A Walk in the Garden (DCStuck, OPEN)

[ParamountKeymaster]

CA: Oh, most certainly. I do hope you all have a good day.
PK: Thanks, man. So what time tomorrow?
CA: The Trio of Three will arrive to pick you all up at the apartment complex and hotel at 8:36 and 8:39 AM respectively.
PK: Heheh. Good to know. XD
PK: Take care, buddy.
CA: You as well.

-clockworkAngel [CA] closed memo-

True to Kendall's word, the Trio of Three's camper van arrived right on the dot to pick up the group the following morning. The trip eastward, all things considered, was a nice one. As was expected, given Cat's appetite and Rio's conjuration skills, there was a hearty breakfast buffet waiting for them to decimate along the way. Conversation was predictably awkward, but given the situation, this was pretty much the least of anyone's worries.

In what felt like no time at all, the group had arrived in Bonsai Village, with the camper van touching down in the northernmost district, smack-dab in the middle of town. The team piled out, with Evan trailing behind long enough to give the trio a wave. "Thanks for the lift, guys!"

"Happy to help!" Rio responded, waving right back at him.

Carter bounded out into the open and stretched, basking in the sunlight. Even if there was only one member of their party who could understand him, he had to voice his thoughts in a gleeful bark. "Ahhh... Feels so good to be back in action!"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Yeah, whatev," Cat responded through the piece of bacon in her mouth, albeit with a smile and a lighthearted tone.

Likewise, Mickey stuck his head out of the driver side window with a mouthful of blood shards and a wide grin. "Anytime! 'Preciate it, m'lady!"

Swift stepped out of the camper and over to Carter, taking a good look around in unbridled excitement. Of course she was excited. The hanyo felt right at home in this Japanese-style village. "Wow... This place is so cool! So serene, so open, so... quaint. Dang it, Evan, we should just move here!"

[DMis]

Todd stood a bit a way from the camper landing site as Forsaken hovered on her cube.

Yang gave a smile. "Thanks again for the food and the lift," Yang offered as she stepped out of the camper. "This place is kinda cool, Swift."

[ParamountKeymaster]

Evan hopped out, closing the camper door behind him, and joined Swift and Carter. "Heheh. I'll keep that in mind. Would be nice, actually..."

After watching the camper van fly off into the western sky, he shrugged that daydream off and cheerfully declared, "Welp, let's get a move on and find this Kisono Fields place!"

"Would've been nice if Kendall gave us a bit more direction," Carter muttered as he followed his master. "Or if those whack-jobs landed us somewhere closer."

"He said we'd know it when we see it," Evan softly offered, shrugging at his dog before leaving him to sniff around.

[gantzgun74]

The group didn't have to wait long to meet someone relatively new to the cause.

At that moment, a void portal opened up before them allowing three figures to exit from the blackness... First came a young man with black hair, wearing dark blue robes... Then came a female that might very well have been his Fraternal twin, a young girl close to his age with longer black hair, and wearing similar but more showy ninja robes of a similar color. The two also had notable blue eyes, thus hinting at a male and female genderbent counterparts. Along with them was a ghostly looking sprite like figure with plain clothes and short bobby hair.

"Sorry for the delay ladies and gents. We got the memo, but we still needed to talk about some stuff and reach some understandings with each other." The male spoke with an equal tone, smiling all the while... He then took notice of the Evan look-alike. "So... YOU'RE The new Evan eh?.. Well I'll say this much, you look the part."

"Hmmm, so this is what a male version of Evelyn looks like..." The female version of the male ninja... Or was she the original? Who could tell? "It's kinda odd honestly. There's not a really big difference~." She notes the look. "Mainly it's just the face looks softer."

"Hey guys! Nice to meet you!" The sprite waved simply to the bunch, smiling widely.

The male, likely noting the confusion, sighed and nodded his head. "Apologies. My name is Alex, formerly known as Aaron. This is my female counterpart-"

"Now twin sister~." She corrected.

"... My female counterpart and now twin-sister Erin. And the ghostly girl is my sprite, Elizabethsprite. We know her however as Lizzie."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Gotta say, I'm pretty excited now," Swift offered as she scampered alongside Evan and Carter. "Maybe it's just the atmosphere. I feel so at home. I hope this Sanuta guy is a good host, at least; this could be a really good day in that case!"

Shortly after saying that, three more party members suddenly arrived, something Swift genuinely didn't see coming. She might not have known these three, but she was in too good of spirits to protest, and the others seemed familiar enough with them. "Hiya! Name's Swift! So, uh... you know Evan too, huh?" she chuckled awkwardly, her face just begging for an anime sweat drop.

[DMis]

"Good to see you both in good health," offered Todd. "And pleasure to meet you Miss Lizzie."

"Todd.... you stole what I was going to say," Forsaken teased. "Nice to meet you Erin. So this is what you'd look like when hit by the Arti's PanGender. Kinda cute." This comment earned Forsaken a smack on the back of the head. "OW!!! What the heck Todd?!?!"

Yang snickered as the scene transpired.

[ParamountKeymaster]

Evan took a step back and blinked, but once introductions were said, he reciprocated with a smile. "Well, good to know, I guess. Nice to meet you in person. And you ladies as well."

He stuck his hands in his sweatshirt pocket and tilted his head. Lizzie in particular fascinated him. "A... sprite, you say?"

