Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Or so it goes."

She seems busy, a glowing instrument in her hands. Wires emerge, created from the fog itself around her, snapping and hissing to life before fading back into greys.

You are handed a bag. It's a simple bag, tied with loose string, locked in the center. At one end of the string is a key.

"Go on," urges the Goddess, her smile crooked but hopeful, "open it up. I have a gift for you."

There is nothing inside.

"Oh." the Goddess is suddenly clenching and unclenching one hand. "A small error. It's okay, I can fix this." Her gaze intensifies, "With your help, I can fix this. Could you fetch me more parts? I stored them in my special labs but it's getting a little cluttered down there. Just look for the chests, they should be inside. I don't need everything it holds, just the heart." They pause, before giving you a pair of scissors. "That should do the trick. Just the heart. They don't need theirs after all," their expression turns turns wry, gentled at the corners with remorse, "...they didn't quite make it."

You turn to leave as the Goddess beams at you and gives you one last smile before you walk towards the thin opening. It's just a small box, a very tiny opening. It is dark inside. You think you hear something, steady thunks.

You step inside.

Nush moved back, seeing now that the goddess was gone. There was just a statue. Or rather, statues. The empty pedestals were all about as well. He let out a breath, then stared at the empty placeholders. He had to give this heart up.

One by one, he walked by them all.

After some deliberation, he placed the bag on the black plaque.

After he did this, the bag vanished, and suddenly, the memories he had just held were gone. He furrowed his brow, feeling a sort of void. He wasn't sure what it was he was missing, however. With a light shrug, he went on his way to the Shrine.

Aeruban stumbled into the Shrine, resting against the door frame with heavy breaths. His back gashed and the bag dripping. Memories of another, why is he having them? Why these memories? The more he dwelled on them, he finally recalled the voice of the woman from the first memory; "Naerina" to be the voice of the third and forth fragments he had given to the Goddess the day prior. Lifting himself off the door, he moved further into the sanctuary only to notice that the Goddess was not here, but the once empty pedestal is now multiplied to four. This time, each with a different plaque that came with colors and descriptions.

With the heart in hand, Aeruban placed it upon the Green Plaque Pedestal. He couldn't have been happier to get rid of it, really. The more he thought about it, the more the memories seem to drift through his thoughts. Why can't they leave him be? He didn't want them...

As he turned to leave, he could feel their afflicting grasp let go of him.

Warily walking up with the heart bag clutch closely to their own core, Klinail looked around for the goddess. It seems she's left them on their own. Oh well. They felt tired.

Oh hey, the statue is new?

Walking forward, they examined the plaque. Candidate.

Oh right.

Klinail eyed the four blank podiums, and placed their bag on the white podium. Feeling a sense of emptiness as the bag disappeared, their new found memories as well. It...hurts for some reason. They concluded it was probably because they just gave up something that was so hard to find. Letting out a small sigh, Klinail headed back to the shrine.

He stumbled back out, dripping and miserable and shaking again, and in some confusion he looked, stupidly, at the plaques.

They all rang true. He didn't know. He didn't--

"the consumption of too much."

The long lines at the clinic, after. And her, before, waiting for the doors to open at the exchange, with Lolita open on her knee.

He put down the bag on the dark green podium, and he almost fell in his hurry to back away.

"Please take it," he begged the empty space. "Please."

And with relief, he realized that his wish was granted. Numbness flooded in.

Slowly, gradually, his fingers stopped their trembling. Straightening, he turned, feeling so blessedly hollow that he was sure a gust of wind would make him sing like an empty bottle, and navigated through instinct towards the Shrine.

Vaneda returned to the statue, the heart she held carried tightly against her chest. She would offer to the goddess....She would offer to free herself from it.

But there was no goddess and only empty podiums. Even as she read the titles, it didn't register that it wasn't titles but in face...canidates. Her? A candidate of a goddess? She didn't want to.

But she did. That's what she wanted. Blessings and the power to know more. Those memories. She remembered them. She would remember them.

She knew the plaque even before her mind did, her body had moved placing her bag on the Black plaque. Malevolence. She had nothing left but that.

The memories of Garrett disappeared and she was left with nothing but a bitter resentment. But she couldn't say why? Turning to leave, she looks one last time at the podiums before shaking her head. There was something she needed....but for now she would return to the shrine.

When he returned to the shrine, the goddess was gone, but the statues were all there. Now what was he supposed to do with this?

He moved back up to her statue, and reread the plaque. It said something different this time, something about sacrificing his offering to one of the tiles. Alright.

He looked at the four glowing podiums, and read the plaque on each. They all resonated with him, but he had to choose one to offer up the heart to. Eventually, he decided.

He placed the bag with the heart onto the Gold plaque, for Hubris. It vanished into the podium, and with it, the memories of his brother. He felt lighter afterwards, but also felt as if he had lost something. Oh well.

He turned, and left.