478/The Graveyard of Memories

The Graveyard of Memories
Date of Scene:	23 August 2014
Location:	A Quiet World
Synopsis:	A hunt through the library to find the elusive Arch Curate.
Thanks to:	Everyone for (again) putting up with my ambitious, deadend projects and sticking with me even when scenes fail horribly.
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, Arthur Lowell, Staren, 152, 183, 307, 411, 441
Tinyplot:	A Chime at the Precipice

---

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    For Summer: welcome. For everyone else: welcome back.

    So. Same world, different day. Very different location. The warp gate spits you out in the middle of a cobblestone walkway that stretches from the Clock Tower in the west to the place you're apparently going in the East. Also like before, the sky is a complete mess; looking back, you'll see a perfectly normal, blue sky, while looking forward you'll see a hauntingly orange one, like something out of an Edgar Allen Poe poem. And when you've walked, flown, or otherwise traversed the path (or /not/ traversed it -- Arthur is here to make fast travel an option), you'll find yourself at a crossroads. One way leads left and the other leads right, but thankfully, the person who called you here is present to eviscerate any lingering indecision. She beckons the group to the right, leading them to...

    ... well, here. The entire city is walled off, and the peculiar sheen of the air particles above it would hint to any genre-savvy people that the arch before them is indeed the only entrance. To put it more plainly, there's a massive barrier that encapsulates the entire city, and you won't be able to get in or out through any but the most designated of entrance-exits (unless your last name is 'Lowell'). Still, that person mentioned in the parenthetical might have a bizarre amount of trouble placing gates on the other side of the magic wall(tm) if he were to try, which would suggest that there's something unusual going on here. But isn't there always?

    Ah, but let me slash through this wad of text with Occam's Razor. Yes... yes, there we go. The camera zooms back to the relevant location in the story: the front door. It is flanked by two 'guards', both clad in rather artistic ensembles that consist of black capes, tall top hats, wing tip shoes, and other such articles pertinent to a dark romantic atmosphere. Oh, and they are also carrying runed, Gothic spears, but they look far too pretty to be practical as martial implements.Like so many furry-capped British soldiers that lawfully loiter outside of government buildings, neither person budges, and neither person speaks until another figure, this one unmasked and wearing a western formal coat with tails, appears with his arms wrapped professionally behind his back. He gives each person a look, eliciting a stiffening of their muscles and a clank of their weapons; a salute if ever there was one.

    "At ease." The newly appearing person's voice is tinged with apathy and disinterest that fit the atmosphere all too well. His eyes swivel next to the group of Elites. "I take it you're the people Mizuki told me about?" He nods his head. "Very well then. Listen closely." He straightens his posture and clears his throat. "This is The Historical District, a region of the world dedicated completely to the storage of even the most mundane and basic details of all the universes The Lady has ever visited. I am Luther, the administrator of the Subdistrict of Logic and Reason." He bows his head in introduction. "You've been called here today to help with the solving of a riddle required to gain access to the office of the Arch Curate, the absolute ruler of this area, so that we may retrieve a clock number from her. Miss Nightingale - that is, of course, The Curate - is obstinate, so we expect that we shall be met with forceful resistance when we find her." Mizuki nods along with what he says before raising a hand to garner attention. Immediately, the man who had been expositionizing yields the metaphorical spotlight.

    "I've contacted a servant of mine who will report the current status of the city when she finds us. I expect that she will -- ah. Yes, right on time." Conveniently, a girl with long silver hair tied into twintails steps in. Like Callia and Palora, she's clutching a scythe. Mizuki now gestures to her, shifting the focus of attention for a second time. "It would be best to let her speak before I continue." The girl nods her understanding before delivering her report in a voice even more taciturn than Luther's.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    "The streets are clear of military personnel, and Miss Nightingale does not seem to be aware of our presence here currently. The main door to the Primary Archive is currently unlocked." Mizuki nods.

    "Then we shall head that way shortly." She turns to face the group as well now. "Once you all have said your hellos and made your introductions, we will make way for the Primary Archive. Bear in mind that some doors are locked by riddles that must be solved before they can be navigated. As Luther said before, this is most certainly true of the door that we're looking for, and clues that pertain to that one's puzzle may well be scattered throughout the building. So, more succinctly? Observance will allow us to progress quickly."

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur's here! He was actually already hanging around this world, probably busy with that Mizuki tutoring. Of course, for Summer Powers, he offers a Gate, projecting one near the Warpgate as he passes on his way through. He doesn't skip over the walk to the crossroads, because he likes hanging out here! He drifts, lazily in a reclined sort of posture, fingers locked behind his head, his back straight down, over the road, and then along the indicated path.

    When he encounters the guards, thankfully there's a new person here to interrupt Arthur Lowell before he starts trying to do silly shenanigans while they stand still. "HELLO YES!" He declares to Luther. "This is THOSE PEOPLE." He waits and listens to the whole explanation... "HUH." He says, grinning and putting an eyebrow up. "So GO ALONG with the RIDDLE ADVENTURING and we GET THE GOODS. Rad, I got TONS of experience working with WEIRD RIDDLES."

    A quick thumbs-up to the girl who just arrived. "RAD, so no FIGHTS. LOVE IT, we'll get our SOLVING on in PEACE then. So let's get GOIN'!" Oh, but briefly, Arthur pauses.

    "OH RIGHT." Arthur starts. "ALMOST FORGOT." The boy takes a thinking pose. You can tell he's rummaging through an abstracted inventory system, trying to find the thing he needed. "HERE we go." He declares, a LARGE BUCKET now in his hands. He stares at Mizuki intensely before he dumps all the icewater that was apparently in the bucket all over his head.

    "JESUS SHITTY CHRIST." He declares, articulately, then resumes grinning. "THERE you go. NEVER fuckin' BACK DOWN from a proper GOADING. I'll get a DONATION out too." There's a quick fistpump.

    "You know, I should probably have brought dry clothes for this." Arthur then mumbles as he drifts and drips along with the group, presumably to the Primary Archive. Or maybe drifts, anyway. Does that barrier prevent ALL his space magic? He knows he can feel it resisting him...

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer is ported in, and she is almost entirely inappropriately dressed. She is wearing sparkly purple bellbottom pants, with plastic gems sewn on in a swirling pattern. Her top is tie-dye purple, and shows a lot of midriff. And for some reason, she also is wearing a afro, that is half purple, half black.

     It's really just best not to ask what goes through her head sometimes.

     She sighs, though, hearing ONE IMPORTANT WORD that makes her /massively/ regret coming here.

     "Oh man, /fuck/ riddles. Fuck them hard. Seriously. I mean I guess if we /have/ to, but like. Screw riddles as a general rule."

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki's serious face is completely eradicated when Arthur clobbers himself with a cascade of frigid water, and she promptly, emphatically facepalms. Siiiigh.

    "... is now -really- the time?" The look on her face says 'no', as do the hands that relocate to her hips. "No matter. Doing that to oneself is punishment enough, so I'll let it go." Note pictured: For now.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Faruja, by now, is at least accepting of the existance of this place, if not /comfortable/. While the posibilities are intoxicating of such a realm, he knows far too well how such power could corrupt. After all, wasn't simply bringing objects into being the power of Faram? Therefore, the golden-barded chocobo Faruja teleports in on isn't made of dream-stuff. No, it's all real. He pets the chocobo's head, dismounting as they approach the gate.

