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[And Rebbekah is rushing over with excitement.]

Red, hey!

[Of course he eyes are focused on the items in his arms instead.]

You're going to have to tell me everything. It sounds like these crystals aren't from the island, right? Where'd you go? What are they like? Oh I can't wait to study—come on, follow me to my lab!

[She didn't even seem to breathe as she's already pushing Red in the direction of said lab.]

Tell me everything!

[ woah woah woah, and here we go getting pushed! Which Red allows, waiting until he's been taken to where he should be.

Feet are still? ]

Okay! [ Okay, then just let him. Think? Think, on where to start, with the obvious answer being somewhere around the beginning, of course. Carefully, he digs into one of his pockets to bring out a plain crystal, holding it out in his hand for Rebekkah to take as she pleases. ]

We took this off from the wall. The site had crystals everywhere--it looks like it was used once like the mining ground in the mountains you have now, except bigger. There wasn't any signs of any buildings nearby or settlements when we looked from the sky, so it might've just been used for digging out crystals.

[ ...wait. He looks down at his wrist, where his personal crystal is kept on a wristband. ]

We can't share anything by our amulets, can we? [ ... ] Do you want to see what I remember? I have a friend with me who can help me project it. She has a scary face, but she's harmless.

[ Totally harmless. ]

[She is definitely taking that, humming in delight as she holds it up, practically dancing around the floor as she continues to move toward a very haphazardly organized desk.]

Oh of course we can communicate through the crystals! It's a bit odd, but while the transmission waves are a bit different, it doesn't stop us from communicating each other completely. Just two different currents that run parallel instead of one giant highway!

[ Aww, no Gengar time? What a shame.

He follows her, in more control of his movements this time too, stopping to...look at the desk and the tube at his arm, before deciding to keep it in his hold a little longer for now.

First things first. ]

Alright then, so... [ He doesn't know what that explanation means at all, but it doesn't mean he won't try. He clenches his eyes closed tight, his mind thinking of the woman in the room with him. ]

Is it working? Can you hear me?

Loud and clear!

[She says as she sets the crystal under a very complicated looking microscope that has 5 more scopes than usual.]

[ He really hopes she isn't going to start looking through it while he's meant to be explaining this.

Which means he should get to it. The blank of their minds leaves as he recollects where he had chipped off a section of the crystal she now has--or a claw had beside him, Charizard's equipment better at the job than his own bare hands.

But that's just a moment, while he catches up to where he had stopped before for this, now a more wider view of the nothing surrounding from a higher view, looking down to the layers of rock dug into, scrapped cleanly in places, others where signs of ]

This was the site. Inside were some creatures as you'd suspect, [ is he going to show one?? Of course he's going to show one, scraping large teeth down into a chunk of crystal halfway, before being interrupted by yours truly ] and there were machines they used to dig the crystals out with.

[ Which he now shows, rusted over in parts, looking over it-- a clear memory of the mark 'Areta' comes into view, and then a split off onto another memory, of someone's hand holding glowing crystals in its palms.

The kind that Red now moves to present to Rebekkah, out from his other pocket. ] These were in them. We checked three of the machines for them, and they were all inside. We were careful getting them out, but I don't know if the machines will work again anyway... they're in bad shape.

[ Well. Anyway. ] Another team found this in the tunnel they explored. [ Finally, the tube comes into play, shifted again in his hold before he balances it. Also, let's actually speak now-- ] It had a set-up down there like you do here, with microscopes and tables. I didn't go that way, so I can't show you, but these look like blueprints. Can you do anything with them?

[ Is this your field of expertise or someone else's. ]

[Of course she's going to look at the crystal! But she's actually quite skilled at multi-tasking, that includes both studying and "listening" as Red explains. The only real signs that she's paying attention is when her hands momentarily stop from turning the various knobs and levers before resuming.

It's when he shows the sign for Areta that she complete stops and looks up, her mouth open to say something but manages to maintain quiet—although he might start feeling a rather growing intense vibration of excitement coming from her end of the link.]

Ooooh my gosh oh my gosh—[She can barely contain it any longer as she looks at the crystals and the tube, just itching to take them but only just managing to restrain herself.] I may have to ask Pearce for help, but yes, I should be able to look into all of this! Especially those crystals—you said they were in machines? So it's not too different from how we use our own...oh how exciting that we could have been following in the footsteps of our ancestors without realizing it!!

I just have to go down there—oooh and Lindsy will want to see it, too—Areta! Actual signs of its existence! [Everything was spoken as if in one breath, so when she utters the city's name, it's almost like a breathless sigh. Even now she thinks back of that vision and feels something like an old ache.]

