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Nova listened to Takoon, personal heaven, huh? That made her think about something for a while. What exactly was a personal heaven for someone like her? Someone like [i him?] Did it matter really, no, probably not but she was curious all the same. She chuckled a bit as she tapped the gem and eyed the facial expression of the statues. No other gems huh? Weird. Surely the other gems would be around somewhere, or maybe-

Her thought was interrupted when a question was aimed at her and she furrowed her brow,
[+blue “Got into some trouble, last thing I remember is wandering into the forest for booze.”] She shrugged, [+blue “I probably pissed someone off, not unlike me.”] She said with a smirk. She had never been good at following the rules, always a tinder box waiting for a flame but she had survived until now so she must have done something right. He wanted to run the questions but she had her own. She would play the waltz for a while, why not? This puzzle wasn’t getting solved anytime soon.

[+blue “What about you, didn’t want your own personal heaven?”] He wasn’t all human, she knew that from the way his voice had been cracking and talking about an error code. He was also far too smart and certain things gave him away now and then. She couldn’t judge him really, either. She’d had that many implants and such that her brain was scrambled, or so she thought. Eyes, fashion accessories and such. She’d once been rich enough and opulent enough to afford it but an unfortunate fall from Grace had left her a little at a loose end.

Nova tapped her lip and rolled the inscription over in her head. Hierarchy, hierarchy, hierarchy... It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t a puzzle, she realised with a snap of her fingers.
[+blue “Clever. I think I know what to do.”] She giggled like a toddler who had found the cookie jar. She ran a hand through her hair and glanced over Takoon. Her memory was on the fritz and by the sound of it, so was his. Well, at least if either of them got the other killed they’d probably forget it.

[+blue “C’mere.”] She gestured and stood before two levers, gesturing to the other two.
[+blue “No one’s better. Pull them the same time.”] She commented, grabbing two of the levers. It seemed a little odd that there were four levers, she figured this was meant to be some sort of test for groups or something. Who knew?

[google-font https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Rajdhani:wght@300&display=swap ]
[center [+teal "It's different for everyone. Some come to get away, a long term vacation away from time and space, If you dig deep enough you could most likely be escorted to your own personal heaven. I've seen it. For others, they're drawn to this place like moth's to a flame. Something inside calls to them... I suppose i fall into the latter category. Then there's people who are pulled into the crossroads by accident. Well, like you.]]
The last time he was stuck in a room like this it took him days to get out. Though, this time he had a companion at the very least, and well, the door hadn't closed and locked behind them. So letting out a sigh he found his way to the base of the alien statue and took a load off. Pulling his leg up he leaned back and looked around the room. It was opulent and royal. The mansion loved it's mysteries. Even now after all this time he had no idea what sort of disgruntled lunatic built the thing, let along enchanted it with such strong magics. If he didn't know better he'd have believed it to be built by some sort of godlike entity. But in all his travels through dimension no such thing ever made itself present around him.

He could have helped Nova sort through the puzzle but as it stood, he had other questions on his mind that should have been addressed. He hadn't quite noticed it before. But there was something wrong with him. Some sort of error in his code, something was barring him from running certain routines in his head that he hadn't noticed before. Without his workshop's analysis room diagnosing the problem would be difficult and fixing it without the synth skin and bio replacement tech from his medical room would be like trying to do self brain surgery with a spoon. While his companion was assuredly smart, he wouldn't put that pressure on her, even if he could indeed talk her through it. For now it was best not to worry about such a thing. Instead he'd entertain himself with his questions about her.

[center [+teal "So, before this where'd you come from?"]]

[center He shifted back with his usual grin.]

Nova has to admit that was not what she had been expecting and she gave Takoon a look when he mentioned opening doors. Yeah, that one was on her. Maybe there was some truth to what this Mad Hatter was saying about magic. Stubbornness wouldn’t let her admit it though and she eyed him over. He didn’t look hurt, he’d even cleaned himself up a bit and Nova eyed herself over. She figured it was one of those things, no use cleaning herself up because she would be a mess again in an hour if this kept up. No more tricks up his sleeve, he said, why did she doubt that?

Nova supposed the best she could do was follow him. She had no idea how this place was such a maze of rooms and corridors. It was easy to get lost and even Takoon who apparently knew this place, had managed to get disoriented. They came upon another room with statues and gems and levers and Nova eyed it over. This wasn’t even a room, it was a chamber of sorts and Nova looked around, hesitantly trying to get her bearings on everything going on. It was a puzzle, she could tell that much and she inspected the statues. Nova racked her brain for a few minutes but given they had just escaped a rather problems and exotic death, she needed a moment.

