War of Dragons: Dun Loireag

Dun Loireag's cliffs are windy and harsh. Luckily, the group doesn't have to spend too much time on the outside of the city itself, as they head down below. Down the various steps and stairs without any railings to speak of, having to jump occassionally from one point to another to progress, as they are led by Hans Humpty.

This is just one of the many expeditions in session trying to find the actual source of power beneath the city, as the Hero makes the traversal of the rather trecherous and windy terrain seem almost comically easy compared to reality. There's no doubt one or two people who have to be grabbed at the last second by their compatriots to make sure they don't fall to their deaths to the cliffs below.

Then suddenly, the Hero disappears, as he turns and steps /into/ the stone. A holographic like warp appearing around the place he was not a moment ago.

Once they follow him in, they arrive in what is an absolutely enormous hall.

It takes considerable amount of time for people to get enough Light going in here to get even a remote feeling for the scope of just how enormous that is.

Not 'This is a large hall meant for dining', but more along the lines of 'I think we can store about four Boeing 747s in here, and maybe stack a few more on top'. The ground below is metalic, and there are enormous ceiling-rail mounted cranes that are resting.

It's times like this Kotono is glad she's a bit of an acrobat. The cliffs are windy and harsh, but the Spriggan manages to keep her balance and avoid getting dizzy at all. If only more were like her...

Oh well.

The Hero acts as a guide and Kotono follows along closely, keeping a neutral look until he abruptly vanishes, and Kotono blinks a few times before frowning.

Kotono helps with getting the Light going so they can actually see around them. When she gets a look at where they are, her eyes widen and her jaw hangs open for a moment.

"Miyako? Are you seeing this?" She finally says after snapping out of her trance.

On Prophylaxis' part, his handy wire-producing magitech gauntlet has proven invaluable in the work of navigating these daunting cliffsides. A narrowly missed jump could be remedied by tethering the tendril to the other end as a safety rope. It's also proven useful for rescuing anyone who might have slipped on the way down! And soon...

They find... something incredible.

"I knew there were airship docks hidden inside Dun Loireag, but this is just ridiculous," Prophylaxis says with a healthy measure of awe and surprise. "If only those Minions weren't always attacking anything we sent into the air... Can you imagine? The kinds of vessels these docks must have serviced once upon a time...!"

It also explains a little bit about what Dun Loireag's role must have been in the time of the Alvs. Now, though, the rules of the World seem to forbid powered flight. And all of this is just left to waste...

Vertina trained in the labyrinth when the Goblin death traps were still active. Having to jump over missing portions of path with no safety railings while the winds blow... is still really dangerous, lets be honest. But being the thrillseeker she is Vertina doesn't really consider that too much.

Eventually they come to the wall. And Humpty just keeps right on going. "Hey, someone stop hi--" Going right through the wall, causing her to pause. "--Uh." Looks back to the others. "Is it suppose to do that?"

Apparently it is. To the point that Vertina puts a little too much effort in pushing through for resistance that isn't there, and nearly stumbles flat on her face on the other side because of it. "I'm okay, I'm okay!" She dusts herself off, then stands and looks up. "... So this is the strange bits of other worlds you guys were talking about?"

"Frigging huge. ", is all Vespa can say about this hall, if you can ever all it that.. "I wonder what the rates were for overnight parking..", there going to be alot of walking, she pulls out a apple out her front apron pocket and starts to eat it.

Schneider follows along as best he can, and is one of the ones who needs a bit of help with some of the jumps. He has the strength. But you don't play basketball in a crosswind. The size of the space is awe-inspiring as more and more of it is reveaed, and he's likely one of the ones helping with illumination. When he can finally see the ceiling, with the cranes, he has to woder what this place is, or was anyhow, because he's not sure quite what it is now, other than apparently our destination.

He nods to Proph about the ability to build large things here, saying, "As long as they stay on land, they're fine." But what use are giant ships on land? Well, everyone knows what Landcruisers are....

    Mizuki discovers the problem with having really long hair when it's crazy windy. Someone may have to braid it or find something like hair ties to help -- if necessary, she cuts off a bit of rope to use like a heavy hair tie to hold it down. And uses a bit more to keep her jacket from flapping around.

    "Ohh, Wis, it's so neat! There are apparently bits of *Japan* under the cities! In Carmina Gadelica, we got to go to a cafe..."

    A secret door? "Well great. I'm going to be poking every wall I see for awhile... They could at least misalign the texture a little bit..."

    But inside isn't a japanese street like she's expecting after last time. But... "What is THIS place?" She tries to find the closest wall, and feels the metal floor curiously, turning to human form. "Is this metal?"

    She changes back as they try to light up the area, so she can use her night vision. "I dunno what the purpose of this area is... but there's... like cranes or something?" she squints, "On rails on the ceiling? What the hell IS this place?"

    At Proph's theory, she gives him a curious look. "Wait. Do you mean this isn't like the piece of Japan, this is... um... a piece of the setting," she mutters, "I mean, I guess it's also real but you know what I mean" and then continues, "and we haven't found the true Underground or whatever it's called here, yet?"

    "...Those cranes must have controls here somewhere, right?"

For those who have not seen Rylen recently, the Pooka certainly has taken on some appearance changes. Since the start of the war, he now has a thin layer of scruff that frames his features, neatly kept but not busy enough to be considered an actual beard. Though always athletic, he also seems to have put on more in the way of raw muscle. He certainly doesn't look like the easy-going acrobat he might have once been.

Though Rylen is clearly familiar with Dun Loireag, he has never had much reason to traverse the underground. He lingers near the back of the group, utilizing his earth-bending to create footholds or platforms where they are needed to help others across as they follow the Hero throughout the structure.

Upon stepping in to this hidden chamber, however, Rylen lets out a low whistle, looking around with some measure of awe. "In all my travels in Ninetails, I had no idea this was even hidden away down here." His silver eyes shift to Prophylaxis, but rather than speaking to vessels or structures, he taps his foot on the metal flooring. "Let's see what there is to see."

Rylen extends one hand, igniting a red ring upon one of his fingers into a ball of flame which he holds in front of him, allowing the firelight to cast into the darker places of the chamber.

Well. That is interesting. Robert, admittedly is mostly along for the ride. But when confronted with a hall of this size...and not back in the world they came from...there's really only one thing he can do.

A long, low whistle slips past his lips and, hooking his thumbs through his belt, he sets about scanning his surroundings. Concentric circles of azure and scarlet interlock before his right eye, distorting the nearby air.

    Setsuna enters behind the others and whistles, "You know this place would make a great workshop." Turning his head to Mr. Humpty he poses the question, "Have you guys ever considered like filling this place with manufacturing? I would recommend monster traps. There is a real demand out there for those." Setsuna channels magic into his eyes as they glow with a golden hue before he spreads out and helps looks around the room, the first thing he is aiming for is a light switch, followed by wyvern tracks, and finally anything else he may find suspicious.

    Miyako nods, having followed along in Kotono's footsteps, keeping pace with her partner despite the dangerous bits the trail passes through. "It's incredible," she agrees, listening as the group's footsteps echo in the massive open space. "Just be sure you have your ticket, you don't want Indy the steward to throw you overboard." She hums a bit from the old movie's theme, as she continues to turn and gaze about at the impressive machinery around the walls of the massive hangar. "Maybe more than just airships," she muses. "I have my suspicions about the Alv...."

    Wisteria is walking with Vert and Mizukichi cause of course she is, where else would the tall albino girl be but with her best friends. It's a Scale expedition and that means friendship... and violence... and probably fire... there will definately be a fire sometime.

The tall werefang has on her dark Onna-musha armor with her enchanted katana at her hip. She pulls her jewlers loop from around her neck and appraises the entry way checking the enchantment and seeing if it brings up any of the weird code or other glitches she's come across at times. Then she pads out to join in with searching even as she puts her jewelers loop back into her armor.

The girl laughs at Mizuki and rubs her friend on the top of her head. "Well hopefuly we'll find more Japan down here." she says with a bright smile. When folks start to search the girl shifts, her Caerbannog senses so much better than her human ones. The girl starts leaping from place to place, ears swiveling, red eyes gleaming, and cute pink nose wiggling. Just ignore the smile full of multiple rows of sharklike teeth and she's adorable.