Oh Red, this is all so wonderful!

[ Red's smiling; how could he not with a reaction like that, felt and heard and seen all at once? Her excitement rubs off on him, if just a little. ]

I'd like to help, if you need it. I can go back with a group to look some more or take a camera down. [ Would one of their cameras be useful for the caverns? --Worth a try. ] There's those creatures there too... I wanna find out how common they are, and if you guys can research there without anyone having to do anything rash about all of them!

[ Look.

He can't turn off caring about monsters that want to eat his face, alright. ] But I'll lend you my team's strengths. If you need it for the creatures or dealing with the tunnels, we've got plenty of skills to spare!

[Reaching out to take his hands, shaking them up and down excitedly.]

Yes—! I'll make it work with the higher ups, but this is an opportunity we definitely shouldn't waste. And it's been so long since I've been out in the field, I'm ready for some excitement!

[...Red should be careful or her excitement might burst a few bulbs or glass tubes. Though given how new a lot of the equipment looks, it's probably happened a lot before already. New discovery, new bulb.]

But some more information would help us build a team. If you can do that, I can study everything that you brought and we should have a clearer picture by the time we're ready to head down ourselves.

Oh, how did you get down there?

The teleporter! The one in Shaarnath. But the same code should work for the one up here, shouldn't it? [ He's not the expert. Is Rebekkah an expert?? She's more qualified than him in something.

But that does make him think. ]

I already showed this to the people who found the code. They let me bring it to you since I said you're an expert in crystals! [ And they trusted the kid. Granted, they also trusted the kid to take the job, so. ] You should work with them-- I can introduce you when everyone's ready to test exploring the area, so you can ask them about the code. Maybe there's something in it that you can match to others that will lead you to more locations close to Areta!

[ Please don't burst a light bulb at that idea. ]

It should but only one way to find out really. [And she doesn't seem too bothered by that. In fact, she's excited still.]

But that sounds like a great idea! [Light bulbs are starting to vibrate a bit.] I'd love to meet everyone, and I haven't actually been able to go down to Shaarnath at all. [She's actually pouting a bit at that.] Ugh, I want to study their crystals so much, but the work load here has been crazy and now with Chrissie sending off these weird signs— [Sigh.]

But! This is great! There's no way I won't be able to figure out something. In fact it might help solve this giant mystery.

[ The bulbs do catch his attention, but as a flicker to them before he's pulled in by Rebekkah's energy again. They must be super duper emotion resistant bulbs, right?? Right-! ]

I hope so! So much seems to be connected to the crystal. [ His arms fold, rocking once on the heel of his feet. ] What happened with Chrissie, anyway? I heard something happened, but I was in Shaarnath at the time. And then when I came back, everyone's complaining about the plants dying too fast.

[ Which, yeah, the city has been looking drab, even with people putting in their best efforts to brighten everything back up. ]

[Mostly resistant.]

Oh, that! Yeah, it was super crazy and fortunately I was there to check out the readings. At first we thought she hasn't been able to properly gauge the city's emotion, but it turns out, she still can. ...Sort of.

We're still looking into the data. We have other systems that allow us to monitor the various levels of emotions—Chrissie is just like a big thermometer to give a visual. We didn't see any unusual levels of negative emotions, in fact they seem about equal. So something else must be bothering her and we're digging deeper into the data.

But if anything, we know she's still able to process something—just not sure how or what exactly just yet. So instead of being 100%, she might just be, mmm, 80%?

[ Running at 80%? ...He feels like he's coming close to a level of talk that would go over his head, but it's interesting too! ]

She reads the emotional temperature, [ if we're going with that, ] but she's also done other stuff too. [ He turns over a hand in gesture as he speaks. ] You used her on that day that she broke, and then she made those beams of light spark out that showed us the teleporter.

So... she's just a big thermometer for the most part, but she has extra programs inside her, right? [ ...is that the right word for this world? A pause. ] Like-- tasks she can do. Is it just the thermometer part that's broken?

[ School him on the ways of Chrissie.]

Soooort of. [A small tilt of her head, finger resting against her chin.] We have our own systems that can read and interpret what she's showing—like she was always able to give a reflection of color depending on the city's mood, right? But it was our own systems that was able to actually read and interpret that gauge. Granted, a lot of this is still new and being developed—like only a few decades before I was born new! So every day we're finding new things about Chrissie, things we never knew she was capable of. Like when I used her as a laser—that was actually a complete shot in the dark.

[Deliberate pun? Maybe.]