[+blue “Why do you people come here? It seems more dangerous than homely.”] Nova murmured, sparing a glance at Takoon before looking back to the inscriptions on the statues. She recognised one as human like but the others she didn’t recognise. One looked vaguely familiar... hauntingly so as she squinted and was hit with a headache. Flashbacks, not right now. She winced a little and sighed, best not to linger and try to figure this out. Where were the other gems? If there was other gems.

[i ‘In order of importance, a hierarchy established.’]

The inscription was carved out and Nova thought for a while. Humans tended to be at the top of everything but her days travelling bore some reminiscent fog of memories that it could all change.

[+blue “Hm, top. It’s a list. What’s more important than the other?”] She hummed and sat down. She would figure it out. She wasn’t brawny like Takoon but she could problem solve if given enough time. She picked some left over viscera from her coat and hugged a bit, she had just had the glory of a hot shower and now she wanted another so soon after. Life was so cruel.

Struggling he somehow scrambled together enough time to load his plasma cutter. Luckily He managed to aim it at the zombie's head as it wriggled past his legs and onto him. The resulting trigger pull leaving both him and the ceiling behind the thing extremely messy as the head of the creature had been blasted in half vertically. With effort he shoved off the corpse and glanced up to see Nova unload into the necromancer. As with many things, hot lead was the solution to their problems. His human mimicking programs forcing the droid to pant after exertion he stood up onto his feet looking around the room. It seemed now that the Necro was dead all of his undead cohorts went with him. Thankfully too, because Takoon had run out of plasma cartridges. It was starting to dawn on him that his trusty sidearm was trusty no longer and painfully needed an upgrade.

Approaching a dining table the android pulled off the white table cloth and used it to wipe his face of viscera and grey-matter. The china and silverware crashing to the floor as he did so, taking a canteen of water from his bag and effectively using it as a wet napkin. Now what... The two of them stood in a bit of an awkward silence as the black fog at their feet dissipated. The corpse of the Necromancer fading into the air like ash being blown away slowly. Thing must've been incredibly old.

[center [+teal "You uhh... You handled yourself pretty well. Good job Nova. I've had humans from your age accompany me before, suffice to say they didn't all adapt to the situations presented as well as you have. Though, I'm fresh out of tricks up my sleeves, so lets not go knocking on anymore doors for now yeah?"]]

The doors acted as realms into an astounding number of possibilities. Now, there was a likelihood of them finding someone nice enough to help navigate the Mansions corridors. But at the same time, they were just as likely to find something much worse than a two-bit necromancer.

[center [+teal "Lets keep going, way back is still kind of lost, so the only way is forward."]]

He slipped his weapon into the bag and started off down the hall, with the hopes that his friend would follow. Half an hour and many corners later Takoon came to halt. They'd walked into an antechamber. Strange enough, it wasn't as if it was like the other guest rooms, no, this antechamber led to something different. With any luck, it led back to the lobby or kitchen. The droid motioned for his companion to open it considering it listened to her before. And like a charm it did. Slowly opening to reveal a large room with a marble floor and high-rise ceiling. Four statues stood in the center shaped as many different beings. One humanlike, but the others... they were alien... Or at the very least forms of something ancient and unusual.

A blue gem stood in the center of the human's forehead, and sockets for other gems lay empty from the rest... On either side of the room Takoon spotted four levers and upon closer investigation he zoomed in with his robotic eyes to see an inscription on each statue... [center This was a puzzle...]

[+blue “Wait, What? What?”] Undead? Zombies? Nova managed to catch a glimpse amidst the complete and utter chaos that was burning up in the room and she furrowed her brow. If she wasn’t involved in this she would have questioned it, maybe put it down to trickery but she was actually seeing this. She ducked down. She stopped shooting at his command and she took the moment to refill her ammunition, reloading quickly and she knew this gun so it didn’t take very long. She huffed some and hunkered down, watching Takoon. Don’t get bitten? What the fu-

Nova’s thoughts were cut off by Takoon’s nifty little trick. Okay, whatever he had used right then, she wanted one. She covered her ears at the blast and shielded her eyes as best she could, doing her best to adjust quickly because this was not a situation she wanted to be caught off guard in. Oh so that was why she had to move so quick? She moved out the way of the nearest undead, bonking it on the head as she moved and looked over to see Takoon having a merry old time with an undead, stinking mass trying to chomp down on him. Nova was glad she had reloaded as she stared at the necromancer before her. It looked frozen, bewildered, even.

