IC-ST-1: Eve of Journey

IC-ST-1 Eve of Journey	Ideal City: Underground Sightseeing Next IC-1 (Story)
The visitors are eager, while the tour guide has ulterior motives... well, it's not that bad. Relax.

Characters

Elysium Eunectes Gavial Gavial (new outfit) Stitch Canvas Tomimi Yogi Yota

Backgrounds

1 2

“

Gavial and Eunectes, both at Rhodes Island, receive a letter left behind by Tomimi, who is back home on vacation. Supposedly, a Durin from underground brought news that the entire rainforest could be in danger.

”

<Background black>
[The sound of people tempering something are heard.]
Always hustling. Busy, busy, Acahuallans. What are we doing, you ask? Hah, what else can we warriors of Acahualla do? The greatest weapons, the sturdiest buildings. With the High Priest and Inam Committee's support, we can build even more machines! Conquest! "Manure factory!" The Acahualla name will ring across all the lands!
<Background 1>
[The Archosaurian Tiacauh brothers from the Eunectes tribe are having a chat.]
Agitated Archosauria	"Manure factory." What a great word... That's how you say it, right, Yogi?
Yogi	No, Yota, it's "manufacturing." Besides, you should try to get some more rest instead of helping out with work on the... uh... "Forest Mk. III," the fully-automatic tree planting and cutting robot. Actually, since we wrote it off and built a new one last night, this is "Mk. IV."
Yota	I've been doing great lately, don't worry. I never thought these rocks... Uh, the Originium could be so useful. My eyes are wide open now! Is this new technology? Who brought it here?
Yogi	Probably Inam.
Yota	Ah... It's strong like Gavial, and you can shoot the upper half up in a spiral. It even stays midair for half a minute.
Yogi	Yeah, it's pretty shocking. Though the High Priest calls that "disassembly."
Yota	I've been thinking for a while... Look, the lands beyond are so vast, and now we have so much... "Manufactoring."
Yogi	Manufacturing. And the High Priest said before that's not how you use the word.
Yota	That doesn't matter. What matters is that we'll have more and more big machines! They'll also get easier to control and cause less accidents, too! There's much more we can do now, isn't there?!
Yogi	Like what?
Yota	Be ambitious, Brother. Set your sights on all of Sargon. Can you see it now–
Yogi	Uh, uhh...
Yota	–Our statues! As tall as three mountains and as big as two whole lakes!
Yogi	Ooohh–!
Yota	Of course, we need one for the clan leader too... and the High Priest! We can't forget Inam, either... Finally, we need something special to celebrate all this... A building! Right! A palace! Let's see... with wood? No, it has to be sandstone or some sturdier rock... Let's use Originium! That's it! We'll pile the Originium up to make a huge building!
Yogi	Pile it up? I-Into what? Like a temple?
Yota	Maybe something simpler. Like a circle... Hm, you can't make a circle with rocks. Let's pile it up layer by layer so it looks like a triangle from all directions!
Yogi	Oh... Ohh! A triangular tower! Now we just need to give it a name!
Yota	Still... there's no point in talking about all this. Gavial said I won't live that long with my disease.
Yogi	Yota... No! We just have to change the way we think. Let's turn this palace into your burial plot. That way, forget Acahualla, all of Sargon will remember your name. And I know what to call it, too! "Yogi Yota Tower!" We'll finish it before you die!
Yota	Yogi...!
[Tomimi walks toward the brothers.]
Tomimi	Don't jinx yourselves like that...
Yota	Oh, Tomimi... What are you doing here?
Yota	I thought you went straight to Gavial and the clan leader yesterday.
Tomimi	It's been a while since I was back home. I can't just leave like that, can I?
Yota	I guess not. So, what are you doing here today? You already stopped by, didn't you?
Tomimi	Actually...
[A young male Durin joins Tomimi and the brothers.]
Scathing Durin	......
Yota	Oh, you're the shortie Inam mentioned. What's the matter? Are you here to complain about our food again? Yeah, I've been thinking the food's been kind of bland lately too. How are we supposed to get by without meat?