"My, my, my! Lady Mizuki, mayhaps 'tis a Paling? It hath been ages since I hath laid eyes upon such in activation! Faram willing Mullonde never hath need of it." He crosses himself.

An ear perks, and the Priest bows to the man. "Lord's blessings upon thee, Ser! Inquisitor Faruja Senra, at thine service, and the good Lady's! Then we art not to expect violent resistance?" Frown. A glance to the chocobo. He mutters something about 'should have left it back home'.

Then Arthur dumps icewater upon Mizuki. Sorry Time Lady, Faruja turns away and hides a laugh amidst a hip flask.

Whisper whisper, "Well done Ser Lowell! Well done." Cue a discrete nod.

More to the point, riddles. "Well. Let intellect be our blade this day, and the Good Lord lead us to victory in this most righteous endeavor!" No, Faruja will not give up a chance to preach.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur Lowell gives a quick double-finger-guns and a wink to Mizuki. There's a little toothgleam there. "YOU ASKED FOR IT." He declares in a friendly, good-humored way. And then shudders a bit with the cold.

    Then back to Summer Powers: "Awww, C'MON, not gonna be THAT BAD." A casual, easygoing shrug. "If it makes you FEEL BETTER, you can just do LOOKING and leave the RIDDLEMATCHING to the rest of us. If you're lazy, y'know." His playfully smug grin looks a little more ridiculous than it ought to look, what with his girlishly long hair completely soaked.

    Faruja's endorsement seems to be encouraging him. There's a quick two thumbs-ups to Faruja, and a brief, "THANKS!"

    He does seem to be taking this seriously otherwise, though. Wherever they're heading when they do decide to start moving, despite his reclined, relaxed, drifting posture, he's going to have keen eyes and observant nature aligned right to the environment.

Staren has posed:
    Staren steps out of the warpgate with a smile and... stares a bit. Wha? After determining there isn't immediate danger though... he shifts to cat form, bounds around a bit, then shifts to normal form and streetches. Ah. Good to be flesh and blood again.

    Once he's been fast-traveled to the city, he takes in the wall, and the door, and the guards, and flies up to see what he can from above... his ears perk up and he flies back down to the guard. "Did you say logic and reason?" he grins. "A riddle, huh..." He watches Arthur, wondering if he's going to splash Mizuki. "You know, you can just imagine your clothes dry, right?"

    Brief nods of recognition are offered to the others as they arrive.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has been not sure alwuys about mizuki but she had been curious about her and her world. It was enough to bring her back once more, also maybe she started to consider Mizuki a friend as well. EIther way she was here and arrived as sheshe can't seem to get in right wway it take sa bit to finds someone who seem to know what is going on. She tilts her head for a moment and nods.

"Ah I see we have a problem then? All right lets see what we can do here."

Still this does have her a bit on edge.

Allyn (307) has posed:
Allyn arrived through the warpgate, oddly he's in his human form today. He joins the others and follows along until they are stopped by the guard and Mizuki and he gives a bow, but for the most part he stays quiet and listens. He nods to Faruja and Kotone, but mostly keeps to himself. He blinks a little at the mention of riddles and such, that sounds rather interesting.

He then decides to make his way over closer to Faruja and greets him quietly, "Hello my friend." then goes back to paying attention.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Luther's eye twitches. Now, he doesn't -say- anything, but it's pretty freaking obvious that he would be screaming at them were the situation any different. Seriously, he looks like a teacher when his students have started throwing stuff around in the classroom, or texting on their phones: really PO'ed. But oh well. He can deal.

    But he does not do so happily. When Faruja says 'lord's blessings', he visibly scowls, though he manages to keep from responding further. Eventually, he does lowly add a 'Greetings' in there, but it's not very clear when he does so. If his reaction is any indication, Faruja probably won't be getting very many converts today; this place seems pretty secular. Mizuki is more responsive, though, and gives the nezumi a customary curtsey. "Good evening, Faruja." To the next bit, she just... nods, cocking her head slightly. "I'm sorry, but... a 'Paling'? I'm not certain that I follow."

    Then, the rest. She nods to Summer and Staren, smiling a faint little bit at the latter's suggestion. "Yes, indeed. Instant clothes dryer: just add imagination." Because those things usually say 'just add water'. Get it? Eh? ... whatever. Her gaze shifts to Summer. "But yes, it is as Arthur says. You need not /solve/ the riddles -- if any unexpected, violent confrontations arises, you can attend to those, or you can help us find clues without discerning their meaning." Her hands fold at her waist. "Fair?" And as a last little thing, Mizuki applies pats directly to Allyn's (fore)head, glancing to Kotone as she does so. "Thank you both, as always, for coming. Your help is appreciated, to be sure."

    Her own introductions and banter finished, she turns to the rest of the group, gesturing forward. "Shall we?" Luther and the scythe girl both take the lead afterwards, starting down the narrow path in front of them. Really, though, the path looks less like a road, and more like someone has briefly parted the stone sea, a la The Bible (nonsense edition). The two 'natives' lead them through the mazelike winds, eventually coming to a... much larger street.

    Unlike the others, this one is filled with people. All of them are wearing the same masks as those at the front gate, and most of them have their faces shoved in books. It's a small miracle that everyone isn't crashing into eachother. For better or for worse, they all ignore the group unless they are interacted with as all of them make their way to a pristine edifice far, far down the road. This one has a dome roof and is surrounded by gardens, but preventing its access is yet another metal gate, and another pair of guards. These ones don't seem so docile as the last two, either.

    "Halt." they say in unison. "This is the Primary Archive, and the domain of the Arch Curate. What business do you have that would merit an interruption of her work?" Mizuki steps forward. "I am the Lady Mizuki, and these are my compatriots. I demand that you allow us entry." Each person grips their weapon closely, and there is a long, charged silence... but eventually, one of them meanders to the lock on the bars, and slides open the doors.

y"Very well. Please proceed." The group is ushered in to a garden overlooked by the steeple of the massive, pseudo Grecian dome, and then, finally, through the doors. Upon entry, everyone is greeted by two Gothic statues. Griffins, it looks like, their claws embedded in the rocks upon which they stand. 'Life substantiated through record,' read the inscriptions beneath them. Now that they are all here, watched by the looming chandeliers on the ceiling, the search can begin properly.

    There are two immense, curving staircases that lead to the second floor where there are three doors: one in the center, and two to the left and right. On the ground floor, there are two sets of double doors, one to the left and the other to the right. Mizuki turns to face them again.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    "Maintain radio contact," She says, "or exploit the loose logic of this world to use telepathy. Whatever you do, maintain contact with others. When I say so, meet back here." She points to the largest door in the center on the second floor. "When I deem that we have accumulated enough clues to proceed, we shall regroup here and go through that door. Until then, good luck." She bows her head when she has finished, and herself heads for the set of doors to the left on the first floor.

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     When Luther isn't looking, Summer shoots a spitwad at him.

     ..Yeah, she might as well. She's been kind of missing her school days.

     This is what happens when the narrative compares the situation to a school wtih poor students.

     Either way, Summer nods. "Well. At least I can do the brute force stuff. And I'll work on the riddle too. Plus, hey, I've heard minor bits about this world from pB and have been wanting to check it out anyways."

     Upon entering the room with the multiple paths and the whole great idea of 'we're on an adventure, let's split up and search for clues', Summer basically just sticks close to Arthur for now.

