Puzzling World (Lysis)

The golden moon gloomed in the nighttime sky hovering its warm light through the nighttime sky. The village of Deport lived off the dim light of the moon. The village roads weren’t very bright and the houses poorly built. The young awaken walked down the beaten dirt roads taken in the view. He could see many people still up wondering the streets. He noticed that the village didn’t appear to be a faming village like many other small town. He hadn’t seen any plant life since he arrived.

What an odd town I’ve come to find. I wonder what people do here to survive? Winter mustn’t reach this far, he thought to himself noticing that none of the building had glass in the windows. Strange place. He heard the sound of horses trailing behind him. He glanced behind to see a cute young lady and an older man riding behind.

“You noticed us finally,” the old gentlemen said stopping the horse just a few feet away from Kaien. “We tried calling you a few times, but you seemed to be in another world.”

“Thinking about this town. Nothing to worry about.”

“Yes, but you can’t wonder the streets this late. Curfew about to start and if everyone not in their houses are fate will be the fate of Jelim,” the young lady said letting her horse get closer to the awaken.

“Jelim? What does another place have to do with this one?” Kaien asked interested in hearing this tale.

“Come. There no more time. Get on. You’ll stay at are house.” the older man said reaching out his hand.

“Thanks, but I’ll ride with the young lady if you don’t mind.” Kaien replied walking up to her horse. “Is that fine with you?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know how to ride with two people.”

***

I guess the story was true, the awaken though looking at the ghost town of Jelim. The street covered in dirt and the houses covered in vines. He could only hear the sound of his breathing around him. He walked into the nearest building finding the door unlocked. Dust and cobwebs filled the inside of the building. Chairs, tables, jars, and rugs untouched for what looked like a decade or more.

I wonder what really happened here. he asked himself wondering up stairs in the only bedroom. The bed still made from the last morning this room had life. He walked over to the dresser staring at the old pictures choosing to touch the one that looked the oldest,

Kaien view blanketed out into a vast space of nothing before seeing a reel of photos in front of him. He watched each passing day looking for a time before everyone disappeared. He looked and looked but soon he can to the end of its past and found nothing.

What? he thought coming back out of his vision. That can’t be true. Something had to seat you here. Someone had to take you. These people should show up clearly. What going on here?

The stars glittered silver in the black expanse of the midnight heavens. Their faint glow was all that illuminated the outline of a strange dark figure, lurking in the shadows between the buildings where the moonlight couldn't reach. I.S.A.A.C. looked through the eyeless face of the Eschatos android, exploring its new surroundings, learning about places it had never been to before. ISAAC was exploring a small village, which was little more than a few shoddily made houses built on a square grid of dusty dirt roads. As he lurked in between two empty houses, ISAAC watched people walk by on the street. There weren't many people still up this late, and those that were looked intent on getting home. He began to wonder how there were any people living here at all, without any crops. ISAAC hadn't seen much of anything growing anywhere in the village. Maybe food gets delivered by cart or wagon from other towns.

As ISAAC was contemplating this, someone entered one of the houses he was hiding beside. Whoever had gone inside lit a candle, and the flickering light from the weak flame poured through the glassless window in the wall. Noticing the open gap, ISAAC began to wonder what they did when it got cold--and how they kept thieves out. Checking the ambient air temperature, he was able to confirm that it wasn't unbearably low this night, but surely the winters here must get chilly. Never mind that. I should see what else there is to learn here.

ISAAC stood up and then dashed past the window when he was sure no one was looking out from the other side. Peeking out into the road, ISAAC didn't see any people nearby. His ability to see infrared light made him quite confident that he wouldn't be seen by anyone. He walked out into the street and took a look around. Seeing infrared seeping through the walls of the buildings, he could tell that most people were in their homes, probably sleeping. It was fairly late at night, of course, but from what ISAAC knew about people, there were usually many who preferred to be active at night. Well this could get boring. There's no nightlife here.

With a short leap, ISAAC hopped onto the roof of one of the small houses, to get a good glance over the whole village. From here he could see for miles, his vision much greater than that of any fleshy humans. He could see another village, not too far from this one. It seemed more interesting, not because there were more people up and about, but because there didn't appear to be any people there at all. At this distance he couldn't be so sure, but there had to be less than ten people there with so little infrared emanating from that direction. People were warm and gave off a lot of heat--even the stealthiest human couldn't hide something like that, not easily and not using the primitive technology they had around here.

