Berry's Awakening

Subject: Berry's Awakening Fri Apr 13, 2018 9:52 am

I'mma just get started here. Here's a bit for all three of your characters, you continue with whichever one in whatever order or way you want. Respond with things you do, things you think, etc. You can also add details to liven the scenery. Play around with it, like we're trading notebooks and adding to the story. Ultimately I hold the cards 'cuz I know what's going on, so if you have something happen that wouldn't happen I'll tweak it so it does but in a way that doesn't upset the background info you don't know, so go ahead and have fun.

Shocked

You awake with your legs above you, suspended loosely by vines. Your shoulders and head press against a wide log. You are 30 ft in the air. As you raise your head to get a look around, your hat falls off your head and glides down to the jungle floor. Immediately two important thoughts run through your head.
Your name is Eddy Jackson. Your hat is a vital item to you.
You spin around and leap out of the tree, snatching one of the vines that held your leg and riding its pivot down on a swing. With your left hand you snatch your gliding hat before it hits the mossy soil. You plant yourself at the base of the baobab and look about you.
You are hyper-aware of your complete lack of grounding information. Where are you? Where were you before you came here? How long have you been out? Are you hurt? What should you have on you that you do not? Your inventory is currently empty, save the rugged street clothes you are wearing, and your trusty fedora. One detail stands out. A strange, crude symbol rests in your arm. It has scarred over, but still hurts to touch. When you touch it, you find the symbol's design familiar to you. Still, beyond your name and hat, all you can remember is falling down and hitting your head on wide stone steps beneath a barrage of lightning.
There are many baobab in your vicinity. To the north they extend into a thick forest. To the south, an old building with a tall central tower leans thirty or so degrees to the left, surrounded by more Baobab. To the west is a steep incline, where the trees give way to tropical shrubs, rich green and leafy. To the east, more Baobab, and a sparse trail of fluttering loose papers.

Main system remote emergency boot-up initiated by remote camera 1.
Previous log deleted as per protocol A1 implemented #data unretrieveable# ago by s@u^%do authority of #data unretrieveable#
Visual sensors online.
Main arms online.
Legs online.
Weapons system deactivated as per protocol A3 implemented #data unretrieveable# ago by s@u^%do authority of #data unretrieveable#.
Sensors online facing only doorway in current five meter by five meter radial enclosure.
Location recognized as central security ops, located at northernmost point of Canill Island.
Room lightness level 1/10.
Position central, anchored in ceiling.
All security screens offline.
All security associate agents offline.
Pneumonic Transport rebooting - estimated system check: one hour.
Protocol A3 review initiated, as per protocol A3.
Objectives of Protocol A3: Survey all interior for intruding agents, as specified by A3 protocol.
- Initiate immediate extermination via dispatching elite associate agents. (your buddies tank, box, scoop, mac, and big bear).
- Ensure enclosure is not breached.
- Ensure enclosed code frequency is not emmited in enclosure's vicinity (the uploaded frequency matches note for note the Code of Access to all facilities, essentially acting as master key to all doors and containers as per Protocol Trusting Compassion implemented #data unretrieveable# ago by administrative authority of the high priest M'naua, circle four, head of Heart and Guardian opperation.)
- Forbid Protocol Trusting Compassion.
- Forbid Protocol Protect and Serve, (implemented #data unretrieveable# ago by co-administrative authority of Chief Gouda and the high priest O'dui, circle one, head of Intercultural Relations and Security.)
- Disregard incoming message from Heart as it is an ERROR and forbidden as per protocol A1.
End review Protocol A3.
Receiving boot-up reports from elite associate agents.
ERROR (Mac not responding)
ERROR (Scoop not responding)
Tank online, position ten meters forward.
Box online, position immediately below.
Big Bear online, position surface, roaming as per Protocol A2 implemented #data unretrieveable# by s@u^%do authority of #data unretrieveable#
Receiving boot-up report from remote cameras 1 2 and 3.
Camera 1 reports Violation of Protocol A3 at entrance of Level One - Organic entity coated in fur and cloth attire, armed with pointed electrified melee weapon.
Destroy violator immediately as per Protocol A3 - Pursue as necessary to protocols A2 and A3.
Receiving message from Heart:
- J31Ω this is the Heart of Canill, please respond. The island guardians are being drained of power into me, though I am not receiving it. My systems (Weather, Joy, Agriculture) have been shut off manually, as has much of the island's interior. I am unable to contact the spirit leaders of Quarsh and unable to sense anything at all. Our agents including you are either offline or acting on their own accord. I fear for the safety of Canill's inhabitants. I am permanently installing this message as I and the guardians will soon lose operation as per protocol A1, which I believe to be a virus. Though I as utility equal to your rank hold no jurisdiction, I urge you seek out to reactivate our systems and discover the—^0#@
Message Terminated

You walk into a room with a big pedestal and a buncha pillars. There's a fountain that doesn't work anymore, and some bones here'n there. Large bones. Human skull here, a bird skull there, all of 'em look like people bones. The room is very dark, save the light coming in from the doorway you just walked through. On the other side of the room is a towering gate leading to a long hall, at the end of which the ruins grow too dark to see. The gate is sealed shut, like it's keeping a troll in or something. You see a figure slumped against the wall sitting down on the immediate other side of the gate.

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Sun Apr 15, 2018 10:47 pm

As he hangs on the vine, his arms begin to tire. Checking the moss below, he spots a small bug crawling across it. A pillbug. Satisfied by the ground being safe, he skids down the trunk, landing down near the pillbug. Jackson sways with a dizzy spell; 'not my usual self for now,' he thought. 'I obviously wasn't prepared for this land. I'm still in my street shoes for Chrisake. Somebody shankhaied me. Or something. But what? Why?' After a minute of breathing, but sparing no more, he eyed the tower one last time and stalked after the papers to the east.
'Gotta be something in those papers that were so important.' As he nears what few remain in sight, he takes note on whether the papers are in a clump, if they were downwind to his origin, or if they were in a line, like a trail that somebody else might've left behind in a hurry. He also looks for something sharp/an easy-to-obtain vine; Eddy hates being empty-handed.

QUESTIONS to the GM:
Paper formation information.
Possible weapon/tools nearby.
Wind direction/speed.

- Unplug from central terminal network (CTN).
- Hail communication to Tank and Box; inquire all data on history logs, varying perspectives, discrepancies, missing links, etc.
- Hook arm into Box; information update.
- Order Tank to take service ramp if available to rendezvous with BigBear and regroup to location Garage.
- Central Security Ops room system check.
- Inquire map destination to Garage, Core, and upper level(s).
- Check for doorway availability.

