Sneaking out with friends

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?"

It seemed like Lyntael had reached the conclusion independently; the graveyard that they were in might not be so benevolent of a place to lay to rest some wayward souls. Eternalis was glad that she took his suggestion quite seriously, and followed her towards PipeMan's display. Feeling a small sense of kinship with the Aqua-aligned deceased Navi, he wondered what kind of fate had befallen the calm-looking Navi to receive such a huge wound, while Lyntael tried to communicate with the figure. He braced for the reply, though the source of the voice that followed was curiously not from in front of him.

Turning towards the nun that had graced them with her presence, Eternalis and Sparky tensed up into a ready pose, and his operator followed suit by stiffening up in his seat. While the former two were a bit more cautious from the potential threat that their sudden new visitor might pose, Harke was instead flushing slightly at the somewhat teasing nature of her outfit. He stayed silent throughout and watched his screen intently, albeit after standing up from his seat to lock his bedroom door.

Meanwhile, Eternalis shifted his position slightly to stand next to Lyntael, attempting to relax his posture with little effect, though it certainly helped when the new visitor introduced herself peacefully. Sparky, meanwhile, continued to stand his ground silently. "Er, right, I'm Eternalis, and--" he said in response, catching himself before he gave out Lyntael's name as well. While it was certainly polite to return the introduction, his ally wasn't quite as public of a Navi as he was. Instead, he segued into answering Bishop's question. "--er, we didn't exactly visit here on purpose. Just stumbled on the place."

Like Eternalis, Lyntael had mostly been bracing herself for a reaction from the image in front of her, so the voice that cut through the eerie quiet drew a short gasp and a jump from her as she looked towards the sound, startled. the figure's garb was... Lyntael knew there was a term for it that was more specific but she couldn't' bring it to mind. Like a deliberate and provocative tease on an actual concept, rather than being the concept itself.. Despite herself, she felt a touch self-conscious about the fairly simplistic, as well as currently damp and dishevelled state of her own clothing and she cast her eyes down slightly after taking a good look at the new navi. Fortunately for her, Eternalis filled the gap with some quick introductions.

As Eternalis gave his name, Lyntael looked up again and remembered herself, giving the other woman a small curtsey in greeting that was more a suggestion to tweaking the edges of her skirt, rather than actually doing so. After she had, though, she found herself complimenting her companion's own gesture and edging back ever so slightly to stand behind him as well. She picked up where he finished, nodded with a little more enthusiasm.

"Ah... we were just, um, we were caught in the rain, and this looked like a good place to shelter for a bit, only... there was a book, and it seemed like it was leading this way, so we..." she swallowed and ducked her head again, glancing about. "Ah, I'm sorry of we're intruding, if this is your space... I hope it's ok." There were quite a few other questions she would like to ask the woman immediately, but she held her tongue rather than begin blurting them all out. Better ,first, to see if they were actually welcome here after all, she decided. If the woman only expected people here with good reason, then it probably wouldn't' do to begin bombarding her with questions about the... intentions... of the place as well. She peer out from behind Eternalis, fighting the urge to put on set of fingers to her lips in hesitation, while the other, resting forgotten at her chest now began to trace small unconscious circles around her emblem. Her eyes flicked with no small amount of apprehension towards the floating images, which the other woman had described directly as souls; words of not, at least one of them didn't seem to be resting at all.

The woman smiled. "It's quite alright! Most of the souls who make their way here don't do so on purpose, sir, so it's no surprise to me that your companion has wandered here quite on accident. In fact, that is by design." Helpfully, it seemed she was going to exposit without them having to ask.

"You see, this place is a graveyard, but not for your typical sort of clientele." Bishop raised her hand toward Nightcap, where the insane-seeming navi was still trying to claw at the barrier holding her in. "Approximately 518 network revision cycles ago, the internet had a problem with a phenomenon that has been referred to as "Navi Ghosts". Deletion happens, it is unavoidable, albeit regrettable, but frequent backups and compartmentalized code made it an inconvenience at worst in the past." Bishop began to walk off toward the north, motioning for them both to follow as she explained.

