Sneaking out with friends

The inside of the book consists of glowing pages; words shuffle around the surface of each page in golden script, moving far too fast to be read, far too randomly to be processed. It's like the book is a living thing, or... or a running program, just like the two of them. Unlike with Sparky, however, the book makes no effort to push away Eternalis as he calmly flips through the pages. Perhaps it was not touch that the book objected to before, but rather the rough handling of a dog?

Holding the book in his hands, however, Eternalis notices something. It's infrequent, and they're thin like a spider web or a razor wire, but every so often a small thread or beam of golden light departs the book, scattering across invisible lines into the surrounding area. Following the beams of light, Eternalis can see many of them moving past the edge of the network, striking the watery path, striking the lamps that light it. A few of them move away from that black space, however... and following them visually, Eternalis notices something troubling.

A transparent, nearly-invisible half-dome covers the Temple, cut off at the network's edge-- and it is no ordinary quarter-sphere, but the staticky, malevolent presence of an EJO barrier, combined with what's probably a physical blockage. Of course, jacking out doesn't work when you're off the network's edge... and even if Eternalis could jack out, he'd be stranding Lyntael here.

And all of it because of whatever story or information this book stores within. The question the navi faces now is, does he tell her about the fact that they're trapped? It could cause her unnecessary worry, and the barrier was hard to notice unless she held the book the way he was.

As much as she was curious about the path that lay ahead of them, Lyntael was also wavering back and forth between that and cautious worry about the unknowns that it might hold. The visuals were striking, of course, but the concept of it being part of the network or not a part of it hadn't really occur to her; the girl had never really seen or experienced the world around her with that level of underlying sense, so she was blind to the oddities of having a structure extending out past the normal bounds to the network... but the situation itself was strange and alien enough to both fascinate her, and set her on edge. Still looking down the path, she trailed back towards Eternalis, following the more mature woman.

"She'll feel better soon, right? I hope she—" Lyntael was looking up as Eternalis tactfully turned her face away, but the semi-transparent nature of her body meant that she couldn't hide the crimson flush entirely. Lyntael's words trailed off as she saw, a broad grin sneaking across her lips before she could stop it. "Is that... Aw, are you blushing!?" She giggled despite herself, putting one hand to her mouth briefly. "Oh, is it something cute, or something embarrassing... or is it something romantic!" Unconsciously Lyntael emphasised the last word. She'd mostly forgotten that she was talking to the navi who was usually a male in the relationship she perceived to be between the pair. If she'd been thinking about Eternalis as a male at this point, there was likely no way she would have attempted to engage in that level of intimate gossip. As it was, however, she as only seeing Eternalis in her current form and she grinned and bit her lip as she tried to peek around the other woman to see how bad the blush actually was.

For the briefest of moments, the rest of their situation was forgotten by Lyntael's teenage-romantic heart and she fixated on what exactly might have made her companion blush so much at the mention of aurora and memories together. Aurora herself had been a little bit coy on just how far their relationship went, but if she was lucky Eternalis might be willing to give her a little more detail, maybe. At first she supposed it might have been something embarrassing that the other navi regretted or thought of immediately, but her actual response was far more... shy, in a way. Lyntael fixed on the idea that it would have to be something romantic or affectionate, which made her quietly gleeful and spread the infectious, conspiratorial grin further.

A moment later, her mind jumped from the idea that it might be something affectionate or romantic, to the idea that it might well be something, well, intimate, and she felt a brief flush of colour crest her own cheeks at the thought that she might be asking for information on something far too private... but she really did want to know how far the couple were truly a couple... the little bit of eager match-maker in her heart couldn't take the suspense, so she let he question stand, eagerly watching Eternalis for an answer, or at least a reaction. Along the way she'd also mostly forgotten that Harke, too, was able to listen in. Most of her subconscious perspective now saw only Eternalis and Sparky as potential ears.

Unexpectedly, Lyntael seemed to have reacted to more of an off-hand remark she had made before, and some awkwardness built up as Eternalis led the way back to the book. The girl's insistence on it lingered inside of her head, making it difficult to focus on what was in the book. Her condition wasn't much of a deterrent in the end, however, as the book's words seemed to even be racing about, denying any attempt to decipher it. If she had a nose to pinch in frustrated embarrassment, she would have done so at this moment, but for the moment all she could do was close the book and hang her head down with a scrunched-up expression on her face. She then turned back to Lyntael, who seemed to be very much into it for some reason or another.

"Well, at the very least, you bringing them up seem to be enough that I can't get them out of my head now. Doesn't help that I can't even understand what this book is saying, it doesn't seem to be anything readable," said Eternalis, in a slightly defeated tone of voice. With the book still in her hands, she turned her head towards the outskirts of the temple, where the rain still raged on. Vivid memories of their Yoka excursion continued to come up in her mind, and she shook her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts. "Just some time we spent together, is all," she said, grinning sheepishly. "... You can ask Aurora more about it when the rain stops, and we can get back. I can't keep my head straight right now."

She looked back down at the book to get her thoughts back on track, but the smile on her face faltered slightly as she saw some odd beam of light refracting off of it, or some other. Following the path of the light, she looked up at the skies, where the rain was bearing down from a blue sky, and saw an aberration in the space--and error messages popped up in the corner of her vision. "Jack Out Barrier Detected," the messages warned, in bright red. At the same time, she could see that the rain never actually passed through the aberration; the barrier preventing their exit was also physical.

For the moment, she tried to keep his expression as it was, and turned back to Lyntael. "For now, though, let's just try and stay put here until the rain stops," she said, looking down at her feet to see how Sparky was doing--though there was nothing there. Looking to her side would reveal that Sparky had already taken the initiative, running up to the fountain that had held the book previously, looking at the random bits of data strewn at its foot. At the same time, a small text message appeared next to the error message in her heads up display--a private message from her operator.

"That jack out barrier doesn't look good," it said.