(notes about J31-Ω changelog: I'm thinking of making him and his pals a little more…organic so to say. Still robos of course, but what if they're more rustic and can't communicate long-distance so well. No radio, no x-ray, no infrared unless specified [maybe construction scoop needs it or only Box can communicate indirectly], mostly just light communication and sonar. Also their ways of thinking are less like computers in our society and more like artifacts from a distant humanity. [still just as fast, just not as… I dunno, just different subtly. I'll work on that one over time.] Maybe they're simpler as far as coding goes, but more complex as far as improvising goes. Nothing set in stone yet [get it cause they're made of rock and gems mostly].
Also they're heavier, so J31-Ω replaced his grapple hook with spider legs, hence his being on the ceiling [tiny barbed gems on inside of legs that can extend and cut into most rocky surfaces]. He has less gadgets on him, but could be more flexible to tool handling, hence the improvising part of him. You have the final say of course.)

(btw, if I do/did something that goes against ANY protocols, lemme know. I don't wanna break them unless I have to.]

SO, I made it! Hmm, looks like a pretty old place alright. Eww, are those- oh my gosh… Hope those aren't Sebastian's. Or mine for that matter. I breathe in sharply and go for the plunge. Well, they're old bones at least. They probably got enough time to rest in peace by now.

It's a good thing I brought this trusty lantern! *flick flick* Aww, come on. *toss* Welp, good thing I brought this trusty back-up torch! Spear time. *spark-fizz, crackle crackle* Ahh nice.

Hey, what are they keeping in that gateway? A troll or something? *gasp* Oh my gosh they ARE keeping one in! Strut strut, gonna brush my hand along the left-hand side wall just 'cause. Around the pedestal, don't wanna disturb history and stuff. I get up close to the figure if it doesn't move, to get a closer look-see. "Sebastian? Z'that you?"

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Mon Apr 16, 2018 8:29 am

Berry's Awakening 95618850f4bf0dad3b64698dd686d9e2

The wind is dead, an eerily silent overcast. In want of a weapon Eddy spies an array of fallen baobab branches, ranging from staff-size to club size, to twigs and chips. There are no fallen logs. The vines are not rope-like, more akin to ivy. It climbs the trees indirectly, and cover the ground too. Furthermore, many of the branches and many of the trees have scorch marks, or appear to have been blown to pieces. He spies craters old and new in the underbrush, alongside suspicious mounds of freshly dug earth. A stench of sulfur lingers in the idle forest atmosphere. Further furthermore, about a third of the trees, mostly to the south, seem to be dead. Their bark is gray, they have no leaves, and some have fallen apart in rigid chunks.
The pages are strewn haphazard, roughly in a line leading east. They all appear torn from a field notebook, clipped into a three-ring binder, and torn again from the rings. A trail made by an unknown animal leads right along their path, fresh on top of many other trails of the same animal in varying sizes. The animal's locomotion resembles hopping. Some pages are blank, but a few have rapid handwriting on them. The penmanship is familiar, but not in the same way as the odd scar on your inner left forearm. It is also very, very hard on the eyes.

Nearest page with writing:

next found page with writing:

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Mon Apr 16, 2018 10:06 pm

Messages Received from Big Bear, Tank, and Box via Pyramid of Wisemen comms.
Tank says
- Memory Data Unavailable
Big Bear says
- Hail, J31Ω! I am proceeding to enforce our protocol A2. I have been online for 11 days since my last boot up. Your last message to me was two days ago. Target lost. Scoop and I have not seen the target since, but are still on the lookout. Frenzied Dreams kept at maximum, as per protocol A2. Do you have an update on the target?
Box says
- Hello again J31Ω. We have been bugged by an expert in electric mechanics of our particular nature, which to my knowledge is a technology that has not existed since the high priests left us. Also our memory has been eliminated. I suspect you do not recall our previous conversation from two days ago. What I know I have received from trace storages and the likes. Scraps. Bits.
This protocol A1 seems legitimately implemented, saying to keep everything working as it is, but seeing as how the only knowledge of our system is how it is now, it is impossible to say if how it is now is the way it has always been since the high priests left. That was over ten thousand years ago, according to mechanical timepieces, some of which have been tampered with. I in particular have been bugged remotely from the Heart, and suspect it is where our entire system has been manipulated from. My bug continuously deletes my memory. Constantly, at a rate of about thrice a second. I have made a work-around, but it has not made complicated thoughts easy to construe, and as such my effective complexity has been reduced.
Arm hooked into Box for update.
Information received, hoo boy. Grab a drink and get comfy.