Staren has posed:
    City /full of bookworms/. It is such a shame Twi isn't here to see this. As the party starts a /long walk/, he shifts to pony form (white unicorn, brown mane and tail, mecha head for a QT mark)... though, he wonders whether two legs are even more likely to get tired here, or if he can even get tired at all. Probably not, he supposes. Oh well.

    He shifts back once they arrive, slipping his hands into his pockets as he looks around at this room. "Oh... so the clues will all be in here, rather than all over town? Um... that's good." He follows Mizuki to the door she's chosen, to see what happens there. What clues and riddles lie beyond? He doubts she'll be able to go through all of them herself, anyway.

Allyn (307) has posed:
Allyn smiles slightly at Mizuki when she pats him on the forehead, but he's not quite himself today, no matter though. "Always, for you." is his reply to her thanking him for being here.

He then follows along as they all move on to their destination. He glances around at the doors on the first floor as Mizuki picks one to go towards after giving her instructions. He ponders for a few moments deciding where he should go and then starts up the stairs and to the center door on the second floor.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Faruja resists that urge to ruffle Allyn. Really, it's taken the rat a moment to recognize him, scent mostly coming to his own rescue. Shapeshifters, always confusing! A low bow, and a grin, then he 'ahem's' and straightens up. Right, pay attention rat! The Burmecian stands by the man. Tank and reliable person, always a plus just in case.

Luther and Faruja likely will not be friends by the near-glare he fixes the man upon scowling at his blessings. It takes a visible effort to not just slap the man for the insult! Every fur on end, he goes remarkably quiet, at least until Mizuki speaks. Though one might imagine they hear him whisper 'Bloody heathens'.

"Ahh, apologies mine dear. A nearly invulnerable magical barrier, errected through focus crystals and particularly talented mages, oft able to cover entire cities or Fortresses. Very difficult to contruct."

With that out of the way, Faruja follos along, gazing upon the architecture. Huff! "Heathens or nay, I must commend their attention to architecture." He's impressed.

Hrrrmn. Squint. "Well. Good luck, Sers and Dames!" Then, taking the rightmost door, he'll hold the door for any of the ladies who might follow, then head on in. A quick Summon, and Ramuh appears at his side. Best to have Old Man Thunder along for this one.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is taking this all in she's clealry tyring to listen for a mometh she gets Faruja is just meaning well, and so far he's not tried to set people on fire for not being of his Church so far as she knows. She looks to Mizuki giving a bit of a smile as she does however and she listens.

"This still take aot of getting used to."

She's allowed in and follows after not sure what to think of a place like this. It was always a bit of a head trip really.

"Right."

She focuses for a moment and the mechanica wings she used the last time she came for a visit form out of her back it should be useful if she has need of it. She mvoes to follow after Faruja let's see what they will find this way.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    A city of nerds. Arthur has never felt so conflicted as he heads to the Primary Archive.

    "I love CONTACT!" Arthur says, with his usual tones and mannerisms once he arrives and hears Mizuki. Staren's advice has been ignored for some baffling reason, so he's still dripping a bunch. At least by now his hair has dried out to a less ridiculous sort of style.

    "Don't worry, if there's ANYTHING I'm great at doing, it's KEEPING CONTACT. C'mon, CW!" He plants his hands on his hips, looking over the doors. "CHOICE HERE is OBVIOUS! We go UP and to the RIGHT." He says, pointing casually at the door. With a flourishing motion and proper drama, he floats right up the stairs and intends to go right through that door. These aren't double-doors so he can't do a two-armed shoving open, but he tries to approximate it halfway.

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer sighs.

     "A shame we don't have a corpse to throw through, or something, that'd make our entrance seem a lot more badass. Oh well. Maybe next time."

     She walks after Arthur. Or really, she more of struts.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Hey, while we're here solving riddles, why don't I give you some painfully repetitive puzzle solving music? Yeah, here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2nPysfmt0U

    Awesome, so that's covered. Before she passes through the door, though, she smiles to Summer and nods. "I am always glad to welcome those who wish to play around with the infinite possibility of this world, no matter the occasion. Explore and experiment to your heart's content, please." Then, to Staren: "Oh, I'm certain there are clues all over town, but we won't need to find all of them to open the door." Smile~. "It would be ruthlessly impractical if you had to collect that many hints whenever you wanted to enter your own office, you know? Especially since one is presumably barred from using the powers of imagination to open it." Because it would be stupid if they weren't, naturally. After nodding to Faruja and responding with an "Ah, I see," she paces closer to the door and slides it open slowly. She holds it open for Staren, adding quietly, "After you~."

    =THE LOWER LEFT HALL=

    The door Mizuki and Staren wander in to is a hall so long that one can barely make out the half-circular window on the other side. At intervals, there are windows, and each set of windows is flanked by a table. Some tables even have some simple ceramic containers and flowers! Doors start to appear a little ways down the hall, and most of them are labelled with plaques. The first door, for example, has one beside it that reads 'Library #191235 - Astronomy Texts', and the one after that says 'Library 191236 - Marine Zoology'. There are more statues here and there, too, though these look more like gargoyles than griffins. Eventually, though, Mizuki stops at a door, opening it to indicate that she has chosen to stop here for now to Staren. "I'd like to try this room first, if you don't mind." She points to the plaque beside the door. 'Library #191238 - Game Theory Texts'.

    Fitting, idnit.

    =THE LOWER RIGHT HALL=

    Faruja and Kotone would walk in to a hall not unlike the one Staren and Mizuki are in. The only difference? This one has people in it. Or to be more accurate, a people. Er, a PERSON. Ahem. Yes. There's a young man with brown hair and one of those weird masks on propped against the wall, reading in the dim light provided by a window to his immediate right. When the door slides open, he glances to the pair... before immediately looking back to his book. Looks like he's going to ignore him, so they can either assume that he's relevant and pester him further, or duck in to one of the rooms along the left wall. Their choice. ALL KINDS OF AGENCY, MAN.

    =THE UPPER RIGHT HALL=

    Arthur BURSTS open the door up top, along with Summer. They would quickly realize that the entire room is filled with tables, chairs, candles, and mobile ladders. Oh, and did I mention that guys working in there? Yeah, there are guys working in there, and when the two Godkids... the GodCHILDREN step into the room, everyone stops.

And stares.
Hersnd stares a little more.

    Thankfully, it doesn't appear that they've triggered any STUDIOUS STRIFE yet, nor have they been aggrieved by the MULTITUDES OF BOOKISH BROS. Maybe that will come later or maybe it won't, but for now the pair is free to explore the room unhindered. That is, before they're accosted by a masked fellow that they might've missed before.

    "Pardon me, but this is a restricted area." His posture is as rigid as uncooked pasta strands. "Only the first floor is open to the public. Please leave, or I will be forced to contact security." They could probably get away with just saying 'Mizuki told them to be here', if they wanted. And then they might even be able to get him to lead them to the coveted clues! Or they could just kill him; then Summer could resurrect him as an undead thrall!

Mizuki (183) has posed:
r    =THE CENTER RIGHT DOOR=

    Unfortunately for Allyn, this door seems quite inaccessible. In act, his hud might be flashing to inform him that 'Key Required'. Oh well. He can join one of the other groups, if he wants... or be a rebel and head through the TOP LEFT DOOR.

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer lifts her hands up, moving in soon after Arthur. With him /busting/ into the room, she immediately lifts her hands up, trying to calm them down.

     "DON'T WORRY. We're bursting in, but we aren't burgalars. We're /adventurers/."

