02:00   Hazard  The Beacon takes Alex by the hand, and begins walking along the promenade around the outer edge of the main hall. "According to some myths, it's where a crystal-type sacrificed her life to save some children. She left behind a giant obelisk of rose quartz."
02:00   Hazard  "It glows so bright, they had to build a tower around it so people could sleep."
02:01   Hazard  "So, the name isn't all that creative."
02:01   Trimangle   Alex follows along behind the electric girl. "A crystal...? I've never heard of that type..." She follows, glancing around her as she goes.
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02:03   Hazard  "I met one a long time ago. She died real fast. I think she was new."
02:03   Trimangle   "That's...kind of sad."
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02:05   Reikim  "You're going the wrong way," says a passing clerk-drone. "Bright Tower had to be relocated after the attacks," says a big, lumbering guard drone. "Take a right up ahead," squeaks...what looks like a semi-clockwork magitek Roomba.
02:06   Hazard  "When you think about it, yeah." She smiles mirthlessly. "But when...huh? Relocated? Which attack?"
02:08   Trimangle   "What? How do you relocate a giant obelisk?"
02:09   Hazard  She waggles her fingers in the air. "Magic."
02:10   Trimangle   "...That is still an unsatisfying answer," Alex groans.
02:10   Reikim  "The same one that broke everything else," says a delivery drone. "It was relocated here in the first place from another world," explains another guard. "Oops, attempted intrusion on sublevel 4. Got to go." The drone scurries off, quickly joined by a squadron of similar drones.
02:12   Hazard  She watches as the drone runs, scrunching her brows together. "Same one that broke everything else... What happened while I was gone?"
02:14   Trimangle   Alex shrugs. "Search me..."
02:17   Hazard  "Maybe later." She makes her right turn and continues along. "Anyways, Bright Tower has some interesting effects. Some people have gotten prophetic visions, others spoke to the dead. One girl i was working with claimed the crystal taught her to use her light magic."
02:18   Trimangle   "That sounds interesting," Alex agrees, nodding. "Maybe that girl still lives inside her crystal."
02:22   Hazard  "That's one of the theories. Another one is that it became a gateway to the afterlife or the future." Her hands start waggling around, expressing her thoughts as she talks. "One scholar claims that one day, the Bright Tower Maiden will be reborn, and the tower looks forward to that day."
02:22   Hazard  "I spent a lot of time there when I was newly minted."
02:26   Trimangle   "I can imagine. It sounds...like a holy place," she agrees.
02:28   Reikim  Bright Tower isn't a true tower anymore; only half of one, really, keeping too much light from bleeding back on the main building. It was probably easier to rebuild that way, too. The other side is open and looks out onto the wasteland beyond the walls.
02:30   Trimangle   Alex walks closer to it, if she can do so, and approaches the exposed crystal face.
02:31   Hazard  "We Beacons love our holy places. I think it'll be nice to go back, though. Patch things up." She steps through the open doorway, and enters the courtyard around the giant crystal. It shoots up into the air, with jagged offshoots forming flying buttresses into open air. The central crystal glows with a light just this side of the sun.
02:35   Trimangle   Assuming there are not any obvious barricades keeping her from doing so, Alex approaches the crystal, her pace slow and unhurried, though she finds herself needing to shield her eyes.
02:37   Hazard  Tesla reaches into her pocket and pulls out a pair of shades, handing them to Alex. She steps up to the crystal, places one hand on its surface...
02:37   Hazard  Then plops down unceremoniously against it.
02:38   Trimangle   Alex dons the sunglasses, blinking away the spots. She raises free hand and rests it against the crystal, circulating her mana up close to her skin, closing her eyes.
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02:40   Hazard  The light gathers against the spot where her hand touches, and it mingles with her mana like two children dancing on a grassy hill.
02:43   Trimangle   Alex splays her hand on the surface of the crystal, leaning in and resting her forehead against it, opening herself and bringing her mana closer to the surface.
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02:46   Hazard  As her forehead nears the cool, smooth, glassy surface, a whispering rises in the air. It is gentle and slight, and easily mistaken for tinnitus or the piezoelectric effect. Until that whispering takes the form of words. Words so faint they cannot be made out.
02:47   Trimangle   "...I can't hear you," Alex whispers, barely audible; even Tesla, sitting next to her, might have difficulty catching it.
02:49   Hazard  There is a sudden rush of vision, overriding Alexes senses and replacing reality entirely. Indra leaps out at Alex, arms outstretched. Her mouth opens, with a smile and laughter and tears of reunion. "Alex!" She calls.
