[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]the world around her, as she knows it, grows odd in places once normal - distorted into acts against laws of reality.

it's different, still, than the vastness of the deep sea.

here, rivers flow upward and gravity ceases to exist. it leaves her in a state of confusion, gears in the mind churning to make sense of it all. and as she turns to survey the expanses of this realm, familiarity strikes like electrocution.

she's been here before - another time, another point of entry, sure, but it's still the same as when Katherine Fairburne had first shown her.

"interesting."

why here - why now?

she doesn't receive an answer to her questions. instead, she catches sight of another familiar entity and her entire body swivels. an arm rises, flagging down the floating girl.

"what're you doing here? do you need help?"

faintly, she pushes through the oddness of this world's gravity to get closer. behind her, a golurk follows a few beats slower.

Eris Halla

[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]as eris manages to stick her landing, the scientist idly floats in this world's lack of gravity. she soaks the sensation into her body - committing it to memory with flesh and bone.

only when she's satisfied does she allow her feet to tentatively touch off-kilter ground.

"yes, though i've only been here once before."

a quick glance around confirms it: this is the same domain.

"it's referred to as the distortion world - it's said to be kind of like a mirror of our world."

without Katherine Fairburne and her patron to navigate, she feels lost. the sensation is not an easy thing for her to swallow. somehow, it wounds her pride.

"we'll need to find a way out. which way did you come from?"

Eris Halla

[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]a light laugh escapes as her eyes flitter over the written sentiment.

"yeah, it's definitely a bit weird."

reflections can't always be perfect, though, she supposes.

enough time was spent within this realm to feel slightly comfortable traversing its terrain - not enough to be considered familiar, certainly, but enough to get them out at the very least.

and with the question, she pauses. her eyes narrow in thought, flickering up toward the empty expanses overhead. somewhere nearby, a waterfall rushes upward in a steady rhythm. it's soothing, in its own oddity.

"i'm not quite sure... i haven't tested staying here longer than a few minutes before."

her lips press into a firm line and while curiosity thrums steadily beneath her veins, she isn't so sure she wants to find out.

"let's head to the right and see where it leads."

worst comes to worst, there's always her smeargle's spatial rend as a hail mary.

Eris Halla

[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]how long has it been?

she exists in silence for a moment, the world around them pressing down faintly on her shoulders. it feels the same as it had before... at least, from what she can tell. following her trip with Eva Morales to the silver spire ruins, everything feels slightly off balance somehow - as if the altered space of the ruins and its odd center of gravity had been etched into her body's memory and left to rot out her systems.

"um, last year - july, maybe?"

can this plane of reality really change so much since then?

yes - it definitely can.

faintly, there's a soft tug at her heart. it opens up a plethora of sensations - paranoia, desire, fear, happiness, curiosity, excitement. the cards shift quickly beneath invisibly deft hands. she doesn't feel much of the prodding, though the fluttering in her chest sends slight alarms through the brain. she attributes it to the world around them and nothing more.

"are you ready to try exploring?"

if luck is on their side, perhaps they'll even find an exit strategy in the process.

Eris Halla

[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]she hums through the concept until the notes sour.

"every universe has its own mirror, though i do not believe this is a gateway to other worlds. it's different from ultra space."

the interdimensional highway... is this another stop along the way?

they begin to move from their location, odd gravity following closely at their heels. she feels the dips and twists with each step, subtle but nagging at the senses. too long in this world and she fears it'd end in devastation.

her eyes scan for weak spots along the dark, chaotic sky. could they escape with spatial rend? would it work here... or ignite a primordial feud she doesn't understand?

"do you see any possible exits?"

Eris Halla

[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]she hums as the scribbled words absorb fully in the mind.

"let's try it."

what's the worst that could happen, realistically?

they're foreign to this world - unnatural, unable to belong for very long... and she doubts they'll get stuck here for eternity for she has met the ruler of this plane once and it never struck her as the type for full cruelty.

she takes a few steps forward before her golurk lifts her up onto its shoulder in order to safely drift down toward the next broken stretch of land.

"an exit should look similar to a rift - slightly shimmery at the edges, possibly purple, blue, or pink."

her eyes begin scanning once more until the slight telltale sign of a rift ripping itself into existence begins up ahead.

Eris Halla