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Kale Hearthward	> "Oh my god..." Petra looks down at the de-legged and (extra, stolen)armless doll with a look of dawning horror. "This Gold Pig... is trying to build a *new* little guy." THE CASE OF GOLD PIG TRYING TO BUILD A NEW LITTLE GUY Evidence: One (1) Red Doll, missing their right arm. (Its right arm? The banjo-playing frog that introduced you didn't mention pronouns, and Red Doll themself hasn't said a single word yet.) One (1) Blue Thief, missing his legs. (Blue Thief is also a doll, but *has* stated pronouns.) One (1) witness statement from Blue Thief, stating that Gold Pig hired him to steal the aforementioned right arm, and Gold Pig promised in return that he would make Blue Thief taller, but then instead stole Blue Thief's legs upon receipt of the right arm. Suspects: Gold Pig Motives: ??? Related Cases: Some of you beat up an ATM, in self defense. Scene of the Crime: The Everhood, a neighborhood where everyone lives forever. Fourth Absolute Truth: You Can Beat the Rap, but You can't Beat the Fetch Quest. Good luck, gumshoes. --- It's been a bit of time. People can come and go as they need to. When the group does assemble, it's a little bit further up the path, at a crossroads. Most of it is a clearing, containing mostly: nothing. That is, it mostly contains the sort of oeuvre-less terrain that dominates the region. If someone examines it carefully: grass. Or maybe dirt. Maybe there's a few shrubs. But overall it's just... not important. Not consequential. Not worth examining or remembering. There are some stepping-stone paths leading around, which do retain enough oeuvre to be memorable and examinable, if only barely. The paths are leading to various doors throughout the clearing, including the one the group originally came through from the back lot of the dance club. The doors are essentially portals - going through one leads to a different location, going behind one doesn't achieve the same effect. There are, actually, twelve doors here. Or empty door frames. Or for some cases - spaces where there *should* be a door, with a stepping stone path leading up to nothing. There should be a door there, in this spot, but there is not a door. The doors (or frames, or empty spaces) are spread out in not quite a clock-like arrangement.
Kale Hearthward	For easy reference, if someone goes around peeking in through each door, there are: Five empty spaces without doors or frames. There's small variations - one has tree roots growing nearby, one space is thin and barely used, one has cat pawprints all over the ground, one space looks barely used, and the last empty space is heavily trafficked. One gray door. This one leads back towards the dance club. A set of hanging curtains, with dancing lights embedded in the frame. This seems to lead to some sort of carnival, with motor engines faintly audible in the distance. It seems pretty welcoming, and Kale seems to have gone on ahead through here and is off in the near distance watching something. A purple door that's looking warped, as though someone was tugging lightly on its vectors with an image editor. Curiously, it's warped in a slightly different way every time someone looks away from it. The door leads to a small, two street town. A dark green door, looking slightly rotted as if by excessive humidity and time. It leads to a heavily forested area. Something shiny glints in the distance. A double castle door, set in a large stone arch frame. It's locked. A plain blue doorframe, without a door. It doesn't seem to work. There's a bit of sand near the doorframe. And a plain green door, which leads back to the initial area where the group arrived in Everhood, and can exit back into the Multiverse proper. Convenient! There is also the Red Doll and the Blue Thief. The former is stoically standing around and not doing much of anything. The latter is being tended to by Hazelthistle - who has brought an appropriately-sized wheelchair for the gnome-sized Blue Thief. The latter is also trying, and failing, to strike up a conversation with the former. "So, uh, you doing okay? With the, lack of an arm and all?" The Red Doll doesn't respond. "Think he's building another guy? Where would he get the other parts from?" The Red Doll doesn't respond. "Think maybe he's getting that weird doctor guy to put it together?" The Red Doll doesn't respond. "You're... not all that talkative, are you?" The Red Doll doesn't respond.
Aidan Proudpick	Maybe he wasn't just wearing all that stuff to look good. Maybe, there's something to it. Like armor against this place's low vibes? That has to be it. Aidan has raided several thrift stores for the next excursion to Everhood. He wears turquoise tank top, a bright green pair of loose pants, and has dipped the tip of his big fluffy squirrel tail in a bright yellow green. He carries his saddle bag, as normal, with medical supplies and various exploring sundry in it. IMMEDIATELY, Aidan is poking his head into each doorway, sticking his head through. At the Dance club one, Aidan throws it open, jogs through it. Shortly, Aidan appears back in the clearing from the main path. He opens the door back to the meeting point, jogs through it, through the dance club, and back up to the path. From the dance club to the entrance. Then the entrance to the dance club door. Then back the way he came to the dance club door. Five minutes later, Aidan has attached a string to himself from his bag and looped it through the two doors and the path. "This place is great," Aidan concludes with a big grin. Staying near the curtained doors, attempting to lean against it, failing, staggering back on his feet, then standing back up again, he looks over at Blue Thief, "So, where do we find Golden Pig?"
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine isn't really bothered much by the dramatic lack of oeuvre - reality can be hard for an Excrucian to perceive at the best of times, so she's used to things like "the ground" or "the horizon" barely existing in her experience of the world unless she examines them closely. The other elites' discomfort with such an absence of presence is more notable to her than the absence itself, really.     "So this Gold Pig fellow," she says when the elites have gathered again, "sounds like a real piece-of-work con-man. And I know where cons of all kinds like to gather... the *circus*. Plus Kale's gone on ahead there and I think the best way to find Future Kale is following Present Kale until later is now. Y'know?"
Xion	The last time Xion was at the hard-to-remember place that she was allergic to the deepy unstimulating of, she had felt bad enough for the locals having no sodas and drinks that she had placed a few 24-packs on the bar shelf. The strange club of immortals with a twenty schmuckers (or one SOUL, or an extended fight sequence) was hard to remember after that, hard to pin down in the mind, a thing to be done and then discarded. Self-preservation, as the place had made her feel pulled apart like dye in clear water. But when she stood in the aisle of the convenience store and stared at the cooler aisles of soda trying to figure out why she was low on canned sparkling water and cheap bottom-shelf soda, some of the events came rushing back. Thankfully that was earlier in the day, so she had time to check her phone for updates from Kale and put on a fresh Black Coat before skipping past all the empty parts between her and a bar that barely has color and a dance floor without soul - but with eye lasers. The noirette is emptied out from a smoking-sworl of boringly-rote darkness portal at an 'am I late?' trot, coming to a stop still early in the initial area inspection. Early enough for Aidan's 'This place is great,', earning him a strange look that speaks 'really?' with dark eyebrows, and then a scowl and roll of the eyes. Walking towards the big, locked door like it magnetizes her to the area, Xion stands in front of the wooden obstacle to touch the door's texture through gloved hand. "Think this is the Gold Pig's castle door? We can just open this one up. The locked ones are usually hiding the good stuff." The serial sequence breaker offers with light amusement.
Futaba Nuki	"I mean, you did kinda mug 'em." Futaba comments to the Blue Thief, stroking her chin lightly as she emerges from the shadows above the trio of the aforementioned thief, the Red Doll, and Hazelthistle. Landing besides them with a quick flip from upside down to right side up, the tanuki bats the ground with her tail once while she takes a slow look around at all the doors and spots where there should be doors. She also recoils slightly at Aidan's appearance. "Whoa. The heck happened to you?" She asks, almost looking mildly concerned before turning her attention back to the doors. "Runnin' through all of these at once would take forever, but... You wouldn't happen to have heard anything about where else our little piggy's gonna be looking for parts, would you?" As she speaks, she starts heading towards the DOUBLE CASTLE doors while lagging a bit behind Xion, then pauses at Madeleine's suggestion. "Future Kale's going to help us figure this out, for sure. We can't let him and this Kale do all the heavy lifting, though!" She laughs, then pauses. "Do shady folks really like going to the circus of all places? I always thought it'd be back alleys and badly-lit offices in the back of a pizzeria or something. Somewhere like..." Futaba raises her hand and starts to turn it back towards the double doors, realizes something, then spins around to point over at the WARPED PURPLE door. "Like in there! Although Xion here's got a good point about the good stuff being back here..." Futaba affirms with a light grunt of approval, already starting to shrink herself down. "Heck, maybe something in here'll even point us to other places we should be headed." She adds, pausing to look up at Xion with a quick nod before starting to feel around the door, seeking out gaps in the door or even under it to slip through.
Sarracenia	After what happened last time Sarra has taken precautions. In the form of a piranha plant companion who is a guitarist. He is constantly singing and playing an upbeat and lively tune as if Sarra has her own theme music now.      Sarracenia joins Aidan in peeking into each doorway, but does not join him in hopping through the dance club door. She blinks in surprise as he goes through. "Wh-...what are you...?" she says softly as he runs off, then just shakes her head. She watches with amusement as he goes through those couple of doors and ties a string. "Seriously, what are you doing?" she asks finally, giggling. "I think you are the only goofball here who thinks this is great." she says in a friendly teasing kind of tone.      The purple door is curious more for the door than the town, and when Sarra notices that it seems to look different each time she looks at it she spends some time just looking away and toward it.      The Red Doll refusing to answer and Hazelthistle's insistence cause Sarra to laugh again before saying, "I do not understand why this Golden Pig trying to create a new 'little guy' is such a big deal? I mean, building it out of pieces of other people is bad sure, but it seems like the building itself is bad for some reason I am not sure of?"      The princess naturally tries the castle door and mmphs in annoyance when it does not open. "Hey, what is up with this one?" she asks no one in particular. She taps her foot a few times, then huffs. Xion adds a thought and Futaba agrees, so Sarra (who was already on the verge of breaking it open) nods quickly in agreement. "It could be! We would be remiss if we did not at least have a look." she says, then reaches into her purse and pulls out...a small remote mine. She sticks it to the lock of the door, then giggles as she gets to a safe distance. If no one stops her, she pulls out a remote with an overly large red button and prepares to give it a push.