Nova unloaded, round after round. Her aim was good thanks to her optics not glitching our constantly and she drew an elbow up to smack an undead in the side to knock it off balance and buy herself a moment of unleashing all of Hell’s wrath upon this thing until her gun finally clicked empty. There was a horrific shriek that echoed from everywhere, without warning the being just sort of popped like a blister, shadows and screeches echoing out and blasting smoky wind over her.

Nova slumped down and groaned,
[+blue “Hey, are you alive?”] She called, finally managing to process what was going on. She looked herself over, checking there was no bite or anything. She wasn’t bleeding from anywhere so that was a good start. No bite, no torn up coat and she smoothed her hair down, shoving her gun away as she managed to lever herself up, heart pumping with adrenaline which made her restless. She was going to regret expending that much energy later on for sure. Was Takoon bit? Was he dead? Nova found her bearings and ran a hand through her hair.

[+blue “I just showered! God damnit!”] She complained as she patted herself down for effect.

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A little mistake in the plan. A small bump in the road. And a judgement call he couldn't make. As the Necromancer took interest in the woman he took a knee digging into his bag for something. He had a plan, a new plan, a plan that couldn't-.. probably-... most likely-... honestly-... without-a-doubt, not-fail. He needed only to find it. With Nova taking all of the creature's aggro it gave Takoon just a moment to snag two small disk like contraptions from his bag. He only had two so he needed to make them count. Glancing over the hand sized chrome disk labeled [Rajdhani "Propulsion Grenade"] He flung one onto the middle of the floor. The other one would be a little tricky to place.

Bolting from his position he Aimed and shot the plasma cutter at the Necromancer severing one of it's many spindly arms. As it cried out it retaliated by breathing a black smoke across the floor and slithering behind a large cabinet. A toxic mist poured out across the room. As it did Takoon saw movement readings appear from the thick black smoke that now covered the ground. From it, the undead were summoned. Skeletons and zombies of various degrees and stages of decomposition. They climbed from the wooden floor as if it were soft soil and a shallow grave. As they rose Takoon cranked up his speed falling into a baseball slide to get behind the couch. The Necro weaving back and fourth between furniture across the room trying to avoid the bullets Nova was putting out.

[center [+teal "Now for part two. Do me a favor and stop shooting for a moment..."]]

He stuck the second grenade just on the back end of the couch that hid the both of them.

[center [+teal "On three move, and watch out for the undead, they aren't the murderous infectious zombie type, but they're still dangerous. Besides, if I'm wrong, i don't exactly have a cure for becoming a zombie yourself. So uhh... Don't? get bit?"]]

A devilish smile on his face as he pulled the burned out ancient cartridge out of his Plasma cutter and fitted a new one in. The old one smoking. The thing packed a punch but it could only hold one plasma cell at a time. He'd need to restore it to it's former glory but now wasn't the time. Holding his fingers in the air to count down from three he scattered from behind the couch and immediately taking the head off of one of the undead that were summoned.

The Necromancer with a laugh approached now that he wasn't trying to not get shot. And like a charm as he did, Takoon activated both propulsion grenades. [i literally blowing their cover] The first launching the couch at the Necromancer at high velocity. The second Launching both the couch, and the necromancer into the ceiling at dangerous speeds. Breaking both the ceiling and the couch. Also with any luck, The necromancer as well.

Reloading once more he was caught while ejecting a round, being immediately beset upon by another Zombie the thing all but falling on him trying to wrap it's jaws around him. The android left pinned using both of his feet to hold the thing off of him using his boots to hold the thing off of him by holding it upright by the chest, while he lay on his back frantically trying to load another plasma cartridge into his cutter.

[center [+teal "Nova! Finish it off he's stunned!"]]

Nova looked to Takoon. Run? Oh he hadn’t really planned head, she ducked and followed, dodging the hurling beast as she kept pace with Takoon as he ran. She eyed the mechanism he pulled out and saw him almost lose his head in the process. They were like two headless chickens, just running aimlessly but thankfully they came across a room. It was brimming with furniture, no dust just like everything else and she was about to ask about that when Takoon grabbed her hand and stuffed them both into a dressing closet, his hand pressed over her mouth almost immediately.

Nova stared at him, hearing the hulking creature in the room. Don’t breathe? She held her breath, repeating how she had chipped in earlier.
[+blue [i “Gotcha. If he doesn’t pass then we strike, what’s the worst that can happen?”]] She wasn’t sure if he would get her joking tone through the neurological transmitter but she hoped so because she was bloody terrified and would rather not have to face off with that thing. She kept her breath held, not something she was very good at doing evidently.

