Chapter 2: Chap. 2 : Into the Depths

Zoemie grumbled as she woke up. "Bahh... head in my ass..." she yawned, stretching out and checking her surroundings. She hadn't slept very very well. "Fuckin' nightmares..." She rubbed her eyes a bit, and checked the time on her phone. "Noon." As she looked around and took in her surroundings, she remembered the day before.

"Right. I'm in the ruins." She was still in the bedroom the mysterious ruins had so kindly cooked up for her. Incidentally, said bedroom had changed a bit during her sleep. It was larger, had a window, a currently inactive heater and AC unit, she had extra pillows, a pink laptop bed tray had spawned, and a high-end gaming chair was sitting next to the desk, the swivel chair having moved to the side.

Several posters of games and bands she liked had pinned themselves to the wall, and the floor had switched from stone to some artificial floor. Linoleum, to be more exact, but Zoemie's knowledge of handicrafts was insufficient to recognize it. A pair of noise-cancelling headphones lied on the ground, too, as did a pile of handhelds gaming consoles and a portable music player, with another pair of headphones linked to it.

"Jesus fuck. You don't do things by half... Wait. Why am I fucking complaining ?" said Zoemie, still slightly bleary-eyed. "Okay. Gonna need breakfast. People need to eat, after all." Like Neth always said... heh. Having saddened herself, Zoemie instead sought to change her mind. The first order was to go into the bathroom.

As Zoemie washed her hands, she looked at herself in the mirror. "Guess that didn't change." Thick, short, messy pitch black mop-head, brown eyes with noticeable eyebags. Petite and rather short in height, the slender type of androgynous. Zoemie never had much in assets and was not quite vertical but still very flat.

She could be mistaken for a scrawny twink if looked at from behind or if she wore basically any top and some form of face covering. The husky, raspy, unpleasant-sounding voice and generally high volume when talking played a role, too. "Still not getting any attractiveness awards, huh. Then again I'm never winning any anyway, so why do I fucking care ?" Zoemie mumbled to herself.

Zoemie returned to the bedroom with clean hands and looked at the breakfast. "Let's dig in, I guess." She started by grabbing the large mug of white fluid the ruins had conjured, alongside pineapple slices and bun-bread, topped with tasty-looking butter with darker streaks. That's... milk, clearly, but not only. Something within her mind identified the drink as alcohol-free, plain eggnog.

For Zoemie, whose usual breakfast was bread with butter, canned pineapple slices, and a big glass of milk, the set offered by the ruins was much the same, if significantly more luxurious. As so, she enjoyed her breakfast thoroughly in the exact same way she did back home – start with milk, then pineapples, then drinking some more milk, eating some bread, finishing the glass with at least a whole bread slice afterwards.

For some the combination might be off-putting, but for Zoemie, it was just fine. Familiar, even. Definitely more elaborate than back home. Zoemie never really liked cereals – she would've liked white chocolate spread, but... Didn't have the money to splurge. Zoemie certainly didn't mind being pampered, however, although she was very unused to it.

Zoemie did not like food with very strong tastes, and neither did her father. One of the many oddities they shared. Pineapples was about the strongest taste she could handle – even mere ketchup or BBQ sauce was a bit too much. This annoyed Zoemie a bit, for she liked the smokey taste of BBQ sauce.

Now thoroughly fed, Zoemie attampted to stand up, but the pain and swaying within her legs quickly changed her mind. "Guess we're sticking to the chair. Teeth gotta get brushed first, then... I need to go deeper."

As Zoemie made her way to the bathroom, however, she had a realization. "What do I put on ?" The clothes from yesterday are all sweaty and that's not going to work." While Zoemie did not mind being naked on her own, she did not know if more people lived in the ruins. She was dubious it was the case, but better safe than sorry. Thankfully for her, the ruins warped in some clean clothes.

"Pink and more white. Nice." said Zoemie as she considered the new clothes. "For cleaning the old ones I'll see later. Let's just hope they don't become an Old One, that would be a fuckin' problem." Handwashing was a no-no – the very idea of handling smelly, sweaty clothing made Zoemie nauseous.

