whatisreal | A quest just for Iron!

[Before you stands a well-crafted timemachine, with the dial set between Past and Future. Beside the machine stand two plain hackeysacks with the words "Reformed Bandits" sewn onto their fabric. One of them hops forward to approach you and begins to speak in a muffled voice.]

Sir Iron! Villains from the future are preparing to battle against us in the present! Bright Bravery the Strong went ahead to try and stop them, but we have not heard from him since.

Can you travel ahead and make sure that everything is all right?

Edited 2015-01-11 16:29 (UTC)

I will most certainly do so! I can not stand by when Bright Bravery might be in need of aid!

[ walking up to the time machine and looking at it a bit curiously ]

[The timemachine seems to be made of a flimsy material, and yet you know it'll still be able to hold up to the rigors of time travel. The dial seems very easy to operate as there's only two settings.]

[The Reformed Bandit bows down to you.]

Oh, thank you, Sir Iron! Please let us know whenever you're ready to go, and we'll send you ahead.

[ turns back to the reformed bandit ]

Is there anything you can tell me about what danger Bright Bravery is facing?

The Villains are ones that seems fluffy, and yet is hard as rock. And they all speak in a strange, unrecognizable tongue.

[The Reformed Bandit shudders at the thought of the foul evil.]

We do not know much of it beyond that, I'm afraid.

[ nods as he takes that in ]

I will remember that. [ and a small pause before nodding once more ]

I am ready.

[Both of the Reformed Bandits hop back.]

Wonderful! Step inside the time machine and we'll send you to the future!

[ boop steps inside ]

[When you step outside the timemachine, you find yourself in a strange and unfamiliar room. Books line the shelves on the walls, but strangely the rest of the room seems empty...at least from your perspective on the floor. On the walls you can see four circular cubbies emitting soft lights in green, brown, yellow, and blue, though you'd have to climb up the bookshelves to look into them.]

[...Also, notably, if you look behind the timemachine, you'd notice that the door frame seems to be lacking a door, and you can look out into the plain white hallway. (Did the last room even have a door...?)]

[One of the Reformed Bandits flick the dial, spinning it to Future.]

Hold on tight. I heard the ride's bumpy.

[Then it smacks the slams the door shut and...nothing seems to happen. No flashes, no lights, not even dramatic shaking that one would expect from a journey between years.]

[But should you choose to open the door yourself anyway...]

[ looking around at everything in wonder :o!

gonna take a look out into that hallway first ]

[The hallway has similar circular cubbies lining the walls, yet no way to reach them.]At the end of it, you can see another doorframe on the left, also lacking a door, and a stairwell toward the right.]

[Things are still quiet, and there doesn't seem to be a single toy in sight...]

[ before he heads down that hallway, gonna peak at the bookshelves and see what books are on them ]

[The books have no titles...Though there seems to be faint outlines of where there may have once been a title, as though someone just picked off each the letters.]

[Most of the outlines are too faint to read, but there is one you can just barely pick out: What is Real?]

[ gonna see if he can pull that out ]

[With some wiggling and effort, you can pull the book out!]

[Looking at the cover of the book, you can only see the faintest outline of a rabbit. There may have been more, but it looks like the illustration had been scrubbed clean.]

[Do you open the book?]

[ brushes his hand over the outline of the rabbit before openning the book ]

[The outline gives you a faint sense of longing...]

[When you open the book, you find that all the pages only contain one thing.]

[Though gosh, there sure are a lot of that one thing.]

[ touching a random question mark ]

[As you touch the question mark, you see a memory...]

You're in a nursery, very similar to the one you left in the Past, but with toys scattered about the floor. You sit in the corner with a skin-horse that quietly rocks itself, the both of you watching the other toys as they continue their play. But a question tumbles itself way back and forth in your mind, before it finally escapes through your voice.

"What is Real?" you ask. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become Real."

There was one more question tumbling through your mind back and forth and back and forth and back and then it tumbles out of your mouth. "Does it hurt?"

[The memory ends before you hear the answer.]

[ Oh... Looks at that question mark for a moment before closing the book and setting it back on the shelf ]

[ Then he looks up at those cubbies and looks to see how one would climb into them ]

[They look as though they require careful maneuvering to get into, but if you were to climb above them, you could easily swing yourself inside one.]

[ going to try to climb and swing into the yellow one first!

[That's some fancy footwork you got there! You easily swing into the cubby and land on a soft pair of stuffed (toy) rabbit ears.]

[...and just the ears. There doesn't seem to be anything else in the cubby.]

[ takes a look at the ears before touching them, seeing if he gets a flash like from the book ]

A quest just for Iron!

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