The creature shuffled around, knocking over something’s and sniffing. There was rasping noises, ragged breaths and hissing and Nova thought it was worse that they couldn’t see what was going on. The scuffing and cracking of twisted bones seemed to get further away, something broke and Nova could see red at the side of her vision, breath held tight in her lungs. Her face was flushed in colour and once the room was silent for a few seconds, she reached up and moved Takoon’s hand, exhaling and taking in a few deep breaths. She ran a hand through her dark hair and realised this was very cramped. She cracked the door ever so slightly, peering out the room. It looked a mess now, like a car boot sale. It seemed like the coast was clear.

[+blue “Remind me to practice holding my breath more.”] She said quietly and stepped out. Her gun was held fast in her hand and she was on guard still. A floorboard creaked and Nova glanced over, a hissing laugh emitting from the broken creature where it had waited right behind the dresser. Smart.
[+blue “Hey, Takky?”] She said, eyes wide as she lifted her gun and fired off a few shots, ducking as the thing moved towards her and she shifted to get shelter behind an old couch, whoops. It could hurt so it could die right? She peeked over the couch and fumbled for a little while as she reloaded and fired again, ducking as it roared and screeched. This was bad.
[+blue “If you have any plans, now’s the time you bright little spark.”] She called as she scrambled over some furniture to get out the way of the raging thing.

[center [size50 [+darkred "UuUUUUuuRRAAAHHHH!"]]]

[center [+teal "Clever... Now run!"]]

With a hiss and an ear piercing screech the creature cried out. And just like that the two of them had taken off down the halls of the mansion running from their predator. As they ran he pulled Nova around a corner and caught a glimpse of the Necromancer chasing them. It's Gangly limbs crawling along the halls of the mansion a lot like a spider, only much faster. As it followed the creeping black fog followed along with it. What the black fog was he had no idea. In fact, He didn't know much about the thing. Franticly he searched his databases to try and find some sort of information on the thing. While searching he was met with a reoccurring problem [Rajdhani Error, files under containment due to firewall lockdown] What the hell was that? He wasn't able to pull much aside from a bit of info about the black smoke. Toxic gas equivalent to cyanide in breathable form. Glancing over at his companion he hoped she had some sort of way to filter out toxins. As he did so the cyberman activated recording in his eyes with the hopes that should they forget their path it would serve as a suitable reminder. Peering over to Nova as they fled he dug into his bag pulling out the plasma cutter.

A Rigid old tool used in space mining he'd held onto since the first Iteration. He wondered if the thing even worked considering he hadn't ever needed it up until now. With a few buttons pressed a cylinder tightened, and a healthy slap the three guiding lights turned on and his trusty sidearm was active again. Only, The Necromancer had caught up to them now. Howling and screeching along the way. Takoon just barely ducking as it's arm acted as a sharp mandible almost cleaving his head off. He'd just gotten this new body he didn't intend on losing it.
[right [pic https://i.imgur.com/VJc0tvv.jpg?1]]

Another corner, this one led to an open room filled with furniture. Quickly he grabbed Nova's Hand and pulled her into a dressing closet along with himself shutting it as the Necromancer poured out into the open room. Looking around for them. Sniffing and trying to find where his prey went. Takoon brought his hand up to cover Nova's mouth. With no sound he resorted to using the Neural Receiver. She'd responded before so he knew she could hear him.

[center [i [+teal "Don't breathe. With any luck he'll pass..... Then, we go the way we came. The things old as dust he must remember the way back. Which means that we can go that way now... Either that... or we break out of this wardrobe... And attempt to blow him sky high..."]]]

The bullet from before. It seemed to have worked considering the Necro's Hostility. It meant that the thing Bled, and if it bled, they could kill it.

[+blue "Wait, Takoon what's going on?"] Nova remarked as she looked to him, now she was nervous because he was obviously spooked. Where were they gonna go? Nova gripped Takoon's hand when he reached out, through fear more than anything as the thing greeted them. She stared in disbelief, she really needed to stop drinking. She gazed at it, terror seeping to the surface. The thing towered over the top of them.

Nova stared up at it, frozen in place and her cocky attitude utterly diminished.
[+blue "We were looking for a way out."] Nova replied as coolly as she could, something twinged her head as Takoon's voice ebbed into her head and she wondered how he was doing that but she didn't question it, staring at this thing. She swallowed and a chill went through her. Undead? Not so nifty. She let go of Takoon's hand slowly and gazed at it. What was she supposed to do with a cutter thingy? She didn't even know how to use it.