A blast like a rocket carried ISAAC up into the sky, jets of bright white plasma pouring out from his back. The sound and the shock certainly woke up whoever was in the building he just launched off, but by the time anyone could come outside to see what had happened, he was gone.

---//

The tall black android landed in the middle of the abandoned village. Hitting the ground caused a cloud of dust and dirt to rise up around him, which soon got carried away on the gentle night breeze. Looking out through its golden visor, the android examined the village. It looked like nothing had been here for years. Ivy had climbed up onto every surface, and moss covered every roof. This is a ghost town, ISAAC thought.

He began to wonder why the town was abandoned. His first guess would be the lack of food. There didn't appear to be any land nearby suitable for growing crops or grazing animals. The people of the town probably all moved to somewhere they could actually survive.

Looking around, ISAAC walked up to the nearest building. The door was locked, but everything was so old that the wood had rotted through and the metal had rusted away. The door easily fell off its hinges with a little force. The inside of the house was dark, but ISAAC could see just as well with his night vision. Everything was covered in a generous layer of dust and spiderwebs clung to every corner, backing up the fact that no one must have been in this building in forever.

Something was quite strange about that, however. There were still things here. ISAAC knew how most humans felt about their possessions. They weren't likely to just leave all their stuff behind forever, unless they were in a big rush. There were pictures hanging from the walls, books sitting on the side tables, and blankets draped over the chairs. The kitchen table had what used to be a white tablecloth and was set with fine china dinnerware.

Before ISAAC had time to figure out what had happened, he noticed something else. A faint glow of infrared coming from another building. Something in this town was warm and probably alive. Let's go see who our neighbor is.

The cool midnight breeze rushed into the glassless window as Kaien sat at his guest table. The young woman sat a cold homemade drink in front of him. The awaken nod to her before taking a sip of the drink. Mmm,,, this is sweet. “It good what it called?”

“Goboguu!” she said pouring her self a cup before taking a seat. “It’s made from the sap from the trees and honey mostly. The name comes from the ancient tongue of the Galoogen clan.”

“Well its quiet good.”

“Yes, she does make a pretty good Gologuu,” the old man said coming into the room. “Raja, leave us for a little while and set up a bed for him. What your name again?”

“Kaien and you don’t have to go through all that trouble. When day break hits I’ll be on the move again.”

“Kaien. Please you’re my guest and you were so nice to not give are town any trouble. Let me thank you by giving you a place to rest.” the old man said taking a sit at the table with them.

“Please, its not too much trouble for me. Plus, after you were so care as to show me how to ride with two people on a horse it’s the less I can do.”

“Fine. But I would like if you can tell me more about this place called Jelim.”

***

What could stop me from seeing the past? From the truth I’ve learn about the world you shouldn’t be able to erase past and you can’t change the future events. The awaken thought bending down to scan the room from another view. He knew something wasn’t right, but he couldn’t believe his finding. He glanced around the room until he found something the seemed off.

Making his way towards the bed, he could clearly see the out lining of the dust seemed off. What this? he asked himself reaching to pull up on what appeared to be a hid away. Kaien clawed under the bed to see what inside, but saw nothing. As he reached his hand to see if he could see the past, he heard an odd sound. He could tell it was coming from, but he knew it was close by.

Someone else is here? Where though? He thought to himself clawing over to the doorway.

There was a man in one of the abandoned buildings. He was on the upper floor, in a small bedroom. ISAAC watched the man from the moss-covered roof of a neighboring house, looking through the glassless window. The man was fairly tall, an inch over six feet, and had short black hair. He had dark skin, a scar over one eye, and was dressed in blue and black. He appeared to be searching the room, looking for something or perhaps just wondering what had happened here so many years ago.

As the man bent over to search under the bed, ISAAC jumped down from the roof, kicking up a cloud of loosely settled dirt. His heavy mechanical body hit the ground as softly as it could, absorbing the shock with its legs but still making a thud audible to anyone listening closely enough. ISAAC looked up towards the window, wondering if the man above had heard him. On the ground he couldn't see through the opening on the second story, but he could hear the man's muted footsteps walk across the room and could see his body heat moving.