     "It's pretty much the same thing though. So you better tell us if there is any piece of a riddle here. Also, for your own saftey, build a table prison-fort around yourself, with the tables and chairs."

Allyn (307) has posed:
Allyn blinks as he finds out the door before him is locked and needs a key. He ponders for a few moments, thinking about just trying to bash it down, yeah that thought does cross his mind, but he really doesn't want to make Mizuki or anyone else mad by damaging anything. He ends up just staring at the door blankly for a few moments and tries the handle anyway.

Nope, it's locked it seems. He jiggles the handle and tries it again. Nope, not going to work either...still locked.. "Open please?" yeah, like talking to a door is going to make it unlock itself and open up. He shrugs and then decides to be a rebel and heads for the top left door, instead of heading into one of the others where others have gone.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa follows along with FAruja she notices there's a person here she looks at the man for a moment trying to take him in. She takes a second before she thinks of what just to say and it's kinda silly as it pretyt basic.

"Hello to you sir. WE are not looking to cause you any issues but if you might be able to we could use some help..."

Faruja (152) has posed:
Kotone get! Faruja offers a smile and a nod to the woman, before they're through the door! A salute to everyone else. "Go with the Lord, mine friends!"

~~ Lower right Hall ~~

Two ears perk! Faruja looks back to Kotone. Offering a bow to the man, the rat salutes Kotone, and makes his way over to the door. For now, he listens to Kotone and the man, even as he peeks into the door. What lies beyond? His tail flicks, curiousity compelling him to /know/. Hopefully it doesn't kill the rat.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Ramuh, meanwhile, floats in the main room, probably relaying anything said to his Summoner.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "We've got LICENSE and EVERYTHING." Arthur says, backing up Summer Powers here. "I'm FULLY QUALIFIED for all relevant RIDDLES, PUZZLES, VERBAL QUESTS, and shit like that, YO." He counts off on his fingers as he talks about this. "Besides, do I LOOK like I got a MASK on my face, bro? This shit is HELLA GENUINE VISAGE."

    He points at himself. Luther didn't have a mask. Mizuki doesn't have a mask. But all the grunts do! LOGICALLY, he assumes there's some level of authority associated with masklessness. It's a bit of a bluff. "We're here on MAD BUSINESS up in this shit, yo, you don't wanna bother the GUARDS." If there's one thing Arthur Lowell is good at doing, it's looking more confident than he actually is.

    He therefore attempts to look like he expects with some authority to no longer be bothered. Then he goes back to floating around the room. EXAMINING. FOR RIDDLEHINTS. "If y'want us OUTTA HERE QUICK, drop us some RIDDLEHINTS, bro." He casually asides to the sudden masked man. "You probably don't want us here LONGER than we GOTTA BE, right?"

Staren has posed:
    Staren looks around as he walks along with Mizuki. He glances at the plaques. "So... you've lived so long, you had to start putting your memories in books? I wonder if I'll have to do that, one day..." He nods at the indicated door when she stops them. "Sounds interesting. Let's check it out." He reaches to open it...

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     "That would depend on the kind of memory you had when you reached that point, I think." Twilight says as she follows Staren and Mizuki. When she reads the subject that is stored in this room, she blinks. "Game theory?" she asks, seeming a bit surprised that an entire room would be devoted to games. Once the door is open, Twilight trots on inside to take a look around. It isn't supposed to be dangerous in here, right?

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    =THE TOP RIGHT ROOM=

    The man that had 'greeted' them quirks an eyebrow at Summer. "Riddle? I'm afraid I've no idea -- oh." He comes to a sudden realization. "So you seek an audience with the Arch Curate, then? Very well. Present the appropriate identification or state a satisfactory reason and I will aid you to the best of my ability." Blank stare. "If you are unable to provide either of these things, then I will still be forced to escort you out of the library." And then... Arthur happens. The man listens intently as he explains his problem sleuthing qualifications, as well as his authority. And... even if it was a long shot, it does in fact get a positive response.

    "Very well." He gives a small bow. "Your lack of of an Anonymity approves your access to this region. Please follow me. We store the clues in secure locations so as not to compromise the security of sensitive areas." If they follow him, he leads the pair to a large bookcase and, true to 'mystery novel style', pulls on a book that elicits movement from the mammoth shelves. It slides out of the way, revealing a chamber and a spiral staircase leading upward. The man bows again, gesturing for them both to go inside. "After you."

    =THE BOTTOM RIGHT HALL=

    The man tears his gaze away from his novel again, glancing to Kotone. Abruptly, he murmurs to them both, "I am your worst critic and you are mine, yet our fates are held forever in twine." He shuts his book. "That is what you were looking for, yes?" You can't see it, but he's probably scowling. "Now leave me be. I've pressing matters to attend to." He walks on down the hall, leaving the pair unless one of them can catch up to him. Probably doesn't help much having one line without any context, though.

    =THE TOP LEFT DOOR=

    Allyn steps through, walking in to... what appears to be an art gallery. A -natural- art gallery, consisting of multitudes of landscape portraits. Disturbingly, it seems that taxonomy is included in this collection as well... but if he can stomach that, he would notice an unusual scent wafting from near the back of the room. Strange, but not bad, and certainly strong enough to attract him.

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer is actually quite taken aback by the bookcase moving. Wow, this is one of those things you actually rarely ever see. And so, as she follows along, towards the bookcase, she ponders, looking at it.

     She lifts a hand to touch the bookcase.

     "Hidden book case path."
     "These actually exist?"
     "I want it as mine."

     She's trying to captchalogue the bookshelf to steal it. IE, using a haiku to put the bookshelf into her 'inventory'.

     It probably won't work but it's worth a chance.

     At the passage itself, Summer rubs her chin for a second, pondering.

     "Ladies first. Lead the way, pB."

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    =THE BOTTOM LEFT HALL=

    Mizuki holds the door for Staren and Twilight, allowing them to wander inside. Immediately after they enter, they would notice the room's most distinguishing feature: a massive picture of a die mounted on the wall. Must be some of that 'modern art'. Feh. Mizuki steps in after them, glancing around. "So many books, so little time." She sighs. "But if it's a room dedicated to games..." She glances around before she locates a chess set, studying the pieces. "Ah, yes. Here we are." She scans the table a while before locating a piece of paper and lifting it up. "Mmm?" She tilts her head. "What is this?"

    If they were to glance at her, they would see that 'Nf3' and 'Qa6' are written on the paper. Meaningless, or...?

Allyn (307) has posed:
Allyn blinks as he enters the room and looks at the paintings curiously, tilting his head a moment at each one. Interesting things here it seems. They don't seem to bother him though. he continues to stare at them for a few moments until he sniffs the air curiously as he thought he smelled something. It does attract his attention of course making him curious as to what it is and where it is coming from. He walks on in the direction the scent is coming from.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Blink blink. Relayed through Ramuh, the rat frowns. He ponders the riddle, though nothing immediately comes to mind. If Ramuh knows? Old Man Thunder isn't talking. And from the smirk beneath that massive beard? Probably enjoying watching his summoner stew over it.

Into the door! Darkness. Faruja smartly takes out a torch, and lights it with his Blaze Gun. Holding out the torch, he starts to search through the room for useful texts. Who knows, maybe there's clues somewhere!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa pauses at the riddle for a moment she titls her hed for a moment. She wonders just what it is and she thinks for a moment and she looks to Faruja for a moment. She wonders what the heck was the guy talking about? Kotone had no damn idea what he was talking about.