Viviene has been sticking to the middle-rear of the group. The tiny spriggan has been traversing the area through climbing, jumps, and otherwise overcoming the navigational challenges with feats of athleticism. The spriggan is here representing the Sleeping Knights, and acting as a mercenary. The large hall or hangar-like building they have entered has caused Viviene to pause and look around for a brief moment, and comments to Prophylaxis's observations "Not just the vehicles themselves, there is enough space in here to have all the support equipment for such a thing too." she noted. An effort to manifest an orb of flame to create more light has a small orb flickering into existiance above the Tiny spriggan's hand as she steps around. She carefully cases the place, looking around and stepping around for anything that stuck out, but did not split from the main group too far.

"No, you'll know when we find one of the Remnants," Prophylaxis answers Mizuki, a globe of flame materializing in the palm of his hand and... rising to float obediently over his head, shedding a warm firelight across the surrounding architecture. "The air is different. And chimlinks stop working, besides. This--" he sweeps his staff at the machinery surrounding them, "--Is all a relic of Dun Loireag's past. I'd found what looked like airship hangar doors here before, but the gates were sealed. Looks like there was always another way into the facility."

"Indeed," he answers Vivienne, "I believe Dun Loireag was once a major airship port in the age of the Alvs, before the myriad races lost the right to fly. Fort Ouph is another place that may have served a vast number of airships, but I'm not as familiar with that city as I am with this one."

Curtana holds his lit sword aloft in his dominant hand, eyes peering around to try to make details out of the gloom. "You have to wonder just how long this has gone undisturbed..." The knight follows alongside Viviene near the rear. His eyes weren't looking around for machinery but for anything moving among the stillness. "And make some noise if anyone gets seperated! No telling how easily you can get turned around, even in this hall." He does listen to Prophylaxis' story about what Dun Loireag may have been ages ago, but doesn't add in too much details of his own.

The crew starts their search throughout the region, getting a better look at things. With Viviene, Rylen, Prophylaxis, Curtana, Vertina and Schneider serving as the brunt of the lighting, they spread out. Hans joins in with a simple torch, but ends up just sitting on a series of rusted and open crates eventually. There's nothing inside of the crates, and it looks almost like they were quickly emptied out in the middle of an evacuation of sorts. In fact, everything here looks kind of like it was left in the middle of being used.

Mizuki finds enormous black scorchmarks near the back of the enormous hall, along with a large raised metalic plate at a partial angle. Setsuna, on closer inspection, finds that there are grooves in the ground. Almost like a railway leading to the opposite side of the enormous hall. But upon testing the walls by the group as a whole, it seems like this place is just an enormous 'box' so far.

SpritesHero eventually finds an area that is 'shielded' from the main hall they are in, and finds various controls. Upon touching them, there's loud CLACK-CLACK-CLACK sounds, as giant floodlights start shining through the region.

Wisteria in the meantime, finds a suspicious group of stacked boxes, almost like they were secured. But they are simply too large, and too heavy to lift or even budge with regular strength. And even with magic, it seems almost an impossible task.

At the same time, Miyako has found an image painted on the wall.

https://i.imgur.com/FKA1BgR.png

Some kind of crooked angelic-like 'thing' in the skies, with crude drawings of people being scorched beneath it. And symbols of magic being brought to bear against it.

Beneath it, it declares but one word, but it seems to be written in some kind of old Gnome script. It'd require some Cryptographic knowledge to read it.

They have a lot of space to cover, so instead of trying to shine in one place at a time Vertina conjures a ball of bright burning light and lobs it high into the air, where it's shine can cover a greater area to help the others. Until someone finds an actual light switch.

Eventually she wanders back over to the picture everyone else is gawking at. Tilts her head one way. Then the other. Then shrugs. "I was never much of an artsy person... kinda badass looking though."

Kotono's always had a bit of a curious personality, so she does dart ahead occasionally, but does hang back too. After all, there's no telling if there are traps or anything. "Stay focused, Kotono, you got this."

Then it seems Miyako has discovered something. Kotono looks at it and shakes her head. "I can't make heads or tails... or even wings of it." She shrugs. "Maybe someone else can help us out?"

Floodlights do as their name demands, flooding the hangar with a deluge of light. Prophylaxis squints and shields his eyes in the shadow of his hand. "...No way. Electricity...? This place is still powered? Or is there... something else? /Magical/ electricity?" Prophylaxis glances Spritesward with a look that says 'this is worth looking into.' Perhaps they'll need to return here to study this place further, to see if they can't replicate this technology.

But then... There's something on the wall. The doctor stares up at it and frowns. "This... looks familiar. But why...?" He pauses and opens what looks to be some kind of Extremely Thick Notebook and begins flipping through the pages. "That text looks Gnomish, but... Ugh, where did I leave those notes...?"

It might take him a bit.

    Setsuna feels the ground to find the grooves and traces them towards the opposite end of the hall and shakes his head, "I have grooves here. Maybe what is left of some form of rail system. " Then the flood lights come on and he has to cover his eyes not expecting the surprise light rubs them to get the spots to go away until he blinks again to see the image on the wall. "Well if that ust doesn't make the thirteen year old kid in me want to get in the damn robot." He doesn't have any knowledge past the picture looks cool so continues to search around the hall for...something.

Rylen's path throughout the room is slow, taking everything in bit by bit. The orb of flame is lightly rolled between his fingers in an almost entrancing manner, like one might due with glass orbs during a performance of dexterity. For the most part, the Pooka seems to be leaving the actual investigations to those who have senses better suited to the task at hand.

"Whomever used this place, certainly got out of here quickly." Eventually, his attention is lead over towards the image painted upon the wall, his eyebrows raised and his expression curious. "That doesn't look like anything I would want to run into, even on a good day."

Then, he squints as the lights seem to come on, raising his hand to shield his eyes. "Well, that's helpful, at least." He lets the orb of fire settle into his hand and then extinguishes it. "This whole place is a little more sci-fi than I'm certainly used to around Ninetails."

SpritesHero is rather on the nosey side. Sometimes it serves him well. Other times it leads to imminent disaster. It is not yet clear which category today's exploration falls into.

His surveillance of the chamber pauses as a little alcove catches his attentions, and it is with a notable bounce in his step that he strolls on over to his private little hidey-hole. And what's this? Controls? He pauses, glances back over his shoulder at the crowd. He should report this. But surely one little poke shouldn't be a problem, right. He waffles back and forth, between temptation and duty.

Naturally temptation wins. Floodlights snap on. Sprites whips around to...catch Prophylaxis looking at him. There's a bashful little grin, followed by a hazy-eyed expression.

Schneider hrms at the story of Dun Loireag in ages past. "That's interesting," he arees. "I'd love it if we /could/ find a plane here, but I think it'd be too hard to use it effectively in Yamato. I wonder if flying is possible in the Palace Lands?" That experiment will have to wait, of course. His flames light the area, though what's revealed is of questionable use, at first. But then Miyako finds an image on the wall, with the label in some kind of language that of course doesn't autotranslate, because that'd be too easy. "Is it all dead languages that don't translate?" he wonders aloud. "And what is 'Skeith'?"

Vespa keeps eating her apple looking at the picture on the wall "Nope I have no idea what what is.", she never was good at the puzzle stuff in games. She keeps looking around sticking close to the rest of the group. She knows better than to wander off on her own. That always leads to trouble.

    "More than just badass," Miyako muses, nodding to Vertina. "There's something...." She squints, stooping slightly to lean in and get a closer look at one of the words in question. "And yeah, definitely gnomish. I think the writer was a little shorter than me." She hmms softly, scratching her head as she considers it.

    "Reminds me of some other places I've seen. Some of the stuff under Shibuya was like this, although it was more... office-building, laboratory complex, that sort of thing." She pauses for a moment.

    "Does the word 'Skeith' mean anything to anyone?" she asks. "I could swear I'd heard it somewhere before."

Prophylaxis stops scrolling through his book and stares Schneider dead in the face.

"Skeith. You're... both sure it says 'Skeith?'"

    Wisteria starts checking out the boxes, hunting over them and looking for ways to open them and see if there might be a way, she takes a glance at the mural and name but shrugs and returns to her intense investigation of the huge boxes. If she can't find a way in, she starts looking for ways to move the crates, looking up to track the crane positions and getting that look on her face that says 'I'm planning to do things'.

    She even draws out her jewelers loop to look over the boxes, analyzing them and checking for locks and tags that might indicate what is in them or how to open them. Tall bunny girl bouncing from place to place, stepping on air runes she creates to climb to the top of the stack and move around the various crates. She looks to Proph "Probably elemental batteries or maybe a generator, with the robots we've seen and the power souces I've managed for my enchantments those could be light enchantments being powered from a network of crystal arrays or even the fully contained elemental batteries. Probably save light up from the sun then lets it out through a controled enchantment." she says "Or... they had light bulbs... I've been here too long." she returns to her investigations.