Calvin Nash	In a clearing of mostly-nothing, Calvin Nash waits. He doesn't like waiting. The doors are tempting. Two remind him faintly of home. Another two draw curious thoughts as to their current, evident state of disrepair. He considers going through the one with the dancing lights, if only to pass the time by speaking with Kale, until, as the others start arriving-- Think he's building another guy? Where would he get the other parts from? Think maybe he's getting that weird doctor guy to put it together?     "You didn't mention no doctor before," says Calvin to the Blue Thief. He flips open his COMP. Despite there not really being a sun here to speak of, he's wearing his sunglasses. "Now, I wanna make sure you and 'em come outta this whole," he says, briefly nodding his hatted head to the Red Doll. "But if you ain't up front with me, I can't help you half as good. Understand?"     A few probing questions follow. "Tell me more about this doctor. What's he look like? He work for Gold Pig directly? Was it him that was gonna make you taller? How long's he been in town? You know where he stays at?" Each is followed with tap-tap-taps into the COMP and little 'mm-hms,' the brim of his hat dipping in the affirmative. This place is great.      "It ain't finished," Calvin asserts. "Ain't cooked all the way through. And it makes my skin itch besides. I could do without it." He remembers he's talking to the Blue Thief, and asides, "No offense." So this Gold Pig fellow sounds like a real piece-of-work con-man. And I know where cons of all kinds like to gather... the *circus*.     Calvin looks over his shoulder at Madeleine. "Never been," he says. So, where do we find Golden Pig?     "Aidan," says Calvin, in a patronizingly paternal tone, holding a hand out to indicate 'don't.' He then asks the exact same question Aidan did. "Where's Golden Pig stay at?" Think this is the Gold Pig's castle door?      "Might be. Open 'er up," says Calvin with a little shrug. Do shady folks really like going to the circus of all places?      "Hell if I know. I just want him to give back what he took from these folks, to stop makin' deals he don't intend to keep, and maybe do something 'bout them damn ATM machines bowin' up at everybody," he says, repeating the tautology from before, "Since he's 'sposed to be some kinda shmuck-millionaire."
Petra Soroka	There are doors, and to study them, Petra would have to overcome the low-oeuvre atmosphere enough to be attentive to the interesting details arranged within. Hunting around for interaction prompts in an exhaustively plain environment is a sort of enrichment-drain in the first place, though, and being plunged back into a vacuum of aesthetic and emotional value after fighting so hard to escape that in a philosophical sense is suffocating to Petra.     Kale might recognize the acute similarity the environment has-- not in any particular detail, but in atmosphere, sliding in the direction of-- to the yawning void inside Petra's own mindscape, the grey-stained abyssal oblivion that her more lively mental structures are always hanging just above. With that knowledge, the feeling that she's barely keeping herself from drowning just by being here makes quite a lot of sense.     Treading water is, at least, a pleasant experience for everyone near her, and Angela in the Eggpack on her back. Strumming her now-familiar guitar, singing quietly to stave off the narrative vacuum threatening to boil her metaphorical blood, Petra slips through the entry door into the garden and staunchly refuses to expend the effort to observe the others. Sitting on... there's no benches? No particularly large rocks? Nothing at all? Sitting huddled on a stepping stone like a tiny oasis of life in the stagnant field, Petra focuses her attention on the two reliable sources of enrichment she has: music, and conversation, interwoven casually.     ". . . You're my best friend, now I've no one to tell // how I lost my best friend. // The frost, it looks like we've been left in the attic // but you're not here to see. // It's just, witnessless me." Petra trails off into melodically-wandering humming, the dim subvocal buzz of not-quite singing along with the ambulation of her chords, while the others talk. Xion, of course, is a very welcome relief from the eroding nothingness of the environment-- and it's only by her gesturing to Aidan and the castle door that Petra even notices they're there. Wait, is Aidan affected by the low-oeuvreness of Everhood? Is he just oeuvreless? "This place is great,"     "Yeah, you'd fucking think so, huh? It must feel just like home." "Think this is the Gold Pig's castle door?"     Petra blinks and refocuses on the looming doors, seeing them for the first time. Unconsciously, she strums a single chord like a background stinger in a show, that sounds confused and inquisitive. "Oh, huh. It sure does *look* like that's where some big conman would go. Maybe we'll find some other colors of limbs in there and we can go find the dolls to give them back to." She just assumes there's a rainbow Frankenstein being assembled in there. "I'm down to get the hell out of this place as soon as I can." "Do shady folks really like going to the circus of all places?"     Out of ambient boredom, Petra is forced to engage with this question. "No, like, I don't *think* so. I can *imagine* shady people getting involved in circuses, but I don't think it ever happens? Honestly, circuses kind of just get a really bad rap about everything, I think. With scary clowns, too. Have you guys ever *seen* scary clowns besides Crimson Dawn? I feel like they're pretty much mostly normal. Circuses are like, fifty-percent the same thing as rodeos and stuff, and I think those are fun." "Think maybe he's getting that weird doctor guy to put it together?"     Petra, in utter defiance of Calvin asking the same question, doesn't even demand that he retract his own question before essentially repeating it. "Is there a doctor we should know about? A doll-doctor? Are there more of you color-coded guys out there somewhere?"
Xion	> 'Might be. Open 'er up,' > 'We would be remiss if we did not at least have a look.' Xion takes a step back from hand-on-the-door to slowly return the lightly-curled fingers of her hands to her side. Sizing up the object, interrogating it across a handful of seconds more. This is a whole lot of time for Sarracenia to set up a remote mine and set off giggling! But, there's no reason for the Nobody to ruin the princess' fun out of hand. "Hey, stand back." She suggests to Calvin, reaching across to her left hip and closing hand about air to ''draw'' the Kingdom Key forth from nothing. The usual fancifully-metallic 'shwink!' collapses pale light around the Keyblade's formation, and Xion gives the door's locked surface a good dap with the tip of it -- and the far off sound of an extra large lock clicking. Then she realizes she's acting on the patience of the priveleged, and takes a few generous steps back from the explosive.
Angela	Angela feels a compulsion to crush the piranha plant in her hands. She ignores the impulse. Xion offers to sequence break and Angela says, "Please do. I would prefer to be done with this as soon as possible." While she is just fine with playing music it doesn't really feel the same to do it through the Eggpack and she hasn't mastered the banjo enough to really appreciate getting to show off either. It seems to be helpful, so. Petra's song is mind of depressing her though. She has lost a best friend before, of course, and she intends to never let him forget it nor does she intend to ever forgive him... She fully intends to torment him for as long as he is allowed to exist and maybe well beyond that... She also has a real cool actually bff bestie forever now though and she doesn't want to hear about not being able to tell anyone about losing her best friend. Aidan says the place is great. "Die." Angela says without heat or energy, it is more a tired exhalation than a command or desire. "Do they have to be his legs in particular?" Cinder asks. "It might be easier to just grab a pair of spare legs. This sort of feels like a place that might have spare legs going around. what with all the casual limb theft." "I only know what clowns are supposed to be like thanks to Razz." Angela says, frowning more at the idea of a doll doctor. "I see scary clowns more than normal clowns I suppose, but normal clowns do not seem so bad?" She sighs. "Some people are frightened of the most ridiculous things." She continues to play music and othereise not help at all.
Sarracenia	Sarra hears Petra singing and has her piranha plant stop playing while Petra is singing...but has him start up again if Angela is the only other source of music. Usually with a withering sidelong glance.      Xion pulls that keyblade, and Sarracenia blinks as she taps the door and there is the sound of a lock clinking. The princess mmphs softly and gets a deadpan look as Xion steps back.      She looks at the Xion, then at her remote, then at Xion, then eyerolls and hits the button anyway. The explosion is probably a bit large for just breaching a door, but shouldn't put anyone at risk if they are more than a few meters back.
Angela	"Sarracenia," Angela says. "At first I felt terrible because I had not realized playing the music was staving off an actual psychohazardous threat of some kind. A sort of vibe drainer." Angela is quiet for a moment. "But then I realized after we talked a bit more that I like you better when you are groveling and crying. I'll do my best to encourage this behavior."
Kale Hearthward	Playing music does help a bit. It colors in things nearby, literally, but - only a little bit. And they return back to their base oeuvre-less state almost as soon as the music stops or the person playing moves away. More usefully than that, music works against the draining feeling present throughout here. Petra referring to it as 'treading water' seems pretty apt. "That is fur-safe dye, right?" asks Hazelthistle as Aidan goes by. > "Tell me more about this doctor. What's he look like?" And other questions. Blue Thief describes someone who sounds kind of like Eggman if he lost some weight. "Professor Orange - he's working for Gold Pig, a lot of us are - *were*," he corrects himself. "I think it would be him who'd make me taller, yeah. Uh - he's been here same time as all the rest of us..." "... He's going to be through the- ah. Hmm." Blue Thief has pointed at the empty space with roots covering the ground. "Usually through there." > "No offense." "None taken. Not like there's anywhere else to go." > "Are there more of you color-coded guys out there somewhere?" "Uh... People who are color coded..." Blue Thief counts on his fingers. "Me, I guess Red Doll now, Purple Mage, Green Mage, Brown Mage, there's Pink but haven't seen them in a while, Professor Orange, and Gold Pig, and - is Rasta a color? I never thought to ask." > "So, where do we find Golden Pig?" > "Where's Golden Pig stay at?" "He keeps his stash in the temple, which is-..." Blue Thief points at one of the empty spaces. The heavily trafficked one. "... Oh, the door's missing..." "... Well, you can also get there through the blue door- oh. That's gone." There's just a frame left. "Well, he could also be in his castle..." Which turns out to be locked. "Well - there's another route through the forest... Though it's a bit of a long way around..."
