Scene #8954: Elegy One

Owner	Pose
Kale Hearthward	TWENTY YEARS AGO: This world unified. There was nothing, really, of note. A dozen different worlds unified that day across the multiverse, and a dozen more the next day, all more interesting or dangerous than this one. This world, given the arbitrary designation SE-1367, is a couple miles of desert wasteland and canyons. There's not much worth scavenging here. There's even less worth sightseeing for. The archeological corps spent a day here, just to cross it off their checklist, and then moved on. LAST WEEK: ...The world started destabilizing. The silvery border started glowing around its edges, signaling that it was about to de-unify, disappearing from the multiverse forever. The Commonwealth's best unificologists took readings, did calculations, and gave the prognosis: SE-1367 will disappear forever on the 29th of this month of this year. The Commonwealth did its due diligence - a flyover of the world, with a loudspeaker blasting a warning, followed by the same warning being broadcast by radio, universal dot-dash light code, psychic emitter, aetherial frequency modulator, fate attenuator, and a dozen different other methods to make ab-so-lute-ly sure that everyone staying in the world knew what they were getting into once the world finishes destabilizing. (Which is to say, that they know that nobody knows what they're getting into.) YESTERDAY: A routine flyover spotted... people. Humans. And buildings. Lots of both, but all clustered together in a canyon that was absolutely bare before, aside from the odd boulder or shrub. Initial attempts at first contact were unsuccessful. Initial long range scans revealed... nobody was actually there. At that point, it was declared that whatever is going on here was not something for the Commonwealth's rank and file to handle, but to be escalated to the Elites. ... Meaning, you. TODAY: So the first thing you might notice is that the people here might not be humans. ((check your pages after this pose)) There's a dozen buildings here, of various heights - most single or double story, one that's ten stories tall - roughly arrayed around a central open area, with a few boulders here and there. That's where there people are mostly located, and they are, for the most part... dancing. They're pairing up, and slow dancing with each other. Occasionally someone will enter or leave one of the buildings. Kale's arriving on scene in a small Sundew Kingdom airship, along with his crew Skye and Hazelthistle. Anyone joining is welcome to ride along with them.
Ishirou	'Strange,' was the word that came to mind for Ishirou as he approached, on the airship Kale his crew manned. Not because of the people, them being human-android hybrids, but because they were all dancing... slow dancing in an area that would destabilize soon and leave the multiverse. 'What is going on here,' Ishirou wondered to himself, and once he got the chance, he would jump over the side of the ship and land in a three-point stance. On the ground he approached the group of people, attempting to get a word to them. "Excuse me, this area is about to disappear soon... for your safety, we need to get you out of here and to someplace more stable..." he starts trying to talk and impress upon anyone who would listen how dangerous it was here and how soon they needed to get aboard the airship. Ishirou also took time to scan the area, looking for people in the buildings that people kept going in and out of, trying to figure out what was going on there, if anything.
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan is at the furthest point on the airship one can get from everyone else, surely out of a general politeness for previous events. This place is on the bow, hanging his legs over the edge and leaned up against whatever passes as a figurehead. His fingers slide back and forth over his tablet, tail twitching back and forth, playing an audio text to speech of different parts of the report. Looking at pictures. humans. He has his normal fit on, bucklers at his side, saddle bag filled with a few small adventuring supplies. Aidan makes the same leap off as Ishirou, perfect three point stance, and jogs off in another direction from Ishirou to cover some space. "Wow... there's so many colors here. I didn't know we could come in blue and red and yellow." He looks over himself, then back at his tail, contemplating, then back forward again. A smile on his face, Aidan approaches a dancing group as well. "Hi there! I'm Aidan Proudpick." Aidan moves slowly around them to keep in a visual range, "Elite with the Watch? Can ya tell me where we can find someone in charge?"
Hellwarming Trio	Three more figures come in from overhead, having received the summons to join Kale's investigation into this unfamiliar place filled with dancing folks and a strange inability to be contacted until now. They come in gliding down after Ishirou and Aidan, not seeming too worried about how an airship dropping off so many visitors at once might look. They might also be doing it on purpose. Utsuho picks at an ear lightly as she touches down with a heavy thunk from her stony-looking foot, hopping forward a few times to stop besides Ishirou. "Do you need a lift? We've got one up there, but I dunno if it'll fit everyone. How many of you are there, anyway?" Rin comes more swiftly, but with a far lighter step as she bounds over between Utsuho and Ishirou, leaning forward to peer at the first group with an inquisitive grin. "We'll be makin' plenty of stops if we can't fit all o' you, anyway, so don't start pushin'! And... What are ya, anyway?" Satori comes a little bit after the others, not in a hurry at all while simultaneously looking tired already. "Rin... You know it's rude to ask that kind of thing." She asks while already listening for thoughts from the group they've approached, to hear what they might think of the visiting Elites and if their responses end up matching with what thoughts she can hear. Satori also dips into a light curtsey afterwards, prompting Utsuho and Rin to do the same once they notice.
