Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

[Reinholdt]

[Waylaid Tours]
Leah

Rabbit ears? Now why is that familiar? Maybe she saw someone at the shanty town with a mutation like that.

Doesn't matter. With her mallet hoisted over her shoulder with one hand she approaches the clearly unfriendly crowd.

"Hey! What's going on here?" Leah asks in a displeased tone, eyebrow furrowed. "If you intend to ask a girl out, do it one at a time with sincerity in your heart and chocolates in your hand."

[Earl of Purple]

Waylaid Tours Aelid

Wow, Aelid was hungrier than she thought. And now she wants to... What? Nap on his bones? That seems a little morbid. And the impulse is more than a little compelling, though not irresistible. No, it is, in fact, resistible enough to make it really tempting. And that's concerning.

Aelid has her husk walk out of the lean-to, and follows as her flock. They now discover the barrier's solidity (she'd not ventured away from the lean-to), with one of the crows flying full-pelt into the barrier and dying from the impact. The rest flutter around and with great discomfort. They land on various objects overlooking the barrier, and she directs her husk to it and reach out with a hand. Confirming the husk can walk through, one of the crows will land in her arms to see if she can be carried across.

If that works, Aelid's going to spend a few minutes transferring the whole flock across, though the crows won't loiter too close to the barrier to attempt being not suspicious.

[Ionbound]

[Waylaid Tours-Gwyn]

Gwyn flings herself out the mouth of the cave as she's winged across the shoulder by the green bolt of magic from the creature. Her arms turn into wildly flailing noodles as she collapses onto the sandy beach, struggling to try to get up before passing out.

[Zefir]

[A meeting place]

"A goal that would require you to have many allies or puppets among the populance." Helios the pumpkin states. "My suggestion would be to either ally or puppet these troublemakers of yours. So in the interest of reaching this goal then what about this? In exchange for information about how you control the people of the city I can apply your methods to other parts of it. Essentially, you provide me with your product and I deliver it where you choose. There will of course be a fee of a few thousands of the credit used here in addition to that, but people don't work for just information after all and what I do requires money to accomplish."

[A meeting place]

Arkant looks skeptical at the pumkin head. That is what he meant befor. The benefit he can gain is quiet good, but it got a little sideeffect. For a moment he will be silent, thinking how to reply.

"I think this won't be that easy. Most people follow me of their own will, because I grant them safty and work. That is more then they can think of.
What I used for the rest isn't something you can just put in a box and deliver to them. Unless you have something for such cases?"

Arkant is a strong mage and most people will fall for his manupulating magic, but creating items that do the manipulation aren't efficent. His current accessoires maintain the effect rathen then causing it themself.

[Shadowcaller]

[New Inside - Castilla]

Ilpholin's going for efficiency and while her weapons are sharper and more capable than normal ones in order to combat demonic golems, she has no intention of spending time testing. Thinky will just have to deal with the metal binding for a time.

Ilpholin shakes her head with a disappointed frown on her face. "Infuriatingly no. But I need a break and I want him to stew in his own sweat for a bit. I'll be back in a minute or two." Hopefully this will discourage the guy from checking in the room as well, given the common interrogation technique.

Either way, Ilpholin will go to walk by him, as if headed towards the bathroom, though her true goal is the stairs.

[New Inside - Castilla]

Ilpholin's going for efficiency and while her weapons are sharper and more capable than normal ones in order to combat demonic golems, she has no intention of spending time testing. Thinky will just have to deal with the metal binding for a time.

Ilpholin shakes her head with a disappointed frown on her face. "Infuriatingly no. But I need a break and I want him to stew in his own sweat for a bit. I'll be back in a minute or two." Hopefully this will discourage the guy from checking in the room as well, given the common interrogation technique.

Either way, Ilpholin will go to walk by him, as if headed towards the bathroom, though her true goal is the stairs.

