Welcome to Gaia! ::

This room is one of the two large circular rooms on the map. Once you are all inside, the door closes behind you. The door seems to be sealed by some sort of Chaos and the room is covered in a dark fog.

This is the same fog that obscured the twelve paths in the Wilds and the path to the Observatory!

There is no going back. At least, not the way you came. You will need to find a new way out.

There is a sphere in the center of the room that looks like an orb with stars, constellations and astronomical phenomena. In fact, it looks a lot like the orb that is Urania’s personal item. But if you have been to Urania previously, you recognize it and know that, once activated, it can clear the fog.

It projects a voice that all in the room can hear:

“Fallen stars are needed for activation. If all fallen stars are used up, please supply more. If no more fallen stars are available, you can add your wish to a used star. A prompt for the type of wish wanted will be supplied. Once it shines, it is ready to aid in activation.”

Then the center opens on the sphere. Inside are these ‘fallen stars’. They look like konpeitō and are of a size that fits perfectly in the palm of both hands.

Then it adds:

“What is your greatest fear that you wish to avoid?”

Super Sailor Perdita, Senshi of Plenty

Another room. Another door that sealed itself shut. More eerie fog around them. Perdita was less worried this time. Something could still go wrong at any moment, but they’d gotten out of the last room. They could get out of this one, too. As long as they stuck together, they would be fine.

She kept telling herself that. For now, she still believed it.

Just as she had in the last room, Perdita took a few moments to look around. She didn’t want to miss anything important, even if their task seemed straightforward. She joined Belmont at the sphere once she’d seen all there was, considering it much as she had in the previous room.

“I can’t imagine it gets a great variety of responses,” she said. “Most people tend to have fears in the same vein, don’t you think? If it wants the greatest ones.”

Perdita was nonetheless considerate of Belmont sharing his own. She heard him, of course, but she gave no indication that she would tease him or use the information against him in any way. She simply offered him a supportive smile and fell silent, pondering what she wanted to say for herself. She wondered how advisable it was to share something so personal with what amounted to an AI, especially with Chaos all around them, potentially manipulating things. Then again, if it attempted some sort of psychological attack with whatever information they offered, at least they’d be prepared ahead of time.

So Perdita decided on the truth. “Friends and family in peril.”

She knew that must be a common fear, but at the moment it was her greatest concern.

Mechelen Squire of Lysithea

Mechelen had followed Ngome and Perdita’s group, leading her own with her. It seemed smart to stay together, and she tried to be smart wherever possible. Whenever possible. This…seemed like a strange room…with a strange…desire. It wanted to know their greatest fears? Why? Was this going to somehow turn their fears against them? Was it some kind of a trap?

Slowly, Mechelen reached in and withdrew one of the fallen stars. …It looked tasty, but she kept herself from trying to see if it tasted like candy…this wasn’t the time or the place to try but.

“I’m afraid…of letting down those I care about…”

It felt…right to say that. It was the truth, even if she didn’t like the truth…it was…what it was. And she couldn’t change it.

Her eyes flickered to Halle, Almere and Ngome and she gave a soft sigh, shrugging. “I’m not…really sure what else to say, I guess…”

[Emain Ablach, Squire of Earth]

He was not a fan of the door closing behind them, nor of the fog that followed, but it hadn't led to anyone getting hurt so far. At least, not yet. So when it happened again, Emain Ablach just took a deep breath and turned toward the center to see what it was they needed to do this time. Like before, there was an orb in the center of the room. He assumed that, like before, the orb would clear out the fog once they activated it. So how to activate it?

Fallen stars, eh? Once the sphere opened and people began to shuffle forward, Emain Ablach got in queue to gently pluck one of the stars from the center. They were... cute. Adorable, really. He found himself wishing there was a way to take one back with him. He could give it to Tobias.

Focus, focus.

‘What is your greatest fear that you wish to avoid?’

Oh.

A curious stillness stole over Emain Ablach's face and posture, some of the colour draining from his skin. His greatest fear was an easy one. He'd seen it in his nightmares.

He knew that he had attacked Zebulon as a Negaverse agent, had even drained him to unconsciousness from what he'd been told. Tobias had tried to make him feel better about it at one point after his purification, when he could no longer remember any of it, and told him that he'd told them he had a superior officer there and felt compelled to carry through with it to protect Zebulon from any worse.

But what if it had been worse? What if he'd done worse than drain Zebulon? What if he hadn't, and his superior officer had stepped in to take care of it? What if Zebulon's starseed had been pulled, glittering, from his chest, never to return? And Zebulon's body had fallen irretrievably to the ground? He wouldn't've been able to do anything to save him, and he would have been forced to watch Zebulon's body die. He would have gotten a text, probably, or a call from Diryas or Tobias once the body was found and identified. His nightmares were quite cheerful in giving him visions of Zebulon on a coroner's slab.

What if that wasn't where it ended?

What if Zebulon had instead been awakened? What if whoever his superior officer had been instead decided that Zebulon belonged in the Negaverse? Emain Ablach knew Zebulon had a firm moral compass, but he also knew from first-hand experience that that didn't matter. The timelines he'd been given told Emain Ablach he'd been an agent for years. He had become a captain. Others became generals before they left, if they left.

If they left.

