The Vault of Stars

[Reinholdt]

[21F]

3... 2... 1...

When the effects wear off, it may be extremely weird that anyone could forget the beautiful catgirl even for as long as they did! She's just there! Leaning against the wall as she has been.

Of course, Reina doesn't have much of an idea as to how long it takes for the effects to wear off so she's not even ready to do anything cool or dramatic. Instead her head is tilted forward slightly as she catnaps peacefully, getting a few precious seconds of shut-eye. Truly cats can sleep anywhere if she can do it standing up while surrounded by chatter. And a one minute nap beats out a no minute nap, that's for sure!

[[brackets lover]]

[21 F]

"Yeah. Let's be quick about it." Asami begins to walk to the teleporter before stopping in her tracks, suddenly noticing Reina. She tilts her head as the catgirl seemingly snoozes. "HEY WAKE UP!" shouts Asami as she stands right beneath Reina. Asami follows up with a mocking giggle, covering her mouth with her fist. Immediately afterwards, she walks away without saying anything else, moving to the teleporter and waiting for Oniko to follow.

[Shadowcaller]

[21F]

Reina seems to have lucked out in that the teleporter relies on something being physically present in the center of the room to activate, rather than relying on intent like her cell did, further solidifying the elevator parallel. It brings her to her destination without a hitch.

Meanwhile, ignorant of the catgirl among them, Oniko and Yorumi continue with their respective conversations.

"...Um... y-yeah, I guess you don't want to leave that behind." The horned girl nods, crossing her arms after Asami breaks out of them. "We can go grab that right now, if you want. It sounds like something useful to have."

"Oh. Well then." Yorumi gives the drone an affectionate pat on the side, as though she were dealing with a floating crystalline puppy. "I can see that... maybe working? It would depend a bit on whether she's smart enough to realize she's going outside, I guess."

[21F]

3... 2... 1...

When the effects wear off, it may be extremely weird that anyone could forget the beautiful catgirl even for as long as they did! She's just there! Leaning against the wall as she has been.

Of course, Reina doesn't have much of an idea as to how long it takes for the effects to wear off so she's not even ready to do anything cool or dramatic. Instead her head is tilted forward slightly as she catnaps peacefully, getting a few precious seconds of shut-eye. Truly cats can sleep anywhere if she can do it standing up while surrounded by chatter. And a one minute nap beats out a no minute nap, that's for sure!

[21 F]

"Yeah. Let's be quick about it." Asami begins to walk to the teleporter before stopping in her tracks, suddenly noticing Reina. She tilts her head as the catgirl seemingly snoozes. "HEY WAKE UP!" shouts Asami as she stands right beneath Reina. Asami follows up with a mocking giggle, covering her mouth with her fist. Immediately afterwards, she walks away without saying anything else, moving to the teleporter and waiting for Oniko to follow.

[21F]

"Only one way to find out." Dena replies and is about to do that when Asami shouts draw her attention to Reina, causing her to have to do a double-take.
How was she there all of sudden and why was she sleeping?
The question of why Asami's first reaction to seeing her was to shout loudly also occurs but she was pretty sure that she already knew the answer to that one.
"Reina? Is that you?" She turns on their radio communication as to confirm it was with her and she wasn't talking to some evil clone of the catgirl.
The gorgon reaches out to touch her shoulder as to make sure she was real.

[Ironsmith]

[21F]

"...Huh." The horned girl shrugs. "You know, if that is her, that'd be really conv-"

And then Asami.

"Yeah, sis, yell out into the corridors with the guards partolling around, real smart move." Yorumi mutters, making no other effort to either stop her or get them out of sight on the off chance Asami's actions did, in fact, alert a guard somewhere.

After a moment of hesitation, Oniko starts to follow after Asami, pausing a bit next to Dena. "...Right. Um. Don't die, I guess. Not as helpful as I thought it would be."

And with that, she leaves after her friend, once again splitting the party.

[Reinholdt]

[21F]

"AAAHHHH!!" Reina's tail poofs up as she jumps approximately eight feet in the air, at a hyperbolic guess. "I was listening to everything, I wasn't asleep you little-" The red face of the catgirl screws her lips shut before she cusses out the stars.

Taking a moment to smooth out her fur she frowns as Dena touches her. "Yeah, it's me," Reina says, immediately turning down her radio to stop the feedback loop. "I figured out how to get out of jail and probably get out of the tower. I am an expert at treasure hunting after all. What happened to follow me by the way? Were these children blocking your path?"