[New Inside - Castilla]

"Where are you going?" He inquires though makes no move to get up. There is still staff moving about, not to mention the cameras.
They still haven't reacted to what happened inside the room though, so perhaps it's still safe.

[A meeting place]

"Is that so? Those items, the necklaces around that merchants neck in particular, you seemingly used to control people seemed pretty effective to me. But perhaps I'm mistaken and furthermore, perhaps once they now know a bit about your methods they would be suspicious if their leader suddenly became extremely friendly with you. But if you don't trust in your own methods then allow me to suggest an alternative. It seems to me that you and the slavers can work as allies. I imagine they would pay a fortune for a easily distributed way of controlling people such as yours. So what I'm offering is to act as a neutral party and negotiate an agreement with you. Imagine how much you could make off the lucurative slave trade of the city. With that much money you could easily spread your influence further in the city as long as you stay away from their trade. Since why would you sabotage your own income source? Really, it would be a agreement everyone would benefit from." The pumpkin pauses. "But perhaps you have interjections? Counter-arguments? Trust issues? The slavers are as any merchant and make decisions based on money, so if you can make them make even more money, I doubt they would say no."

[Rebonack]

[Waylaid Tours]
Carlie and Leah

There are some scowls when you laugh. They don't appear to enjoy being laughed at. But when you heft the weapons they consider the implications of what you just said. You're no slouch in combat.

You survived the woods.

Maybe harassing you isn't such a great plan? And then the cat-eared woman arrives.

Apparently this is a good day for people who have animal ears.

What do you say?

Carlie and Leah

They were already looking like they were beginning to lose their nerve when you were approaching, but now that you're here? Those scowls deepen. They look like they're about to say something nasty, but then one of them points to the amulet around your neck and whispers to the others. Begrudgingly, they begin to disperse.

"You best behave yourselves, strangers," one of them shouts over his shoulder as they leave.

The woman without any animal ears releases the breath she was holding.

"Okay that was terrifying," she huffs. "How do you people DO this? The whole brave in the face of immanent danger thing?"

What do you say?

Dave

You draw your weapon and shout into the gloom!

The response is a muddle, half whispered babel of voices. It certainly sounds like several people talking, but it's wholly unintelligible.

Then you see a shadow. A rough, vaguely humanoid shape standing in the gloom. As you focus on it, it vanishes. And as it vanishes, a feeling of sourceless fear sweeps over the room. You feel compelled to flee for your life. Your heart thunders in your chest and your vision swims. You have to get out of here!

You see the door to the entry hall standing open. You're sure it was closed before. You could run out of the castle easily enough.

Or...

You could steel yourself against the horror and stand resolute.

What do you do?

Hector

As you circle around behind the church you find that the fence around the yard is in good repair. Likely they don't want spirits and spooks sneaking onto the grounds.

Things like your shadow.

This is likely a task you'll need aid with. After all, you can't always do EVERYTHING on your own.

Momentarily thwarted, you return to the barn where exhaustion takes its toll.

...it feels like you just closed your eyes when you find yourself being poked with a stick by a seven year old boy with a missing front tooth.

"HEY MISTER! A buncha other people like you are coming out of the woods!" the child yells at you. By the time you've blinked away sleep the boy has already departed.

You could go investigate the newcomers to the Hamlet right away. Or you could go and see about getting breakfast and do some farm work. Both of those are wholly workable options.

What do you do?

Aelid

The impulse to heap yourself up on the bones of the corpse grows weaker with distance, but it never really goes away. And you can't help but feel like the members of your murder who fed on the corpse are bigger. Not any less hungry. They're just larger birds than they were before. In fact, should you take the time to examine yourself, you'll discover that those birds are visibly growing. And upon growing to twice their original size?

They begin to caw and flutter as an uncanny feeling of pulling overcomes them. They sprout another beak. Then that pulls apart into two heads. Two more wings. Two more legs. And then in a swirl of feathers they pull in half into two smaller crows. How strange.