02:53   Trimangle   Unreality. Shock, disorientation, complete bafflement. Alex's arms open and she wraps her arms around the little Beacon. "Indra! Indra, oh my god..." She starts crying as well, her grip tightening, pulling Indra against herself, pressing her head into Indra's hair. "I-Indra...!"
02:53   Hazard  Indra vanishes as soon as contact is made. She reappears a distance away. She looks back at Alex, nodding with a solemn determination.
02:53   Hazard  The apparition smiles warmly.
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02:56   Trimangle   "Indra?" she asks, her legs starting to carry her in Indra's direction.
02:58   Hazard  The tiny girl looks into the wind maiden's eyes. There is so much affection, so much drive and determination. And then, there is pain. Empathy? Empathy. She points out to the horizon of this emptiness.
03:00   Trimangle   There's just as much affection in Alex's eyes, as well as raw loss, shock, longing...she turns and looks. "Where are we, Indra? We're not in Prisma Lantern...the last thing I remember, I touched the Bright Tower crystal..."
03:01   Hazard  The phantom Indra continues to point silently into the void.
03:02   Trimangle   "I don't know what you're pointing at," Alex says, removing her sunglasses and shading her eyes.
03:04   Hazard  In the far distance, the horizon bends and ripples. Mountains rise up from the edge of the world. Before long, all is high, towering hills.
03:05   Trimangle   "You...want me to go that way?" she asks, turning back to look at Indra, confusion plain on her face.
03:06   Hazard  There is no Indra here.
03:09   Trimangle   Alex takes a half-step backward, shock writing itself again on her face. She turns back towards the direction Indra pointed, takes a steadying breath, and begins moving out, lifting herself into the air and flying forward.
03:11   Hazard  After she crests the nearest hill, a shape stands out against the dirt. A camel, dressed in the saddle and bags of a merchant steed, grazes.
03:13   Trimangle   Alex approaches the camel, eyes alert for other objects in the distance.
03:15   Hazard  A warm breeze wafts across the hilly land, and the sun dips down. Sunset doesn't last long, and night is in full swing. The camel turns its head briefly, notices Alex, and takes off at a full gallop.
03:17   Trimangle   Is it going in the direction Indra pointed?
03:18   Hazard  Oh yes, and at a good pace. So good, in fact, that when it comes up to the nearest hill, it doesn't merely ascend over it, but dives right through it. Not as a meteor would, but as a surfer would do a wave. It swims right through the mountain.
03:19   Trimangle   "What?!" Alex breaks into a sprint after the camel, following its path exactly, including headlong into the mountain, a yell rising in her throat as she plunges into it--!
03:19   Hazard  And skips right off the top. Silly Meido.
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03:21   Trimangle   Alex yelps as she flies over the top, limbs flailing as she attempts to regain control of herself. She bears herself aloft through force of will as she searches for signs of the magical groundcamel while continuing to bear towards where Indra pointed.
03:23   Hazard  The ground camel leaps out from the next mountain over. Starlight glints off its coat in many colors. Upon landing, it changes course, taking a lazy curve to the right.
03:27   Trimangle   Alex gains altitude, keeping the camel in sight as she keeps following Indra's path. This camel is interesting, to be certain, but it's not going her way."
03:29   Hazard  The mountainous horizon continues as far as the eye can see. The camel, however, dives from one mountain or another, getting faster and faster as its arc continues.
03:29   Trimangle   Alex shifts course minutely to keep sight of the camel. "Indra!" she calls, streamlining herself and putting on a burst of speed.
03:31   Hazard  Before long, the dromedary's course has rounded its way behind Alex, zipping along the ground.
03:34   Trimangle   Alex reduces speed, flying above the camel as it pursues a headlong path to who knows where. She, meanwhile, keeps looking ahead to find where her love pointed her.
03:40   Hazard  As she turns her head up, she finds herself face to face with the camel. Its coat shimmering iridescence. It has no eyes. Only ragged, bloody sockets with pinprick stars within them. It begins to talk. First normally, then with great anger. That anger gives way to a strange... glee in its tone.
03:40   Hazard  Though.
03:40   Hazard  You can't hear a word from its mouth.
03:42   Trimangle   Alex shrieks, adrenaline lancing through her frame as she jets backward, her shriek turning into a yell as she draws her blade and slices through the camel in one smooth stroke. "Begone!"
03:42   Hazard  Strangely, this mute yelling feels, both from its passion and its innate content, as if it were truth.