Viviene when the lights turn on, she has Prophylaxes's line of thinking. "I aught to mention this to Goldenblade, given what they're working on right now.." she said, noting the lights. She does regard the image, and the glyphs on it. She grips a pendant of various rings that spin around each other when she touches it. "I could take a look at that with this. It's pretty useful in finding something hidden within the words." she steps closer and looks through the pendant, she looks over to everyone else. "Skeith? .. My Pendant is telling me.'Terror of Death.'" she doesn't seen to know the relevance of the term Skeith, but she commits her own discovery to the investigation. "Quite a title, if anything."

    Setsuna's head pops up hearing the name, " Skeith is one of those bad words that makes doc want to go home and cry in the corner." Suddenly he is more interested in the picture as he approaches it and then looks towards the doctor. " Do you think this place is where Skeith was born? Would that make Skeith a machina of some kind?" Alas more questions then answers.

"...Terror of Death." The doctor takes in a breath and exhales slowly. "I want someone to please make a copy of that drawing, if you can. Even a rough sketch will do," he starts making a crude drawing of his own in a fresh page of his notebook, along with the creature's name and its epithet. "Skeith. Skeith is one of the Scrapped Princesses. One of the creatures that once terrorized Yamato and apparently even the world beyond. It was... supposedly defeated by the Heroes of Yamato's kingdoms in the past. This is the first time I've ever seen it depicted, though..."

"No, from what we can tell, Skeith-- and the other Scrapped Princesses-- are not native to this place. Hardly looks like a Princess at all, does it?" He huffs, "...I think we know what these people were all running from. Perhaps... this place was abandoned due to Skeith or one of the other Scrapped Princesses. The Alvs would not have written in Gnomish, certainly."

"Well that sounds cheerful.", Vespa says with a deadpan tone at at the mention of Terror of Death. "Are we going to kill death?", she chuckels to herself at that. ".or mabye someone already did.."

Vertina glances over to the Doc. "So you think Gnomes were using it, and got chased out by the Scrapped Princesses during that war?"

As additional Adventurers start to cast additional light, Curtana turns his attention to bringing light to the darkness that still lingers. Nothing else of importance or agressiveness seems to be hiding in the deepest pools, and an ancient drawing seems to be gathering the most attention so far. As for the image itself, it's certainly an impressive and foreboding figure. The symbols down at the bottom could just be oddly-shaped figures for all the understanding Curt could gather from them. "Terror of Death...the name alone doesn't bode well in the slighest. And no, that's certainly doesn't look like a princess."

A chill goes down Curtana's back at the thought of such a being causing the Alvs to hide away, to leave little traces of their existance. Regardless, a rough sketch is asked for. Pulling out some paper and a bit of spare charcoal, Curtana starts to rub out the imposing angelic figure down on the paper, surprisingly doing well to not smudge the details and even being extra careful to get the Gnomish letters at the bottom as well. "Does this work?"

As people are getting themselves distracted with the image of Skeith, Hans has made his way over to the controls that turned on the lights and has started messing with the various buttons. After a few attempts, there's the loud WHINE of something moving on ceiling height tracks. The cranes moving back and forth, the large 'grabbers' at their ends dangling and wobbling a bit any time those large railed beams stop moving at the top.

He gets the hang of it and starts to move them over the large gathering of far-too-heavy crates, and lets them dangle there. "Someone better with machines than me want to mess with this, before I break it? This is too much work." Hans complains, and ends up just sitting on one of the consoles, butt-pressing one of the buttons by accident which turns all the lights off again.

Damn cats.

    Mizuki finds scorch marks. "The signs of combat! ...Wait." She tries using a bit of flame on a nearby piece of floor to see if scorch marks are even normally left here.

    Lights come on! "Ah, bright!" She has to switch back to human.

    Eventually someone points out that LIGHTS mean ELECTRICITY. "Hey, yeah... what kind of power does this place use??"

    Setsuna comments about mecha. "You think it's an image of a mech? But the pieces aren't really connected... I guess whatever magical construct that is could be any size though, huh..."

    "Skeith?"

    Mizuki frowns. "Isn't that what Haseo shouts...?" she looks uncomfortable as she remembers the one battle she's died in... And another where she thought she might...

"That's what I'd surmise," the doctor nods to Vertina. "Or they retreated here to hide from an attack by Skeith. One way or another, what is being depicted here is..." Prophylaxis winces at the sight of those poor souls lying scorched and broken at the Scrapped Princess' feet, "...Not pleasant."

Someone makes a decent sketch! One way better than the one in the doctor's own notebook. "Ah, yes! Thank you very much. Would you mind if I borrowed that for a while? I'll have someone make a rendition and return the original once we're done. It'd be great to have an accurate sketch for my notes."

Schneider winces at Proph's words, which imply very bad things, he feels. "You know ..." he says to Proph, then falls silent. He did some extensive research on the Scrapped Princesses some time back, and the results were not widely shared because it didn't seem pertinent at the time. And because people would freak. Apparently this is still the case.

Lights on, lights off, he will come over to the panel and see if he can help? Not that he has any great facility with control panels, but he can try?"

Vertina puts a palm over her face as Hans buttdials the lights off. "Anyone? I'm not much help unless it's like those gatcha crane skill games. Use to play those to work on hand-eye coordination."

The lights go off. Prophylaxis huffs. "Well... That was illuminating. We should keep on looking for what we came here for, though. Does anyone know how to operate a crane machine? Those crates need to be moved out of the way."

    Miyako nods. "One of the... damn. I've been meaning to look into them for a while now, but it's just become quite a bit more important." She continues to stare at the drawing on the wall, wishing she had a camera, only looking away when Curtana offers her sketch. "Yes, that's good," she says, and starts looking around the rest of the area.

    "Scorch marks on the walls... blast deflector... grooves? Some sort of catapult launch system?" She frowns as the lights suddenly turn off. "Hey! Quit fecking with the switches! Gods only know what you might turn on next!" Like, say, the launch catapult...

    Wisteria looking up at the ceiling turns out to be a good thing when the Hero starts fiddling with stuff. "Oooh please... do NOT drop a crane on me." she says and then she's zipping along, a crackle of thunder and glowing runes marking her steps as she air dashes towards the controls (and out from under anything that might crush her to death because of a cat being a cat... it's the last thing she needs).

    "I'm an enchanter... hopefuly this stuff is setup in a way that works well." she looks over the controls "MIZUKICHI! Need you." she says in a battlefield voice. "Keyboard's take computer folks." she says to Hans as she summons the correct cat for the job.

Curtana willing offers it to Prophylaxis once he finishes drawing the last of the sigals and nods once. "Go right ahead, we're all in this together, and Skeith obviously means something of importance to you. I'm just glad I managed to draw something decent and not a stick figure for once."

The lights are shut back off, and Curtana uses a bit of mana and chanting to call up a floating light orb. "Something tells me we're going to want to keep our lights at the ready."

And all of a sudden they find themselves back in darkness. Rylen sighs and spends a bit more mana to summon up another of those orbs of fire magic, shaking his head. "Alright, fire stays on."

His eyes look up towards the cranes, their shadows seeming a bit ominous in the darkness. "Just so long as none of them come down on us. That is not the sort of hug anyone should be looking for."

Leaving the image behind, he starts trying to make his way over to where the others who are more tech-savvy might be trying to figure out the controls. "Hey, Hans, come here." He motions, obviously trying to get their guide's ass off the machinery.

Vespa moves out of the way of the cranes . "I have no interest in a flattend by some boxes..", she wasted too much money on crane games and never one anything!

"I mean, look at the motiffs on this guy. Its definetly got some vibes to it, almost a mix of something angelic and something Darker at the same time." Viviene mentioned, and as the lights goes off, she brings her orb of fiery light closer to her. She looks to Prophylaxis. "You seem to know quite a lot, we should talk sometime, I've questions, though not really pertaining to this investigation. I'm Viviene." she introduced. She does turn to investigate what Miyako was looking at, out of curiosity, looking over the area and shining some light upon it. Looking over the details of the blast marks to see if she can discern anything of what could have happened in particular. "Robert, what do you think?" she called over to Spriteshero.

After some urging, Hans gets his Humpty Dumpty Dumpy Bum off of the switch, and allows the <<Lights to be turned back on>>. Giving people access to the controls.

