It doesn't seem there's anybody around! At all. Anywhere. In her range, there are precisely zero people.

What.

Is someone blocking her? No, she can still feel herself, and when she yanks a book off the shelf, it falls to the ground with a satisfying thud. What the hell is going on. She takes a second look at the artifact on display. It is completely unremarkable, a standard Second Era Vossik piece.

She makes her way to the entrance, senses stretched to their limits, alert for any hint of danger or clue as to what the fuck just happened.

There doesn't actually seem to be any danger, no! But when she gets to the entrance, it's probably not what she was expecting on the other side.

There wasn't a forest there before, was there? It's rather green. Also brown. There's some purple and red in there, too, and the trees are quite tall.

No noises come from it, though, so it seems like there isn't much wildlife, at least here.

What the fuck

It's not raining. Why is it not raining. This is not Kaas City. This is probably not Dromund Kaas, either, those trees don't look at familiar. Where is she?

The forest doesn't actually have an answer for her! Well, unless rustling leaves counts.

Does she have an inclination to look upwards upon leaving the building, assuming she does so?

Of course she does. Always check your corners, especially in situations as suddenly unexpected as this.

The sky: is blue!

No sun in sight, not that she has much viewing angle from where she is.

Over to the left: it appears there is more forest. Over to the right: a small hut. A wooden hut.

Yeah, definitely not on Dromund Kaas anymore.

Can she sense anyone in the hut?

She cannot! She still can't sense anybody around. The whole place seems quite deserted.

Has she mentioned this is really fucking strange? Because this is really fucking strange.

In the absence of any better ideas, she heads over to check out the hut.

This is definitely very strange.

The hut: has a door. It is slightly ajar. Would she like to go in?

Unless her danger sense has anything to say about it, she pushes the door all the way open with the Force.

Nope! No danger from inside the hut, apparently. At least, not from just opening the door.

She can see a wall of the hut – still wooden – and also a small table near the door. There probably isn't much more inside the hut, seeing as it's relatively small, but who knows? There might be something interesting behind the door.

Maybe. Inside she goes, then, and looks around.

There is in fact not really anything interesting behind the door, unless a shiny metal coffee table counts. It's somewhat out of place for the wooden hut.

It has a book on it, which is left open to an empty page.

Is there writing on any of the other pages?

There's some writing on the first few pages! It seems to be a list of words, ranked (possibly?) in order of frequency they might appear in spoken language. Near the top are the obvious common words – articles in speech, common conjunctions, that sort of thing. They are in fact in a language she can read.

The list cuts out after three pages, though. Halfway through a word.

Rather mysterious.

That's one word for it, yeah.

Any writing implements around? The word doesn't trail off in a sort of ominous scrawl next to a suspicious stain, does it?

There aren't any writing implements around, actually. There's a hammer, but it's not really clear how one might write with such an implement.

She might notice that an animal enters at the edge of her range! It seems to be slowly meandering around, if she can tell such a thing.

Well that's new and interesting. Predators usually differ from prey in a couple specific affects, can she tell which it is?

It seems like it's probably prey? It's unlikely to eat any animals, at least. Definitely seems like a herbivore.

Off to see the probably-herbivorous prey animal, then. Not like she has anything better to do. Maybe she'll recognize it and get a hint as to where the fuck she is.

She slips the book into her pouch before she leaves. It is, after all, a book, albeit an odd one.

The book doesn't do anything to prevent her from doing that.

The probably-herbivorous prey animal is, surprisingly enough, inside the forest. It seems quite dark in there, although rather colorful where the light does manage to hit bits of it.

The animal is quite far away, though.

Elleira is no wilderness expert, but she can call upon the Force to move with a fair bit of speed and stealth.

She does not have any aesthetic opinions about the colors or lack thereof.

The colors will keep on being visible while she continues into the forest. It gets quite dark, but she can still see around and nothing triggers her danger sense.

When she gets relatively close to the animal, she might notice it startle. It also seems to be alone, and it starts scurrying away from her.

And after she came all this way to see it. How rude.

She reaches out soothingly with the Force. Calm down, creature. There's no reason to be scared. Everything is perfectly normal and not scary at all.

It seems to be calmed! It doesn't, however, seem to know what to do with the fact that it suddenly finds itself calmed, so it then gets slightly confused, and it looks around for anything in the vicinity, and then it decides to chew on a plant at the base of a tree.

Does she decide to get closer?

She does! What's this thing look like?

Small! Sort of like a fox in size, possibly looks like a red panda if she's ever seen one of those. It's not quite either, though, and it's probably not a species she recognizes.

It seems to be somewhat happily chewing on the plant at the base of the tree though, taking no notice of her appearing.

Yeah, she has no idea what that is.

...What happens if she plants the suggestion it should go home in its brain? Tired, night falling, find safety, shelter.

It decides to go back in the direction it came from!

… Then after a short distance it seems to get a little confused.

Go home, little creature. Home. Surely you know what home is.

It seems to be looking around in this small area here for something, but there doesn't appear to be anything obvious.

It tries climbing a tree? Looks around up there a bit? Still seems confused, and comes down after a short while anyway.

Does it... not understand the concept of home? Elleira doesn't think that should be possible. She gives up on poking it.

The animal will… go back to eating some plants, in that case?

There still doesn't seem to be anything else around.