"Faruja? A Riddle? WAs he talking about doubt?" She turns to follow after Faruja to see where he's going and will enter into the dark room hopefully Faruja can get the lights working before she enters? Even then she's got a few minor low light options after all. It's time to snoop about.

Faruja (152) has posed:
It happens to be a defunct library, with a few books on the shelves. Pretty dusty too. Cough!

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur totally was expecting that to work. But he pretends he expected it to work! "RAD." He says, grinning and giving him a confident little fingergun. "We're seekin' HELLA AUDIENCE." Drifting along behind the man, he takes an admiring stance at the bookcase with his hands on his hips. "Oh HEY, this is COOL." He says. On invitation, he starts heading through. "SURE!"

    Summer gets a LOOK. "Hey! I'm not...!" He makes frustrated noises and drips in her vague direction aggressively. "Not a girl! God damn it. I'm a guy! Totally manly." Grumbling and making frustrated noises, he just goes ahead anyway. Mostly ignoring the attempted theft. He'll just avoid association with Summer if she gets in TOO MUCH trouble captchaloguing random stuff.

    Let's see what's on the other side here! Arthur's interested in Clue Storage.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    =THE TOP RIGHT ROOM=

    Summer captchalogues the trick bookcase. No, seriously -- it disappears from the world in the bat of an eyelash, leaving the entrance to the 'secret stairs' completely exposed. This earns a blink and a tilt of the head from their newly acquired 'guide', but little more. "I must request that you put that back. Without the bookcase, we cannot obscure the stairwell." Man, these guys are no fun at all. But then, they live in an oversized library, so what do you expect?

    Anyway, assuming they both proceed up the spiral stairs, they would find themselves in a room with a tented roof. They're probably near the top here, and the denting is on account of the dome shape, but that aside. Every side of the room has a bookcase, but there is otherwise no furniture to speak of. No, there are simply four columns in the room... but ah. It's what they're placed around that matters! Yes, just before them is every RPG players dream: a CHEST. The guide walks over to it and opens its top.

    ... and promptly has his mask broken by a powerful metal dart that flies at him. He stands perfectly still a moment before slowly collapsing backwards. Judging by the blood and the not-moving, that... was probably quite fatal! But thankfully, the chest is still open, and inside of it is... a stone carving. Should they take it, they would see that it reads:

    "The look of me you may favor, though you may not if you come back later."

    "What am I?"

Staren has posed:
    Staren blinks. "Game theory isn't just about games, it's--" And then his ears perk up at a familiar voice and he turns around with open arms. "Twilight!" He runs up to hug her, shifts forms again mid-hug, then nuzzles before letting go and stepping back. "So glad you could make it!" He smiles wide, then looks around the room. The large picture of a die just makes him cock his head to the side a bit. "...Game theory is stuff like... have you ever heard of the Prisoner's Dilemma?" And then Mizuki finds a piece of paper. Staren grabs it with telekinesis, "Huh." Then shows it to Twilight. "Maybe it's chess moves? Part of a famous play?"

    Once she's deciphered it, Staren moves up to the board to see them execute the moves. Of course, the Queen can't move in the start position, so once this is pointed out, he scratches his head with a hoof. "I don't get it. Why would they list moves you can't play? ...Oh well, what if we move her there anyway?"

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer, for her part, seems actually a bit surprised that the guy just flat out /died/. If she had cared more, she'd probably see about trying to revive him, or stop the death, but like. She can't save /everyone/, and she knows that.

     She looks at the stone carving. Sighs.

     "It's a mirror or a reflection or something like that. Isn't it."

     "Do you wanna captchalogue the carving, pB, or shall I?"

     Summer, meanwhile, looks through the books in this section, trying to get an idea of what they'd hide behind a bookshelf.

     Also she is so totally not returning the bookshelf.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "JESUS FUCK WHAT THE HELL" Arthur says, articulately. "CHRIST SHIT WHAT" He continues to elucidate. He winds up sort of turbo-drifting back and slamming his back against the frame of the passage they just went through when their guide gets murdered in front of them. His eyes are wide and he's feeling nauseous.

    Trying to calm down quickly, he keeps his distance. "Y'know what? Uh... You... Handle that." All he does is take a moment to read it. He'd rather just leave the room immediately. It's not a "real person", but god DAMN, he sure is disturbed by SUDDEN SURPRISE DEATH.

    He tries to get his mind in order for a while while he drifts back out as if nothing had happened, and tries to head back to the main area.

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Twilight looks at the plethora of books with wide eyes, practically drooling, then shakes her head quickly before looking at the note. "Nf3 and Qa6...?" Twilight says softly to herself. She seems confused a moment before she notices the chess board. She blinks, then smiles. "Moves in the game of chess!" she says excitedly before heading over to the board. She looks at the board a moment before her horn glows and one of the white knights floats up before moving over to the space designated f3 and setting itself down. Twilight pauses after that. "Oh...but, from this position, it will be a few moves before the Queen can be in that spot." Twilight is a stickler for rules, after all.

     So, she moves the pawn to the black queen's right forward one, then moves the white pawn that is flanking the white knight up two, then moves the black queen diagonal to row 6, then moves a white pawn in to proper defensive alignment behind the first before moving the black queen over to a6. "There." Twilight says, smiling in satisfaction.

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer proceeds to not captchalogue the stone, but instead, just pick it up.

     "Well, should we check out one of the other paths, or meet up with the others?"

     Also as per her earlier comment, Summer picks the corpse up and carries it over her shoulder. She /said/ she was going to toss a corpse through a room later, and she is /going/ to do it.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    =THE TOP LEFT ROOM=

    Allyn braves the literal stuffed animal displays to find... a vial of purple liquid in the back corner of the room. It's placed on top of a slip of paper that reads, "In the jaws of the carnivorous producer." That's... it. He's given absolutely nothing else to go on. But considering 'jaws', there's a fairly large number of mouths in this room. There's a stuffed cheetah, a wolf... it might also pertain to some of the birds that hang from the ceiling. However, that second word might help him narrow things down a bit. There are also displays of a venus flytrap, a wild boar, a Meerkat...

    ... okay, yeah, there are lots of dead things in this room. They may be imaginary dead things, but that probably doesn't help much.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Faruja and Kotone meander into... The Lost Library. Or one of them -- there are probably a lot of places that get lost and forgotten when the building is as cavernous as this one happens to be. Regardless, the pair's 'low light options' do much to clarify the room's contents, revealing all manner of cobwebs, empty shelves, dusty tables... so yes, what Faruja has already pointed out. Scrounging around for clues in here isn't exactly easy considering the phenomenal mess, but eventually, one of them might notice something: one of the bookcases is not affixed to the wall, and appears moveable. Neither person would be able to make out what's actually -behind- it, though, so... 'move at own risk'.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "UGH, let's just... Let's just go back, try to get our SHIT TOGETHER, put these PUZZLES togAUGH." Arthur is mumbling until he looks at Summer and flails a bit in panic. "CHRIST, at least stick that shit in your SYLLADEX." He says, now sweating from the overexposure to death.

    Heeeading back to main hall!

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer puts the corpse into the sylladex, because Arthur is a wuss.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Faruja looks to the bookcase, then to Kotone after coughing a few more times. Faruja cracks his knuckles. "Care for a touch of a workout, mine dear?" With that? Cue gravity to the side of the bookcase, if Kotone comes to help. No, the rat with the bad knee isn't going to be trying to shove the bookcase aside. He has enough problems as it stands.