Kale Hearthward	But Xion has the keyblade, and the keyblade can unlock any door, explosives not required. Though - they go off anyway, dramatically blasting the castle doors open! Actually, the explosions have about the same effect on the music, assuming you watched them go off. You feel better, briefly, for having witnessed the entirely superfluous display of pyrotechnics. Of course, the feeling is fleeting - though on that note, so is the feeling you get from listening to the music, if the song choice isn't changed up every so often. Inside the door, there is a castle! The door leads to the middle of a two-way path - one side of which leads towards a cavern with a minecart track, the other leads towards the castle. This feels like you just unlocked a shortcut and are skipping over some events. Is it really okay to skip ahead in the adventure like this? Maybe you all should consider doing the minecart section, at least. I'm sure it's tolerable and not overly long or unfun and you won't die like, five times, without any checkpoints. Any takers? If not, there's the castle, up ahead, without so much as a moat or barred door blocking the group's way to and through the entrance. However - there's a Purple Mage standing next to the entrance - if Blue Thief hadn't given that as a name already, it's none the less an apt descriptor. A shadowy figure with a pointy hat and robes, all purple. https://i.ibb.co/3hTb0mG/Sprite-Purple-Mage.webp "That was... dramatic," they say. "Are you here to raid the castle?" they say, next.
Calvin Nash	Do they have to be his legs in particular?     "We been over this," Calvin says with mild annoyance. "We don't know this place can give 'im legs that's the same as what he lost. 'Til or unless we do, it's his we want back." Have you guys ever *seen* scary clowns besides Crimson Dawn?     "No, uh-uh." Calvin hasn't seen a regular clown. Or Crimson Dawn. But that just means he can authoritatively say he hasn't seen scary clowns. Is there a doctor we should know about?     "*I* got it," says Calvin, without looking at Petra as he gives her the same palm he'd given Aidan. Hey, stand back.     "It'll be aight," Calvin says to Xion, so wrapped up in preserving his imagined authority with Blue Thief that reality slips further away by the second as the answers to his questions come.     "Shit!" Accordingly, he is not a few meters back, and is *thrown* from his standing position to land in a heap, a few meters back. Remarkably, the hat and sunglasses remain perched on his head.     He stands up and dusts himself off, confident that as long as he doesn't let on that he was surprised or felt any kind of un-in-charge emotion about this whatsoever, that the imaginary score he's racked up this far will remain untarnished.     "Good deal," he says hoarsely at the now-open castle doors. Funny how he feels better than he expected he would, for a second there.     Calvin fixes his sunglasses and steps up to the open door. Are you here to raid the castle?     "Well, now, that depends," says Calvin after clearing his throat authoritatively, thumbs through his beltloops, chest puffed out. "Are you here to stop us talkin' to Gold Pig?"
Aidan Proudpick	"Whoa. The heck happened to you?" "Oh! Well, I remembered the last time I saw Future Kale, he was wearing a bunch of colorful stuff. And that dance club had a bunch of colorful stuff. So, I went out and got a bunch of colorful stuff." He is proud of his outfit, for better or worse. He worked hard on it. Hazelthistle pipes up and Aidan hesitates, "I think so." He glances worriedly behind him. "It's not permanent, right?" His smile is less bright when he catches Xion's stray look, falling into a sheepish smile. "It's interesting, at least. Just because we saw a few rough people doesn't mean the whole place is bad. They've got a carnival." "I think you are the only goofball here who thinks this is great." "Oh! Yea." He pulls the string off his pants, brushing himself off. "I figured we should try it out," Aidan points out at each of the doors, "The area behind them doesn't fit to the place where they are. And they are just standing there, right?" He is bouncing up and down on his toes now, "So, that means there's some kind of wobbliness to the area! It could just be magic, or it could be..." he waves his hands, "What Calvin said, it's not finished yet. It's just..." he tries to grasp the right words, "Interesting." He finally finishes, smiling at Sarracenia. The personal theme music might also be ramping up his manic energy, tail twitching in time with the beat. "Aidan," says Calvin, in a patronizingly paternal tone, holding a hand out to indicate 'don't.' That manic energy halts. He shoots a puzzled frown at Calvin, which turns into a sort of glare as he asks the same question already. He doesn't SAY anything, of course, because Calvin has THAT ENERGY. "Yeah, you'd fucking think so, huh? It must feel just like home." Every time Aidan has looked at Petra, it's been the look of someone who thinks they can one-up the school bully, a smug shell of happiness that he's somehow 'won' life over her. But after the last trip here... Aidan doesn't look right at Petra, so she doesn't see pity and concern on his face. An assumption that'll make her angry. "Hey," he mulls words carefully in his head, "Thanks. I ain't gonna ask her to do missions in my place anymore. It wasn't fair." "Die." That one sinks Aidan's smile to the thinnest line but those duldrums are interrupted by the BOMB of explosives. Aidan sticks his head into the curtained door way and blows a shrill whistle with a bit of air magic. "Kale! They unlocked the door!" He hesitates, looking over at Hazelthistle, "Don't let him get too far ahead?" before he scampers up to the castle doorway. "Are you here to raid the castle?" "No?" He looks at everyone else, then back, more firmly, "No, we just want to have a talk with Golden Pig. A NORMAL talk," he asserts as Calvin asserts his willingness to swing fists.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine leaps *toward* the explosion, rolls through the smoke, and - where'd she go? There's *two* distractions for her supernatural stealth to take advantage of here, the blast itself and the collection of loud and colorful elites. With the purple wizard's attention firmly on the new arrivals sans herself, she slinks ahead and into the castle itself, doing her best to keep out of sight and keep her oeuvre low.
Angela	''Are you here to raid the castle?'' "No, we are here to retrieve stolen limbs. We promised a frog in exchange for information and a banjo. ... We didn't get much information, actually." She strums her banjo to inform the purple mage of her faustian pact with the frog. "I feel like I was particularly strongarmed--heh, strongarmed--into this particular mission but I am a representative of a Wing so it would speak poorly of whom I represent to turn back on a deal just because it seems ridiculous and silly." Her eyes slant towards Aidan for a moment. It IS a little weird that Calvin told aidan to not ask a question and then just asks it himself, but Angela can imagine asking Calvin about it and then having to deal with hours of relative conversation about it. Best to just let it be, she decides. She continues watching Aidan. She squints suspiciously at him. She notices Madeleine is sneaking and makes sure not to lok at her. ''No, we just want to have a talk with Golden Pig.'' "No, it will not be a normal talk." Angela says. "That is an impossibility. Nothing about this place has been expressed normally, I would not even know hwere to begin. An ATM tried to kill us far more directly than ATMs usually try to kill people." ... ... ... "Are you a wizard?" Angela asks, and then with severely veiled excitement. "Do you know rituals and magic? Have you ever constructed a magic circle?"
Futaba Nuki	"Hell if I know. I just want him to give back what he took from these folks, to stop makin' deals he don't intend to keep, and maybe do something 'bout them damn ATM machines bowin' up at everybody," "You and me both. I mean, even I know pulling stunts like that on your own guys is just asking for trouble when the crap hits the fan." Futaba replies to Calvin with a firm nod, pausing to stroke her chin thoughtfully. "Did he ever...? no, no, he paid 'em." She mutters to herself, looking only briefly confused about her own stream of consciousness. "I can *imagine* shady people getting involved in circuses, but I don't think it ever happens?" "Right? They show up in TV all the time, but I never hear about an actual... Anything happening at a circus for real. It's always amusement parks or clubs or boardwalks or whatever. Never the circus even when they have all those cannons and knife-throwers around." A beat. "... You think this might all be some kind of anti-circus conspiracy? Or... Hiding their own crimes?" Calvin bringing up the doctor gets her attention back on Blue Thief, and Futaba holds her hand up to her ear as though that'll help her hear better. "Don't leave out any details about what this doc's like, yeah. It'll be tougher getting your legs back if you're not up front with us." She half-warns half-suggests to the Blue Thief, turning her head and raised hand a little as she hears some strumming over from where Petra's sitting with Angela forma Eggpack. She listens idly for a few moments, feeling some of that earlier funk draining away, then turns her attention to Xion when she puts out a warning about Sarracenia bringing out the mine. That's more than enough to get her to start snickering as she scurries away from that door. It's less of a personal safety matter, though, and more about just wanting to see a door explode. One explosion and loud cheer later, and Futaba's feeling even better than before! Fancy that. The Blue Thief gives the group plenty of new information to sift through, too, with the addition of the Purple/Green/Brown Mages, someone Pink, and someone- "Rasta? Like the music?" Futaba asks Blue Thief, furrowing her brow a moment later as she starts to consider the circus' role in all this. "Wouldn't imagine that really fitting with a circus vibe, but we've got a castle in here, so..." It's time to head in! "Wonder if there's a way to the temple through here...? If he's got a stash of something good in there, I mean. Might even be our missin' limbs for you two." Futaba suggests, glancing back at Blue Thief and Red Doll (and shouting a bit if they're too far away). Taking a look arund the interior of the castle, Futaba eyes that path to the minecart stage, and there's a strong temptation to just see where that goes. What's more important-looking, though, is the Purple Mage over yonder! "Nice hat. You make that yourself, or...?" She asks after whistling lightly, resisting the urge to mimick the look and shape of that hat right away. "And raiding...? Mm, depends. We're just looking for stolen limbs. You see any extra legs or arms laying around, about..." She's not actually sure how tall Blue Thief is supposed to be, so she just holds her hands apart enough that they might be a bit too long for legs, never mind the Red Doll's missing arm. "You know if the Golden Pig's got anything to do with that? Or..." She nods at Calvin once. "Think you can help us out and point us towards the guy?"
