That very moment the key was placed in the lock, Rasui grinned devilishly and vanished from sight, leaving behind a miniature green spark, which skipped for a second on the mobile device before disappearing. The spirit used his master’s body as a conductor to reach the object in the young man’s hand, much like the rest of its kind when this specific time came.
[Unlock], an ability every Key possessed, was to be used soon enough in the company of the few individuals of questionable luck that had received that one peculiar message in the early hours of the morning. Their lives would inevitably change from this point onward, yet change was a simple and common phenomenon in any dimension. Only defective existences could not partake in it. How much and if they resisted were facts that were meaningless, because any action in response to a certain change was a change nonetheless, even if the first mentioned does not come into effect. Struggle, complain, rebel all you wish. Becoming different is natural and can not be stopped. In time those fools would come to terms with and grasp it, the change that everyone needed, so that the loop may spin again.
“The fools, the fools, may they be blessed.”
The sticks began energetically dancing on the surface on the drums as the titan speakers pulsed along with the beat, and the singer of a half-red-half-green hair let out the first string of incomprehensible words, which resounded and faded like a yawl of agony in a pit of eternal darkness.
Cell City, a world of many, yet also a world of few. Once more the day began and the hustles and bustles of the citizens were the first orchestra to fill the streets of this enormous town. Pedestrians passing left and right. Youngsters occasionally zooming past them on their hoverboards, getting away by the skin of their teeth, all the while filling the air with laughter and snickering. Shopkeepers quarreling from the moment they rise about who crossed the line first. Avians clucking gossip. Groups of chameleons on a shopping spree. Fans and onlookers gathering for the live performance. Even the back alleys were teaming with life, with gangs of cool cats patrolling their turfs. Never did the cacophony cease in its whole, for some parts would remain lively, whilst others would fall silent.
One area in particular could never shut off all of its lights, nor cloud all of its noise be reduced to sound. The Underground. A flashy parade of colourful buildings, towering over everything, belittling all of their inhabitants as creatures great and small went on their daily routine.
“Ground” or “ground floor” was a rumor, a myth, in this area, for no one had ever reached it and come back to tell the tale. The many bridges, underpasses, passageways and various twisted constructions layered the area into levels and created the illusion that it on its own was a big house, hence the overall friendliness of the residents. The reason was such or the fact that ofttimes one was left with barely any space to breathe. Some staircases were far too narrow for even one stork man to pass through safely, not to mention the walls were rarely thick enough to block the neighbors’ conversation. Yet this provided a favorable atmosphere for acquaintanceship, as well as for rumors, both of which were quite profitable for different parts of society. There were innumerable individuals coming in and out this world, just like the countless brilliant signs hanging everywhere, thus one could never say who was listening or who was speaking for that matter.
That very day one of the prominent sheets in the background of this confusing canvas of ups and downs was the rough tone of Akiakane, a singer usually residing in Akasan, but had set up stage for a live performance this one time on the edges of the rooftop of a building, in front of which was an opening both upward and downwards. Her strong voice shattered all barriers and spread like wildfire through the streets of the floors above and to the few that could be seen beneath and even beyond. The intense emotions couldn’t allow panels to stop them and continued fighting the distance, whilst coming from that one vessel in one of the patches where the sky was clearly visible from a floor very deep below.
The majority of the locals were not pestered by the concert. In truth, they were overjoyed, since all the musical wonders headed out for Akasan the moment their stars began to twinkle and did not frequently return to their homeareas or go on tours. The arrival of the “Screaming Cinderella” sent the younger individuals in a state of euphory, whilst the more cunning adults sought to make a profit out of it and the two parties found themselves having an enjoyable time. Her unexpected arrival was on everyone’s lips and the bubbling in the melting pot seemed louder than usual. The signs that were equipped with lights shined brighter and those near the stage blinked in rhythm with the music. Street vendors shouted out their offers. Fans screamed and sang along. Today The Underground was festive, as always.
Far away from the rainbow carnival of music and games, life peacefully went on its path in the only commercial strip of the Lost Part, “Ot Trunka na Glog”, “Trunkoglog” or simply TG.