Just took a concept and went for it. ...And probably why she kind of overloaded. [Whoops.] And even then, I was actually using her more as a kind of conduit to take in all of the surrounding emotions and channel it outward, but it's only after seeing the script and doing some research and testing that it does seem that Chrissie has way more to her than a giant emotion mirror like we always thought! It's quite possible I could have tapped into her instead to do that sort of thing, but it's really hard to say right now.

But there are definitely some functions there still working. Although not as precise as before, we can still get some readings and data regarding the emotional atmosphere, but only in a very vague sense. So we use our other equipment to crosscheck. But that does mean Chrissie can "sense" the atmosphere—she's not making any visible reaction to it.

Except just now and when Areta happened. My current hypothesis is that if she reaches a certain threshold, she will still respond. But anything less, she remains the same.

[ Here we go, it's the time to listen closely -- and totally have any potential puns go over his head -- to help this info all sink in a little easier.

Which makes his brain feels like bricks even with Rebekkah's kindness to not be too science-y with her language. ]

...I wonder what happened last month that was so special? A pod didn't drop... [ Ahhh, his thoughts want to tug him into five different directions. ] When we saw Areta, did that have a large crystal like Chrissie in the vision? I didn't look up at the time, but I dunno if we're sure if Verens has always existed since before the war, or if it got built after it, after Simpathis brought up the land!

...Shaarnath has the smaller crystals... and Sosyne always had an issue with your Chrissie... [ His lips are lining hard between every pause, but wherever his mind was going (in all of those five different directions), he throws all the stress on his brain out as he lets out ] Mmh, maybe we'd have a better chance of understanding what's going on if we can find Areta!

[ With some of their connection intact, Rebekkah might get the idea that Red literally just wants them to find--

a manual. A big thick manual. With all the answers of How To. ]

[Honestly, Rebbekah wouldn't mind a giant manual herself. She can only figure so many things on her own!]

I can definitely say that the original buildings of the city were definitely dated to be older than eight hundred years, so it existed before the war! We just...don't know...much else about that, eh heh.

But Areta! I'd really love a chance to find it. [A wistful sigh.] I just feel that it really is deeply connected to Verens somehow.

And hey, didn't you actually show something with Areta on it? [Hands on her hips, as if demanding him for him to finish spilling all the beans.]

Oh! [ Did he forget?? ] Right, the equipment!

[ He can unscramble his brain easily to remember that: the large rusted machinery, a few of them here and there within the cavern. The design is easy for him to recall. ]

The other team found the same type of equipment. [ He points over to the tube. ] Except they found that and some microscopes-- basic analysing equipment: lens and stuff. I guess they didn't have an office there to study the crystals they found and used that space instead.

The whole area looked like a mining site like in the Ferril Mountains. I didn't see anything else close to it, so wherever this is... [ Now he's using his finger to make a spot for where the quarry is, and then brushing his hand over to a farther direction. ] Any cities that would have been in the area might've been farther away. And then they used the teleporter to transport the crystals over the distance.

You might be able to find a way to Areta there... if there's codes to the city lying around somewhere.

[ Like, a book of codes. The answers are always in a book. ]

[They got sidetracked by teleporter and crystals.]

A mining quarry near Areta... It's definitely possible. They had to have gotten their crystals from somewhere, and unless Areta did a lot of machine exporting, that could be theirs. And you found this tube in that make-shift office?

[She should open it.

She's definitely opening it.]

[ The cloth and tie around it is easy to pull off, and the pieces of the diagrams easily fall out, too. Red comes over now to stand side by side with her, to help with the pieces. ]

There's one in here that's really torn, but this one-- [ Ah, this one with the long, diagonal tear through it-- ] --this one's okay. You can jigsaw together this one too.

[ That's all the blueprints are for him: a weird jigsaw with science-y info on them. ]

[Rebbekah stands over the blueprints, and for the first time since the two met, she's silent. Focused.]

...Hm... Hm, yes, I see... [She taps a few lines, fingers tracing over what was clearly the old language's script.] I'll have to ask Lindsy to help cipher this out, but... There's definitely no denying it. These are diagrams regarding the crystals and I think plans for their uses.

[ Red's watching her hand, the answer...well, that makes sense. ]

Isn't that normal? Crystals are used in everything... they must've had loads of these for keeping the cities powered.

It's normal, but this...this— [She's lost in thought again.]

I'll have to figure things out, but I think their methods were different. More specialized and efficient.

[ .............

It's all a bunch of lines to him, wow. ]

Then... they would've used this to dig out the right size of crystal they needed?

[ It must be why something like that was lying around inside a quarry. ]

Dig or...modify...

[She's more murmuring to herself than directly answering.]

It's hard to say—this needs a bit of cleaning up, too. [She holds the paper closer to her face, squinting.] And wow whoever wrote this had bad handwriting!

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