Kale Hearthward	The people don't respond to Ishirou's inquiry, or to Aidan's. They don't, really, even seem to notice the two. In fact, one of them walks right through Aidan. Literally. Like he's not even there, or - more likely, like they're not even there. The dancers seem to be following a pattern... two of them pair up, dance for a while, and then the three of them split off to either head inside a building or go find another pair. ... Three? "Hey." That's Skye, approaching Aidan. "You got a moment?" she says, phrasing it as a statement and not a question. > "What are ya, anyway?" Kale heads over to the trio. "Bird people, obviously." "And we've got a couple weeks, so it shouldn't be a problem to get everyone out..." He pauses. "Uh - Utsuho, are you - Utsuho, or the other Utsuho?" He doesn't have a better way to ask that, unfortunately.
Ishirou	Ishirou is walked right through as if he did not exist. Literally. This is off-putting, as he turns to face the rest of his group again, looking a little pale and trying to figure out what is going on. Are these ghosts? Holograms? He's trying to figure it out and use his senses to try and make sense of what is happening here. 'Bird people, obviously.' "Huh? What bird people, these people are Human-Android Hybrids." he says, pointing back at the ones who just walked through him.
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan looks over at the three, lifting his arm to wave over at Utsuho, Rin, and Satori, only to turn back around as someone passes right through him. "Wh-" He pats his chest. Orange eyes follow along with the dancer, noticing the fission of dancers, then how they move into the buildings. Well, that's an obvious answer to Aidan. He heads towards the nearest building! "Hey." A little puff of breath, a slight sag of the shoulders, and a sheepish "Hello, Skye." He points at the building as he walks towards it, "Of all the things I owe yer crew, right? Talking's the least."
Hellwarming Trio	"Bird people? Uhh... Yeah, some of them, I guess." "But they're ignorin' us... Hey! Any of you know how to speak?!" Unlike Utsuho and Rin, Satori remains quiet at first as she approaches one of the dancing pairs. She listens further, to try and hear anything coming from them, but the lack of responses is moderately concerning already. When the pair splits into a trio, Satori follows the one(s) that head into a building to scope that fishiness out. In her haste to follow that hunch, she also forgets to actually mention anything to Utsuho and Rin. Rin's still getting more riled up the more the people don't respond to her, eventually grunting in irritation before catching onto Ishirou's observation. "Eh? What're ya talkin' about, Ishirou? These're youkai!" Utsuho, meanwhile, has already lost interest in the dancers in favor of turning to Kale. "Uh? Oh. I'm Utsuho! I haven't seen that other one in a while, now that you mention it. Wonder how she's doing..." She taps a finger to her chin thoughtfully, apparently getting what he's saying even with that way of asking that. "You seen her around anywhere?"
Kale Hearthward	Ishirou's scans show that practically everything here is a hologram. The scans don't quite match up with what his eyes are seeing, though? "They're bird people, right?" says Kale. "Androids?" "I see mice," says Hazelthistle, who's watching one of the dancing pairs carefully. "Birds," says Skye. "So birds win by majority vote." Then, to Aidan: "Look." She crosses her arms. "Hazelthistle's more forgiving than I am. She's fine with just having a fresh start. Everything's forgotten, start again from square one." "She says it's not really a big deal, that guys read too much into things all the time, you aren't the first and won't be the last..." "... I say, fine, but if you hurt her, I hurt you back twice as bad. You're the perfect gentleman or you don't talk to her at all. You get me?" Hazelthistle, meanwhile, is endeavoring to not listen in on what's being said about her, and has made her way over towards Ishirou. "So it's two people dancing, and then they turn into three people... I don't know. There's an obvious guess about what's going on, but it can't possibly be that, right?" She pokes one of the dancers. Her finger goes all the way through, with no resistance. Satori goes to scope out some of the buildings. The single and double floor ones are very well furnished, looking like rich peoples' houses... although the furniture style and architecture looks rather alien. The ten story building seems to be small apartments, with a lot of people packed in together. All of the buildings are as illusory as the people, so she'd have to noclip through the ceilings to see everything. To Utsuho, Kale nods. "I haven't heard from her in a while either. Sometimes people just kind of fade away, go retire, or just... go do something else." "I'm glad you and your friends are around, though." Friends? Is that the right word? "You all doing okay? I haven't kept in touch, I guess. I've been... having a busy month."
Ishirou	"We're all seeing different things..." Ishirou says, realizing that it's holograms and sophisticated ones at that. Ishirou also pretends to not hear the conversation that Skye has about Hazelthistele. It's not his business, and if anything he doesn't owe a thing to Aidan. "These are sophisticated Holos then because it's able to scan our minds and pull out what we're wanting to see based on what we are..." Once realizing the buildings are also holograms, he takes a moment to try and scan for a power source, something nearby that can be powering a projection field powerful enough to be able to produce something this sophisticated. "I'm looking for something that'll give us more of a clue on what we're looking at and for... a power source or projector..."
