bulletin rock; july 20

[ichininyaanshi]

[Appearing on the rock today is yet another piece of paper salvaged from Umui, strategically pinned near its collected brethren. A messily scrawled note has been added beneath it in chalk.]


(transcript)

you guys seem pretty worked up about all this, so here. ren-chan, the dog, and i found this in a bunch of flowers. there was a whole binder, but this is the only page that survived. i have it if you wanna look at it anyway. don't expect much.

as for what this thing means, who knows? if you ask me, it looks like they put some effort into this place. maybe they actually gave a shit about whoever lived here.

sucks to lose no matter what you try.

- ichimatsu 🐾

[As for Ichimatsu himself, he can be found lingering about the bulletin rock on occasion throughout the day, if anyone wants to catch him in person. Otherwise, he'll return now and then to respond to messages.]

Comments

[thisisourfuture]

It looks like this came before the undated scroll. ...or just from the same timeframe?

No matter what...I guess we now know at least 11 islands exist. Now, 10 because of Zizyphus.

- Hinata

[ichininyaanshi]

to be honest, i haven't been paying much attention so far

are we even sure they're even talking about the islands we've seen? who knows how many are out there

[thisisourfuture]

You're right. This could be just a small portion of whatever survey they had.

...the binder. How many pages does it have? Or was this the only page in it and the rest was just a mess?

[ichininyaanshi]

see for yourself.
|
V

[The arrow points down to the binder in question, which Ichimatsu has left propped up against the base of the community rock. It does appear that there had been several other entries in it, but the original number is unclear; the binding is loose, and what pages remain have crumbled into dry pulp within their plastic sleeves. The only thing of legible interest is the label upon the binder itself, which says: RECORD 1.001.]

[thisisourfuture]

[He had missed that. But now he kneels down and searches through it as carefully as he can. He checks the binder itself and hello clue.]

This says RECORD 1.001. With that evidence...I think there's more than 12 islands on this survey.

[yourattention]

12
they came from somewhere

[thisisourfuture]

Right.

Do you know if anyone has seen any more mentions of Tempide?

[ichininyaanshi]

catch me up

what's tempide?

[thisisourfuture]

Tempide was mentioned in the undated scroll, the first of the writings found. The transcribed page talked about they were leaving Tempide.

'Prior to my escape from Tempide, I spent my last hours packing what research I could from Frotos’ collection.' is the first part of it.

The whole page is here on the rock. I've added a small '1' by it.

[tokenflavortownie]

So many islands to discover!

I know this may be thinking far ahead, but maybe, somewhere out there, there's an even larger landmass. The possibilities are amazing.

[ichininyaanshi]

are you new here or what? the islands have all sucked so far. "amazing" my ass.

[gomen, he's rude.]

[tokenflavortownie]

[It's cool, she's used to this.]

Oh? Oh well, yes, I arrived here only last month. And I guess the first island I was on was slowly falling apart... and now this.

My time here hasn't been awful though!

[thisisourfuture]

If there's a larger landmass out there, we might have an even better chance to find out what happened to this world. Either way this is more details about the world overall.

action

[catpiper]

[They made it back to the island in one piece, with no problems or half living robots to speak of. It makes sense to her, considering a cat was with them. That's the safest way to travel-even the dog must've appreciated the comfort of having one on their journey.

It's a relief to step back on familiar ground and get away from that place though. She's not itching to go back anytime soon. The letters are far beyond her reading comprehension and she can only pick out a few words that chill her to the core whenever they're shared-it's probably better if they don't find more of them. Whatever mystery this island's hiding, she's fine with letting it stay hidden, but still-]

What does that letter say? Is it scary?

[mamaterasu]

[Astonishingly enough, Amaterasu can read, and while she's not the one who found the note - she's mainly been strolling along to keep these other two safe, knowing Ren isn't exactly...a combatant, and the strange man-cat is. Well. He's something. She doesn't know how capable he is if anything goes wrong though, so that's why she's decided to tag along after them. This place seems to give off a strange aura, and it makes the wolf jumpy and uncomfortable. The scenic flowers don't even give her a sense of peace, instead making her fur itch and prickle with the feeling that there's something...something wrong with them all.

It's the first time she's ever felt that way about flowers. Certainly the earth and plants can be cursed - she's experienced that firsthand, but there's nothing on the outside to signify as such, which is throwing her off her game. If only she had an exorcism slip to spare...she'd blow a smaller one to see if it'd do anything to chase the sense of dread.]

[ichininyaanshi]

Huh? Oh -- nah, nothing like that.

[Ichimatsu shuts the binder with a snap and shifts it to his side, his other hand moving to rest in his pocket. It ends up straying to gently scratch the dog's ear, and he glances down to her with a smile he hopes is reassuring. She did a good job staying with them out there... but he knows a jumpy and stressed out animal when he sees one. Not that he blames her. That Umui sure is a shitshow.]

Don't worry about the letter. Did you have fun?

[catpiper]

[Fun isn't the word she would've used at the time, but in hindsight-yeah, it was. Cats go hand in hand with safety and Murasaki's presence meant the dog and her would be fine no matter what. It was easier to admire the flowers, lay in the grass and poke at the decaying robot bodies. The only treasure they found is in his binder now, but that's fine too. They can look for more shiny objects another day.

She runs her fingers across the dog's back, lightly patting her side with a good girl, good girl to comfort her.]

It wasn't scary this time. You did a good job and now it's safe. I'll tell people to go that way next time.

[Down the cat beaten path, where she knows nothing can go wrong because he walked down it.]

Did you have fun, Shiro? Did you smell a lot of things?

[DOGS LIKE TO SMELL. RIGHT. PROBABLY.]

[mamaterasu]

[With the dual affection coming from both sides, Ammy immediately begins to perk up, her tail lightly slapping Ren's leg when she draws close enough to pet her side. Her tongue smacks Ichimatsu's hand after her scratches her ear, the previous unease smoothed out just a tad. It's still there, lingering in the mist, but the presence of these two good people help ease her thoughts. There really isn't anything notably bad about the flowers, just that...their aura seems off. Wrong, somehow.

Turning her head to Ren, the wolf barks in response. I mean, she definitely did smell out their trail, though it was much of the same thing - flowers, the scent of earth and soil, and a bit of rust and the heavy scent of bitter medicine when they got inside these big buildings. That is part of the reson she accompanied the two, to track and make sure they didn't get lose here. Ammy is, uh...well. W-Well, let's just say she's been marking here and there.

Look.

Wolf.

They pee. A lot. A LOT.]