HEY RIDDLE RIDDLE [closed]

[instrumentally]

Who: Rei Ayanami, Huey Duck, Grant Aboroa and Angel, aka: Team Nerds and Chaparones
Where: a Cafe in Violet City
When: After the Team Assignments go out
Summary: Four nerds walk into a room, hopefully they will walk out with solutions to various puzzles
Rating: idk. G, probably.
Log:

Rei Ayanami sent out a quick text message to her assigned team mates. Brief, formal. The note consists of an introduction, followed by: The Seekers have grouped us together for the purposes of solving a riddle. I will be waiting in Violet City, as it is the largest city I am capable of visiting on short notice.

She waits there. Patient, as always. Sitting in a chair outside of a cafe. She ordered a cup of tea, which she sips delicately. It is soothing.

Comments

[woofdad]

It's... oddly a relief for Grant to see he's on a team with Rei. Another opportunity to keep an eye on the poor kid, see how she's doing in this place.

Similarly, it's a relief that she contacts them all so quickly; Grant replies with a quick message of I'll be there as soon as I can before going to sort everything out with his housemates and head out. "Sorting everything out" might include making sure Chip is taken care of and knows where he's going, or it might involve finding out that Chip has already run off on their own riddle-solving adventure before he can even find them.

Either way: With his partners and friends and child alerted to his whereabouts, he heads for the nearest warp to make his way to Violet. He finds Rei as quickly as he can, brightening up when he does catch sight of her. "Hey! How've you been doing?"

[brokencode]

Angel seems a little wary of the fact that there's a very large man following the same path that she is. She recognizes him vaguely from the network and a few events here and there. He seems... kind enough in her experience. But of everyone in this world, she suspects she knows the most about how easy it is for the charismatic to lie.

Still, it quickly becomes apparent why they're walking together. He speaks to Rei first, while Angel breathes a sigh of relief. She lifts a hand to wave, but otherwise lets the two speak to one another.

[instrumentally]

Rei nods, acknowledging the newcomer, before returning her attention to Mr. Aboroa. She remains sitting, legs crossed beneath the table. "I have been doing well." Her voice is flat and even, but polite. She is still not skilled at what she has heard termed as 'small-talk', so she goes quiet relatively quickly. The tea helps.

[goingbythebook]

Huey had been on top of a reply message as soon as he'd received the first text. Arranging to meet up with Louie on the other side, even if Louie had termed it "Good luck with the hyper nerd stuff!" he set off for Violet City, thankfully not having that far to go.

With a description of Rei from his brother, it wasn't hard to find her in the meetup spot, especially with the sight of others already gathered. "Hello!" He raised his hand in a wave; his Castform, Cavendish, chirruped his own greeting from up behind Huey's head somewhere. "My name is Huey Duck, it's nice to meet you all."

Finding a seat of his own, he bounced for a few moments and then: "So what do you think about the situation? The idea of the riddle? I'm so intrigued!"

[instrumentally]

Rei smiles. The excitement is infectious, it seems. She finishes her sip of tea, and then speaks, even and calm.

"I would like to understand what has caused the strange weather events recently."

Whether it is a natural phenomenon or the subject of these prophecies, she will investigate until she reaches the conclusion alongside everyone else.

[brokencode]

"If nothing else, it is nice to have something to do?"

Now that the group is assembling, that it's obvious everyone is here for a reason, she can relax into the conversation a bit more. She isn't used to being so hands on, not really, but guiding an adventure is something of a strong point for her.

"Would anyone mind re-reading the riddle?"

[woofdad]

Rei's answer is good enough for Grant, frankly, and he gives an appreciative nod as he sits down.

It also helps that there's not too much time for potential silence - or Grant wrestling with whether he should greet Angel, too - before the final member of their group arrives. He can recognize when someone is nervous around him, even if there wasn't much he could do about it when he and Angel were on their way to the same place, so... he'll just leave it for now, and focus on the reason they're all here, as Huey helpfully led into.

"Oh, I can." He pulls his notebook out of his bag, where he's hastily written down the riddle so he can mark it up as needed.

"Travel you must
To a jut of red among the wide blue
Where from the unparalleled power of a fiery heart
Existence grew.

A shout echoes from the heart
An unmelting snow falls from the sky
Gather the flakes and bring it to
The place where the Temple will rise."

[brokencode]

Angel listens for a moment. She repeats it to herself several times, parsing out each sentence at a time. She's at a loss for most of it, especially as she's never managed to spend more than a few days in Kanto at a time. Cinnabar Island is a mystery to her.

But wide blue certainly catches her attention.

"So... The ocean then? I suppose it could also be the sky but -- as the sky is mentioned later on in the riddle I don't think it would be that?"

[instrumentally]

Rei thinks it over. Sometimes she sips her tea. A thought comes to her after some time.

"Ash. A snow that never melts."

She puts that thought together with Angel's mention of the ocean to come up with... well, something like this, which is what she says.

"Perhaps we are to look for an island where a volcano has erupted recently."

She does not know where this island might be, however. More mysteries remain to be solved.

[goingbythebook]

"An island where a volcano has erupted recently..." He rubbed his chin, thinking hard. "Well unfortunately, my time here has been comparatively short so far. But it can't be that hard to find out where volcanoes are."

And there was still the question of what to do with the ash once it was- collected? That's what the riddle seemed to imply, anyway. "I wonder where this 'the Temple will rise' location is, too?"

[brokencode]

"There is an active volcano in the Sevii Islands, I believe?" This much she knows, having spent the better part of her time in Johto there.

She taps her chin a few times.

"Other than that... maybe we could do with a map? I cannot imagine there are many volcanoes out there."

[instrumentally]

"One moment."

Rei pulls a folded map out of her pocket and lays it flat on the tabletop. The map includes both Kanto and Johto, as well as the islands between.

[brokencode]

Angel hums to herself as she bends over the map. She points to Cinnabar island, and then the Seafoam islands after that. Then her fingers dance over to Cianwood, but hesitates.

"If a volcano formed Cianwood then it has long since gone dormant. There wouldn't be any ash there." She shifts back toward Kanto. "So... it's either the Sevii islands, or one of these two?"

At that, she makes an almost sheepish face.

"I have not spent much time in Kanto, I'm afraid!"

[woofdad]

Grant listens quietly while the others talk over the options, before leaning over to get a look at that map. "I don't know it very well, either... but narrowing it down to those three options is certainly a start."

He leans back again and pull out his Gear. "As for narrowing it down further, I wonder if the 'unparalleled power' thing might be a suggestion that we're looking for the largest volcano in the area...?"

[brokencode]

A grin splits Angel's face. Where there was once hesitation, she looks to Grant with pride.

"I think you're right!" She gives a quick nod and looks back to the map, before prodding down at Cinnabar island. "There, then? If we're wrong, we can always check somewhere else, too. It is not like we only have one chance, right?"

This isn't Pandora. It isn't do or die.

[instrumentally]

"I agree. We can explore each of these islands if we must."

It would be nice to see so many of them, even if it means that their guesses are not quite accurate.

[woofdad]

"Yeah! There's no rush to it." He smiles, hoping his very genuine excitement is at all encouraging to the others. "This kind of thing is supposed to be an adventure, isn't it?"