always looks on the bright side of life and can muster up sympathy for every living being (although sometimes he is not only innocent but also a little bit naive). This very naiveté makes him a sage of some kind and he often comes out the smart escort which he himself doesn’t think he is.

Myra and Shimmershadow share some kind of telepathic bond yet they are not able to communicate with words through it. Only pictures and emotions are transported back and forth when using this virtue. He shares this with all the animals who live allthough not all are able to grasp his meaning.

History: After living in a small timber cottage on the premises of Myra’s adoptive parents (who reluctantly outhoused her at a very young age because Myra’s studies included the constant danger of busting something or burning down their home), Myra and Shimmershadow moved to an Elven village. Myra got an invitation to teach basic alchemy in their treehouse school yet was more than happy to follow another call for the protectors with Shimmershadow - Elven bairns are mostly haughty and at least twice as many stubborn as Myra herself!

“What a wonderful day!” Myra thought, and hummed a well known Elven spring song while collecting herbs common on the glade to stock up supplies. Shimmershadow accompanied her like always, trying to engage a butterfly into some kind of conversation.

Suddenly, they were disturbed by a loud racket behind the close-by shrubbery…

Herb rushed past a glimmering unicorn, his own dark color almost an insult to the silvery fur of it. Herb was sure, he did step on the unicorn's hoof, but he didn’t care much. Esmee was in distress. He didn’t know what had happened exactly, but by the images she was sending him, he knew something was off…

Shimmershadow’s iridescent eyes began to twirl in alarm and Myra was only barely able to rescue her dangling basket from flying away. What was that? A shadowfox? They never had seen one in this forest and this very one looked very concerned.

Herb followed Esmee’s scent which at least seemed to get stronger by every step he took. His last attempt at communicating to her failed, so his only solution was to get to her as soon as possible. Last time he left her alone for longer than just a couple of hours, she was in deep sleep when he came back. He could not let this happen again, it was time for his shadow form...

Myra had read about it yet never watched a fox transmute into his shadow form before nor had she any idea it would be so noisy. Even the birds stopped their merry twitter and observed the boisterous process with interest.

“Much better”, Herb thought. And he was right since he was much faster in this shape indeed. He was almost there, Esmee’s sweet smell almost stung in his nose. Or was it just her? Surely not. What was this penetrating smell?

Myra watched the big fox sniffing the air, looking puzzled. Then, a strong scent coming from the lakeside hit her nostrils, too. Also, the odor was unsettling, she remembered an experiment years ago which got out of control and there was a similarity… she run off to see if there was a problem, Shimmershadow on her heels.

“Oh no”, Herb growled, “oh no, no, no!” Not only was Esmee still in trouble she probably got herself into, the unicorn he had stumbled into seemed to now be following her. Accompanied by a female - human? She had an odd smell, Herb decided, like she has seen places. But the last place he’d want her to see or be at is where Esmee was. He had to do this on his own. The trouble they could get into ...

The lake shimmered peacefully in the afternoon sun yet the scene presented to Myra and Shimmershadow was not tranquil at all. Ruby-red whirls and swirls and golden bubbles churned up the lake which looked quite pretty, Myra thought. However, above all this beauty, a bright yellow fume rose heavenwards and spread a bittersweet yet also pungent odor all over the lake and forest.

“Sulfur dioxide!” Myra thought, alarmed. Highly soluble in water but forms sulfurous acid in seconds. Which would be fine but in the atmosphere, sulfurous acid is converted to sulfuric acid which is the major component of acid rain! The whole environment was in danger! Vitriol was explosive stuff!

Herb sent out another call at Esmee, meaning a lot like "what the hell, Esmee?" Gifted as she was in sensing other creature's feelings, humans and non-humans alike, she sensed his concern as he came closer even before Herb's call could even reach her. "I got this", she tried to sign him, but she really didn't. He smelled the air again and recognized the odor. He had encountered it before, now he just had to remember how to fix it.

"The book instructions were quite clear, I just have to -" She couldn't even finish the sentence, Esmee was overwhelmed by the mess she had created. How was she going to fix this? Herb kept sending her messages, pictures of some weed? What did that mean? Trying to think of a solution, she looked puzzled into the fog.

Shimmershadow was startled, too, yet he also remembered a similar situation in Myra’s past when a salt experiment went out of the rudder. Normally not very interested in alchemy but always interested in rescuing Myra, he had the remedy for this stored in his memories. He sent a picture of a slender blue flower over to his friend, knowing she would spot the meaning in a second.