Her reply was similarly private in nature. "Seems like it wants us to go further in. Has to be a trap."

"Mm. I'll leave it to you as to what exactly you want to do, but stay cautious. I'll keep a close hand on my chip folder and try to figure out what happened," typed out Harke.

"Got it," replied Eternalis.

"Oh, and try not to embarrass yourself too hard," remarked Harke, before the message box went inactive.

Now trying very hard to keep her smile straight as she cradled the book under her arm, Eternalis sighed, and gestured with her head for Lyntael to follow Sparky back towards the fountain.

As she prodded at the question with eager in-the-moment excitement, Lyntael did have the presence of thought enough to notice that the reaction from her friend was... yes a little embarrassed, but not really in the healthy fun way that invited more prying. Instead, some of her response became a frustrated railing at the book and Lyntael bit her lip. curious and cute and fascinating as the question might be, this was not the time for it, and she was being rude, at least enough to discomfit Eternalis. With a conscious effort, she relaxed her excited, pressing posture and stepped back, clasping her hands in front of her waist again.

"Sorry... I um, kinda did, before... ask Aurora, I mean, but she acted all coy about it, until we got interrupted, so I thought maybe if I asked you..." she shook her head. "I'm being rude. Sorry." Her eyes darted left and right. "But you are very cute together, you know..." She cleared her throat quickly after rushing out the quick final remark and instead followed along trying to peer at the pages of the book. What she saw over the other woman's shoulders made her blink and shake her head once or twice, then try again, to no better result. It was like it was meant to represent a book of words that she could read, but there weren't actually words she could read there. Sort of. Or there were too many, maybe. Maybe it was just meant to be a representation, and the actual pages weren't properly written.

She kept quiet while Eternalis tried to work out more from the book, or get some kind of information about what would await them if they explored, but she could tell just from looked, and the way her eyes darked from the book to other places in the temple every now and then, that she'd upset her friend more seriously than she thought. She'd already tried to apologise twice though, any more would just be an irritation ,so instead she kept quiet and watched until the suggestion to stay put for the time being was offered. Lyntael looked to the pathway, then out to the rain beyond the temple arches.

"I don't really mind the rain, honestly, it's ok... the snow and the ice were bad for me, but rain is... friendly. Rain never feels cold, even though I've heard other people say it is..." It was an oddity, that, but true all the same. According to other people, rain usually fell at temperatures that should feel cold on the skin, but it had never actually felt so to her. "Really, I'm just more worried about any viruses we end up running into between here and where my entry point is..." With a small sigh she sat down on the steps that led up to the altar; her clothes were still very damp, but the temple felt comfortable enough, in terms of temperature. Not that a fire, or a heater wouldn't be nice, she admitted silently to herself.

"I still feel guilty about this. I was supposed to be trying to... get better, in some way, and I thought it would be safest with you both here with me, but having me around in a serious fight just seems to make things harder for everyone..." She rubbed the back of her neck, glancing up to Eternalis, then gesturing with her arms instead in an attempt to call Sparky over for more attention. Scratching and ruffling at the pup was at least one layer of distraction while she tried to piece together an explanation properly, and maybe shift away from her embarrassing prying earlier.

"I know that Eric wanted to let me be whatever I wanted, and I know... when it was decided that I'd go to Rogan, that he wanted someone to be there for him, and help him, and look out for him... But the things he has me do feel wrong, so often... and the fighting, whenever I'm in danger because of it... I just don't know if I'm ever going to be able to manage. I just don't feel cut out for any of this, you know?" She wondered more about the situation, and the brief awkwardness she'd caused. Maybe she could share something awkward of her own, that might help. she groped quickly for an anecdote she could use. Not the worst ones... even contemplating that sent a visible shudder of fear and revulsion through her frame... but maybe one of the less direct moments?

"A little while ago, Rogan wanted me to access a net-side data bank in a place he was sneaking into, and I wasn't supposed to get seen or caught. But when I got there, there was a navi guarding the room, and when I heard his voice, and realised who it was, I just... um... I melted down, just completely. I hid in a corner a little away from the room and cried and shook and thought I was going to die, because I as sure he was going to find me. I was a mess. I..." She shook her head, swallowing and shoving the memory away as firmly as she could, now that she'd relayed it. Past that. Not there, here. Now. Right. She took along breath. "I don't know what would have happened if I'd been seen, but, I know I wouldn't have handled it. I don't even know how I could... and it meant that I failed Rogan, and he had to go to a lot of extra effort to get me out safely without compromising himself, because I couldn't stop panicking, and couldn't make myself move from where I was, no matter what he said." Once more, she closed her eyes and put hands to her face, taking long, deep, slow breaths to calm herself down.

"I guess what I'm getting at, I think... is that I should have known better than to burden you with protecting me in a real fight, with some silly hope of getting better at it myself." Slowly, she peeked up again, turning her head enough to look up at Eternalis and see how the other woman had taken her apology-confession combination.

As they headed back to the fountain, Eternalis listened to Lyntael's concerns about the rain (or rather, lack thereof) with the rain itself providing background noise. She could also hear the splashing sounds of Sparky playing about in the fountain, which made her look over for a bit, but it seemed safe enough, now that the only clearly active object was the book in her hands and not the fountain itself. "Well, Sparky seems to have warmed up to getting his fur wet, at least, so at least we're all getting more comfortable with it," chuckled Eternalis, taking the seat next to Lyntael, while keeping a person's worth of distance between them and looking back towards Sparky to make sure he wasn't about to run off.

Thankfully, the pup seemed to be more inclined to play about with Lyntael, bounding up to her when called to. In his mouth were some of the bits and pieces of data off of the bottom of the fountain, and he was happy to present them at Eternalis's feet before running off to get fussed over by Lyntael. Before Eternalis could say anything else, however, Lyntael proceeded to launch into an unbidden downpour of thoughts, as if competing with the rain that they were in.