Whatever. She'll go back the archives, then. She's pretty sure she remembers the way.

She can find her way back out of the forest and over to the hut just fine.

The archive, though. Well. That seems not to be quite where she left it. Is she sure she didn't– misplace it or something?

No, this is definitely where she left it.

Why. Why this place. With its lack of anything interesting, its one three-page weird-ass book, its incredibly dumb single animal. Why.

Incredibly dumb single animal? … Well, that's probably fair.

You know what's weird, though? Someone seems to have appeared about halfway to the edge of her range.

They seem humanoid. Relatively tall. Probably quite intelligent, seeing as they're humanoid.

Also quite surprised, if she can tell that.

A person! How exciting! Maybe they will know something about this place. Or provide some amusement value, at least. She heads personwards.

Person: doesn't seem to be moving much. They're very surprised and very confused, though.

When she gets close, after walking around a couple– rather large trees, she'll be able to see that it's a male humanoid! He's rather tall. Also has slightly pointy ears.

He's looking at his phone and is quite confused. He's also facing away from her, but notices when she gets near and turns to face her. His eyes are very purple. It seems like the sclera is purple, actually, and she can't see an iris from where she is.

He seems quite startled! And then starts talking rather rapidly. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to speak her language, as is indicated by the fact she can't understand a word he says to her.

Great. And she doesn't recognize his species either. Obviously near-human, there aren't that many of those.

"Do you speak Basic? What about Huttese?" she asks, rummaging through her pouch for her datapad. Please let her still have that translation program on it...

From the way he responds to that – that is to say, unintelligibly – it would appear not.

Remember that book from earlier, though? The one she took from the hut?

Apparently it's decided it's a good time to start glowing.

She is somehow simultaneously surprised and utterly not. She pulls it out. Okay book, why are you glowing now.

The words at the front seem to be slightly, very slightly blurry. Still present, though.

If she flips to the back – which, you know, happens whether she wants it to or not, though it'll look like a total accident – she'll see that what she's said has been transcribed! There also seem to be other words around it, perfectly intelligible to her, that seem to be what the other boy has said.

They are likewise slightly blurry.

New line: Why is that book glowing.

This place. Why this place.

"Apparently the book will take care of translation for us. How are you at picking up languages?" She tosses the book to the new arrival.

He catches it! And looks at it, rather confused, but then it happens to fall open to the back of the book again, he looks at the text, and he frowns in confusion.

"I'm pretty good at it?" he says, walking closer to allow the book to be visible to them both. "Thario, by the way."

"Good. This place is really strange, and I'm pretty sure any particular conception of 'normal' you may have is going to apply only loosely. Where are you from, and what species are you?"

"I'm from Rhunya. It's a city in Kerune? And you probably have no idea what that is – it's a country – because you don't seem to be a Rhune or a Luna or a Thamar? I'm a Rhune." Blink. "Um, what are you?"

"I'm a human. I've never heard of any of those."

He blinks at the book, tilts his head a bit, and then slowly says, "I've never heard of a human either."

Apparently it does pronunciation of unfamiliar words.

"Humans are the most populous and widespread species in the galaxy. What sort of backwater planet are you even from?"

"The– galaxy? Um, we've got some space travel but no colonization yet?"

"A survey will find you sooner or later, then. Let me see that book for a minute, I want to start training my datapad on your language." She gives him a moment to read that, then floats the book over to her.

He seems rather startled when she floats it over! "Um."

"You can have it back after I get these pages scanned in." Which she proceeds to do.

He can't actually understand her, on account of not having the book! "What the hell is that?" he asks. "Do you have telekinesis?"

She floats the book back to him. Her datapad is chewing on the examples provided.

"...Have you never met a Force-user before?"

"What. The hell. Is the Force."

He then remembers to hold the book out to her, since she probably doesn't have his language translated yet.

Not yet, no.

"Energy field generated by living things, present throughout the galaxy, a gifted few individuals can manipulate it to various advantages? Sound familiar at all?"

"Nnno? I'd think you're maybe some weirdo talking about lumen but, um, that doesn't do telekinesis."

She can tell that lumen is– person-made light? Apparently? The book lets her know that much.

"Just light? Sounds kind of useless. I may have to revise my estimate on how far away you're from if you don't know the Force. It's been part of galactic culture since prehistory."

"That's kinda the whole point of lumen, yeah!" he says. "Light! Blobs or not-so-blobs of light or dark or whatever! You can do that, right?"

"...Not directly. I stand by my assessment of uselessness."

"It is a little bit useless, yeah, especially with technology! But you can do pretty pictures," see the pretty picture of a beach that he just made – it's slightly cartoonish but it's not that bad, "or you can write things," see the presumably-a-word in his language, "or you can phoss someone." See as he makes himself glow.

Phossing is apparently where you cover someone with lumen, or try to make it appear intersected with them. It's also kinda rude if you do it to other people. Is not particularly useful. The word is apparently his name, and is also recorded in the book with a note attached saying that it's the word hanging between them.

"Are you sure you don't have it?"

What an extraordinarily useful book. What a suspiciously useful book.

"Quite. Rest assured, I find your never having heard of the Force equally bizarre."

But the book is so nice! It innocently glowed when she encountered someone speaking a foreign language, and now it's helping to translate words and give her the context in a totally not-weird way! (It's totally weird.)

