Sojaveña Wilds Timeless Oasis

[Namohysip]

Mhynt paused. She felt... something. Incredibly stupid, for one. "What?" she whispered, staring at her wounded arm in the future, then at her own arm, which she'd just done. To... comply with that dungeon's future?

No! That... was the exact opposite of what she wanted to do. Why would she deliberately comply with a Dungeon's suggestion to harm herself? She would never do that. She was one to defy Dungeons. She... remembered thinking that, to defy something she saw. Which meant...

"...It's worse than I thought," she stated gravely. "Does anyone remember my future arm not being wounded?" She pointed ahead.

 

[HelloYellow17]

Wes was about to ask Steven about when and how he’d evolved when Sybil pointed out their future selves, like they were on a casual sightseeing tour, and suddenly all his questions for Steven fled his mind.

He didn’t like this. At all. He already saw a bizarre distorted mirror of his future in Seth, and it wasn’t a happy one. He didn’t want to see anything more.

He observed Mhynt’s experiment with a mix of alarm and curiosity. The more he grew to know her, the less off-putting she became to him, but she sure had some…unique methods of experimentation. “To be honest, I wasn’t paying too much attention to your future self,” he admitted, “but either way, you should treat that wound. Don’t want an open wound in any dungeon, especially since we don’t know what we’ll find here.”

He mused a little. “I mean, if the dungeon is going to reflect our future selves no matter what we do, then does it matter which path we take? Won’t it just adapt to whatever we decide?”

 

[Ambyssin]

"Nngh. Head hurts." Nova squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. He had a sanguine taste in his mouth. Which he was surprised he recognized given how blunted his taste had been for so long. "I bet... the longer we think on it... the worse it's gonna be. We just have to trust our guts."

Nova scooped some dust off the ground and flung it in the direction of some of the plants and reeds to see if they'd whither and die or recede into the ground like they hadn't yet bloomed.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Wow! What a super normal and useful thing to do to your own arm! That settled it, then. Between this and Ridley and everything else, Leaf's mom was never allowed to call her "impulsive" ever again.

"Look, I dunno what this Spirit's definition of 'worthy' is, but sitting around talking in circles probably ain't it. Wes is right; if the dungeon hasn't done anything bad to us yet either way, then does it matter which we choose? If following them—" (following us, whatever) "—really wigs you guys out that bad, then let's just go a different way for now. And if something else changes at the next intersection, we deal with it then! It's not like in normal life it's always wrong to follow a safe path, any more than it's always wrong to break out and do something different. You just roll with it."

Kimiko's comment did make her pause a little, though. Future-Or-Whatever-Sybil had seemed pretty interested in whatever that stone was, yeah... "Or if we think that rock might be important, we follow them this time, see what it is, then do something different. Whichever."

 

[HelloYellow17]

Wes nodded, then did a double take when he realized who was talking—Leaf, newly evolved like Steven. He found himself both impressed and concerned at her boldness, but above all, he felt that way too familiar pant of guilt. The memory of striking at her—hard—flashed in his mind and made him stiffen. He still had to apologize to her for that night…if she wanted to hear it. He didn’t know if she did. If she was anything like Koa, maybe it was best not to try.

But he could worry about that later. He cleared his throat. “I agree. Let’s just keep moving forward the way we were for a while. If it feels like the dungeon keeps trying to lead us somewhere, we can change our minds later. Besides, our future selves had some kind of stone or something, and we don’t have that. Yet. If we get it at all.” What on earth the stone could be was another question entirely, but he didn’t expect anybody would have that answer.

 

[Phoenixsong]

"How about this: if we've gotta do something different, let's go forward, and if it's there then I'll pick up the rock-thing instead of Sybil. I can levitate stuff, too, so it's not a problem if it's a bad idea to touch directly or whatever. Also I still think you're carrying too much anyway," she added to their guide. "Does that work?" She took a few steps toward the path, then paused to see what the others would do.

 

[Namohysip]

"This is not talking in circles," Mhynt spat, dispelling her Leaf Blade. "I'm analyzing the true nature of this Dungeon. And I'm beginning to understand just what is going on."

She reached into her bag and pulled out a basic writing utensil and a notepad.

"I do not think this dungeon manipulates time at all," she stated. "Or, it cannot manipulate our time. I think it's showing us illusions and altering our memories to comply with them. It can predict our future, and then force us to think it is correct if we do not reason it out. By that same logic... it can also modify how we see our past." She started to write something down.

10 seconds have passed.