03:43   Trimangle   (Wait, redact, I didn't know you had more)
03:43   Hazard  (Sorry, Having a hard time staying awake. We can treat your line after mine)
03:43   Trimangle   (No worries. You need to go to bed? We can pick up later)
03:44   Hazard  (We are very close to the end of the vision)
03:45   Trimangle   Alex shrieks, adrenaline lancing through her frame as she jets backward, her shriek turning into a yell as she draws her blade, cocking it back and -- checking her frenzied swing. She's panicked, that much is clear from her expression, but the truth of what this beast is saying stays her hand...for the moment.
03:46   Hazard  It stares at her, hauntingly, muttering truths that Alex's ears cannot hear.
03:46   Hazard  No. It isn't staring at her...
03:46   Hazard  It's staring past her...
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03:48   Hazard  (End of turn. lol)
03:49   Trimangle   Alex spins in place, her foot pushing off a sudden, temporary square of force, her blade held ready to lash out...!
03:52   Hazard  The mountains are gone. A blackened void is all. And from that void, a man rises to his feet. Abject fury streams from his eyes as he reaches out in your direction. His ire sparks across the ground, glowing in crimson light behind him. His power grows, balling up around him like a sunrise. Blood red light bathes the void.
03:52   Hazard  "GIVE HER BACK!"
03:55   Hazard  (Turn)
03:56   Trimangle   Alex's aura takes fire, surrounding her in a verdant halation. "You cannot have her!" she yells, defying this incarnation of death, of nothingless, of the Void. Her aura flares, her blade taking fire in turn. She swipes her blade in the air, a viridian crescent leaping forth, a beacon against the void as it lances towards her opponent.
03:59   Hazard  "I WON'T LET YOU TAKE HER!" He lashes out with his hand, and as it strikes against the blade's tip, an explosion of light blinds everything.
03:59   Hazard  (Turn)
04:00   Trimangle   Alex holds her blade there, a raw, full-throated yell erupting from the girl's throat, her eyes narrowed in cold fury, muscles trembling as she tries to fight the man's hand away. "It will be done!"
04:02   Hazard  The light shocks across Alex's body and eyes. There is something cool and smooth against her forehead, and an irritating pressure against the bridge of her nose. There is nothing but pinkish light, slightly dimmed by gray glass.
04:04   Trimangle   Alex yelps and hurls herself backward...falling on her skirted ass. She looks around, briefly dazed and confused.
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04:05   Hazard  Tesla chuckles, taking her headphones out of her ears. "Welcome back! Have a nice trip?"
04:06   Trimangle   "What?!" Alex is still a little high. "What was that?! I thought it was supposed to be holy, here!"
04:06   Hazard  "Saw something disturbing?"
04:07   Trimangle   "Y-Yeah," Alex nods, pulling her legs underneath her. "Th-There was an eyeless camel...bloody eyesockets...and a man. A terrible man, standing in a black void, demanding I give Indra back..."
04:10   Hazard  The thunder girl stands, brushing herself off. "Don't worry. I've seen some scary things, too. And they came true. But..." She wraps one arm around Alex's shoulder. "She never shows you anything you won't come out the other side of."
04:11   Trimangle   Alex rises, slowly, leaning into Tesla. "...But what does it mean?" she asks, glancing at the crystal.
04:13   Hazard  She shrugs. "It means... You have something hard coming up. But you'll make it through. I don't know what all that means exactly. I didn't with my first visions either. But I'm still here."
04:15   Trimangle   Alex shivers. "I...y-yeah. Yeah. I-I'll make it." She nods, clearing her throat.
04:16   Hazard  "C'mon. Let's head back." She pulls out her headphones. "Here, listen to some music while we go, it'll take the edge off."
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04:20   Trimangle   Alex offers Tesla a grateful smile. "Thanks." She takes the earbuds and affixes one into her ear.
04:20   Hazard  https://youtu.be/iH8SIql08l4
04:21   Trimangle   Alex isn't quite sure what to think of this music, but it's the sound that's important, chasing away what's in her head.
04:22   Hazard  Tesla walks Alex back to the hub, reading deeply into the girl's expressions and watching her movement. At one point, she tenses, as if about to spring towards Alex, but refrains.
04:23   Hazard  "Hazard has strange taste in music..."
04:24   Hazard  (Think we can call it there?)
04:26   Trimangle   It's clear that whatever she saw...affected her. She's considering it, her mood dour as she walks back to the hub. When Tesla tenses, Alex tenses as well, apprehension shooting into her gaze for a split second.