[[brackets lover]]

[21 F]

Asami puffs out her cheeks a bit and looks to the side as she's called out by Yorumi. Asami is clearly embarrassed, not addressing anything said in a bid to move on quickly. "Um... I don't remember what floor my room was on," Asami says nervously to Oniko, prompting them to choose the floor in Asami's stead. Or maybe Oniko doesn't know either and Yorumi will have to tell them both. Either way, upon arriving on said floor and assuming there's no other obstruction, Asami will start walking towards the room she shared with Yorumi, seemingly having remembered the path at least. "So... I'm really one of you guys, huh? All this time and I never knew. What about my powers, then? Are those part of being a star-person, too?"

[Shadowcaller]

[21F]

"They're star-people or something and I've been busy figuring out how to get out of here before I rescue you in case we'd need to get the hell out of here after that. Since apparently we're contained here by a magical wish if these 'kids' are to be believed." She gestures at any child that wasn't Asami.

"Right now the plan is to see how Violet does escaping and we'll go from there." Technically the plan had been to save Reina first but as Dena had half-expected, she had done her own rescuing.

[Ironsmith]

[21F]

"...Hey, don't look at me like that. I'm older than both of you assholes." Yorumi mutters. "Than both of your species, even. Than the concept of an asshole. 'Kid' is way underselling it." The teenager crosses her arms, rolling her eyes in that petulant way only teens ever seemed to truly master.

In tbe midst of this conversation, any of the doors at the ends of any of the hallways can be accessed, and Dena will find they even open on command; if Oniko is to be believed, probably because she's attempting an experiment and not an escape. By all appearances, she shouldn't have any trouble sending Violet outside... though that might end up depending on the exact command given.

[-> 6F]

Fortunately for them both, it seems as though Oniko does, in fact, remember which floor Asami was on. Or is very condifent in her guess. She reaches up to the runed circle and flicks it to the appropriate position, that bizarre tugging sensation briefly returning as they zap to a different floor.

"Probably." She notes with a smile. "Somebody made a wish on you when you first came down here, it sounds like. A lot of us get a bunch of little quirks tied into us based on the wish made. Like... my wish was for chaos. To a lot of people, that makes me one of the bad guys, so I look like one of the bad guys, as mortals understand them. Somehow that also translates to lightning powers. Still not entirely clear on why, but they come in handy every now and then."

The horned girl's smile fades as she regards Asami. "...Listen. I... I really am sorry about how this all played out. I really thought I was helping you. I didn't mean to... to mess up your memory like that." She puts a three-fingered hand on Asami's shoulder. "I'm going to make it up to you, I promise."

[Reinholdt]

[21F]

Reina waggles her finger at Yorumi. "Age can't compete with experience." And it sounds like the star people have been locked up a very long time!

The catgirl nods at Dena. "Right. Though, the tower didn't seem to care about Violet to begin with so I don't know if we'll learn much. But we can get a route out of a good scouting mission at the very least. Go for it."

[[brackets lover]]

[6F]

Asami nods along with the informative explanation. Then, the subject of Asami's memories comes up again. Oniko still seems guilt-ridden, so Asami shoots her a reassuring smile.

"I'm really not upset at all. This is all new to me, so i'm excited!" Asami declares comfortingly, "I'll definitely accept your offer to make it up to me, though! Sounds like that'll be something really fun."

Assuming Oniko is successfully soothed, Asami rushes ahead, having seemingly memorized the actual way back to her room. In a hurry, she runs in and out of the room to grab her phone, coming back in a matter of seconds unless something's around to draw her attention. "Alright, I got it," she says, showing the device to Oniko, "Now, lets get my diary and then figure out what to do about those two strangers."

[Shadowcaller]

[21F]

Reina waggles her finger at Yorumi. "Age can't compete with experience." And it sounds like the star people have been locked up a very long time!

The catgirl nods at Dena. "Right. Though, the tower didn't seem to care about Violet to begin with so I don't know if we'll learn much. But we can get a route out of a good scouting mission at the very least. Go for it."

[21F]

"...Hey, don't look at me like that. I'm older than both of you assholes." Yorumi mutters. "Than both of your species, even. Than the concept of an asshole. 'Kid' is way underselling it." The teenager crosses her arms, rolling her eyes in that petulant way only teens ever seemed to truly master.

In tbe midst of this conversation, any of the doors at the ends of any of the hallways can be accessed, and Dena will find they even open on command; if Oniko is to be believed, probably because she's attempting an experiment and not an escape. By all appearances, she shouldn't have any trouble sending Violet outside... though that might end up depending on the exact command given.

[21F]

“This seems to be more than just the turret so we’ll see about that.” Dena reminds Reina before she issues the mental order for Violet to move out through the same way that they entered this place. Hopefully it was still open if there was a wish keeping everyone inside.