Owners swiftly swept away the leaves from the porches of their shops. Housewives of all species gathered in small groups to go shopping for goods, some carrying their little ones on their backs and others - on their tails. Gentlemen tipped their hats and bid each other “Goodmorning” on the street before passing each other and heading for work. A light breeze tickled the trees and they shivered in their deep green gowns. And the water gently splashed against the trolley as it steadily slid on the river’s surface, as if it were flying.
There were no tremendous crowds, no booming music, no quarreling that would disturb this serenity.
“Ah, I wonder what awaits us today on the other side of the river.” sighed Mrs. Monifa, the friendly elephant lady, owner of Zen café and teacher of the meditation club “Harmony”. Her expression was tranquil as she gazed out from the window on the second floor, only to see in the distance a cooking pot flying out from one of the windows of Zhabunyak, one of the renowned teashops in their humble district.
“Dear me, Sir Bingwen is at it again.” she sighed and headed downstairs.
The faint buzzing of insects, a sound similar to that of the cicadas of the human world, played that day as well, under the sunny rays of summer and that minty green cloudless sky.
Entering the forest that was the Lost Part, one would find themselves surrounded by echoes. A world of mystery within a world that was a mystery, various odd and bizarre beings let out calls from the unknown, hidden away between the flora. Others fluttered around, such as the duhcheta, which joyfully swamp through the air, chasing each other without making a sound. They bore great similarity with the trees. Quiet, yet alive and moving actively. Whilst the huge trunks did not make any evident movements, beneath the surface they continued piercing the structures, which formerly housed in residents. Spreading their roots as far as they could, staircases ofttimes became entangled and treacherous for travelers. That was one of the many traps and obstacles in the way of outsiders. The indigenous species of the area did not seem to mind this, for they prefered to keep this paradise locked tight with them inside. The woods were calm and placid, without a worry or a care.
The gap between the Lost Part and Violent Junkyard in atmosphere was so wide, you would have trouble picturing them existing in the same world and being adjacent.
The thundering of collapsing buildings made the ground shake. It was as if a beast had awakened from the depths of the earth. A battle was raging in the distance, within the inner lanes of the area, with beings crashing into structures, making them collapse and sending debris into the air, creating more junk to fill this desolate forsaken place.
Uncanny may it be, but in this raging zone of abandonment a pink blob rabbit twitched it ears and sniffed the air. An adorable little creature it was, with a smooth shiny surface and circular black eyes with two highlights. It hopped outside of the storehouse, the roof of which was tattered and missing in parts, and ran through, what could hardly be called, the streets. Broken lamps, chunks of concrete, poles, torn wires, flat tires, raggy toys. Layers upon layers of unwanted items were stacked together, hiding the solid floor. The walls and shelves looked as though they could collapse at any moment. Yet there was still life there.
Hounds scavenged for lingering mortals, their jaws open and white tongues sticking out of their black skulls. Some of them, after an unsuccessful search, hissed at each other and commenced fighting, biting and hitting each other with their tails.
The kokili, on the other hand, were far more peaceful and strolled amidst the ruins with grace and poise. Wrapping their long thin rope-like tongues around objects, they sucked the emotions stored within by the ones, who previously owned them. Most of these odd tall creatures did not pay attention to the happenings around them, but the younger ones occasionally looked up at the lavender sky whenever they heard the loud battle cry of a familiar boisterous rabbit girl, who engaged in combat once more.
The destructive factor of this area did not come down even today.
Each and every human that had unlocked a door found themselves suddenly falling through darkness, a neverending night, with such a high speed that if they were to open their mouths whilst looking towards the direction they were falling, they would feel pain from what was most likely air hitting the back of their oral cavities. In a human’s sense of time, not long passed before beams of light sprang from beneath and shot beside them. One by one they disrupted the darkness and soon everything was completely white and all of the individuals found themselves accelerating. Noise filled their ears from out of nowhere. It was a mixture of many things, voices, engines, animal calls, machines, devices, such a great quantity that one could not be singled out from the rest. The volume of this disturbance rose until it felt like a hammer was bashing against their skulls and then, unexpectedly, sharply stopped and all became quiet, the bodies even halting in the nothing. This only lasted for a heartbeat before they were struck down like lightning to the ground.