Being an unintended side audience, Harke listened in as well. The doubts of her own efforts to match what Rogan had intended, and his own deductions from the discussion at the bar a few days prior came back to mind. The glimpse into how her work for Rogan usually went on made him wonder briefly how easily she let secrets slip, and how odd it was that the operator didn't keep a tighter lock on the girl's whereabouts, as paranoid as he seemed. Then again, coupled with the fact that the operator never simply used a standard Navi, perhaps Rogan himself had a few doubts on how to deal with his "burden" of a Navi, he reasoned.

Eternalis, meanwhile, was wondering about how to deal with Lyntael's visibly increasing tension. While she was about to reach out in an attempt to console the girl, she second guessed herself, and decided against it. However, one thing did catch her in the midst of her thoughts--it was less that she thought of Lyntael as a girl, but rather that she didn't want to cause her distress with the physical contact. Why had her thought pattern changed, she briefly thought, before Lyntael ended her one-sided "confession" of sorts, and left her to respond. She turned up to look at the large underside of the arches, and listened to the rain, while she reasoned about what to say, and in the end, she had one frame of reference.

"It's not like it's such a silly hope," murmured Eternalis. "I remember Aurora when she first started out being my support. The Support Program container gave her a bit of a weak start, and she would pretty much fall to a few stiff gusts of wind, but... she never seemed to be burdened by it. Maybe it was a result of her not having any of her earlier memories, but she seemed to try her hardest every day she went virus busting with me. She tripped her EJO a few times, as far as I recall, and I'd be sad about it afterwards, but she always seemed happy enough to tell me that it wasn't my fault, that she'd be better next time."

She looked back down towards the ground, at the little BugFrags that Sparky had set down at her feet, and picked one up, turning it about slowly between her fingers. "Little by little, she got stronger, but of course she wouldn't grow as fast as I did. Even so, she always kept up that smile--up until her memories of when she was a Navi got restored. She tried pushing me away then. I was pretty surprised at the cold look she first gave me--it was definitely a sharp turn on how she acted. But she still supported me, and still tried just as hard as she did before, so eventually, it never felt like it was me protecting her, but instead me trying to catch up to her new standards, just... just to get her to smile at me again. It's a little funny in retrospect, now that I think about it," she smiled, letting a little giggle escape her lips.

"Then I got myself in trouble, and got myself some kind of infection that turned me into..." she paused, before looking down at her own body. "I'd say a monster, but I already look pretty monster-like, but whatever, I digress. In just a short time, it got bad enough that I'd pretty much given up on myself. Then... she volunteered to help out, and she had to fight me while I was infected, in order to remove it. The infection had given me a monstrous boost that it would normally be unthinkable for her to consider fighting me in the first place, but... she did. She absolutely did, and she went through hell. Hell that I put her through... but in the end, I got to see her smile again."

When she looked back up from the floor, she looked out towards the outskirts of the temple once again, at the pouring rain tearing through the clear skies, with a wistful smile, as her own body's color gradually turned back into its previous yellow color in the Soul Cross. She then quickly broke out of her lull, and turned back towards Lyntael. "Sorry, I kind of went on my own bit there," she apologized with a small grin. "In any case, I think... er, I don't think you should think of it as a burden. It's just something that you can still work on. Some day you might be able to help him in some way that you never thought of doing before, or it might not even be him--could be someone else you feel is important. You're important to other people, too. It's why you're still here." A warm smile spread across her face, as she reached out to pat the other girl on the head.

Playing with Sparky while she spoke helped, at least a little bit. Lyntael focused on pushing the uncomfortable memories away again and calming her tension while she looked to Eternalis for the other woman's reaction. The concern on her face was comforting, even though it left her thinking that sharing the story hadn't really done the job she'd meant it do. At any rate, it didn't seem like she still thought that she was prying too much, so that was good. She tried a nervous grin at the end of her story, and a small shrug of her shoulders, before Eternalis began to respond in kind.

For her own part, Lyntael listened, looking down at her stretched out legs in front of her and her hands; that Aurora had once been as fragile in combat as she herself felt came as a surprise to her, and she found her admiration of her friend growing; there was a similarity, of course, but where she was struggling and barely making any headway, it sounded like Aurora had been quick to adapt to her situation.

When she glanced back towards Eternais, it was with a more steady, though somewhat wistful smile. Most of the talk about support program limitations and shell containers went over her head — in truth she was still struggling to grapple with the idea that Aurora was supposedly more akin to Sparky than Eternalis in her program construction; the thought train just didn't compute to her, not in any way that made sense... but she smiled anyway.

"I guess, I'm glad that getting... ah, getting knocked out, like that... won't really be too big a deal for her. I'm still very scared about that kind of thing ever happening to me. It hasn't before, but, it frightens me to think of." She shrugged uncomfortable. Something about mentioning that she'd never been subject to an EJO before felt vaguely like admitting her virginity to another navi, in a strange sort of way, and though it didn't make her quite as uncomfortable about talking about something like that might, she was still relieved that she was saying it to someone she trusted, rather than another random navigator.

The story took a twist though and Lyntael's features fluctuated into a mirror of the same concern and worry she'd seen before. that Aurora had spent such a long time with no memory of who she was, and had had to build a whole new identity for herself from scratch made her heart lurch. She would never have guessed that from the sensible, yet still upbeat woman she knew, and the idea of losing everything like that was deeply unsettling to her. She could only imagine the conflict and trauma having the older memories resurface must have caused as well, after she'd spent so much time and effort redefining herself and building up the new person she wanted to be. What could that even have been like? She looked down at her own hands again, clenching her fingers and flexing them a few times.

She wanted to say something, but the story went on, and Lyntael held her thoughts and listened. It sounded as though Eternalis had been through his own share of suffering and difficulty too, and she could practically hear the weight of guilt he must have felt towards Aurora for putting her through the harrowing events that she was now describing. Lyntael hung her head slightly; she felt quietly sure that Eternalis was holding some details back from her story,either because they were too personal, or possibly to shield Lyntael herself from them, but it sounded bad enough as it was.