The first bird lays in a crumbled heap at the foot of the barrier, neck at an awkward angle and limbs splayed horribly. It feels terrible to look at. However, carrying a bird across the barrier works fine. You're not sure why, but it does. Maybe the barrier somehow sees a human body with a human soul in its proximity as permissible while a soul flapping around on its own isn't? It's hard to guess with these sorts of things.

Crows disperse into the Hamlet! You'll notice a few very important things right away. First? The sun here is much brighter. And the sky isn't sick. You can look up into it and see only blue with a few high, wispy clouds. It covers a rather large area, with a small town off in the distance. A huge castle looms beyond the town, seated imperiously atop the bluffs. Farms dot the area, many with fields of winter grain that is no doubt full of tasty insects. More than a few have scarecrows set up in them, but you don't find the vaguely humanoid figures on sticks particularly terrifying.

As you begin carrying birds across the threshold, you're stuck with another impulse. This one, arguably, even more powerful than the desire to roost.

Carry one of Granny's pretty birds into the Hamlet.

The dead bird.

You must take the dead bird with you.

You could carry the dead bird across the threshold. Or you could carry the dead bird across the threshold. Or you could carry the dead bird across the threshold.

What do you do?

Gwyn

And so you fled laughing and wailing through those blackened arcades of antiquity.

Until consciousness failed you.

Troubled dreams haunt your mind. You lay in the sand paralyzed as the water laps against you. A shadow passes overhead. Fear mounts. It will eat you. It will eat you, but you can't run. It lands in the sand and stalks closer. Teeth and beak and claws and antlers and feathers and fur. Hunger. Strength. Ferocity. Fear. A hooked beak full of teeth clamps down on your arm and rips.

Human flesh is devoured as the Wildness of the Weald pours in.

You awaken on the beach.

Your arm hurts.

You feel hungry.

The dream was just a dream. Your arm is not eaten and you have sensation in it again. But you feel so... hungry now. The hunger is pounding in your ears. Smells are suddenly so intense. The sea and the kelp. The scent of blood and flesh from the tunnel in the cliff face near you. Something about that meat is wrong. Rancid. Sick. It churns your stomach. In the distance you can smell fish and humans an animals. The fish is especially tempting.

Sitting up on the beach, your sudden motion scares away several small white crabs. They go skittering to their burrows. In the distance, further down the beach, you can see a flight of stairs leading up the bluff. A small sign near the stairs reads, 'To the Hamlet'.

It strikes you that you shouldn't be able to read that sign from so far away.

It also strikes you that your hair has turned absolutely stark white while your finger nails have turned jet black.

Strange.

The Hamlet suggests civilization. Walking there shouldn't be very hard. Upon cresting the hill you'll be able to make out a shanty town nearby and the Hamlet proper further away. There countryside is dotted with small farms and in the distance looms a castle of monstrous proportions.

What do you do?

Khiael

The tanner regards you with skepticism.

"No. Can't say that I have," he replies to your question. "Not many folks come in here if they can avoid it. Good to hear that some people made it through the woods. Any news from other hamlets?"

Ah.

He would probably like to hear about what's going on. But do you dare tell him about the Nexus? They're pretty isolated by the sunless sea and woods. They might not even notice.

That other shack, the horrible one, it's still pulling at you. Something is wrong there and you should do something about it. You aren't sure what that means but it's some sort of sense that you're sure you didn't have before. Some kind of cherub thing?

What do you say?
****

"Oh, uh, well, my home hamlet is doing pretty okay. Things don't really... change much," Khiael replies, shifting uneasily. "I... uh... just thought I would check here. See if you saw anyone so I guess I'll go now?"

He backs out the door while the tanner eyes him suspiciously.

And then as soon as he clears the door he jobs toward the noxious shack. What's going on there? He has to know.