[+blue "We didn't mean to disturb you, I actually have some decent booze knocking around if you want some."] She remarked, trying to play this all off real easy. She eased a little closer to Takoon, eyeing his bag and reaching in but she didn't take an eye off this creature. She gave a signal for it to wait just one moment. She fumbled around blindly, her fingers finally brushing something. She exhaled slowly.

[+blue "Got a name?"] She asked, trying to keep it occupied, maybe she could amuse it enough to buy them time and she traced Takoon's back with her hand and snaked down to his hand, slipping the object into it. She stared at the thing and got ready to run.

[i 'What is this thing? I'm ready to run and I have a gun.'] She thought, trying to see if she could get the communication thing to work for her. She was ready to run or fight and on guard, her cyberoptics looking over the thing.
[+blue "We'll be on our way now, no big deal, big guy!"] She remarked, no harm no foul, right? She was panicking a little and she slid the alcohol from her bag, rolling the bottle to the creature with a smile, she was sure that stuff would be better than tasting her and making her undead.

[i 'Go!'] She thought and immediately drew her gun, hoping Takoon had the same idea as she rang off a couple of shots, the blue strip on the handgun glowing blue and Nova's cyber accessories were glowing. A few strands of hair, the dappling of freckles and tattoos going faint blue in the dim light. The bullet ricocheted and she could hear the creature hissing in anger, or pain. Oh boy, did she hope pain.

[google-font https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Rajdhani:wght@300&display=swap ]
He was confused. The mansion had shifted and changed but... Why..? He knew the rules, so long as he remembered which hall led down-[Rajdhani Error. Command firewall detected memory bank corrupted.] so he didn't understand what exactly was happening. Maybe he didn't know it like he thought he did. Were the databases wrong? He had no idea, But as it stood for now he had a different problem. Miss Nova decided to be the friendly extrovert she was and knock on the nearest door for help. It was bad enough they were cut off from the entrance but now he had to wonder what was behind door 919. Looking over to her then to the door he could tell she was a bit unnerved while watching the door.

[center [+teal "We, uhh, we should go..."]]

Problem was that going meant they risked the idea of getting even more lost should they happen to forget a hallway behind them or two. Peering back at the wall he started recording. His eyes would act as the camera and he would be able to play back the distance they travelled. So long as he could view the footage, the mansion switching it up on them again wouldn't happen. Just as he went to take Nova's hand to get them moving the door to 919 started to open.

[right [+darkred "Oh, I have visitors, sssso welcome after sssuch a long sssstay here. One moment. Don't. Move. A. Muscle.]]
[right [pic https://i.imgur.com/70EXuMD.jpg?1]]
The voice beyond the door was distorted and shreikish. Like an old withered cadaver hissing muffled by the door between them. As the door opened a blacked haze poured out and long spindly hands crept around the frame. Immediately Takoon fell back onto guard as another hand revealed itself, then a horned head with eyes malevolent and white. He wasn't entirely sure but this individual bore the mark of a Necromancer. Nothing about him felt right and as he entered the hall the temperature dropped dramatically. The torches around them dimmed and they were encroached upon by a fowl darkness. The synthetic boy stood stock still. His eyes scanning the creature up and down trying to get any sort of familiar reading on what it was capable of.

[right [+darkred "Oh, and what's this? She's human to boot. How wonderful. Itssss been quite a long time since i have been visited by a human. Tell me. What is it that you'd assk ssssomeone like me.]]

If found some sort of fixiation on Nova as it spoke. Creepily getting closer to her as it continued it's erringly jovial and small talk. it's shreikish hissing voice now echoing throughout the hall and almost seemingly in their heads. The black smoke that enveloped it's body forming a cloak at the bottom. This this was easily three times their size and as such it stood hunched over above them forcing them to look at the ceiling as it towered overhead. His eyes shot over to Nova. He wasn't sure if she had the right equipment installed in her to receive mental link frequencies but he'd try. If she had a receiver anywhere in that noggin, with any luck he could speak to her without actually speaking to her.

[center [i [+teal "Nova, there's a plasma cutter in my bag. If I go for it he'll be on guard and probably attack... So i need you to ease closer to me and grab it clandestinely.... No idea if it'll hurt this thing but... But it's a lot better than you becoming undead because we let him...]]]

Nova eyed the man with the blade, it was a nice blade. It would probably come in handy actually, the more she thought about it and she figured they should take it with them or she could offer up some cash for the thing. Before she could actually register what was going on, the blade was being disintegrated,
[+blue “H-Hey!”] Dhe said, caught off guard because she hadn’t been expecting that. She gave Takoon a rather bewildered look. Why had he gone and done that? It was just a blade! These people were crazy.