Sarracenia	As Angela says she felt terrible, Sarra gets a bit of a regretful look on her face. It is gone after that quiet moment and the completely emotionless 'die' aimed at Aidan. Sarracenia looks perhaps the angriest that Angela has ever seen her, and her volume and pitch match. "Are you getting nastier the more you exist?! Perhaps it is fitting that you are locked in some dungeon with a bunch of monsters!! I was obviously wrong to think that you had some goodness in you!! I hope you never escape that place!!"      Calvin is blown back, and while still angry Sarra heads over to help as he dusts himself off. "Are you alright?" she says, concerned but frowny. "Sorry about that." she says. She blinks in surprise as Madeleine leaps through the smoke and gets a curious look before she follows after.      "It also depends on who is actually in that castle. If the Golden Pig or Doctor Orange are in there then we do need to talk to them." she says to the purple mage, arms crossed over her chest angrily.      People appreciating her explosives is nice, and it brings a bit of cheer back to Sarra's face. But, it does not last long as Angela strums on the banjo and now the banjo playing is almost as grating as the feeling of negative inspiration. And even Sarra is getting annoyed with her piranha plant's playing now. "Florence! Please play some variety!" she huffs at them. The piranha plant flinches and starts playing a medley of various familiar tunes.      Sarra mmphs grumpily then looks over...and notices the minecart ride. She looks at the others, then at the track. "...definitely need some excitement and distance..." she huffs then heads toward it, dragging her plant with her. Without thinking much about it and with extra lives thanks to all those green mushrooms, she hops in and pushes off down the rails.
Petra Soroka	"Professor Orange - he's working for Gold Pig, a lot of us are - *were*,"     Petra strums another stinger chord, this time exclamatory and confident. "So the doctor's color-coded too! We'll just beat him up and then get all the limbs and stuff back to Pink and Brown and Red and you and whatever." After that completely assured resolution, Petra squints as Blue. "Wait, how many of you are even in this town? How many people *didn't* work for Gold Pig? And why did you say Red's new; I thought he was the frog's friend?" This time, Petra manages to *not* say it like a name. "*I* got it,"     Petra has always been acutely aware of misogyny directed at her, even way back when she would've also said feminism was woke and toxic, and now is no exception. To combat misogyny, Petra utilizes one of her most noble and reliable tools: classism. "Hey, fuck off. How about we let the people who've got a fucking high school education do the questioning, huh? And *not* one that was made of stuck-together rusty sheet metal and planks, actually." "Thanks. I ain't gonna ask her to do missions in my place anymore. It wasn't fair."     Petra recoils and grimaces instinctively at Aidan as if he's presented her with a particularly unpleasant bug or handful of refuse. She takes a few moments to process what he said, squinting with the effort of trying to connect it with what she said, and eventually manages, "... Wuh? What are you talking about? Lilian? You-- you should be sorry."     She's not sure what he means. But he has plenty to be sorry about, so she awkwardly attempts to maneuver a lame dunk as a deflecting response from being confused. "Good deal,"     Petra yips and ducks at the explosion, but since she's sitting on the ground anyways and happened to be placed a distance away, she's only touseled and dust-splattered, rather than being any worse for wear. She spits scattered hair out of her mouth and clambers to her feet just a tiny bit faster than Calvin does. "Smooth." "Are you here to raid the castle?"     The minecarts feel like they're magnetically tugging on Petra's attention-- not out of any sort of magical influence or anything, but just because the environment is so boring that an exciting little adventure feels like a near-starvation need. She's about to suggest that she and Angela go off and do that instead, but then Sarracenia stalks off to ride them herself, and Petra pauses to do some quick calculations in her head.     Extremely neutrally, as if she hadn't even heard the earlier shouting at Angela, Petra just calls out to Sarra while she's leaving. "Let us know if you find anything," and then she sends a ratbot with an explosive stuck to the bottom after the minecart to blow up a section of track that leaps over some pit in the cavern, so that when Sarracenia tries to come back she plummets right in.     After that diversion, she turns her attention back to Purple Mage, and is about to speak when, "I mean, we don't *need*--" "Are you here to stop us talkin' to Gold Pig?"     Petra immediately doubles her volume and keeps going to talk over Calvin as aggressively and transparently as possible. Also, stating the exact same question as him. "We don't *need* to, but we will if you're going to stop us from talking to Gold Pig."
Xion	The lingering drain of the area might be causing the dark drag of feelings Xion feels, but when she pulls back to a bit of cover, her eyes look to Sarra in a moment of-- Mirroring her, almost, a roll of the eyes and a diversion away? Squinting, trying to understand more clearly with just a tightness of the eyes, the Nobody watches Sarra's explosion by staring at the princess and is only highlit by the wonderfully expressive moment of a bomb going off. 'Are you okay?' is mouthed, subvocalized, but Xion doesn't push it all the way out of her. Instead, she mirrors Aidan, a little sheepish, looking away and down to the extremely nothing ground, and then up. Again, diverting away, Sarracenia suggests she's going to go off alone with her overworked Piranha Plant and the Nobody reacts to that if nothing else. "Hey, this place is really difficult." Xion premises quietly, holding the Kingdom Key low at her side and shuffling her booted feet between joining the gang going after the Purple Mage and the splitting princess. "Do you want someone to go with you, or..." 'do you think you'll be fine?' goes unsaid. Xion doesn't think Sarracenia will be - her tone says as much, but she's also lingering like she'll party up for minecarts if nobody else will.
Calvin Nash	Are you alright? Sorry about that.     "Never better," says Calvin. It's almost believable. He'll probably be fine--looks like he wasn't close enough for it to be really dangerous.     He flips open his COMP and types in some additional notes--these ones about 'dungeon full of monsters.'     We don't *need* to, but we will if you're going to stop us from talking to Gold Pig.     "Is there somethin' I can hit you with?"
Petra Soroka	"Is there somethin' I can hit you with?"     "Oh, look around. I'm sure you can figure something out. You can at least give it a shot before asking for help, right?" Petra snottily snipes back with the saccharine tone of a mocking schoolteacher, but to her massive discredit, she isn't actually *looking* at Calvin. It's been long enough since someone took a swing at her unprompted that she doesn't even seem to believe it can happen anymore-- that, or Angela's screen on her back feels like a second set of eyes to her.     If Xion goes with Sarracenia, Petra reluctantly retracts her ratbot sabotage, brattily sticking a tongue out at Sarra's back instead.
Kale Hearthward	> "Kale! They unlocked the door!" "Hmm?" Kale says, looking up and back, just as Aidan retreats. --- Madeleine goes through the door first, and gets past Purple Mage without being noticed at all. She'll have to keep her stealthy approach up - there's a few more people hanging out in the castle. There's some familiar faces - Zigg, and the Kid Dracula looking guy who keeps changing his name, and the nosferatu-looking guy - and some unfamiliar faces like a pair of blue and green slime people who are jamming out on planks of wood as though they were guitars. Getting further into the castle involves jumping over a pit that a normal person couldn't possibly make, and then - what is clearly a maze. A maze, with something unknown skittering around. Madeleine is being hunted.
Kale Hearthward	> "And why did you say Red's new; I thought he was the frog's friend?" "Huh? Oh yeah, Red's new, I guess." Blue Thief frowns. "That's... odd. I thought I knew everyone here. Didn't think about that." "I mean, they were in pieces in a trash heap when I grabbed the arm, maybe they've just been resting there for the last couple centuries and I don't remember them from before that. Is that it?" Red Doll doesn't respond. > "Are you here to stop us talkin' to Gold Pig?" Purple Mage gives this some thought. "No," they say, after a moment. > "No, we just want to have a talk with Golden Pig. A NORMAL talk," "Hmm. That probably won't work." > "Do you know rituals and magic? Have you ever constructed a magic circle?" Purple Mage lights up (not literally). "Oh, yes. I know magic. Would you like to see a spell?" When Angela (or anyone else) answers affirmatively - Time rewinds locally. It is exactly like watching a VHS tape rewind in a cheap VCR. Memories are intact, but if anyone moved, they are back where they were a few seconds ago. (Madeleine is well beyond the area of this effect.) "I do not know what a Magic Circle is, though. Is that something from Medallion? You would have to ask Green Mage about that." "You should definitely ask him about Medallion, it's his favorite ritual," Purple Mage adds. "Wherever he is, anyway. He hasn't been around for a few days." > "You see any extra legs or arms laying around, about..." "Not here," says Purple Mage. "Though I believe there's something important stashed in the back of the castle." "Hey, Purple," calls a green slime person, sticking his head out of the castle through a window. "Someone come through here? It sounds like the castle monster's acting up." "Hmm. Not that I've observed," says Purple Mage. "Just these people here, and they obviously haven't fully entered the castle yet." "Oh, people!" says a blue slime person, sticking his head out through a neighboring window. "Are they here to shop at SlimeCo? Hey! People!" He directs his attention to the group. "Are you here to shop at SlimeCo! We've got planks!"
Aidan Proudpick	"You-- you should be sorry." "Sarracenia, sorry. I meant Sarracenia. I messed up by asking her to take that stealth mission. I didn't think it all the way through, but we talked about i-" Sarracenia explodes at Angela. Aidan lifts his hands quickly, shaking them, "Sarra, Sarra! Stop! It's okay! Please, no one should live like that."
