``` --[[Notice!]]-- Loading Document from External Media... External Media Recognized! --[[Info]]-- You are currently viewing: "Baba is You"::"Forest of Love levelpack"::[[Demo]] ``` *Just push a little further. It's just hedges and boxes. You got this.* It's a little strange, really, when your usual foes are people, sometimes monsters, but mostly things that think. Ika and Mako did not expect to be put up against puzzle after puzzle with almost no rhyme or reason as to why, other than it brought them closer, level by level, to some arbitrary goal. Ika had just had enough of cutting things down. The rush she normally felt was instead a tired dread, of sorts. With an ounce of her energy, she slashed away the last hedge blocking them from progress. Mako was similarly tired, though for different reasons - all this *walking* without much respite. Ika nearly collapsed, opting to hastily sit down on the ground, panting. "That sure was a lot..." Mako joined her, but she did lie face down. "You can say that again." "What are those things, anyways? Puzzles? Tests?" An unfamiliar, deep voice answered. "I think I can help with that." The dynamic duo looked around themselves, but found nothing. Ika quickly stood up, against her wind, and demanded. "Reveal yourself! We mean no harm, we're just lost." Mako took her time getting up, stretching and popping a joint she didn't know she had. "Yeah, honest!" Twirling out of nowhere was something unlike anything either of them had seen before. It was not a human - its skin was far too purple for that, and it only had the two legs, in any case. It was not a dwarf - you could clearly see its face, two eyes, and a mouth, like a rotated letter I. It was not a synth - there was certainly nothing robotic about it. And it was not origami - you could see no folds or creases in its design. Like the world around it, it, too, moved with the rhythms of the earth. It was like a sausage, flattened at the bottom, with only legs and feet to spare in its creation. "Greetings.", It said, with all the cadence of an elder god. "My name... is Me." A wind blew by the silence. You would hear crickets, if they existed in this world, but they do not. Ika started. "Your name is... Me?" It nodded, careful to keep balance on its two legs. "That's correct." "Are you sure?", Mako replied. "You look more like a... Kayako. Can I call you Kayako?" "You will call me 'Me' and no other name!" It thought to itself for a moment. "Actually, 'Kayako' sounds like a cool name... Fine! You may call me Kayako." "Saves the trouble...", Ika remarked. "Oh, I should probably introduce myself. My name is Ika." She held out a hand, as if to present her partner. "This is Mako. We're not exactly from here." "Of course you two aren't from here!", Kayako exclaimed. "You have no motion! No fluidity! And all that gross color, ugh..." Mako turned up her nose and crossed her arms. "I look *fine*, thank you very much." "Not here you don't! It's near heresy!" Kayako looked at the ground for a bit. "I suppose I can forgive it, though... you two are awfully good at levels, it seems." Ika looked behind herself. "Is that what those are? They're pretty exhausting." "Maybe if you two-" Kayako steadied themselves, almost having fallen over from the anger. "Sorry. It's not so hard for us that live here." Mako started being on speaking terms with the strange purple creature. "Where is here, actually? It looks very... different." "This-", it said, and it would have gestured if it could, "The world we inhabit is called '5World'. We do not know why, but is said, so it is." "Said by who?", asked Ika. Kayako looked toward the sky - revealing a mountain spiking its way into the sky, and somewhat beyond the clouds. Atop it, sit a radio antenna, spitting out the same S-O-S signal Ika had heard prior. "You see that signal-thing up there? That tells us everything we need to know." It turned around to address the still duo. "Once every three days, we ask it a question, and it answers us with the complete truth. That is how we know everything. Now, I can ask you two - where do *you* come from?" "I can field this one, love.", replied Ika. "Mako and I come from what is known as The Plane, we hail 4 knights that watch over us, and, supposedly, protected us from the gifts of the King-" Rudely, Kayako was mimicking very loud snoring. "Huh? Sorry, your story is *boring!* Maybe you should give me the sparknotes, grandma!" Mako interjected. "Ika is a young lady, thank you very much." "I have her clocked as 23 years old." This briefly stunned Ika a bit. Mako put up both her hands in front of her, cupping them, shaking them. "What in the knights' names is a year?!" Ika chimed in before Kayako could answer, though. "We don't tell time in The Plane. Long lengths of time are nebulous as best. So, if '23 years' is very old, I apologize, but it's very young for us." "Sure, fine, whatever." Kayako spit on the ground. "So what brings you two here, anyways?" "That's the thing", replied Ika. "We're looking to go home? And maybe find my mother, Mazki, while we're here." "Then you definitely need to get up to the signal-thing! They can tell you how to get home, no problem! Assuming you can get through all the levels..." Mako groaned. "What, we gotta do *more* of those? How many more?" "Can't say. It is a lot though. You'll be fine." "I was burnt out after eight of them, Kayako.", Ika bemoaned. "And I'm a natural at combat!" "You'll get used to it." With a last sigh from the duo, the three of them headed out towards the strange tower on the mountain. ``` --[[Notice!]]-- Media Related Information Obtained! --[[Bonus Hint]]-- IKA IS fungi ```