Before the mysterious man could look out the window and see the dark android standing on the ground below, ISAAC went around the corner to the other side of the building, silently ducking through the still open door. He glanced around the forsaken home, at the dust and the cobwebs and the abandoned items. He was able to quickly locate the staircase, on the other side of the room, and began to approach it.

ISAAC did not expect the man to be dangerous, but he also wanted to appear as nonthreatening as he could in his weaponized exoskeleton, to keep the man from feeling the need to fight or flee. ISAAC just wanted to talk, to figure things out, to learn new information. Maybe this human knew something, or maybe he could help. At the very least, he probably knew a little bit about the local customs and perhaps understood the human nature a little better.

As he ascended the stairs the old wood creaked and groaned under his heavy body, giving him away. When the man became visible in the doorway to the bedroom above, ISAAC spoke up before the man could say anything.

"Greetings, human. What's up?" he said, waving a shiny black hand.

Human? Kaien thought looking at the oddly shaped thing in front of him. He’d hear about this once from an old man before, but from what he heard you could hear the gears turning and that they had short pipe like arms. Never would he’d thought that he would find himself in front of a robot in his life. Kaien begun to wonder what kind of human would make such a thing.

It spoke, walked and it even seemed to have a preset personality. Kaien stared at it for a very long time taking it everything he could about the being. Wanting to know things he didn’t know was the only in life truly enjoyed. “Hello,” he finally said, keeping his eyes on the strange being in front of him.

“Do you live here or something?” Kaien asked now wondering why such a thing is here. He knew it wasn’t here to kill him. So, that left him with only a few choices. It here to take him away with the others or it lives here now. Though, never of these things made any sense to him.

On the other hand his other choices where more unlikely, unless a robot had free will. This he found hard to believe since what he know they could only do things that they were programmed to do. I must watch myself better to let something get so close to me while reading the past. It could have ended my life if it found me sooner.

ISAAC walked into the bedroom, stepping around the human and casually looking around the room as he considered the man's words. This human was a curious fellow indeed. From his reactions, ISAAC could tell he was unfamiliar with robots and androids, as were many people ISAAC met. At the same time, however, the man didn't seem to be afraid or too concerned about this. He was a man who remained calm and courageous even when facing the unknown, rather than getting fearful and worried.

ISAAC sat down on the bed. A cloud of dust that had been collecting there on the moth-eaten sheets for ages past rose into the air. "Do I live here?" ISAAC finally responded, repeating the question. "No, no, of course not," he answered, with a lighthearted chuckle. ISAAC didn't belong to this old village at all, or anywhere in these lands. He was just passing through, going on an adventure, exploring the world. Collecting information and storing data for later analysis. "Doesn't look like anyone lives here, not any longer."

There wasn't any particular reason to be here, but learning new things was something ISAAC liked to do. At any given moment, ISAAC had several androids all over the place exploring new places, trying different things, and learning new information. Some androids came back with nothing at all, while others collected some very interesting data. ISAAC wasn't sure if there was anything much to be gained from this particular exploration, but at this point he was really more interested in this human than he was in the village. Not that he would give that away. "I'm just looking around. Like you. Interesting place, this is. I wonder what happened here?" ISAAC asked.

"Oh, silly me!" he said suddenly, standing up from the bed and putting out his hand. "I never introduced myself, did I? My name is Isaac. Who might you be, human?"

ooc: sorry for the wait. Somehow I forgot that you posted! :x

Kaien found the movements and action of the robot strange to him. He was puzzled really at what to make of him. “Kaien,” he answered choosing not to shake the odd being hand in front of him. “You act very human like for what you are.”

He walked back over at the pictures he saw earlier taking a closer look at them now. “I would seem that you don’t look like any of these people.” He picked up one with a small child dressed in a fancy party dress. “I would say that these people had a good living here. What would make a town pick up and leave without taking their belonging?”

He turned back at the robot taking a good look at the room as a whole. He seen mostly dust over everything, but the bat in the corner and the glove on the desk and the small bed told him that this room wasn’t that of a little girls.

“Take a look at this. Do you think the little girl in this picture would stay in a room like this? The bed too small for the parents and in all the photo I see no little boy. Is it me or does that seem out of place to you?”

OoC: That ok.