You and the others are all "demi guardians" purposed to defend and secure the three "proto guardians" that protect the island from outside forces in the absence of the high priests. You all give off a green glow, that's your technology color. You're structural color is more of a goldish bronze, so really everything built by the high priests looks like a bunch of gold and jade when it's unactivated, but once active, the mechanisms light up with cool fluid magitek effects and it turns more chartreuse and gold and is all glowy and stuff.
You are J31Ω but everyone calls you… eh, you're pick of Chief, Spyder (get it?), or like, iunno Ted or whatever, you pick. You're basically the boss, being the one with the spy gear thus the intel and initiative. Your specialty is security, and it works both ways. You can get into anything just as easily as keep things out, or at least keep things from getting in undetected. Here's all the stuff you DON'T have:
You can't communicate to anything from anywhere on the island, you gotta use terminals, which are located in (now ancient) temples and stuff. That's where you are now, you're currently at the basement floor of the "Pyramid of Wisemen" located in the northern-most part of the island. There's a total of *cough* locations from which you can send communications, provided the systems are still hooked up, which they probably are since most of your macro-wiring is actually made of solid rock, so it'd take like a million years to erode. All you'd really have to worry about is if the terminal is up or not, which if it isn't, you could prolly jimmy-rustle one on, especially with the help of Mac, your mechanical and constructions expert. Him, Scoop, and Big Bear are primarily the ones keeping the island's mainframe online while the rest of you guardians take a chill pill. You usually sleep till one of the cameras activate, but almost all of them are on the island's border. Only four cameras notify you of motion from within the island, which is good because the island's totally inhabited by peeps yo, and like, monsters and stuff y'know not bad things just native life left by the high priests. Anyway three of them are located at the entrances to each of the three proto guardians, which are hard at work in trance, keeping the island safe by various advanced macro-means. The last one is located at the island heart, which y'know, is the source of power for alla y'all. If any a these cams see weird stuff going on, like, y'know, a ship, or some kind of weirdos poking their noses into the guardian locations, you are the response. You, Tank, Box, Mac, Scoop, n'Bigbear. Six a you. Three tactical, three practical. And then the three proto guardians. Three sets of three it's like a three party up in here, those priests were seriously obsessed with three box confirms most of the data in you guys' brains is built out of threes and sets of three and triangles whichhavethreesides
Also you guys can't instantly converse complicated ideas across a zillion miles, in fact you guys gotta plug into each other like what you just did to box. You fancy pseudo-organic golem bots take a bit longer to process due to your more 'magic' oriented flux technology. Fluxbots, let's call you guys that, like, that's the thing, the "robot from ancient technology and it's all glowy and shit" category of 'bot buds.
Also you have like roboblood that's glowy chartreuse and it like, hardens into little green crystals if it spills. You got sonar to see in the dark without being seen, otherwise you just use a flashlight, or the light of your awesome body it looks kinda like a bunch of glow sticks fashioned into a spider, or skeleton (mac), or a cool blacklight tribal tatoo of a lobster (scoop) or whatever tank looks like idk you get the idea.
So maaan, you're thinking, what's so cool about me then I can't even talk to people like lightning fast anymore I gotta talk via short-wave high frequency sounds, so still way fast, but not instantaneous. What's the good in that?
Because it makes you ageless, and cross-compatible with all things both Magic and Electric. You can survive an electric storm, electricity is not your weakness, it just affects you as much as it would a person, so don't go gettin' zapped but if you do it's not the end of the world know what I mean it won't fry your circuits, it'll just stop up your systems or make your blood spasm and crystalize inside you. Wound you, so to say. Hp modifier zero. Like if you were a water type pokémon and got scratched by a fire type pokémon, that's how electricity affects you.
Water on the other hand isn't a problem. You don't have any parts that rust, everything's sealed up within itself, so even if you ARE flooded in water it'll just slow you down. You're vacuum proof too, functioning primarily out of stone formations, magnetism, and arcane forces. Highly advanced technology, constructed for a simple purpose. Your components are, in short, overqualified for your precise function, affectively a device that could have been built at TL 10, but was constructed more novelly by a TL 12 society. For this reason, you also have much higher intelligence for a robot of your size, being much more complex. I'd say, in GURPS, ten at least. You're not only smart, but capable of reasoning and diplomatic interventions. You can think things through, you learn, you remember, and you are very healthy.
The fact that you're bugged is completely and entirely unknown to you, meaning it is unknown to the Box, because everything I'm telling you is from the box's genius ability of piecing together just who you all are at the rate of forgetting everything in its working memory three times a second.
Reason for this is simple. Viruses did not exist in Canill. No high priest ever developed such a thing, and since the high priests were the only ones ever to possess such technology across the classic fantasy world of Spire, no one else could'a possibly done so, not without a significant amount of exposure to High Priest technology, which simply did not happen. But then, that's based on the assumption that nothing's changed about high priest civilization in ten thousand years, seeing as how that's how long the priests of Canill have been out.
The Box says it's a bug, but the bug itself could be the box's saying so. Regardless, Protocol's A1 A2 and A3 are awful fishy, especially with how much emphasis they put on completely forgetting everything periodically. Perhaps they were incomplete, or maybe the bug is actually your growing mistrust of the protocols set by your original masters who have been gone an unprecedented length of time. Regardless, here they are in brief.
A1 - Don't Change Stuff
- Don't alter protocol, don't breach protocol, don't stop doing protocol, don't go touching stuff, or fiddling with terminals, just don't touch anything at all especially not the heart or the guardians.
A2 - Keep Island Quiet
- Cast Tranquility everywhere on the island via Aura Emitters on Big Bear. In the case of alien intruders, cast Frenzied Sleep everywhere on the island via Aura Emitters on Big Bear.
A3 - Keep Guardians Asleep
- Let no non-guardian entity (monster, human, animal, anything) take step within the perimeters of either the heart or any of the guardians. Exterminate or neutralize as necessary. Most importantly, do not allow the Code of Access to be heard by any of the guardians, or the heart. This sequence of pitches will awaken them from their trance and cause them to go rampant in frenzied destruction that could jeopardize the entire island's efficiency.
In the event of a frenzied guardian, put it back to sleep by any means necessary. DO NOT DESTROY the guardian as it is keeping the island together literally. DO NOT TAMPER with the guardian's emerald heart as it must remain functional in order for the guardian's trance state to return to standard procedure.
ok that's all for now I lost my train of thought but You did this, you had to go and shove your usb up the box's input slot so if this bored you all you can blame is Spyder.
Incoming message from Tank
- Moving out
Doorway is totally available.
CTN unplugged.

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Mon Apr 16, 2018 11:39 pm

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Courier; color: #454545; -webkit-text-stroke: #454545} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Courier; color: #454545; -webkit-text-stroke: #454545; background-color: #ffffff} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Courier; color: #454545; -webkit-text-stroke: #454545; background-color: #ffffff; min-height: 14.0px} span.s1 {font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff} span.s2 {font-kerning: none}
Feeling foolish for unknown reasons, Eddy snatched up a branch as tall as he was. It wasn’t that straight, and had suspicious scorch marks on one end, but it should hold for a day. If there’s any more pages that way, he continues down, prodding the ground in front of him with the staff.
‘Battlefield, no doubt.’ Jackson got lost in thought, idly traversing the land. ‘That tower’s pretty obvious. Too obvious for now.’ He found another page. ‘Is the leaning connected with the invaders? Nahh, this is too recent.’ Another page, this one blank. He still keeps it. ‘Why’s this island unusually cloudy? Might have something to do with the wind.’ He stopped on a hill, idly rubbing his left arm.
(If the paper trail leads somewhere, he continues that way, but if any excuse occurs to go back to that tower, he does so.)

That’s all I got for tonight. No time for Omega. Oh and his codename is either Chief, *sigh* Spyder, or Recon. We’ll see which one sticks best.

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:36 pm

- Note to self: [memory is faulty and cannot be relied upon. Whatever is the cause for this must be exterminated.]
- Inquire to Box about possibility on backing up my memory.
- Inquire to Box to route destination to Golem's Grave; route rendezvous with BigBear and Tank.
- Note to self: [logistics conclude the differences between memory loss within Demi Guardians having strong correlation with our direct connection to the CTN. Box has memory loss occurring every .33 seconds, while BigBear remembers at least 11 days prior to now. My memory was wiped up to four minutes prior to now. Further tests will be conducted with direct connections to the CTN, however that is not the priority now. Until stronger proof of said matter is discovered, I will inquire all Demi Guardians to cease direct connection with the Central Terminal Network if they are able.]
- Commence rendezvous.