Dena is going to take up her little scrying orb to observe what Violet was seeing. But she’s going to move up to the same exit just to make sure that she wouldn’t miss anything that happened to Violet.

“So how did things work out with those guards? How manageable were they?” She asks Reina at some point before they get interrupted during this process.

[Ironsmith]

[6F]

Asami nods along with the informative explanation. Then, the subject of Asami's memories comes up again. Oniko still seems guilt-ridden, so Asami shoots her a reassuring smile.

"I'm really not upset at all. This is all new to me, so i'm excited!" Asami declares comfortingly, "I'll definitely accept your offer to make it up to me, though! Sounds like that'll be something really fun."

Assuming Oniko is successfully soothed, Asami rushes ahead, having seemingly memorized the actual way back to her room. In a hurry, she runs in and out of the room to grab her phone, coming back in a matter of seconds unless something's around to draw her attention. "Alright, I got it," she says, showing the device to Oniko, "Now, lets get my diary and then figure out what to do about those two strangers."

[6F]

Oniko snaps put of her reverie, having apparently spaced out in the time it took Asami to grab her phone. Somehow. "Oh! Right! Your... diary." She grimaces. "The diary you owned from your first time around here. The diary you wrote all the stuff in. The diary given to you for the express purpose of recording your thoughts and feelings. Your diary."

Oniko winces, looking at Asami with a definite twinge of guilt behind her eyes. "...That diary?"

Little sparks jump from her horns as she lets out an agonized whine. "...You, um... you remember how I represent a wish for chaos?" She asks, tapping her claws together anxiously. "And how that diary's been in my care for the past, erm... decade?"

[21F]

Reina waggles her finger at Yorumi. "Age can't compete with experience." And it sounds like the star people have been locked up a very long time!

The catgirl nods at Dena. "Right. Though, the tower didn't seem to care about Violet to begin with so I don't know if we'll learn much. But we can get a route out of a good scouting mission at the very least. Go for it."

[21F]

“This seems to be more than just the turret so we’ll see about that.” Dena reminds Reina before she issues the mental order for Violet to move out through the same way that they entered this place. Hopefully it was still open if there was a wish keeping everyone inside.

Dena is going to take up her little scrying orb to observe what Violet was seeing. But she’s going to move up to the same exit just to make sure that she wouldn’t miss anything that happened to Violet.

“So how did things work out with those guards? How manageable were they?” She asks Reina at some point before they get interrupted during this process.

[21F]

There's a pregnant pause as Violet proceeds toward the now-open exit. As Reina previously mentioned, the effects of the enchantment keeping them in can be unpredictable, and if the attempted egress is foiled, it could come in alomst any form. There could be a barrier over the exit that neither she nor Violet could percieve. The door could slam shut just before she reaches it. Or the hallway could magically extend itself so any approach to the exit is offset by an equal increase in the remaining distance. Or the guards could be magically alerted and brought to their position to foil it more conventionally. Or turrets could pop out of the walls and blast Violet to pieces. Or the drone could suddenly polymorph into a carp that doesn't have a chance of flopping its way out of the open door. Or-

...Or none of that.

The drone passes through the exit without incident. It just takes a very long, very tense moment.

"...Huh." Yorumi shrugs. "...Guess that means I could have been sending letters out all this time. Damn."

[Reinholdt]

[21F]

"The whole tower is one weird, collective oppressive consciousness," Reina replies to Dena. Inside or out, all the parts seem to have the same goals. Or goal. Keep the stars here. To that end, it tries to keep others out and when they slip inside, they get trapped too. Silly intergalactic security.

"The guards here are dumb and oblivious to mortal needs. Their naivety makes them more dangerous than anything else. They were going to legitimately let me suffocate to death without a second thought, and I doubt Vaultkeeper Sato has seen a prisoner in thousands of years. Time also seems to be a thing they don't understand. Sato may still be around on one of the upper floors though if we want to find him and put him over the ringer." Reina pauses to adjust her tiny thief clothes. They really don't cover enough. "Also unusual is that the prison is all the way down on floor two and not floor one. Less air the further down you go though, so I don't know if checking out floor one is worth the risk or not."

[[brackets lover]]

[6F]

Asami's smile wanes as Oniko keeps speaking. She looks stunned for a moment before slouching forward, a frustration scribble appearing over her head. Oniko may recognize this as Asami habitually uses her domain of light to express herself, mimicking symbols used in animated works.

"Seriously, man?" she complains, sighing a bit, "Ok then... Lets just go join up with the others, then."