Images came to Emain Ablach's mind of Zebulon as a Negaverse agent. Of Imhotep finding out and knowing, somehow, that Ransomite would been involved, of Imhotep taking his revenge. And Emain Ablach knew deep in his gut that rank would not have mattered. Imhotep would have murdered him. Then, images of Imhotep dying in vain trying to convince Zebulon to purify, to come home.

Just as surely as Emain Ablach knew Imhotep would have murdered him, he knew that Imhotep's entreaties would have fallen on deaf ears. Zebulon was a good man. But good people still became Negaverse Generals. Hadn't Emain Ablach followed one out of the Negaverse?

Imhotep would be left with the choice to corrupt or die. He would have chosen death. Leaving Tobias, with no one to protect him. Gentle, kind Tobias, grieving and turning to the one person that remained. His nightmares were equally cheerful about giving him visions of that, too.

Waking a heartbroken and distraught Tobias as an agent wouldn't have taken any effort if Zebulon were the one to do it.

Emain Ablach's response to the object in his hand was murmured, strained.

[Imhotep, Page of Mercury]

When he saw the colour drain out of Emain Ablach's face, a minute frown crossed Imhotep's. He debated asking if Emain Ablach was going to make it, but instead opted to remain silent. The Earth knight wasn't going to die. If he was going to die, then Imhotep would step in and ask if he was alright.

When it was Imhotep's turn, he grabbed one of the stars in his hands, certainly needing to use both to securely hold the object. It was the matter of his greatest fear that gave him pause. It seemed like such a terribly intimate thing to ask, and what if confessing it led to something bad later on? He glanced around, watching people speak into their stars. Well, there would be no shortage of material, it seemed.

When in Rome, et cetera.

But was Imhotep's greatest fear? Death? Of course he wanted to avoid dying. But there were fates worse than death. Forced corruption, for one, if some of the things he'd seen were any indication. Service to Metallia in general, for example.

He gave a surreptitious glance Emain Ablach's way, then turned his attention back to what he was holding.

He feared Zebulon and Tobias' deaths. He feared his family's. But those were normal fears. It was normal to want your loved ones to stay alive and well, wasn't it? Then he couldn't say those were his worst fears. They worried him, often to a great deal, but they were not what kept him up at night.

Blood splashed dark on the pavement. Blonde hair splayed out under a pale face gone ashen. Hazel eyes staring unseeing into the sky--

No. It wasn't his death, wasn't his death, that Imhotep was most afraid of, either. Again, there were fates worse than death, and fearing death was normal. Most humans feared death. And had he touched a hair on Tobias' head, Imhotep would have killed him, himself.

Blood splashed dark on the pavement. Blonde hair splayed out under a pale face gone ashen. Hazel eyes staring wide, too wide, terrified-wide as a hand closed itself around a pale throat. A figure in dark clothes--was the black symbolism or a conceit?--knelt down. Another hand splayed wide on a pale chest, but not to take.

No, to give--to give a terrible gift. A gift that had been given back, and didn't he know it was rude to return a gift?

Didn't he know he didn't have a choice?

Chaos welled up black and undulating around the hand and then, with a shove, disappeared into that chest as it rose in a choked scream. Hazel eyes were staring unseeing into the sky as before, but the pale chest continued to rise and fall in ragged gasps even after the scream ended. Then the breathing evened out.

And when the hazel eyes looked to Imhotep, to Promethei, to Amoris, there was no recognition there.

Imhotep glanced to Emain Ablach discreetly a second time. Briefly, their eyes met, and then Emain Ablach looked away quickly. His color was healthy, the hazel eyes bright, and there was no blood on the pavement. There had been recognition in that moment. His clothing was intact.

After a pause to ascertain that these things were indeed the case, Imhotep murmured nearly silently to his star, "them coming back for him."

Page Almere

Her fear?

She knew, immediately, what her answer was. Being alone, being weak? All of that had been her reality not that long ago. She'd used to be kind of a nobody, the one with no friends who sat in the back of the class, the one with only okayish grades and her head in the clouds.

She'd liked to pretend she was a hero in one of her stories, but if a monster had found her back then, she wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.

Now, she was magical. She was strong enough to protect people, and she was surrounded by people she cared about.

"I'm scared this is all another dream," she whispered into a star.

Although, she knew it wasn't all a fairy tale. She remembered seeing all those agents at that clinic. She'd been scared that something really bad was going to happen.

"But I'm also scared that if it's real, there might be parts I'm not ready for."

The sphere is silent as you make your wishes.

To Belmont: Your fallen star glows garnet.

To Perdita: Your fallen star glows navy blue.

To Tjilaki: Your fallen star glows ice blue.

To Mechelen: Your fallen star glows pink purple.

To Connie: Your fallen star glows deep pink.

To Emain Ablach: Your fallen star glows hazel.

To Promethei: Your fallen star glows light blue.

To Imhotep: Your fallen star glows silver blue.

To Halle: Your fallen star glows light pink.

To Almere: Your fallen star glows medium blue.

To Encke: Your fallen star glows magenta.

The combined power of all the new light from your fallen stars lights up the room.

You can now tell what room on the map you are in:

The library room is now active!

The sphere speaks up: “After inserting all the fallen stars, close the globe to re-activate the sphere.”










❂

The sphere speaks, answering Belmont’s question as if it had been addressed to it even though it hadn’t:

“Yes. If you take your star over to the edge of the room, you will see the shelves of this library. There you will find star maps.”


❂