Zoemie sat down, and started to draw herself a nice, long bath. Something she quite enjoyed, but she rarely if ever had the opportunity to do at home. The flat she shared with her father back on Earth didn't have room for a bath, and before that... she had... other reasons not to take any. "Guess there's some boons to this whole mess..." Zoemie grumbled.

Zoemie soaked for a while, letting the heat calm her down. "It's nice being like that. Peace, silence, and warmth. Mmmhph... I could really get used to this..." Zoemie decided to take a look around while in her bath. Other than the sink and bath, there was a nice-looking shower, and the toilets she saw yesterday had been moved to a connected room.

The sink had mirrors on them, alongside cupboards underneath for storage. Another, larger one laid within arm's reach of the bath. Opening it showed Zoemie that it contained washclothes, bath towels, shower gels, shampoos, and various associated utilities. The only thing that worried Zoemie slightly was the seeming lack of feminine hygiene products, but she had a strange feeling that she wouldn't need those anymore. Something she most certainly would not miss.

The bathroom had a tiled floor, with each floor bearing a simplistic yet pleasant geometric motif, often involving arcs and circles. Zoemie found it nice. Comfortable, absorbants carpets lied under the sink and next to the bath and showers, and the general color scheme was tender teals and blues, in soft, pleasing colors.

Zoemie enjoyed her soaking some more, letting the hot water calm her soul, before finally stepping oout. "It's so fucking nice not having any time limit or deadlines or whatever. Just do whatever you want whenever you want." Zoemie mused, as she dried and dressed herself, all ready for the next part.

Zoemie's next objective was checking out the other room, the one she saw yesterday. She could've done that earlier, but didn't have the motivation until now. "Still, better late than never I guess..." she thought out loud, as she wandered into the room and quickly took in her surroundings.

"This is a kitchen." Zoemie confirmed, looking around at the state-of-the-art kitchen, replete with those slice-and-dice-for-you gizmos that people bought and then never used. It had a microwave, a large fridge and freezer, a dishwasher next to the sink, and a bunch of cupboards and drawers to store dishes and glasses and cutlery.

The kitchen was big, too, easily big enough to prepare food for a large amount of people. There was one very slight issue, however. "Man... give me a break..." Zoemie whined in displeasure, for she did not know how to cook. Not that she hadn't tried, but it... did not go well.

Still, maybe she could finagle something, assuming the ruins would stop feeding her. "There's enough devices in there, I guess." Which might or might not end up being a problem. Zoemie suspected the pampering wouldn't last forever, but she was going to enjoy it thoroughly while it lasted.

The kitchen also had soft colors, in light, silvery grays and magentas, although the floor here was much more ascetic tiling. Still, Zoemie thought it looked nice. She went to the other side of the kitchen, where there was a door, and opened it to reveal a large, well-furnished dining room.

It had a large table with expensive-looking white tablecloth and a thin plastic sheet on top of it. It had gray flooring and at least six chairs, plus a few more stacked in the farthest end of the room. The chairs themselves looked nice and comfy, too, definitely better than the wood-and-straw chairs Zoemie had at home and in school.

Still, Zoemie couldn't gawk forever, so she shook her head, going back to the kitchen and then back out again. "Only one direction left to go in." she said. "But first..." Zoemie realized, as she swiveled back to her bedroom and picked up the music player and attached headphones, before putting them on and putting herself some music.

Zoemie then left the bedroom again, and looked around. She had already explored the two rooms, and the path behind led outside. "So deeper it is..." she said, as she stared down the path. "Can see... jack. Let's go. No point dawdling."

---

As Zoemie advanced down the corridors, checking the side ones alongside the main path, she found them... empty. Oh, there were entrances to rooms, yes, but each and every single one of these rooms was... empty. Uniformly so, even, Zoemie finding it quite unsettling. "What were these ? Bedrooms ? Did people live here before ?"

Zoemie had been quite convinced there had in fact been occupants in these ruins' past. "They know too much about people." But why was everyone gone ? Did the ruins kill them all ? Zoemie was dubious. "Did... whoever lived here bail ? Were they forced out ?" Zoemie's mind was wracked with questions as she went deep into the ruins, before hitting a ramp.