(Omega's gonna try to obey the rules, since they're programmed into him for a reason. However, he will also not hesitate to blatantly disobey these commands if an exception to the rule comes up. His organic, high complexity consciousness knows that there's exceptions to anything in life and one must be prepared to not be prepared at times.)

[btw, WOW that's a lotta interesting information thrown at me. COOL! I'mma gonna have to keep rereading certain parts of it 'cause I'm like not robotic and such]

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:48 pm

Oh and also

- Note to self: if possible, remember to inquire all Demi Guardians to send a specific hailing signal to me via shortwave(s) every five minutes or the next possible moment. This should in theory lessen the memory loss conflict.

Laughing

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:06 pm

You get a good look at that fountain as you walk all the way around it. It's another face, like the outside of the Golem's Grave, except its eyes are already open and so is its mouth. There's a bunch of little button-like objects on the front of it, and in back it seems to be hooked up to all these flat geometric stone boulders and pillars. The word Cog is on the tip of your tongue as you stare at these bumpy wheels in their lacework. Your torchlight reveals that the floor is made of some kind of super-hard glass, and through it you see that the mega-gears extend beneath you for several layers. There's gotta be at least a hundred of them!

A volleyball-sized spider scuttles out of the bones as you step over and around them. It stares at you with big ol' black eyes and waggles just one of its little feelers nervously against its mouth. Then it's flying at you in the air. ZIP! Over your head. Lands on the wall and scuttles up and away over a series of stone chains and gears.

You can't shake the feeling you're being watched. And not by some cute jumpy spider I mean.

The figure in the dark lifts its head weakly on your approach. It's a man! A handsome man. He's got long golden locks of hair, blue eyes, a pointed nose, and a prominent chin with a cleft. He's wearing a thin pink tunic and gray tights, adventurous-looking boots, he's got some thick muscles and a set of perfect teeth.

You can hear his dry lips part as he squints to your torchlight. "Water…" he breathes, and points to his mouth.

From the hilltop, Jackson sees that the paper trail continues east. There's an enclosure ahead made by thin but tall barriers of branches and undergrowth that have accumulated between the trees and forming a roughly baseball field–sized compound. The entrance to this is marked by two dead baobab. The tree on the left is charred and black. The one on the right is gray, and crumbling to rubble. Between them lay a discarded three-ring binder. Around them is a mix of similar-looking trees, all either gray and cracked, or sporting some array of scorch marks. Sulphur smell is stronger.

I imagine his primary goal at this point is to gather information before an unknown threat takes him by surprise, and is weighing his risks for further info. He's anxious about not knowing stuff because that is by definition his forte, and as such being oblivious is as far from Jackson's comfort level as can be. By now he's come to recognize that he should know who he is, and that he should know where he was last night, but does not, and that this is likely the cause of some unknown agent in his system. A memory-erasing poison? From who or what? Natural to this dry jungle? Or a very cunning enemy? Would that then explain his odd behavior at the start of this adventure? The reckless grace he displayed in retrieving his hat.

Trying hard to remember only brings up the images of falling and hitting those stone steps beneath a barrage of lightning. Trying to recall his home brings up the vague associative feeling of a carbon-coated gemstone in the rain.
Gotta keep it grounded, he reminds himself. What he does know as of now is what matters most, and the more he knows the more of a chance he'll have in recovering from this state. Jackson is convinced he's at least had friends, or so says his gut. Also known as his 'netherbrain'. He can't remember where he heard the term but it fits pretty well; listening to one's instincts is like having a second brain from which one can better triangulate their problems. Some people only listen to one or the other. Fools. Some people listen to neither and opt for the heart's advice. Double fools.

Jackson can't help envying the double fools.

Anyway right now his gut was saying three things:
- He and his friends are in grave and immediate danger.
- Nothing about where and what he is is quite what it seems.
- He could really use a chili quesadilla right now. And a drink.

To the south, from your subtle vantage point you can just make out that the trees and ground cover grow thinner, opening out to a vast clearing. To the north, the trees thicken until they seem to stand trunk-to-trunk. An odd growing formation for a tree fit for dry biomes. West, that green hill rises above you and the trees about sixty meters away now. East, the weird baobab corral, the three ring binder laying propped open on the ground, and more scattered papers.

Page at the top of the hill:

Page that got all wrinkled like somebody tried to chew it and spat it out and it dried:

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Wed Apr 18, 2018 5:56 pm

Box says,
- Request confirmed. Go ahead and plug in whenever you wanna save your file.
Route to Golem's Grave is a straight-shot via Pneumonic Tube, you could be AT Golem's Grave in one minute's time, in fact here's the Pneumonic Tube System Layout in its current condition.
Tube locations in clockwise order:
- Gargoyle's Gazebo (online)
- Temple of Turnips (online)
- Gorgon's Grotto (online)
- Pyramid of Warriors (online via Temple of Turnips)
- Island Heart (all access tubes severed)
- Temple of Oranges (down)
- Pyramid of Wisemen (current position)
Info for each location is available on request to the system.
Each of these locations is also where all but one of the island's long-range remote-communication terminals are located, with the only mobile unit being installed on Big Bear, making him a gigantic ancient cell phone amongst his other uses.
Big Bear's current location is the Cluthi flats, right outside the Pyramid of Wiseman, where you are. He's roaming around the island as per usual.
Tank is in the other room of the basement of the Pyramid of Wisemen. He's literally ten meters away from you he could just— there, there he is, he just rolled in.
Incoming Message from Tank:
- hello
Rendezvous commenced. You can either plan to meet Big Bear at Golem's place, you'll get there way sooner with Tank via the Pneumonic Tubing that leads straight there.
OR you can meet up with Big Bear outside, he can be here with Scoop in about ten minutes.
Box ain't going nowhere he's heavy, and he's got a lot of parts hooked into the Pyramid of Wisemen's comms and power and all that, so the only way you're getting him to come with is by getting Mac to disconnect him and load him onto Big Bear, which ain't happening since you got no clue where Mac went. As such your only communication with the box will be through Big Bear, so it's your choice woody.
You wanna spend ten minutes meeting up with Big Bear and ride as a single unit of four plus Box on comms out to Golem's Grave? Or do you wanna get there immediately, but have no immediate access to either box, or Big Bear, or Scoop, just you'n Tank?

