revenance_rpg | What's this, what's this?

"Only some?" Celestia said, glancing from Sora to the wall. "Perhaps the person who drew them might have some answers?"

"Yeah, who's the artist?" Probably Namine, he thought, the moment after he asked. That would make sense. This room felt creepy in a way entirely different from the rest of the place. It was cold and sterile. And somehow this one being untouched while everything else was so messy was weird and offputting.

"I don't think she'd have any more answers than we do," Sora replied, "Namine drew the ones that were already here in the waking world."

Offhand, Sora was guessing that the room had been fixed up and touched up when the decision had been made to hide out there while they were fixing his memory. That meant the world was dreaming of some point between then and what he knew as the present. Or... it could even have been dreaming of a time after that...

For the moment, Sora was looking over the drawings lying on the table. Was there some clue there?

"So you don't believe she drew these other ones? Then their appearance here is most likely a reflection of the fact that we are in dreams, not the waking world," she mused.

Which meant they were either key, or unimportant. She too joined the search, looking for patterns and meaning in both the drawings on the table and the walls.

York looked through the drawings. It was...weird to see themselves in crayon pictures all over the room. Though it worked if, in the waking world, Namine was drawing pictures of her friends. He headed over to the table. "I guess this is where the crayons came from downstairs. Maybe the dream eaters have been moving them around."

He set down the crayons he was carrying so he could pick up and take a better look at the book; it didn't look like anything he really recognized from home, but maybe it would have a clue about this place.

The crayons glowed with a golden light and a chime sounded from somewhere within the mansion.

Items glowing and sounds elsewhere usually meant something interesting or important or both was going on. It was kind of interesting that it was the crayons that were doing it.

"Okay then. I wonder if that noise came from the library..." He wasn't sure what else they could do besides checking out the library. They didn't seem to be finding any clues here...

"Curious... what could the connection be? There's no logical cause and effect," Celestia said, lifting her head up to try to place the sound. "It might also be from downstairs, but I think the change will be obvious when we see it."

"All I did was put the crayons down." York frowned. In a game, a chime and glowing meant you did something right, so apparently putting the crayons down had made something happen. He opened up the book and leafed through it. "I don't know this language...if there are any clues in here about we need to do, I wish it were more helpful."

"You... put an out of place item back where it should have been." Sora wasn't computer savvy, but he was familiar with video games and sometimes they had puzzles of this sort. Come to think of it, there had been dinner dishes in the foyer and now York had found a book. "Hmm... maybe putting other misplaced things back where they should be will do something too?"

It was a guess, but it seemed like it might be worth trying.

Celestia struggled with this idea for a moment before putting her sense of logic aside. No matter that cause and effect had no connection; she had seen it work, so denying that it did was foolish.

"Well spoken. Let us observe the other room up here first, then?"

"So what's in this room that shouldn't be here?" York asked. He was ready to be out of the creepy white room and on their way, but if this were going by videogame logic, he didn't want to backtrack. If this were a puzzle, they might just be getting another clue at the end, like the one they'd gotten after the post office battle.

"Probably that book. There is a library here." Now they were running video game logic in addition to dream logic. It was almost amusing. Still, it was a kind of puzzle Sora could actually work with. It was a little bit like that book puzzle in the library in Radiant Garden, where returning books to their proper shelves have caused bookshelves to move. So, if it was misplaced items... "Say, weren't there some broken dishes in the foyer?"

It was possible that there was another item elsewhere that belonged in the foyer. He couldn't even begin to guess what so it would have to wait until they actually saw it if there even was anything.

Celestia nodded. "By that logic, if we can't read the book, then it isn't meant to be read, merely returned. It also suggests that the objects we are seeking are not hidden, at least for the moment. Do we wish to return the items directly and then check for changes, or check for progress after hearing each noise?"

She favored the latter, but recognized that it would take more time, and that the patience given to a centuries-old alicorn was not necessarily given to humans in the same measure.

"We can listen for the chime and see if we can find where it's coming from, next time," York suggested. "That might lead us to where whatever it is is supposed to happen." If they put the book back where it belonged, it would at least give them a hint, he hoped. "And if there are dishes in the foyer, and a book here, there's probably something in the library that belongs in the foyer, right?"

Edited 2013-04-11 19:38 (UTC)

"Checking every time we return something might be a good idea or it might be a waste of time," Sora said thoughtfully, "If it is working like a video game, then it's possible that even if there is some progress there might not be anything useful yet. So... as far as I'm concerned, we can do it either way." Indeed, some games would let solving different parts of a puzzle show the opening of various gates or barriers without actually giving any access to anything. That part in particular reminded him of those emblem pieces in Hollow Bastion, making for a lock that the Keyblade actually can't open. Perhaps this was similar. The memories he had from Roxas pointed to a puzzle needing to be solved to allow access to the computer room. This was no different.