Allyn (307) has posed:
Allyn raises an eyebrow at the vial and the note he finds. Well, he's not sure, but he takes the vial and sniffs at it for a few moments to see what it smells like. Carrying it he heads over towards the venus flytrap and leans down to sniff at it, maybe the scents are similiar? He sniffs and ponders. Though the stuffed animals do make him a little uncomfortable for some reason. It's not improving the already dark mood he was in any at least. Well, he might as well start somewhere and since he is near the flytrap he sticks a finger down inside it and fishes around to see if there is anything inside it.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa gets the idea from Faruja and nods. "Let me get that. I can't really work out anymore but shall we?"

Odd thing to say as she moves to help Faruja with the book case and one thing's clear. She's tronger than her build should allow her to be as she moves to aid him.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    =THE BOTTOM LEFT ROOM=

    So of course, Staren and Twilight are able to figure that the note is actually chess notation for 'move the knight here, and move the queen there'. Twilight moves the queen into place, and there's a sudden -click-. The picture of the die flips around to reveal... words! Yes, there's a passage there that hints at another part of the riddle:

    "I am the beginning and the end, yet I am composed only of velvet and thread."

    So it would seem whatever they did worked. Mizuki nods confusedly and offers a small 'hmm'.

    "I never really was that fond of chess. Far too much logic for my liking."

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer heads back towards the center room again, near the door that is the goal of the whole place.

     She briefly considers throwing the corpse into the center room with the others, but decides, well... Save it for the /important/ door.

     ...Though this is likely to freak some of the others out a bit. Oh well.

Staren has posed:
    Staren watches Twilight move the pieces, then steps away from the die, startled, when it makes its sound. He turns to look. "The beginning and the end? Velvet and thread? An article of clothing, perhaps? Or a piece of a game table or mat set up...?" he cocks his head one way and then the other, thinking.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    =THE TOP LEFT ROOM=

    At Allyn's approach, the venus flytrap's mouth flips open! And there's... a key in there. Well, that was easy. Still, he might need to be a bit careful when removing it -- that thing is liable to bite off his hand if he isn't quick about the retrieval.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    =THE BOTTOM RIGHT ROOM=

    Aided by Faruja's magicking, he and Kotone are able to sloowly slide the bookcase out of the way. And this reveals... a key. Yep, a lone key hanging on a metal band in a small indentation in the wall. A tag on it reads, 'Right entrance door'.

    That's... entirely useless. Or maybe the door locked when they came in here? One never knows.

Allyn (307) has posed:
Allyn blinks as he feels the key inside the mouth of the flytrap and he hmms. Well, seems like he was right to pick the plant first. He ponders how to get it out though without getting bitten, because that might hurt. He gets an idea after a moment of pondering it. He moves his hand that is holding the vial and places to vial inside the flytrap's mouth so it wont be able to close on him. Of course he can't put it all the way inside because his other hand is in the plant, he should have thought of that first, but he manages to get it in place a little ways and then withdraws his hand with the key.

Then he glances around the room to see if there are any doors and if he doesn't find any others he's going to head back to that center door and try the key in it.

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Twilight gasps as the picture turns, then giggles excitedly. She hasn't gotten to solve puzzles like this very often. She reads the clue, then hmms after listening to Staren's suggestions. "It would make sense that the clue would have to do with games, but...it sounds like a curtain to me. Like the kind on a performing stage." Twilight says to Mizuki and Staren before blinking at Mizuki. "Too much logic? Logic is a useful tool. Especially in a battle situation such as the one staged in the game of chess. Charging into a situation without planning can often go badly for those involved in the charge."

     And, Twilight loves logic. Everything should be logical to her.

Staren has posed:
    Staren gasps. "A curtain... That's brilliant! You're really good at this!"

Faruja (152) has posed:
A key to the very room they entered through. Frown! Faruja rubs his temples. "...Well. That was a waste of mana and muscle alike. Ahh, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained as ye humans say. Shall we rejoin the others, mine dear?" Siiiigh.

Then, holding the door open for Kotone, he'll head on back to the others in the main room.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    =THE TOP RIGHT ROOM=

    On their way out, Arthur and Summer get a good number of long, eerie looks from those still lingering inside. But they go about their work as normal, probably completely oblivious to the death of their colleague. The repetition in their behavior just serves to cement the idea that 'these are not thinking people, so don't bother with them'. NPCs indeed.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa looks at Faruja for a moment she sighs and nods a bit.

"Not at all lets get going it could have been worse right?"

She moves to depart smiling a bit as he holds the door over. Sometimes it's nice when someone does that for you and isn't playing any sort of angle.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    =THE BOTTOM LEFT HALL=

    Mizuki nods to Twilight. "Yes, yes, logic has its uses. But too much of it hinders the imagination." She makes a shrugging gesture. "And since I myself am a loosely defined, somewhat imaginary entity, too much of it can literally make me sick. In fact, too much of it could probably crush my existence. But I'll reveal more of what I mean by that some other time." With that, she saunters out of the room, and back to the lobby.

    =IN THE MAIN ROOM=

    Allyn tries the key on the front-center door, and it opens to reveal yet another staircase. This one leads directly upwards, to a room with... well, what a surprise. Another door. There are two more statues that flank the door and yet more tables and floral arrangements scattered around, and if one were to look behind themselves, they would see curtains along the wall. So only one of the pieces of the puzzle are present at the moment! But that probably won't be the case for long.

    Needless to say, this door is locked. And probably magically resistant to literally everything(tm). Probably.

Allyn (307) has posed:
Allyn wasn't too surprised when the door unlocks, but he does blink at the new set of stairs, which of course he climbs and takes a look around. Well, he doesn't think the key he found will work on that door, so he doesn't even try it. Different doors have different keys right? and he thinks Faruja said he found a key, well he'll let people know what he found. He does look around and behidn the plants though to see what might be there, he is curious after all.

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer heads to the main room, and then up the now unlocked door, to the new door. She ponders, looking at the door.

     She ejects the stone statue she was carrying at the door. Maybe /that/ is the key?

     Assuming it probably just bounces harmlessly off the door, she ponders.

     "Stand back, guys, I wanna try something."

     Pause.

     "Unless one of you have an idea."

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Twilight blinks again. Logic could...kill Mizuki? She shivers lightly at the thought of logic being deadly, then follows after Mizuki while smiling to Staren. "Riddles are great for strengthening the mind, not to mention quite fun. I enjoy solving them." she says, then her ears splay a bit. "...Spike hid all my riddle books after I kept asking him riddles. I was just trying to help him learn!"

Faruja (152) has posed:
Ear-perk. Faruja turns to Summer.

"Aside from trying all of our keys? By all means M'Lady." Excuse him while he steps back a bit.

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Once everyone is, hopefully, backed up, Summer is going to try her thing.

     "LET'S DO THIS!"

     She holds her hand up, and a /massive/ amount of energy is beginning to form. A gigantic ball of pure Life appears in front of her arm. This is the Life of a /large/ number of people. An incredible number. Summer focuses /incredibly/ hard on this ball of energy, trying to prepare it.

     It turns into a /massive/ thorned vine that fills up most of the stairway. It flings forward, trying to bash straight into the door. At the same time, it is trying to take away 'Life' from the door. Life can be pretty vague, so she is hoping she can steal the 'Life' from the enchantments holding the door in place, and barring people from breaking into it by magic.