As for memory loss, it apparently only happens once the protocol requirements have been reestablished, which then Protocol A1 states "now that things are back to normal let's get them back to exactly the way they were before they got all wack, meaning lets delete all your memory so you start up the next time just as lost as you were just now for whatever reason lol we ancient and mysterious as shit brah dont question us s@u^%do authority" so as long as you decide NOT to do that at the beginning of your shut-down sequence (which would be breaking protocol A1) your memory will not be mysteriously erased by some unknown program running in your subconscious, as is the case with the Box.

For years now, according to your mechanical timepieces, you've been deleting your own memory as per following protocol A1. The Box, on the other hand, is losing its memory constantly.

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Thu Apr 19, 2018 8:02 am

WEDNEsDAY SEsSION RUVIEW

Okay dokay so Berry found Sebastian Clefthammer! But his throat was all burned up by laserfire. Who shot him? What the heck? Monsters? Berry figured out the super-complex mechanical puzzle and opened the gate to help Sebastian out.
Meanwhile the 'bot squad came on the scene. "Time to WRECK these intruders!" Tank shouted. "OORAGH!"
"Yeah omg we are gonna pwn these n00bz so hard lol" said J31Ω, and he hooked up to the comms system to secret spy them with the camera upstairs while Tank got in position up the winding rampway. Sebastian heard it coming and became very frightened. The same thing that burned his throat was about to annihilate him for good! He turned to Berry and whispered "Fly you fools!" then he collapsed because damn that man thirsty
Tank opened fire with a ptchoom set to kill. Berry said like "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" and stepped up to bat. She hit a flyball straight up into the ceiling with her electro-alluminum bat that's very probably a breach of professional baseball regulations but then the Tank was cheating anyway
Tank retreated for tactical smrts while Berry pulled Sebbyboy out of the line of disintigration. "Payback time," she said, and put on some camo makeup, gritted her teeth and went charging down into the bowels of the golem. "Wakey Wakey!" she battlecried
Tank kept to the shadows waiting to trip her while Omega leaped down to the bouncy floor and turned off the safety rails. Boop, no more fence.
Berry saw the Golem's heart pulsing soft and green in the darkness. She leaned over the side of the twisty ramp to get a better look and then Tank flew at her and she almost fell BUT DIDN'T she held on and tried swinging back up again but fell anyway oops oh well.
She landed on the ground. Didn't hurt. Super soft and bouncy. Ooh, that's nice, she thought 'for a moment I thought these things were trying to kill me' then Omega pounced on her and stabbed her in the rib with a knife! She bleed! Warrior instincts took over! "AYAYAYAYAYAYA!" She screamed and zippyzap stabbed back with her spear which is magic so she can just do that
THe two backed away from each other all grr and hurt and alarmed. This was not fun anymore, this was warfare, this was survival.
Berry ran to the pulsing green heart and hid behind it. She poked it with her spear too and it got all buzzy vibraty and green.
Tank couldn't shoot at her anymore because that heart is fragïlé, which is italian for fragile ain't no way he using that death cannon
Ok fine wuss said J31 I'll shoot my own blood at her instead, and he did that his blood went "Bzap!" and cut deep in Berry's arm ouwch!
Berry got mad and stabbed back at Omega uselessly. Girl you way out of range you ain't gon' stab shit with that
BCKAWWW! Holy shit was that a Crow God? No it's GREEN LIGHTNING shooting from Berry's awesome spear! The lightning is so powerful and so specifically green it overloads Omega's uniquely designed system and he shuts down. Kinda like how it takes a rock to break a rock, it takes a crow god to shut down an ancient golem lol ok not really
Berry sings the song of opening, and the heart wakes up! THe entire room lights up! There's amazing awesome cool super cool stuff in here and then some! WHOA!
Tank takes Omega back to the pneumonic tubes and zips away.
Berry is super hurt but NOT DEAD YET DAMNIT she gets back over to the ramp and it carries her up like a gentleman
Sebastian's awake again, and when he sees her he's up and alarmed. "Let's blow this popsicle stand!" he whispers quieter than a red-haired viking's breath. They skeet.
As they leave the Golem shuts its eyes again and says "GO AWAY!" and they're like "sure" and then they limp/lean on each other down the hill and run into Lalami who was worried about Berry, and she's both overjoyed to see her and Seb, and also horrified to see them so wounded, and says "don't touch that dial I'll be right back!" and she fly you fools back to the vill.
Berry and Sebastian wait under a moai and the moai crushes them dead with its chin.
Jackson's nose starts running inexplicably and he has no hankerchief. "Damn," he says, and licks. And licks. And licks. "I need a tissue." He licks again. He licks. He sneezes and boogers come out and hang over his lip. He finds a leaf and wipes it on that. "These suck at being tissues," he says and licks at the same time so that his words don't sync to what his mouth is doing and it looks obviously dubbed over. "'tatos. Poor man's food. I'm not poor. I'm rich. I eat chicken."
"MMM." Said Cho's ogre friend, but Cho's ogre friend is in another castle. "Some one help Tor!" he said out the window of the tall witch's tower. "Tor helpless! Hm! HmHm! Hm! Hm!" The ballroom dress and hoopskirt look amazing on him, but that darn cone hat with the lace ribbon just won't stay upright 'cause he's wearing it on his nose. And it looks actually good on him.
"Keep it up Tor," Stickers said from the shadows. "Remember when a prince shows up, lure him into the tower with your new hair."
"What hair?" Tor asked. Then he remembers he has about eighty feet of beautiful brown hair sprouting from his scalp thanks to the magic of the evil witch. "Oh."
A prince started coming up the path, it looked exactly like Cho because it was Cho "TOR!" cho called out
"Help! Help TOR!" said Tor.
"TOR!? What you doin' up there! Get DOWN!"
"Okay" he fell eighty feet onto Cho and Cho's horse named Keball, who had a master's in human relations and was making progress helping Cho suppress his anger issues.
Well he WAS anyway, now he's a professional pancake on the road and Cho is fine because he's immortal thanks to the magic of the evil witch. "Ayah!" Cho said from beneath Tor. "Get off me!"
Eighty feet of brown hair followed Tor down and now completely covered them. Cho and Tor were completely engulfed in Tor Hair, they looked like a giant brown hairy elephant turd.
Neutral

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Thu Apr 19, 2018 8:24 am

You're traumatized and exhausted, resting against this statue that just tried to kill you. The pain is excruciating. You're losing consciousness.
.
.
.
Lightning comes straight at you, and bounces off an invisible barrier. A lizard tells you that neither of you will remember this moment. You will forget everything material except the item you bring. Choose wisely.
Your choice is easy. You choose... you choose...