When the lights go out, Kotono drops down into a crouched position and draws her blades. "What gives?!" She asks. When the lights come back on, Kotono looks around and shakes her head. "That was uncalled for!"

SpritesHero blinks once, twice. Glances to the left, glances to the right. Elevates his eyebrows. Points questioningly at himself.

Because there's evidently more Roberts hanging around, or something, in his mind at least. "I dunno, Vivi," he admits at last with a helpless shrug. "This is way outside my area of expertise. Like way, way outside. I'd have to defer to a demolitions expert. Or a theologian."

    Miyako shakes her head, stepping away from the possible-catapult, and over towards the crowd checking out the controls. "Somebody call for Hell-Desk? I worked IT for... a few years." More than a few, but that would be telling. She leans in to take a look at things. "Don't touch that," she says, pointing to one particular switch. "It would be bad."

    Mizuki is called to the controls! And Miyako worked IT too! She stares as she's confronted with... well, are these all specific buttons for specific functions, or is it more like a keyboard that can be used to type commands? She looks over the interface with interest, trying to make sense of it.

"I am Prophylaxis," the doctor replies with a gentle incline of his head. "I've been looking into the lore of this world for quite some time now. I'd be glad to share what I am able some other time. Right now... Well, we've got a city to secure."

    "Oh, you worked in IT too?" Mizuki looks over Miyako for a moment, thoughtfully, then back at the controls. "I was never good at those arcade claw games... but if we've found an actual computer, finally..."

Schneider, having stepped up to console and lights somehow gotten on, will puzzle over the controls. He's a basketball player, not a crane operator, but he's played the Crane Game before, who hasn't? He's no master, but he's got basic skills. But this os on a scale that he's never tried before, and he calls, "Someone tell me left or right?" He avoids touching the switch Miyako tells him to avoid, and will follow the calls he's asked for to help guide the huge crane to do the thing.

Moving the crates, one by one, he wows, as glowing symbols are slowly revealed.

"Ah, and there's our way in," the doctor gestures at the runes behind the crates. "If this is anything like the ones under Carmina Gadelica, these are going to need to be pressed in the correct order. Of course, what that order is, I have no idea! I'm not sure if it would have changed from place to place."

    Kisses Mizuki's cheek "You're the best Mizukichi." she says and skips off towards the glowing symbols, she's an enchanter after all. Of course she COULD kiss Schneider on the cheek but he's not one of her best friends so nope he doesn't get kisses. Instead she heads to the glowing symbols pulling out her jeweler's loop but not looking through it, instead she seems to be puzzling through something and nibbling on her lower lip with those shark like teeth.

"Very Shiny..", Vespa says looking over the glowing symbols. She hmms for a bit. "I have no idea what that says."

"Its not your skills in particular I'm looking for, its your mind. Piecing together what could have happened. I believe in you, Robert. Figure it might be good for us to practice working together." Viviene noted to Robert, tapping her head. "I've some things to share with you later, anyway." and she nods at Prophlaxis, about to say something, but when the glowing symbols are revealed, she was like. "Well geeze, nevermind, Robert. I think I aught to help with that." she said, approaching the glyphs with her pendant at the ready.

"Your belief is amusingly short-lived," Robert responds, biting back a grin. He's less successful with the twinkle in his eye. There's an inclination of his head towards the glowing symbols, and then he's simply stepping back again to let the more knowledgeable folks do their thing.

Either he truly respects them and wants to give them the space they deserve, or he wants to be well back in case anything explodes.

After staring at the wall of glowing glyphs for several long moments Vertina lets out a groan and slumps. "Why are none of these puzzles in normal writing or symbols or such? This is annoying!" She's not really the brains of the trio of friends, and times like this is when it shows.

Curtana nods his head as well as Prophylaxis introduces himself, and jumps in to introduce himself as well with a short bow. "Curtana is my name, of Moon Tree. Lore isn't exactly what i'm best at dealing with, but if I come across anything that might be interesting, i'll let you know."

Curtana stands back and out of the way of those who were looking over the runes, but he does make his orb of light float over to make the runes well-luminated. Never know, there could be something hidden. "First time I ever been under a city like this, honestly. Hard to imagine there could be so much hidden under streets I often walk down."

Wisteria and Mizuki eventually make it up to the glowing symbols, and start decyphering them. They soon find out that each symbol is a Note. And as they start messing with them, they start getting tunes from each touch. It is however Viviene that soon recognizes that the notes in question enable her to play a rather notable tune on it...

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgVTfRkM-Ys

Just the main melody. It takes a few tries, trying to get exactly the piece that it wants to have played. But then, finally, the wall...

The wall disappears. It stops existing. It's not like a holograph being shut off. But a physical presence that just stops 'being there'. Revealing instead a metalic stairwell leading down - winding further and further into the depths.a

There's music...

And now the wall disappears and is replaced with a stairwell.

"Typical secret passage," Kotono comments as she twirls her blades, then looks to the others. "Should we go down there?" A pause. "I mean, it's not like there's nothing else we can do up here is there?"

"I dunno," Miyako remarks to Kotono. "I'd like to see what's in all those boxes. And maybe see if we can pull up anything on this computer beyond controlling the machinery here." She shrugs. "Can do that after we finish the mission, though." That said, she walks over to join the others by the new doorway.

If there is one thing Rylen is good at, it seems to be entertaining people. So, he seems to be able to keep Hans out of trouble for the time being while offering out some sort of pleasant enough conversation, perhaps discussing some matters about Ninetails while the others work on the glowing symbols and cranes and other technological devices.

However, the sounds that seem like musical notes do draw his attention, "Curious. Uta would be fascinated by this." Knowing very well how much the Spriggan is invested into investigating all sorts of uses of the various songs.

As the wall disappears, Rylen claps Hans on the shoulder, "Looks like our friends figured it out." He starts to join up with the others again, ready to delve further into whatever lies down the staircase.

Schneider has got the crates cleared, and people are already solving the puzzle before he can get down there. "Oh, wow," he gasps as the path beyond is revealed. Well, we came all the way to find this, no point in stopping now, so he will head down. Warily, but eagerly. This is pretty interesting.

    Setsuna closes his eyes and listens to the music for a moment before he sees the stairs, "IF we are all done staring at the picture we have a new path forward, however should hurry this up. My wyvern traps may be sprung by now." Taking a few steps towards the stairs and looks down them for any danger before he shrugs and keeps walking down them. "Not like anything down here has more teeth then a wyverns. Hundreds by the way, hundreds."

    Wisteria woo's brightly when Viviene plays the song on the wall making it vanish. "Good job." She says patting the girl on the back and almost immediately poking her head into the stairwell looking and listening and sniffing before she thumps one foot on the floor to send a seismic shock through closing her eyes to try and check the return on her internal map.

And just like before, the stairwell appears. Prophylaxis nods at the others, "This is what we're looking for. Mister Hans, will you be accompanying us into the secret depths of the world, or can I ask you to start getting the area secured?"

"Just a word of warning," the doctor says to the others, "What you'll see down here may shock you. Also, as I mentioned, chims will stop working once we arrive, and the one we'll be meeting... May not be entirely friendly at first. So please stay calm."

With that, he turns and begins his own descent, back into the depths of The World.

Viviene is quite interested in this proceeding, she manages to reproduce the song through her pendant, but she seems quite fammilar with the song in question. As her pendant works, she focused on adjusting the tune until she found just the right one. She sort of staggered back in suprise as the wall that was there just vanished out of no where. "Hah. That was -interesting-." she looked at her pendant with curiosity. She gives Prophylaxis a quizzical look. "Well, I'm ready to be shocked." she said. She looks to the others and grins as Wisteria pats her on the back. "Glad I could come by and help out, this has proven insightful so far. Now, lets delve in and see what is in store for us." she offers Wisteria a quick high five before descending the stairs herself.

'May not be entirely friendly'. One hand drops, rests upon his sword-hilt. 'Please stay calm'. There's a moue of discontent, and the hand lifts away. Presumably this means no stabbing the person regardless of friendliness. Or unfriendliness.

Robert shifts uncomfortably but, with a stretching of his neck and a jut of his jaw, he paces after Prophylaxis with determination. Just not a whole lot of enthusiasm.

"Nice singing, sq...Vivi," he remarks as he slides on past.