"The problem is that there was a... side-effect to the deletion process. Some navis, even to this day, view deletion as a form of 'death'; this leads to their code being in a state of panic when they ultimately are corrupted beyond function. Typically viruses simply consume a navi's code to sustain themselves, if they don't destroy it outright, and that's the end of that. Navi ghosts are what happens when that process goes wrong."

Cutoff

Assuming the duo had elected to follow Bishop, they'd hear her explanation continue as she walked them past more graves. "The panicked code attempts to function despite being corrupted beyond repair, and occasionally the code manages, like a biological virus, to hit the virus trying to consume it in just the wrong way. A vulnerability here, a command that becomes an exploit there, it doesn't matter how. The Navi's code integrates and overrides the virus's code control, but it also picks up the worst traits of the virus in most cases, such as attacking indiscriminately. A short sort of polymerization process later, and the navi is "brought back from the dead", enraged and devoid of reason."

Finally, Bishop came to a stop near a headstone without an engraving. "There are other ways for Navi ghosts to form, such as a navi being left unoperated for too long. Regardless of the 'how', this graveyard was made to allow them to be peacefully entrapped and entombed, a memorial to their past life and a repository for their leftover code if it becomes necessary. It purposefully releases a beacon, a sort of 'homing signal' for navis that have become navi ghosts, and then the Book locks them in so that they must wander to their place of final rest." Bishop gestured to the floating tome behind them. "So!" She clasped her hands together, smiling toward Lyntael. "You must be exhausted, dear, and I know this is a lot to take in, but your wanderings are finally over."

Bishop nodded toward Eternalis. "It's so brave of you to have escorted a ghost here yourself, though with how intact she is I can certainly see why you might have mistaken her for a normal navi! But don't worry sir, we'll make sure she can't be a danger to herself or others."

Perhaps the two navis should sort out this misunderstanding...

((This post was going to be stupid short if I didn't do it this way, but you're free to not follow Bishop. If you both elect to not follow her, what your navis hear cuts off at the bolded 'cutoff' higher up in the post.))

Eternalis turned briefly towards Lyntael, who seemed to be using him to hide behind, while the caretaker of the graveyard explained the purpose of the area. Sure enough, it was exactly as Lyntael had mentioned earlier--the cemetery held the distant echoes of Navis long past. At least, if "518 network revisions" could be said to be a long time ago; he had no knowledge of what the unit of time measured up to when compared to normal time. Turning back towards Bishop, he noticed that she had begun to walk off, and motioned for Lyntael to follow suit along with him. As he walked and listened to Bishop's explanation, he turned towards his textual line of communication with his operator in his peripheral HUD, asking him what he thought of the exposition, and if he knew anything about the "network revisions".

The response was unhelpful, with Harke also being unaware of what it meant. From the past few years, he was only aware of a scant few "major" network changes--they certainly didn't add up to 518. Harke did, however, offer up a theory of it being some sort of internal network administrator terminology, used in network maintenance, which fit in with how out of the way the graveyard seemed; network maintenance related areas never were very easy to find. Nodding to himself, he kept his eyes forward, sparing a glance or two in Lyntael's direction to make sure she was still close by, though the sounds that the water made as it splashed about their feet made it easier to confirm.

Eventually, he saw that they came to a stop in front of a tombstone, though curiously, it didn't have the gleaming inscriptions that they had previously inspected, and subsequently, no display of a Navi's spectre atop it. Finally, Bishop revealed to them why they had actually come across the area in the first place, and Eternalis tensed up, glancing towards the book that had come to seal them in the temple. Of course, there was no way he was letting his friend be mistaken for someone ready to meet their final hour, and so he spoke out. "I'm sorry, it seems like there's been a mistake. This isn't a ghost--it's actually one of my friends that has been separated from her operator. I was trying to return her before we had to take shelter in the temple that housed your book. There's no reason for her to be here," said Eternalis, protectively standing between Bishop and Lyntael alongside Sparky, inching himself closer to Lyntael in case the nun tried anything to separate them.

To begin with, Lyntael held her thoughts while the unexpected woman spoke to them, though her brow furrowed slightly when she seemed to single her out, from between the pair for some reason. At the very least, though, she could believe that the space was designed for navis to find their way to it, given how much of a teasing breadcrumb trail it had left, and the striking sight it made when they'd been further off. With Eternalis showing an equally cautious willingness, she began to follow after bishop, watching her step as she moved between the graves and trying to pay attention tot he woman as they went.