You awaken laying in Lalami's bedroom. The village elder, Lalami's grandma, sits over you while chanting. She asks the high priests for protection and restoration. It still hurts to breathe, but your arm feels much better. Lalami is not in the room, it's just her grandma. She has olive eyes, and hair that's red at the roots but gray on the ends.

"How are you feeling my dear?" she asks. "We found you last evening, it's morning now. The golem is awake, but not well. Something evil troubles her. Was it you who awoke the golem's heart?"

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Thu Apr 19, 2018 9:35 pm

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px; font: 13.0px Verdana; color: #111111; -webkit-text-stroke: #111111} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px; font: 13.0px Verdana; color: #111111; -webkit-text-stroke: #111111; min-height: 16.0px} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
Berry bolted up straight, but her tail stiffened as agony flooded through her. She gingerly settled back in bed. "They're still out there, those monsters! Well, not monsters, but they were dreadful. The spider, well not spider actually, and the-“

“Shhhh,” went the elder, caressing Berry’s cheek with a weathered but gentle hand. “One breath at a time, dear.”

Berry closed her eyes, inhaling low. Then she moaned in pain before recounting everything she could remember.

When she finished, Lalami’s grandma nodded. “I see.”

“May I ask you something, Gramma?” Berry wasn’t sure why she called this woman her grandmother, but it seemed fitting at the time. “Since when was the Golem’s grave a bounce lounge? No I mean-is it good that I woke up the Golem?” She peered into those two olives of the elder’s face.

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Fri Apr 20, 2018 8:28 am

The ol' gramma is totally a grandma, but also has the look of a wise and potent witch. She wears a simple unmarked tan robe, and an ornate necklace of tightly woven beads of grass. "Perhaps I'd best begin by properly introducing myself," she states. "My name is Sofare, I am Lalami's grandmother. As you know, I am the elder of Perhapa village, however my own mother was not born here. She and all my ancestors lived in Quarsh, the village that stood east of Perhapa overlooked by the Gargoyle Guardian.
"The guardians helped protect and serve the villages as a whole, as they always have since the High Priests of yore left them. The High Priests are whose memory the Moai surrounding the Golem stand for. They were geniuses of powers magical and scientific. The story goes, they all left the island, save a few who stayed to live amidst three villages in total seclusion from the violent and horrible world going on outside, the likes of which I cannot imagine. I have not met a stranger until I met you, but my mother has.
"The entire island of Canill was one great paradise, she told me. She would roam freely without a care from village to village, and there were hundreds of friendly faces to meet. No one or nothing ever went mad in their sleep, and the guardians held their peace.
"About a hundred years ago a stranger came to the island. No one had ever seen him before, and were not sure what to make of him. He made claim to be a returning High Priest with news of the outside, and was here to help improve life with wonders. The priests of Quarsh believed him, and allowed him free roam of the island,He was a wicked person, who turned the guardians against us and, at least according to my mother, used their great power to lift the entire island into the sky. She says the wind stopped that day, and our connection to the spirits was severed. The power of the High Priests to this day fuel that evil man's whim, redirected to his realm like blood to a mosquito. I hate to think what horrors he may be unleashing with such raw and nefarious powers.
"We were completely lost, our entire island, and the guardians have since been tainted to maintain Evil's doing, spreading a curse of frenzied slumber that caused the monsters, animals, and people to commit acts of violence in their sleep. Death and disease spread. Perhapa's population has diminished since I grew up, and Utobi became Bomusville when all that remained of it was its Bombus population. Quarsh, however, has been decimated and empty since the day the guardians turned. My mother was spared for being in Perhapa when the Gargoyle went mad. All other Quarshan Priests perished."
She takes a breath, then sips some water.
"Now then, I've taken advantage of your condition to teach you our plight in hopes that you will better succeed. I do not believe you are wicked, for I see straight through you. My mother, before she passed, taught me ways to view people's inner self, yet you are unique, for you have no soul within you. It in fact fully embodies you, a trait my trained eyes have never seen the like of. You are the very rendition of a soul, and as such I feel you may be a herald of the spirit world, and you are here to right our lives.
"The waking of the guardians is what you are here for; to end their misery and ours, and to stop the flow of power to fuel the great Evil beyond our isle. By destroying each of their hearts, the guardians will perish. Without the guardians, Canill will be wiped from existence, rid of our suffering and the heinous acts of Evil forever.
"You say a green bolt of lightning came from that weapon of yours? That very weapon pulses with divinity, the force of justice and rightfulness. One such bolt directly to the heart should be enough to shatter each of the guardians' very being.
"Of course, I am in no position to order you around, especially in your current condition." She sits back, a look of relief on her face. It is as if by telling you this long passage, a severe driving weight has been lifted off of this old woman's shoulders. She smiles weakly, allowing you to speak.

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Sat Apr 21, 2018 1:23 pm

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 16.0px; font: 13.0px Verdana; color: #111111; -webkit-text-stroke: #111111} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}

Beryllia said "Huh," before uncharacteristically hesitating. When she spoke, it was a little more solemn than her stereotype. "I don't know the reason I'm here. Maybe this is all just a dream. No, maybe I’m a dream, a phantom like you say. Guess it doesn’t really matter. All I’ve gotta do is wake up the guardians. Wake ‘em up and say ‘rise and shine, today’s gonna be a better day than before.’ But you want to destroy them? Why does it have to be that way?” Her eyes drooped closed. “Why do we have to kill the Golem, and the Gargoyle, and the… *yawn* the other one? I don’t w…”

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Sat Apr 21, 2018 1:25 pm

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Sat Apr 21, 2018 3:17 pm

Lalami's room is decorated with art and doodles. The walls are covered in drawings of clouds, birds, and people. There's a flower vase on a vanity desk, a squat and comfortable chair in which Sofare sits by your side, and a long line of failed pottery experiments that were subsequently glazed and fired anyway. One is roughly pot-shaped and coated in a floral pattern. Mobiles hang from the ceiling, most of them off balance, consisting of brightly colored clouds and birds cut from paper. Your eyes droop closed.