"Welp. B1F it is." Giving me Mokepon Mystery Dungeon memories. "Man, I really need to do that recruit'em all." Zoemie mumbled to herself as she grabbed the handles on the wall, carefully controlling her descent. The ramp did a full 180°, with the light moving from a vaguely external blueish light into an artificial yellow one.

As Zoemie started swiveling down, she saw that one of the doors was black rather than brown like the others. Her curiosity piqued, Zoemie moved towards the room, as she had stopped opening the door of the other rooms, since seemingly they were all empty. Opening it showed Zoemie...

"Well, that's certainly new. Summoned basically on the spot ? To give it to me ? Fair enough... So, it's... a scroll... and a sword too big for me to move." Zoemie constated, before opening the scroll and trying to read it. As she opened the seemingly wordless scroll, however, it glew, something imprinting... no, branding itself within Zoemie's mind, leavingher with an unpleasant headache.

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"THE FUCK, WHAT ?" screamed Zoemie, more from surprise than pain, before collecting herself. "Okay, I get this, though... I can open... oh yeah, that's good. Magical storage, acquired. Would be great if you warned next time, big guy, but hey, this is actually nice and useful. No more risk of pickpocketing ! Or people trying to take my stuff ! Or burn it for that matter !" Zoemie jubilated.

Zoemie looked at the giant sword. It was easily bigger than her. "Yeah, uh, I can't lift that, though." Zoemie thought about it for a while, looking at the sword while swiveling around, before deciding to move the portal of her magical storage to engulf the enormous blade. "... I am going to portal-cut this shit..." Zoemie mumbled to herself, as she moved the blade to make it enter diagonally.

After much effort, she managed to make the enormous sword fit in one piece. "Success !" As she went backwards to continue going deeper into the ruins, Zoemie had a realization. "This part is less ruined." There were less cracks in the stone, the bricks were not as dull. The light shined slightly brighter, the area was overall in a lower state of disrepair. "At its best, this place must've looked real nice."

Zoemie kept swivelling further within the ruins, passing secondary corridors, each containing pairs and pairs of empty, identical rooms in a deafening silence, broken only by the wheels and Zoemie's humming to her music, and the resonance of these noises in the large corridor and empty rooms. After a long while, Zoemie reached a second ramp, which went even deeper.

"Nowhere to go but further down." Textbook definition of a rabbit hole. If I remember right. Zoemie braced herself again as she swivelled down carefully, the ramp making another full 180° turn. Thankfully, it was easy for her to go slowly.

Once she landed, Zoemie looked at the path in fornt of her. In stark contrast to the complex corridor network of before, there was a single path, the bricks embedded with silvery details. There were a few doors leading to side rooms, but Zoemie quickly confirmed they were just as empty as the ones before. Sole difference is that they were quite a bit bigger.

The only interesting thing in the ruins was the final door at the end of the corridor. It was a massive pair of sliding doors, made from a single, ochre component, with a silver door casing. Both doors and casing were completely intact, lacking any crack or flaw. As Zoemie drew closer, the doors opened themselves.

Zoemie tried to open her mouth, but failed, a strange pressure filling her, as the doors opened into a large, chamber. The bricks here were in perfect condition, resplendant and beautiful, the floor clean and spotless, a four-way path of silvery tilings contrasting with the ochre remainder of the chamber's floor.

In the middle of the chamber lied a strange, altar-like cup-shaped structure above which a grey, pearllike orb floated quietly, bobbing up and down at the rhythm of Zoemie's heartbeat. She felt shivers as she looked at the orb, a soundless melody pounding inside her ears as she gazed at it. It was attracting her, driving her to it like moth to a flame.

Zoemie swivelled up the to the altar, grey lines and circles in her appearing in her peripheral sight as she drew herself forwards. To an outside viewer, Zoemie's once normal, if tired-looking brown eyes would have solid silver sclera, broken by geometric white arcs circling where her pupils would be.

Zoemie advanced, drawn forth like a magnet, until her fingers touched the orb. Once she did, things went very fast, however. Power surged through her fingers and arm, forcing itself through with a unpleasant burning sensation, like liquid fire under her skin. This made Zoemie quickly pull back her arm, before she passed out with no warning.