She couldn't pretend to know very much about the history of the net, in truth. She'd read little bits and pieces, of course, and she knew about most of the major historic events that she had felt were important to have a passing familiarity with... but talk of net revisions and updates was far more in depth than anything she'd heard about. As she listened, though, something made her frown again, and before she could really think about her own manners, the thoughts jumped to words as she stood out from behind Eternalis slightly, hands clutched closer to her chest uncertainly.

"But... but it is dying, if, if it's actually being deleted, rather than rescued by an emergency! Restored navis, they're... it's never... they're always new people, just a little bit. Sometimes a lot! They're never quite the same as the person that died, you know..." If her brief outburst drew attention, Lyntael drew again shortly after, biting her lip and shrinking back; it was a bit rude to interrupt at any rate.

She continued on in silence, though her eyes darted about to the many graves around them with more suspicion now, the further they walked through the graveyard. The explanation continued, but as it did more parts of Lyntael's instincts wanted to rebel against the way the woman was talking. She might have expected something of that nature from Rogan, but not from another navigator, surely. She couldn't help herself piping up again, in between gaps in what the woman was saying, though even she caught the edge of pleading that crept into her voice, rather than the more firm admonishment she had intended.

"I can understand that this is your job, miss, but... someone dying isn't just 'panicked code'... it's someone dying! It matters... If... if some element is left behind, I... I don't believe that it's just a glitch, or, or, a random accident of fragments, and... and it's definitely not a virus either." Her words derailed as something else the woman continued on with jolted her attention at an angle.

"What...? Just being unoperated doesn't kill you! There are whole colonies and safe havens for unoperated navis! There are charities that support them! There's..." The pleading attempts at counter answers trailed away into silence as Bishop stopped in front of an obviously blank stone with a very pointed motion, and Lyntael found herself looking at it with a swiftly growing sense of dread. A part of her knew what the woman was saying next, even as she started, and she shook her head through it firmly, quelling her own stronger reaction while Etenalis gave a more measured, calmer answer to the crazy woman.

Despite herself, a small silvery thread of doubt slipped through a crack in her mind. The moments when she'd been hurt the worst, just recently, were quite fuzzy to her; the pain and the cold had scrambled her wits badly. And then quite suddenly, it had been the most wonderful beach vacation she could have dreamed of, instead. She bit her lip, fingers clenching tighter for a moment, but shook off the thoughts and pushed them away. No, it was ridiculous. She glanced up to Eternalis, and then back to Bishop, doing her best not to look at the blank tombstone.

"I'm... I'm not. I'm fine, I'm just disconnected, that's all. I do this all the time.... and... and I'm only ever a danger to anyone around me by accident, and I'm getting better at controlling it anyway." She glanced up to Eternalis again, making sure she wasn't out of line, then shook her head again as she looked back to Bishop. "And, I don't mean to be rude, miss Bishop, but if you can't tell the difference between a living navi, and one who.... um, isn't... then you probably shouldn't be doing this job any more." She tried to make that last bit firm, but the ominous stone was distressing her now that Bishop had implied its purpose. Best case scenario, she thought, it wouldn't have any effect on a living navi, and they could just get this sorted out calmly... but Bishop' own apparent certainty about what she was saying was making Lyntael worry that she wouldn't be persuaded even by that. She simply didn't want to think about any circumstances where whatever containment measures existed here worked just as well on living navis.

"Well, frankly, it doesn't matter if it's a glitch or virus code or their soul or what-have-you." Bishop said, matter-of-factly. "The majority of the specters entombed here were caught to stop them from harassing the living. Before the Memory Fault was built, why, you could run into navi ghosts as simply as taking the wrong turn down a dead-end path. By my estimate of how many ghosts I have personally helped inter, cross-referenced with Navi registrations over the past 518 network revisions, I would say that the Memory Fault has contained a praiseworthy 89% of all ghosts that would otherwise be wandering the networks, harassing good, upstanding navis like yourself."