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan sticks his hand into the building. He pulls it out. He sticks his head into the building. "Hold on, can you hear this?" He asks Skye, with his head in the building. Once back out, he finally looks back at Skye, his face full of shame. "Yea, course. I AM sorry for everything I did that day. Kale didn't deserve that, neither does Hazelthistle or you or anyone. If I hurt your crew like that again, I deserve what you come at me with." A turn back towards the building, pushing air at it, sucking air from it, waving his hand around in it. Aidan sits down, crisscross applesauce style, just on the edge of the building, looking in while keeping his ears out for Skye. He just... watches. Watching people go in. Watching them go out. Ever since that moment with Heyalexa, since the Gale Empire, he's just trying to learn. Absorb what people feel, if he can.
Hellwarming Trio	"You're seein' humans and androids, you're seein' mice, you and him're seein' birds... What's with all this?" Rin puzzles over what that could possibly mean as her gaze goes everywhere, following Skye over to Aidan for a moment before turning back to Ishirou. "That's real weird... Oh, you've got the cool scanny stuff, right? You're pickin' up... Holos? The heck is a holo?" Utsuho, meanwhile, doesn't wonder about a thing as she simply nods firmly with a broad smile that makes it pretty obvious there's no more than a single thought occupying her brain currently. "Yeah, we're doing fine! Work back home's been busy for the past couple of months, but it's been slowing down again. I've heard you and everyone else have been pretty busy, yeah..."] Her mood dampens slightly as she considers what he said earlier, then nods slowly. "... Guess some more people have been disappearing, too, huh? You think they might've ended up somewhere here?" Satori, for her part, is mostly interested in checking out the buildings. When she reaches out to open a door, though, she just passes right through it with a startled little yelp as she goes right through. Instead of staying bewildered, though, she just hurries herself on through so nobody can (hopefully) see her stumbling or notice that she made that noise. After clearing her throat quickly, Satori the satori starts floating forwards at an upwards angle to take in her illusory surroundings, looking for... What was it Ishirou mentioned earlier? She remembers hearing Rin thinking about hearing him talking about a projector, and so she starts looking for something that looks far less home-furniture and far more machinery-like.
Kale Hearthward	The power source is coming from somewhere behind the largest building... which turns out to be a giant stone face carved into the wall. Satori would notice it first, if she happens to stick her head through the back wall, and Ishirou can find it by following the projection energy trails. ... No, actually, protruding from the wall. It pushed out through the canyon wall. And unlike everything else here, it's quite real. The face doesn't quite look human. There's two nostrils but no nose, and there's no ears. There's a mouth large enough for a car to drive through (currently closed) and the eyes are glowing - the source of the illusions. It's projecting the ten buildings, the hundred or so people, and some unknown object in the center of the area - although it's intersecting a boulder right now and thus is hidden from view. "Yeah, I can hear ya. What's your deal, anyway?" After a moment, Skye goes to sit next to him. "Like, what are you hoping to accomplish? Out in the Watch or like, on your own? If you're giving up the hero stuff and the knight stuff. Is there even anything left, after those? To keep you going?" Kale shakes his head to Utsuho. "Ended up in one of these worlds as it was going away? Maybe..." He turns and looks out of the canyon towards the silver border surrounding the world. It's hard to not see it, whichever way you happen to be looking. "I know some people go and... actually just get in one of these worlds on purpose, and stay there as it's... doing whatever. As a way to escape, or just because they're tired of the multiverse, I guess." "But there's no way to know what is actually happening. Are they going elsewhere, or are they just... gone?" He shakes his head. "And then this place - I have no idea what to make of it. I thought it was just a dead world."
Ishirou	"Holos! Holograms. They're fake images produced by using energy and light," Ishirou explains to Rin, trying to catch her up on what is going on. He leads the group around until they reach the stone face, where he'll be beaten by Satori. He looks at her and nods in respect. "Your detective work is impressive as always!" he says to her. He looks at the face itself, trying to figure out what it is and what it's doing here. The mouth is large, the eyes are capable of making holoprojections... "Hello?" he eventually asks the head. "Is anyone home?"