Scathing Durin	No, it's something else. And I have a name. Stitch Canvas. You can't judge me by my height. Are all Archosauria like this?
Tomimi	Haha, no, we're not...
Stitch Canvas	Whatever. You're a bunch of weirdos bickering about tail thickness anyway... I guess it's a cultural difference that I'll have to respect.
Tomimi	Huh? Huh...?
Yota	Alright, so what do you need? We're working on a magnificent "bluepint" for Sargon.
Yogi	Blueprint.
Yota	Uh, right. Blueprint. You hear that, Durin man? This is a huge, glorious plan!
Tomimi	I kind of think... a big, over-the-top tomb isn't a such a great plan... Besides, if everyone gets a huge tomb like that, we won't have enough room in the rainforest.
Yota	Stop calling it a tomb. It's for celebration! It's celebratory! If we build it bigger, we can put both the leader and Gavial in there too, and our descendants will sing the praises of Zumama and "Gavial's Will" in front of our statues, with their kids all around them.
Stitch Canvas	(I am starting to regret this decision...)
Tomimi	Wha...! B-But...
Stitch Canvas	Right. Right now, we shouldn't–
Tomimi	–In that case, we can't call it the "Yogi Yota Tower!" It has to have Gavial's name in it! W-We can add my name in there too, while we're at it...!
Stitch Canvas	......
Tomimi	Uh, no, I mean... Well, Mr. Stitch already talked to Inam about this, but I want everyone to hear him explain it. This is pretty serious, after all. I sent Gavial a letter too, but I don't know if they'll make it in time...
Yota	Serious? What's so serious? I'm trying to plan out the rest of my life with what little time I have left! What could be more serious than that?
Stitch Canvas	*cough*... I'm not here to judge your fantastical ideas, surface dwellers. However... Just as I said before, if our city actually meets this crisis, the calamity will destroy everything. And when that happens, it won't matter how amazing your buildings are. They'll be reduced to rubble.
<Background 2>
[Gavial walks toward Eunectes.]
Gavial	Hey, Zumama.
Eunectes	Gavial? I didn't know we came back at the same time. How's the situation? Have those Infected settled down?
Gavial	Who do you think you're talking to? Not just the Infected. Mine security, the villagers nearby, and that old man from Rim Billiton. I took care of all of them.
Eunectes	Old man...? You dealt with our business partner, too?
Gavial	Yeah, I've got a problem with the way he treats the Infected. I had to have a friendly chat with him, as a doctor. "From a doctor's perspective and the Gavial way." Never mind all that. Have you seen the letter yet?
Eunectes	I haven't been back to the dorms... It's a letter from Tomimi? She went back home to visit her family, didn't she?
Gavial	Yeah, and she's been keeping in touch with her Acahualla friends through Inam. Looked like she was going to ask us to go with her, too.
Eunectes	A trip home together... If only Master Closure hadn't given me any work. That would've been nice. But if that was the whole story, you wouldn't have bothered to come looking for me, right?
Gavial	Hey now, when did we become strangers?
Eunectes	Never mind... So, what did Inam say? Did Tomimi run into trouble?
Gavial	Yeah, more accurately, the whole rainforest's in trouble.
Eunectes	What?
Gavial	Better pack up and get yourself ready. We're in for a big adventure.
<Background 1>
Yota	T-The whole rainforest will sink into the earth?! The entire land will shift and change?!
Stitch Canvas	That's right. I could explain the structure of a Durin city, but it's not like you would understand. To put it simply, my homeland is under the ground not far from this rainforest. We've run into some trouble... and that's why I came up here to seek the surface-dwellers' help. Now, I didn't actually have very high hopes for you lot to begin with, but I saw what you've been doing. Perhaps you can be of some help.
Yota	Well, that does sound like a big problem... but that doesn't have much to do with our tribe, right?