“Flaxseed!” Myra marveled, yes, the seeds of the pretty blue flax flower usually pressed for linseed were a good antidote for the acid rain! Since flax was quite common in this area and always on demand, Myra had a good amount of it in her basket, originally intended to trade for other useful items in the nearby village.

The young alchemist took a smattering of the seeds and cast them with a sweeping gesture in the general direction of the lake, repeatedly, until the yellow evil fume dissolved and only light pink-golden bubbled floated on the surface, creating a beautiful picture.

"Oh", Esmee whispered and looked at Myra. She was relieved, but a little embarrassed, too. She swung her wand and like she never did a wrong spell before, a picnic blanket and basket with all of Myra’s favorite dishes stretched out before them in a blink.

„Thank you for helping us out with this minor problem!“ Esmee allowed, and with a sweeping gesture, invited the four of them to sit down for a lovely afternoon picnic. She totally missed the very hungry magic caterpillar she accidentally conjured, too, because she forgot to add a syllable to the spell. There was not very much of a chance the opulent meal would last longer than three minutes …

"Did you get it? DID YOU GET IT? DID YOU???" Tea almost rolled through the door when she tripped over Fancy Keyper while waving a paper in Spring's face overly much. Spring snatched it out of her hand. "Uh, WHAT ON earth do you have on, why did you steal Gerty's stuff? Do you like rolling down hills? And if it's that paper in your hand addressed to me, then no. I did not get it."

Tea tossed the paper at Spring but didn't wait for her to open it. "It's from the boss. There's another adventure. Finally. And The Peppers are Summoned. Three of us oldies are coming and we've got a few new people to train in. Grab your bow and whatever else you hide in that sneaky pack and let's go... WAIT, do I smell brownies???"

The Summons went out to all the old team members, but not all were available to respond and defend. After some argument about whether or not "kidnapping" was an appropriate term for collecting a few new friends, The Pepper's team was reactivated and they set out for The Squirrel.

With very little stealth and a whole lot of enthusiasm, The Peppertastic Six arrive at the Wayward Squirrel, ready to hear their assignment and to see friends, old and new, as they arrived.

After somewhat disorganized stowing of bags and shuffling into their seats, Tea pokes Terrena and says "What are you doing here? Did you get it??" Terrena rolls her eyes. "Obviously I got it or how would I be here? Besides, I'm the one who messaged you to check your mail for the Summons. So that's a dumb question! HEY those are my cookies!" DID NOT!" Tea says, grabbing cookies off of Terrena's plate and handing them to Cream and Didi. "And MINE!! Cookies are always mine."

Aodh politely takes one from the table tray and clears his throat, looking at Spring. "Are they always that way?" He leans his head towards the squabbling pair. Spring grins. "Definitely. It wouldn't be an adventure with the Peppers if Tea and Terrena didn't squabble and someone didn't push Tea down a hill." Taking a sip of tea, she turns to the rest of the new members. "It's good to have you and Didi joining us this time. And wonderful to see you again, Cream." She says and the other two Peppers stop arguing long enough to agree. "And also, Guys..." Tea changes the topic abruptly, "We may be on a mission for the Squirrel, but what I want to know is...What the heck is Organized about Chaos? That's one thing we have got to find out this time. It will be our secret mission inside of a mission!!! " She whispers loudly "THERE they are now! Didi, go pull Frieda's tail. That's how you tell her hello. It'll distract her, so I can get closer! Let's see if I can crawl under the tables and eavesdrop...." "IGNORE HER! Terena and Cream say together. With Tea off to investigate, the rest of the team digs into their meal.

"Now...what do you think we're supposed to be doing, wearing this Beachy Steampunk?" Cream says, always ready to get a head start on solving any mysteries. Aodh pulls out his flute and plays a soothing tune while the rest of the team chatter. With their heads put together, the Peppers hope that whatever lies ahead, they can continue their tradition of having fun and getting the job done.

After seeing to it that her luggage was properly loaded onto the zeppelin her group had been assigned to, she headed into the lounge area of the Wayward Squirrel to meet with her team. Already, Doom had found the food and Erturde was spoiling her rotten with a plate of sausages. Frieda sensed Erturde's grief, gave her a comforting hug and shared some healing tears. Everyone had lost somebody in the last several seasons. Frieda's emotions were still ragged over the passing of her teammate Jaiani.

Frieda was delighted to see her beloved cousin Dace had arrived safely and smothered the otter-girl with kisses and hugs as was the tradition with otter-kind and weasel-kind. She was always a bit nervous about Buttercup, but treated the Faerie respectfully.