"Yeah," he says. "Um. Anyway. Where is this and how did I get here? Any idea?"

"I saw an odd reflection in a glass case and had a moment of vertigo, and when I looked up, there was no one else around and the room I was in lead out here. This is not where it was to begin with. I have no idea how you arrived here, but it was quite sudden on this end."

"I was looking at my phone," he says. "It is likewise slightly shiny and I also felt off-balance. Which is– possibly related. Since we both had that."

"Seems likely, yes. It goes no distance towards actually explaining the phenomenon, but it is probably connected."

"Okay, well– how long have you been here? Has anything interesting happened other than, you know, mysterious appearance of you and now me and also, yeah, the shiny book, is that a Force thing, or…?"

"The shiny book is not a Force thing. It was here when I got here, but only started glowing after you did. The woods are empty of higher life-forms except for one extraordinarily stupid herbivore. And the building I arrived in disappeared when I turned my back on it."

"… I have no idea how a building could just disappear, but then again I have no idea how I'd just get mysteriously teleported here, so– okay. Weird place with a helpful, glowing translation book."

Has anyone been watching the sky? Because apparently it's suddenly decided that it doesn't like its setting of 'blue' and instead prefers to now be 'midnight'.

This place. Why this place. Elleira pulls out her glowrod.

"I suppose now would be a good time to demonstrate the non-uselessness of your lumen."

And lo, a blob of light appears some way between them. It starts off purple and slightly dim, but rapidly changes color to amber and gets brighter. It doesn't really seem to get difficult to look at, though it definitely does seem to be lighting up the surrounding area.

"So it apparently just randomly decides that it's night? Okay. Well, at least there aren't any evil creatures lurking around, or at least, if there are they aren't right here."

So, remember those big trees from earlier? Would she happen to notice if one started to fall over in their direction? Because she probably should notice. It might end up squishing them if they don't move to get out of the way.

She probably can't actually see it, though, since there are a few other trees obscuring her vision of it.

No time to talk it out, need to move. Hit Thario with a burst of energy to knock him backwards, not strong enough to permanently injure. Probably. Dash in the same direction. Turn to regard the tree as it comes down.

Thario gets hit backwards! Then he lands, with quite a loud 'oof' noise, but fortunately there was no snapping.

The tree makes quite a loud noise as it lands. Shakes a bit, lots of branches snap, squishes a few other trees. It's a pretty good thing they got out of the way in time, because otherwise: they would have definitely been squished.

She might notice that there's a few animals just coming in from the edge of her range. These ones… definitely seem to be predators. They're also moving quite fast.

Lightsaber: out and lit. The blood-colored beam hums quietly and casts an ominous glow.

"If you have a weapon, get ready. Unfriendly animals approaching."

He looks at her, confused, then picks up the book from beneath him, opens it and reads it. Does he look frightened? Because, well, he doesn't have a weapon.

He asks something, looking around as if he's trying to see where the animals are.

Of course the useless light boy has no weapon.

"If you don't have one, stay down and try not to attract attention."

Which direction are they coming from?

They animals are coming from opposite the fallen trees! They seem rather like wolves, except slightly bigger, more dangerous, and faster. Overall: scarier than 'wolves'.

Thario seems to hear them before they get much closer and suggests that he try running. He's good at running. Is it okay if he tries running? (He holds the book up to try to get her to read it, because really, he'd rather not lie down and wait to be killed.)

"There's only six of them. If you want to run, run, but I'm going to kill them."

She positions herself to intercept them, saber angled up and out.

He votes run. He gets up and starts running.

… He's actually rather fast. Probably not quite as fast as the wolves. But only probably.

Then the wolf things are upon her. One goes right for her center, trying to chomp down on her.

Conveniently positioned for her to bisect, then. Whmmm goes her saber.

That animal: gets quite bisected.

Two of the other animals, however, slightly behind the first, are now going for her from different sides.

Quick blast of lightning to the one on the right to disable, close with the one on the left. Eviscerate it, then back to the other unless there's a more present threat.

One of the animals that haven't yet engaged with her breaks off to run in the direction Thario went, and the other two seem to be waiting for something.

She can probably kill the one she targeted with the lightning.

Oh no it doesn't. Slam it down into the ground, drag it back. Come here, little creature, she wants to kiiiilllll yooouuuu.

The other two decide to jump at her for that.

They were already rather close, and they're rather fast. It's quite likely she'll get bitten.

She has Force-enhanced reflexes and being bitten is an unacceptable outcome.

She drops to the ground and pushes upwards. Can these creatures fly?

They cannot.

Good. Dispatch the other two, then turn her full attention on the ones she sent soaring. Time for a bit of lightning-based stress relief.

She has quite a bit of it to work out.

They are apparently good targets for lightning-based stress relief! Apparently they do not have any particular lightning resistance.

She might notice that Thario is nearing the edge of her range.

Useless light boy can run, at least.

One final surge to finish the dogs off, then she'll start off after him.

She can… hopefully move quite quickly, right? Because he managed to get outside her range.

It'd be a shame if something were to happen to him.

Yes, it sure would be. Especially if whatever happens to him happens to that book, also. It's become somewhat interesting.

Force speed, here we go.

… He'll come into her range again shortly. It seems he's stopped! Perhaps he noticed the lack of noises behind him and decided it was safe to do so.

