[Adelie]

"Thank you," the scientist said, jotting down a few notes on her clipboard. "That's really useful information for our investigation." She cast another glance over at Nebula, one with a slightly more approving look to it, as if to thank her for finally being useful in some capacity.

"Alex, um, he's - he's not in trouble or anything, right?" the man suddenly asked, sounding even more awkward than he did the first time around. "He's a bit of a loony, but he's perfectly harmless, I'm sure."

"Of course not," the scientist responded, almost automatically - although her tone wasn't particularly convincing. "This is just a routine inspection, after all - nothing to worry about." The researcher finished her sentence with a smile that engendered even less optimism, and she could see that the man was almost noticeably sweating.

"Really, don't worry about it," she offered. If the staff started thinking they had some nefarious purpose for their interrogations, it would probably make things even more difficult for them. Leaning in a bit, in that friendly and confidential manner she'd seen a few of her friends pull off before, she added in a low voice, "Don't mind her - she's just kind of prickly."

[Adelie]

That seemed to work out - the man visibly relaxed, and even shot a friendly smile right back at her. Making a quick mental thank-you to the friend she'd stolen that approach from, she followed the scientist out of the sound and audio tent and into the props tent.

As might be expected from its name, the props tent was full of props. An entire heap of spools of golden thread sat in one corner, ready for someone to hand them out during the festival itself; a small pile of discarded costumes spilled over the corner of a prop chest. Unnecessary, considering every player had virtually unlimited inventory space they could be using instead, but it certainly provided some atmosphere.

"Is there an Alex here?" the scientist asked, looking around. There were only a few people in the prop room; one of them looked up in surprise.

"Yes, that's me," he said. "Is... is something the matter?"

"Just a routine inspection," the scientist said, using the same routine she'd used time and time again. It wasn't any more convincing this time than the last. "I'd just like to ask you a few questions - should be pretty quick. Don't want to interfere with the preparations for the Festival, after all."

[Adelie]

"Okay," the props tent worker said, putting down the mask he was currently working on; he still looked like a deer caught in a pair of headlights, but he followed the two of them obediently to a more secluded corner of the tent.

"I heard you were talking about lizard people earlier today," the scientist began, and the worker looked like he was about to bolt. It was almost impressive, honestly - she hadn't quite expected to become the mediator in this situation. Usually, it was the other way around.

"It's just that we're investigating something just like that!" she offered brightly, before the scientist had a chance to lose the worker's trust once and for all. "Of course, we have to keep it on the down-low, you know. Don't want the lizard people to find out we're onto them." She wondered if she should nudge the scientist to have her help out with the act - but one look at the scientist's disapproving face put that idea straight out of her head.

Well, if it worked it worked. She didn't need the other woman's approval for that.

And it clearly seemed to be working. The worker stared at her, but it was more a mix of shyness and astonishment than fear and hostility. "O-Oh," he said, stuttering a bit. "I'm sorry, I thought you might be one of them, you know."

[Adelie]

"Them?" the scientist asked.

"You know, them," the man said, looking around surreptitiously. When he'd seemingly confirmed the field was free of whatever danger he was looking for, he added confidentially, "The lizard people. They say one of the judges is one of them, you know?"

"Just tell me what you saw," the scientist said, sighing. Nebula shot her a glance to continue the act and she added, rather reluctantly, "If the festival has really been infiltrated by lizard people, we need evidence before we can take action."

"Well, okay," the worker said. "Well, I was just doing my thing, y'know, and suddenly I see this guy stalking about. Thought he looked suspicious, so I walked over to ask him what he was doing."

"When did this happen?" she asked.

"This morning, so just a few hours ago. I think he's still around, though - think he was a performer or something, so he probably has to audition."

[Adelie]

"And why did you find this guy suspicious?" the scientist continued, taking a few notes on her clipboard.

"It was the eyes, man, the eyes. I thought he was just an ordinary guy, maybe a little lost or something, but when he looked up and I saw his eyes, I knew he was one of them," the man continued, gesticulating wildly in an attempt to visualize just what he meant. "They were shiny and slitted, just like a lizard's. And I knew he had to be hiding something, because when I saw those, he backed away and ran from me, too."