Sofia screamed as hard as she could with a few tears escaping her eyes as she fell through the darkness. The moment she had stepped through her bedroom door she had found herself losing her footing and being pulled downwards by an unknown force. It was strange and frightening, more than any nightmare she had ever had. She gripped her key in her hands pressed to her chest and retracted her legs to her body. When the flashes of light cut through this madness, the girl shut her eyes tight and waited for the worst. She couldn’t think of anything other than how harrowing this was and how her heart could burst at any second. Indeed, it was worrisome, for the child’s heart was beating so loudly and fast that she could hear it in her head and it seemed to her that it was faster than a colibri’s. Once the noise flooded her ears, she pressed her head to her knees and cried sorrowfully. This experience would no doubt scar her, thus she tried blocking the incoming waves with thoughts of her own, but none of that worked. Her head only hurt more. Finding that she was helpless in this situation, Sophie gave up on trying and awaited whatever horrible end awaited her. She only wished that she wouldn’t end up like a fallen ice cream or a dropped cream cupcake, for that would not be beautiful at all.
However, everything suddenly vanished. The noise, the brightness of her eyelids, the sense of falling, all of it. It took the young lady a minute to realize there was solid ground below her and that she was in some sort of strange position. Pulling her head up from her knees, she timidly lifted up one of her eyelids, in order to peek at her surroundings. To her surprise, there was a corridor in front of her and not a soul in sight. Widely opening up both of her eyes, she turned her head to look behind her and saw that she was crouching and that her back was pressed to a door.
“Huh? Where-?” Sophie began, but a ring cut her off to answer her question.
Relaxing her body to sit on the floor, the girl dug in what she presumed was her pocket and pulled out her phone. This surprised her, since she didn’t remember placing it there, yet her astonishment was replaced by curiosity as she read the words in a little window that had popped up on screen.
“ “Welcome home”? ” she read it aloud.
“This is my home?” taking a look in front of her and then at the phone again
“This doesn’t look like my home… S-still… it can’t be bad to… look around.” she told herself and didn’t even notice the fact that her newest companion, Valkyrie, whom she had named Candra, was standing next to her in full size.
Sophie pushed herself up and took a few steps forward, her phone in her hand. The hall looked like a standard entrance to an apartment when it came length. The floor was chequered with yellow and ginger squares, a smooth surface if we ignored the cracks where it met the wall. The lamps, which gave a sufficient amount of light, were pinned to wall to the girl’s left, one being in the shape of a flower, another - a sun and the next - a bird. They were childish and enough to cheer her up a bit. By the door had been a small rug, where people were meant to leave their shoes, yet the girl was too interested in the unknown to mind her courtesy. In front of her was a bookshelf, which had a cabinet under it and a single-door wardrobe next to it. What was noteworthy was that on the door of the said wardrobe was a long mirror, in which an average human could look at themselves in full height. It was in that very moment when her gaze fell on her reflection on the mirror that Sophie started panicking.
“Eh? EH?!” were her first words of disbelief when she saw what she was wearing.
“What? When? No, WHO? I-I never changed clothes! More importantly, I never had such a cute dress! It’s so fluffy, I’m gonna, no, wait!”[b] She frantically bubbled out as she pulled a bit at the knee length fluffy light brown dress, which had curls and swirls of white frosting around the neck area and shoulders. A piece of the attire remained in her hand when she pulled a bit harder and, after taking a sniff at it, she took a bite and exclaimed. [b]“It’s delicious! How come I’m delicious?! Oh, and look! It regenerated! No hole at all! W-what’s going on here, Candra-?” The last sentence she started while turning towards her new friend, whom she had seen in the mirror, but just as she pronounced her name, Sophie tripped over herself and, while battling to stay up in the purple knee high socks that made the floor slippery, fell to her left, Candra’s right, and in doing so her elbow pushed down on a handle. A door had been located near the end of the corridor and the newbie had noticed it just then, when she slammed against it and her weight pushed down its handle. The result was more than hilarious. A girl in a fluffy edible dress hand ridiculously slipped and opened a door and was now lying on her back with the most pitiful sad puppy expression. However, this quickly changed when she saw the contents of the new room.