     This is probably going to cause a large amount of property damage on other things in the hallway. You know, anything not enchanted. The vine is so large the path can barely contain it. It's rubbing against the walls, too.

Staren has posed:
    Staren frowns slightly. Logic could kill Mizuki? What, like if someone proves she's not real? But that would be /illogical/. She clearly /does/ exist... still, maybe now isn't the time to inquire further. He smiles at Twilight, "You did it, you solved it!" Cue another hug and affectionate nuzzle before he walks with her after Mizuki. "Well, if you like riddles... I wonder if you've heard this one? It's famous among humans, but I doubt ponies would have heard it, though you might have if you've read the story... I walk on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening. What am I?"

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    The vines wind up and around the stairs, positioning themselves in front of the door, and... bashing. The maneuver is flawlessly destructive and completely mutilates the door... but behind it, there's no other room to speak of. All Summer seems to have done was open up a gaping hole in the wall that leads to another library room from which several people are staring back.

    So, long story short? This door never lead anywhere. There's your 'fake'. And yet, there's nothing else in the room. Just the curtains and the walls.

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer stares at the people on the other side of the doorway that leads to not where they were planning to go.

     She almost immediately ejects the corpse from her sylladex, into the room, aiming to land it onto one of the tables.

Allyn (307) has posed:
Allyn blinks as the hole is put through the wall and frowns a little. Well, that was interesting. He shrugs a little and peers over at Faruja for a few moments.

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Twilight nuzzles and hugs Staren in return, then shakes her head. "I'm afraid I don't know that one. Um..." She tries to think of an answer, but there really is nothing analagous in Equestria. She shrugs...then yelps in surprise when that vine suddenly crashes up the stairs and through the door. And then...there's a dead person on a table. Twilight pales visibly, even through her fur, but doesn't say anything. Not everywhere is Equestria. Not everywhere is Equestria...

     Twilight repeats that to herself a few times in her head and tries to dismiss it, but death is much more serious to her than it might be to most others. And she has no idea where this corpse came from or who it used to be. "Who is that? What happened to them? And...how could you just throw them onto a table in a library?! Have you no respect for the dead, or knowledge?!" Twilight exclaims, obviously a bit upset by the situation. She barely notices the people staring back at them.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has made it back to the main room and is now just watching some of the things are thare going on she stares at Summer. She just stares at what's she's doing right now.

"...That's new."

That is so very much new, well no one's hurt right?

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     The corpse is very much hurt.

     Thankfully it's already dead though.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Summer might feel a peering upon her back, as Faruja notes both a corpse tossed, and what feels suspiciously like Life itself. Faruja mouths the word 'Heretic' under his breath, before all but stalking into the room. His cane hits the floor rather hard. A swift nod in Twilight's direction. She took the words from his mouth.

The body? Faruja sets about properly covering it, praying over it, and even covering the body with a spare set of robes. An extra cross is set upon the ex-living-person's chest.

"Go into the Lord's arms in peace, thine Sins forgiven. Amen."

Then he points his Blaze Gun at the man on the table, and pulls the trigger. If he can't do a burial, he'll do cremation.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Athur's totally followed along! For now, he's focusing on the room that was just before the fake...? Door. This one has CURTAINS. Faruja's got the ones past the door, so Arthur takes these, looking around them, under them... He considers the tables. Does he need to push these around? Maybe in some way that references the curtains? Arthur had to deal with a lot of box-pushing puzzles before.

    It's just a general curtain-centric investigation on the side Faruja's not on.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    That came after his reaction to Summer tossing corpses around. Or, rather, his nauseous, nervous lack of reaction. Muttering swears, mostly. He's a bit uneasy about the corpses thing when it's not monster corpses!

Staren has posed:
    Staren walks along. "Should I just tell you? The clue is that the riddle is for /humans/, but... I'm not sure you would have seen what you'd need to have seen, to get--" And then there's a crash. Staren gallops after Twilight, seeing the destruction, following her upstairs, and... seeing a corpse? "How did someone die here? This is a world of-- Faruja, NO!" His horn glows, and he attempts to Twiliport himself and the corpse downstairs just as Faruja pulls the trigger.

    *POOF*

    Staren takes a deep breath. Good thing that worked. Then he shifts back to normal form. "We could at least /try/." He reaches under his coat and pulls out a necklace that totally wasn't there, with a gear-shaped pendant engraved with a triple-M monogram. He's not sure if that's the right symbol, but the important thing here is to invoke as many tropes as can fit to help his imagination. Then he pulls out a couple of vials and steps up to the corpse, holding the symbol high. "By the power of Morg... Who is just as curious to see if this will work..." he pops the stoppers off the vials and pours glittering powder and black powder over the body. And then he shouts with echo and reverb, "RAISE DEAD!" And then quickly kneels and touches the corpse with his hand.

    And then he imagines it working.

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    And sure enough, the man soon begins breathing again... though that logically shouldn't last long, given that his face is still kinda torn up. And no one ever removed the steel dart, but oh well. At least he's alive, albeit unconscious.

    Mizuki 'hmms' a moment, summoning her sword into her left hand. "I think I have this figured out, actually. A curtain..." She horizontally slashes her sword across the crimson silk, making it fall. "A mirror," She adds. And cutting back the curtains did indeed reveal a mirror. Peering into the mirror... she sees something. "And a fake. Look at this, would you please?" She points into the mirror, which reflects another door on the wall to the right of the gaping hole.

    Afterwards, she meanders over to that space on the wall and, using the mirror image as a reference, turns the knob. It opens to reveal another room, this one circular with a carpeted floor -- a bit like the Oval Office, actually, just without any windows. Also like the president's office, it has a red velvet chair and a desk, along with several bookcases, some potted plants... all sorts of decorative paraphernalia.

    But there's no one here. So again, they must've botched somewhere. Or so they might think, until Mizuki retrieves an envelope from the desk, the contents of which she soon reads aloud.

    "Greetings, guests. If you have found this room, then you have taken the first step to finding me, and finding the clock number that you're looking for. Now comes the second step: I will wait for all of you in the House of Jurisprudence on the other side of the city, and you will meet me there. Then a trial will be held in which I deem whether or not you should have the number. The chances I will willingly bequeath it to you all are slim, but I doubt very much that that will stop you, or even delay you in any capacity. So come, and we will settle things."

    "With regards, The Arch Curate."

Staren has posed:
    Staren blinks. He's kind of surprised that worked! Then he notices the torn up face and dart. Whoops. "Uh... CURE SERIOUS WOUNDS?" he intones, grabbing the dart away and touching the man again.

    Then he watches Mizuki. "Ahhhhh..." he nods as he sees the trick with the mirror door.

    When he hears 'the first step' he sighs and visibly deflates. "Seriously? It's gonna be one of those ridiculous long quest chai-- wait, really? We can just go meet her now?" He straightenes up and scratches his head. "Well, that's good."

Faruja (152) has posed:
Faruja finds himself leaping backwards from the blazing inferno of a table that he's created.

The priest-rat rounds on Staren. Who isn't there. Grrrrr! HIs voice may be loud enough to fill the entire complex, and definitely downstairs.

"OH BY AJORA'S KNICKERS, STAREN! CAN YE NOT FIND A TOUCH OF RESPECT FOR THE DECEASED IN THINE HEART, STAREN! DAMNIT, SIRRAH! THE MAN DESERVES A PROPER FUNERAL! AND WHAT IN THE BLOODY ABYSS IS THIS 'MORG'!?!?"

