Journal of a Rose

The Archives

[The date here is marked for four days after the last entry, a direct jump with no buffer between. At least it reads a little more neatly this time.]

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I haven't been able to write for a few days because I was bedridden, and I may not be able to catch up to current events for now because I'm on a super important business trip with Caelum and Ib. Maybe when we stop somewhere I can dig in to the full bread and butter, but for now I can at least write down the second half of our awful circumstances.

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First off, yeah Caelum is back. Mothman dropped him off about 7 hours after we got back from New Media City, and from what I heard he was super duper dead upon arrival. Moth dude is now in the dungeon with rabbit brat and the thick-skulled bear, one of which I heard attacked the castle while we were gone. Dick move, sir. Dick move. On top of that, Odūn was hanging around somewhere in Beta, which we were later told he was in a place called The Archives.

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I missed the morning meeting explaining the place, but Penna was kind enough to text me the intructions. Did I mention that Penna transforms into a human now? Yeah, somehow the New Media City trip made their magic kick in, so they're human by day. It means they can text, but they're pretty illiterate... They sent the instructions in I think it's called Italian? I plugged that into a translator and got the big picture that way, thank the Seers for advanced tech.

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The trip there was surprisingly cheerful. I picked on newcomer Rai, and had a nice chat with Simon and the gang. I told them a little about Tobias, talked about home... mostly my crimes, which I may or may not have lied about to seem cool. Obviously, they could tell because of the inconsistencies, but it felt nice to be seen as a force to be reckoned with. I also learned a bit about the others! A real bonding experience, the fear of death. It's rough, but at least we all got to chat together.

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All fun and games ended when we had another rough landing at our destination. Igneel mildly crashed the ship again due to some incredibly creepy spaghetti dragons, it was a mess if I ever did see one. For some reason, that landing in particular made me completely panic, and I didn't even want to leave the ship for a few minutes afterwards. But, as it is we had to get a move on, so I had to suck it up and move on! Still, can't help but wonder...

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Aside from the Arena, this building was one of THE worst places to walk around in. I felt gross just being present there for more than two minutes. Dead bodies all over the floors and stairs, books with very bad vibes, and even a bunch of little lizard Unversed were scampering the place. No wonder it's a banned location, this place is the worst and I will not hesitate to repeat that.

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We ended up trudging up stairs and through hallways until we got to a balcony with... really gross wax tubs. Then we got attacked by an awful Unversed, but at least with this run we had teamwork on our side for once! ... Kinda. We got separated midway through and succeeded, but the strength of this thing was offputting at best. We continued on to another area a small ways away, and then the bastard himself showed. Odūn looked TERRIFYING, and the threats he was spewing were way worse by comparison. He had the Unversed symbol on his robes, which makes me wonder what exactly we're dealing with... Too late now, I missed my opportunity to ask him what it meant. Same with that book he handed off to Caelum. If he's giving us that, it must be a taunt rather than a helpful hint. Something's fishy...

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The attacks he dealt were brutal, I think I got caught in the crossfire of one because I was downed at the same time as the leaders. A complete freeze after watching them get... horribly injured was all I could remember, then I woke up in my bed back at the castle feeling like absolute garbage. I haven't found my answers yet as to what happened, all I know is that someone brought me back, and now I have to find out who so I can put two and two together.

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Maybe this trip will help? Clear my thoughts, maybe clarify some theories... I could always talk to Cal about the issues at hand, but I don't want to burden Ib with all this horrific stuff. May have to wait until we get back.

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Oh, we're coming up on the portal to Traverse Town! I hope this trip yields results. I will record my findings soon!

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[There's a new addition to this entry marked with the date of the following entry.]

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I would have put this in with today's notes, but in order to find these again I thought it best to write an update!

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Cal was nice enough to fill me in on everything that happened during that blank space in my memory, and no thanks to Igni I missed a LOT.

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So, to start we fought Odūn and didn't win, no surprise there really. The kicker was that he gave Cal and Wayrren a book which apparently has legendary Keyblades in it??? Seven, to be exact, and that's all they've found out so far. One of those was, surprisingly, in one of the gross wax tubs we saw in the Archives, and Odūn effortlessly destroyed it. Gone! Kaput! Not that I really care about the loss, Cal made it sound so tragic, but I genuinely could not feel the same way with him comparing it to a human life. It's an old sword, the wielder has probably beed dead for ages, big whoop!!!

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Then apparently we've got new Knights to worry about, and I'm not looking forward to meeting them at all. I'm getting white hairs just from the stress of thinking about it! I've got little to no confidence that we'll ever have a time where any of these assholes will let up, though I am impressed they hold back as much as they do. I hope somebody cracks a good answer out of our prisoners one of these days, I'm so tired of dealing with them...

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Ah, right. And to top it all off, Igneel got injured, so since he was under the impression I was perfectly normal and not possessed he let Igni drive us back. IGNI. CAN DRIVE??? She didn't crash or anything!!! We all lived!!! Still hate that I know this now!

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That's pretty much it otherwise. I have a lot of work to do now, so I'll just leave it there. Gonna give me nightmares for weeks though, oy vey...