"Interesting," the scientist said. "Very interesting."

The man had a lot more to say, now that he'd found himself a captive audience - apparently he was certain this was all a scheme by the companies that ran Aldrect, and he suspected this whole Festival was just a cover for some more nefarious activities - but Nebula had long stopped listening.

When they finally managed to divest themselves from the rather overly enthusiastic man, she looked at the scientist and asked, "So, what do you think?"

"I think we can stop questioning staff," the scientist said.

Head backstage with Wiks and question staff.

[Adelie]

When the scientist had told her they were going to watch the show, she'd been more than a little surprised. "Why?" she'd asked. "Since we've confirmed that - well, whatever it is or whoever it is you're looking for is around here, shouldn't we just keep looking?"

"And cause unnecessary panic?" the scientist responded, almost standoffishly. "We know they're going to participate in the Golden Parade, so we just have to wait for them to show themselves. Why go through all the work of looking for them if they'll do it themselves?"

Not like everything they'd been doing - announcing a 'routine inspection,' like anyone would believe that; going around interrogating random strangers about 'suspicious individuals' while glowering unconvincingly - hadn't already caused unnecessary panic. By tomorrow, a blog post about how government scientists were trying to cover up the secret of lizard people would probably be making the rounds about the internet.

But it didn't seem like anything she could say would change the scientist's mind, so she decided to settle back and wait for the next plot development. After all, Ven had wanted her to watch the Golden Parade too, didn't she?

[Adelie]

Things were quiet for a while after that. The scientist left, citing 'urgent matters' and muttering something about 'I trust you to do the right thing.'

She suspected the scientist had just gotten hungry.

Truth be told, she wanted to leave now, too. There was still a good a twenty or so minutes of nothing before the Golden Parade officially started, and while frantic staff members and prop artists rushed around her, performing whatever last-minute set-up or preparations they needed, she had nothing to do but stand around. She didn't get embarrassed often - but this was certainly awkward.

Could she leave, though? She still hadn't really figured this situation out. Was this a quest? Would it auto-cancel when she walked out of the quest radius? Or was this some elaborate prank, some plot pulled by one of those guilds that really enjoyed role-playing out the lore of the game?

Or - god forbid - was everything going on actually real?

[Adelie]

She was just about to ponder the stupendous mess she'd gotten herself into when her thoughts were, once again, interrupted by a scientist. A different one, this time - the one in casual clothing with an attitude to match that. "Yo, kid," she called out, and Nebula briefly wondered if the woman had forgotten her name, or if it was some kind of lazy programming. "You need to come check this out."

Obediently, she followed the other scientist into one of the prop storehouses. "Look at this," the scientist said, pointing to an indentation in the floor that would've been blatantly obvious even if she hadn't pointed it out. A single footprint - big, three-clawed, reminiscent of the dinosaur fossil footprints they showed in museums.

The scientist rubbed her temples and continued. "I'm sorry about this. My people have a bit more information on the Chaos... and well, it's more dangerous than you've been led to believe. This footprint right here - it belongs to a creature named Aurudantte. A very dangerous creature, and one I'm unfortunately not at liberty to talk at length about exactly what he is, but he and his kind terrorize people. In other words, it's bad news." She emphasized those last words, looking directly at Nebula as if she were challenging her to contradict her.

Now things were getting interesting.

[Adelie]

"So..." Nebula said, hazarding a guess as to where this was going. "You want me to fight this guy?"

The scientist recoiled - not just verbally, but physically as well. "No! God, no. I don't even know how much property damage that'd cause, not to mention what might happen to the people here." A ridiculous statement, considering that all the people here could respawn and all the property would return once the area reset itself - in fact, the players here might welcome the excitement. Nebula's mental scale ticked back towards the 'probably a NPC' theory. "This is an absolute last resort, but if you see him and have any means to catch him or stop him," she continued, handing over a suspicious dart and vial.

"...isn't that just the same thing as fighting him?" she asked. She accepted the dart and vial regardless - it was always good to be prepared.