[Ironsmith]

[6F]

"You sure? I still have a few intact pages." Oniko offers, shrinking behind her hands. "It's not all gone, there's just... probably less of it left than you'd like. And those aren't exactly, ah, bound..."

She grimaces, holding her hands over her eyes. "I shouldn't even go with you. I'm going to end up vaporizing something important at this rate." Which is clearly a problem, given how much more intensely Asami reacted to losing her diary than she did to being murdered. "I'm right up the hall there. Right side. I'll just... wait out here, I guess."

[[brackets lover]]

[6F]

Asami shrugs, discontent. "I... guess that's better than nothing. And stop acting so beat up about it! Sulking about it won't bring my diary back. Er..." she narrows her eyes, "Will it?"

Finally, Asami scratches the back of her head and gets a move on. Seeing as she's looking for something scattered, she takes her time and slows down. In fact, on the off-chance some of the pages ended up in other rooms, she activates her X-ray vision and peers through all the rooms in the hallway, her eyes gleaming golden.

[Shadowcaller]

[21F]

There could have been worse clothes to wear, since at least those didn't hinder Reina's movements or could get stuck on things.

"Like the whole prison is employing elves as guards." Insane. Dena remarks with a frown. Since that was dangerous indeed.
She would clarify that it wasn't the kind of elves Reina usually thought of when she heard the word but that could wait after addressing what Violet had indirectly discovered.

"But it looks like at least drones can pass through." She turns to Reina and Yorumi. "Does anyone want to test if the rest of the rumors are true? The system might have malfunctioned after all this time." It did look like a lot of the facility hadn't been maintained for some time which would explain a thing or two.

Violet will continue on until the drone perceives itself to be a safe distance away from the vault, which would be as long as the range of the turret on its roof.

[Reinholdt]

[21F]

Reina raises an eyebrow, but isn't sure this is the place to address Dena's elf racism. Maybe another time.

"Uhhh... no. You can do that if you want." Reina's not here to be Dena's test kitty! Even if she does think she'd look really cute in a crash test helmet. Note to self, buy a crash test helmet. "The prison was very aggressive about not wanting to let me out, I really had to pull my best tricks. The systems seems fully operational to me. Violet's probably an exception cause Violet doesn't have a soul. It's likely beneath the tower's notice."

Reina's tail twitches. "Well there's another solution. We can just sell our souls to someone. Walk out. Ask politely afterwards if they do refunds."

[Ironsmith]

[21F]

"...Don't look at me, I'm not buying." Yorumi crosses her arms and gives a little shrug. "And in all likelihood, if there's still anyone else in this tower somewhere, they aren't, either. We just don't do that."

The star frowns. "Hang on...did you say you were able to escape the prison? As in, the cage within the cage here?" She raises an eyebrow. "Is that replicable? Because that might constitute a way out of the whole damn vault."


[6F]

"...Probably not." Oniko agrees reluctantly.

Fortunately for Asami, despite the apparently terrible luck Oniko's had with keeping the diary together, that apparently hasn't extended so far as to send the pages into other rooms. But in looking, she'll incidentally discover the features of these rooms anyway; for instance, her and Yorumi apparently have a next-door neighbor whose entire room is essentially a shrine for a single katana, while across the hall there's a room consisting of a wood stove and an array of rotting pies. Golden stardust lines the floor in all of these rooms, as she's likely come to expect by now.

Oniko's room is a bit strange, even by those standards. The floor is covered with fine sand, soft and flowy, with intricate patterns carved in furrows and circles around it, unevenly spaced and wavering in their depths. The center of the room is dominated by a large glass tree, scorched and cracked along its surface. Asami will find what remains of her diary tucked between its branches near the very top, rolled up into a bundle and wedged there for safekeeping.

...About thirty feet off the ground.

Somehow.

This room didn't look that big when Asami came in, but apparently Oniko somehow got extra space privileges or something.

[Shadowcaller]

[21F]

Well, since they had no test kitty person it looked like they needed to assume they couldn't just walk out so Yorumi's line of questioning seemed most promising right now.
"Yeah, how did you escape, Reina?"

[[brackets lover]]

[6F]

Asami groans upon noticing the notebook, temporarily setting her phone on the ground and jumping up thirty feet, reaching for the diary pages and being careful to avoid touching the tree itself, uncertain of its fragility. Despite this, she fails to account for the "THUD!" when she lands. Thus, to compensate, she grabs her phone and holds the diary pages securely, dashing out of there.

She briefly scans the hallway for guards as she returns to Oniko, moving ahead towards the portal-elevator. "This is it, right? No other pages anywhere?"