---

When Zoemie came back to her senses a while later, she was lying in the bed, with a mean headache and lots of strange feelings in her body and mind. "Urf... the hell was that, big guy ?" she moaned as she came to her senses. "You still here, big guy ?" Zoemie asked suddenly with fear in her voice. A reassuring, if weak, feeling passed over her. "Good. I still need you around..."

Zoemie sighed, as she took a stock of the situation. She couldn't focus very well, what with her headache, but she insisted anyway. She seemed to have gained... partial ownership of the ruins, was her best description of it. She could modify the layout to her heart's content, conjure items like the ruins could, and also teleport herself within the confines of the ruins.

However, Zoemie could also sense she was linked to the orb she saw down there, now. And if it was to be destroyed... she didn't know what would happen. It would be best to never learn it either. That said, Zoemie decided to try to do something productive. And there was one thing she wanted to check.

Zoemie sat down on the gaming chair, and focused. If she could summon items... "Can I summon back my old computer ? And maybe then send a message to Dad and Neth..." Computer came first, however. Zoemie focused about her laptop, the model and appearance of it flooding within her mind, and its general position in Zoemie's bedroom, always at the same spot.

To Zoemie, her computer was in a sense more of a friend to her than any human ever was. It listened to her worries and doubts and hatreds, stored in .odt files, and never once judged or questioned or mocked her for any of it. And that was disregarding the... adult-only content and assorted bookmarks she wished for no one to see.

Zoemie knew her father would never look in her computer, but she wanted to be safe anyway. Zoemie would rather not have to restart her 100%s from zero as well, either, it was always a pain. Especially with very long or very difficult games. "Starting over is harder than starting up and all that, I guess..."

And that was disregarding a potential police investigation over a bunch of disappearing kids in the middle of the day. She did not want anyone to prowl through her computer. It was hers and anyone who would attempt to keep it away from her would learn new levels of pain. Zoemie resigned herself. "No point kicking it down the road any further..." she said as she lifted her hands and attempted to conjure from Earth her old computer magically.

Thankfully for Zoemie, said computer appeared in front of her, alongside its chaging cable, but lacking the wireless mouse. Zoemie did not care about that very much. "Can just get a new one... Heh... Man..." she said, restraining herself from screaming in joy. Zoemie gingerly opened her computer. She needed to check if the data tolerated the transfer.

"Super. Everything is identical. Nothing changed. I don't have Internet, however. Not a problem, log in offline mode and just keep playing." she noted after opening the computer, her eyes darting around her screen, looking for inconsistencies or new things to note, of which none were found. Lack of Internet means I can't check my emails or any website. This might end up being less useful than I thought... but the computer is with me. That's the most important.

Zoemie felt really strange, however. She was excited and happy to have her computer back, but also felt really tired. When she was just looking around, she found both her sight unfocusing and that she was getting bored at the same time. "What do I do ?" she asked herself, unsure. She could barely focus, she felt scattered.

Zoemie lied down on her bed, trying and failing to think, and instead she found herself playing with the pillows, making one of them spin on her index finger, or throwing it into the air and catching it. Zoemie did that for a while, before she fell asleep more or less without realizing it.

---

When Zoemie woke up, she was feeling less tired, but absolutely parched – something she quickly solved by drinking from the water bottle. Once that was solved, she decided to check the time. "6 PM. Hmmph." I spent a while underground... and that's disregarding how much time I was asleep.

Zoemie looked around. She could play. "That sounds interesting", she said, looking at her computer. She could look for information. "That sounds more useful. Info gathering it is." Zoemie had made a very quick draft of what she needed while waiting yesterday night, and could now use it to give herself an idea of the informations she needed.

"What I need is... some kind of device or gizmo or Scanbot that can tell me... kinda like weapon proficiencies or something like that ? Same for magic, and also make note of random weird abilities." Also, some kind of encyclopedia or something about weapons and armors. Zoemie had a slightly better idea of what the ruins were capable of, deduced after touching the orb.

She might still want to investigate further, however. Her time was limited and the more she had the better off she was, too. This train of thought, however, made Zoemie aware of another thing. "I'm going to have to check the surroundings, too, eventually.". She was certain by now that the ruins had teleported in another forest, but didn't quite know where. A world map might be useful, too, actually. "So much to look for..."

 

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