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Destiny City is hosting an annual scavenger hunt during the Star Festival to encourage people to get out and explore their city. The prize for turning in a completed scavenger hunt is a coupon booklet and a few free tickets to upcoming city events. Even if you aren’t interested in the prize, the scavenger hunt is specifically designed to take you through the city to showcase a few historic buildings, some art installations, and some of the city’s greatest accomplishments. While many of the places are familiar, during your explorations you come across a building you’ve never seen before--something that feels out of time. You’ve been in the area countless times before, so how did you miss this place? When you lay eyes on the building, you feel a strange timelessness and have the distinct sensation of being a part of something bigger. Briefly, you may see flashes of some distant past--a flickering memory that you can’t quite place or fully form. It’s hard to make out, but at some point in time you have the distinct impression of a faded figure taking your hand and telling you to do something. They sound hopeful and encouraging, like they really believe in you. By the time you blink, the visions are gone, the building is gone. The only thing that remains is a beautiful little garden and a plaque so faded that you can’t make out the inscription.
Erich sighed as he waited in the signup line for the scavenger hunt. Normally he wouldn't be doing such a thing. After all, he liked his privacy and would have stayed up holed in his rental cabin forever if he could, but there was a reason he was entering this silly thing. It was to get a better idea of the city and for the coupon booklet. He didn't really care about the event tickets and would probably just give them away in one of his classes, but he wanted the coupons. They were for very specific locations and one of them has the sport store that he frequented for his rock-climbing and hiking gear. And he was running a bit low on cash at the moment, so he hoped that these coupons would be a somewhat significant discount.
Once he had signed up and had the sheet in hand, he was ushered off in a random direction to start in which had thrown him off as he had wanted to plan the route. He eventually found a cafe near one of the sites and had been able to plan the rest of the directions and shortest route to all of the spots from there. The internet was very helpful in that regard and while one could call it "cheating" it's not as if he was competing against anyone else. At least not on purpose. He had seen a thread posted somewhere and had seen an argument breaking out and he decided to skip that stupidity.
Throughout the day he made his way to each spot, checking and making sure he had evidence of finding each one with him next to it before finally making his way to the last item on the list.
As he was walking though, he saw a building that he hadn't remembered ever seeing around the city before. It looked like any of the modern buildings surrounding the area, but he could have sworn wasn't there before...
Before he could think about it though the area around him changed and he thought he saw something... well like he was somewhere else. Whether it was a different time or not, but he could have sworn he was no longer in the city. And before he could curse and wonder what the h*** was going on, a flicker of a figure appeared before him, reaching for his hand. Before he could react they had grabbed it and pointed somewhere behind them and well... the voice sounded nice enough, but he was pretty sure this wasn't real and he wondered briefly if he was in the middle of some sort of stroke.
He felt his hand being tugged, and by the time that he could react and pull it back and blink once again, the building was gone. The figure was gone. And he knew that he was back in the city. And instead of the building in front of him there was now a garden with a plaque and some sort of faded inscription. Had that been there before? Erich stood there for a moment, trying to process what was going on before he let out a growl. "I should not have to deal with this s***." He muttered to himself, sure that something magical had happened and he had been forced into it once again. As much as he wasn't in the mood for it, he continued on his way to the final objective he made yet another mental note as to why anything to do with magic was to be avoided at all costs.