Aidan Proudpick	"Holos!" Aidan turns around, looking back at Ishirou as he shouts. "What, this is... a big show or something? Like that Miku girl?" He pulls back, looking at Skye curiously, not expecting the question, but not questioning it. Then back at the building. A smile crosses his face. "I never said I was gonna give up on the hero stuff. The knight stuff is..." Aidan waves a hand. "A story. A name. Something that I knew I'd deserve when I felt it." A frown, "But that's not right. I wasn't acting it. I was hoping if I acted like everyone else wanted me to act, I'd feel something." A shrug of the shoulder, then back at the building. "I got goals. I think I know what pieces fit in the hole I got in me." A thoughtful pause, "Homes. That's what I was defending. My home, from the Gale Empire." A shrug of one shoulder, "But, the Gale Empire is someone's home. It's beautiful, there's great people, I really like it there. And it's home to people I- know. After that, Lycia. After that, another. And another." "What about you, Skye? Why did you stick around?" Aidan's ears swivel around, keeping a bead on Ishirou and the rest of the group.
Hellwarming Trio	"Fake images? Ohhh, like those... Okay, yeah, I get it! Like magic, but... Techy stuff?" Rin follows after Ishirou, floating after a while and only realizing Satori's been missing this whole time when she sees her over by the rock. She loiters further away for a while, trying to keep her thoughts quiet while her master's busy looking at the stone face. "What an odd carving..." Satori comments aloud to herself as she floats towards said face, waving Rin over while moving at the same relaxed pace as before. As long as the holograms aren't distorting or reacting badly to the group's presence, there's no reason she can see to rush the investigation. After all, there's weeks before this place disappears! Besides, there might be something more interesting to hear or see taking it slow. "Oh, Mister Ishirou. Thank you." Puffing up with a slightly more smug smile on her face, she waves him over as she stops in front of the giant face. While he asks it questions, she holds a hand up to its nostrils as Rin waves in front of those eyes to see how/if the illusions change. She's still listening, too, to hear if there's anything resembling thoughts as a result of Ishirou's questions or their physical antics. "Do they? That sounds kind of..." Utsuho furrows her brow as she actually puts more than one entire thought into what Kale's saying, frowning after a little while once the implications of what he's saying start to click. "... Oh, that sucks. Maybe they just lost track of time, because... No, that just sounds like a boring way to go out." Her frown continues to intensify as she looks around at all the holograms. "I mean, look at all this. This stuff's not even real or reacting. At least ghosts can talk or mess around or whatever. They couldn't have..." She murmurs in disbelief, her tone matching her actual thought process just stopping right there, like it just doesn't make enough sense to attempt to comprehend it further.
Kale Hearthward	The head does not respond to inquiries. The fake city does flicker a bit as Satori waves her hand in front of the eyes, though. "What all is it projecting?" says Hazelthistle, trying to track where the light is going out of the eyes. "The buildings, the people, something... else? But it looks like it's trying to project it into that boulder in the clearing." "Why do I stick around? The paycheck," says Skye. "That's about it." "But hold onto that goal. Sounds like the sorta thing that'd keep you going. I guess. So what's your next move?" Kale nods to Utsuho, and frowns. "It's... why is it here? If there's some sort of... message or warning it's trying to convey, it's not doing a good job. It's like some piece is missing, or something."
Ishirou	Okay, no response... Hazelthistel tries to trace the light, and Ishirou takes a moment back to try and follow the light, tracing it to where it could be projected. He starts with the boulder she points out first, but mostly trying to see just how the projection works... "I wonder what this thing is here for and what made it turn on...?" he asks, trying to trace the light.
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan lifts his eyebrows at Skye. "Not the crew?" He shrugs his shoulders, lifting up his fingers. "Save Lycia. Try and convince the Gale Emperor that he's going to hurt his people." 'The first of winter' "Never be as pathetic as I was that day," he says with a little smirk. A jolt as the city flickers, "Everything went away for a second!" He calls backwards towards Ishirou before looking at Skye. "How I'm gonna do that? Be better?" A thoughtful tailtwitch, "Goals are great, yanno? It gives me something to look up at, something to struggle towards. And this one's important to me. I dunno if it's the right shape for the hole I got. But it's a mountain worth climbing." "Oh! Did you try turning it off and turning it back on!" Aidan calls out to Ishirou. "That works for my tablet!"
Hellwarming Trio	Thinking about the why of this place is far easier for Utsuho than the previous thought, and she latches onto that. "Maybe it's telling us... Uhh. If we dance here with someone else, there'll be three of us when we finish a song?" She guesses with a clueless shrug, realizing how dumb that sounds even for someone like her. "But that'd sound pretty good to some people, I bet." Noticing the city flickering when the eyes are blocked, Satori turns to Rin. "Cover it up for a minute. Perhaps we'll find something if we don't have the images to distract us." She instructs, prompting a quick nod from the kasha as Rin holds both hands up in front of the eyes. She'll un-cover and re-cover the eyes when prompted, too, acting as a living on-off switch of sorts for the visuals! That leaves Satori to head further into the illusionary city, drifting along lazily to see if there's anything particularly weird that actually exists in the physical space. "Perhaps there's a power source in the... Face? Although I wouldn't recommend sticking your head in that mouth in case it's a trap." "... I mean, someone could." "Don't volunteer, Rin."