“Wow, pretty!” she said while still on her back. Even if she was seeing an upside-down image, it was no doubt a lovely place.
Upon entering this room, one would without a doubt first notice the long stretch of tall windows to the right, which allowed a great amount of light to enter and brighten up the contents. In the center was a huge in both length and width rug with a floral pattern, atop of which was a big round table with three chairs, all of which were wooden and white. Above it was a ceiling fan with three wooden wings and two lamps, which were turned off.
To the left was a wall separated in two halves by the door that lead to the bathroom.
In the first half was a “box kitchen”, a special small square from the room where a refrigerator along with a sink and one short worktop, both of which had a cabinet below them, and a stove were located. There was also a ventilation system above the stove and a wooden hanger for utensils, such as ladles and spatula, was nailed on the wall.
In the second half, after the door, was a
circular bookshelf on the wall, uninhabited and empty, without a single speck of dust.
At the very end of the room, by the wall opposite that of the entrance, was a double bed facing the windows. On the beforementioned wall was another empty bookshelf,
a white dream bubble one. One would think that light would easily enter and bother a sleeping person atop of the bed, yet such would not always be the case. At the top corner of the room, where the wall with the windows met the one, by which the bed was placed, a tree had made a crack and had made its way in. This far, its branches had crawled by the ceiling and only spread above the bed, shading it with their lush leaves. Thus shelter was provided from the early morning rays.
Overall, the room was splendid and clean, located at the border between The Underground Main and the Lost Part. Outside could be seen a colourful street and a couple of five storey buildings, as well as the tall trees of the forest, many of which towered high above the flats. This area was notably calmer than the inner parts of the UGM, but was just as colourful and extraordinary.
During the time they had been falling, Rasui, or now Loki as he had been named, took the pleasure to observe and laugh hard at the expression his master was making. Humans were always taken aback and frightened by this standard procedure, but they never made the exact same face, despite having similar reactions. However, once the short of white appeared, the Key closed his eyes and awaited impact. He only prayed that they would not end up in Violent Junkyard, because he did not fancy living in a dump, a destructive dump on top of that. The spirit wished to be part of the party, to be in the tornado of thoughts and dreams, the vibrant, energetic…
“YES!” he shouted loudly when he opened his eyes.
Albeit he was resting atop of a bed, the keen senses his kind possessed told him exactly in which area he was. They were in The Underground Main! He couldn’t be more happy. For once luck was on his side and he didn’t have to live with dustlings choking him and kokili trying to eat his belongings. Pushing himself upwards, he instantly tried to scan his surroundings, but was shocked when his pretty little head hit the hard ceiling.
“That the?!” he growled while gripping his head with one hand and looked up. Apparently, it would be impossible for him to sit up straight in bed and he had to stay low instead.
“What’s this?” the young man questioned as he crawled and peeked over the edge to get a good view of his new abode.
The room was, lightly speaking, a mess. It was narrow or at least appeared such due to the many things that clogged it up.
The bed was not on the floor, but floating above it. It was held in this position on one end by a bookshelf, which was on Rasui’s left, and on the other end by a piece of wooden furniture, which can be described as a hard thick wooden panel in front of which was a desk, that was on Rasui’s right. In addition, there was another desk placed under the bed, which was by the well. This created a sort of workspace below the bed, but it was certainly not well organized. Old torn fliers, sheets of paper with meaningless scribbles on them, broken pencils, cupholders, cracked disks, empty dirty glasses and small boxes littered the desks. The bookshelf was full of strange old magazines, as well as clocks that didn’t work, toilet paper rolls and other cardboard boxes full of trinkets. There were also a few old radios there. Stickers, badges and parts of posters were stuck to the wood of this structure.
And that wasn’t all.