Nova looked rather crestfallen she hadn’t managed to get her hands on the shiny and she raised an eyebrow as she watched Takoon. Hot food sounded like a great idea and she figured after that maybe a nap for the night? Home by tonight, huh? She eyed the room, she could just live it up here for a while. She didn’t know how these people were doing all of this but when it was good like this, why question it? She didn’t even know where home was at this point but Takoon seemed like a bright guy, he seemed to know a lot more about what was going on.

She watched him speak, raising her eyebrows every time some sort of glitch filtered through.
[+blue “Are you-“] She started, cutting off when they stepped into the corridor, everything was different and she looked to Takoon but he looked equally as confused.
[+blue “I don’t know if you’re trying to be funny, but I’m really hungry Tak.”] She remarked, folding her arms. This was a joke right? A mansion, any building didn’t just rearrange itself on a whim. It was impossible, she looked back into Takoon’s room and then back at the corridor. Okay, it was weird.

[+blue “Lemme guess this is to weird me out, right?”] She said and tutted a little before starting off down the other way, was she freaked out? Yes. Was it going to show? Not if she could help it. She eyed the other doors, maybe they could just knock around and ask the neighbours for some help. She thought for a while, hovering in front of a door a few down from Takoons and knocking a few times.
[+blue “Hey a little help?”] She called and the door opened, a huge roar emitting before it was slammed shut and Nova stood, looking stunned for a while.
[+blue “Okay maybe I’m buying this magic stuff a little.”] She murmured, not taking her eyes off the closed door.

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It took a while for him to break out of his stupor. Before he knew it the girl had gone and done her entire shower stepping back out and dropping her towel to dress. Despite the conditioning the other iterations had, it was still a part of his core programming. The idea of Male masculinity being the preferred setting. And as such, he averted his eyes. As iteration 74, he hadn't had any previous experience with human females. Catty things they were. And it made him relatively unsure about how to act around him. Unfortunately his predecessors hadn't programmed that far ahead, and thus his mind was always refreshed after he became a new iteration.


Instead of responding to her he simply eyed the blade as he broke off the wall and approached it. He knew that claiming such a thing wasn't a good idea. Like the other artifacts left around the mansion this blade was just another thing meant to be lost to time. Yet, here it was. Tempting him with it's power. The same power that possessed him to do unspeakable things in the past. In a trance he put his hands on the blade again. The whispers and muffled voices distorting the receivers in his ears again. His vision sputtering and glitching out as he placed his hand on the hilt. [i All he'd need to do is unsheathe this thing and he'd become as he had before. A hunter of man. Renderer of the unworthy and the guilty. A mechanical weapon meant to]-[+blue "Nifty knife"]

[center [+teal "... Yeah... It's... It's pretty nice isn't it. Real piece of junk though unfortunately...]]

He hadn't realized it, but he was pulling on the hilt. Anymore and he'd have gone off he deep end. The wars were over. And with them their weapons. Nothing left to do but be done with the past. He'd waited a long time to do this, never thought he'd actually get the chance.
[Rajdhani Execute disintegration command 444> Object: J-sword-75T_No.2 user Autorization:199657503 Auth_des_Takoon

Command: Accepted

Disintegration Relay in progress, Standby

Command Completed]

The blade turned red hot in his palm then to molten metal as it fell onto the marble floor. Nothing more than a pile of metal as takoon ran his hands through his hair brushing his bangs out of his eyes before kneeling down to look at it. All the pain in his mind washed away. The anxiety rising in his chest from the moment he laid eyes on that thing all washed away with one command. For a moment his face was intense as he looked over the molten puddle on the floor in front of him. The shadow of his body casting it into darkness. The memories of his troubled past and the symbolism that weapon brought to him... All gone. And with it, relief that he'd done the right thing.

[center [+teal "... Caused a lot of people trouble. Myself included Haha!"]]

He sprung up from the ground with a smile on his face. All was said and done. Time to move on. This room had served him well for a quite a long time. He moved to the windows looking down at the city below. He'd wondered what would happen if he were to just go out there... Past the glass... Was it even real? Would he be sucked into another world? or would this illusion of impossible space trap him inside for tampering with it's enigmatic visions. Now wasn't the time to find out. Besides, why would he tempt losing such a wonderful view?
[center [pic https://i.imgur.com/p87PmXa.jpg?1]]

[center [+teal "Well, you're looking refreshed, what do you say we go back to the lobby for some hot food huh?"]]

He turned and raised his brows at the girl in front of him. A warm, refreshed look on his face. She still didn't believe in all this, well, a small light show of Ailis ought to cure her skepticism. With a stretch he pointed to the door.

