Bamboo Bugaboos

"Noooooo, Mona, I jus wan sleep- JESUS WHY IS IT SO FUCKING COLD?!" "Akira" snaps up upright.

The dragon-like creature, also known as the Gore Magala, lets out a roar. It was freezing and it wasn’t used to this weather.

The boy with angel wings grumbles upon Snatcher's declaration, getting up slowly and rubbing his eyes as he lets out a yawn, stretching a bit. "Mnm...Lady Palutena, do you need to be so lo-"

Then he sees Snatcher right in front of him and stops talking, immediately snapping to attention.

"Oh. This is...significantly worse than I expected..." He looks over Snatcher. "Are you Hades' replacement or something? Because if you are, I think you might have missed the memo on the art style change."

Meanwhile, the young blue-haired woman finishes cleaning up her glasses and puts them back on, sighing. She doesn't pay much attention to Snatcher's loud declaration or Akira's surprised shout - considering who she works with and who she chases after, she's learned to tune these sorts of things out - and focuses on the important thing: figuring out where the hell she is. And how she got here, for that matter. The only immediate answer she can think of is the Door-Door Fruit, but quite frankly she has no idea why she would be targeted by-

And that train of thought comes to a screeching halt as she notices a certain something out of the corner of her eye, immediately drawing all her attention as she notes it's silvery gleam and how high quality it is - truly, the amount of craftsmanship it'd take to make something like that would be incredible. Of course, the thing in question is the rapier wielded by the white-haired girl, which the blue-haired woman cannot seem to tear her eyes off of for a single moment.

And what's the schoolgirl doing while all this is happening? Simple - backing away slowly while pulling down on her hat, whimpering a bit as it continuously shifts.

"I don't know why it is! Stop shouting before you upset someone," Futaba is eyeing the dragon as she says this.

The Gore Magala hadn’t seemed to hear Akira, so that’s a plus. That or it was more concerned with adapting to the environment.

Akira paled upon seeing the dragon. "This...isn’t the Metaverse." He murmurs, more to himself.

Santcher was ..... displeased from the lack of reaction, to say the least. He was used to receiving a different response.

"Hade- what is that, greek mythology?" Snatcher muttered. "No, no I am not."

After a moment of silence he clears his throat aggressively. "Excuse me, hello? Giant purple ghost yelling threateningly over here!"

"What do you want, a round of applause?" Sylvia said aggressively, fists raised at the apparent threat.

"......... I think it's pretty clear, what I was going for." Snatcher snarled, eyes narrowed.

"Well, uh.... howdy, Snatcher." Wander said. "Funny enough, my name sounds similar to yours. Folks call me Wander!"

Snatcher tilted his head at the small, cheerful creature, then chuckled. "Well, you strike me as someone I'll be good friends with!"

"Really?"

"Peck no."

"...oh. And there goes the obvious reasoning." And with that, the angel's mood seems to take a slight turn for the worse. "Well, that's slightly concerning - I mean, last time I woke up somewhere completely unknown on the earth with no idea how I got there, it turned out the situation was really, really bad for everyone involved...at least I'm not a ring this time."

And while that's happening...

"Excuse me!" The blue-haired woman walks up to Weiss with a pleasant smile, not bothering to question the hovering android - partially because it'd be rude to gawk at a random stranger, partially because there's a myriad of explanations as to why she could be hovering so it's not as unusual as one might think, but mostly because she's just focused on the rapier. "Do you mind if I ask you something?"

Weiss didn't look away from the other girl.
"I don't mind at all."

After the people congregate for a bit two men carry the village elder atop a tall rock that was conveniently located 3 meters away from them. With a shaky wave of her hand the men disperse from the rock and set her down before her raspy voice fills the air, with an obvious tone of sorrow found in it.

"O mighty gods...You have answered our plea...And have blessed us with champions! Champions that will finally fix the world and set it back to what it once was...Champions!" The stickly figure attempted to stand up upon the rock, in which she succeeded, albeit with concerned looks from the other people.

"Hell has ravaged the earth and green unmoving demons of crunchy wickedness has forsaken the land! We believe  we are the only place left in the world that doesn't fall victim to that evil...If you eat too much of it you will become a monster! Then a murderer! It has happened to us once! But we were smart enough to recognize the evil and flush it out of the village! Modern civilization is not so lucky...The edible demon has ingrained itself into nearly almost every world culture over the course of months. People fall for it's sweet smell and taste without a second thought, some even start to think it's healthy." The elder's face grew darker, the lines on her wrinkled face scrunching up with disgust.

"Please...You must do something about this menace before the entire world becomes a slave to it!"

That was useful and all but, the elder hasn't provided a name for it yet, huh.

The rest of my characters had appeared by then.

Sister tilted her head. "Um, I’m sure we could help, but you haven’t given us a name for what we're facing."

“....... I was summoned here to deal with demonic food? Really?” Snatcher asks coldly.

“Well sure, we’ll help!” Wander said.

The elder shuddered while speaking the next word.

"Bamboo."

"... Is bamboo even edible?" Futaba asks.

Snatcher blinks.

"...... You dragged me here because some idiot made your bamboo demonic?"

"I thought fucking panda's were the only things that ate bamboo." Akira raised an eyebrow.

"Just like back home." Shrapnel whistled.

"They do not care if it chips their teeth, all they want is the taste..."

"No, that is something you all must find out. Scour the land for the people in power, and information regarding bamboo itself. Perhaps then you will find the answer to this mess..."

"Hey can we get out of the cold because my feet are turning blue and I can't feel them anymore," Futaba reports that she's getting frostbite, but only after she can't feel anything.

Akira huffs and lifts up Futaba, bridal style. He’s not exactly the picture of warmth, but he can still feel at least.

After all of that...Narancia's main concern isn't a sudden Bamboo addiction that's slowly dooming society it's the cold. In the Arctic. Go figure.

"O-O-Oi Giorno, c-can't you make something that could warm us u-up?" Narancia says while rubbing his arms.

Giorno looks up from a stick he was fiddling with, trying to make some life out of it, there's frost in his hair.

"No organisms can be born from temperatures this cold that would help." Giorno responds with a sure voice.

"But I'm sure someone else here can help out with that."

Narancia gives Giorno a look like he's crazy understandably.

"Wha-No have you fucking lost it already? They're not stand users they would have already seen Golden Experience!"

"Don't you think we've got quite the colorful cast Narancia? Ghosts, Dinosaurs, even an Angel."

"Get your mind back in the goddamn game shithead! Obviously we've been attacked by some sort of ability! None of this is real!"

That Gore Magala from earlier has been just, observing in the background. It’s been prowling out there.

"C-can we a-a-at least have s-some w-w-warmer clothes?" Shrapnel asked the elder. "My j-joints are gonna f-freeze."