The rest was utter chaos. On the floor were scattered pizza boxes, cans, bottles and small tubes of a various kind, with all the mentioned being empty; two traffic cones, a fallen mop, party hats, banana peels, a fallen trash can full of paper balls, dirty rags, a torn tennis racket, ping pong bats, an electric fan, a keyboard with some of its keys missing, an airless soccer ball, empty sacks, a couple of magazines and many many more.
On both sides of the room there were bookshelves with just as many items littering them. There was even a huge sombrero atop one of them and a bowling ball in the corner. There was even a refrigerator between two of them with many magnets and wordless stickers on it that seemed to be working.
On Loki’s left after one long bookshelf there was a door, which lead to the bathroom, and directly in front of him was the door that served as an entrance and it also served the function of a notice board, with little pins and notes stuck on it.
Here and there were posters, either on the walls or rolled up in a bin. Everything was a colourful mess, it was as if a rainbow hurricane had passed through the room. To the Key, this was just perfect. There was a roof above his head and a place where he could sleep. No complaints could be heard from him. There were even windows, one small long one by the bed and a bigger one in front of the desk below it.
Amidst this kingdom of disorder, a peculiar being caught the black-haired spirit’s attention. A young girl with long brown braided twin tails, wearing a lovely open mauve short vest with a white shirt underneath and an even more delightful pink skirt, which reached her ankles on the back but was incredibly short in the front, was sleeping on her back on the rug on the floor. The top of her skirt acted out the role of a corset, for it was exactly on that line and was tighter there, making her chest pop out, at least from Loki’s perspective from above. She looked so innocent, with those white frills beneath the pink cloth and her relaxed sleeping face, and it made the young man grin from ear to ear. Not only was he being given a room, he was also being given service.
‘These extras are getting better and better each and every time… It’s not like I’m not going to share with master or anything, but first comes first serves, you know.’ he thought as he lightly jumped down from the bed, making from little to no sound.
’Heheee, she’s totally cute! But I should get a hold of myself. Play the gentleman! Play the gentleman!’“Excuse me, Sleeping Beauty-” Rasui began in his most gentlemanly soothing voice, but was cut off when a voice came shouting from above.
“Oh, so now he texts me “So, whatcha up to?”. ExcAUSE, me?! Who does he think he is?!”
“Girl, he is so not worth it. He don’t even give you a full sentence.” another voice came, this time from the apartment next-door.
“You got that right, girl!”
“I tell ya darling, he ain’t worth your time. He’s not bein entirely yours. Cut in half, you know?”
“Girl, you know what? When he comes over tonight, he’s just gonna get half of it. No questions asked!”
“Exactly!”
“But how should I reply?”
“Hmm, something like: “I’m doing good”.”
“Ain’t that too laid back? I wanna show him I’m angry, but not that I’m going Godzilla at him, you know?”
“Mmmmhmm, I know it, girl. Oh, wait, I got it! How about “Fine”. He don’t give you full sentences, neither should you.”
“Girl, you are a genius!”
The neighborhood drama queens ended by being the duo’s neighbors. Rasui felt like he was on the brink of losing his temper and wanted to shout at them to just text each other like normal people, but kept quiet for the sake of this princess. Forcing back his gentleman smile and trying to ignore what had just happened, he began anew while the women were still waiting for a response from that boyfriend.
“Excuse me for waking you from your slumber, beautiful bird.” he spoke whilst standing in front of her.
“But I must say that the location you have chosen will not be comfortable, unless it is part of the payment. If it is not, then may I suggest the bed? I admit it will be a bit cramped, but I’m skilled in tight situations.”
In a different area, but not less hazardous, the Librarian, now under the name Bookman, and 0Mari, whose real identity was actually Gabe, landed on the outskirts of the Violent Junkyard, close to the border with The Underground Main, the brilliant buildings of which could be seen in the far distance between the vibrating dusty haze. Television sets, monitors, ovens and other technological unnecessary objects lay below their feet, but the layers were only two or three, due to being close to the edge and sometimes a protruding piece of concrete could be seen sticking between the items in either white or violet colour, like an iceberg above water.