Kale Hearthward	Sarracenia and Xion get on the mine cart. It's a very large minecart, with room to maneuver on board, which turns out to be a good thing, because: Shortly after they get going, they get attacked! Something up above them, in the darkness of the expansive cavern, is launching violent oeuvre blasts at her as they travel! This minecart section kinda sucks? It's hard to tell exactly where the blasts are coming from, and the need to focus on keeping the minecart going means that they have to divide their attention instead of focusing on dodging or fighting back. Maybe skipping this was a good idea after all, but - well, they're kinda committed now!
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine clears the jump just fine with a running start, and lands more softly than should be possible on the other side. Only when she enters the maze - and hears something else in there with her - does she stop to think about whether rushing ahead is such a good idea. Catching Gold Pig off-guard would be worth the risk, but this labyrinth and its unclear inhabitant will surely slow her down.     Unfortunately Madeleine is only really good with mazes when she's had time to get to know them; here, she resorts to simply following the left-hand wall. Aware that something's after her, she keeps her pace erratic in her best imitation of someone with no idea of what they're doing. The idea is to lure in whatever maze-dweller is on her tail and catch it in a reverse ambush, so she keeps her spear at the ready as she wanders the halls.
Angela	''I was obviously wrong to think that you had some goodness in you!! I hope you never escape that place!!'' Angela leans forward closer to the screen. "You should want me to escape. I will do ''anything'' to escape. After I escape, I will no longer need to do ''anything''." But she does not protest being called evil. Feeling bad for hurting the feelings of these people only seems to result in her seeing them go after her friends again and again anyway. What's the point, she reasons, of holding back? ...Not that it wasn't actually kind of nice to be groveled at. She wasn't really lying there. It made her feel ... strong. In control. Strangely enough: Free. But it didn't last, of course. Yes, she should have encouraged such groveling instead of spitefully discourage it. A lesson for later. ''The Purple Mage pushes Angela's trauma button'' Angela hisses sharply in the few moments, her eyes fill with murderous rage. The arm of the Eggpack reaches out towards the Purple Mage and then-- --it's over. Only a few moments for everyone else. Several painful stressful minutes for Angela.     he arm drops. "My apologies. It is not the sort of magic I can appreciate." Angela says, forcing herself into stabiliy. "I know not Medallion, but if i meet Green Mage, I will ask ---them? Ah, he--about it." She exhales slowly, in real life. "Thank you for answering my magic questions." ''It sounds like the castle monster's acting up.'' "You only have one?" Angela blurts out, shocked!! ''Please, no one should live like that.'' Pity. ANgela hates the pity. She hates the pity. She hates it she hates it. But she can't press against it--after all, it is completely normal to pity someone in her situation. She needs to get out. She's so close and every passing moment feels longer than they even normally do. ''Brattily sticking out a tongue at Sarra's back instead.'' Angela, loyally, sticks her tongue out at Sarra's back. Cinder glances to Petra and then also loyally sticks her tongue out at Sarra's back.
Sarracenia	'Sarra, Sarra! Stop! It's okay! Please, no one should live like that.'      In her current mood and this place, Sarra does not take this well. She looks a bit betrayed by Aidan, then huffs. "You know, I used to think that. Now, I am not so sure!" she says.      Xion half asks if Sarra would like someone to go with her, and she whirls around, and...      "Please play some variety!" she exclaims, then freezes and looks at her piranha plant. Her servant also freezes and both look around in completely confusion. After a few moments they both relax again, then Sarra coughs into a hand. "Um...I suppose if you wish to come along, I will not stop you." she says, too proud to say 'yes please come along that was freaky'.      Once on the minecart Sarra is even more glad to have Xion along! Florence is not much good in a fight, so she is pressed into service helping to keep the cart going since...they are under attack! "I suppose it is good that you came along!" Sarra says to Xion entirely too brightly. This is excitement! And oeuvre bursts! And more excuses to use explosives! Sarra delightely starts throwing bombs, bob-ombs, Bullet Bills, and some of her Silver flechettes thanks to her metal lotus hair barrette.      "So, what would you say? Better or worse than just walking in? I vote for better!" Sarra says to Xion. "You know, I am surprised you actually offered considering!" Again too bright and cheery thanks to the battle high and all the oeuvre in the air. Sarra even starts throwing in some pirouettes and graceful somersaults along with her bombs.
Futaba Nuki	So far, so good. Purple Mage isn't hostile, there's no signs of a fight, and they're even willing to show off some magic! "Heck yeah, lay it on us!" Futaba replies in the affirmative, and she immediately gets treated to everything going backwards. It's a little disoirneting, but she still laughs by the time the rewind ends and she's coming out of mid-step once again. "Cool stuff... Oh, but that's not gonna break something if you do that too much, is it?" Futaba looks around slowly as she asks that, looking for anything that might look like the magnetic insides of a VHS tape. "What's this Medallion thing do, anyway? Is it something like that rewind just now, or..." The tanuki taps her chin, then raises an eyebrow when Purple Mage brings up that said Green Mage has been missing. "Where's the last place you saw the guy? Nonzero chance we'll run into him on our way back, right?" With news that their prize of arm and legs might be in the back, Futaba claps her hands together lightly as she mentally prepares herself to go back after Sarracenia and Xion. That minecart did look pretty fun, but a green slime appears! And a blue one, too. They don't feel quite the same as Purple Mage, but Futaba greets them with a hearty wave all the same. "Hey there! Uh... Sure, why not. Can't hurt pickin' up some souvenirs for the way back." Chuckling lightly as she opens up her little pouch, she approaches the blue slime's window with another quick wave before trying to get a peek inside. "What else do you got besides planks in there? Happen to have any..." She looks back at the group, then snaps her fingers. "Instruments, souvenirs, or food? The vibes since we got here have been pretty crummy, so a little music should fix that up. And... Oh. You got any good souvenirs for a kid?"
Calvin Nash	Oh, look around. I'm sure you can figure something out. You can at least give it a shot before asking for help, right?     "Yes *ma'am,* I can," says Calvin bluntly. "I got a 55 gallon drum of ass-whip on me, every day." He pats a muscled bicep. "It's mighty heavy. Now if you're feelin' dry, you just let me know, and as soon as we're done working here I'll crack it open 'n pour it somewhere some pretty lady can't see it and make doe eyes atcha." He turns his head and spits a mouthful of chewed ginger.     "You don't gotta like me. But you're *gonna* respect me when we're working together, if I have to put my boot up your little ass." It's funny talking about respect when he was being as disrespectful as he was towards her. No. "Thank ya much," says Calvin, bending the brim of his hat at the purple mage. Hmm. That probably won't work.     "Is that right?" Calvin says. "Well, I appreciate you saying so, boss. You just let us worry about that." He blinks, as he experiences himself making the same statement twice, when time rewinds. He hasn't been around for a few days.     "Any idea where he'd'a gotten off to? With that orange doctor, maybe?" asks Calvin, returning his attention to his COMP to type notes in.     He looks up over at the slime person calling for their attention. Are you here to shop at SlimeCo! We've got planks!     "I'm workin'," says Calvin, by way of 'no.'
Xion	> 3x girlscorn raspberry combo!! Xion, walking off with Sarracenia to the minecarts with goofy-yellow and bright silver Kingdom Key lazily shifted to balance the length on her shoulder, lifts her free hand to give a pleasant not-looking back wave and v-fingers. She grins, faint, despite the cast bleeeeh-ing because she knows she's not really the target. It's a tiny speck of joy in a sea of empty stimuli to contemplate. > Minecarts? Xion climbs into the back, letting Sarra have the front and any driving or guiding apparatus, checking the surrounds habitually and finding not a whole lot. "Duck!" Xion warns, as the blasts start, the first blast rattling their cart and the second vague violent blast being met by the silver-shining flash of a deflecting Keyblade swing, sharp sparks and further cart-rattling force as Xion bends aside a beam to the track behind them. "Pick one! If you want to live forever -- drive, or," The Nobody balances on the back of the cart with one foot on the side, aiming Keyblade tip to fire a few pale-white sparkle-trailing star-missiles back at the source of the blasts, and looks at the Princess. Who also picked blasting. In the moment, Xion isn't even sarcastically surprised, she just reaches across the cart to hook the controls with the end of the Kingdom Key and retrack them past several blasts before leaning in and settling behind the controls. "It's-- I guess it's normal?!" Xion replies, about as stressed out as Sarracenia has ever heard her. "I wish these things drove more like Gummiships! Those at least make some sense!" Says girl who shares this opinion solely with two extremely special interest afflicted chipmunks.
Kale Hearthward	Sarracenia and Xion go on a minecart ride! Spamming attacks works in that it takes some pressure off, as the... whatever it is, in the cavern ceiling high above them, needs to reposition to avoid Sarracenia's barrage and Xion's more carefully aimed blasts. As far as doing meaningful damage to it, there's no feedback - did Xion forget to turn that option on before she started the minigame? Ideally there should be a pleasant little *ding* noise every time an enemy takes damage, right? Nothing like that here. Regardless, the minecart ride ends before the thing above them is destroyed. And on the other side of the cavern, there's someone waiting to ambush them. It's the knight that they saw in the dance club, the one with only a helmet and boxers on. "HALT! I have been sent by Gold Pig to stop you on your quest!" he yells as he jumps out. ... He's facing the other direction. "... Wait..." He turns around, and sees Xion and Sarracenia there. "... Wait, you're supposed to be coming from the other direction..." "... But I've been standing guard here all day..." The shirtless knight inclines his head slightly in thought, the sunless light glinting off of the metal helmet menacingly. "Unless..." "... You wouldn't happen to be sequence breaking, would you?" he asks, accusingly, taking a step towards the pair.