The story itself was brief, but it was enough that Lyntael felt a little taken aback; not in the same way she'd felt guilty about her earlier questioning, but mainly because she could understand now that these two had been through far more together than she had guessed, and her gossipy questions and joking ribbing seemed... childish, now. There wasn't really any question about whether these two were 'an item' now, or not... the question was silly and juvenile to even ask, and she could see that as Eternalis spoke about Aurora and what they'd done. She was caught up in these mildly self-recriminating thoughts when Eternalis finished her own tale with something more keenly directed at Lyntael herself, and the younger girl looked up, surprised, and she felt a blush flare in her cheeks.

"Oh! Um, ah... I— I guess," she bit her lip, looking down as she fought back the pink glow and simultaneously enjoying the brief contact that the other woman offered. "Th-thank you. I... I am trying my best, and I know you're right. I know there are others who care, I do. I try to remind myself, every morning and every night, if I can, that there are people who care about me. that Eric loves me, even if I'm far way, you know? I try."

After a few more moments looking out across the temple, she became aware that Eternalis was occasionally looking at something in particular that she must not be seeing, but she let it go for now. Instead she brought up some of her other thoughts from earlier, going back over the story that her friend had been telling. She crossed her legs again as she did, resettling herself and listening to the rainfall.

"I can't imagine what it must have been like for Aurora to have lost her memory... long enough to build up a new sense of herself, only to have the old resurface and... that must have been horrible for her to deal with. Like being two people at once, and not really feeling like you were the 'real' one on either side... but not wanting to lose yourself or fade away either. I had no idea." She swallowed and rubbed at her arms, shuddering.

"I... there are a lot of memories I wish I didn't have any more. Things I wish hadn't happened, or, at least, that I could forget happened. That navi, and... and what he did. I'm not sure I'll ever really be able to get rid of that, and I wonder, sometimes, if I forgot completely, if I'd stop feeling it in my skin, but then I think about losing all the rest of my memories as well, and... I don't know what would be worse. If none of that was there, what sort of person would I be now instead, I wonder? I still have nightmares about it, my body all beaten up and broken, on that cold table... not being able to move myself, the way he cut off all my clothes piece by piece and gloated about it and... and... and..." Her fingers were circling her emblem again with one hand and the other trembled slightly against her opposite arm, unnoticed as she mused; her eyes had gone distant for a few moments, not really seeing the temple or its surrounds, and Lyntael felt herself spiralling back into the traumatic memory again. With a start, she wrenched herself out of it, flinching visibly and drawing a longer, deeper breath that only served to highlight how short and panicked her breathing had become. She stopped talking, closing her lips and teeth with a clenched click. That was past. She focused as hard as she could on the sound of the rain, the patterns that the small fragments of data made around her feet, the arches of the temple. Sparky, looking up at her, and Eternalis next to her. She took a longer breath while her heart rattled in her chest.

"Sorry." She mumbled after a moment. "I'd like to get to a point where I can at least think about it, without falling into that... I'm sorry. I was trying to say, um... I was meaning to say: Even with the bad memories, there are so many nice ones I have as well, that I think it must have been very difficult for Aurora to get through losing everything like that, and I wouldn't want to go through it myself. I think she's an amazing woman, and I admire her a lot, and you as well, you know?" Embarrassed, she didn't manage to look up at Eternalis directly. How had she let that happen? Was she really so damaged that she couldn't even talk around the bad moments without falling headlong into horrific recollections of them? She needed to be stronger than that. She shook her head and swallowed again.

"I'm really sorry. That was too much information, I didn't mean to. We should, um... we should probably get moving again, maybe?" She glanced out nervously at the rain, which was showing no interest in letting up, but stood anyway, trying to shake off the moment. She'd read other people using the term over-sharing, before, but if anything took the definition of it, she now felt very strongly like she had. She took a step or two away, and a few more deep breaths as she did, then looked back around to see if she'd caused any upset or offence for her companion.

Eternalis could see that the girl was lapsing into some awful memory, as she had done before like in their first "meet-up" through the BBS event, though this time she was putting out a few more fragmented details. Sparky seemed to be concerned about her, at the very least, propping himself up at her feet and giving her a few cheer-up licks. As far as the pup was concerned, it seemed to have worked, as she quickly snapped out of it. The little bit of reminiscence ended with a token of admiration for Eternalis, who responded with a nervous laugh. "Ahahaha, I don't think I've done anything particularly admirable. I've just tried to be the best of myself, that's all; Aurora deserves more of that praise than I do, I'm sure," she said. She reached over to Sparky, and beckoned the little SP towards her, which he obliged quite happily as he bounded over to her feet. Putting the gleaming book to her side between her and Lyntael, Eternalis then picked the pup up, and idly played with him in her lap.

"From what it sounds like, it must have been pretty tough with nobody to tell it to--and it's already hard to forget things we want to forget. Maybe when you get back, you can write them down somewhere, something like a diary. Even though we can retrieve memories easily, it still feels different to put them down into writing somehow. It might help you talk about it more easily at some point," said Eternalis. At that point, she turned towards the rain outside, and sure enough, the barrier could still faintly be seen beyond the veil of rain. She activated the text window in her periphery quickly and sent a message through it.

"Any luck?"

...

It took a few seconds of waiting before a reply came back. "Sorry for the late reply, I was too focused on the other screen. Sadly, doesn't look like I can find anything about where you guys are, at least not within any of the public location netmaps. Sorry I can't be of much help. :("

"That's unfortunate... I guess we don't have a choice except to head in."

"Yeah. Be careful. I'll try to ask around in some boards, but that'll take time. Keep close to each other."