Kale Hearthward	"Well, you were pretty pathetic, so that'll be hard to top," says Skye, resting her chin on her crossed arms. "Also not like, something I'd joke about, personally. I wouldn't joke about it at all, and especially wouldn't joke about it until you've got as many empathetic days behind you as pathetic days. Actually show that you can pull it off, first." The eyes get covered... ... everything disappears. The buildings, the people - it's as if the dead world was truly dead again. The eyes get uncovered... Everything reappears. In the split second it takes for everything to reappear, it does look like there's something being projected into the boulder in the center of the clearing. "Well, the boulder is real..." says Kale, examining it. After a moment, impulsively, he pulls out his drill sword and starts chipping away at it. "Yeah, there's - something in here. Looks like a control panel?" Kale messes with it, also impulsively. "It's fake too," he says, but when his hand intersects part of it the area changes, a bit. Now... there is a giant red moon, hovering in the sky, dripping vicious goo down onto the landscape, and the people are dying. The buildings have changed as well. The windows on the ten story building are closer together, and the one and two story houses are much wider.
Hellwarming Trio	More things are revealed! Rin helpfully covers the eyes while Kale gets to work, then steps out of the way once he's finished so the control panel is visible. She stays in position, however, just in case more coverage is necessary later! That leaves Satori and Rin to take a look at the illusionary-yet-reacting control panel. While their attention is fixed on the thing, Rin spots the changing sky, and she whistles loudly at the sight. "Whoa... Take a look at that up there! It's all drippy and... Melty." She points at the giant moon, prompting Utsuho and Satori to look over at her, then at where she's pointing. "Ominous. That explains what happened to these people, then, but why...?" "Was it close enough to leak all over them? Maybe that's why their homes are all different his time." Utsuho actually notices the change in the buildings' window spacing and the width of the houses, floating over to the houses to check out the inside. Like Satori, she reaches for the door like it's a real door, but doesn't sound nearly as surprised if she ends up going right through it.
Ishirou	"Wait, don't change anything else..." Ishirou says to Kale, noticing the changes, and looking around. "Let's take another look around the projection to see what's changed and see if anything can be revealed..." Ishirou suggests, and heads towards the two-story house first. 'Try turning it off and on again.' "I'd do that if there was a way /to/ do that, but thanks Aidan!" Ishirou says towards the squirrel and moves forward with the investigation.
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan nods, "Right. Pity is not what I want. I gotta earn the rest." He looks over at Skye, looking like he might ask 'why' before he just nods, "Thanks. It's great that he's got such a good crew." WHIRRR. Aidan's ears flick back until the rest of his head turns around, "What the f- The sound of Kale hitting a boulder with a drill makes Aidan put his head in his hand and groan. The light on the ground changes, suddenly red. Aidan jumps up and onto his feet and back to his toes as a glob of holographic goo hits somewhere near by. His eyes dart around, trying to soak in everything happening. "Is... hold on." The building next to him. Aidan sticks his head in and starts moving around, trying to see if there are somehow MORE families. "Maybe this is ... more people? Ugh, but that still could mean anything."
Kale Hearthward	The inside of the houses are even more luxurious. The one and two story houses, that is. The apartments are looking more spartan. And more crowded, to Aidan's eyes. "Hang on, there's more buttons..." Kale messes with the control panel again before anyone can investigate too much, and the scene changes again- - the dripping moon is gone, as are the corpses. The buildings are back to their previous size and shape. But now, there's a change in the pattern of the dancers. Everytime the two dancers split off into three, one of the trio goes and deposits a coin in a basket in front of one of the small buildings. "Hang on, uncovered a couple more buttons..." The scene changes again. The buildings are in their second configuration - larger luxurious houses, smaller apartments. The moon is gone. There's a half dozen people - not dancing, but putting together... what looks like a small version of the giant head embedded in the wall. And then again. The one story buildings are still luxurious, the apartments are still small. The dancers are still depositing coins in the baskets in front of the luxurious houses. "And one more-" The scene changes one final time. The apartments are still small, the luxury homes still big, but now nobody is dancing, and instead they are going one by one to put coins in one of two baskets... The left basket has a picture of the dripping moon, with a red X through it. More people are putting coins into it, but there's less coins overall. The right basket has a picture of single story buildings, even wider than they are now. Less people are putting coins into it, but there's more coins overall.
Ishirou	Ishirou is stopped from getting too far away as Kale uncovers buttons and reveals the... story of this place. Eventual greed giving way to disaster. Ishirou sighs and takes a step towards the control panel that Kale was making work and watching the world around them change as he messes with it. "It looks like eventually, less money went towards stopping doomsday... and instead into making the houses bigger. As well as the construction of the giant stone head that stood to watch and record what happened to these people..." He sighs again, saddened.