As to York's question, it was more or less what he's been thinking. "Most likely. Assuming the rooms hidden under the library aren't also... part of the puzzle."

"Then we should proceed to the library next," Celestia said, tucking her wings back in better fit through the door as she led the way. She was still quite suspicious of how unassailed they had been thus far, and had not relaxed her guard despite outward appearances.

York scooped up the book and headed after Celestia. It looked like they'd be able to make it through this without tangling with any annoying dream eaters. There'd been enough outside, anyway. "What's the point of a puzzle like this anyway? I know it's all dream logic here, but it's still weird."

"You know... I don't really know." That was mostly true. Sora really didn't know why the puzzle was there. He knew that Roxas had had to solve a small puzzle to find the computer room and the halls and pod room beyond that, but that had been in a digital copy of the world and the clue he'd found in the white room had probably been left there by Namine. But here in dreams, they had a different puzzle and no such help in working it out. Not to mention the mixing of dream logic and video game logic.

Further discussion would have to wait as their luck with Nightmare encounters ran out. On the mezzanine, about halfway around to the library, they ran into their first battle since entering the mansion. If Sora had known of York's thoughts on their luck, he might have scolded him for jinxing them. Admittedly, he'd appreciated the lack of combat himself. It wasn't a large party, but being mostly Toximanders made up for the lack of numbers a little bit. What with the specialties in poison and confusion and all...

"Watch out!" Celestia reared onto her hind legs, flaring her wings instinctively to form a barrier between the Toximanders and her comrades. She meant no offense to their capability by it; her first response to danger was to protect.

Her second response was to gather magic around her horn, then shape it into a brilliant ray of sunlight that slashed towards one of the Toximanders.

York pulled out his gun and shifted to the side; he couldn't get a clear shot past Celestia like this, and from what he'd seen, the toximanders could be pretty nasty in a fight. He knelt down so he could get a look, at least. "Pull back a bit; I can get them from a distance too." If they didn't disappear into the floorboards.

Toximanders liked disappearing into the floorboards. Especially when it made for perfect opportunities to attack while other Nightmare types drew the attention of their opponents. There were a couple of Necho Cats and Jestabockies in the party as well. But mostly, there were Toximanders. At least the one Celestia had aimed for had been a little slow in sinking into the floor.

Sora had ranged attacks at his disposal too, but was in the same boat as York with being unable to get a clear shot past Celestia. He preferred getting a little more up close and personal when he could anyway, though that wasn't all that easy either unless he wanted to run along the railing. He was certainly agile enough to do that, but he doubted doing so with Nightmares gunning for him was a good idea. ~~It had certainly been a bad idea in the waking world with a party of Nobodies...~~ His Spirits were not so hung up on strategy, however. Nor were they bothered about there being a pony in the way. Jelly Bean simply ran under Celestia's outstretched wing and Bruce flew around.

Exasperated, Sora followed Jelly Bean's lead, though he had to duck slightly to clear the wing. At the least the Necho Cats couldn't evade them quite as easily at the Toximanders. The Jestabockies could disguise themselves as items and now he realized there was an edit he needed to make to his guide. Jestabockies were immune to attack when they were disguised. Crap. And the cats tended to run away, not so much to escape as to attack from a distance with magic. Also crap. Bruce and Jelly Bean chased the cats down the stairs. Sora let them go and focused on the enemies still on the mezzanine, trying to draw the Toxmanders' attention. Maybe he could provide an opportunity for York and Luna to catch at least some of them off guard, though that did assume that York even had a melee weapon on him...

Mildly irritated at herself for her reaction, though she knew perfectly well she could have done nothing else, Celestia beat those outstretched wings, lifting into the air for a better vantage point on the fight -- and protection from the floor-darting Toximanders.

She kept to the same attack pattern, slashing sunbeams at every Nightmare she saw with quiet determination. For now she wasn't going to vary her pattern, both because she didn't want to trip up her companions any further, and because her magic attacks were the most direct and effective way of attacking.

York sighed and headed in after Sora; he wasn't equipped for close combat but he wasn't going to shoot things when his allies were doing close range. At least Sparky and Max were sticking by his side; punching a necho cat to death was easier if you had your dream eaters to help you out. The nice thing about his companions was that they were plowing through the dream eaters with not too much effort; they were already most of the way to the library, even with the crowd that had been in the way.

Sora rather appreciated York's decision to forego shooting things with allies in the line of fire. Magic could made to spare the caster's allies if they had to be in its way, but guns could do no such thing for a shooter.

In any case, he never worried about whether or not they could clear the Nightmares out, only how long it might take. It really didn't take long. However, Toximanders were, well, toxic and he didn't get through the battle without getting poisoned. At least he had the means to heal it, for himself and for anyone else if need be.

"Ugh. Did anyone else get poisoned?"

And though he'd been thinking of it earlier, the fact that Jestabockies could disguise themselves as items and hide among the spoils if they so chose had slipped his mind by the time the battle was over...

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