[Center [+teal "If we haven't gotten you back home by tonight, I'll just lead you back here. Not like it's hard to find now that we've found it. Just need to-[Rajdhani Error. Command firewall detected memory bank corrupted.] left and then down the hall there's-[Rajdhani Error. Command firewall detected memory bank corrupted.] Simple... Hey... What's with the look?"]]

She stared at him confused, the directions were simple, what was her problem? Oh! Right, short term memory loss. Well, it was fine so long as one of them remembered the path.

[Center [+teal "Oh, don't worry, you got me to guide you. C'mon lets go."]]

Adjusting his jacket he grabbed his bag and headed back out into the hall. Only... The way they came... It was a dead end now... The mansion had switched... But how?

Ailis could tell Takoon didn't have any emotions towards her. She tilted her head slightly, seeing that he looked different this time. She had seen him looking a bit different before but this seemed dramatic. Just how long had she been asleep? Waving it off, she looked towards the girl that was with him, knowing right away something wasn't right with her.

[#3286DA "Of course I can heal a bit."] She replied, walking over to Nova. [#3286DA "Her being a little drunk might be part of the problem though. That I can't fix."]

She heard Nova say she was fine, but Ailis could tell she wasn't. While a concussion was nothing for her, for humans it could be life or death sometimes. Hearing Nova struggle to try to remember anything, she figured she just proved herself wrong in not needing help. However, she still refused Ailis' help in healing, calling it 'Oogie-boogie shit'. That was a new one.

[#3286DA "You humans have such strange vocabulary sometimes."] She commented, watching her head towards the stairs. It was obvous she wasn't going to accept Ailis' help so she wasn't going to force the matter. It would do more harm than good in the end and she wasn't one to force something like this on someone in the first place.

Waving off Takoon and Nova, she watched them head up the stairs and off to find a place for the girl to relax. Now that she had a moment to herself, she could try to figure out a few things. Like how she was able to step into the mansion when before she couldn't even step into the clearing. It was a rule that was set up between the Mansion and the Forest. Each had its own guardian and they couldn't step foot in each other's territory. While Ailis was active and taking care of intruders, the guardian of the Mansion was the complete opposite. It was rare that she was ever awake, and when she was, it seemed to be a big deal. Ailis always felt she was just lazy and took her immortality and such for granite. Still, was what the Forest told her true? Was she really gone?

[#3286DA "She can't be."] Ailis muttered to herself, walking around the front room. [#3286DA "She couldn't leave, nor could she die...and yet...that's what I was told."]

She gripped her staff tightly, looking out the window an into the forest. While she didn't get along with the other guardian, it was nice to know there was someone else there to talk to sometimes. But now, it seemed she was along again. What had happened? Were the owners even still here? Closing her eyes, she tried to find the three, concentrating on their auras. Usually, she could sense them, even from the edge of the forest. But, there was nothing. The house was empty. Why?

[#3286DA "Where did you go..."]

An escort? Was she twelve? Still, Nova didn't know this place and he seemed to so she really didn't want to get lost. She was not a fan of this magic talk and even less of a fan of these strange beings touching her with the promise of healing. She was fine, she felt fine. There was no pain and her eyes were working properly, she just forgot things. She figured there was a reason for it, maybe she had ticked off someone high up and it was deliberate, who knew? She sure didn't. She watched Takoon and raised an eyebrow at his words, curses and diseases, huh? Sounded like a great place but she caught his joking tone and just shrugged. Curses weren't real.

The place was exquisite, untouched for a long time by all accounts but somehow it was clean and there was no dust or grime lying around. She eyed the rooms. Hundreds of them but Takoon seemed to know where he was going somehow and she eyed a few of the gold letterings on the doors. They drew up to 917.

[+blue "You used to live here?"] She questioned with a bewildered look. All of this had been his? The room was huge, the biggest room Nova had ever had the pleasure of standing in and she still couldn't quite believe it and she wondered if her optics were messing up again. No, he had fixed them. She looked him over, why did he look so weird all of a sudden, weirder? She wanted to ask if he was okay but he pointed out the showers and Nova thought for a while, debating on double checking him but she figured if he was going to die on the spot he would look worse.
[+blue "Thanks uh..."] She squinted for a moment to try and remember, [+blue "Takoon."] She said with a note of relief pitching in her tone at remembering as she ducked into the room he pointed out. Marble floors and clean tiles decorated the place and she had to say this was the bathroom of a Goddess.