"Got it," said Eternalis, before the text window went dormant once more, and she saw Lyntael stand up, looking out at the rain. She hadn't told the girl about the barrier preventing them from leaving--but she doubted that she was very subtle about looking at it for the past few minutes. Bracing herself, she picked up Sparky in her arms and stood back up. "It's fine, we've both gone through enough, in our own ways," she said with an emphatic smile, as she turned towards the other direction--the cut off half of the temple. "There doesn't seem to be anything dangerous around here, or at least I think there would have been something already once we've waited this long. You wanted to see what was through that path earlier, right? A walk to calm our nerves for a little bit," she said, clearly indicating towards the darkened path.

Still shaking herself off and attempting to move on from her lapse, Lyntael was infinitely grateful that Eternalis didn't latch onto her stumbling or make a big deal of it. She thanked her silently for it; an embarrassed smile and a quick ducking of er head would have to do for tangible gratitude. As it was, she nodded again as they drifted to look down the mysterious pathway again.

"I... I'm not sure, really. I think I would have liked to have someone to talk to about it, I think, but at the same time..." She shook her head, looking down again. "I didn't want to worry Eric, and I don't think I could have really told anyone else. Not and feel safe about it, at least..." The thought about writing about it made her think for a while, though, and she shrugged, rubbing at her arms and shoulders again. Maybe something like that could help. She'd read other people talking abut how getting things like this out into some other form of expression helped them cope, so... maybe she could try something.

The small thought followed after her as Eternalis moved her attention away from going back out into the rain, and back towards the strange path that led further into the unknown. In the back of her mind, she wondered if whatever it was that Eternalis had been glancing at was part of the reason for her sudden change of mind, but on the whole she concluded that if it was, then the other woman wasn't saying anything for a reason. What it came down to was trust, really, and she trusted Eternalis. If she was not wanting them to leave the temple area just yet, and chance exploring the anomaly that stretched out ahead of them, then she trusted that it was the safer course of action, and she nodded to the suggestion.

"Maybe whatever memories the book wants to show us will be much nicer ones than some of our own, right?" She moved up alongside the other woman, doing her best to brighten the general atmosphere of their small party, and made to follow her companion along the twisting, water-formed path. Once again, just to be careful, she tested it delicately with a foot before stepping all the way onto its surface.

((Listen to this/area theme))

Left behind, the book rose from its spot and darted rather quickly through the air towards them, only to stop and hover a small distance behind the two navis, keeping pace as they moved.

As Lyntael and Eternalis walked quite literally off the edge of the network, the watery path they were stood upon splished and splashed beneath their steps. It was quite firmly solid, like any other weird terrain change the two might have been used to, but unlike the rest of the net this area had been... sculpted, or purposefully made. It was not made of the Net's interchangeable panels, and it was likely that even if they had cause to use them, terrain changes would not work out here.

Out on the blue-lit, watery pathway, Lyntael and Eternalis found that the rain was still present; it struck the path around them, it cascaded down into the darkness of the abyss below, but it did not strike them. In fact, an entire small circle around them was clear of rain, centered on the book as though the rain itself was afraid to strike it. The rain made for a pleasant ambiance, visible in the lamplight despite the blackness of the void that surrounded them, and it remained so as the net 'sky' began to brighten again, the dark blue raindrops looking striking against the muggy gray-blue horizon. The path seemed to go on forever...

...but of course, that was not the case.

Soon the navis came to a graveyard floating out in the vast abyss; a large, wrought-iron gate sat at the entrance, already open. The same eerie blue light that covered the rest of the area covered the graveyard ahead. The paths around the graves were made of water, just the same as the path they'd walked in on, or perhaps it was tears? It's a fairly large graveyard, with paths leading off to the NORTH, WEST, and EAST. We'll call the direction the duo entered from the SOUTH.

Among the thirty or so graves in this front-most area, three of them seem to have glowing script on their headstones.

With how chipper Lyntael was being, Eternalis couldn't help but wonder which one of them was trying harder to make the mood less somber. She didn't have anyone to back her up either, with Harke being busy, Aurora being out of commission, and Sparky--well, Sparky was doing his best, at least. "Here's hoping," replied Eternalis with a wry smile as she started on the path as well. The watery path that they began to walk on intrigued her, with how well-constructed it felt, despite the appearance that they were walking on literally nothing. The slime trail that she left behind in this form coalesced into small slime droplets that roughly indicated where they had been, should their previous path be somehow cut off from the illumination that appeared along their way.

At first, Eternalis didn't notice that the book had risen up to follow them, being fixated on the path ahead. However, she soon noticed the rain forming a circle around them, and started to look around. "This place is definitely strange, but I can't say it's not beautiful," she said, looking up at the black void of a "sky" where the rain seemed to be coming from, her actions mirrored by the pup in her arms. It took her a short few moments before she turned back and spotted the book hovering closely behind them. "... Oh, I guess it didn't like being left behind," she said, with Sparky peeking out from her side to see what all the fuss was about. Nevertheless, it didn't seem to react to either of them spotting it, so she kept her pace and simply left it as an observation, continuing to walk alongside Lyntael.

Eventually, a graveyard came into view, and Eternalis drew a sharp breath. "Well, it did say something about life and death earlier," she said, glancing back at the book that was hovering behind them. She turned to Lyntael. "Let's stay close," she said, stepping through the open gates up to one of the graves and inspecting the glowing script.

The gentle sounds of splashing as they walked blended into the gentle background of rainfall and as they walked along the path, Lyntael looked around, trying to take in as much as she could. The soft lighting from their path cast against the black of the darkness around about them was an image as beautiful, in its way, as it was eerie, and the younger woman was swiftly letting her darker concerns be brushed aside by more mundane distractions. In particular, as the book elected to accompany them after all, and the circle of clear air that kept the rain off came with it, Lyntael darted ahead, just a little bit, trying to see if it would let her move to the edge of the space, and stretch her hand out into the rain as it fell.