"The reason we cannot predict how long we have been gone from a Dungeon is not because of the time dilation around it," she reasoned, "but our perception of the time that has passed and the events we experienced. There may be... secondary effects... but I am confident that is the answer."

She eyed the area around them and finally treated her wound, satisfied with the answer she'd been given by the Dungeon.

"If Divine Dungeons are this powerful, we would need immense strength to ever think to enter one that's malevolent. This is not something you can fight if it chooses to truly smite you."

 

[Tetra]

Koa shrugged after a moment, and nodded to Leaf. "Sounds like a plan then."

As Mhynt spoke, however, he hesitated. "I thought... I think you weren't injured? Then you used the...Or maybe you did see yourself injured. I.. I don't know," he muttered.

"Illusion or not I think there's no point to standing around. Unless we can somehow imagine our future selves coming here to give us directions, then we should try what Leaf said."

 

[Weazel]

He’d gotten so caught up in cutting, he barely even noticed when the group stopped. What was happening, weren’t they on a tight schedule or something? Before long, everyone was arguing over semantics, if the things they were seeing were truly time displaced or just illusions, Mhynt was cutting herself for Arceus knows what reasons. Archie suddenly felt like he was going to be sick. Maybe it was the stress of the whole situation giving him a headache? Or maybe it was the way everything around them kept shifting forwards and back. Like someone kept hitting fast forward and rewind on an old VCR, back to back, over and over again.

He dispelled his Razor Shell and sat his scalchop back on his belly, his free paw pushing his hat back to rub at his forehead. If they were all going to stand here anyway, he needed a second to just close his eyes and not look at the scenery. Everyone would tell him when they came to a consensus, right? They wouldn’t just leave him here…

“If what you saw is destined to happen, then it’ll happen regardless of what you do to make or break it,” he said, “If it’s fake, it’s fake. Can’t just stand here overthinking everything.”

 

[Shadow Serenity]

"I doubt it's destiny that we go one way or the other," Kimiko said in reply to Archie. "If the 'us' that we just saw was the future, then we were going to down that path eventually. If we decide now to go a different way, it doesn't even mean that what we just saw won't come true later, either. Maybe we go a different way now and have to back-track, or find ourselves going in a circle. Or maybe the dungeon just adapts and we never end up going that way. Who knows."

She crossed her arms. "Point is, standing here talking about it is, ironically, a waste of time. If we stop every five seconds to debate some weirdness that we see, we're never going to get anywhere."

She gestured at Nova... had he evolved too? He was missing that helmet... did that count? "He's got the right idea. We'll probably get farther on gut feelings and curiosity rather than logic here. If that stone was something that caught Sybil's interest, that's something worth pursuing for now, I think."

She then turned to the white deer; she was the dungeon expert and the official ranger here, after all. "What do you think?"

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

"Anything is possible if you set your mind to it, wouldn't you agree?"

"I suppose it is, to a degree," Steven said, bringing a claw to his chin. "I'm sure there's certain things that just aren't possible for whatever reason but those are-- oh."

He watched, alarmed, as Mhynt cut her own arm and then quizzed them about it. "I, uh, I don't remember. I was looking at the stone..." he muttered.

"Is that object something you've seen in your scrolls?" he asked Sybil. "Whether or not that's our future, it seems important enough to keep an eye out for it as we go. Which," he nodded towards Leaf, "I agree that we should keep moving."

He eyed their Wyrdeer guide once more as Kimiko asked her her thoughts. She was surprisingly calm throughout the whole thing. Almost as fluid as the time around them, like she knew it was impossible to fight against the whims of time itself.

Perhaps they were being shown all possibilities at once, every timeline melding into one picture, and they were just catching glimpses. Or maybe, they were being shown glimpses on purpose.

"Either way, I doubt we'll make progress if we stall here," he said, floating towards the front of the group to be next to Leaf. He didn't want to stray too far from the group, given Sybil's earlier warning, but he did want to encourage them to press onward.

 

[Inkedust]

The dust Nova threw on the foliage had no discernable effect, just harmless dust. Some of it remained frozen in the air, swirling before it finished its trajectory.

Sybil eyed the Wayfarers thoughtfully. "I believe the stone is of importance," she said, "otherwise I do not believe the dungeon would choose to show it. Whatever it is we're seeing, visions or overlapping timestreams, I believe that it is meant to be a hint on what we should do to progress through." Sybil straightened herself. "We should look for it but I don't think there's anything here," she said, her orbs flickering, trying to grasp at anything in proximity. "Lead the way."