It'll be easy to catch up to him, then.

And presently, here she is.

She'll find him in a little clearing, quite a ways into the forest! … He seems to be sitting against the trunk of a tree. He might be sleeping.

There is also a little animal sitting near him. It looks like a bunny.

Why does she have a bad feeling about this...

Who knows? The bunny just looks so cute and pettable, right there.

… Is that a bite mark on his hand? It's very possible that that's a bite mark on his hand.

It also seems like the book, which is so conveniently placed just under his leg, has decided to glow again.

Sinister bunny creature, check. Elleira will stand over here, well out of range, and float the book over. What's it say?

Well, it looks like it's decided to mention that his last words were approximately 'ow' with a slight hiss.

Oh, and the book also wishes to mention that the leaves of the tree right here very helpfully happen to have anti-venom properties. Somehow. Possibly quite mysteriously. Seeing as this whole place seems quite mysterious.

Placing a leaf in his mouth might work? Might want to get rid of the cute bunny first, though.

So the book is volunteering unsolicited information now. This fucking place.

Can the bunny fly? Whether it can or not, she sends it soaring through the air, over the trees.

The bunny doesn't appear to be able to fly, no!

… There appears to be a second bunny, though. It's not really clear how it got here, seeing as it just appeared in her range at the other end of the clearing. Without being present before.

...

She chucks that bunny, too.

… Hm, maybe she missed one? There seems to be a third now.

Apparently this place wants there to be a bunny here. Whatever. As long as it stays away. She grabs a leaf off a tree and fits it into Thario's mouth.

… Is he starting to go blue?

...Any helpful hints, book?

It doesn't seem to have any!

But Thario seems to start coughing. And spluttering a little. And is getting rather rapidly less blue.

(The bunny is looking over at them innocently from near another tree at the edge of the clearing.)

Yeah, you just stay away, bunny.

"How'd that running work out?"

"Fine," he says after spitting out the leaf, still coughing a bit. "But then: bunny."

Then he blinks. "Okay, um, what the hell? Since when do I speak– whatever it is that you're speaking?"

"Since sometime after you left. Has anything else happened to you?"

"I don't think so but I have no idea when I would have mystically gained the ability to speak your language so perhaps something has? The bunny ambushed me. It was hiding in a tree, it jumped down, I freaked a little and then it bit me and apparently now I wake up with a leaf in my mouth?"

He gets up and brushes himself off.

"The leaf had antivenom properties, according to the glowy book. So something about either the creature or the leaf is likely the cause."

"Can I see the book?" he asks.

She hands it over.

He looks it over!

"… It looks kinda blurry to me?"

"Is it in your alphabet or mine?"

He frowns. "… Yes?"

"...Both?"

"… I thiiink so? I can't– really tell."

"That actually makes a weird sort of sense, if you're suddenly bilingual."

"Yeah," he says, then tilts his head a bit. "Um. It's also in Thuria – another language from my world. And a few others? I think?" Frown. "I really have no idea how because Seren is written up-down. And Thuria isn't."

"Can you speak those?"

He squints a bit and seems to be trying to think, but then settles on, "No?" Then he bites his lip a bit and says, "I don't think I can even speak Keiruna, though – that's my native language."

Then he frowns, yet again! "I'm not even sure what I'm speaking right now. Because, like, it sounds like it makes sense, and I understand what I'm saying, and I understand what you're saying, but I don't think I'm using the same phonemes as you, so– um?"

"This is a sentence in Huttese. I am fairly fluent."

"I speak very little Cheunh."

"Got both of those," he says. "And again, I can tell you're using different phonemes because it sounds different but I still get what you mean."

Then he says: "This is a sentence in Huttese. I am apparently fluent despite having never encountered it before."

That sentence was in fact in Huttese.

"What happens if you try to say something in Keiruna?"

Then he apparently says something unintelligible!

"… I'm pretty sure that wasn't the right sounds for those words."

"Can you say something in, hmm, Ortese? I don't speak any Ortese."

He says something unintelligible, but then says, "I don't think that was Ortese. Not sure what it was, but yeah, even though I have no idea what Ortese is, I'm inclined to say that wasn't Ortese."

"It seems like you can only speak languages your audience can understand. It's too bad we don't have a third person here."

"It felt like it was the wrong sounds for the Huttese thing too, but you seemed to understand me? And like, right now I– well, I wasn't paying attention to what sounds I was using, but now I am and I'm pretty sure I didn't know some of these phonemes, like who the hell has a glottal stop that actually means something in the language?"

"More data required, then."

"Yeah," he agrees. "So, while this is fun and all–" eugh, what the hell is he even speaking – "we should maybe try to find a way out of this forest with all its weird creatures? I think you said your room came with you – where was it to start off with, before it disappeared?"

"Over on the edge of the forest, near where the tree fell."

"Okay," he says, then looks around a bit. "Um, which way was that again?"

She points. "That way." Probably.

That way it is, then!

Again, he can run quite quickly.

Her natural pace is slower than his, but she can keep up over such a short distance.

Then they'll get out of the forest after a (relatively) short distance, a bit of a ways down from the log hut where Elleira found the book.

In front of them are some very tall buildings.

She is slightly winded.

"Those weren't there before. I don't recognize the style."

"… What about that hut? It doesn't really seem to mesh with the buildings."

"That was there. I found the book inside."