"As for your claims about unoperated navis, certainly a lack of operation by itself does not create a navi ghost. But imagine this scenario: Your operator sends you out to gather data, unoperated, from a code provider that no longer exists. You search and search the network for perhaps days, perhaps weeks, but you cannot find them of course because they do not exist. Frustrated, you return to your operator-- only to find they have disconnected from the jack-in point." Bishop gestured with her hand toward some of the graves around her. "Certainly, some of the navis in situations like these make their way to either administrators who can help them, or other citizen-policing organizations like the Officials. But let's say that navi gets so stuck on their task they continue to search. And search. And search. They become so single-minded that it consumes them, the thought of finishing their task and getting to 'go home' to an operator that has likely just loaded them from backup already."

"Do that long enough? You get a navi ghost. Or a zombie, I guess." She shrugged. "Either way, it is quite possible for unoperated navis to reduce down to a state where they are simply harmful to other network users, and so for their safety and ours, navis that are too far gone are also interred here."

A staff materialized in Bishop's hands. "So I believe what you should say is... thank you for your service, Bishop!" She swung the staff, passing it through Eternalis, and a small ornament at the end of the staff expanded into a large, glowing ring, encircling Lyntael and dragging her along. It was only a simple swing of the weapon, but the wide arc was enough to carry Lyntael all the way to the gravestone Bishop had apparently set out for her next arrival. She held Lyntael above the gravestone as it activated, and then... and then............!

...and then nothing happened. "Hm?" Bishop shook the staff a little, but the gravestone refused to entrap her. "Oh, drat. I was so certain, since the book had called you here..." She frowned. Bishop set Lyntael on her feet upon the ground, releasing her from Bishop's staff, and she stuck the butt end of her staff into the dirt. All around them the rain continued to fall, fitting Bishop's somber sighs. "Well as you can see, the Memory Fault does not make errors about our inmates! The gravestones perform a scan of the code of navis placed above them, and only entrap if a navi has degraded enough to be considered irreparable and dangerous. The code is proprietary, so I cannot allow you to read a sample, but it was coded by the best minds at SciLab."

With her explanation finished, Bishop swung her staff again-- accidentally or accidentally-on-purpose flipping up her skirt for a brief moment in the process-- but this time she did so more as something to keep her hands busy, twirling the staff round and round like a parade performer. "Unfortunately, I can't allow you to leave." Bishop said. "I don't mean that I won't allow it, I mean I literally don't have the permissions to deactivate the barrier from the inside. We'll have to go find Management, deeper in the Memory Fault."

The term "Memory Fault" struck a strange chord with Harke, as he listened to the explanation about how it was built to rid the network of wayward souls. Certainly, the idea made some degree of sense, but at the moment, there were two perfectly functioning Navis in his view, and one of them was quite audibly opposed to the idea of being permanently shelved in a cemetery. His chip folder was already close at hand, as he felt that a confrontation was about to take place.

Harke's intuition turned out to be partially correct, as Bishop wielded a very long staff that immediately captured Lyntael, completely bypassing Eternalis's protective position. "Lyntael!" Eternalis exclaimed, as the circular prison around his friend began to activate. Sparky was quicker on the draw, with a thunderclap booming out from his body as he dashed up directly towards Lyntael's body, in an attempt to tackle her out of the entrapment, though he was repelled onto the ground, tumbling around on the watery path underneath with a yelp. Eternalis swiftly followed suit, immediately disappearing into thin air and reappearing directly under the gravestone in order to attempt to bodyblock Lyntael from being... absorbed (?) into the gravestone.

However, the anticlimactic followup left him frozen in place, watching Lyntael get set down onto her feet. This time around, his instincts immediately set him about approaching Lyntael and holding her, regardless of the risk posed from her previous reactions. "Hey, you all right?!" he said in a panic. Meanwhile, Sparky stirred up after being repelled earlier, and saw that their friend was in good hands. The pup quickly took up a position between the two and Bishop, growling at the latter that had so threatened them.

Eternalis quickly turned towards Bishop, and barked out at her, almost in tandem with Sparky at his feet. "Hey, if your code is so error-free, why would it lead us here in the first place?! What's the big deal?!" he said. Before he could lash out any further, however, a crackle was heard next to him, and a link screen opened up, showing Harke's face through it.

"Excuse me," said Harke, his face displaying a serious expression through the screen-- though it faltered briefly as Bishop twirled her staff about in a strange show of sorts. "Er, I'm Eternalis's operator, Harke. I'm sorry for the interruption, but I can't sit by and let you lead these Navis around without an explanation. What is this 'Management', and why would we need to go there if you already have privileges to execute these... uh, funeral rites, for lack of a better comparison?"