"No, no," the scientist said. "It'll paralyze him, but it'll wear off rather quickly. Really, it's dangerous for you - there's people who are better suited for this kind of thing. They'll deal with it - you just have to make sure you stay safe, and if you can help them out, do that while staying safe." She emphasized the last word, as if she were already suspecting that Nebula was planning to do something reckless and stupid.

[Adelie]

"Anyways," the scientist continued. "Your original directive from Zae was to retrieve a sample - a scale, blood, whatever. That's what the vial is for. Doesn't matter how you do that - I recommend force, since that's usually all they understand, but they're capable of speech and can be reasoned with. Just - be careful."

With that, she cast another doubtful glance at the footprint on the floor and swept out, leaving Nebula with nothing but her own thoughts.

So there was a fetch quest, it seemed. And a boss - albeit one she'd never heard of, and didn't know anything about - and a quest item that was likely to be key in defeating it, or harvesting a specimen, or whatever she was actually supposed to do with it. And some kind of reward, hopefully.

She exhaled a frustrated sigh. Really, she preferred to be more prepared about things - people always praised her for her adaptability, but that adaptability was built off years of experience and excellent pattern-matching skills. When faced with something new - or at least, something where she didn't have enough information to make inferences - she found herself just a little discombobulated.

Chi would know better than her; Chi would've probably solved this entire mystery by now. Unfortunately, Chi was also nowhere to be seen.

[Adelie]

[WHISPER] nebu!a: ?
[WHISPER] Gumiho: yo nebs where have you been
[WHISPER] Gumiho: auditions were a mess!! but thankfully i got myself a spot
[WHISPER] Gumiho: they made us do auditions in pairs because they were running late for some reason?
[WHISPER] Gumiho: i thought the guy i was with was a weirdo at first, but turns out he's actually just a history nerd who has no idea how this game works
[WHISPER] Gumiho: he asked me what a mmorpg was and i was like bro you're playing one
[WHISPER] nebu!a: lol

If she couldn't talk with Chi - well, she could at least talk with someone. Ven might be more of a mascot than a problem-solver - her own words, not Nebula's - but a second opinion or any clues she'd gathered on her side of the operation might be able to shed some light on what she was supposed to do next.

[WHISPER] nebu!a: did you get anything that seemed like a quest? i think i got something, but it's not using the quest system so i'm really not sure what's going on.
[WHISPER] Gumiho: nope!
[WHISPER] Gumiho: maybe it's because i'm doing the parade? seems unfair though :<
[WHISPER] Gumiho: although the auditions were delayed because of some disturbance
[WHISPER] Gumiho: was i supposed to investigate that?
[WHISPER] nebu!a: huh.
[WHISPER] nebu!a: what kind of disturbance?
[WHISPER] Gumiho: lemme ask around! they didn't really tell me anything when i got here

Maybe.

It would be really cool if this story plot was supposed to be solved in pairs - one person to investigate the disturbance, one person to participate in the Golden Parade. Cool, but also frustrating design. More likely, there was some parallel instance for users who chose to participate in the parade instead.

[Adelie]

[WHISPER] Gumiho: okay so this is totally weird
[WHISPER] Gumiho: i asked one of the staff members and they just kind of looked at me?
[WHISPER] Gumiho: and were like 'uhhh we're not at liberty to talk about those things'
[WHISPER] nebu!a: huh.
[WHISPER] nebu!a: that sounds exactly like what one of those scientists told me, too.
[WHISPER] Gumiho: are they still around
[WHISPER] Gumiho: can you hook me up with them?
[WHISPER] nebu!a: they vanished off for 'urgent matters' so i think no.
[WHISPER] Gumiho: ugh!
[WHISPER] Gumiho: oh man my partner's back
[WHISPER] Gumiho: can't believe i'm stuck with a guy who was too lazy to even make a proper costume
[WHISPER] Gumiho: he keeps saying that he's just savin it for the show or something
[WHISPER] Gumiho: i don't know how the judges even let him get away with that

Ven was a great friend, of course, and she liked to look out for what friends she had - but at the moment, she was far too preoccupied to deal with whatever complaint she had about whatever weird stranger she'd gotten stuck with. Besides, it wasn't like this was Ven's first social outing or anything - she could deal with this guy by herself.