 

[Ambyssin]

"Fine." Nova started forward. "Then we'll go with Leaf's suggestion. We go this way and if we see a sparkly stone, that'll be our point to diverge. Sound good?"

 

[Namohysip]

Grudgingly, Mhynt followed for now, but she was now taking personal responsibility to eye any abnormalities in the Dungeon. They did not truly know the whims or intentions of whatever ran it... and, more importantly, they did not know if it could be influenced from the outside or by other powers. That, in itself, would be a greater issue...

 

[Hap]

The moment he saw his future self, Ridley felt the urge to experiment. Something small, he thought, just a change of location within the group. If he walked over from standing on the left to standing on the right, stood next to someone different, what would happen? It couldn't hurt to find out.

Yes it could. Ridley quashed the impulse aggressively, all too aware of what had happened last time he'd done something just to see what would happen. He didn't need to trap everyone in a time paradox, or create temporal doppelgangers, or erase the group from the timeline or any other bullshit consequence for screwing around with the time-space continuum.

Ridley was so focused on not following his own worst impulses that he didn't notice Mhynt slicing her arm open until it had already happened. The blood was shockingly red against the green of her skin. Her future self hadn't been - had she been? For a horrible dizzying moment Ridley wasn't sure, and then he remembered. Of course her future self had been injured.

Had Mhynt worried they were about to be attacked, and inflicted the injury on herself to ensure they wouldn't be? That took a certain degree of resolve. Ridley wasn't sure whether or not he admired it.

"I do not think this dungeon manipulates time at all," she stated. "Or, it cannot manipulate our time. I think it's showing us illusions and altering our memories to comply with them. It can predict our future, and then force us to think it is correct if we do not reason it out. By that same logic... it can also modify how we see our past."

...or she'd been performing an experiment. Ridley was grateful, both for the experiment and that it wasn't him who'd risked fucking the group over this time.

"See, now you're getting into philosophy," he said. "If we all remember something happening, and our memories all agree on the point, and the physical evidence matches up, then what's the difference between that actually happening and memory alteration to make us think it happened."

He added, "Who's to say the stone actually means anything? Maybe it's entirely unimportant, and we only notice it in the first place because the vision primed us to watch out for cool rocks. If you think this dungeon is messing with our heads in some way, then maybe this entire situation is just trying to... establish a baseline, for whether we're more inclined to follow visions or diverge from them, so it knows what to do later if it wants to push us in a certain direction."

 

[Namohysip]

"The difference is I would never comply with a Dungeon's predictions," Mhynt growled at Ridley. "That is a major difference and it points out a contradiction. Do not fall for its tricks. If a malevolent Dungeon does the same thing--assuming this one isn't malevolent--will you also assume its tricks are real?" She shook her head.

"The baseline is I won't trust something that intends to tamper with memories. We will investigate the stone on our own terms. So far, there is little reason to see its use one way or the other." She glanced at Sybil. "For now, we have a guide who can vouch for it."

 

[Hap]

Ridley contemplated that and then said, "I think you have probably read a lot fewer sci-fi novels about time travel paradoxes than I have." Completely unable to stop himself, he added, "If you want to actually test whether this is the timeline getting rewritten or just our memories changing, trying to interact physically with past or future visions would be the way to do it. Otherwise you can't tell."

 

[Weazel]

Archie felt a flash of annoyance flare up at Kimiko. Ostensibly, she was saying the exact same thing he was. So why was she saying it like he was some kind of moron? He opened his eyes again to glare at her, but stopped himself before he said anything. Maybe he wasn't being fair. He needed to get it together.

Nova was taking the lead this time. So, with a huff, he drew his Razor Shell again and got to cutting, following close after the Graydian. Ridley and Mhynt and whoever else could argue in the back all they liked, they were on a strict time schedule... And Alex could attack at any time.

 

[Ambyssin]

"That's why we're not doing exactly what it wants," Nova said, glancing left and right. For one thing, his so-called future self wasn't at the front of the group. So, that was a difference off the bat.

 

[Inkedust]

Sybil and the Wayfarers continued through the dungeon with little issue. Those who were on the lookout for the odd stone would find it sitting on a flat, mossy rock. Now that they had a good view of it, they would see that the stone itself was in the shape of ring segmented into four, uneven pieces. The plant life surrounding it was more vibrant, more alive within its proximity. Time itself also felt normal. If anyone were to test by throwing dust, it would fall as normal. Should anyone hold it, whether physically or telekinetically, they would be awash with a soothing effect.

All that was left to ask was... Would they take the stone?