As the ambient sky lightened to a grey-blue tone, and the winding path eventually revealed a new landing in the otherwise empty space, Lyntael let her steps slow until she drew back alongside Eternalis. Her own curiosity was tugging at her to run ahead and look at what was being presented to them, but tall wrought-iron gates and the general atmosphere gave her enough pause to at last resist rushing ahead.

Closer, the alien space seemed to be an old graveyard and Lyntael caught herself glancing across in equal measures of trepidation, excitement and puzzlement. The gates were pen though, and they had arrived at them before much longer; it was either go in or go back, since the path had no branches, and tentatively Lyntael pushed in, along with Eternalis.

"It's strange, that something like this would be out here, isn't it? I mean..." She caught herself whispering. She wasn't really sure why, exactly, but it felt appropriate all the same. "I mean, if someone wants to make a memorial, they'd usually put it somewhere personal and locked off, or else it would be somewhere easy to reach. No-one really makes real places like this much anyway, at least, not for navis... right? What do you suppose...?" Her words trailed away as she looked over the graves, and the first one that she saw with script glowing caught her gaze. Eternalis had seen them as well, and in something approaching silently agreed caution they both moved across to the nearest one. Lyntael crouched down alongside the stone, one hand one her knees as she balanced while she wiped at the slate with her other hand, brushing away any most of build up that might have been covering any part of the stone.

"Let's see then..." she murmured, casting a glance across to her friend as she did. Clearly this was part of whatever was trying to show them something. Life, death and memory were all a part of the imagery, and it made her curious to learn what it was all about; it would certainly be a distraction form their own awkwardly difficult discussion of their own troubling memories from before.

Lyntael finds that the book has no qualms about her getting her hand rained on-- it just seems to care about being left behind, and is at least content to remain by Eternalis whenever she runs ahead.

Once within the graveyard, the two inspect the nearest glowing headstone; above that headstone a figure appears, rendered in blue like everything else. A water navi by the looks of it, with great big pipes for arms, and a tubing system cascading down the rest of his body. His shoes are what look like a pair of pumps, and it's easy to picture him standing in onsen or sea terrain and spraying water at people around him.

There is an unfortunate reality to his figure, however. A large, clearly-fatal hole is bored into his chest, his 'wound' a mess of fragmented and buggy data reaching out for the missing part. The sight is so striking, the calm on the dead navi's face so potent, that it takes the two living navis a moment to realize this is not a display. They're looking at the actual corpse, floating and stored, of a navi named... PipeMan.

At least, that's what it says on his headstone:

Quote (Epitaph)

Here lies PipeMan.
Blessed of Yoka Network,
he spread the waters so that others might enjoy them.
Struck down, he has at last been allowed to rest.
May he wander no more.

There are still other lit headstones in this area...

"It might be just some huge eccentric, you never know how people might think. Takes a lot to make the world, after all," said Eternalis, reading through the tombstone's text. The abrupt appearance of the gleaming blue figure above the tombstone made her recoil slightly, before she stared at the wounded display of the Navi. Turning back towards the dark pathway that they had just left, the image of the watery temple that they had just left came to mind. "Judging from the place we just came from, I guess this is the main one here? Or... maybe just the first," she said, turning towards Lyntael with a quizzical expression, before looking again at the displayed Navi above the tombstone. There was something off about it that she couldn't quite place, but she pushed it to one side as she looked over to a couple of other tombstones, each presenting its own glowing epitaph. They didn't seem too far apart, so it would be safe. "Maybe you can see what's on that one, I'm going to look at this one," she said, gesturing appropriately to each of the graves before walking over to one.

As she read the letters, the sudden appearance of the deceased navi floating above the marker made Lyntael's breath catch and she stumbled back from her crouch to land on her behind a few paces back, looking up at it. the figure was impassive, however, and her momentary flinch was replaced by a wincing grimace.

"Oh light... that's... Who... who would do that?" She mumbled, then swallowed once or twice, working moisture back into her mouth. Having a marker was one thing, but to create a display like that... that wasn't respectful at all. he picked herself up, stepping closer to Eternalis as the other woman viewed the ghostly figure.

"That's just really creepy... If it was supposed to be a respectful marker, or something like that, you wouldn't show all of the damage and violence... that's macabre..." She shook her head, then rubbed at her arms to try and shake of the chill that accompanied the moment of nervousness. After a moment she looked again, her eyes mostly avoiding the obvious damage, but otherwise observing the navi that was being shown. The words seemed at odds, in her mind, too, and she bit her lip.

"Um... they say 'allowed to rest', but, this looks like, well... it looks too, too real, you know? Like this is actually.... um..." she swallowed and looked away, turning her eyes to Eternalis more directly. "Not much of a peaceful rest, I mean, if his actual remains are being put on display like this, is it?" she paused again, rubbing at her neck. "I mean... I guess, I don' really know about spirits or souls... I just sort of suppose it depends on what a person believes..." She trailed off, already on very shaky ground. Her own beliefs weren't nearly as examined on that topic as they could be, she knew. Maybe it was time to think seriously about how she felt on the matter... But not right now. Eternalis was already offering a better suggestion, which was the very wise idea of maybe getting more of the picture of what was going on her, by looking at some of the other graves. she nodded, then looked towards the one that her friend had pointed her towards.

This time, Lyntael was a little more prepared for whatever might show up, and she moved closer to the next stone more cautiously while Eternalis took a different one, reaching out to trace her fingertips over the words as she read them, and watching for another image to appear, in case one did.

Quote (Epitaph)

Here lies Nightcap.
Blessed of Sharo Network,
she brought sweet, healing dreams to all she allied with.
Struck down, her dreams have sadly turned to nightmares.
May she wander no more.

The grave Eternalis inspects produces what seems, at first, to be another corpse; Nightcap is wearing her namesake, dressed in pyjamas and with what looks to be bags modeled under her eyes, carrying a teddybear. One of her legs has been deleted, and half of her head is missing... but that doesn't stop her gaze from immediately locking on Eternalis. The still VERY much active program lunges for her, but Nightcap is stopped from attacking Eternalis, or indeed moving much at all, by some sort of barrier.