After a few moments a message came up on 0Mari’s phone, which was inside his pocket, giving him the greeting “Welcome home”. Once it arrived, a bright purple arrow appeared in front of the human, which only he could see. It pointed towards the structure in front of them, a huge cubic building made up of what seemed to be trash.
The entrance to this bizarre house was a big black refrigerator door. Once inside, one will either be amazed or horrified.
As mentioned before, all of the walls as wells as the floor were composed of junk. The windows were washing machine doors, but there was one in the kitchen that was a car’s front glass. There were no doors, other than the entrance and the backdoor in the kitchen, which was the sliding door of a bus.
The first space one would encounter would be a room split into two. To the right would be the living room and to the left - the dining room. The two were separated from each other firstly by steel shelvings on both sides, which were full of cardboard boxes, mechanical parts, pots, bells and all the other little trinkets one could think of that were old and unneeded, after which were two open spaces, one on each side, where doors should have been, and then boxes upon boxes would follow until they met the perpendicular wall of junk. A sort of corridor was thus created and at the end of it were three ovens on top of each other, where shoes or other belonging were meant to be placed, if anyone would dare take their shoes of at least.
Taking a turn to the left one would enter the so called “dining room”. Within it was a big table made out of a surfboard with guitars for gets. There were six “chairs”, two of which were upside-down trash cans and the other four being huge speakers. All of the above mentioned had curved metal trash tank doors glued vertically for backs. Other than the huge pendulum clock that pointed at thirteen minutes before twelve and did not work, the a globus hanging from the ceiling acting the role of a lamp and the three washing machine door windows, there was nothing else, unless you wished to count all the junk that created the ceiling, walls and floor, and in that case it would take far too long, more than a human lifetime.
If you were still standing at the entrance to the dining room, to your right would be the wall at the end of which was another opening, which lead to the kitchen. While the first described room was wide and spacious, this one was narrow and long. It had a total of five refrigerators, only one of which worked and the others were used for storage. Once standing at the entrance, towards the end of the wall that would be to your right would be the sink along with a worktop made out of microwaves, none of which worked, but were also used for storage. The big front car glass was opposite the sink and provided a good view of the apocalyptic area. Megaphones hung from above, not having any light bulbs inside. From the entrance’s point of view, the left corner of the wall in the front was where the back door, an old sliding bus door, was located. It was made up of steel, had a window and even a purple curtain.
If you were to have taken to the right, rather than to the left, after entering, you would find yourself in the “living room”, which looked more like a gym than anything else.
The floor was surprisingly not made of innumerable little objects, but was the wing of an airplane. There were seven windows, three to the front and four at the right side from the “door”’s perspective. Many chains with rings hung from the ceiling and there was even a boxing bag in the left corner between the wall to the left and the one with the windows. By the wall in which was the opening, the “door”, there were three heads which seemed to belong to something resembling dinosaurs. Only the upper jaws had teeth and they served as backs for anyone who dared to sit down. There was no flesh on them and the material they were made of looked like bone, but was harder than concrete. They were all to the “door”’s right and were open and welcoming to any visitor. By the wall opposite them was a contraption, which looked like a gym press station, but it was made out of steel bones, and next to it was a pole with two TV sets pierced through it, one on each end. From left to right were two bus poles with a few handles still hanging. The walls were still made out of junk, but there were more street signs to be found here.
Once stepping inside the living room to the left would be another opening, which divided the wall into two thirds and a third. It lead to the bedroom, a “lovely” resting place for anyone. On the walls were hung bear traps, axes, chainsaws, explosives and even crane hooks. There was an anchor to the right of the door and it was the only object other than the bed, which was a hammock tied to two stop signs. Yellow warning tape hung behind it, in that little space between it and the wall, on which was a single window. This tape also stretched across the walls, contributing to the decoration.
There were two openings in this room, both to the left, one of which actually had a curtain for a door.
The bare one lead to a “creative” room and the other - to the bathroom.
There was nothing much that could be said about the bathroom. There was nothing more than a toilet, a shower and countless pipes that passed through. Its “door” was past the “creative” room’s.