[gantzgun74]

Lizzie chuckled at Evan curtsying her overall like apparel just short of her wisp. "Hey there Evan~. It's good to see you again... Even if it really isn't you all that much..." She holds out a hand as well. Before Evan could reach out for it though, she pulled back. "Oh right..." She smiles awkwardly, fiddling her fingers a bit. "I'm sorry Evan. But I'm only a tier one Sprite. I still have one more prototyping in me before I stop evolving..."

At the confused looks, Alex stepped in landing on the ground in front of Lizzie and canceling out the void portal behind him. "What that means Evan is that she's a kernelsprite. In the game Sburb, every character is given a kernelsprite, a basic guide that explains how to proceed further into the game. However a kernelsprite can evolve based on various items that they are given or find to be compatible with their prototyping capabilities. Usually a sprite has to be prototyped twice so the game can continue on as normal, but Lizzie here is an exception since she refused to prototype with anything else. If left with only one item though, the sprite will have to prototype itself with something so it can expend the second time prototyping in such cases." He chuckles awkwardly. "So as you might guess, Lizzie can't really chance touching much of anything. She might end up accidentally prototyping something she doesn't want to."

Erin chuckled. "Boy, can you imagine what Lizzie would've looked like if she prototyped with Evan? THAT would've been awkward." She gets a few looks. She then cleared her throat awkwardly. "But yeah, aside from the no touching thing stipulation, Lizzie SHOULD be able to help us somehow with looking into this game... And yes, Al told me everything I'd need to know for now."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Huh..." Swift's ear drooped slightly. She wasn't really sure how else to respond to the explanation, beyond perhaps gratitude for not accidentally turning her boyfriend into a weird ghost game construct type thing. She quickly perked back up and cheered, "Interesting. Well, we were just on our way to this Kisono Fields place! We getting a move on or what?"

[DMis]

Forsaken nodded still rubbing the back of her skull where she had been Gibb Smacked. "I hope this will be a good adventure. This place is almost as quiet as his world,' she offered as she stood on the cube to be taller than Todd.

"And now you're cheating," Todd commented to his female twin.

"She's just standing on an elaborate box, Todd. Take a chill pill," Yang commented as she started heading down the path. "This way right?"

[ParamountKeymaster]

Evan chuckled slightly and went in to return the handshake, but upon being left hanging and given an explanation of Lizzie's nature as a sprite, he simply gave the group a nod. "Ah. An in-game guide of your own design. I gotcha."

Almost made him wonder what his other self's sprite was like...

At Swift's decree and with a clap of his hands, Evan continued leading the group through the village. "Right right! I'm not sure where exactly it is, but it's gotta be around here somewhere."

"'Around here somewhere' is a very relative term, kid," Carter grumbled. "This could take all day at this rate. How exactly are we supposed to know it when we see it?"

"I don't know, but it's gotta be close."

"What makes you say that?"

"Gut instinct."

"Evan, let's admit it. You don't have that," Carter chuckled. "The driving force behind your actions is more on par with blind luck or... maybe just moderate stupidity."

Evan smirked at his dog's teasing banter. "Oh-ho-hooo, this coming from the wise old mongrel who can recite the works of Frank Herbert but still impulsively chases after any rabbit he can find within a five-mile radius."

"Hey, I'm a dog. I have an excuse. What's yours?" Carter then practically stuck his tongue out at Evan and playfully dashed ahead.

[gantzgun74]

"WHICHEVER WAY WE'RE GOING we should figure it out pretty soon. I'm not really much of a fan of walking around in circles, or going nowhere useful at all." He looked amongst the party."Okay, let's review what Kendall told all of us on Pesterchum. What exactly are we looking for?"

Erin had taken the time to pull out her hovering keyboard to open up a holo-screen... After a moment of digging she pulled up the conversation in question on the 'LAND OF DIMENSIONS AND CLASHES' Bulletin board. "Okay, so... According to the big guy, we're looking for someone named..." She takes a moment to mumble the name to make sure she was saying it right. "Sanoo... Saanu... Sanuta Key... Kikagi whom lives in some place called the Kisono Fields. Apparently it's some large plot of land somewhere in the Northeastern portion of Bonsai Village." With that said, she closes out of the Holo-screen and puts away the floating keyboard. "So I guess we're looking for some kind of big and fancy house somewhere on the outskirts of town-? That's what it sounds like to me anyway."

Lizzie had remained fairly quiet throughout the whole thing as the two thieves put their heads together to better organize this little trip. "That's nice and all, but can I ask something real quick before we go anywhere?" Alex chuckled at the question. Erin chuckled along with him. It looked like both would've been amused to hear what this big question was. "............. Why was Evan talking to that dog a second ago? I don't think it was speaking English... What's up with that?"

.... Actually that was an interesting question... Perhaps they could wait another time for an answer but even still-.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Swift had to giggle, both at Evan's half of the banter and the confusion over his ability to communicate with Carter. "I think you're just gonna have to get used to the fact that my Evan isn't exactly your Evan. No offense."

She might not have realized it, but the wolf hanyo was proof enough of that.

"Wait..." Though she kept a steady pace, Swift had to pause and lift her head slightly, taking a whiff of the scents that the breeze carried. "Something smells good. Really good. I think there's a garden somewhere up ahead."

[DMis]

Forsaken shrugged as her cube hovered along. "I acknowledged that when I first met him and Kendall. He's happier here with you and the rest of your friends than my Evan was," she offered as she followed Swift.

Todd smiled."When this is all said and done, maybe I'll buy a house out here. I'm not really a big city guy," he offered as he walked along.

"It is rather calm out here," Yang offered seeming a little tense.