Webby and Flyingkat were there too and the three friends quickly caught up on the event that had transpired since their last meetup. Frieda shared pictures of her last litter of seven active and precocious offspring to the amazement of her friends. Seven new children?

There were new members to her team and Frieda made the introductions of Cinnamonkiss and Skydreamer to the others. She loved making new friends. But someone was missing. Where was Teislyn, her oldest and dearest comrade on these adventures?

Her attention was drawn to someone speaking authoritatively about their new destination, Balihee. It was Hayao describing customs and styles. His instructions seemed to indicate that the Protectors had better dress in style to fit in and not stand out. He muttered something about political tensions and missing royalty, but Frieda quickly lost focus, she was looking to get Erturde's attention to bring a round of ale for her friends.

At the end of Hayao's speech, Frieda turned to her team and clapped her paws, "OK Organized Chaos, We'd better quickly change into appropriate clothing if we're going to not stick out like sore thumbs or sore toes or sore somethingorathers." Anybody seen my steam-powered grass skirt and bikini top?"

Dace: Dace had never been motion sick a day in her life, but the light aircraft that had brought her back to the Wayward Squirrel had been flown by an inexperienced pilot and Dace now felt like she was going to be sick. A small flutter of movement from her hair let her know that Buttercup, her faerie companion, was well aware of Dace's current state. "Butter, please tell me you have something to help!" Dace whispered as the pilot unloaded Dace's bags.

Buttercup's tinkling voice sent shivers down Dace's spine, but in just a few moments a small bottle of golden liquid dropped into her hand. She barely bother to uncork it before she tossed it back. Almost instantly her nausea ceased and she was feeling like she could take on anything.

After she hauled her bags to her quarters she came back out into the dining room and saw Frieda, who attacked her with kisses and hugs.

"Oi cousin! Glad to see you too!" Dace smoothed her hair and flattened out the pelt that hung around her waist. She grabbed a miniscule grape from Frieda's snack plate and handed it up to the butterfly in her hair. Then she grabbed one for herself and smiled at everyone at the table. "Are we ready for what's to come?"

Kat : Kat loved the beach but Kitten...not so much. He glared at the ocean as the waves licked at his feet. Kat smiled as she let it gently wash over here. This was going to be a new adventure and it was going to be great. She was pleased to start the new journey with companions she had sorely missed.

Kat happily greeted the new members as well as the old. It was a pleasure to see them all. This new adventure was going to be grand with everyone that had joined the Chaos. Kitten ran between her feet, somewhat curious but also apprehensive. He only loved Kat the most.

Webby: Webby was surprised when the missive appeared on top of her pandemic to do list! Read it and decided to head for the squirel Inn meet up and hopefully find Frieda again!

As Webby had arrived at the squirrell she began to look for her friends. Blue ran ahead of her into the crowd of the squriel and ran into Doom chit chattiner away. Webby finally got to Frieda and gave her Hugs and a drink for the fallen TO old times! I hope i brought the right clothes I dont normally do beach wear! YOu know Body issuess.... Webby Mentions to Frieda... Care to review my wardrobe with me while we wait?

Sky: After catching a ride in a ship, Sky finally arrived at the Wayward Squirrel. Grabbing her bag and hoisting it on her back she gave a little grunt. 'Oof.. Why dose this feel heavy? I didn't pack That much..' Thinking it was just her weapons, Sky shrugged and started off. 'It feels like it's been so long...' she thought. The last adventure had her and her friend Max losing themselves and each other through some sort of wormhole before they could finish helping out. She found a local sorcerer that could send her home for a price. When she was home, she found a nice tavern to work in hoping to see her friend again. But never word, nor letter or rumor came. She hoped her undead friend was well. At least he had his owl with him when last she saw him, so he was not alone. Shaking her head of the past, Sky looked towards the doorway and her future adventures.

She had received the letter regarding the call to the Squirrel, but also one from an old friend. Webby helped Sky get in contact with the Captain of the Organized Chaos. A fun group she had seen do some amazing things over the years. Making her way over to Frieda, Webby and others she had yet to meet, a sudden jostling of her bag and a thump on her head had Sky letting out a small yelp of surprise. "Wah..?" Sky looked up to be met with the bright gold eyes of her companion Dai, a small gold and white dragon that had accompanied her on all her previous adventures. "Not going on adventures without me are you?" He said playing with a tuft of Sky's hair. Sighing and giving him a wry look Sky replied "I guess not."

