Life's Consequences [China, Greece, Spain, Turkey]

[Pangea]

The encounter was fairly random. Turkey and Greece had been fighting as usual in the halls between trade meetings, with China and Spain attempting to dispel the tension when the lights went out. As the nations looked around, confused, they came back on just as suddenly.

Angry breathing greeted them in the artificial light, and the beast stood frighteningly before them, just as stunned as they were.

It was Greece who broke the tension. "Minotaur!" he shouted, shoving the first person he could reach out of the way and knocking everyone to the floor as the thing charged.

But as it flew past them, it passed straight through Turkey, fading as it rounded the next corner. Sputtering and adjusting his mask, Turkey looked at the other three. "You all just saw that, right? I'm not eating the blue bagels from the back of the bakery?"

[Wang Yao]

To find Turkey and Greece arguing in the halls wasn’t a rare scene during World Meetings. And so some other nations always tried to ease the imminent fight as fast as possible – they never went alone to that delicate task.

China found himself allied with Spain this time.

He wondered for a second why he was doing that. A matter of occasion, he concluded. He happened to be passing by at the same time Spain did the same thing, coming from the opposite direction. They stopped, stared at the other two, looked at each other, nodded in agreement and then went to try to stop the chaos.

Those kids.

But all the calm talk seemed to result in nothing. It was only when the lights went out they stopped. China sighed somewhat relieved when all of them went quiet almost immediately. As the lights came back, however, he wished Greece and Turkey had kept arguing.

The first thing he realized was the presence of the Minotaur in front of them. The next was he being shoved and falling on the floor, as it trembled when the creature advanced in their direction. He stood up as fast as his back let him, confused.

“I saw that too. Wish I didn’t aru…” He looked around, worried. Alright, so they just saw a Minotaur. Not a wolf. Not a tiger. A Minotaur. “Creatures like that don’t appear out of nowhere!” No creature is supposed to appear in the building at all! “M-most importantly, where that thing is headed to?!” A wild Minotaur running wild during a meeting? The World Meetings usually had its insane moments, but that was beyond all his expectations.

[Herakles Karpusi]

Herakles couldn't remember what they were arguing about this time. Something inane probably, and it usually started that way nowadays. Arguing with Sadik was second nature, and once the ball go rolling, not much apart from an unmovable force could stop them.

He noticed Antonio and Yao trying to disarm the fire, so to speak. When the lights went out, he looked up in puzzlement. A black out? Strange...

When the lights flickered back on, and he saw the beast waiting to charge at them, his eyes widened. He reacted on instinct after that, and watched the minotaur run past and around the corner, getting up. A minotaur? Hadn't his mother told him a story about the creature once? He remembered it well.

He didn't answer the Turk, more focused on puzzling this out. Why would a minotaur be here? Further more, where had it come from? Was there more of this creature? He stared at the hallway, as if the walls would spew the answers.

"I don't think it's here anymore," he spoke finally, and walked in the direction the minotaur had taken off, to look.

[Sadık Adnan]

Scowling behind Istanbul, Sadık trotted along behind Greece, determined to get his own slice of whatever action might still be lurking around the corner. "It better not be," he growled in (what he thought to be) a menacing voice. Glancing over his shoulder, he gesture for the other two to look with them, as if calling for backup. It was to his disappointment, though, that the adjoining hallway was empty, devoid of any sign of the monster.

[Antonio Fernandez Carriedo]

Wow, today's meeting sure was exciting! Usually all the nations would just sit around a table and talk about rather boring things that didn't apply to half of them while staring at boring paperwork. Sometimes someone would start fighting, which was always amusing and livened thinks up (though he did have to admit that Lovino yelling at him was kind of embarrassing sometimes and not his definition of fun). This day though...this was a new experience.

Antonio finally had some time to himself between those boring meetings that he dreaded so much, so decided to take a quick bathroom break. On his way back to the room, he noticed something not out of the ordinary; Heracles and Sadık fighting. These were always funny to watch. Stopping a ways away from the scene, Antonio noticed Yao doing the same on the other side. When had he gotten here?

Yao seemed to want them to stop, though Antonio honestly didn't mind. Seeing Sadık get beaten up would be a treat. Still, he figured that wouldn't go over too well with Yao, so he did his best to help.

Until the lights went out....did they forget to pay the bills or something?

Then, as quickly as they went out, the lights returned. The thing was, there was something else in the hall with them. Something he had only seen in books and movies. But why was it in the hallway? When it was gone, Antonio looked to the others, seeing them look just as confused as he felt at the moment. He was usually a loud person, but he hadn't a clue what to say to that. Luckily, it was someone else to speak first.

"Mm, that was weird! Maybe it was a magic trick?" However, the hall showed no signs of any irritating Englishman who liked to fool him. Noticing the others moving along, he decided to follow after them like an excited puppy.

Yes, this meeting was a lot more exciting!

[Herakles Karpusi]

Seeing nothing, and hearing nothing of the beast that had appeared out of nowhere, Herakles pivoted around. He went back to where they'd been standing, carefully staring at the floor. Then he walked past that point and to where the minotaur had appeared from.

Nothing.

It was as if all they'd just seen was smoke and mirrors. Or maybe Netherlands had smoked up in the conference room, before everyone was in, and now they were hallucinating because of second hand pot smoke? Or maybe it was a prank from America? Crouching down, he looked more closely at the floor. If what they had seen was real, surely there would be scratches from the hooves.

Rubbing his chin, the Greek remained quiet and thoughtful, looking for clues. Then he wondered what else would appear out of thin air. Then he paled as he thought of gorgons, harpies, chimeras and the kraken. Standing up slowly, he hoped to Zeus that those wouldn't show up. And now that he thought of it... titans.

Dear Hades, Lord of Hell, Herakles hoped fervently there wouldn't be titans. Then he calmed, thinking it could still be some trick, or mass hallucination. "Maybe we should go back to the conference room," he murmured, starting to walk back towards the others.

[Wang Yao]

Yao followed the others with fast steps, to find the corridor empty. “It’s really gone, aru!” Truth to be told, he only knew what a Minotaur was by name and pictures from books he had seen during his life, and a bit of word here and there… which wasn’t much. Nothing, giving how he had no clue about what to do a moment ago. Well, it wasn’t like he expected – much less planned – to meet a Minotaur any time soon. It could have been anything, really, but due to the speed of the events that took part, Yao couldn’t really come up with any answers or conclusions.

Only more and more questions.

“We should go back to the meeting room then. Although explaining what just happened won’t be easy, aru…” It was good to check if anyone else had seen anything suspicious… and if they were all fine.