The first door lead to
peculiar stairs, which were formed from books and glass of several layers placed on top of them. Near the top of the stairs there was still empty space, yet the glass could still hold an ordinary human and not break. They lead to a smaller square room with many steel bookcases, many of which were empty, one
couch-like console bookshelf and one
with a seat entirely in it. This little room was on top of the big square house and could be used as a lookout tower, having a window on each wall.
This big house was surrounded by steel frameworks, forests of poles and wires and piles of junk. There was no noise in the close perimeter of their hearing and no obvious threat, but before 0Mari and Lib could cross what seemed to be a road made up of trash and enter their new home a
strange black cat with the head of a TV crossed their path and stopped in the middle. It let out a broken meow, much like when the signal was being lost, and approached them curiously. Yet it once more held to a stop, hissed, turned around and started climbing the wall of their house. The cause of this sudden shift in personality would be revealed to the two individuals soon after by the clattering of mechanical jaws that followed. A pack of ten
"junkers" came from behind and had them cornered.
Evanna, or Flux as her username was, and her new companion Bear came across quite the unfavorable situation the very moment they entered the world of Cell City. Right after the message came, the arrow pointing towards their homebase appeared, but their residence was nowhere in sight. The place they were given was in the Violent Junkyard, far away from their current location.
The duo landed on the leafy forest floor, the old white and green tiles barely visible beneath the grass that grew between their cracks. Miniature balls of yellow and turquoise flew away from the spot, startled by the sudden arrival of the visitors. A few creatures let out calls of alarm before all became silent once more and in front of the Player and Key was nothing more than the serenity of a lush green forest with stairways embraced by nature.
They were situated on a terrace of sorts and behind them was a rusty mossy railing, beyond which one could see a beautiful panorama of the Lost Part. Skyscrapers conquered by flora, with lovely flowering trees poking their colourful branches outside its windows and growing on its edges, and many storeys above them being pines and even higher - only bushes. Strange birds flew in the clear minty green sky, their peculiar calls echoing. Trees stood tall and grew even larger into the distance, going deeper towards the core, standing like guardians of their home, their thick crowns not shivering once from fright. And between them from time to time one could spot staircases and bridges entwined with lianas and ivy poking their way through. It was a maze, a strange world that defied technology.
Before the very eyes of the two guests was a staircase facing them with its side, the stones of which had green polka dot moss and small flowers growing on them. It lead upwards to a platform, from which followed glass stairs, perpendicular to the first, which connected the mentioned stop point to a white tile bridge. It stretched from left to right, its ends hidden by the trees. The woods seemed darker when staring deeper into them and sometimes strange sounds came from behind the bushes.
“What are you youngins doin’ ‘ere?” a male voice asked. It came from
a sparrow with a turban that had perched itself on the parapet of the platform.
In a similar way to Sofia, Julia, who was under the username River North II, and her partner Lucie were teleported inside their new home, at the very entrance. They were given a room in Alona Hotel, the only hotel in the Trunkoglog district of the Lost Part, and, unsurprisingly, the nature motif was rather prominent.
Below the feet of the two young ladies was a long dark cream carpet with
a soft light brown and black flower pattern. It stretched until the end of the wall that was to their right. The said structure did not connect to the one in front of it, but in length equaled one third of the distance from its beginning to the wall it would have connected to, thus forming a narrow corridor, a separation of the entrance from the rest of the room.
Once both the carpet and the wall to the women’s right ended, there was a reasonable amount of free space, enough for two average human beings to calmly pass each other. This was required, because that one corner of the room, which from the girls’ viewpoint was at the end of the wall that was to their left, was occupied by the enormous trunk of the tree that ran through the hotel. It was massive and what was visible to them was obviously a small part of the entire circle. The plant’s body did not only take the corner but a good space around it. Fortunately, as mentioned earlier, there was enough space for it and the residents to live peacefully.