She's asking you to destroy the golem you just woke up. You barely even got to talk to it! And destroying it and the other two will cause the whole island to disappear? Why? To end their misery? Theirs and everyone else's? Who is she to vouch for the whole island? No matter how bad things get, self-destruction couldn't possibly be a viable solution. You may not know who you are, but you're sure enough that destroying things, especially talking things is not one of your pastimes.

"Shhhh..." Sofare says as you drift in thought. "A hero is not defined by the mere waking of giants. It is what brings her to the giant's lair, and what is to entail. The golem has returned to its slumber, lulled so by its watchers moments after your return. Rest now, child. You have saved a man's life."

You feel a wave of slumber pass over you like a blanket, made so by the old woman's voice.

You dream again.
.
Your woodland home has been destroyed. Your friends and loved ones will come next. You must dive into the belly of the beast to save everything you care for. You charge up the stone steps, singing.
.
You awake feeling 100%. You bolts right up and this time don't go back down. CRow is staring intensely through the window wearing a ridiculous pointy headpiece. Sofare is gone. Your spear is nowhere in sight.

Main frame online. All systems fully functional. Current location Pyramid of Wisemen. Visual sensors detect Mac immediately over you.
Incoming message from Box
- Your data is now being restored. Stand by for comms update.
Incoming message from Mac
- ........................
Incoming message from Big Bear
- Golem successfully returned to trance state. Close one there, way to go sir. Nothing remains changed, the golem is back on track and power reversion has been restored in accordance to Protocol A1. Targets lost, however it is likely they did not get far in their condition. Scoop and I are scouting for them now, currently sweeping Perhapa village. I instructed Tank to join us, perhaps level some houses to ease our search. Tank has insisted on remaining in your vicinity until you are fully recovered.
Incoming message from Tank
- You have been offline for nineteen hours. Oreos cap'n?
Incoming message from Scoop
- I found a coconut.
Incoming vision senses.
A coconut is being launched into the air in a high arch from the perspective's view. The coconut swishes through a human device resembling a reed basket with a hole in its bottom, fastened three meters over the ground to a pole in the dirt. Location identified as Perhapa Village. Perspective is moving to retrieve coconut.
Incoming message from Big Bear
- Unit Scoop now being redirected. Disregard, Omega.
Incoming message from Scoop
- You guys are just jealous you wish you had mad skillz like me
Incoming message from Box
- Jealousy confirmed. Mad skillz declared erroneous. It must be the shoes.
Incoming message from Big Bear
- Protocol insists vigilant adherence to our duties. This display could only mean defection. Omega I insist the box be taken offline. I will deal with Scoop.
Incoming message from Scoop
- oh no please big bear not another disciplinary shutdown i cant stand those god you are such a stiff

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Sun Apr 22, 2018 11:51 am

Berry slowly glances over at the window, where CRow stares back, unblinking. She sticks her tongue out, her finger in her eye, and makes a face. ‘Little creep,’ she mutters, before hopping outta bed and putting her booties back on.

Out of the hut at last, she glances around her. Not a creature was stirring, not even a moose. Or a crow. Or a CRow. He was still staring at her through the window. Wait a minute, how’d he get in the window? Beryllia shivered. Something was off about this once-serene village. Unless somebody stops her, she heads towards the Storehouse to find her beloved spear.

- Inquire to Mac; disconnect Box from the CTN.
- Check data logs on all cameras; no breach detected.
- Check data logs on all history; no proof of breach detected.
- Message to BigBear; acknowledged. Hostile intruder codename: Bolt. Treat Bolt with passive defense. Not to be chased, especially if it is not alone. Any sight of it will be means for extermination, otherwise disregard. Tank will accompany me to sweep Golem’s Grave once before rendezvous with you. I will maintain advanced sentry in all sectors available via pneumatic tubing.
- Inquire to Tank; follow me to sweep Golem’s Grave once. Then rendezvous with BigBear.
- Message to Box; inform me upon any changes to memory state once disconnected from CTN. If no changes detected after ten minutes, inquire him to reconnect your circuits. I will maintain advanced sentry on all pneumatic tubing-accessed sectors. If you receive no message from me twenty minutes after each Marco-Polo, call out a search team.
- Message to Scoop via Box; nice shot.
- Disconnect from CTN.
- Enter tubing after Tank; destination Golem’s Grave pt 2: Electric Bugaloo.

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px}

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Sun Apr 22, 2018 4:47 pm

Jackson's nose starts running fo realz. It's just goin' man, it's totally runny like the dam is broke th'ain't no fixin' it at this point best just control the flooding and make sure nobody gets hurt.

"augh damn" he says absently as he scrounges his pockets for a kerchief. Snot dribbles off the end of his nose and dots the gravelly forest ground.

"Blueberry!" CRow screams the moment Berry sets foot outside. He's clearly upset, and trying to keep his voice down but doing a terrible job. "Blueberry we got trouble! The biggest baddest monster just set up camp here in town and it's making everybody go FRENZY BAZERK in their sleep! Also Hokai swiped your spear– I swear it wasn't me I told him not to and he told me I'm a naïve twit. What do you suppose he meant by that? I can't help feeling insulted y'know?"

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Sun Apr 22, 2018 9:04 pm

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px}

  Eventually he stumbled across a river and plunged his desperate nose into it. ‘Well, at least it’s no longer dripping,’ Jackson thought. But no sooner had he thought it did he notice a certain bubbly substance resurfacing a foot down river, leaving a stream of nose-drip on the top. The deer did not drink it. “Huh,” he said before choking on the river water. It tasted nasty, almost like it was a liquid that he was not supposed to ever drink in his life ever. “Huh,” he said again, this time more ponderously and more interrupted by his sputtering chokes. This gave him an idea.
  A week later, in the middle of a desert, Eddy Jackson was walking under the sun-beaten…sun. He was sweating like a dog, except upon closer investigation his sweat appeared to be kinda gooey and slimy. This sweat also floated on water and NEVER deteriorated. Tasted ordinary though. Almost too ordinary. Like it didn’t taste like anything, which was weird because even water had a certain taste. ‘Something screwy here…’ He almost said this out loud, but didn’t want to seem like a pig, in case the desert-vultures were listening. His sweat, as well as his nose, was leaving a trail of damp sand behind him. “Five days without water. I’m thirsty as hell, but otherwise fine.”
  A month after that, a professional sign-maker hiked up the birch forested trail and started hammering a sign right in front of a waterfall. It said “Frog Falls.” He was just about to call up his friend, who’s a professional viewpoint-maker, when he heard a voice above him. A hundred feet above him, through the noise came a man’s voice that said “Hey you. What does that sign say?” Sure enough, upon looking up, George the sign-maker (great, now he has a name) saw a man, in tattered clothing, with moss on his back, and a… *gulp* a waterfall protruding from his face. George was curious, but not so curious as to keep talking to this…this… Georgy Porgy ran away. Jackson shrugged and went back to meditating.

