The Restoration Protocol

20 || an unexpected visitor

After a little while longer of roaming Arumathia's main island together, Mariko and Kasey eventually walk back to the observatory. And the entire time, Kasey talks to her. He talks about his old home, the place in the clouds he used to live before Arumathia, even about his mother who he confesses wasn't carried over with him. Every word he speaks with such a sweet fondness in his voice, like he had just been waiting for someone to say all these things to, and for whatever reason, Mariko was the perfect candidate. She understands. That inexplicable solace that comes from sharing something personal with a kind stranger...

There's no one at the observatory when they arrive. Even though she had seen the three others head off together before she left with Kasey, a part of Mariko expected they would be here waiting for them. Sebastian, Soleil, and Boey must be really taking advantage of the opportunity to go sightseeing after all. And who could blame them? Especially in Soleil's case, given how restricted her travel had been before just recently.

"We probably shoulda picked a meetup time, huh?"

"I'm sure it's fine," Mariko replies, carefully lowering herself to one of the hovering cloud cushions inside the observatory — the ground floor of which, Kasey showed her moments ago, doubled as the building's elevator. A large, bronze lever at the floor's center controls it. Right now Kasey just stands by the lever, smiling.

"Hope so," he says, shoving his hands into his pockets. "For your sake, I should say. I'm in no rush for you guys to leave — oh! Speaking of which..."

In a split second, the key hanging around the angel's neck is flying through the air on its way to Mariko. She reacts just in time to catch it.

"Don't wanna forget." Kasey winks. "Promise is a promise, Marbles. Oh, but also, once you guys are done-"

"We'll bring it back," Mariko says quickly. She only processes the nickname a second later. Marbles, huh. That's a new one.

"No, I was gonna ask if you'd visit again sometime."

She blinks. "Oh. Yeah, of...of course."

"See, I've got a ton of other cool things to show you, but I'm gonna need to keep some a secret to give you a reason to come back, right?" Kasey wags his finger, then reaches blindly into his satchel to pull out a small marble. "This one explodes — wait, forget I said that, that was supposed to be the surpri-"

There's a knock at the door before he can finish his sentence. Speaking of surprises, Mariko thinks to herself, but then it clicks that it could very well be just the people they were waiting for. She cranes her neck to peek as Kasey glides over to peer through the peephole.

"Oh! It's Riis!"

Mariko's heart jumps and lodges itself in her throat. Too abruptly, almost too violently that she's unable to call out to Kasey before he opens the door with innocent enthusiasm. And how unfortunate that he opens it just wide enough that even from an angle, the man now standing right outside has a clear view of Mariko sitting frozen in shock in her seat. It's Riis. Just as Kasey so gleefully exclaimed. The tall, white haired puppet in human form, whose single, visible red eye gravitates towards her like a guided missile. Except even in that brief moment, Mariko senses shock. As if he didn't expect to find her here.

A disbelieving whipser falls from Riis's mouth. "It's you..."

"Kasey! Close the door!"

She sensed the anger bubbling in the puppet man with those two words alone. That unnerving expression he wears now twists into greater shock and confusion as his gaze grazes the keys around her neck. But that look is promptly cut off from Mariko's vision as Kasey does as he was told — slamming the door shut and locking it with haste. He whips his head around to look at Mariko. Unhinging his jaw, the angel prepares to voice a question, but yet another harsh interruption stops him short. This time, in the form of Riis's clenched fist punching a hole in the door two inches from his face.