The moment seemed to stretch to Lyntael, standing before the blank tombstone as Bishop responded with her cold rhetoric. It really was the sort of thing Rogan might say, and it horrified her to hear it coming from another navigator who surely must think and feel and live as keenly as she or anyone else did.

"It... It doesn't work that way..." subconsciously, Lyntael was surprised to find that she felt as strongly as she did about this, but in having to examine the idea properly for the first time that she could remember, she was finding that it felt very important to her indeed. Small sparks were beginning to jump between the strands of her hair and snap audibly as her voice grew more insistent on the matter; Lyntael herself didn't seem to notice the beginning signs, but Eternalis had spent enough time around the girl to recognise them by now. "You can't just replace someone like that, they aren't the same! And... and if you've imprisoned so many, and some of them aren't even dead... that's horrible! They need help, not—" she was cut off by Bishop's sudden movement, shrinking back behind Eternalis when it looked like the woman was moving for her after all. It didn't help and panic set in the moment Lyntael felt her weight shift as she was entrapped by the woman's staff.

"Ahh—" the small initial shriek was cut off by the lurch of her feet coming off the ground, and static reverb of her barrier expanding out was the next thing to happen as the girl curled away and flinched inwards on herself. She began to struggle next, thrashing to get free of the red ring, but all to no avail. "Stop, don't! Let me go! Let me—" Her limbs extended as she tried to find an edge to the loss of gravity while bishop moved her around, eyes closed in a panic. "Go!" The shrill word was accompanied by a crash of electricity that exploded from her body in an expanding wave, accompanied by a rush of wind that drew in from above and blasted outwards around her, attempting to thrust everything and everyone around the girl away. For her part, Lyntael barely felt the recoil of the expenditure, her charge kicking back with a rush set her shaking and smaller cascades of sparks rippling off her body in a smaller radius.

It seemed as though Bishop had probably dealt with her share of genuinely hostile programs in the past, however, and Lyntael found herself positioned over the tombstone only a moment later, still partially curling in on herself from the aftershock of her outburst and casting around with a panicked expression; her heart had jumped straight to an overdrive thump and she was panting to keep up with it while fear-fuelled tears were beginning to form at the corners of her eyes.

"I'm not! I'm not, please don't—" she drew in further, trying to shield herself from the situation, but when her eyes squeezed shut, other senses took over. Unable to escape or move freely, unable to get away. The burn of static in her limbs and the terror of her mortality. Her clothes were still damp, and no-one was there to help her. It was cold. Echoes of SciLab loomed up, and if she'd been calmer, Lyntael might have been able to remind herself that that was in the past, but for the moment the sudden panic overruled.

In the moments that followed, the weightless sensation ended, but Lyntael didn't manage to stay on her feet, hunched up as she was. Instead she staggered down, collapsing mostly to the ground and rolling over onto her back; the wet ground soaked the back of her vest again, and for the moment she was back in that same cold lab again.

Someone reached for her, and Lyntael saw the leering grin and the silvery knives; she scrambled over and tried to crawl away, or hide behind one of the lab benches, but He was there again, putting hands on her shoulders, and she lashed out at Him in desperation, kicking and punching as another crash of lightning rolled off her in response to the grabbing. "Get away! Don't touch me, Don't touch me!!" Bursts of static channelled from her strikers, flaring bright, but it didn't remove His presence. Her clothes were gone again, and she tried to curl away, sobbing violently as she reached to desperately cover her intimate places from her attacker. A moment passed, then another, and the arms holding her did nothing more than that. Her pulse rushed and Lyntael blinked trying to catch her breath, then slowly raised her head. Not there. Somewhere else. Her clothes were fine; He wasn't here, and it was Eternalis trying to comfort her. Her eyes widened as her mind tried to re-order itself, both hands leaping up to her mouth as a completely different type of fear jumped to the fore.