What's also clear is that Nightcap is very dead. Those wounds are fatal-- in fact most wounds for navis are fatal, since their code protects them against things like missing limbs unless they've been reduced to 0 HP-- and so there is no reason for this one to be moving. Perhaps their display here is not so much out of disrespect after all? Eternalis notes that, unlike PipeMan's grave, Nightcap's has a few talismans stuck to the sides and rear of the headstone.

--------

Quote (Epitaph)

Here lies a friend.
Blessed by no one,
his misguided rebellion brought him only ruin.
Struck down, he has at last found peace.
May he wander no more.

The grave that Lyntael inspects, on the other hand, bears only a single talisman across the top of the headstone. The navi that appears above it has black hair that's been styled into rows upon rows of spikes, all pointed toward the top-rear of his head; his body has some remnants of armor across it, as though the navi lost a set of protection in the past, and what looks like many, many data breaches have been crudely patched across his body. He holds a scythe in his grip, the blade covered in blood despite the bloodless fragmentation of digital wounds, and his eyes stare blankly at Lyntael as he floats above his own tombstone.

The only indication of his death is the fact that his torso's been horizontally bisected, his top half floating a little above his bottom. The entire wound is the mass of glitches you might expect.

Wander no more... struck down... are these truly corpses, or something else?

"Sharo Network..." murmured Eternalis, quickly reading through the glowing epitaph. The displayed body that appeared grabbed her attention, with the missing limb and half-destroyed head being front and center, a much more gruesome display than that of the previous one. However, she was completely unprepared for the sudden reaction of the displayed "corpse", its eyes locking onto her before leaping out towards her. "Yaaaaah!" she screamed, stumbling backwards onto the watery floor with a splash. Sparky fell out of her hold as well, just as she was suddenly enveloped in a bright light, before quickly receding into--a larger blue figure. It seemed like the unexpected jumpscare had inadvertently disengaged Eternalis's LyntaelCross, leaving him on the floor, clutching his chest. The pup tumbled onto the waters just next to him, before barking up at the ghost with fervor.

A screen appeared in the air next to him almost immediately, showing Harke's concerned face, lit up by the light of the PET screen in his darkened room. "Eternalis?!" he exclaimed, before his expression quickly turned into confusion. "... You okay?" the operator said, slightly puzzled. The Navi blinked several times in response with a blank expression, before shaking his head to clear it.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little scare, is all," he said, still not picking himself off the ground as he stared up past the floating screen. Next to the macabre display of "Nightcap", a small readout confirmed what had been bothering him about the earlier display of PipeMan; the display wasn't just for show. It was a Navi's corpse, suspended in the moment prior to deletion--or perhaps after. The words on the epitaph written underneath came up in his mind--"May she wander no more".

"What spooked you?" asked Harke, still somewhat concerned.

Looking over towards Lyntael on the other gravestone, Eternalis mumbled out a reply. "... I'm not sure. From what I can see, we've stumbled on something like a prison, except for Navi corpses," he said. He laid a hand on Sparky's head to calm him down for the moment, which he strangely seemed to quickly obey, before tucking himself in between his master's arm and side, still looking up at the spectre.

Lyntael's lips moved across the words as she read them on the next grave; this one seemed much more tragic in tone, but before she could really contemplate it further, the sudden movement not too far away made her start up. She gasped hands going to her mouth as she say the grave figure lunging against whatever invisible barrier was holding it back, but the sudden leap in her heart rate subsided again when it looked like there was no actual immediate danger. She darted across to Eternalis just in case, to check, but the shock seemed to have interrupted her form again, and Eternalis 'traditional' was back before long. Fortunately, Lyntael's own shyness towards her friend didn't return with it. The situation was otherwise enough and the time they'd spent together enough that she didn't think overly much about it now.

She nodded along with the brief back and forth between Eternalis and Harke, swallowing nervously to where the more agitated form had lunged. She didn't want to suppose that there was actually anything sinister about any of this, but nagging thoughts were creeping through the back of her mind anyway.

"Maybe... Maybe it's like, um... you know, I've heard stories, navis deleted sometimes leave behind, er... an echo, sort of. Some people say it's..." she hesitated, looking down and shuffling her feet. She really wasn't sure how reliable any of this was, truthfully. "They say it's like, all the parts of a navi that weren't actually contained in their code, left adrift after their actual being was killed..." she looked back to the graves, and the way some of them seemed to be warded carefully.

"What if someone has been tracking down those fragments, and capturing them, to keep them preserved?" She didn't quite know what to think or feel about it, even as she said it. On one hand, preserving those records, or those remnants of navigators — people — who died, was important in some way. On the other hand, if it really was accurate to think of these echoes as something integral and important, like a human soul, or spirit, then keeping them encased like this was terrible. And even then, that was only a terrible thing if they weren't doing it with the goal of finding ways to restore them, which might not even be possible, for all she knew. It was mostly just confusing and unsettling.

The strangeness of the visible injuries and wounds themselves didn't actually stand out to Lyntael at all; her own body took injury and broke; she bled when she was cut... and annoyingly even when she wasn't sometimes now, an undercurrent of thought remarked in ill-timed irritation... and it wasn't like she could just turn any of that off, like it seemed most navis could. She shuddered internally at the memories of having all of her ribs broken, and of struggling to breath through punctured lungs. In an effort to shake off the deeply uncomfortable recollection, Lyntael looked back over to the grave she'd been examining.

"There's no name on this one... just a marker for a friend, with no-one who loved them, and who died in foolishness. Do you think we should do anything about them, or just keep looking? I don't actually know whether to feel sad, or respectful, or horrified. This is really confusing me now." She stayed close to Eternalis, rather than wandering off further, letting her friend take the lead on whether to examine more graves, explore further, or to try to do something about one of the ones they'd looked at already... hopefully one of the more passive ones.