When passing through the mentioned passage between the corner of the wall that didn’t connect and the trunk, one would see before their eyes two beds next to each other just big enough for a human that played basketball. The sheets and covers were neatly tucked in, being chocolate brown in colour; the pillows were flat and undisturbed by any shapes and there were two sets of towels on each bed, perfectly folded and ironed. Each bed had a bookcase headboard, but there was nothing placed on either of them, nor was there a speck of dust for that matter. The entire set was made of birch wood and in front of it was another carpet, just the same as the one before, that ended a bit before the wall that would be in front of the viewer.
To the left, a short distance after the trunk, began the windows. A total of three; one wide and two narrow, but just as tall, at its sides; they allowed sunshine to enter and light up the room. Of course, the rays were not direct, for there were thin celadon curtains, with small white flowers scattered on its lower parts, gracefully hanging from above. The windows were quite tall, thus there was little room between them and the ceiling. Other than them, the curtains and the trunk, there was nothing on that wall.
In the corner opposite the one the trunk was at, was a wire trash bin. Next to it, by the wall that would be before the onlooker’s eyes, was a desk also made of birch wood, atop of which was a lamp. It had two cabinets to the right; the one on top being a small drawer and the second that was below it - bigger and opened by pulling to the right; and one shelf to the left, below the top and glued to the planks that served as a “foot”.
After the desk was a set of wardrobes, which were not entirely visible. The beforementioned wall that did not connect was actually part of the bathroom and the beds were also positioned to another wall from the restroom. Thus a certain amount of space, bigger than the “antre”, was hidden from view, unless one were to cross the space in front of the beds and stand close to the wall with the desk with their back facing the windows. At that point the viewer would see a set of three double door wardrobes, under each being two large drawers. All of the furnishing was birch wood and smelled of old age.
They would be to the viewer’s left and to his right, after the bed, would be the final wall, which connected to the one behind the beds and to a smaller one that would be directly in front of the eyes. On that wall there was a door and in front of it was a small fuzzy dark green rug. This door lead to the bathroom, which contained a shower cubical stretching from left to right and directly in front upon entrance, a flush toilet to the left and a basin to the right. Some of the tiles were green and others were white and the lamp was in the shape of a flower and placed above the door, on which there were hangers for towels.
When it came to lighting, there was a ceiling fan with a light bulb and three wooden wings above the beds and one smaller night lamp on each headboard for late night readers.
The hotel room was generally clean, but little ant-like creatures could be spotted here and there. The atmosphere was calm and serene, just like the town and forest outside.
Behind the two girls was a wooden door with intricate carvings displaying an image of a big tree with small mysterious creatures floating around it. This was the only safe entrance and exit and it was slammed open.
“Darlings~ Welcome to Alona Hotel~ How are you feeling~? Do you need more towels~?” the creature, which had made such a loud entrance, chirped like an annoying aunt. It was an aviant to say the least. The bird had the build of an ostrich, but with long thin black legs and was covered in green feathers, including the thinner neck, and had a blue shine to them. It also possessed a crown of seven feathers on its head, which looked like half-blown dandelions, only their colour was azure. In colour it did awfully resemble a peacock, yet its voice was evidently a female’s, which did not fit the species, due to the fact that female peacocks were grey. Its gender was confirmed when it suddenly remembered to introduce itself.
“Oh, excuse me, excuse me. My name is Mrs. Paunova and I am part of the staff here at our lovely Alona Hotel. Ask me anything you wish, darlings~”
After the welcoming message sent by the system, the Map page of the Key Shop app instantly opened on all of the phones.
The screen was divided into two.
The left side showed a map of the perimeter with the names of different places, on the top left corner being a compass and on the bottom lect being a small square, inside of which was also a map. If one were to tap the said square, a map of the entire world would show up full screen. From there one could tap different areas, but only the unlocked ones would open and display information, whilst tapping the locked ones would do nothing.
The right side of the screen displayed the weather, the news of the area and available missions in the said area.
Above the two sections was written the name of the area each individual was currently at.
All of the skills of the Players were loaded and written in the Skills page of the app.
All of the Players arrived in Cell City in their In-Game attire.
All of the players started out with the sum of 20 Volts.
Level 1. Experience 0. Murder points 0.
Would those numbers change?