"Oh." He turns back to the buildings. "Any preference for which we go into first?"

There isn't much variation between the buildings! Slight differences in height, slight differences in architecture, but all mostly gray and rather tall. There aren't any logos or things describing what each building is, and the one in front of them has a rather large archway for a door, whereas the one over to the left has a set of automatic double doors and the one to the right has a revolving door.

"Doesn't seem to be much difference. Let's start with the closest, with the archway."

On the inside of the building: is a whole lot of basically nothing. The floor is tiled, there's a large wooden desk that wraps around a quarter of the floor plan, but there doesn't actually seem to be anything in there.

The walls are covered in… somewhat pretty and detailed mosaics depicting a wave, a forest, a little grove, and a view of a rather industrialized city. There doesn't appear to be a ceiling except for the glass dome at the very top that functions as the roof of the building.

Thario seems slightly confused by the fact this building exists. Anywhere.

Looks pretty standard to her.

"What, have you never been in a reception area before?"

"Reception area for a what?"

"Any sort of office complex."

"I'd expect it to be a lot smaller than this. Probably with less of the slightly weird yet still somewhat pretty mosaics, too, and also less of the glass roof, and also the desk–" he looks at it and corrects, "the wooden block that seems to section off a quarter of the room – would probably be a lot smaller and staffed by a person and maybe have a computer on it or something?"

"You must have small buildings."

"They're sometimes about this size but they have lots of stuff in them." He blinks. "For efficiency. And because most people don't have enough money to get a building this size all for themselves. And because– who even needs this sort of a thing?"

"Most major galactic corporations. It's a symbol of respectability."

Thario shrugs. "Then again, we don't have any major or even minor galactic corporations."

He hops over the wooden bench thing and has a look along the other side – there are some drawers and cabinets, so he opens them and starts looking for interesting things.

"Anything?"

"Shiny piece of metal?" he says.

He opens another cabinet and says, "Piece of paper? It's blank, though." He puts it on the top anyway. "… I don't think I ever got your name?"

The briefest of hesitation.

"...Elleira."

"Thario," he says again. "In case you forgot."

After a bit more looking around, he places a pencil, a graphics calculator, and wristwatch onto the top.

He stands up and looks at the stuff he's accumulated and just shrugs, sighing.

"None of that seems useful."

"I'm gonna try something," he says, then grabs the pencil and tries writing something down on the paper.

After he's done, he shows it to her! It looks like an unintelligible scribble.

"...Is that supposed to represent something?"

"It's meant to be a word in Keiruna," he says, putting it back down and writing something again.

This time, when he shows it to her, it has the word 'book' written just below the unintelligible scribble.

"That says 'book'."

"So does the thing above, to me."

He puts it back down and writes something else below that, then shows it to her again.

This word also says 'book'. It looks different from the word above.

"That also says book, but... it seems to have more letters?"

"Mm," he agrees. "It does also say book, and it does also have more letters." Headtilt. "I'm kinda curious about how, since I tried to write them both in your language, but the second one I decided I wanted to write in your language and I wanted it to look different."

She might notice now, if she looks at the two words, that neither of them is actually written how she would write the word 'book'. But somehow, they do in fact very clearly say 'book', and it is very clearly written in Basic.

Despite not being written in Basic.

"Neither of those are actually written in Basic. What the fuck."

He puts the paper down again and writes something, then shows it to her again.

The first thing is a box. It very clearly and precisely says that he cannot speak Basic. Despite being a box.

The second thing is a line. It has some sort of meaning, but she can't tell what it is, because it's very incomprehensible. Again, despite being a line.

"My new theory is that you have some sort of language-related mind control power."

"Yeah."

He puts the paper down, thinks for a few seconds, writes another thing and shows it to her.

It says 'book', it's written in Basic, and it's actually written how she would write the word 'book' were she to write it in Basic. The handwriting isn't exact, of course, but it's definitely how one might write the word 'book' in Basic.

"That one is actually in Basic."

"Okay. So this is kinda creepy. Possibly useful, but definitely very creepy."

He folds the paper up and puts it and the pencil into his pocket, then looks at the graphics calculator, decides to leave it where it is, and picks up the metal bar.

"Any idea what this is for?"

It's basically a cuboid of iron or steel or something like that. It does not appear to be doing anything except being shiny.

"Paperweight, possibly."

He shrugs, waves it around to see if it has anything inside, and then– it glints. Out of the corner of his eye.

… And there no longer seems to be a Thario present to hold it up, so it falls back onto the wood of the desk.

Really.

She doesn't really want to stay stuck here by herself. She picks it up as well, then shakes it to see if that will activate it again.

It doesn't actually seem to need any shaking, because as soon as she picks it up she gets a feeling of vertigo and finds herself standing in a much smaller room.

Thario doesn't seem to be present in the room, but she can detect a life-force on the other side of the door in one of the walls.

There's also a few slightly shiny sparkles at the edge of her vision.

What-

The sparkles coalesce into a yellow-and-black patterned lizard.

"Don't ask me," it says.

She can hear a thump from the other room! There seems to be a bit of a commotion.

Elleira looks up.

"You should go check that out," says the lizard. "Your new friend might be in trouble."

"He's not-"

"He's the only even slightly interesting thing here. Go."

She opens the door.