Frieda greeted with a hug and introduced Sky to her new companions. Feeling a little awkward but hopeful, she listened about beaches and missing princesses. 'Seems this adventure is getting off to an interesting start.' she thought looking around at her new team as Frieda ordered a round of ale. 'Did she say steam-powered grass skirt? This is definitely Chaos.' Chuckling to herself Sky made her way to her quarters to change into something she hoped would be appropriate.

Zalia: Teislyn got down from the carriage once it pulled to a stop outside of the Squrriel. She looked around and noticed they might have been one of the lasts to get there. "Perfect timing", she thought to herself. She turned back to grab the luggage, but noticed it was already on the ground. "Zalia, you didn't have to do that, we could have asked for help." She grinned at the girl trying to be serious as she was being lightly scolded. Zalia pushed back some of her pink hair behind her ear and nervously asked if she looked alright. She wanted to impress the group Teislyn had told her about. Teislyn gave her a quick squeeze on the shoulder and nodded. "Alright, let's go in."

They pushed open the door and the warmth of the room met then like a hug. The food smelled amazing and Teislyn quickly found the table she was looking for. "Come on, let's go meet the others. I promise they won't bite and will accept you just fine." Zalia nodded and followed behind her. As they got to the table, Zalia saw a what looked like a humanoid creature stand up and cross in a few steps before grabbing Teislyn into a crushing hug. "I missed you too Frieda! I can't breathe! Please let me sit down and introduce you to the new teammate."

Teislyn ordered a drink and sighed before looking around at the others, some new faces among the old. "I won't be accompanying Organized Chaos this time around. I'm not in the best of places to be going on adventures due to one of our closest friends passing." She chocked up and quickly wiped a tear away before continuing." I decided to pass that baton to one of my brightest students. This is Zalia and I know she is ready for the next step in her story. I do need to go soon, but I will stay for awhile to make sure she is settled in."

Zalia knew what it meant to share the grief of the friend since he had helped start the courses Zalia had signed up for. She appreciated him and Tieslyn for including her kind and others like her. There weren't many who would. She turned her attention to the others around the table and quickly introduced herself. "Hiya, I'm Zalia and I'm a bit nervous at the moment. It's nice to meet everyone and I hope I can really pull my weight with what we will have to do. Oh, if anyone is wondering I can do some magic and I make these sorts of contraptions for everyday use." She raised her arm to show off a glove that had small wires, cogs, and a small wheel in the middle of it. Zalia, turned the wheel slightly counter clockwise and a small image of a rose showed turning slowly before her. "I can do more, but we are inside and I didn't want to scare or harm anyone. I'm looking forward to getting know everyone!" She sat back and nervously fidgeted with a small pocket watch she kept in her pocket when she didn't know what else to do.

At that moment, one of the bags Teislyn had brought in slammed to the ground shaking violently and making noise. Someone near by mustered up some courage and opened it up to see what was going on. They peeped on and out jumped a Lure , whom charged toward where Teislyn was sitting. "Lini! What are you doing here? I told you not to come" Lini shook her head and poked at Zalia's arm while clicking her tongue. An image popped into Teislyn's mind showing Lini traveling with Zalia and Frieda, along with Doom. "Ah I see, Teislyn muttered, "it looks like you have yourself a companion Zalia." Zalia laughed and gave Lini a scratch under her chin. "I'll gladly accept the familiarity of home for this. I'm guessing you already know a few of them Lini" Lini snuggled into Zalia's lap and purred while keeping an eye out for her favorite badger.

She would never forget the tales her cousin Kitcher told of the gigantic orange hourglass that cast a sickly light on the whole world. Kitcher and her team had blown it up but a pallor still hung about the city and the country. The residents of this world went outside to sunbathe in this light. Frieda had a lot of preconceived ideas about where they were going and those ideas conflicted with what was in her wardrobe. Victorian style sensibilities in beachwear. Frieda was a wild-child, a country weasel-girl. She may be queen of her tribe, but what she knew about fashion was not a lot. Maybe she'd ask her cousin Dace for some advice.

She dragged Doom out the door and marched down to Dace's stateroom and burst in without knocking.

"You're naked!" Frieda pointed at Dace's bare frame. "You're naked!" Dace pointed at her bare cousin.

Doom flopped on the floor and licked at something on the carpet

Webby, Kat, and Sky, already dressed in the local attire are patiently waiting for the others to finish getting dressed.
Hopefully Organized Chaos is ready for what's to come.