Light begins to filter from your eyes as you find consciousness again. Almost immediately, you can tell that something is wrong. You… hurt? That's the thing; you know you SHOULD hurt right now, but you don't feel any pain. Your body's senses tell you that you should be injured right now, but you feel… fine. Better than fine, actually. Well, apart from being somewhat cold, you feel… alive is the best way to describe it. That said, you still feel… wrong.

Maybe it was because your eyes are closed, but you don't remember being able to hear each individual leaf rustling on the trees around you. It's almost overwhelming, but somehow natural despite being… wrong. You keep coming back to that word. As you blink your eyes open, growing accustomed to the sun above you, you find it… brighter than normal? Was the sun always so bright? And did the flowers always smell so strongly before? And why did it feel like you could hear everything around you better than you could before?

Sitting up, your eyes adjust to the light and key you in on the fact that you're in… a forest? Looking around a bit more, you see that you're BELOW a forest, seeing as there's a clear divide from trodden soil and displaced dirt. You're in the epicenter of a crater.

You're in the epicenter of a CRATER!?

With a shock, you bolt upright and inspect your surroundings a bit more. You confirm that, yep, you're in the center of a crater, and a recent one judging from the shifting rocks that fall as you move. More evidence that suggests that you SHOULD feel pain, but instead you feel an unfamiliar wave of warmth pass through your body. Another thing you notice is that you're not wearing anything; you sit naked in a crater in the middle of a forest with no idea who you are and no idea how you got here.

You stand. Well, you attempt to stand. In the ever-increasing number of things wrong with your current situation, you manage to throw your arm farther than intended, and somehow send debris flying everywhere. Wait… You (try to) slam the ground, and upon success, find that A. moving your body felt almost alien, and B. you are capable of smashing stone with an accidental swipe. That explains one mystery, at least; this body was definitely foreign to you. You don't remember much, but you do remember that you weren't that strong. You also don't remember having such good senses. Your hearing, sight, and smell were far better than they were before. You think. Maybe?

After some more adjusting, you find the rhythm to your body and get to your feet. Above anything, even figuring out what exactly is going on, you'd really like some pants. Standing in a crater was one thing, but standing in a crater with super senses and your dick out was another.

Your ears flicker towards the direction of voices. Wait… your ears flicker? Raising a hand to brush through your hair, you find… are those extra ears? With a bit of pulling, you discover that part of the explanation for your foreign senses were that you have a pair of extra ears on your head, and they were some sort of animal ears. That's another mystery solved… and a million more to take its place. You definitely don't remember having animal ears. You definitely remember that people don't HAVE animal ears. Humans didn't have extra ears, and they definitely didn't have animal ears. At least, that's what you remember… if, "remember," was the right word... A cursory check of the rest of your body confirms that you only have the ears, and no tail or anything. That's… good? Hard to tell.

Back to what was going on. Your new ears alerted you to the fact that you have company. Seeing as you've had your ears for all of two minutes, you can't properly parse through the noise to tell how many people were coming, just that it was more than one. Remembering that you are still undressed, you look around for something to cover yourself with.

You find a bush. Great.

You almost step into the bush before realizing that probably isn't the best idea. Reaffirming your decision, you notice that you almost used a ROSE bush to cover your junk. You know, the one covered in thorns. Instead, you take some leaves, cover some of the dirt and rocks behind the bush, and sit down; it's not the best situation, but at the very least, you can face the people coming without getting on a list.

As the voices come closer, you start to make out the fact that there were two distinct voices. You take the opportunity to try and adjust to your new hearing, closing your eyes to focus on splitting the noise channels. One was a woman, stuffy and proper, and the other was a man, older and far friendlier sounding, that you can tell. They quickly close in on your location, chatting about something that you manage to hear through the other noises.

"Do you honestly believe that investigating a large explosion in a Grimm-infested area is the best way of going about things!?" the angry female voice angrily says, angrily. "We should have left this to the authorities!"

"Now, now Glynda, if I didn't trust you to be able to protect a frail old man, I wouldn't have signed you on as a teacher. I do wonder what could have caused this sort of explosion, though…"

"It could be nothing good, Ozpin! Well-meaning things don't explode!"

Seeing as you don't really know what to do, you just sit behind your bush and wait for the two people to show up. Seeing as they were worried whatever happened could be a bad thing, they can't be that bad, right? A bad guy would be excited about explosions. That makes the most sense of anything going on.

You see an older man with glasses and a cane casually stroll to the edge of the crater, followed shortly by a stern looking woman with a sharp glare and a professional atmosphere. It takes them a moment to notice you sitting there. There are a good thirty seconds of silence as they look over in your direction, half as confused as you are.

"Sup?" you say, waving. That's the most passive thing you could do in this sort of situation.