[5a Violista]

[Waylaid Tours]
Carlie, guest-starring Leah

Carlie, glad that they go, laughs away the nervousness. "Thanks," she says to Leah. The bunnygirl notably notices that Leah isn't wearing the peasant's clothing that Carlie is.
She puts the cutlass back in the convenient place in her dress.

She turns back to Clara. "Yeah, it was," she agrees. "Maybe if I was alone and feeling well, I could have stopped them if they wanted to fight, but..." But neither of those are true. "...well, I just have a lot of experience with that sort of stuff and I figured it would be better to scare them away than to actually fight."
Then, whispering semi-loudly as if confiding a secret, she adds, "The bloodstains on the sword? That's my own blood." Her attempt at intimidating them was totally a bluff.

Back to Leah: "You...you were on the bus, too?" she asks.

...If so, she'll let Clara explain their plan.

[Deathkeeper]

Waylaid Tours- Hector

Hector groans and gets out of bed. He wants to get breakfast. But then he would owe the farmer even more. And then he would feel indebted to help out and take all day and start a whole cycle of not doing what he set out to do.
So for now he skips breakfast a little longer and goes to investigate the newcomers.

[bc56]

Waylaid Tour - Dave

"A-a-a-away from me s-spirit!" Dave stammers. His hands are shaking, but he doesn't want to run. He raises the knife unsteadily. "I'm w-w-warning you!" He can't bring himself to step towards the ghost, only to prepare to attack if it comes any nearer.

[Reinholdt]

[Waylaid Tours]
Leah et al

Leah watches the crowd disperse with a cold stare until they're all gone.

"Training," Leah says simply, turning to Clara. "My dad in particular was fond of it. Be prepared for anything!" She raises a finger dramatically recounting his words and rolls her eyes so hard it looks like they might fall out.

They don't.

Leah nods to Carlie. "I was. You too? Didn't know if anyone else was still around. Didn't see anyone when I woke up, that's for sure. I was about to hit up the castle for information. Either of you find transportation out of here?"

[Earl of Purple]

Waylaid Tours Aelid & Flock

Good to know that the choice of perching upon that skeleton isn't lost with distance. It remains a possibility for the future, if Aelid decides to go full crow-lady. Or whatever might happen there.

After her flock which is... about thirty birds? I think? It was a couple dozen when she pulled a vine down to get off the giant mushroom, two have died since, and the ones that ate the corpse have doubled, so... It could be nearly forty. After her flock's crossed into the hamlet, she does turn and pick up the dead bird and carry that across the wards. She'll carry it into a field and put it down.

Once that's done, she'll splinter her flock into small groups, twos or threes because two is lucky and three is a girl, which Aelid is. One bird will stay with the husk, as she walks towards the hamlet.

[Ionbound]

[Waylaid Tours-Gwyn]

Gwyn grumbles as she comes to, feeling the pain in her arm and side. She looks around, then frowns as she realizes that her senses are enhanced, her hair and nails have changed color, and that she's already started to walk towards the fish she craves without even realizing it. She sighs and mutters to herself, "Looks like that thing tried to hit me with some kind of flesh-shaping curse but it when haywire..." She pauses, thinks, then shakes her head, continuing as she walks purposefully towards the sign directing her to the Hamlet and then the Hamlet itself, "Yeah, that has to be it. Shame this hamlet probably won't have a proper cursebreaker or necromancer but...Oh well. Worth a shot anyways."

[Earl of Purple]

Nightmare Forest

"The Fear wants to change reality so the world obeys every whim? That would require a lot of power, I think." Makuro looks around, at the forest. It might require a lot of power, but this Fear already has a lot of power. How much more would be needed to make that desire a reality?

This is certainly something that falls into Vigil's remit as defenders of the world.

[Halae]

Bufopolis

"Oh. I'm... Sorry to hear that. Siblings are the best. Except when they're the worst. And even then they're still the best." He nods a bit vigorously and nearly falls over, before he catches himself.