"Oh. So THIS is the part were we wander into pieces of the other world, got it." Vertina shrugs, and joins Wisteria and Mizuki to venture down into the depths. A lot of this is going over her head (and that's not easy with how tall she is!) but she's still here to support her friends at least. "Mizukichi told me about the last time you wandered down these, so it shouldn't be... well, it will probably be a shock but it shouldn't be a COMPLETE shock... hopefully."

    K-kiss?! Even on the cheek... Mizuki's stunned, cheeks reddening, and after Wisteria skips off she brushes fingers against her cheek where her friend kissed her. She tries to push confusing feelings aside, but only does so by finding another distraction:

    She hasn't spent a lot of time in human form. Actually she's been in the habit of avoiding it, precisely because without all the fur and kitty features it always drove home the *other* primary difference between her avatar and old body. And now it strikes her how weird it is to feel her cheek not covered by fur, as she's remembered it recently, *or* the slightest roughness of stubble after a shave, as she remembers it before. Weird. Nice, but weird.

    Wait, what were they doing again? Glowing runes! Right! Mizuki hurries over to help with that. "It's... Musical notes? I was never great at sight reading..."

    Once Vivienne begins the song, Mizuki starts humming along.

    She rushes over to the disappeared wall. Looking down the stairs... "This... this looks more like the way to the underground!" She hugs Wisteria and Vertina in celebration.

The wall vanishing, not if it was fake but as if removed from existance. Raising an eyebrow, Curtana adjusts his shield on his arm and doublechecks the rest of his gear, making sure that all is where it should be. "All the better to make sure we all stay with one another. We especially want to make sure we don't lose anyone."

Gathering his will, Curtana falls in step with Viviene, wondering what down these stairs could be even more shocking.

"This song..", Vespa says hearing a familar tune. She looks at the widing path going down she follow along listening to the doctor warning. "How deep are we going and what will we find?", she hopes she ready for whatever is down there. Proably not.

"I'll get the area secured." Hans answers, after he finishes discussing some things with Rylen - talking about the next steps for the Peko Army in order to aid in the retaking of Shibuya before moving on to the other fields of combat.

As the party begins heading down, the air starts to slowly feel different. A subtle change in pressure. A subtle adjustment to their sensations. Then, their Chimlinks suddenly stop working, and then.

Clink, clatter.

Floop.

Plat.

Pweeb pweeb. TA-DAAAA!

The crew has to be careful as they step into a fairly small room that... reeks of body-odor. There's bottles strewn everywhere. There's a bed that is occupied by a somewhat chubby, but not overweight Gnome with pointy ears, playing what looks like Dragon Quest 1 on the Famicom. He's eating some chips with one hand, and getting his character to beat up a slime with a bamboo stick with another.

There's manga littering all over the place. Some of the pages are sticking to eachother. There's empty bottles of vitamin drinks here and there. And there's a small army of empty wrappers of Calorie Mate. The windows are blinded by a few pieces of clothing trying to block out the light from outside. There's a few shelves filled with old Tokusatsu action figures. There's a few old manga, like the original Dragonball in the shelves, though the first issue is missing and on the floor next to his bed instead for some reason.

When the group steps in and starts making a mess, the young looking Gnome suddenly lets out a squawk of a sound and scrambles to the side, raising the blankets to cover his body - even though he at least is wearing some slobbish clothing.

    Wisteria looks around "I... I can't even... we get to something that looks like home and it's some NEET hikikomori's house? You're not the... what did you call it Mizukichi?" she shakes her head "You're not the one in charge of choosing kings for Dun Lorieg are you?" she says even as she moves to try uncovering the windows... some of her enchanting tools coming out so she doesn't have to touch the actual clothing.

Vertina ughs after stepping into the room. "Smells like after someone's Strange Mood in here," she mutters under her breath. This is not the grand experience she was expecting from what Mizuki had described before. Her eyes look at the various 'nerd' items around the room, and decides she doesn't really want to ask.

And then she notices the vitamin drink bottles. "Huh." She walks over to pick one up and examine it. She remembers something vagely someone said about how you can't read labels in dreams, so this is of sorts a reality check for her.

And arguably safer than trying to pick up one of the magna books...

"What. The. fuck?",Vepsa says looking around the room, she ughs at the smell. "I've stepped into a room a NEET. Great.", this is worse than any monster encouter. She glaces over to the manga almost picking one up. "I don't think I've read this issue yet.."

"Maybe don't start insulting our host before he has clothes on," Robert suggests, his tones dry, as he fans out to cover the room. Or surround their target.

Or possibly to draw ever closer to the abandoned, bedside Volume 1 which he has immediately flagged as being out of place. Not that he paws at it (yet). That would be rude. He simply stands over it (but not on it), and watches their hosts's general reactions.

That smell.

That sound.

That distinct beepy, boopy noise of a classic Fanicom's sound chip trying its damndest to play epic adventuring music...!

"Oh," Prophylaxis intones as the room unfolds in front of them. "..."

He sighs, staring into the ceiling. "...I see. Well. I'm glad I got to see Shinjuku too, at least. Ah. Don't worry, not-so-young gamer. We're... Not here for any of your stuff. Or to drag you kicking and screaming into the light of day. Or to work. Or... anything like that. Though I do apologize for the sudden interruption into your... relaxation time."

Ahem. The doctor rubs gently at the bridge of his nose. "Well. We're actually here to warn you of another group of people who might do any or all of those things. There's a group of people from the Palace Lands who are coming to place Crowns of Domination upon you and the other Kunie to take control of the Root Cities. The Old Man has already fallen in Mac Anu."

Beat.

"We can wait to talk more if you... need to get decent first, or something."

    The first thing Setsuna experiences is the smell but presses on as he enters the room of the gnome known as Hikikomori. Stepping aside to allow others in he ends up pressed against the book shelves and notices the row of manga. "Dragon ball, Yu Yu , Battle Angel, not a horrible selection. " Looking over at the gnome he is about to mention the shame of the first knowledge when he sees it in the place of shame and says no more. The eyes do fall on the gnome before speaking up, "Hey Kid. How's it going? Do you have the new chapters of Hunter x Hunter, the author was on sick leave a couple of years back and I fell off of it."

Schneider looks around, goves a sniff, and looking around, he winces. Some of his highschool friends would make fun of guys that lived like this, and they'd call them out for it. Probably a bad plan here, so he will keep his mouth shut on that. When Proph starts talking, he is more than willing to let that happen, and he will back towards the entrance where the funk isn't so funky.

Beat.

"DQ1 is a classic though, I must say. Good choice."

Beat, /again./

"Guys, /please/ don't make me a liar within thirty seconds of entering somebody else's house," the doctor groans, rubbing even more furiously at his nose-bridge.

Maybe Rylen should have stayed above and helped to secure the area with Hans. Instead, he is met with an absolutely rank smell that has him making an unpleasant sound. The Pooka coughs into one arm, "What is that smell... its like something died down he---" And that is when he sees the state of the room and the being within it.

As someone who works with Pekos, Rylen has at least some familiarity with the way that animals live, and this... this is far beyond that. "How do you even live like this, man?" He mutters from behind his sleeve. Taking in their surroundings, he takes a step back, trying to be as close to the stares as possible.

He makes sure to avert his eyes, which means mostly staring at the video game system and the very old game being played.

What waits down at the bottom of those stairs is certainly worthy of the warnings from his fellow adventurers. Curtana peers around the small room, then again, then again. It takes him several times before he finally starts to process items that he haven't seen in years, even if the room is quite messy and different than what he was used to. "Bloody hell..."

Gathering his wits, Curtana coughs into a gauntlet-covered fist, feeling rather rude for intruding into what is clearly someone's home. "Yes, please take your time and get dressed if needed. We can wait..." Despite himself, Curtana continues to just look around the Gnome's room, seemingly doing his best to memorize all of this while he could. That even included the smell.

Blink-blinking a few times, Kotono can't believe what she's seeing here.

"Manga?!"

She rubs her eyes and sees that it's still there. "I'm definitely not dreaming." She kneels down to look at it, before noticing the gnome and blushing a little. "I'm sorry... we just came down here because we... discovered this place."

Upon entering, Viviene looks around with interest, the smell, the condition of the room doesn't seem to phase her too much, and she looks to the Gnome with a wince as they're startled. "Seesh, Sorry for startling you like that." she said, she'd stand aside, looking around the room, then back to the Gnome. "Like the other said, take your time. Cool set of manga you got. That your favorite game?" she asks, pointing to the Famicon. It doesn't look like she recognizes it.