Stern lady/Glynda raises her arm, brandishing a… riding crop? She points it at you with the sort of intent you would expect to see from a person holding something much more dangerous than a riding crop. A fierce look shines through her glasses as she… braces her riding crop as though it were a gun. You get the impression that it might be as dangerous as a gun.

The old guy/Ozpin holds out his arm, lowering Glynda's weapon. "Now, now, let's at least hear him out. He had a chance to ambush us, and he's also far too young to be a proper Huntsman." He looks at you, scanning your undressed upper half and relaxed posture, judging you to not be a threat. "You wouldn't happen to be the cause of this, would you?"

You visibly shrug to let the two know that your guard isn't up. "Judging from the circumstances, evidence points to yes. I woke up in the center of that crater, which leads me to believe that I'm somehow involved."

"Would you care to elaborate?"

"I'd love to. If I knew anything." You decide to test your luck and reveal, "Truth be told, I have no idea who I am, where I am, why I woke up in a crater, and why I now have an extra pair of ears." You look at Ozpin and ask, "Could you answer any of those?"

Glynda raises her crop once more, stating, "And if I don't believe you? That seems like a poorly put together excuse to trick us."

Ozpin, ignoring his companion, begins walking up to you, stopping at a reasonable distance. "I told you, let's at least hear him out. As for your questions, I'm afraid I can only answer one of them; you are currently in the Emerald Forest near Beacon Academy, in the city of Vale." He gives a small bow. "I am the headmaster of said school, Professor Ozpin, and this is Professor Goodwitch. Does that help? Are any of those places familiar?"

You look around. True to the name, all of the trees around you shone a brilliant emerald green, catching the light in an almost fairytale-like way. "Not really. I've never heard of any of those."

"What *do* you remember? You clearly remember speech."

"I remember that I didn't have animal ears, for one. That's probably the biggest thing… All of my senses feel… stronger than before, and I wasn't able to smash rocks before. Oh, also, I feel like I should be in pain, but I'm not; I woke up in the center of that crater, but I feel fine, just like a sense of warmth going through me."

Ozpin leans on his cane. "Hmm… That is all quite peculiar. What is clear is that you are lost, and it will do no good to stay here."

"Ozpin, don't you even think about–"

"Why don't you come back with us, to Beacon? Maybe a bit of rest will jog your memory."

You look down. "I'm okay with that, but by any chance do you have any sort of… clothes? I… kinda didn't wake up with any. Probably something to do with the crater." Feeling pretty embarrassed, you adjust the rose bush in front of you, making sure you're covered.

Chuckling slightly, Ozpin says, "Why, that IS a bit of a problem…" He looks down at his outfit, which consisted of an emerald jacket, scarf, and pants. "I'm afraid I don't have anything to offer you." As Glynda walks up next to him, he looks at her and explains, "Glynda, I think anything we'd discover about this crater lies with this man. There's no point in staying here, where it's dangerous."

"Very well. I've trusted you this long, but I still think you're too ready to accept a stranger."

"I've had plenty of experience to learn when people are being genuine. I believe our new friend here is telling the truth, or at least, what he knows to be the truth." Ozpin scans Glynda up and down. You both notice the same thing at the same time; Glynda, in addition to wearing the type of clothes you'd expect a stuffy teacher to wear, she had on a cape that looked straight out of a video game, not real life. It had several jagged arrows at the hem, which counteracted the fact that a teacher was casually wearing a cape in the first place. "And he also requires some clothes or at least some form of coverage. Unfortunately, the only option I see is your cape."

"You don't expect me to give it to him, do you?"

"Don't worry. Gleaning off what he just told us, I'm sure we can think of a way for him to repay you." Glynda scowls. "Unless you'd rather escort an underaged…" Ozpin looks at you. You don't even know your age, but you know you aren't more than 20ish. "…Well, not underaged, but a younger man, naked, through this forest and into our school?"

Clearly very unhappy with this development, Glynda huffs and removes her cape and hands it to Ozpin. He, in turn, tosses it to you, and you wrap it around your waist and form a suitable wrap to cover your junk. You'd prefer… pretty much anything else, but naked crater-men can't be choosers. You stand and thank both Ozpin and Glynda.

Now that you were face to face properly, Ozpin extends a hand. "A pleasure to meet you, Mr…"

"…"

You realize you don't have a name. Or at least, you don't remember any name being attributed to you. No pants, no memories, no name, can't you have ANYTHING!?

"Good question. I don't know my name." Glynda's glare increases in intensity.

Skipping only a single beat, Ozpin smiles. "Well, then." His eyes wander around until they find the rosebush you were hiding behind. "Mr... Briar will do for the moment unless you have any objections."

Of all the random names you could have ended up with, Briar doesn't seem all that bad.

You grab Ozpin's hand and give it a hearty shake. "Mr. Briar, at your service!"