Thario: seems to be being bitten by a small stoat-like creature? It's red with black stripes. Or black with red stripes. "What the hell?" is what he seems to be asking it, for the most part.

The stoat-like creature, however, doesn't seem to be talking back. Might be that it can't, might be that it's too busy biting his hand.

...The last time something bit his hand, he nearly died.

She'll just go ahead and levitate that thing off him.

The little creature doesn't seem to take too kindly to being levitated, but it does eventually detach from Thario instead of deciding to just mangle his hand as it's dragged away.

The animal makes some sort of noise. It's not something Elleira understands, but Thario seems to respond to it with confusion, surprise, and then something that seems to be phrased quite harshly. Then he turns to Elleira and says, "Thanks for that. And again: what the hell."

"I have no idea."

"Mysterious, indeed."

The lizard has followed her into the room.

"Mysteriously appearing animals apparently talk? And there were two of them?" He seems a little… confused by this, sort of squinting like 'oh, of course, ugh'.

The stoat-like animal appears to do whatever the stoat-like-animal-equivalent of squinting is, then Thario seems to glow slightly green, causing him to turn the squint on the animal.

"One for each of us, it seems."

The glowing stops, so Thario seems to ask the animal something, prompting a response, which then leads him to say to Elleira, "Apparently the animal is willing to not bite me if you put it down."

Animal: looks at this interaction and doesn't decide to add anything to it.

Down it goes, then.

And it stays in its position on the floor, looking over at Thario.

"Okay, so, any idea why there are mysterious talking animals?" He looks at the animals in question. "Animals? Any idea? I'm pretty sure keriols don't usually talk."

"I think we are somehow part of you. We just weren't separate, before."

"Seconded," says the keriol – apparently that's the name of the colorful stoat-like creature – after a delay.

"Part of us how?"

… Can an animal shrug? Because apparently the keriol has tried to give the keriol equivalent of a shrug.

"Hmm. The word I want to use is soul."

"That's ridiculous."

"And yet."

"I want to second that that's ridiculous," says the keriol. "… But I agree."

"...What now?"

"Somehow weirdly related to you, is an animal, happens to mysteriously appear when you get teleported by a weird mirror? I'm gonna say either I'm your soul animal or I'm some weird furry brother you never had," says the keriol. "Oh, and I'm a keriol, if he didn't make it clear earlier."

"And do you have a name?" asks Thario.

"Why would I have a name?" asks the thinks-it's-a-soul-animal. "I just mysteriously appeared."

Sigh.

"Doesn't seem to be terribly in touch with his soul, does he?"

"He does not."

"I'm just being awkward," says the keriol. "I feel like I deserve the chance to do that, seeing as I just recently came into existence."

(Sigh. Again.)

"Seems somewhat cruel. The poor boy is obviously distressed."

"He can deal," says the keriol.

Thario… is not really sure whether to be offended or complimented here? So he goes for a slight glare.

"Anyway. Perhaps we should explore?" suggests the animal.

"Sounds like a good idea to me."

There is another door in this room. Would they like to go through it or would they like to explore the current room? (It has a chair, a table, and a small filing cabinet.)

Through the door? Through the door.

Through the door is: an underground… something? It looks a bit like a ravine. With rushing water.

"… Well that's somewhat new," says Thario.

The keriol jumps up onto his shoulder, causing him to make a bit of a noise, and then decides to settle curled up around the back of his neck.

Thario does not look super happy about this, but he doesn't brush the keriol off either.

Elleira and the lizard share a silent look of agreement that they will not be doing that.

"Upstream or down?"

"Upstream, probably?" He shrugs.

His animal doesn't seem to have any input. Seems rather content just curled up on Thario's shoulders, actually.

"Upstream it is."

Elleira and her lizard start walking.

Thario also starts walking.

"… Aleir," says the keriol.

"Huh?" asks Thario.

"My name. I think Aleir works."

"It's got a nice sound to it."

"Thanks," says Aleir. "… I also seem to have the weird translation thing. Which is neat, but a bit weird."

"Well, I can sense the Force, so we're matched on the weird magic front."

"I can do lumen, too. As shown earlier with the green thing."

Theo sighs.

"… Sorry about that," says Aleir.

"What's up with that thing about not intersecting people with it?"

"It's rude," says Thario. "Unless you have permission to do it, or like, you're a kid and using it for a game of tag or something."

"But why?"

He shrugs. "Why's putting up your middle finger at someone rude? … Or is it not in your culture, because it is in mine."

The lizard nudges Elleira's ankle.

"Okay."

Walking walking. Anything interesting about this river?

It's quite deep down. Somewhat sheer cliff, somewhat loud, but otherwise there doesn't appear to be anything of interest!

There's a bend up ahead. She might notice that she can detect a few small lifeforms around it, but they're probably just bats or something.

"Something alive up ahead. Don't let them bite you."

"Ha," he says.

The keriol tries to bury itself a bit closer to his neck, making itself less of a target and shoving its tail down the back of his shirt.

Does Thario squirm? A little.

Lightsaber in hand but not lit yet.

Here comes the bend.

It does indeed appear to be bats! When she goes around the bend… they do not move.

They seem to be sleeping or something. It's quite dark in here.

… Did it maybe get darker? Weird.

"I don't like this."

One of the bats starts moving in response to that, dropping down from the ceiling and flapping about a bit.

The others continue to sleep.