    Mizuki naturally assumed from last time that each stairwell would lead to a street. But instead... "Ugggh, what's--" she starts to ask, and then remembers that smell. .oO( I never let it get THIS bad, though... Did I? )Oo. Still, she refrains from commenting that she recognizes it, lest someone ask *how*.

    And then she hears... bleepy bloopy music. Her brain is already picking out -- [2A03] has two square channels, a triangle channel, a noise channel (and a wave channel that's almost never used) -- and is picking out the 'instruments' and matching them to confirm. She looks at the "Famicom...!" and at the screen. Dragon Quest. She doesn't recognize the art on the cart off the top of her head, but if it's Famicom this has to be one of the first three. Not that she'd know the difference... she's only actually PLAYED a bit of a DQ1 port for the Ti-85 calculator she had in high school, and an illegally downloaded translation (shh, don't tell anyone!) of DQ3's SFC remake she didn't actually get very far in it. And a bit of 5 or 6... Not enough to recognize specific games...

    There's also manga all over the floor. And a... gnome?

    Mizuki eventually manages to get her mouth out of perpetual 'hanging open while she stares' mode and forms some words: "How do you have all this stuff?! Who ARE you?!" She picks up one of the few manga she recognizes, Ranma or Video Girl Ai or Ah! My Goddess or Fushigi Yuugi or Dragonball or something. "I never thought I'd see any of this again..." And then drops it, "Eww, why is it sticky?"

"Ah sorry..", Vespa says apoglising to the gnone. "This was just a big shock very big shock.", ,she sighs. This is alot to take in.. She walks to the back of the room and let everyone else do the talking. She maid insticts are urging her to clean up this place! Must restist urge to clean!

The young Gnome looking male, is quickly INSPECTed as:

'Hikimori' (I)

Who is quick to grab for the precious Volume One, and stuffs it beneath his pillow for safe keeping. Vertina can pick up the Vitamin water just fine, though notably the expiration date seems to have rubbed off. It's kind of hard to tell what year it's from, but it looks like it's at least using modern standard production for most of it. The kind of thing you'd expect to find in the shops in 2013 Japan.

There's a lot of people talking, and he's clearly getting a bit overwhelmed while using the blanket for 'protection' from these strangers. "W-what are you doing in my room?" This one asks.

Setsuna, inspecting the various Manga, suddenly feels his entire body being SQUISHED against the shelves of manga! A nearly invisible shield pushing him against it. "Hey! Stay off of my things!" A cube suddenly surrounds Vertina, imprisoning her in a far-too-small 'coffin' of invisible walls.

"I am dressed!" He grumps quickly, "Fucking adults..." He glares at the crew of people who... clearly don't look like adults. Well. Most of them anyhow. "And uuuhhh - actually --- Dun Loireag doesn't have kings, stupid." He answers Wisteria quickly; "It has Merchant Princes and Princesses. Get your facts straight."

Right before Mizuki gets 'imprisoned' just like Vertina -- right into a coffin of 'light'. She can see her breath beat against the invisible 'screen' that has erected around her. Though if it was because Mizuki picked something up, or because they asked about the sticky pages, is anyone's guess.

"Now what's this about?" Prophylaxis did just say, but a lot of people were talking.

Well, she can read it, expiration date not withstanding. That's enough for Vertina that it's not a dream. So this guy is--

"Ack!" 'Far-too-small' is just made worse by Vertina's height, cramping her down in a very tiny space. Good thing she's not claustrophobic. She does get huffy really fast though. "Hey, rude!" She wiggles a little, but doesn't even have the room to try and pound on the invisible walls.

"I told you guys..." Prophylaxis grumbles, now full-on rubbing his temples. "Sorry, this is probably a lot. Robert, do you have a copy of that comic we made for the gnomes on the Eighth by any chance? Clearly we need to make amends for..."

He glances over at the stickyfingers. Most of which are in his Alliance. He sighs even longer now.

"...I am Prophylaxis of the Scale Emblem. We came here to warn you of people-- Adventurers and Landers both-- of the Palace Lands. They are seeking the Kunie out, to place Crowns of Domination on their heads and take control of the Root Cities. The Old Man of Mac Anu has already fallen to them."

Beat.

"I apologize profusely for my companions. It's been over a year since they've seen any modern media, video or otherwise. They're all starved for the stuff. You understand, I hope?"

He is... patient. Unusually so. Almost as if he's had to deal with similar situations in the past...?

Viviene looks at the people who got entrapped, and is a bit on the defensive, but otherwise they don't seem harmed so she relaxes after a bit, she opts to keep herself quiet to allow the gnome to gather himself, simply giving him an apolegetic look and a short bow of her head, allowing Prophylaxis to talk, though the mention of the crowns causes a rather grim expression to form on her face.

    Mizuki's eyes widen as her breath fogs the... forcefield? And she steps back, possibly bumping into other side of the 'coffin'.

    It took a moment for things to start clicking into place, how this looks from the other side. If it'd been a time when *she* hadn't gone outside for a week and a bunch of people barged into her room...

    And some of them were girls...

    One of whom made a comment about objects in the room being sticky...

    God, she'd be *mortified*! (But still, why is it sticky? Nope, don't wanna know, DON'T WANNA KNOW) she shakes her hand as if trying to get something off it.

    "Umm. Sorry. I, uh, I guess I can... I guess I kinda know how you feel, although, have some pity on us fellow gamers who haven't seen any of this in over a year. How would YOU feel in our place?"

    She looks over the gnome, then looks away. "If you wanna go take a shower or get cleaned up and presentable, we can wait. O-or if you're comfortable, we can just talk like this..."

SpritesHero is not -entirely- surprised by the lightning-quick Volume One grab. It confirms his suspicions. But (and probably luckily for him, judging by how quickly Vert and Sets were imprisoned), he makes no effort to contest possession of the infamous Volume One. Instead he simply steps back once more, hands linking behind his back, a placid smile etched upon his features.

"I'm afraid I haven't got any copies with me," he replies to Prophylaxis, after making a grand show of scanning through his inventory. "But I think we might still have something back home. Presumably it could be run down later." Not exactly subtle, is our Robert. Is he.

While Rylen may be able to use his natural charm on most people, accentuated by those supernatural abilities of his, he seems reluctant to do so in regards to this individual. He also doesn't have the finer levels of etiquette that one might need to know the right things to say in this situation. So, he looks to Prophylaxis, leaving it to the good doctor to have a better idea of how to deal with matters.

As Prophlaxis introduces himself, Rylen offers the same, lowering his arm slightly. "Rylen, Knight of the Peko Army." This likely means more than the names of the various Adventurer Alliances. "The good doctor is right. We're just here to warn you of danger to yourself and to this Kingdom."

He looks to their various companions in those prisons, "Though, it looks like you might be able to defend yourself pretty well."

Schneider winces as he sees, from the door, people having bad things happen to them, and he can hear Proph's tone. He is now entirely content to wait just outside and will sit down on the stairs and listen at how things are proceeding. Proph is often the voice of reason, hopefully reason is still an option. He will take a look at things while he's out here, maybe there's some kind of clues. He'll make himself slightly useful, at least.

    Setsuna gets squished and does his best to breath through the squishing, "My humble apologies for the sudden outburst. As the talking rabbit said, we are a bit starved for things and since you have such great taste well it was hard to resist." Taking a moment as he looks around the room for a moment or two he shakes his head. "Anyways we were just trying to come warn you and well to be fair we were a bit curious about you. The last guy in Carmina offered coffee, though we didn't try to take his stuff."

Vespa watches as a few other get trapped. That looks very uncofrorable. She;s now glad she didn't touch anything as much as she wanted to. She just keep quite and looks around the room. Oh is that few volumes of Gitamna?(sp) dammmittt...

    Wisteria shrugs a little "Well, I only really know Sensei Gil when it comes to Kings, tracking the politics of Yammoto isn't my hobby, I make curses." she says trying to get a view out the window. She's a glitch hunter there is NO way she isn't peeking out a window in a room that shouldn't exist, that looks like home, has modern things in it. "So you are the one in charge of the system? You keep the Merchant Princes and Princesses in control of the Root? You work with the system directly? IS Root really a magical process built by the Alv's? Is the Menu part of Root magic, and Inventories? Does it all store down here? Is that how we keep stuff? Is there like machinery down here that makes Menu food and then delivers it through the inventory system? Is it enchanting or is it something deeper than in enchanting? Is that why Data Drain works? Because it's like above enchanting?" all of this is delivered towards the window as she tries to see out, and in a tone of voice and speed that anyone who's met Wist in a Strange Mood will recognize.. only with less mad cackling.