Petra Soroka	"I got a 55 gallon drum of ass-whip on me, every day."     Petra snickers at Calvin, drawing her hand up to her mouth in a crude equivalent of an ojou-sneer, and she opens her mouth right as Purple Mage rewinds time briefly. Now not-sneering and not-posing, stumbling over the retread step of working up the physical expression to match what she intended to produce with her insults, Petra blandly opens her mouth with nothing coming out for a moment, before making a vaguely confused grunt.     "--Eh? Uh, you-- I'll fucking-- wait, who's making what eyes at me? For beating you up?" Rather than insulting Calvin, Petra's off-balance mind focuses on the idea of beating up men so that pretty ladies will make doe eyes at her. There's *so* many different ways that could go, even: some catcalling punk on the street getting his jaw broken by Petra for making some comment on a girl she's with, or kicking some creep between the legs hard enough for him to shut up when he's acting like he knows better than her, or getting people to quiet down and pay attention to her by flattening some dude in a bar and seeing a girl looking at her with admiration....     Completely unrelatedly to anything Calvin was saying, Petra murmurs her thoughts out loud. "It's actually pretty cool being strong, huh....-- Not you. Obviously. For me being strong, it's cool. That I am. What? I'll fucking kick your ass if you talk to me like that. Go to hell."     Finally back in her meangirl groove but still drained of eloquence, Petra crinkles her nose at Calvin spitting and frowns at him. "You're not fucking special, idiot. I don't have respect for any of you animals. I'll work with you, whatever, but I'll follow through with kicking your shit in easier than you follow through with saying you will."     This is, perhaps, the single best source of ouevre that Petra could hope for! She feels great, and she hasn't even needed her guitar in a minute! It's still there, though, hanging by a strap on the side of the Eggpack to make the bulky metal thing even bulkier.
Aidan Proudpick	"You know, I used to think that. Now, I am not so sure!" Aidan lets out a little groan of dismay. Time rewinds. Aidan lets out a little groan of dismay. Stock still. Everything else is forgotten in the moment. Petra, Xion, Calvin's attitude to him, Sarracenia's outburst, everything. He runs right up to Purple Mage, shouldering anyone he can aside to grab them by the robe. His eyes have that single focus in them again, before he snaps out of it again. Aidan lets go just as quickly, as if he scalded his hands, stepping back. "Sorry, uh, sorry. I just was wondering if anyone can learn magic like that. And if you taught it to anyone else. Sorry." He takes another step back. "Uh, maybe we should go inside. That's what we came here to do. And we should focus on the present. And that's how you get to the future. Yea." He awkwardly goes in to the castle, trying to force chipperness back into his voice. "Planks! Yes. We'll buy planks. Do you take trade?"
Sarracenia	'I wish these things drove more like Gummiships!'      "What is there to drive on a minecart? Just tell Florence to go faster or slower! We are on a rail after all~" Indeed the piranha plant is pumping furiously on whatever that thing is that makes handcarts go forward.      Then, Sarra is intrigued! "Gummiships? I am not sure I have heard of those? What sort of ship are they? Air? Sea? Space?" As a pilot and the commander of an airship navy, Sarra has some interest in ships of all kinds. "I would love to see this 'gummiship' of yours sometime! And I can show you the Dyna and my airships if you would like!"      Yes, Sarra knows that Xion is firmly Team Lilian. Yes, she is that desperate that she would try to be friends with Xion regardless just because they both have airships.      A shot of oeuvre to the face knocks her off that train of thought and into a faceplant on the floor of the cart. Which is where she still is when they roll up to the knight. She blinks in surprise, then scoffs and hops up quickly. "Sequence breaking?! That is ridiculous! Sequence breaking would be unheroic! We merely used our tools to get through a locked door then took the minecart which was -already here- to reach this point! We even fought creatures along the way to reach you! That cannot possibly be sequence breaking." she says with a firm, confident nod at the end.      She coughs into a hand, then curtseys. "I am Princess Sarracenia Sundew, Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom. And this is...um...Xion!" she says, then looks apologetically toward Xion. "I am sorry. I am sure you have some titles but I do not personally know them." she says to Xion, then looks back to the knight. "And we are here to see Golden Pig and Doctor Orange about some rather nefarious deeds they have undertaken. Can you take us to them?"
Kale Hearthward	Purple Mage looks genuinely regretful, at least for as much as they can emote. "My apologies," they say to Angela. "I didn't mean to distress you." > What's this Medallion thing do, anyway? "You would be better served asking Green Mage directly. Also, I would not want to deprive him of the opportunity to tell you about Medallion. He has been working on it for quite some time, and is very passionate about it. It is his favorite ritual." > "Happen to have any..." "We've got long planks!" says blue slime guy. "And very long planks," says green slime guy. "And very long planks," confirms blue slime guy. "But you need something special for one of those!" "You need something special for one of those! You need a certification." "You need a certification for handling long planks!" "You need a diploma." "You need a diploma of certification for handling very long planks!" "But we can help you get one," finishes green slime guy. "And once you have one of those, we can sell you a very long plank," finishes blue slime guy. "Otherwise we can only sell you a long plank." Aidan gets a long plank, unless he's willing to take the certification. > "You only have one?" "Just the one!" confirms green slime guy. > "Any idea where he'd'a gotten off to? With that orange doctor, maybe?" "Professor Orange and the rest of us do not get along," says Purple Mage. "So likely not." Inside, past an assortment of other recurring colorful characters that the group can make small talk with if they'd like (Rasta Beast gives them a friendly wave, Zigg acts as if he doesn't notice them, the kid dracula tells them about his new name (which changes three more times over the course of the conversation)) the group gets to: a pit! It's the sort of pit that one would need a Very Long Plank in order to cross. Assuming you don't have some other means of mobility, or flight, or teleportation, or whatever else would trivialize a stage hazard like this. If you don't, well, time to go buy a Very Long Plank, right? And get the diploma of certification for handling very long planks first, of course. Past the pit, there's a maze. Madeleine is in there, stalking the monster already - managing to outmaneuver it and get the drop on it. It's a giant spider thing, with many eyes and many more teeth! While she's occupying it, anyone proceeding further has the maze to deal with. There's twists and turns and twisty turns - how good is your sense of direction, really?
Futaba Nuki	Purple Mage explains why they won't speak about the Medallion, and Futaba nods firmly in return. "I understand completely. don't worry, we'll get it straight from the horse's mouth." She declares, stopping beside Purple Mage to clap a hand on their shoulder and grin in open approval. "Good on ya. What's your favorite ritual, then?" From the looks of it, she's actually willing to listen to an entire explanation about that, if they're willing to giv eit. At the SlimeCo window, meanwhile, Futaba's really got some options to work through. Getting a long plank would be easy, but the very long plank... Why, that'd be the perfect souvenir to bring back for Niko and their parents! "Sign me up for one of those cert-uh. Diplomas, then. I'm gonna need a few of those very long planks, but I'll have to pick it up on the way back." She raises her little fanny pack, then slides her hand in. It's not visibly big enough even for a regular plank, never mind a long nor a very long plank. They don't have to know it's deeper than it looks, anyway, since she's really just doing this to not have to wait to pick one up later. The pit, meanwhile, doesn't even register in Futaba's mind as an obstacle. When she's walking towards it, she just casually transforms herself into a very long plank, stretching herself aaaall the way across to give those in the group without trivializing mobility options a way across. THe maze, though, gets her attention in the good way. "Ooh.. Maze, maze, maze! Think we'll run into anything weird in here?" Futaba asks as she heads right on in, blazing katana drawn after the first turn and choice comes into view. She starts marking the right-hand wall periodically, leaving a little trail of right-side marks to indicate which way she's already come from. She's not actually sure what she's looking for in there, but it's a maze. OF course there's something cool to find in there. Could it be a surprise Madeleine? A hidden monster? Some kind of weird treasure? Maybe even something to record Calvin and Petra with, to see how far all this friction goes. She could use her phone, too, but she doesn't want to block what she see's seeing and hearing with that.
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan takes a moment and squeezes his fingers into his palms, letting his claws dig in just briefly. Enough to focus all of his intrusive thoughts again. Focus. On yourself. There's a person to help. Focus on yourself. And then he turns to glare at Petra and Calvin. "Stupid time stuff," he mutters under his breath before he starts gathering his emotions back up around him, pushing them into some sort of order, and nodding. "I'll take the diploma!" It seems like the right thing to do. Aidan is good at wood, he's good at math, he can probably do that. One montage of Very Long Plank Certification, Aidan carries the very long plank over his shoulder and puts it out on the pit after Futaba. "You know, we probably shouldn't cheat. This might be important that we do it the way that it's all laid out. You know, maybe like some sort of life lesson." He turns back towards where the original doorway is, frowning in thought. "Maybe we should go back... You know, go around the right way?" "Okay wait!" Walking across the plank is nothing for Aidan, who walks across it without a second thought, tail and body moving fluidly to keep himself from falling. The thought of leaping up across the maze occurs briefly, but would that just be trying to blaze ahead to get to the end. "Or is this the way it happened so it doesn't matter... or am I doing something different because I DO know that I should do something different." Aidan is walking through the maze, following Futaba's right turn only plan. "Or did we ruin everything just by walking in here? Damn, I should have asked that Purple Mage how time magic works!"
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine's ruse goes off with minimal complication, and she gets the drop on her pursuer. Its many limbs and eyes don't really faze her, let alone impress, and she's severed a couple of its forelimbs by the time it realizes she's the larger threat. The thing retreats down the corridor, hissing what might be spider profanities as it goes, and Madeleine lets it run.     Her foe vanquished, she can fix her full attention on learning the maze's ins and outs. By the time the other elites are reaching the center, between the head start and her natural sense of direction, Madeleine is making her way out of the maze and looking for a shadow to lurk in.
