The television is blaring. It's just after dawn, and Mako's laying on the couch in something of loungewear. Ika walks in soon after, holding a bowl of oatmeal, sitting down right beside her partner. Mako gives her the eye. "That's like your 3rd bowl! You hungry or something?" Ika laughs a little. "Nothing much else I can have for breakfast. Plus, it's really good, I put some berries in it and it goes well with the milk." Mako sighs. "But I got you all of that bacon and stuff!" Ika rolled her eyes to one side. "I'm trying to be a little conscious about that, actually." She looks down at her bowl. "I think I've seen enough... *meat*, for one life." They both kind of sat in silence as an advertisement comes on. Their TV is a little rubbish, to say the least, but by their standards it's good enough. Something of a salesman comes on the screen, but they're a little stout, a little grey, a little hunched over, with a large beard and head of hair - the common indications of a Dwarf. He starts. "Are you looking for a fun time with your friends and family? Come on up to the Peak of Challenge Mountain, where you'll be met with 75-hundred arms of non-stop, action-packed, rough-ways-about-it climbing! Get to the top in 30 minutes, and you get one choice of dessert from our Family Owned [[Knife]]-and-[[Fork]] Steakhouse, absolutely free!" "You know, hon, there's something I don't understand about the dwarves." Ika puts her bowl aside on a side table, turning to face. "And that would be...?" "Well, they're always about climbing and working hard, but do they ever get a break from any of that? Like, do they go home and see their families?" Ika puts a hand on her chin. "I mean, they would have to, right? I'd hate to have to work all day and never see my family." Mako tilts her head and sits up a little. "You have a family?" Ika leaps over onto the other side of the couch, attacking her lover with a pinch on the cheek. "You're my family!" They both laugh at each other, smiling gleefully. "You're really the only one I feel comfortable around, Maks. Anyone else... I don't know if I could truly be myself." Ika repositions herself a little more far away from Mako. "It's so strange, when it's just you and I, I feel like... I feel normal. But even with our friends... I freeze up." She looks down at the cushions. "I know it's my fault, but I just can't shake it." Mako puts a hand on her shoulder. "No, no, it's not your fault, hon, it's... It's like you're new, in a sense. Remember what you said? A new name, a new life?" She thinks. "Maybe... Do you wanna go see our friends again? We can practice being ourselves." Ika wiped a tear from her eye. "And they'd be okay with that?" Mako nodded. Ika let her head dangle. "Alright, Maks. We should probably get dressed first, though." After choosing their outfits for the day (Ika wanted to try on a spiffy new skirt she found at the tailor's), they headed out to town, taking a carriage to the base of the mountains. The mountains are a little aways from their town (called "The Human Residence"), just a little north, but moreso to the east. You usually wanna go by carriage, it's otherwise an aeons trek. While the horse rider wasn't exactly much for conversation, the pairing were reviewing a few things before the event. "...and you're sure that Edgie won't make fun of me for this, er, 'training'?" Mako chuckled to herself, as you do. "Nobody's going to make fun of you. I've known Edgie and Toby for quite some time, they would never make fun of anyone - they took me in during a bad part of my life, and I'm forever grateful, so, you know, I know my stuff." Ika turned her head to look into the distance, crossing her legs. "I just wanna make a good impression..." Mako smiled at her. "You'll make great impressions!" But Ika was entirely unconvinced. All her life, it was rejection after rejection, save for the partner she was lucky to be with. Slash after slash, cut after cut, bleeding out from her... Her friends, that was. Yes, definitely. Arrival. The house that Edgie and Toby live in is something of a modest home - bigger than Ika and Mako's cabin, for sure, but from the surrounding landscape - a large pond to the left and otherwise relatively flat grass to the right, with the mountains as their background. The house itself was an A-frame, with light-blue planks on the outside, with a slight indent on the front to allow for a patio and door, something white in color. Mako invited Ika to knock. "C'mon, you gotta make the first step! Confidence is key, Ika!" Mako winked at her and stood by, waiting for her to make the first move. Ika took some deep breaths. She was taught breathing exercises after... something she doesn't like to talk much about. In and out... 7 seconds in, hold for 4, 5 out. She rang the doorbell. A male voice came from the other side. "Just a minute! I need to pull this out of the oven!" A scuffle behind the door and... voila! Toby was in the entrance way. Toby was an odd fellow - hair so blue you'd think he stepped right into a convention for laundry detergent, wearing a slightly more toned back tropical shirt with some palm trees emblazoned on it. His right hand looked just fine, but his left hand looked more like a claw you'd see on an assembly line. Oh, and some jeans, of course, can't forget those. "Ika! Didn't think you'd ever visit our residence! Is Mako with you?" Ika couldn't even stammer out a word. Toby raised his eyebrow before looking to the side. "Oh, hi! Is... she okay? You know what, just come on in, we'll figure something out!" He beamed with pride as Mako pushed Ika through the doorway and into the main foyer, clearly a little awkward. It was something of a cozy house, opening directly into the living room, complete with red couches and a firepit. To the right was a dining table, and further ahead from there was the kitchen. To the left, a dedicated sitting room. Toby put a shoulder around Mako. "Heya! Haven't seen you in a long while, big shot! Is everything alright?" Mako smiled with her eyes. "Yeah! Ika here says she's been having trouble talking to people. You think you can help?" Toby put his robotic arm on his chin. "Hmm... I think I could. Ika, you okay?" Ika kept stuttering. Couldn't mutter a word if she tried. She eventually stopped and just looked down at the floor. "Ika... can you look up at me?" Toby tried his best to be quiet and hushing. Ika simply looked up, nervous. "Hey, hey, it's alright. Human interaction is tough, I get that, but it doesn't have to be. Should we start with something simple. Just shake my hand and say, 'Hi, Toby, how are you doing?'" He stretched out his robotic arm for her to grasp, waiting patiently. Ika slowly stuck out her hand. Contact. She held it firm, before giving it one good shake, and stammering out, "H-hi, Toby, how are you, uhm, doing?" Toby nodded. "Good, that's good! Do you think you can do it without stuttering, though?" Ika just looked to the side and tried her beat to repeat herself. "Hello... Toby, how are you... doing?" Toby put his hands together. "That's good!" Just as Toby was about to pull out some flash cards, Edgie descended from upstairs on a hovering platform, which looked like an intricate glass cut of sort. Edgie themselves was wearing their traditional robes of magic casting, purple all the way through, connected by a golden rope. They pulled their hood down, revealing their hair to be a deeper shade of magenta, with blue crystals for earrings and a similar purple for lipstick. They spoke in a voice deep and somber enough to mistake for a dramatic. "Toby, I do not have good news. It's from... On [[High]]." (End of [[Act]] 1.) ``` --[Notice!]-- End of Act reached. Act Ends are typically signposted by "End of Act" in parenthesis (see above). Make sure you read ALL documents before continuing onward. --[Reccomendation]-- The Act Select is always linked in "End of Act" (closing) documents. Visit it to make note of how many documents are in the Act, and cross reference with your own findings. Due to incoherency, only Opening and Closing documents of ecah Act are listed. --[Tip]-- Since Opening documents are always listed, you can ensure not to navigate to any documents that share the name of the next Act's opening document, to prevent accidental progress. ```