[Ironsmith]

[6F]

The tree shakes ominously when Asami lands, bits of dust and sand coming loose from its branches as the impact reverberates through it, but thankfully, it doesn't immediately collapse on her or anything.

Oniko is, of course, still waiting out in the hallway, leaning against the wall and looking back and forth for any guards. So far, the two remain unaccompanied.

"...Yeah, that should be everything." Oniko nods. "I know it isn't a lot, but it's still got to be better than nothing, ri-?"

She's cut off by the sound of an almighty crash from her room, with the cascading sounds of glass breaking several times over and the residual noise of shards raining onto the sand.

"...It's okay. I can make a new one." Oniko is quick to reassure Asami. "You're still allowed to be mad about the diary. No way are those two things equivalent."

[Reinholdt]

[21F]

Reina shrugs sheepishly. "Can't tell you. Or rather shouldn't. I learned enough in the cell to know the tower was capable of learning my moves from what I was saying and doing. I already don't know if the tower has developed a counter-measure. I don't if it even can, but that's probably because it doesn't understand the magic behind the trick. Sort of how levitation stops being interesting when you realize how many strings involved. And where to cut them."

She waves her hand. "That said, I do still believe I can replicate the situation. A very limited number of times for a very limited number of people. Basically, when we're ready to go, we need to go. Would it be best to just abandon the situation and leave now? We're basically agreed that there isn't any real treasure here besides an exploited species of stars and that we're not able to do anything to alleviate the larger situation?" Reina's not particularly happy with either of those results, but sometimes you have to trust your instincts and pull out of a dangerous situation while you still can. The catgirl especially eyes Yorumi in this moment, looking for the input of someone who's been here much longer.

[[brackets lover]]

[6F -> 21F]

Asami shoots a brief glare at Oniko. "I wasn't aware I needed permission to be mad about that," she says sarcastically, proceeding to the teleporter and waiting for Oniko to catch up. As she stands there, she quickly checks her phone to see if it has service.

[Ironsmith]

[-> 21F]

"That's not... I didn't..." Oniko stammers. She doesn't manage a coherent sentence before rejoining Asami on the teleporter, and seems to give up afterward.

Meanwhile, Asami will find that her phone does have service... technically. At least once she gets above ground again. The Vault is, after all, a little bit out in the middle of nowhere.

[21F]

"Eh, could use a little change of pace." Yorumi shrugs. "You can only sit in the basement playing video games and eating cheese puffs for so long before it starts to get a little stale. And since my neighbors are apparently all dead, there's not much reason to stick around here."

[Shadowcaller]

[21F]

Yorumi was in remarkable good shape despite doing that. The benefit of being a star child or whatever Dena supposed.
"So you're saying there's nothing of real value here then." She confirms, sighing internally.

So this grand adventure they were to have would be pretty underwhelming in the loot department.

"Alright then, I don't know what kind of mysterious magic my colleague her is employing but I'm gonna trust her on it." Certainly more trust than she would have in just trying to run out of here.

[Reinholdt]

[21F]

"Ok then. Let's see... wait. Hmm. I don't know how well this will work with a group, I never thought to ask. Well why don't we-"

Oh. Asami and Oniko just showed up. That elevator is... well, highly advanced. They need one of those back at MERC. "You're back. We were just about to leave. You coming? Got your phone and everything? Or do you want to stay here and discover the history of your people for the next twenty thousand years or whatever?" History takes way too long to learn, there's just so much of it!

[[brackets lover]]

"Pfft," Asami snorts, flashing a grin at Oniko and ruffling her hair affectionately. Then she speed walks to rejoin the group, carrying the diary pages and her phone in her arms and holding the broom shaft in one hand off to the side.

Asami tilts her head curiously at Reina, questioningly responding, "Just like that? Ok..." Asami followed closely by, keeping watch at the back of the group in case guards start coming towards them.

[Ironsmith]

"...Yeah, I guess there really isn't anything left..." Oniko mutters, sparing a glance at the one door labeled with warning signs and internally wincing. "...Sorry, Ikari..."

"...Any of us get disintegrated, I'm blaming you." Yorumi helpfully informs Reina, giving her a little punch on the shoulder before taking a place next to her sister.

[Shadowcaller]

Dena moves close to Reina as the rest of the group arrives.
"So what's the reason you can't tell? Since I admit it's making me a bit nervous considering you seem a bit unsure if it's going to work or not." She asks in a hushed tone.
She'd say something to the others but it didn't look like they were especially interested in talking. Not that she could blame them, this was hardly the time nor place to socialize.