Thario signs something, stops mid-gesture, shakes his head and whispers, "Me neither."

Elleira glances down at her lizard.

It shakes its head from side to side in what might be a shrug.

She raises both hands and unleashes a barrage of lightning at all the bats.

That definitely lights up the place! And causes the bats to– well, actually to drop from their nest and scatter, not so much seem harmed by the lightning.

They don't seem to be attacking, at least? But a couple come towards them.

If the lightning's not working, she ceases it.

Are the bats aggressive now?

They are not! They seem to be rather frightened, actually, mainly by the weird light, and the couple that came towards them have now flown over their heads.

(Theo ducks.)

"Okay and– what was that?" asks Thario. "Lightning to try to kill the bats before they kill us?"

"Something like that."

"Mmh," he says. "Okay, well, anyway, I wanna test something so– looking at me?"

He proceeds to make some hand gestures. They apparently correspond to 'does this work?' and are… weirdly enough… in Basic…

"...It is really irksome to me that I am parsing your sign language as Basic."

"Yeah."

Then: How's this? he tries. It does not appear to be in a language, though is quite clearly understandable. Is this better?

"Still odd, but in a different way. I like this way better."

… What about this? he asks, in a way that seems very much like he has intruded her personal space, stolen information directly from her brain, and decided to pretend to be her so that he can imitate her as flawlessly as possible while also laughing at her from a distance.

"Do not do that."

"… What why?"

"It is intrusively unpleasant and brings back memories she would prefer stay forgotten."

"Right. Sorry," he says. "… How much is this a 'you should not test with other ways to make it present'? Or is it okay so long as I don't– do that?"

"Just stay out of our head, you can keep experimenting otherwise."

"… I mean, I wasn't trying to go in your head and I don't think I did other than it apparently being– weird in some way, but okay. I'll just… test on Areil, then."

"I'm Aleir," says the keriol.

"Right, yeah, that," he says.

"...Do you want a name?"

"I'm not particularly feeling the lack of one."

"Mmm."

Onwards through the weird cave they go, then?

The bats seem to have settled at the edges, apart from one another and not doing anything of note.

Onwards through the weird cave.

"You should do some of your lumen stuff to make it brighter."

He does so. Then raises the brightness and makes sure to keep it moving along with them. It's currently amber.

"Any preference for color?" he asks, causing Aleir to sigh.

"This is fine."

Then they can walk along in the cave for a short while. He gestures a few things to Aleir, gets confirmation on what sorts of things they convey, finds out a few more things not to do and gets a bite for one of them, and then the cave opens to a sort of spring.

There's no obvious way for water to get into the spring, just for it to leave, and in rather large quantities too, but it doesn't seem to be lowering in water level at all.

Thario observes this with a bit of a flat look.

"Maybe it comes up from below?"

So he peers over the edge to look around at the spring.

It's not that deep – he can see to the bottom. There does not in fact seem to be any point where the water can come up from below.

"Yeah, maybe," he says doubtfully.

"Yet another inexplicable phenomenon. Wonderful."

"I feel like this place is going to make me curious about so many more things and provide me with no explanation."

"Sounds like fun," says the animal draped around his shoulders.

"I don't think any of it actually means anything."

"Inexplicability for inexplicability's sake."

Nod.

Would they like to go swimming in the weird spring thing? Or would they like to go around that rock at the other end of the cavern that's very neatly blocking their view of something?

… Is that an ominous glow?

...Should she be worried about the ominous glow?

It doesn't seem like it's doing anything dangerous, and her danger sense isn't tingling or whatever, so probably not?

Thario decides to walk that way.

She'll follow, then.

Around the rock they will go, then!

There are more rocks. There is also a bigger cavern. Some of these rocks are glowing blue. Ominously.

"I realize there will be no satisfactory answer, but why are the rocks glowing?"

The rocks don't actually seem to respond, but Thario decides to walk closer to them. "So far, stuff in this place hasn't been, you know, actually harmful. Just a little weird."

The keriol is slightly unamused. It decides to headbutt him on the cheek and then say, "You know, you seem to have a really good selective memory."

"He did run away before the dogs actually showed up and I killed them. And then he was asleep for the part where he almost died after the bunny bit him."

"What about the tree? He was there for that."

"Mm. Good point."

Then Thario touches one of the rocks!

… It does exactly nothing! It continues to glow ominously.

"Huh," he says. "I would've expected that to do something."

"Something like what?"

"I'm not sure," he says. Then he looks around the rock a little, notices how it's rather weirdly positioned opposite another ominously glowing rock, and taps that—

Then he– she?– jumps a bit.

And the keriol scampers off him-or-her, making sure to avoid that ominously glowing rock.

"What."

"Did–" she starts, then seems to notice the pitch of her voice and makes a little eeping noise. What? she signs, quite scared and confused.

This animal is just going to sit a few paces away, not looking at him-or-her.

Eeeng. It does not seem to be a happy keriol.

"Why are you female now."

The lizard goes over to nudge the keriol with its snout.

I don't know, she signs. I don't even know if it's just sex or gender or what.

She moves back from the ominously glowing rock and eyes it warily.

It's just gonna lie here with its eyes shut for a minute.

"Try touching the rocks again?"

So she tries touching that rock again!

… It does nothing!

And the other rock–

– yup, looks like he's male again? He also shudders a little.