Hellwarming Trio	The youkai keep looking back and forth from the panel to the scenery to try and identify what changes, and it's not until the dancers actually drop coins in the baskets that any of them even seem to notice anything changing. Rin immediately scurries over to see if there's actual coins lying around where those baskets are, just in time for the scenery to change yet again with no coins in sight. When she thinks nobody's looking, digs a bit to see if there's coins in the ground. Satori's attention is more on the constant changes to the scenery, and especially on the smaller giant head's creation. "This is raising even more questions when we have yet to get answers for the first ones..." Satori mutters in idle irritation, apparently not appreciating what she's seeing. Utsuho is still floating around checking on those buildings, but she too gets distracted by the dancers depositing coins and eventually heads to the other basket so... Utsuho doesn't even wait for nobody to look her way. She just starts digging around in the ground to see if there's coins over at the second spot.
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan turns around slowly. His excitement is returning, awe, sorrow, all of it mixing together in a breath. "This is amazing! It's gotta be, uh, the history, right?" It looks like eventually, less money went towards stopping doomsday... He nods towards Ishirou, "But... that can't happen, can it?" "I mean, I know some places get messed up, and there are empires and everything but-" He gestures up at the sky where the moon was. "No one is gonna not stop themselves from dying, right? What did they thnk would happen?" He looks back towards Satori, "No one would do that to their OWN home."
Kale Hearthward	Digging far enough reveals one coin buried in the ground where the baskets were. There's nowhere near the amount shown in the hologram, though. > "No one would do that to their OWN home." "... Would they?" says Kale. "I mean - it's... short sighted, burying your head in the sand kinda behavior, or thinking everything's going to work out okay." "And then..." He pushes one of the buttons, and the dripping moon appears. "It doesn't." "... But if this is the history, it's... out of order, isn't it?" He goes through the scenes again. Button 1: The houses and apartments are normal. People are dancing. Button 2: The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. The moon is killing everyone. Button 3: The houses and apartments are normal. People are dancing and depositing coins in front of the houses. Button 4: The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. There are six people building the giant face. Button 5: The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. People are dancing and depositing coins in front of the houses. Button 6: The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. People are dropping coins into one of two baskets. "Is there some specific order it should all be in?"
Ishirou	Ishirou thinks about the order for a bit, trying to piece together the history of the place in a way that'd make sense... "I think, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2. In that order."
Kale Hearthward	Kale tries going through that sequence. 1. The houses and apartments are normal. People are dancing. 3. The houses and apartments are normal. People are dancing and depositing coins in front of the houses. 4. The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. There are six people building the giant face. 5. The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. People are dancing and depositing coins in front of the houses. 6. The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. People are dropping coins into one of two baskets. 2. The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. The moon is killing everyone. "... No, I don't know if that's the right order." "I only see six people in the one where they're building the face," says Hazelthistle. "Where's everyone else?"
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan slowly sits back down, looking up. "It can't. No one can do that. I mean, yea-" He was going to say the Gale Emperor but pivots, "Zephiel, right? He has a reason. Even if he kills everyone, it can't just be for greed. It's for some reason." He pulls out a piece of hemp paper and tears it into six pieces. Setting each one in turn on the back of his tablet, he uses an eyeliner pen to scribble out each one with a basic drawing of what's happening, then lays them out on the ground. Then he stares at them, twiddling the pen between his fingers. "1, 3... But if they could do one and three, the big stone face can be whenever. Two at the end." Aidan spreads his doomsday info cards out in front of him. Flick, flick, tail flick. "I bet... the coins happen every other time. 3, 1, 5, 4, 6, 2."
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan scratches his head, "If the giant face is last..." He looks at the cards, frowning. "Wait, okay." He flips the cards around. "One being first means they don't got rich people yet. One being second to last means they danced as they died, but more people were being made, so that can't be right." He scratches at his temple, "It can't just be 1, 3, 5, 6, 2, 4, can it?"
Hellwarming Trio	"Not anyone thinking logically, perhaps. ..." Satori replies to Aidan with a light sigh, looking off at the illusionary people again before tilting her head lightly at Kale in confirmation. "But how often have you seen people only acting logically without ever diverting once in their lives?" Utsuho and Rin, meanwhile, cheer at actually digging up some coins. They jump a bit, too, as the scenes start playing out around them again, although they're a little more used to it once they realize what's happening. When it's time to come up with a potential solution... "Perhaps... 1, 3, 6, 5, 4, 2?" She guesses, stroking her chin after a moment. "I have doubts, but... I wonder if they might have only built the face after realizing their demise was imminent."