Nova shut the door and stripped, wandering over to the shower and letting the spray of hot water assist in easing her tension and rushing away dirt and sweat. She moved her hair and found some soap, untouched and unused, using that to properly freshen up. The tattoo that wound around her neck and up to below her eye spiralled down to her naval where it ended. There were no other cyber things, at least none visible.

She grabbed a plush towel and wrapped it around her frame, comforted immediately by the warm fabric as it sucked up the moisture from her flesh. She dried and got changed back into her things, she would need new clothes but she could buy them from somewhere at some point. She tied her damp hair up into a messy bun while it dried and she exited the bathroom. Her eyes fell on the katana.

[+blue "Nifty knife."] She remarked as she finished buttoning up the shirt and she folded the towel, slinging it over one of the doors to dry out.

Strangely enough the girl seemed entirely against the idea of magical healing. Strange mostly due to the fact that normally when people had issues the idea of just wishing them away was more appealing than anything else. Though, that was normally. And this situation was anything but so he gave the amnesia riddled girl a pass. He watched as she trailed off heading towards the stairs.

[center [+teal "Well I can't just let a young girl like you run off alone in this strange mansion now can I? C'mon, follow me. And try not to touch anything that looks like it would give you a horrific curse/disease. Well, that or super powers. Heh."]]

He joked with a small chuckle and a grin. But he was being all too serious as he stood up, waving to Allis and heading to the staircase.

[center [+teal "I'll be right back. Just gonna go escort this one."]]

Traveling up the staircase he stood at the center of the two bisected paths before picking a direction and going right. Searching through the old records of this place in his head did little to help. The mansion was known to change frequently. On who's or what's whim he had no idea. For all he knew he could have ended up taking hours to get to said bathroom. Or minutes. But once it was found it was found. While the mansion had its ways it acted like a Schrodinger's cat.

[center [+teal "this may take a little walk. But once we find it the hard part will be done. From what I am able to recollect this places layout changes if absolutely everyone's memory of it changes. If no one remembers where the kitchen is, the kitchen... isn't. Know what I mean? ]]

As he spoke the two of them turned a corner and entered a long corridor with a red carpet and velvet red walls. Opulent lights leading the way into a set of doors leading down euther side of the entire corridor. Each one with a room number. The first one to their right read 897 in gild plated lettering laid against a heavy darkened wood. This place felt timeless. Like no dust ever settled on these floors. It was quite amazing. The more he thought about it, and the idea of exploring this place, reminded him of why he'd come so far. As they walked. Strange artifacts of ancient and scifi veriaty crossed their paths. Things left behind by the people that used to frequent here. Some of them malevolent in nature and others the stuff of legends. Powerful weapons and artifacts alike. Things that could turn the very idea of what it was to be human on it's head. Now laying in a timeless limbo space littering the floor for wanderers to come across. For them to curse or save themselves with. Likelihood was that they had already passed a few just lying about the corridor that could remove all this girls wants and turn Takoon [I into a real boy.] But soon enough after a few turns there it was. A door labeled 917. A master bedroom with enough space to be considered it's own home. One of the few doors that weren't occupied by some horrid eldrich creature or some half-dragon girl slumbering for all eternity. He wondered just how many of those strays called this place home. Amongst these seemingly infinite halls. There was no telling of what number of creature came back into existence simply because they had stumbled into seeing the number of their door. Confirming the existence of that door and this the possible monster within.

[center [+teal "This place used to be mine. I only used it briefly as I was always busy in my workshop. But its the only door in this place I can 100% trust. Well aside from the lobby.]]

Holding his hand out near the door a gold key appeared in his hand. Using it to deftly unlock the door, the key vanished and he was greeted with his vision glitching out and becoming fuzzy. His ears hearing static and for just a moment he felt as if he could hear a voice. Something so blurred and muffled he couldn't make it out. All but falling against the door frame and using it to keep himself upright. From his sensors all rebooting he was overblown with sensory information at once and all but fell over.

[center [+teal "I'm fine im fine... just some feedback is all... Go... go on ahead, showers are on the right. Don't worry. Its huge...]]

He entered the room just barely as Nova continued on. Putting his back against the wall and putting his hands to his knees to catch his breath. Looking up at the room momentarily to be met with what seemed like a studio overlooking busy city streets below. Neon lights lighting the city beyond the giant glass windows the covered the opposite side of the studio. A small kitchen and all the regular living amenities. Then just beside the bed. A weapon... a katana in it's sheath lay propped up. Perking up when he laid eyes on it.

[center [+teal "That's iteration 5's weapon... I... I thought its was lost to war... but its been here... right here all along..."]]

By now he was transfixed on the thing. The door to the endless corridors of the right wing wide open beside him.

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