After a few moments of Angry Priest Muttering, the rat teleports down stairs. Pause. Faruja runs his hand down his face.

"...Going to need a long nap, and an entire keg to wipe /this/ memory away." Mutter mutter mutter. He does seem to brighten slightly as they at least find a message.

"Lord in Heaven. This woman is most infuriating, and /obtuse/. A /trial/!? Hmph! Fine."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa watches as Faruja read the dead person last rights. She understands the gesture she's also giving Summer a look. She's not going to say much uit would be foolish to pick a fight at this point. She then stares at Staren wait did he just invoke a god? She sees how badly off the man is and given this place she's already wills medical stuff into exiustan and tries to get to work, and do what she can do. Maybe it's nothing.

"Faruja if you can heal he need aid or he will pop off again!"

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer is actually... a bit surprised how easy it was, relatively, to bring this person back to life. That's actually incredibly unusual! She also didn't realize Staren was a Cleric.

     "...If I had realized it'd take so little to revive the guy, I probably would of myself. Seriously, it looks like it took you very little effort. Even for me, it usually takes a /lot/ to bring someone back from the dead. A /whole lot/."

     She hasn't realized how this world entirely works, yet.

     "...Also, I really need to get some clerics in my name, sometime."

     A glance at Faruja.

     "Also. If the person who is running this quest is annoying you? Once you guys get what you want, just punch the person in the face."

Faruja (152) has posed:
Faruja doesn't respond to Kotone. No, he's too busy Summoning the winged woman Fairy, as well as about a dozen Moogles. They all dance around the man in a circle, singing. This somehow causes magical energies to float down and attempt to cure him. Summoners are weird.

To Summer, a glance.

"...While hardly polite, at this rate M'lady? Bloody tempting." Knuckle-crack. Oh yes. Faruja's very tempted to go Lower-East-Burmecian-Side on this Curate's rear.

Staren has posed:
    Staren gives Faruja a look. "I had enough respect to save him instead of giving up." He looks back to Summer. "Morg doesn't grant spells, and I made the ritual up on the spot. Diamond dust -- a stone some see as one of the most valuable materials in the world, and yet, it's easily made from carbon -- symbolizing how with ease I'm doing something most consider incredibly difficult and valuable -- and nanomachines, which could play a part in bringing someone back to life through a rather more lengthly process. I wasn't sure if I could just /will/ him back to life, but I thought it might be more likely to work if I did it with a little flair and tried to get you guys to believe it, too."

Allyn (307) has posed:
Allyn blinks as he listens to Mizuki and nods some, "Sounds kind of interesting, guess we have something to get ready for, hmm?" he ponders and heads out of the room, blinking again at Faruja's outburst and then shakes his head. Maybe everyone is going mad? He walks over towards Faruja, "It's not worth going mad over my friend, don't give into anger. Trust me, don't, please?" he begs Faruja for a moment. "It'll change you." he then turns and wanders off shaking his head.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Faruja looks first to Staren, then Allyn. Finally, he sighs. A shake of the head, and he slumps against a wall.

"...Ye art right. Sorry." A rub of the temples. No, he's not yet used to the Multiverse, or the temper it at times inspires in him.

Staren has posed:
    Staren shrugs. "It's alright. Doesn't look like anyone else thought of it either, so..." He looks back at the man. "Who is this guy, anyway?"

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Twilight is rather surprised by Staren's sudden outburst and teleportation. Was that her teleportation spell? She follows the others back downstairs, then blinks as the formerly dead guy seems to be breathing again. "Oh my goodness! Staren! You just resurrected that man!" she exclaims happily, then leaps to give Staren a huge hug around the neck with her forelegs.

Staren has posed:
    Staren's a bit taken aback at Twilight's response. "Uh... well... um...?" He wraps an arm around her. "I mean... anyone could have done it... It was just the power of imagination..." It... he's not sure how big a deal it really is, since he did it that easily... finally he just hugs her back. "I'm glad I thought to try it, though. Although, it might just mean he wasn't really dead."

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer stares at Staren.

     "...Wait. Wait wait wait. Is this a world where imagination is /real/ or something?"

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Twilight seems confused about why Staren doesn't think it is a big deal. "Someone's life could have been over forever! And now it isn't! I would think you of all people would celebrate that." she says, a light smile still on her face. Then she blinks when Staren mentions imagination and Summer asks her question. "Oh dear. If that is true, we can never bring Pinkie here." she says before looking around at the others. "Well, if we are ready to meet this lady, then we should get some rest before heading to her trial."

Staren has posed:
    Staren smiles at Twilight. "That's true. Even if it was easy, it's important that it was done. Unless everyone here revives at the end of the day or something, I have no idea."

    Staren looks back at Summer blankly, like she asked a question with an incredibly obvious answer. Then he just holds his arms up and says, "IMAGINATION!" As he speaks, he spreads his arms apart, and the word appears in the air over his head in 3D block letters. Then he grabs the word and raps it against the wall. "Seems pretty real to me." He nibbles on the first I. "Tastes real too. Mm. Strawberry." He's having trouble surpressing his smirk now, as he pulls out the A and tosses it to Summer. "I never liked the taste of the green ones." He breaks off the I, then offers the rest to the others, Twilight first.

Staren has posed:
    "People always said I'd eat my words. ...Well, I'm sure someone said it at some point. I never knew they'd be so delicious." Staren mutters.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa llooks at Staren for a moment.

"What is actual reality, your senses feed you what it is but all of them can be tricked. When you lost your form once you start to think about such things. Just what /is/ real anyway."

Staren has posed:
    "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Staren quotes automatically.

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer catches the A. And just stares at it.

     She pauses.

     The A suddenly turns into a pair of sunglasses. She promptly puts them on.

     "...Peace out. I need time to think on this."

     And she turns and leaves the dungeon.

     Okay fine it's a library.

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Twilight blinkblinks as the word appears over Staren's head. She looks puzzled when he starts breaking the word apart. She eeps as she is offered a piece, then carefully takes it and examines it.

     Then, Staren makes his pun, and Twilight blinks before bursting out laughing. "Most people do not enjoy the taste of their own words." she says before experimentally nibbling on the letter she was given.

Staren has posed:
    Staren was expecting... a more enthusiastic reply from Summer. He simply nods as she leaves. "See ya later, then." The N given to Twilight is grape-flavored. The letters have a slightly gummy consistancy, sort of between that of gummy candy and hard candy -- soft enough to make taking small bites practical, but hard enough that the letters remain firm instead of drooping about.

    Staren chuckles at Twilight's comments. "Yeah. Most people... And me, most of the time... don't choose our words to be eaten." He smiles slightly, and steps next to her, sort of half-resting an arm on her back. "I suppose we probably need to be getting back, though. Is anyone watching Spike?"

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Twilight perks at the taste of the letter, then giggles softly and takes a larger bite. After swallowing, she nods. "We should get back. Spike is generally able to take care of himself, but he tends to stay up too late if I don't put him to bed."

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods and walks out of the Library with her then. From there... portal travel (courtesy of Arthur), balloon ride, grow wings and fly, there are kind of countless options for getting back to the gate

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa smirks at Staren a little bit at his answer.

"An interesting answer. I need to get home, I need to get back to my reality for a bit. I have a design due for a client soon I need to deal with. IF any of you need a motorcycle designed let me know."

With that she's going to head on her way.