[Bufopolis]

Emily nods solemnly, "Emotional intimacy is difficult to come by; savor it wherever you can get it. Some aren't so lucky as to have it."

[Earl of Purple]

Bufopolis

The boy nods and looks like he's about to say something when he instead snores. He's fallen asleep, apparently whilst nodding. He remains sat mostly upright, though it might be a good idea to change that, gently before he falls over.

[Halae]

[Bufopolis]

Emily will gently take the boy in hand and guide him to the ground, where he can sleep off the effects of his drinking in relative peace. Emily for her part will attend the celebration a bit longer and indulge in eating, but she's never been one much for partying, and will sooner or later look for a place to bed down for the night.

[Reinholdt]

[New Inside - Castilla]

"Where are you going?" He inquires though makes no move to get up. There is still staff moving about, not to mention the cameras.
They still haven't reacted to what happened inside the room though, so perhaps it's still safe.

[New Inside - Castilla]

"The restroom?" Ilpholin says in a voice that makes it less a question and more a 'Really? You're asking me that? Really?' Where else do people go when they take breaks? Maybe the break room. But that's for a longer break.

She keeps moving regardless of his question. It wasn't worth stopping over after all. Just to make it double clear she's not really stopping for conversation, she flips out her phone and starts calling someone, putting it to her ear.

[Rebonack]

[Nightmare Forest]

Lapis shifts on her hooves.

So... they want to exist.

They just want to exist as inanimate objects sort of?

'Nature spirits'?

She really isn't super familiar with this sort of thing. She mostly knows about trimming the bushes at VIGIL.

But even if she doesn't know a whole lot about streams getting turn into rock water snake things she DOES know about biting stuff!

"Which way do we need to go to get deeper into the forest?" she asks.

That'll be a start.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Nightmare Forest]

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time Quin has had to deal with reality-warping entities. First time in the Nexus, though, and he doubts what worked before will work again. He nods to himself, though, and looks towards a path that looks like it might lead deeper into the forest.

"If we must go deeper to fix things, then that's what we'll do."

[Earl of Purple]

Bufopolis

The young lad is laid to rest on the ground, where he promptly begins to snore; a loud, croaky sound.

Eventually, Emily is directed to a small-ish barn filled with straw and hay. It's gathered to feed the mounts of the town's few visitors, as the swamp isn't the best place for horses and most of the locals don't keep any livestock. It's a little smelly; the straw has gotten damp and is a little musty as a result, but I don't think the straw can itch or irritate Emily through her scales, so she should sleep alright. There's a few frogs and toads that croak in the night, some louder than others, but nothing dangerous.

Nightmare Forest

Makuro isn't used to being in a forest, and doesn't know much about navigating one. So she's going to follow the others.

[Morty]

[Nightmare Forest]

"Cross our river," the snake says. "Then keep heading as you did. The deeper you go, the less the mundane directions will matter. Your intent will take over. If you intend to face the fear's echo, your steps will take you there."

[Halae]

[Bufopolis]

Assuming there's nothing that interrupts her dreaming - and it won't be the straw, given it can't get through her thick scales and skin - Emily will get up in the morning, find some leftovers from the feast the night before to make her breakfast, and go back towards the werewolf cave. She needs to hear from the matron what the pack's answer is.

[Earl of Purple]

Bufopolis --> Werewolf Cave

The frogs and toads croaking and chirping in the night might wake her up, but it seems unlikely. Nothing supernatural occurs, and there are no screams either.

Returning to the Werewolf Cave, there's no sign of anyone having gone this way since Emily last travelled there. Standing outside the cave, clad only in a pair of ripped trousers and a tattered shirt, is a man with the bulbous eyes and spindly limbs of Bufopolitans, thin black hair and greyish skin. Sat next to him is a pretty girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes, a large scar down the side of her face and missing several fingers on her left hand, which is holding the man's wrist. She wears a bloodstained white shirt and a skirt made from several fur skins sewn together. "Hello, miss. Granny says I'm to give this young man to you. We're leaving, apparently. This place isn't good for the pack, Hircine will lead us to better hunting grounds. I'll miss him, but Granny's right. He smells funny, and it probably wouldn't be good for us." Presumably, he's the mayor's son. The mayor might be dead, but she was asked to rescue him if possible- and the mayor's gun.

