Sweet Coding.

((Screws his partner, kicks waiting to the curb, and bumps the topic with his fist! RAAAAGH!))

<(What the fux? When'd Shin post when my back was turned?)>

Binary's invisible eyes were shooting left, right, backwards, and every conceivable direction at once, taking in the new surroundings from his perch in Myun's arms. He did, however, keep a few of his optics focused on the "MaleNavi", as well as a good handful of his audio receptors.

Chris, lacking optical units and audio receptors, decided to just keep his plain, organic eyes and ears on his head, examining the screen.

<(WATCH THE ROOM. WATCH THE ROOM'S INHABITANT. LISTEN TO STUFF. YOU KNOW THE DRILL.)>

The two walk in to find...a simple navi couple, sitting at a table in the middle of the room. Though were dressed in the same medieval peasant garb, they bore none of the weapons or other signs of being with the crusader mob.

"Oh thank heavens," the male navi spoke again. "It's just visitors."

"Hello Hello! I'm Red_Riding_Hood.exe, these are my associates, Myun and Binary!" Red cried, introducing her companions.

"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions? Ah, yes, of course. Don't bother getting me a chair-" the crimson detective began, pulling a fold-out chair and the script from her picnic basket, plopping the chair down a bit far from the table (about 1 foot) and sitting on it, flipping the script to the appropriate page. "I have my own," the red-caped sleuth finished, grinning ear-to-ear as Myun hopped up to her right, Binaryball held tightly secure in front of her. The two waited for a response.

((Red asked if she could ask questions.))

Binary was to be frank intrigued at the sight of the two Navis in front of him, but didn't say much of anything. He just continued to take in his surroundings and watch the two of them, unable to really do anything else without destroying his cover.

<(Binaryball watched stuff.)>

"Ask whatever you like," the female navi said, shrugging. "Not sure how much use we'd be, though."

"Alright, first of all, do you know any details about a navi named Damian? The mob outside is a search party for him, we know that much, but when he did come here, did he say anything? Like where he came from or whatever? And why are the priests so against him? Also, do you know who lived in that house with the filing cabinet?" Red questioned, accompanying the last one with a point in the direction they just came from.

Chris sweatdropped slightly; Red was being awfully... inquisitive. It wasn't like he could help it or anything, or that it was annoying, but it was certainly an odd way to greet people they'd never met before.

Binaryball made no comment on the situation, instead choosing to remain immobile and... basketbally...

<(IMITATE A BASKETBALL. PRESTO PESTO FETTUCCINE.)>

((Three days of non-moddage! Help us Asator! We need more fear!))

((Sorry. I blame school.))

"Damian...there were a bunch of weird circumstances with him," the male navi explained. "You may know how people have said there was a great evil inside him...well, as far as we know, this is true. On top of that, he would never tell you this, but his first memory here was specifically timestamped at six in the morning, the last June 6th."

"The priests pretty much latched onto this, and sent a group after him. Only they obviously didn't expect him to fight back before fleeing."

The female navi chose to answer the other question...sort of. Her response was a simple "What house with a...what?"

"Hmmm... It's a 666 conundrum," Red mused, twirling a pencil between her fingers.

"Well it is the common number of the devil," Shin commented, shrugging, while offering some more yogurt to Chris. "It's no wonder they thought he had some evil inside of him. Also, why don't you clear up your question for the missus here."

"Oh, so well, er- there are three round houses right? Like two other dudes with Constantine Symboled weapons live in one, and then there's this other one that has a filing cabinet, a radio, and like a coffee table. Do you guys know who lived there before?" the crimson crusader continued, before having another idea.

"Also, er- I'm not sure if you guys can read this, but please try," the red-caped wonder pleaded, handing the notebook she found in previously mentioned house to the couple.

Myun's eyes narrowed, ready to drop the Binaryball and snatch the notebook back if the couple decided to run away with it. It was an important clue to solving this place's mystery, no matter how useless it was at the moment. In preparation for this, the rabbit hopped a bit closer to the table, until her nose was an inch away. She would let her boxing glove covered ears do the taking.

((Red clarified an earlier question. Red asked couple to read notebook, if possible. Myun anxiously prepared to snatch it back should they start to run off with it.))

<(Rawr, I haven't broken the fourth wall yet, and since I can't really do anything here I may as well.)>

Chris dived for the offered yogurt, savouring the flavour before he spaced out once more, deep in thought....

Suddenly, his head jerked back up, his eyes wide and his breathing unusually heavy. He quickly turned his head slightly to the left; it had felt like there was somebody there for a second. Some sort of insane, cruel presence that made him want to run to the fold-out couch he used for overnight projects at SciLabs, and hide under it. Or a corner, that would work too. After a few tense seconds, he relaxed and turned his attention back to the PET as though nothing had happened.

Binaryball was also feeling rather tense, but for different reasons. He could feel Myun's tension vibrating through her paws and into his gel-based shell; data-based animals tended to have natural instincts akin to their real-world counterparts. It must be a good reason as to why Myun was on full alert, so he felt he may as well follow along.

<(Chris freaked out about my new avatar and somewhat broke the fourth wall. Binaryball tensed up and readied himself for something weird and unexpected along with Myun.)>

"Well, I don't know what those things are, at all, but I remember someone living there." The woman said, taking the notebook and staring at the print. "...I can't make anything out of this. And when he talked, it...wasn't much better. Sporkman was his name. I remember him passing through this village six times, each about a week apart. Each time, his grasp on reality...well...let's just say the last time he was here, he was a babbling idiot. The last coherent thing he said before leaving was something about 'this world' and how he still couldn't find his way out."