Kale Hearthward	3. The houses and apartments are normal. People are dancing and depositing coins in front of the houses. 1. The houses and apartments are normal. People are dancing. 5. The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. People are dancing and depositing coins in front of the houses. 4. The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. There are six people building the giant face. 6. The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. People are dropping coins into one of two baskets. 2. The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. The moon is killing everyone. "... No changes," says Kale. "I mean, if I was designing a puzzle, there'd be some sort of dramatic change when you get it right, right?" He tries Satori's combination next. 1. The houses and apartments are normal. People are dancing. 3. The houses and apartments are normal. People are dancing and depositing coins in front of the houses. 6. The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. People are dropping coins into one of two baskets. 5. The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. People are dancing and depositing coins in front of the houses. 4. The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. There are six people building the giant face. 2. The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. The moon is killing everyone. "Nothing yet," says Kale. "I feel like this is closer..." says Hazelthistle. "Just something out of order. Aidan's second combination... 1. The houses and apartments are normal. People are dancing. 3. The houses and apartments are normal. People are dancing and depositing coins in front of the houses. 5. The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. People are dancing and depositing coins in front of the houses. 6. The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. People are dropping coins into one of two baskets. 2. The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. The moon is killing everyone. 4. The houses are bigger and apartments smaller. There are six people building the giant face. And then everything flickers out. Everyone's alone again in the valley, with only the real giant face left. The eyes fade, and with a grinding noise, the mouth opens... ... and inside the giant face, visible through the mouth, there's... ... A pleasant looking meadow, next to a forest and a stream? "... Was that one right?"
Aidan Proudpick	"But how often have you seen people only acting logically without ever diverting once in their lives?" "Yea, we all do dumb things." Aidan throws up a big thumbs up at Hazelthistle and Ishirou. "You two had it right!" "... Was that one right?" Squirrel claws dig into his own face. Focus. Aidan bounces up to his feet and, is eager to be the first one in. "Look! I bet no one has ever seen this since those people! We are the first people since them to see it! Trees, too!" He immediately leans down, putting his hand on the grass to make sure it is real.
Ishirou	Ishirou watches as the second code Aidan provides is the answer. The mouth moves and the eyes close revealing... The meadow, forest, and a stream. "Yeah, I think that's the one... which means we have a way through the head, but if we get cut off who knows how we'll get through." Ishirou leans back and looks closer reaching through his senses to confirm how real it is.
Hellwarming Trio	The puzzle is solved, and the story plays out in front of the youkai's eyes. More importantly, things flicker, and they're face to face with the big face. The sudden shift is enough to get Utsuho and Rin on guard, but Satori holds them at bay with a quick raise of her hand. The three watch the mouth opening, they wait for it to start firing or something, and... It doesn't! It doesn't? How strange. Rin squints a bit as she sees the meadow first, crouching briefly to get a better look before inching towards the giant face. "Looks like... Think it's safe to go in there?" "Yeah, it's gotta be. Why else would it open?" "It could be a convoluted trap, but I doubt so. Shall we see where this leads, then?" "I dunno, master. I mean, if it's-wait up!" Rin's surprise, of course, comes from Aidan already heading in, and Utsuho and Satori following without actually bothering to wait for an answer to the latter's own question. "If something tries blocking our way out, we can just blow it up!" "But what if that doesn't work?!" "It'll be fine, Orin. We have enough firepower and minds here to sort that out, too." Satori doesn't look very assured, but her voice is pretty even-sounding despite that.
Kale Hearthward	"Wait, we don't know if it's-" Aidan's already through before Kale can finish. "...safe." "Hah, imagine you being the cautious one," says Skye, as she heads in as well, following after Ishirou. "... I - why you- hmph." Kale heads in as well. It's all very real. The ground, grass, trees, and river, anyway. The sky isn't real. Or - that is, this is some sort of pocket dimension. The sky curves down like the skybox of a video game, forming the edges. A fake sun hangs high in the sky, past the boundary, slowly moving behind fake clouds to make things pleasantly overcast. "... Well this is..." Kale says. "... Nice?"
Ishirou	"It's...real. Or at least as real as can be expected of a pocket dimension? The sky is fake, and the sun is fake, but the rest of it is real..." Ishirou says taking everything in and walking inside. "Maybe this was a fall back position for them? A place to seek refuge? Which means, there could be survivors here that need rescuing!"
Hellwarming Trio	Even though they're not originally from the surface, the false sky with its strange curve gets the trio's attention almost immediately. Satori has enough sense not to stare directly at the fake sun, at least, and Rin looks away after a few seconds, but Utsuho just stares right at it with a disapproving frown. "That curve... It's unnerving." "Ain't it? Wonder if we'd run right into it if we flew high enough." "You call that a sun? Might as well be a big light bulb in the sky." The realer surface gets far fewer complaints, at least, as Utsuho and Rin end up starting to jog around just to burn off some pent up energy from all that investigating. Satori, meanwhile, stays in work-mode as she strolls along towards the river to squat next to it and wash her hands in the it. "If we can find traces of them, that'll tell us more. But... I do still wonder why we saw such different images earlier, if they ever existed to begin with."