"That was strange. What do the others do?"

"… I'm not sure I really want to be test subject."

"But we just demonstrated that it's reversible!"

"Not necessarily! Maybe it just happens that this rock is 'male', this is 'female', and each of those are like 'blue skin', 'bad hearing' and 'has no legs'!"

"It could be that one is 'reset' and the other is 'female'."

"It could! But it also might not be. In which case I might be stuck with whatever it does to me."

"That's a risk I'm willing to take."

…

Well okay then. He goes and taps another rock.

Now he has blue hair!

Like. Cyan blue. Imagine a cyan highlighter. That color hair.

He notices it! He can see a bit of his hair!

"… Well that wasn't too bad."

She wasn't expecting that argument to work. Cool.

"Now try the first one again."

So he does! … It does not in fact change his hair color back.

"Um."

"There's that hypothesis disproven, then."

… He taps the second rock.

Now he's female and he no longer has the highlighter cyan hair!

So he or she taps the first rock again.

Male again! … Does not in fact have the highlighter cyan hair.

"Okay, well."

"Oh, that's useful! Now we can try them all!"

"By 'we', she means 'you', in case that wasn't clear."

"Orrrrr we could both try them."

The animal seems less distressed but now seems like it wants to sigh.

Ugh.

"I'm not actually curious enough to try one myself."

So he sighs and goes and taps, like, five.

One messes with his eyes – they look more like human eyes, except it's an amber iris. One messes with his height – he in fact gets like half a foot taller. One makes his ears slightly pointier and also reduces how well he can hear. One makes his hands gain a finger, each. One decides that his spine is wrong being all straight and it should try being crooked instead – the process is slightly painful but not debilitating and he manages to undo it with the female and male rock things.

"I'm not sure I want to test the others," he says, looking at the three that are left over.

One has decided to glow ominously red.

He's so suggestible, this is wonderful.

"At least do that red one."

He taps the female rock, then she gives Elleira a flat look. "It's red. It's literally ominously red."

"Right, which means it's different from the others. Don't you want to find out how?"

"Not… not really?"

"We've come so far, though. Why stop now?"

"… That is a somewhat valid point and I suppose none of them have killed me yet but I'd just like it to be known that I object to this. At least somewhat."

Elleira nods and smiles encouragingly.

Eugh.

So she goes and taps the red rock.

Nothing horrible happens to her!

Unless being covered in a small splash of water coming off the mysteriously appearing man counts as horrible.

Who's this, then?

He blinks and looks around at them, then looks behind and– seems confused by the absence of something.

"Where am I?" he asks in English.

… Is that an osprey standing on top of the red rock?

"… Uh."

"Was he caused by the rock or did he just happen to appear here?"

"He appeared when I tapped the rock so– probably the rock but I don't know?" She tries tapping the rock again.

Nothing happens.

"Hello?" he asks, in Cantonese this time.

Yeah, I can hear you, she signs. Just a sec.

Blink.

"Try asking him."

Did you see anything shiny? she asks.

Then she goes to tap the 'male' rock because ugh this is weird.

"Nope," he says, using English again. "I'm Formed."

"He says he's 'Formed', whatever the hell that means."

… He looks briefly surprised by the change.

"Ask him what that means."

"I'll just… translate what he says when he says it. I can probably do that."

To the mysteriously appearing guy, he signs: What does that mean?

"That I only just came into existence?" he says. "Most people know what the Formed are."

Relayed (in sign language).

"Suppose that answers the question."

"But it raises some new ones. Like what kind of culture has a word for that."

"It's the regular one for that language, just meaning… to form something, but as an adjective," says Thario, also signing the conversation to the newcomer. "What's your name?"

"We only started about three years ago," he says. "But we're affiliated with the Turned. My name is Tyler."

"The Turned?"

"… Humans who spontaneously get superpowers?"

"That's not a thing where I'm from. And probably not from where you come from either, given that he's a human. He must be from a third place. Which makes no sense."

"Does any of this place?"

"… I am you," says the bird on the red rock, in Chinese, to Tyler.

"So I see," agrees Tyler. "Do you want a name?"

"I think I'm fine for now."

"...No."

"Is there anything I need to do, then?" asks Tyler. "Perhaps contact Relay, or…?"

"Relay?"

… Oh.

"Apparently doesn't exist here, so nevermind."

"What is Relay? And do Formed get powers?"

"Yeah – I have hydrokinesis and flight. Relay is a very helpful someone who has communicative telepathy, but apparently is not present wherever this is."

"We three are the only people around for a considerable distance, so far as I can tell."

"He's quite long-distance. I'm not sure they've hit his range limit in testing yet, but they haven't tested past the ISS." Blink. "Satellite thing. It's quite a ways, and he can definitely get around the planet."

"It's a fairly safe bet we're not wherever you think we're supposed to be."

"I agree. Otherwise I'd expect to be able to communicate with him." He looks around again. "I'd also expect to be in the middle of a tsunami impact."

"...Why?"

"Because that's where I was supposed to Form. That's where I– know I Formed, except, I didn't because I was here when I… was awake."

"Huh," says Thario. "That's… kinda weird."

"Mm," agrees Tyler.

"Why were you supposed to Form at the site of a tsunami?"

"… I'm not sure that question can be answered in a way that satisfies your curiosity."

"Try anyway."