"I think I've heard of that," said Harke, replying to Lyntael's contribution to the speculation of where exactly they had found themselves in. "Navi ghosts, or so they call it. Apparently they're really rare sightings, so documentation on them is pretty scarce; Navis don't get deleted very much compared to the earlier days of the Internet." He rested his hand on his chin for a moment in thought. Through the floating screen, his fingers on his other hand could be heard tapping on his desk.

Eternalis, meanwhile, got off the watery floor, though when he got up to full height, his expression creased slightly. Raising his arm turned it into a mildly surprised expression; it seemed like he didn't quite realize that he had been inadvertently pulled out of the Soul Cross form. He looked towards Lyntael, who didn't seem to be quite as bothered about it, instead looking over to the other gravestone, where a bisected figure with a scythe stood. The gravestone looked much less cluttered, with only one talisman pasted on it instead of several on his.

Walking over to it with Lyntael and Sparky in tow, he knelt down and inspected the writing for himself. "Poor guy. Wonder what got him like that," he said, standing back up while looking at the figure displayed above the stone. As Lyntael expressed her concerns, he rolled his head around, mulling something over. "I'm not really sure what to think, myself. But it definitely feels like there's something more to it, like it's not just something for show... What do you think, Harke?" he said, turning towards his operator.

Through the display, Harke scratched his head, before shrugging in return. "If you want to go on, I'm all right with it. Just stay sharp. Something's nagging at me about this place too," he said.

Eternalis nodded, before turning in the direction of the rest of the graves. There didn't seem to be any more glowing epitaphs from what he could see, but there might be more further in. Standing in silence, he scoped out the graveyard for a few moments, before a small textbox appeared in his peripheral vision--another message from his operator.

"The barrier is still active, from what I can see. One thing I didn't mention earlier was that it could also be some kind of Navi hunter. Navis at 0 HP don't necessarily get deleted, so there's a chance that these might be live displays. Stay safe," the message said. He frowned slightly, before turning towards the three figures, floating above the gravestones. Getting away from them should be a priority, at least for the time being.

He turned back towards Lyntael, and the thought of Aurora's earlier jack out came to mind. That was also partially his fault, and he'd be damned if he let it happen again. There was something about the place that felt like anything could jump at them from behind them, as well, so ideally, he would want the girl as close as possible. The thought of it made him close his eyes for a moment; he could practically see Aurora giving him her worst leer. Sorry, Aurora! he apologized mentally, before opening his eyes, and seeing Lyntael in front of him again. Hesitantly, he reached out towards her with his hand.

"Um, we need to stay as close as possible, in case anything decides to ambush us--I'd rather not have to answer to Aurora later on if anything happens. Is that fine?" he said, hoping she would respond well to his suggestion. In the background, he could hear a small snicker from the video feed window, causing his face to steel itself in trying to resist showing his embarrassment.

Lyntael didn't need much convincing to want to stay a least relatively close to Eternalis at this point; she had swiftly come to realise, in her own mind now that she had been forced to think about it, that there was a very big difference between 'spooky ghosts' that floated around and liked to scare people... which she didn't believe in... And the data ghost remains of whatever could be called a navi's disquieted spirit, after they were slain... which the creeping cold fingers reaching through her chest told her that she did. She nodded to her friend, staying near as she tried not to look at the macabre wounds on the images arrayed before them.

"I don't even want to think about it. Even if it is for a good reason, having these displays like this is just..." She shuddered an swallowed, and she let her eyes turn back to the first figure they'd seen, by all description the calmest one. "There must be something somewhere that will tell us what it's all about. If... if some of them are sealed in, like that," her eyes darted to the restless image of Nightcap for a moment, then away just as quickly. "Then there has to be something that explains it." She shifted from one foot to the other, hesitant and unsure, then looked up to Eternalis again with an expression that warred between pleading and worried.

"I'm afraid to find out, but I think we have to, just to be sure. I... I want to know if this is about saving people, or being respectful... or if it's... ah... a collection." She swallowed again, looking about and wincing, then took a few steps back towards PipeMan's display, focusing on the navi's apparently peaceful face, rather than his wound. Steeling herself she drew a breath, then reached out to lay a hand on the grave stone gently.

"Hello..? Can you hear? Or... are you just an image? Can you... talk to us?" She really wasn't sure if there would be any response. One part of her would be relieved if it did turn out to just be an empty reconstruction, but NightCap's behaviour didn't seem to suggest it. If there was no reaction or response at all, that very relieved part of Lyntael would be content to back off again and walk with Eternalis, further into the strange graveyeard... but another part of her was both hoping ,and dreading, the potential for more answers.

"They're not very talkative, sadly." The voice that rang out through the graveyard was feminine, graceful, almost pedantic in how doting it was. The sound drew both navis' gazes toward the north end of the graveyard platform they were standing on, where another navi greeted them with a wave. She was dressed in a nun's habit, long silver hair visible despite the head-covering veil, but clearly whoever made the navi before the two of them had some less-than-religious desires in mind.

Her cleavage was visible through a V-neck cut in the front of her habit that was covered only by fishnet, with the lacy cups of her bra just barely visible at the bottom of the gap. Similarly, the "nun's" habit did not have an ankle-length, full-body skirt; it was cut more like a cocktail dress on the bottom, with long slits drawn down from either hip that showed off her stocking-clad legs. They were tight-knit net stockings, not loose like the fishnet over her cleavage, and several cross-shaped holes in the fabric were stitched on the outsides, one on each of the woman's thighs and one on each of the woman's calves. She wore high, black heels to cap off the sacrilegious outfit, though it was doubtful they hindered her in battle; she was floating just above the grass, after all.

"Greetings, visitor." The woman said, bowing. "I am known as Bishop.exe. I tend to the graves here, and the souls contained in them." Of course, with the cut of her top, this only served to further show off the "nun's" cleavage. As she stood back up, a serene smile crossed her face. "Are you here to see someone in particular?"