"Oh gods, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to! I'm so sorry! I thought... I thought... I saw... I..." she trailed away, swallowing as she struggled to get a breath and hold it. From Etenalis' perspective, Lyntael had reacted in blind panic from the moment he approached her, trying to crawl behind the nearest other tomb stone and lashing out as he attempted to check on her. Her other motions had been a very obvious covering action, one hand across her chest the other over her hips and groin as she tried to keep away from him, even though her clothing was perfectly intact and decent for once. At the very least, the girl seemed to be coming mostly back to the present now.

She huddled mostly, taking long breaths and trying to slow her heart rate while Eternalis turned to confront Bishop about her over-zealous actions. Eventually, mostly oblivious to the calmer dialogue being put forward by Harke, Lyntael pulled herself to her feet again, still a little unsteady. Her hair was still sparking, but she tried to move backwards enough so that any of her residual balancing pulses wouldn't' reach anyone else. She could feel the tears on her face still and she scrubbed at them and sniffed, trying to clear her sinuses.

"Why would you even do that!?" It came out as a broken shout, directed at bishop and partially overriding the final things that Harke was asking in a much more polite tone. "You didn't know what would happen! You don't know me! You don't know anything about me! You don't know where I came from, or who... who created me. What if I'm not... the same, as another navi!? What if your... your... prison, read me as broken? Just because I'm a bit different, or... or because there's some things about me that... that I can't control. You didn't know! You had no idea! Why would you... why..." she broke off, panting and struggled for breath in between attempting to swallow moisture back into her throat. "I am... I am... broken. In some ways... It's not my fault! It doesn't make me any... any less of a person. Any less alive, or real. How many? How many like me have you got trapped here? Have you checked yourself!? Have you tried it? Do you feel safe trying it on yourself? Would you?" Her challenges weren't particularly rational at the moment, and a small part of her mind knew it, but most of the rest of her was still trying to pull herself back together from the brief flight of terror that the incident had caused. Unconsciously she hugged at herself, hands holding onto her upper arms tightly. She hadn't really heard most of the exchange about being let out, caught up a she was; her shoulders shook and she swallowed again, taking a long breath.

"Ha! Ha ha ha! Oh, you are an interesting one." Bishop either elected not to respond to Lyntael's freakout, or she simply waited until she could respond to all three speakers at once. "So, you're wondering why I'm so sure about the fact that this place works, and you're wondering why I wouldn't, say-" Bishop gently hopped up onto the same tombstone she'd scanned Lyntael with, and for a brief moment a barrier formed around her. "-do this?"

"Navi ghost detected. Beginning interring protocols..." The automated voice came from the tombstone beneath Bishop, and for a moment it seemed the priestly navi had been hoisted by her own, er, tombstone. She calmly turned away from the duo as the barrier subsequently deactivated, and the voice spoke again. "Error: Staff Member. Returning to idle status." As the voice finished speaking, Bishop grabbed her veil, grabbed her braided silver hair beneath it, and she held them both up as she leaned back, inadvertently showing off her figure... not that anyone could look with what the two navis were seeing.

The entire backside of Bishop's head was a crater of corrupted data, going deep enough to almost reach her face from the inside. The two could see her teeth and the inside of her mouth, in fact, and likely the only reason her mouth wasn't illuminated when she spoke was because of her hair and her veil blocking the light. Three gold, concentric rings had been fastened to the wound on the back of Bishop's head with digital-looking screws, and data was constantly flowing back and forth between the rings and what remained of Bishop's head.

She let the two get a good, long look before she leaned back up, replaced her hair and her veil, and hopped off the gravestone, staff in hand. "As for why I cannot open the exit, I assume that much should be obvious now." Bishop tapped her staff on the dirt beneath her. "We need management to open the gate, so to speak, because even a stabilized ghost like myself cannot. The rings keeping me sane and functional rely on the central servers of the Memory Fault to function; in essence, rather than being a standalone Navigator that leeches processing power ad-hoc from surrounding network architecture in the real world, I'm a program running on the Memory Fault server itself." With her explanation seemingly done, Bishop looked over the nearby graves. Rows and rows of them, all occupied. "...I would rather not go back to how things were previously by leaving, but there are others who would gladly attempt to subvert the reason for their exhumation. So the gate is closed while the book is active, to all but the management."

Bishop walked past both Eternalis and Lyntael, heading further in. "Come along. With your innocence proven by the Memory Fault's own systems, management shouldn't have any reason to keep you."