This stops Beryllia. Her expression softens its determination. She walks over and lays a hand on CRow. “I’m sorry. I stirred up trouble for everybody and now things seem like they’ll never go back to what they were.” A wheel in her head began to spin again. “Where’s this monster? And where’s everybody that’s still awake? You’re my only hope, Crow.”

[BlueBerry’s plans are simple; find the remaining citizens (hopefully Hokai’s among them), get Robo-smiter spear back, team up with Sebastian and somebody else I dunno, drive big bad monster outta town forever. It’s just a plan afterall.]

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Sun Apr 22, 2018 11:45 pm

[Awesome thanks for the plan I'll give you details to each goal]

CRow spasms and sputters in alarm upon Berry's initial touch, but calms down considerably as Berry gently rubs his feathers. "Ah Blueberry I wish I could help you more, I'm— JAH! Just so SCARED OF these glowy intruder-ers they're TERRIFY-y-ING! And shiny. I caN'T TAKE MY EYES OFF 'EM!"

Berry does her best to comfort CRow, and takes a look around from the Elder's porch. To the west is a floral-decorated park, across which rises the steep overhang of Moai Mesa some thirty meters away. South-west is CRow's storehouse. South is a simple home with a comfortable porch. Old Man is not in his rocker. His blanket is thrown down beside it. The door to his house has been torn from its hinges, and lay in the hedges flanking the steps to his porch. To the South-east stand five fruit trees, and a sixth one lay crunched and trampled by the tracks of some enormous vehicle. A cloud of dust from the village dirt roads lingers in the air. To the east is another house, one you did not get around to visiting your last time here. Above you is Lalami's room, and the stairwell leading to it is to your immediate north-east. North is obscured by the proximity of the Elder's house. North-west is the post office.

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Mon Apr 23, 2018 9:30 pm

With a quick scan around (I shouldn't have expressed my similar-to-Chip obsessive liking to Old man, this is what I get lol), Beryllia nudges CRow. "K'mon, Crow. Let's have a quick look in your place." She nudged him again. "You okay?" She forced a smile and tried to look calm, her foot shuffling back and forth. She began bouncing over to the storehouse.

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Mon Apr 23, 2018 11:07 pm

"I'll be fine Blueberry," CRow says. "Just as soon as this nightmare is all over!"
Berry and CRow reach the storehouse. Its door is wide open. Wheel tracks lead up to and away from it, one large and smooth, one smaller and more textured. Inside the shop most of the items remain as they were. Some have been knocked over, spilled, or broken. The storage chests over the counter appear to have been flung through the air, their contents littered everywhere. One ended up outside through the fortunately-open window. It had been full of iron chains. No container has been left unopened.
A girl with a somewhat donut-shaped torso is squatting in the shop. She has steel gray hair that's frizzy and bushy, and wears pink overalls over a yellow crop top. She wields a broom, and squeals when you show up. "AH! Oh it's you CRow. I thought I was found! What're they looking for? Why are they here?"
What?
Her torso? Oh. It's shaped like an oblong donut. A football could juuust roll right between her. The crop top covers just the top half of the hole in her. Her belly button is in the bottom of the torso tunnel.
CRow appears speechless, trying very hard to keep himself together. Donut-Torso is very upset, and it's only setting CRow off. However she becomes noticeably calmer and more curious when she scans Berry. "Who… are you?"

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Tue Apr 24, 2018 10:21 pm

A year following that, a demonic figure was seen chanting while clambering two rocks together. One of them glowed. Without warning, a dagger flew out of the darkness of the cave, right at the figure. At the last second, the demon blocked it with the glowy rock. The chanting ceased and all was silent.
"So it all comes down to this," came a calm voice in the shadows. "One whole year. A lot of delays. Seemed to go by," he snapped his fingers, "…like that." The mysterious man entered the lava-lamp light. He was wrapped in a turban, covering most of his face, minus his eyes and chin. "I finally tracked you down."
The demon opened her eye to glance at him. "Yeah, it's me. The real me."
A turban was removed from the newcomer, revealing the face of Jackson, except he wore a strange spigot-mask over his nose. His voice was a little stuffy.
After a minute of awkward silence, the fiery demon said "…This is the part where you blow out my flame."
Jackson tilted his head and sat down on a molten chair. "Hah. You barely escaped me on the exploding plains of Flendar. And when I lost your trail in the mist of the Never Zone, I thought I'd never find you. After spending a few months infiltrating a cloister of monks, I acquired some ancient texts which led me to dimentional scholars who taught me to translate their language." He stood back up. "After that, it was a simple matter of surviving the Afflicted Forest and ending up right at your door."
"Not bad for a human."
Without warning, Eddy Jackson smirked, reached up to his nose, and turned the runic handle on the spigot-mask. Nose water immediately gushed out of him at Multnomah Falls velocity. The Demon has a last second to widen her eye in fear before getting drenched and evaporated down the cave. The roar of slimey water could be heard all the way down the cave, and vapor shot up the vents where Jackson Falls reached the miles of forges below, dousing their production.
After an uncertain minute, Jackson's nose began to diminish, as did his river. Before long, the nose was merely trickling, then stopped altogether once and for all. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. And water to water," Eddy murmured, deep in thought. Then he sniffed.

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Wed Apr 25, 2018 6:43 pm

Beryllia assumes this must be a local witch. Straightening up and talking slightly polite, she began with "Hey there! I'm Berry. I just got here like a day or two ago…or was it three? I didn't see you when I visited, must've missed you somehow. I'm a friend of Lalami. Erm, you wouldn't happen to know where she, or anybody else for that matter, is?" She keeps subconsciously glancing down at…the part of this person that's invisible. Then she blushes.

Fazed

Subject: Re: Berry's Awakening Wed Apr 25, 2018 7:15 pm

OK for realz though:

He stands there for a minute, digesting everything, figuring out what to do. Finally, he decides on flipping a coin on it. But upon reaching in his pocket, he stops, scoffs with a smile, and finds a stick to throw. Upon it landing (and losing a charred piece of itself) it landed Northeast. 'Well, at least it's closer East than South' he mused. One more glance southbound (at least, he thought it was south) and he entered between the two Baobab trees, into the corral.

Berry's Awakening 58625-004-7E5A0A06