PSYC Ward: Explorer

World 7: Hyrendell

HERC-LOG #04:

We've got the nanobots working perfectly in capacity within the brain simulate material. They can keep the upscaled model living purely by themselves for a month and there have been very few instances of explosive decompression. Of course, meat and electricity is only a stand-in for the real thing. The time for live experimentation has begun. Dr. Hammerhead will oversee the selection of people while we scale down the nanomachines.

PART A: The Old Lady

Laura was walking on her way home when she caught site of a bright, purple light. While its origins were obscured by the perpetual fog that hung over this land, it was bright enough that she could make it out.

"Ah, damn it! This isn't it, either!"

"Nice going, dumbass," said another voice. This one sounded much higher, much more stringy, and much younger.

The purple light faded. Laura approached the sound carefully, measuring her distance from whatever was there and in the fog so she was just far enough that she could see them but they might not see her. In the mist she saw two girls. One looked in her teens, with blond hair and a distinct jacket, and two cats following her. The other was a smooth faced, pale-skinned short thing of around 12. And her eyes, they were covered with some weird frames of darkened glass. What sort of outfit was this?

"Oh, well geez, sorry Rachel. You try navigating a trans-dimensional maze!"

"I could totally do it better!"

"I've only been doing this for a few weeks, sorry I'm not perfe-" Kyle froze up for a second.

Her head slowly turned to the intruder, like she had just heard a gunshot and wasn't entirely looking forward to seeing the source.

'-ct at...it..."

She slowly turned her head directly in Laura's direction. "Hi there."

Laura was a bit taken aback by this. The elderly woman had just been out for a walk to get some fresh air for the first time in a while, and she'd never seen anything entirely like this.

"Well, hello there children. How did you get here?"

"...uh, that's a more complicated question than it may seem. Just give us a second here, okay?"

Laura watched as Kyle looked around the area for a bit, and tapped her foot on the ground. Rachel just waited patiently, and gave a nod after Kyle looked at her.

"Is magic a thing here?" Rachel asked.

Laura paused and looked quizzically at the girls.

"...in what regard?" Laura responded.

"Like...can people here actually perform magic?"

"Oh...no, not here I'm afraid. Not anymore. The source of it in this world long ago went away." Laura said with a sigh. "What a strange question though. Surely you'd already know?"

As she said this she saw Kyle narrow her eyes, for just a fraction of an instant.

"We're just travelers. I've been blessed with the ability to travel across worlds, which is why you haven't seen me before."

Laura gave a big, wide smirk.

"I did find that curious. Most everyone here is familiar to me, as old as I am, so new faces are unusual. People who can travel the worlds...very rare indeed, but not unheard of. Almost as unheard of as normal travelers."

Laura let out a small laugh.

"Why's that?" Rachel raised an eyebrow quizzically.

"There are dangers in the fog. They say that a monster makes it, and that it lures people with forms of people they love out of the cities and devours them."