"I wasn't taking it!" Vertina snaps after Setsuna comments. "I was checking that thing you know they say about not being able to read labels and such in a dream!"

    Mizuki nods to Vertina, "Oh yeah, text and digital clocks and stuff just get all weird in dreams... I've heard lightswitches don't work, either..."

"That has nothing to do with me. Get your own shit." The Hikimori remarks irritatedly. By the bags under his eyes, it's easy to guess at the source of this one's irritability. He even eyerolls at Mizuki. "I'm not in your place. You've got a lot more than I do anyhow. So stop complaining to be about the scraps I have."

The view out of the window is still blocked by the Hikimori's clothing - not lending Wisteria any looks outside. And getting that close to the bed is sure to annoy the youth.

His focus draws instead to Prophylaxis as he mentions Kunie and the Crowns of Domination. "Uuhhh - it's called the Crown of /Control/." He remarks, getting this strange satisfaction over correcting someone. Rolling his eyes at the doctor. "As if I didn't have enough stress to deal with. Fuuuuuck." He grunts, wrapping the blankets around himself and turning back to the game to try and play it to get his mind off of this sensation of 'stress' he is now dealing with.

"Fine, I'll keep an eye out. I'll just barrier up my door when you people leave. Just let me know when you have dealt with those assholes. And tell Helba that she's a total bitch, will you? Apeiron was too good for her." He mumbles and moves his character to the next random encounter - just a bit to the left.

"Fuck." He grunts. "This is a different zone." The enemy being far too high level suddenly. "Who the fuck makes the tileset for different encounter zones the fucking same?" He demands to know. "And if you wanna know why Root Towns are Root Towns, I suppose you should go and ask [ ]." No sound comes out. But those around him immediately understand that he mentioned a name. Or... a meaning. Something that is Blank. "Not that it'll answer."

    Miyako has stayed with Schneider, by the door, though her eyes are drawn to familiar titles on the bookshelf and she itches to rush over and grab at them. "Yeah, we've got about a crazillion questions we'd love to get answers for," she agrees. "If you would be willing to answer some..." She shrugs and sighs. "Unless you're interested in live music?"

Meanwhile Kotono has strayed over to where Miyako is, and she hasn't said much for the time being. When Miyako mentions live music, Kotono looks to her and raises an eyebrow before shaking her head.

Can Vespa beat him now? She really want to beat up this useless twit. All he did was talk in circles. "Well this was pointless.", she mutters. She starts walking back towards the way they came. She totaly need a drink after this.

"Sorry, my mistake," Prophylaxis answers, his calm and-or exasperated facade not cracking even a little bit in the face of this <<little shit>> that happens to be in command of his home nation's Root City. "Unfortunately, we won't be able to convey any messages to Helba. She and Apeiron are dead, you know? For a long time now."
eat.

What was that... Weird non-noise...? "...No. An issue with the Babel Signal...?" The doctor's brow furrows, concerned suddenly. If the Babel Signal can translate what they're all saying to one another, could it also obscure and... /mis/-translate? Intentionally? Mmn, concerning.

"When we've dealt with the Palace Landers, how will we send you a message while your door is barricaded?" He glances to Robert, then, and shrugs sadly. "Ah, too bad. We'll need to get it ready for the next time, then. That's fine, don't worry about it."

The doctor cants his head slightly, then asks: "You wouldn't happen to know if Skeith of the Scrapped Princesses chased the previous denizens out of Dun Loireag's undeground, would you? Ah, or how it is that we might be able to re-enable flight?"

    Wisteria blinks and turns as she doesn't process the name "Wait... that happened before..." she licks her lips "Where where can I go ask?" She turns to the gnome and gets down on her knees and then she kowtows forehead to the floor, regardless of any smell or anything she might find, her red eyes closed. "How do I get there? Why can't we hear the name? It's part of the translator isn't it? It blocks the name... like it's on the censor list. Please Tell me where I can ask my questions. If I can find out how Root works... maybe I can find out how to get home... not to this facsimile but really home... please?" by the end her tones are that of a young girl crying and begging.

"ACHEM," Vertina grouses, after setting down the bottle at her feet. "Fine. Not touching your stuff. Lemme out of this dumb box." Ugh, how do mimes deal with these damn things. And now the gnome is saying things that don't even translate properly but they still get a weird feeling she knows what it meant.

    Setsuna looks at the annoying youth at the mention of inviting someone back. Perhaps this is a blessing right there, "When we have dealt with it and come around to tell you. Is there anything else that you would like? You mentioned we have a lot, no reason we can't share. Cup of noodles? Pastries? Whatever we can get for you." There is a moment of pause before he looks at the others and doesnt mention he knows exactly how to let the guy know its all over.

Schneider has found nothing useful outside, but by what he overheard from inside, it seems the Hikimori knows what's going on at least as well as we do, and knows some of the players better. Well, if the kid can lock his room off, that ought to solve the problem of him gettingg crowned, at least. And who was Apeiron? Sounds like some big dude in a gym. He'll ask Proph later. And the kid goes back to losing at video games, which amuses Schneider. And the name of who we should ask got censored out somehow. Maybe Proph or one of those guys in there can lipread?

Curtana was honestly feeling a bit out of his element here. After spending several years of fighting monsters and helping clear out small plots against Landers has left him rather unprepared on how to help with a clearly powerful Gnome with the attitude of a know-it-all brat. What he can do is take notes.

Pulling out another slip of paper, Curtana had been carefully taking notes of what sounded like major names and terms for him to research later. He is making is best not to make any mess in this already messy room, and was standing close to the stairs leading back up.

"It was probably for a different target audience anyhow, Boss," Robert answers, his tones obnoxiously benign. "Our artist might want a raise." Equally benign is the sense that his eyes wander just about everywhere -except- the gnome's pillow, under which the Infamous Volume One is (presumably) still hidden. At any rate, Robert links his hands behind his back, the perfect picture of decorum and patience. It's enough to make a saint want to smack him, really.

The corner of Rylen's mouth twitches upward, though it's only a wry sort of amusement at just how vexing this individual is to some of those present. "So long as you have things dealt with down here, we'll take care of things up above."

He does wince at the man running into that other monster zone. "Not sure if it helps, but I think the marker is the edge of that mountain on the right. If you stay south of it, you should be okay." For now, Rylen leaves trying to pull out more information from the Gnome to others, his task here seems to be accomplished.

"Oh? They died? I guess that explains why I haven't heard from them in like... centuries." The <<little shit>> doesn't seem to be too fussed about this. "So I guess now I am having to deal with Helba not cleaning up after her self? Great. Whatever." The Hikimori slumps a bit more in order to focus more on the game - causing some of the barriers capturing a few of the party members to falter and let them go.

"Leave my stuff and don't let the door hit you on the way out." He grunts. Clearly, out of all the Kunie they've met, this kid is like... /the worst/. "And I can hear through the barrier I'll put up. So it'll be fine. So exhausting." He complains constantly. "You are the first visitors in a while. I figured that Skeith had been Sealed or something, as was the original plan. But if the Alv died, I guess that the Seal probably broke afterwards. They should have known better than to rely on the Twilight Dragon. But if you people are unable to fly, it's probably one of its stupid Shards keeping you all down."

He then lazily looks towards Wisteria as she kowtows. "Ugh, so lame." You can practically /see/ him equating her to some idea of his mom or dad or something. "I'm not the Kunie to ask. But all the Roots have been used up - no more Roots, no more Alv, no more Kunie. There's no more places you'll get a Root Town if that's what you are looking to do --- and secondly, you didn't mishear. That's it's name. It's 'name' is [ ]. Yeah, it's confusing, I get it." Blank.

Nameless.

A glare at Setsuna. "After you guys are leaving, I am closing this place up with my barrier. Not letting anyone else in until I feel like the coast is clear for sure." He points at Setsuna. "So you can bring me stuff when the coast is clear."

"Anyhow, now fuck off please. Get out of my room so I can level up."

> I'm not in your place. You've got a lot more than I do anyhow. So stop complaining to be about the scraps I have.

    Connection fail. Mizuki glances down at herself as if checking for signs of something, but... trying to make a connection and appeal as a fellow gamer dude seems unlikely and feels off, somehow.

    "Haven't you played RPG maker? The zone might not actually even depend on the tileset. Wait, how do you not know this game by *heart* if you've been trapped down here... uh..."

