Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

It brings up a tiny hologram of Stella.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to distract you. Just let me know when you're done with your conversation." She says.


"Uh... where'd the little mortal go?"

After passing through, you tumble into what seems to be a very busy mech repair room.

 

Praecantatia nods.

"How's the tour going?" Praecantatia asks.

"It's alright, though their technology isn't too different to ours." Stephanie says.

"It's boooooring." Shadow Stephanie moans.


"You'll see." Gaia says with a slight giggle. The vines eventually cover Xlentia's entire head, completely blocking out her vision. Xlentia soon feels herself on soft ground, however, and the vines fall away to reveal a huge lush forest full of wildlife; forest guardians jumping through it's trees and communicating with the birds. Katie is dropped onto Xlentia's back from a flower. Xlentia can see Gaia in the distance sitting down in a clearing of the forest, talking to a forest guardian on her hand.

 

Lenka smirks.
"You haven't played with the simulations yet, you know. Or any of the games."


Xlentia smiles, slowly approaching Gaia whilst watching her feet.

 

"What games do you have?" Shadow Stephanie asks Lenka.

"I'll let you have fun with your Shadow. Just tell me when you want to come home, ok?" Praecantatia says.

Stephanie nods, seeming happy.

Praecantatia glances at the popup again.


Xlentia catches the attention of a few forest guardians as she walks, though only one seems to pay her consistent attention, following alongside her through the trees.

Gaia looks up as Xlentia approaches, saying a few last words to the forest guardian on her palm who bows. Gaia puts the forest guardian down, who runs off into the forest again.

"I thought you might like this part of my gardens. I heard you liked birdwatching." Gaia says, smiling.

 

I traverse the room, checking it out.

 

"Now, let's hurry to the bay."
He starts walking.

 

“Do you want to start with a game I like, or are you not a fan of action puzzles?” Lenka asks, putting on a set of wristbands and visor.


Stella’s hologram takes presidence as the other one disappears.
“Again, I apologize to intrude. I assumed you had questions, I detected that you were trying to record the transmission for further analysis. So... ask away.”


Xlentia beams.
“How many kinds are there here?”

Anne hops on your shoulder as the group follows you.
“I can’t believe you’re actually getting us out of here...” The dragon mumbles.

The crowds keep you from the middle, but it seems like a brutally efficient repair room on all sides. Parts come in, mechs go out, and nobody amidst the mass of people slows down or trips over anyone else.

 

"Don't get your hopes up. We're not out of here just yet."

 

"Do you have that one with the dungeons and guns?" Shadow Stephanie asks.


"I was just curious as to how the signals were being sent so far." Praecantatia says.


"Thousands! There isn't a species on Earth that isn't here." Gaia says happily.

 

I try to check out what kind of creatures are working here.

 

Lenka snickers.
"My lord, you haven't seen a game yet. We're starting with my pick."

A holographic grid appears off to the side, though Lenka appears in it. It seems to be laid out in 5x5 squares, and stacks about 10 tiles tall.
"This is a pretty simple starting point. Pento has two simple gameplay conditions; don't let the tiles reach the top, and don't get crushed. 5-tile pieces fall from the sky, and you control how and where they fall. Making a full plane of 25 clears those tiles, and brings everything down a layer, with bonus points for clearing multiple planes in a row. Then, every 25 pieces, a zone rises from the bottom, which you can't stand, so you can't just camp in a corner in the bottom."


"I apologize for doing this, but most of the data on that recording is fluff. Security measures used to keep this line as secure as possible are rather sizeable... as in, I'm not sure how many yottabytes your system is capable of storing, but it's likely equivalent to a fraction of my processing power. I'm not used to working with tech that my users would usually deem... again, I apologize for saying this, inferior."


Xlentia beams, glancing down below her belly to see if anyone's below, and laying down if there isn't anyone to crush.

Harpy, some sort of furred kobold, humans, the occasional gryphon, plus some strange slow-moving golem-chimera-esque creatures... those seem to be the bulk of it. Otherwise, it's sort of a mixing pot of whoever decided to show up.

"I didn't think you'd even try."
"You have no faith." Anne sighs.
"I'm well aware."
"Could you hold off on fighting until we get there?" The wyvern asks, landing.

 

"Oh, you're back already? How did it go?"

 

"Not good. I, uh... they're not coming home." The wyvern sighs.
The two centaur glance at each other, confused.

 

I try to figure out what's in the middle.

 

It seems to just be a walkway. There's too many people going back and forth for there to be anything else... or if there is, you lack the x-ray vision needed to see what's below the floor.

 

"So Tetris? The most basic of games?" Shadow Stephanie asks.

"I have Enter the Gun Dungeon tied to my armour if you wanted to play, Stephanie." Stephanie says happily.

"Sweet, hell yeah." Shadow Stephanie says enthusiastically.


"How have you passed the bottleneck of reads and writes then?" Praecantatia asks.


There's nothing below Xlentia except for ground plantlife. Katie climbs up to the top of Xlentia's head to look at Gaia.

"Hello." Gaia says with a smile, looking at Katie.

"U-Um, it's really amazing to meet you here, Lady Gaia." Katie stutters, unsure what to say.

"Well, aren't you sweet. Your name was Katie, wasn't it?" Gaia asks, putting her hand next to Xlentia's head to let Katie step on.

"Y-Yes." Katie says, stepping on to Gaia's hand. Gaia lifts Katie up to her head level to speak easier.

 

"What happened? Are they.. gone, so to speak?"

 

I look for any exits, deciding to explore more.

 

"Ah, you do have tech that's comparable to us." Lenka says, the hologram shutting down. "I figure you've got one of those stupidly common battle royale games, then?"


"I'm an accident. I'm essentially living code."


Xlentia lays down partway, resting her head so her eye sits just above the treeline... or as close to it as she can.

There's four more, though two of them seem to be input/output routes.

He nods, cutting you off after "happened."

 

"I see. Well.. there is nothing we can do about it now, so we better just hurry to the bay."