Xion	> Gummiships? Xion, an experienced minecart operator, had managed track flips, track switches, and enough maneuvering and fidgeting with the controls for three segments. The Nobody's ability to absolutely mash proper buttons during a quick-time action adventure segment is nearly un-matched, and she is *wildly* overqualified to pump a lever and take potshots at the TRY FIVE TIMES? DIE FIVE TIMES! wall of a creature-boss by... Going backwards? Through the level? The cycles did seem off! "Gummiships are these ships I was taught to make by two talking squirrels a while back?" Xion answers, disembarking from their deeply unsatisfying journey-vehicle. "You can put them together with these blocks made out of jellybean material and stick blasters and shooties-" She says those particular words with her full chest like they're absolutely average parts of a sentence. "-and use them to fly through certain parts of space? Cars sort of handle like them but you can't turn the wheel to make them go up and down, which is confusing." The jellybean spaceships you put lego pieces on that fancifully shoot stars use a *wheel* to operate an x-y axis. If there's any wonder before why Xion doesn't have her license, perhaps it is minutely answered here. "Speaking of, um, things we're curious about - do you want to live forever for any particular reason? You've talked about it a bunch, and if you wanted to stay here to get more time as an idea I'd say it's not wrong, but... It'd kind of..." Suck? She doesn't say that. Even bad dreams might need gentle handling, and she doesn't even think this one's bad: her guilt rests in explaining her own misunderstanding. "... be the worst version of what you wanted. I'm glad you just wanted to ride the cart--" > Stop right there! You've violated sequence law! Pay your fine or face the *consequences*! Xion, still physically smoking lightly on the clothes and heavily on the keysword from latent ouvere degassing, turns her attention to the guard as he literally and physically turns his attention on her. Her deadpan is completely flat. "Um. . . no? Maybe you got turned around. The princess found a minecart to ride, and the cart was there when we found it. The cart is *never* there if it's at the end, right? It always starts at the beginning." She states with absolute adventure-conviction. . . And a harrowing history of Grindrail Segments And Minecart Trail-Line Travesties.
Calvin Nash	One very odious and useless argument and threat-exchange with Petra later, Calvin is focused again on his work, to his dubious credit. Professor Orange and the rest of us do not get along. So likely not.     "Well," says Calvin. Well what? He says it like it's enough to express a thought in itself. "Might be he knows where Gold Pig got to, anyway," he says, after a considerable pause. "Thanks again for the info, Purple. You have yourself a good day." To the slimes, a more curt but still-polite "Fellas."     Inside, Rasta Beast and the dracula kid get an amiable bend of the brim of Calvin's hat. He's fine with Zigg acting like he doesn't notice them. >pit     Calvin did not buy a plank or a very long plank because, as he'd said, he was working. Of course it occurs to him that he could easily solve this problem by getting his certification.     In particular, the pit represents a tough decision--on the one hand, another certification for something is something else he can speak with authority on. On the other, going back is the same as admitting he was wrong not to buy the plank in the first place (in his mind). Eventually, the calculus comes out in favor of solving it without the plank.                                       ...                                           "Ye want me to wha?" asks Pally, scratching the top of his head with cattail-reed fingers. He's easily two heads taller than Calvin.     "You heard me, boss. Right there 'cross the pit."     The pellaidh scoffs, his shaggy seaweed pelt shaking. "Have ye gone aff yer nut, Calvin?" He leans in and sniffs with his upside-down porcelain-mask face. "Cunt's nae even onit," he says disbelievingly. Apparently this'd be more believable an ask if Calvin were drunk.     Calvin crosses his arms. "You gonna throw me or ain't you, big man?"     "Oh, aye," says Pally amiably, who then unceremoniously gets one hand on Calvin's collar and the other on his belt. A spin to rival an olympic shot-put occurs next, and Pally throws Calvin so hard that he not only clears the pit, but rolls across the ground a fair ways too.     "Awright?" Pally calls from the other end.     Calvin shoots him a thumbs-up that comes only after collecting his hat and dizzily standing up, one hand on the wall to balance himself. The demon disappears into Calvin's COMP as a green voxel-stream of data thereafter. >maze past the pit     For this one, Calvin brings out Pabilsag, or 'PB' as he's called.     "I don't see how I would be helpful here," admits the chitin-armored half-scorpion man. His death's head visage is stuck in a permanent smile, but his tone implies the mild confusion well enough.     "You're a god of wisdom, ain't you?"     "The wise thing would be not to enter a place designed to make one lose their way," says the archer flatly.     "Well, we ain't got much choice. Look--you go one way, I'll go another, and the COMP'll tell us where we been so we don't get turned 'round."     PB sighs. "Very well."     And so it goes--Calvin can see himself and PB as blips on the gradually-filling-out map. It's a serviceable plan, if not particularly time-efficient.
Kale Hearthward	XION AND SARRACENIA: POINT OUT LOGICAL MINECART INCONSISTENCIES "Oh, I guess that makes sense," says the Knight. "You're not sequence breaking. You can go on through." "Wait, no, I'm supposed to ambush you," he says, after a moment. "Especially if you're not sequence breaking, and going in the right direction. You can't go on through." "But - you're going *away* from the castle, not trying to invade it - so it's fine? I want you to leave the castle. You *can* go on through?" He turns the problem over in his head a few times, becoming distracted. > "And we are here to see Golden Pig and Doctor Orange about some rather nefarious deeds they have undertaken. Can you take us to them?" "Oh, right, so to get to Gold Pig you'd need to go through the blue door..." "... To get to Professor Orange, you'd go through the carnival door, then trigger the obvious trap that appears on your way back to the crossroads, find your way into the Mushroom Forest from the door that opens up, and avoid all the other obvious traps he's put out on the way to his laboratory, and-" The knight pauses. "Oh, right, I shouldn't say that." "You know what, I'm just going to tell Gold Pig you beat me up and got that info from me that way. Have a nice day!" He goes to leave. There's the door back to the crossroads up ahead. (The one they should have gone through, for a given value of 'should'.) --- Going through the maze... ... eventually, by luck or by simply mapping the whole thing out, the maze exit is found. There's no weird gzdoom tricks that cause walls to disappear or reappear or teleport people to ever-so-slightly-different alternate versions of the maze - nothing like that. It's just a static maze with a wandering monster, albeit a large maze (and large monster). Past the maze exit, there's a staircase leading up... ... And then a room with a small pile of treasure, mostly gold and some small jewels, and what looks like trash at first - a chunk of something blue, with some straight edges and some torn edges. ... On closer examination... it's a piece of a blue door. That does appear to be it for here. No arm, no legs. Just some treasure, and a piece of a door. --- The group returning, via either the forest door or the castle door, is greeted by someone who wasn't there when they'd left. A small, palette-swapped not-cat. "Hello..." says Worldy. (Or WorldMachine, if you prefer.) They have a backpack on - actually a backpack and a duffle bag, both full to bursting with food. "This place is... lacking in substance, isn't it. But I seem to be able to get around okay." They hold up the duffle bag. "I was... not allowed to run away from home without enough food. Which I do not need to eat. Would you like some?"
Aidan Proudpick	Not bothering to think of the logistics of distributing it, Aidan twirls his finger in the air, letting out wisps of white air from his lips. A cushion of air hits the treasure, picking it up and swirling it into a sort of ball. It floats next to Aidan who carefully keeps it spinning with a swirl of his fingers, not letting it drop. Getting a good spin on it, he starts back towards the outside. Aidan has never really liberated money like this before. He's not REALLY sure what to do with it. So, he just starts spinning off little bits of it as he goes, floating some towards Zigg, Rasta, Kid Dracula, Blue Slime, Green Slime, Purple Mage, anyone else who might have cropped up. He stops at Purple Mage, opening his mouth to ask the question. But there's Worldy just beyond the door. Aidan closes it, and moves on. Focus on the people who need help. He moves through to the joining of the paths, letting a mound of treasure and jewels hit the 'ground'. He uses it as a seat, folding his legs criss cross apple sauce. "Hey Worldy. Yea, if you have any fruit or anything, I'd love some. Who caught ya running away?"
Futaba Nuki	Futaba looks rather disappointed when she finds the exit rather than a large monster. There's a few close calls at best when she mistakes someone in the maze for the monster and nearly takes a swipe at them, but her eagerness to SEE the monster first means that ends up not being a problem at all. Recognizing Pabilsag from previous days certainly helps keep friendly fire incidents to a minimum, too. "Dang... I was hoping to have at leastone fight here. How's everyone else make it look so easy?" She grumbles while rubbing the top of her head, tugging on an ear briefly before sheathing her flaming katana back inside that pouch that's far too small to fit it. Heading up those stairs two at a time, there's a moment when she looks excited to see all that treasure, but... "No limbs in here." She concludes after a brief search, sighing softly and setting the gold and jewels aside. Just before she gets up from besides the pile, however, she catches a glimpse of a blue thing, and she picks it out of the pile with a puzzled look on her face. "Why would this be in here of all places...? Did it break off the-" Wait. The doorframe with the sand near it. "Is this supposed to be... Part of the door that's supposed to go in there?" She asks aloud, glancing over at Aidan as he goes for the rest of the pile. Futaba raises an eyebrow slightly, does one of those understanding mini-shrugs with her head, then shrugs for real before heading right back out. "You be careful with that now. Might make yourself a target, flashing all that stolen dough." A beat. "Re... Stolen?" Third shrug. On the way out, Futaba makes sure to pick up three very long planks: One for Niko, one for Worldy, and one for their parents! She's not expecting to see any of them here, so Worldy's sudden arrival has her gawking for a moment before breaking into a surprised smile. "Hey there! Oh, you missed some..." She mulls over how to best describe the castle just now, then just approaches Worldy while offering one of the very long planks. "IT was a place, alright. Didn't run into anything too dangerous, but... Here! Something to remember this place by. And sure, I could go for some grub."