[Halae]

[Werewolf Cave]

Emily nods and says to the mayor's son, "Good to have you back, kid," then she turns to the blond werewolf, "I'll need to know what you've done with the gun you took from the mayor as well," Emily asks quietly. There's no accusation in her voice, simply curiosity.

[Rebonack]

[Nightmare Forest]

"Alright then," Lapis replies firmly.

She doesn't know if she can trust this river snake thing but she's going to give it a shot.

The young seraph will attempt to cross the river and begin venturing deeper into the forest.

They've got an echo to kick the butt of.

And she's pretty confident that she can do some butt kicking.

Especially since she has her friends as backup!

Don't worry guys.

You got this.


[Waylaid Tours]

It's a bit late, you see. It was supposed to be here when our heroes escaped from the forest, but they were waylaid by nuclear bombs going off out in Seaside. Ah well. They're here now.

A ship! A ship from seaside! The harbor is far too small for it to weigh anchor, so instead a smaller boat is sent ashore. If our heroes wanted to get out of here this is certainly their chance. There are, however, a few things that probably deserve a bit of an update before they're cut loose.

Aelid, upon carrying the dead crow across the threshold, may be rather surprised when it begins twitching and jittering in her hands! As soon as she puts it down on the ground it grows and swells and warps until standing before her is none other than Granny.

Uh oh.

She just helped a hag get into the Hamlet.

"Keh he he he! Good job, my pretty, pretty bird. You've done well. You're free of your obligation to me," the hag says, passing one hand in front of her face before pulling back her hood to reveal a beautiful woman. A woman with a nasty smile. "Now I have business to attend and juicy eyes to pluck. You may do as you will."

Then she turns to leave. Wuh oh.

Oh. And there's a number of crows in the flock equal to Aelid's original body weight. Considering that crows weigh on average about a pound that's probably a whole lot of crows.

Dave's ghost simply drifts there before him for a few moments before fading away just as suddenly as it had appeared.

[Chaotic Bob]

[The Shrine of Glass]

The rabbit doesn't reply to Xeni's question, since it is a rabbit.

Rabbits are notoriously terrible conversation partners. Unless you're dealing with a wacky cartoon rabbit. Which this one isn't.

Thankfully.

It could have been. But that wasn't how the dice fell.

Regardless! Xeni takes stock of his surroundings again! There are still two doors to the north that look like the one he came through, however the hand-window isn't lit up. That probably means something. The chair growing out of the floor appears to be blossoming now. Which is pretty weird. It's covered in lots of little cheerful pink cherry blossoms. Things that look almost, but not quite, wholly unlike bees are vising the flowers before flying back to a... umm... an object of some kind on the ceiling. It may not have been there before.

The little statues of Yezekiel are still in the alcoves on the west wall of the room. An archway is still set into the south wall.

Things are mostly how they were before, except Xeni is in possession of a normal rabbit.

Wouldn't be the first time Xeni has ended up with a peculiar pet acquisition.
He can't just abandon the thing now, if it's normal. It'd probably die horribly in here and then he'd feel bad, especially after all the effort to fix it.
Effort he's still paying for, upstairs.

Blinking away the stars the thought of it plasters across his vision, he makes a note to keep an eye on the hive(?) when he comes back in here.
For now! Let's go see what the deal is with that archway to the south, rabbit in arms. This will make fighting probably less convenient, but that's the way things go sometimes.