She checked the tent again, looking for any clues they'd missed. Unfortunately, she wasn't lucky enough to find a fallen scale or drool or whatever giant lizard people left behind as proof of their identity. "Would be nice if you lizard people were like dogs," she grumbled, mostly to herself. "If you marked your territory, I could probably be done with this quest already."

There were still ten minutes until the parade started, and there was clearly nothing else she find here. A little bit frustrated, she made her way to the seats to watch the parade.

[Adelie]

The one benefit of getting looped into this, at least, was that she'd been given complimentary front-row seats to the Golden Parade. Those tickets were practically impossible to get normally - half of them were reserved for sponsors and special guests, which she apparently was one of now, and the other half were gifted through lottery. Of course, a lottery of barely a hundred seats for an audience of thousands was pretty much no lottery at all.

Originally, she'd planned to watch the parade from the same vantage point they'd originally viewed the city from. Not the best, but it wouldn't be crowded - and there was a lot you could do with the zoom function, after all. But it would be foolish not to take advantage of free tickets.

Besides, the scientist had handed it to them with the comment of 'these might be useful.' As her years of experience with quests of this variety proved - that meant they were definitely going to be useful.

[WHISPER] nebu!a: when are you going to be on stage?
[WHISPER] Gumiho: uhhh
[WHISPER] Gumiho: i'm like thirtieth in line or something
[WHISPER] Gumiho: so it'll be a while
[WHISPER] nebu!a: the scientists got me front-row seats for helping them out, so i'll be waving hello!
[WHISPER] Gumiho: sweet
[WHISPER] Gumiho: i'm kind of jealous tbh
[WHISPER] nebu!a: participating in the event is even more 'front' than 'front-row' seats, okay.

[Adelie]

The first of the participants got on stage - a pair of performers who looked suspiciously similar. If this were real life, she would've suspected they were siblings, if not twins; in this virtual world, she couldn't quite make any assumptions besides them likely being friends.

As the two of them finished their song-and-dance routine - which was actually quite technically impressive - the next of the performers came on-stage, and the parade continued. Nebula found herself, as expected, incredibly bored.

[WHISPER] nebu!a: when you said thirty
[WHISPER] nebu!a: did you mean thirty people or thirty pairs
[WHISPER] Gumiho: pairs!
[WHISPER] nebu!a: ...
[WHISPER] nebu!a: i hope this lizard person shows up sooner rather than later

Maybe she was just uncultured, but this part of the festival held no interest for her. If it weren't for Ven's performance, she wouldn't be here; if it weren't for the fact that she was supposed to watch out for the miraculous appearance of some lizard monster, she definitely wouldn't be here. Now that she thought about it, she was starting to suspect this entire thing was just a plot to garner viewers for the performance.

[Adelie]

Another set of participants entered the stage - a duo that was clearly the victim of circumstance, considering how their costumes completely clashed with each other. Well, it clearly wasn't a competition, and they clearly weren't going in order of quality.

Another song and dance routine later, she was seriously considering taking a nap. If some slobbering, man-eating lizard did decide to appear, she figured that the screams of the audience should wake her up.

[WHISPER] Gumiho: okay what
[WHISPER] Gumiho: remember that guy i said didn't have a costume
[WHISPER] Gumiho: turns out he does have a costume and it's the most freaky thing i've ever seen in my life
[WHISPER] Gumiho: like i think he just drooled on me
[WHISPER] nebu!a: ?
[WHISPER] Gumiho: wait weren't you looking for lizard people
[WHISPER] Gumiho: i think i just found you your lizrad person

That was... unexpected, to say the least.

[WHISPER] Gumiho: ugh he's giving me some talk about chaos or whatever
[WHISPER] nebu!a: okay, that's definitely the guy then.
[WHISPER] nebu!a: ugh.
[WHISPER] nebu!a: is he attacking you or anything? scientist said they were dangerous.
[WHISPER] Gumiho: nah he's a nice guy
[WHISPER] Gumiho: just that i've heard like five monologues from him today and this is the sxith one
[WHISPER] Gumiho: can you come backstage
[WHISPER] Gumiho: i don't think i'm in trouble or anything but he's doing this whole 'when i come on stage they will attack me' schtick and it's getting on my nerves