    Mizuki blinks. "How long HAVE you been here, anyway?"

    Wisteria's Sad Girl In Snow-- err, Some Nerd's Room bit affects *someone*, and if Mizuki isn't forcewalled, she kneels by Wisteria to give her a tight hug, wanting to say something but... well, she really *can't* assure they'll find a way out of the game, now can she...

The gnome's words are absorbed by the tiny Spriggan as she crosses her arms thoughtfully, she hears a lot of things spoken, taking in information about a lot of terms she has not heard before, causing her to scratch her head for a moment, as dozens and dozens of questions begin to enter her mind. She is keeping herself focused, and attentive. When a word is simply.. blocked out, like she knew something was spoken, but nothing came, she furrowed her brows in thought, looking down at her pendant in contemplation. "Blocked..?" she heard from the others. "Or encrypted?" she suggests to the others, making an educated guess perhaps. She watches Wistera for a few long moments and winces at her, something of a empathic reaction as she turns away, then looks to the Gnome as they clarify. "Mh. Perhaps not then. Good luck with your game."

"Well, you don't have to be so rude about it," Kotono says as she turns away. "Come on, Miyako, let's get out of here. Given what he's said to us, I don't know if I want to see what else he's planning on doing." She sneers a little as she prepares to exit.

    Mizuki considers something said: "Wait, if there's no more root towns then how come there are Chaos Gates in the Tower, too?"

Wisteria doesn't get up, well not yet, she's busy crying she's barely 20 and she's been stuck in a world of magic and monsters and kami know what else. "Please, how do I try and get to speak with..." She does her best to say  without actually not saying anything... trying to MAKE the Babel signal translate the nonsound into a meaning. "Which Kunie should I speak to? I just want to go home, I just want to find the way... and you're the only one I've met who's past one of the glitches... please." The last word barely makes it past her lips, not quite a whisper or a sob but almost like a dying breath.

"Sounds good to me. Good luck with your game." Rylen seems all too happy to retreat back up the spiral staircase and leave the unusual Kunie to his own devices. If nothing else, getting out of there is a literal breath of fresh air.

Of course, the members of Scale Emblem would have a billion questions, but he chooses to simply start heading up the stairs rather than risk being forcefully expelled by a large, stinky man-child.

Vertina stands up as soon as she can, and dusts herself off. "Mmmf." She's really reigning in her hotheadedness, if only on the notion that this Kunie could do a lot worse if he was pissed off farther. "Com'n guys, we did what we came to, lets leave the guy to his... hobbie." Nope, she's not going to elaborate on that thought, just turn and leave before she does let some of her temper slip.

Just as everyone else is getting kicked out, Schneider overhears something that he's been sweating out for over a year, in the game. Pushing his way past the people exiting to stick his head in the room, he calls back, "Sir, wait, did you just say what's keeping us from flying? A Twilight Dragon? Where do we find that? Or the Shard you mentioned?" He knows he's pressing the already strained relationship with this guy, but he /desperately/ wants this info. He's not particularly confident the kid will tell him, but he /has/ to ask. Even that tidbit is something to research. And research is a thing he can do.

Curtana knows a dismissal when he hears one, and he carefully folds up his paper and stuffs it into his bag. He even drew a circle around a blank portion to make sure that it's actually a term. "Well, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your time. I hope you have a good day." Personal dislike aside, being respectful to someone is something everyone should aspire to do. Giving the Kunie a deep bow, Curtana starts to ascend upwards, his mind abuzz with what feels like a hundred new questions.

He does take the time to tap Viviene on the shoulder and tap his bag. "Made a small list."

    Setsuna listenss to the little shit talk and all but by the end of it all he is in agreement with Rylen. Time to get out while the getting is good. Sometimes it is best to not get what you want, especially when you get what you need. So out the door he goes, behind Rylen and starts to make his entire way back to the seventh floor to check on the wyverns.

    Flight? A hint towards what's stopping it? That grabs one Spriggan's attention quickly. Right after Schneider speaks, she adds her own voice. "Please! Just tell us more! We need to fix it!" Yeah, Miyako's not above begging, right now. Not for a chance to fly again.

As soon as Miyako mentions fixing it, Kotono stops suddenly and turns around. "Look, just help us out please?" She asks, her tone turning into a begging tone. "We don't want trouble, OK?"

"Oh... Oh!" Prophylaxis suddenly starts scribbling something down in his notebook. "The Alvs were keeping the Scrapped Princesses sealed...! And then after they were killed... I see. The timeline makes more sense now. The Twilight Dragons... Shards...?" Prophylaxis inclines his head this way and that. "Hm. I'm guessing we'll probably need to figure those bits out on our own, huh? Still, what you've told us is... /Extremely/ valuable. Thank you, we'll have to send down more than a manga when this is done."

He pauses for a moment to regard Wisteria's back with a sympathetic stare. This is rough for... all of them. But.

"I'm surprised you didn't know about the fate of the Alv. Didn't the rulers of this place have to come down to meet you to establish Ninetails as a Kingdom...?" And wow, he can't even /imagine/ what that interaction must have been like. Poor Landers, good God. "Ah, well, in any case. I think we've accomplished what we came here to do and..." He pauses, glancing again to Wisteria, then to Mizuki, as if to say 'please, help her.' "...We should probably leave you to your stuff."

"If you wanna go home, just die. You Adventurers get to return to your Church when you do, last I recall." The Kunie answers Wisteria rather calously. He then moves his character a bit to the side after taking note of Rylen's hint. "You wanna find this stuff out, go figure it out on your own. Most of this is old history. The Twilight Dragon is dead too - last I recall. It's how they got his Shards. Probably wasted them on stupid things. Who ever thought it was a good idea to make them look like game pieces anyhow?" He grunts. "Dragons are fucking weird."

He dismisses Wisteria. And in fact, if she stays near him, he'll uses his barriers to literally start 'scooting' her out of the door if he must.

This Kunie isn't a great social person. And he has power on top of that.

Vertina pauses at the door to look back to her friends. "Com'n Wist. Don't waste your time on this... guy, he's not going to share anything you."

SpritesHero isn't being kicked out. Robert is leaving of his own free intent. There is a cursory nod directed towards the <<little shit>>, and Robert is turning about to make his way to the exit.

Never mind that he lingers just outside, off to the side, in order to hear what sort of replies there might be. Sure, he could help escort people out. But that's really more Prophylaxis's department. He just eavesdrops.

    Miyako suggested live music... "Oh yeah! We could sing, if you like..." But then, Mizuki can see where things are headed, and is about to hit the Kunie with Sad Kitty Eyes... when even all the pleading girls don't reach his heart. Huh.

    She helps Wisteria up. But she does look at the Kunie one last time: "We don't mean THAT home. We meant the world Adventurers came from -- our minds, our souls -- came from, the same all this stuff comes from." But she thinks he knew that, and turns to leave, an arm around Wisteria to pat her shoulder.

    Wisteria just sort of sobs "Not to my spawn point, I want to go HOME to Tokyo... I want to go back to MY world." she sobs out as she's slide along the ground on her armored knees. "I want to see my family and friends, I want to go HOME!" She sort of slumps into Mizuki when she's pulled up to her feet and walks with the smaller girl, her face fur streaked and matted around her muzzle... bunnies UGLY cry... did anyone know that... well now they do, bunnies ugly cry.

Schneider grumbles as the Kunie dismisses us with just the information tease, though as Proph says, it's a ton more information than we had, and some very promising leads to pursue. But since we're getting ejected, he will depart gracefully, though he has a look of fresh anticipation on his face. He is absolutely going to dig into the Library when we get back.

Viviene with her last few words spoken, Viviene too has turned to walk out. There is brisk state to it, but she pauses, and attempts to pat Wisteria on the shoulder comfortingly as she passes, they may have just met, but Viviene looks at Wisteria empathically and continues to move on. "Stay strong, Bun. Always another path. No point giving up." is said to her on the way out, even if a fleeting meeting, Viviene decides to try and encourage Wisteria, and she looks to Curtana. "Good, we'll review it later." is said on the way out.

Vespa hopes someone has learned something from this exporation. He made a girl cry. Someday, somehow she going to make him pay for that. "I need a freaking drink.", she says trying to take everything she heard and seen. So close to home yet so far.

Vertina puts her arm around Wist's shoulders once her and Mizuki reach the door. "Sorry, Wist." Crissakes who knew bunny's cried like that. It's bad enough how they scream when hurt.