[5a Violista]

[Waylaid Tours]

Carlie, and presumably Clara and Leah and maybe Kyle too, probably don't immediately see the ship since they walked away from the dock. However, since they have plans to meet back up in the shanty village at sunset to share information and meet up with everybody else they ran into on the way.

And!

Guess what!

Somebody found Bruce the Awakened Bat! Or, rather, he spotted the ship.

Carlie meets up, having brought food that she had managed to eventually work for to share with Kyle as promised, and then discovers the ship. Unless somebody has something really amazing they want to share and really is convincing in exploring the castle, she'll get on the ship. (avoiding getting in the water). Because, honestly, the castle seems interesting and would be fun to explore, but...if this ship is the only safe way out, it's probably better to leave it for now rather than wait for the next ship to come by. Maybe when her life settles down, she can figure out what exactly this place's deal was.
Through this trail, she managed to lose her purse, her clothes (but gained a peasant's dress so that's okay I guess), her baggage, her IDs and everything else important that was with them, and lost one of her many identities...but! She managed to gain something, too! An awful pregnancy. Some pretty bad-looking injuries that will gradually heal themselves as she spends time as a magical girl. And also she finally made some progress on learning about the empyrean/fairy thing she had been investigating but dead-ended! So she didn't only lose things on this trip.

[Rebonack]

[The Shrine of Glass]

With rabbit in hand Xeni strikes off toward the archway on the southern wall of the room.

He manages to take about four steps before reality shifts.

Something is wrong.

He isn't in a cavernous room. He's in an alcove branching off a hallway stretching north and south. The room looks much the same. Still tangled, intertwined roots with luminous glass filling the gaps. But now the chair is gone. So are the doors. Just a hallway stretching away, gently curing away from Xeni until he can't see any further. The walls are regularly marked with little shrines to the Saint of Perseverance. Statues, candles, offering bowls. Considering the items placed in the bowls it would seem as though this place has been here for quite some time.

And has seen quite a bit of use.

Maybe Xeni got hurled into another one as a result of the fae nonsense he just pulled?

From the north Xeni can hear the distant sound of ringing, as if someone were trying to play music on water-filled glasses.

To the south Xeni can feel...

Absolutely nothing.

It is rather jarring.

[Chaotic Bob]

[The Shrine of Glass]

Well this isn't great.
Either reality is unstable here, his...nonsense triggered a drastic time and/or space jump, or he hit a weird trap.
"Well. I'd ask you for advice, Ears, but if you could ever talk I guess you can't now. You can't talk right?"
Maybe the weird reality shift did something to the rabbit too?
...nah, probably not.

Absent unexpected communication from the big-eared rodent, Xeni is going to turn on his heel away from the weird sense-vacuum zone and towards the ringing. Maybe Zee picked up a priesthood. Maybe they're not dangerously insane like the last ones he met.
Maybe they are.

He elects to go as silently as he can, up to a point where he can see something more useful.

[Rebonack]

[The Shrine of Glass]

The rabbit wiggles its nose at Xeni. Thankfully it isn't the sort of bun that freaks out when you hold them and begins kicking everywhere. Those are really hard to hold without getting all scratched up.

But yeah.

No.

It doesn't appear to talk.

It *could* have. That was a possible outcome of the stunt Xeni pulled. But, alas, that was a possible future that didn't come to pass.

Off down the northern corridor Xeni goes, the passage gradually curving in a eastward direction. It... feels like it isn't that long before Xeni comes upon a split in the path. Another corridor jaunts off to the south while the main path continues on. That ringing sound is louder further down the main path, but should Xeni glance down this side corridor he'll notice an interesting sight. More of those things that aren't bees are busy dancing around a field of wildly alien flowers growing all over the corridor. From the floor. From the ceiling. From the walls. Just flowers everywhere. The side-path quickly slopes downward, becoming a shaft from which comes diaphanous light and the sound of buzzing.

"Help me..."

Also that.

A whispered, stilted sounding voice coming from the flower-lined hole.

"Help me..."