"As if his sanity wasn't bad enough without mentioning stuff like that," the man added.

The woman nodded in agreement, returning the notebook.

"..." went Red.

"..." went Shin.

"..." went Myun.

"SPORKMAN?" the all three cried out in their minds in unison, completely flabbergasted by this ridiculous name. Shin coughed to get the others back on track, before taking out pudding and pouring soy sauce over it. "I think... this is sea urchin now?" the ace thought, taking a bite.

"So er- besides saying he 'couldn't find a way out of this world,' what else has he mentioned?" Red asked, before taking out the script, and laying it in front of Myun. The crimson crusader took back the notebook and stowed it away.

"Look for Sporkman's lines in this script, there may be some clue," Red whispered to Binary and Myun, setting them to work. The rabbit furiously searched the pages for Sporkman's name and lines, while clutching Binary in her ears to have a good overview of the topic. Hopefully, Binary would be able to use some sort of recording function for the lines. Myun always stopped when she spotted the name, just so Binary would register it.

((Red asked another question. Myun went to work searching for Sporkman in the script))

Unlike the motley trio beside them, Chris and Binary didn't make that much of a fuss over the name. Chris paused for a moment, temporarily, silently shook his fist at the sky for some unknown reason, then went back to drawing, occasionally taking glances to the left. Binary did nothing, except register the name into his memory logs.

Then, Binary got the command from Red, and (without warning) took his perch in Myun's glove-tipped ears. His optics were scanning each page at a rapid pace, logging as much of it as he could into the ridiculously vast cavern of memory capacity stored within him.

<(Binary started logging the Horror Show into his memories.)>

"Something tells me you're not taking this guy's plight seriously," the female said dully.

"He mentioned a few places beyond this village, though not much of it made sense," the male supplied. He scratched his chin, trying to remember. "A pub, a graveyard, and a tomb. And he mentioned never being able to get beyond that, as though reaching a dead end."

No matter how much she searched, Myun could not find the name "Sporkman" in the script, with the exception of the lines detailing the current conversation. Binary had no more luck, except for a rather badly written name that could have been Sporkman at the beginning, in the cast list. The first page of the script itself, however, started with both navis hearing the voice and discovering the woods.

Binary immediately logged what he'd heard. According to the newly-registered Sporkman, there were three different areas beyond the village he, Red, and Myun were currently in. He also made sure to make a note of the impossibly bad cursive in the cast list; it could be useful, after all.

Meanwhile, Chris had suddenly started chuckling without much reasoning about the same time that the female Navi had started the list. "Pub, huh? Damn, where's Dad and Viktor when you might actually need them?" he asked himself, looking up at the sky and sighing, a mirthful grin plastered to his face.

Then, his grin vanished in place of a more serious game face, and he turned to face Shin. "Something's been nagging at me about this place. We've seen all these CustomNavis; Mani, Twilight, and the apparent Sporkman, and they're obviously not from this world. You'd think that the script would include them too, with their journeys in, but it only starts with Red and Binary entering the area. You think that all of them have their own stories of their journeys in this place too? And heck, just how many more 'victims' of the Forest are we gonna find anyway?" he said.

"That's possible. It seems the script probably writes itself through the adventures of the navis who've entered, waiting for each one to enter the village and pick it up," Shin mused, resting his chin on enclosed hands. "Red, we're leaving. They can no longer provide us with any more information," the ace ordered, furrowing his brow in thought.

"Damian, Twilight, Sporkman, and us... hm, and five areas. Forest of the Moon, The Village, a pub, a graveyard, and a tomb. I wonder what lies ahead," Shin thought as Red and Myun, storing their things away and picking up Binaryball, waved goodbye to the couple.

"Thanks for your help. We've got to leave," the crimson crusader thanked the couple as she headed toward the door.

"Where to next?" Myun inquired.

"The other three houses, then a way out of here," Shin replied. "Head to one that doesn't look like a bar and has people, there might be a clue."

"Roger that," Red replied, walking out the door, Myun with Binaryball close behind. The three headed toward one of the rectangular buildings with people inside that didn't look like a tavern, bar, or pub at all, and knocked on the door, asking if they could come in.

((Move from round house to elongated house that has people in it that doesn't look like a bar, pub, or tavern.))

The couple waved in return as the two left.

As they approached the next house, the smell of blood and melted circuits met them almost immediately. The door to the house swung open on its own, revealing a navi, near deletion, lying on a bed on the far side.

"Whoa crap," Chris said, blinking rapidly at the sight of the near-gone Navi. His hands immediately flipped to his chip folder, but he didn't have any standard Recovery chips on him. He sighed in defeat, before his eyes suddenly lit up.

"Shin, get your Candle chip out; any Recovery chips too if you have them," he said without looking, slotting in his own copy at the same time.

In the Horror Show itself, Binary had immediately sprung out of Myun's hands, readying the use of the Candle. Forgoing the basketball disguise seeing as the Navi was in no fit condition to be surprised, he broke his shape and withdrew eight tentacles from the rim. Immediately, he stabbed them into the ground, where they popped back out of the floor a ways in front of him, converging at the tip and forming a sort of eight-sided pyramid structure. The very tip of the pyramid suddenly began to glow with a white light, creating smoky lines of code that swirled this way and that.

It probably wouldn't be enough to completely heal the Navi, but it might be enough to sustain his life a little longer with Red's help.