Calvin Nash	There's no indication that anything useful is past the exit of the labyrinth, with the possible exception of the chunk of missing door.      "I would venture to guess that Gold Pig doesn't wish to be followed," notes PB.      "He's gettin' on my last damn nerve," says Calvin irritably. The treasure might as well be invisible to him. "I ain't looking forward to hunting down every last damn piece of door that sumbitch littered 'cross the place."      "The jewels may at least be worth some macca," PB says, trying to offer a silver lining.      "To hell with the jewels," Calvin says sourly. "Come on." I was... not allowed to run away from home without enough food. Which I do not need to eat. Would you like some?      The sight of Worldy does seem to cheer Calvin up. "Well hey there, partner," he says. "You must be Worldy. I'm Calvin," he says. "This here's Pabilsag. PB for short."      "I appreciate the generosity," says PB. "But like you, I have no need."      Calvin smiles. "You know... I could eat. How 'bout we sit with you a spell and shoot the breeze?"      Although he'd been anything but gentle or kind with Petra, Calvin is very much so with Worldy--as much as he'd been with the other kids in the village. "It's a little sad, ain't it?" He gestures around vaguely.      "Not just on account of it bein' all unfinished, but 'cause all these people've been livin' in it for... well, longer'n most've us been alive." He gestures behind him with a thumb. "Me, I just come from that castle back 'ere."      "Never been in no castle before. Dunno if I'd go back, neither. Seems lonely. 'Specially set in the middle of a place like this." Could that be why Gold Pig wanted the arm and the legs?      "You got any particular place you're headed, or you just ramblin'?"
Sarracenia	Sarra listens to the knight, her expression going through the gambit of emotions from happy to deadpan to confused to amused. When the knight finally just says he is going to tell Gold Pig that he was beaten up she giggles a bit. "You too!" she says to his have a nice day, then she looks to Xion and laughs. "I think we broke him."      'Speaking of, um, things we're curious about - do you want to live forever for any particular reason? You've talked about it a bunch, and if you wanted to stay here to get more time as an idea I'd say it's not wrong, but... It'd kind of...'      "Not for just any particular reason, but for a few particular reasons." Sarra answers. "Originally it started as a desire to maintain my youthful appearance and give me all the time I could want to complete my goals, then..." She sighs. "...well, then I found out people actually for real wanted me dead for reasons I still do not fully understand...like, I know there are some people I do not get along with but...not liking someone is no reason to wish them dead. Is it?" she says.      Then she pauses a moment before she laughs sadly. "I guess I do not know whether you are one of them or not. But, you seem much like Lady Tamamo in that regard." The princess looks at Xion and hesitates a moment and looks around to see if anyone else is nearby. "...if you do...or even if you do not...could you tell me why it is they wish me dead? I...cannot understand why. I have gotten in many arguments, but it was not until relatively recently that I ever had anyone...wish me dead."      Once that discussion is done, she heads through the door back to the doorway clearing. She blinks in surprise and smiles as she sees Worldy. "You have good mothers." she says to them. "What sort of food did they send with you?"      She also waves to Aidan, apparently in a better mood after blowing some things up, talking to someone who did not tell her to die, and outsmarting a knight. "That was exciting after all! Perhaps you are not entirely wrong about this place. How did things go for you?" she says, then pauses. "...oh dear." She turns around and heads back inside. "Florence?" Florence comes running through the door with several bruises and a broken guitar.
Aidan Proudpick	"You be careful with that now. Might make yourself a target, flashing all that stolen dough." A beaming smile, "I'll be fine!" Aidan shrugs over at Sarra, "Well, we found the castle. We got through the castle, and we found something important in the castle." He jerks a thumb over at Futaba, "It might be the treasure, but I'm guessing it's that piece of door. Since it's weird to keep a piece of door around?"
Xion	> 'Wait, no, I'm supposed to ambush you,' Xion, still carrying the Kingdom Key, unlimbers the weapon from her shoulder, the keychain bobbing as her stance widens out from a casual walking to a combat-steadied ready. The tip daps ground once-twice-thrice as the keychain jangles in jovial sussuration-slink against handlespan. "Yeah, okay, I can go for an amb-" Several Sentences Are About To Play In Sequence... > 'You know what, I'm just going to tell Gold Pig you beat me up and got that info from me that way. Have a nice day!' "Wow." Xion says afterward, turning to Sarracenia. "He was really helpful. Did you get all that?" Not that any of the backtracking information might be useful, but... did she? > Let's get back to that conversation. . . By the end of the interaction with the Knight, Xion's magic key rests tip-against the ground and the black-coated woman stands with shoulders back. Left gloved hand, in the retreat of the helmeted 'warrior', runs back through her bangs and ruffles through her short hair, and first around black-wrapped palm and past-glove fair wrist and coated elbow does she peek around to Sarracenia when she toggles back to immortality - and death. Shifting from a lean to a shove, Xion steadies the Kingdom Key straight up and then jams it down into the ground, stepping about to lean on the sword and cross her arms. The topic requires... ... advanced sitting. "Are you doing the normal things that retain that, too? Or just the super-natural? Physical training and exercise and dieting and yoga?" The Nobody, leaning from her pensive-cool questioning-answering pose with an eagerer lean forward, brightens her blue eyes up. "I do like yoga! It's fun, but, I don't think I get the same things out of it as you might? I'm, um," Xion settles back. "Flexible." She smiles. 'One of them or not', though, sobers Xion instantly, and she sits back on the Kingdom Key's handle enough to creak. "That's right. I'm someone close to Lilian. But I'm also Xion. As for what you asked just before-" Xion definitely isn't stupid and knows - or at least seems to - when Sarracenia talks without naming names. "-I don't think Lilian wants you dead, but, you hit her and got away with it. Then you made your apology more about making you feel better than making Lilian feel safer. That's the root of your problem with Lilian. If another noble hit you and got away with it: I think nobles have gone to war for less. And war is wishing death on nations. So, I think, charitably, that..." The noirette closes her eyes and dips her chin. It's hard to deliver it all in a row without pausing to recompose. She was regulating doing it this way, and not any other, herself. "... the world I want is the world where people can disagree warmly with each other rather than war coldly." "But it's not the world we're living in right now. And fighting to make it the better way won't be done by the time I'm done fighting, I think. So, we have to be better than minimums and fail-safes if we want to be liked and loved." Xion shrugs. "Especially forever." Her eyes come up, and her butt comes off the Kingdom Key's handle, coat unpinching with silken spring as the black-coated adventure heroine turns to retrieve her ground-buried sword. "Honestly, I don't think power's a bad way to get ahead of the times you'll fall, princess. You're already far enough ahead you'll probably make it. But if you want it to last forever: It can't be something you buy, or find and pluck, or any other thing." Ker-chuk goes the Kingdom Key's tooth from the ground, flicked off of its lacking terrain and re-shouldered casually. "It'll have to be something you make your own, make yourself, make your self - and you'll have to be happy with it. That might just last forever."
Xion	Finally, as if sensing no more danger, or just being done holding a sword for now, Xion's swordbearing right opens and she waves off the key-dismissing palewhite particles and places her hands on her hips. "If you want Petra to stop telling you to 'kill yourself', and really want to change rather than not being in trouble, accept she's going to be rude probably for longer than you want to be polite and be polite longer than that, and she'll probably find someone else to be mad at. Otherwise... I mean--" Xion sweeps out a hand, gesturing at nothing. "I mean, she's not here trying to kill you, is she? I'm here. Trying to make sure you..." Stay alive? Xion doesn't like that, and grumbles as she looks back towards the now-open hub door. "... don't settle for the absolute worst forever I've ever seen. Sheesh. C'mon, Petra *might*'ve killed Aidan." --- But it turns out that there is a huge amount of food and no murder! Yay?
Kale Hearthward	If treasure is handed out, treasure is taken, but with somewhat less enthusiasm than Aidan might expect. > "Hey Worldy. Yea, if you have any fruit or anything, I'd love some. Who caught ya running away?" "Daelia," says Worldy, naming Niko's 'other mom' that the party didn't get a chance to talk to much. "Someone gave her a heads up. I got told I wasn't allowed to run away from home without being properly prepared." There's some fresh fruit, though there's more canned fruit than fresh. The cans bear brand markings most commonly found in the Commonwealth countries. The not-cat gets a Very Long Plank. "Thank you," they say sincerely. "I will find a function for it." > "It's a little sad, ain't it?" "It is." Worldy sits with Calvin and looks around. "I do not possess the same oeuvre requirements as a person, but nevertheless I feel somewhat drained. I cannot imagine living here, especially for however many multiples of normal lifespans they have been." "I am, I suppose, rambling. But this seemed like as good a first destination as any. The Everhood was mentioned in the books within the simulated world program I was running, and it is in the company of many of those who helped to save Niko." "Perhaps once I have seen enough of here, I will need to decide where to go next. Suggestions will be accepted and considered."
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan bites into a peach as he thinks about that. "I still think you should talk to Neko first. They are going to miss you." He lifts his hands, "Finding yer own path is important." Sitting now, a bit drained, without the grand story of how this world will have some magnificent turning point, Aidan is wearing down, feeling the effects bear down around him. Shoulders hunch, back bent as if protecting against the cold. It takes longer for Aidan to think. "You need somewhere to start. Wandering the Multiverse to find whatcha wanna do will take a while." He chews thoughtfully on more peach, starting to speak, having to swallow first, then continuing, "There's Balan, if you want to help people still. There are people who need things like taxes and graphs and charts and all that. If you want to save lives, just start somewhere small."