Aidan Proudpick	It's an almost childlike glee. The wonder of seeing something new, of savoring a place that no one's touched in so long. Aidan doesn't go so far as to scramble up into a tree, but he is putting his hands over it, spreading his fingers to trace around it. He leans his head in against it, tapping the bark with his knuckles, like a customer testing a watermelon. Thump thump. Thump thump. Finally, Aidan just sits down, spreading out into the meadow grass, feet partially in the water. "This is wonderful." He slowly trails his eyes across the skybox, trying to find something out of place. Which means, there could be survivors here that need rescuing! "Oh!" Aidan scrambles up the tree. I do still wonder why we saw such different images earlier, if they ever existed to begin with." "Oh, well, if they didn't make the stone head until last, they couldn't have REALLY recorded everything." pause, "Unless they replaced sex with dancing? I'm pretty sure that was a metaphor."
Kale Hearthward	> "Oh, well, if they didn't make the stone head until last, they couldn't have REALLY recorded everything." "So it was all a retelling? A metaphor? Or -" Hazelthistle says. "A re-enactment," says Skye. "Well hopefully there's more than just six survivors, then," says Kale. > Unless they replaced sex with dancing? I'm pretty sure that was a metaphor. "I hope not!" says Hazelthistle. "That'd mean, what, the upper class started charging the lower class to have sex with each other? Or to have children? It can't possibly mean that." Aidan can find some ruins further on inside the pocket dimension. There's a handful of cabins near the stream... or what were once cabins, but have since fallen apart as the wood rotted away. Also near the cabins, are six grave markers. With five filled-in graves, and one empty. ... And nearby, a skeleton. One that looks humanoid, but distinctly not human.
Ishirou	Ishirou goes from hopeful to crestfallen in a matter of moments. The ruined cabins are inspected, looking for some clues or...any signs of the refugees. He also comes across the open graves, looking down in them to see the bones. "I see, so they didn't escape..." he says, but decides to be thorough anyway, looking for any clues. He has to confirm the survivors really were gone and nobody was here to save.
Hellwarming Trio	"Master, -" "-what's-" "Focus, girls." As they approach the ruins, the trio spreads out a bit in case they can find more STUFF lying arund: Clues, shiny things, dead people. They certainly find the latter, at least, with the sight of all those graves, but the fact that there's a skeleton... That has Rin scurrying around a bit more rapidly. "Might be a little late to the party, but just maybe... Our lil gravedigger here's still hangin' around!" She chimes in, sniffing the air a few times before continuing her search. She's not looking for the skeleton, of course, but instead... The ghost of the gravedigger.
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan nods, "It was kind of like a play! A really simple play. Except for the," he gestures at the sky, "Moon thing." Joy and wonder completely fall out of Aidan as he walks towards the graves. "Six graves. And one person who didn't get a chance t-" Aidan frowns. "No, no no." He waves a hand at Ishirou, like he's going to tap his shoulder to reassure him, but snaps his hand back quickly before he does, catching himself. "If I was the last person alive, and I'd already dug six graves, I'd either be in my home, waiting to die," he lifts a finger, "Or I'd lie down in the grave to be with the others. I wouldn't sit just be somewhere between the two." It's hope. Maybe it's misplaced hope. Maybe he's just making up a story so it seems okay out here. But Aidan nods towards everyone else, "We can't give up yet." Aidan spreads out from Ishirou, inspecting the other cabins.
Kale Hearthward	Rin gets into ghost sleuth mode. The ghosts here are present enough. They all died of natural causes, essentially just of old age, after retreating inside the giant head. Number six buried the other five, and then when they passed they couldn't bury themselves. Romantic(?) thoughts of lying in an open grave and waiting to die didn't really pass through their head. Ishirou can scan and see the other five corpses in the graves. All accounted for, for better or ill. Aidan can find, inside one of the collapsed buildings... a stone stairwell, leading downward. It's made out of the same stone material as the stone-head outside of this pocket dimension.
Kale Hearthward	Down the stairs... to another pocket dimension, similar to the first. ... Ishirou may be scanning, but it's everyone else besides him, Hazelthistle, and Skye that can figure out where they are. Because a sense of deja vu will steadily sink in for Kale, Aidan, Satori, Rin, and Utsuho. Call it convergent evolution. Patterns that repeat in the natural formation of worlds. Or just coincidence. Because the stairs, the terrain, the random items scattered across the ground - fresh and useful things to be picked right off the ground, despite this entire place being untouched for what could be decades... ... And the enemies. Holograms again, but violently solid ones this time. Foes blocking their way to another similar stone staircase, hidden somewhere else in this new area. Kale might not make the connection first, but he's the first to open his beak and blurt it out. "Is this..." "... a MYSTERY DUNGEON?"