Yogi	Wait, this guy said if the Durin city's destroyed, it'll cause a chain reaction that will affect the surface... and our Yota Yogi Tower will...
Stitch Canvas	On the flipside, if you help us, we'll return the favor with our Durin technology. I don't know a lot about your tech level... but I can tell at a glance that your kind can sometimes be outrageously primitive.
Yota	Help? From an outsider? Now I'm not so sure we could use any...
Stitch Canvas	Ugh, to me, it's you surface-dwellers who are the outsiders... Never mind.
Tomimi	But Mr. Stitch did point out some serious problems with the 'Forest Mk. III' when he looked at it... although it kinda seems like he got rid of a lot of its functions...
Yota	This guy did?!
Tomimi	Yep, that's why Inam figured we should follow Mr. Stitch underground to see what's going on. I-I'm going too, of course, as the clan leader of "Gavial's Will." And while we're gone, it's up to you guys to take care of everyone in Tiacauh.
Yota	Well, I've got problem with that... I mean, for the sake of our Yo... No, our "Great Gold Originium Pearl Triangular Tower of Great Acahualla," you better get this problem solved!
Stitch Canvas	You used the word "great" twice...
Tomimi	We will.
Yota	But how are you going to get there...? We haven't been outside the forest too much. Are you sure you won't get lost?
???	Don't you worry!
[Elysium shows up before Tomimi, Stitch, and the brothers.]
Elysium	After all, I am coming along.
Tomimi	Mr. E-Elysium!
Yogi	You're the Rhodes Islander...
Elysium	Resilient as I am, even I have to take a vacation to alleviate the stress I've accumulated. Little did I know I'd find myself in another tremendous operation to save the Durins... But never mind. Who am I to miss out on more fun? Dylan and Blaze were right. It's a bustling place, but you can still relax and wind down a little. A wonderful little spot. I still have yet to find those famously delicious mushrooms after searching through the woods multiple times, though... I only hope that Miss Inam will follow through on her promise to help me accomplish the "seven must-dos when visiting Acahualla."
Tomimi	Mr. Elysium and Mr. Stitch have already gotten the ball rolling. With the two of them as guides, we won't ever lose our way... or at least that's what they promised.
Elysium	Haha, perhaps by the time Gavial and Eunectes make it home, we will have already taken care of everything.
<Background 2>
Eunectes	...... She used to be the impatient one... How come I have to wait half an hour in the hallway for her now? Look at this new gear... I thought Gavial would file a request for this stuff every month, but I guess that wasn't really the case, judging by Master Closure's reaction. So I guess she's not going back to playing "wandering medic who left the tribe"? ...... This is taking way too long! Gavial, what are you doing?!
Gavial	Don't rush me! You guys put together the most complicated equipment, you know?!
Eunectes	This is what you get when you make an order on such short notice! If you have a problem with that, maybe you should go through proper procedures with Engineering next time.
Gavial	Ugh–! This sucks! Not even those knights in Kazimierz wear this much armor!
Eunectes	Doesn't matter, if there's anything you can't figure out–
[After a bit of chaos in the dressing room, Gavial leaves with a more tactical tacticool attire and brandishing a large battleaxe.]
Gavial	Forget it! This will do! I'm tossing the rest!
Eunectes	Huh?!
Gavial	Yeah, forget all that junk. Don't need it. The moment I picked up this axe, I figured it all out.
Eunectes	Figured what out...?
Gavial	That this guy's all I need. Did you make it?
Eunectes	It was a rush order.
Gavial	I knew it. Only you could make something this kick-ass. No complaints. From the balance to the weight, all perfect. But this little ornament...
Eunectes	Lancet-2 told me to pour my feelings into everything I contribute to, whether a patient or equipment.
Gavial	She said that, huh? Probably learned it from Closure. Well, whatever winds your sprocket. Alright then, let's go!
Eunectes	...Gavial!
Gavial	What now, more dawdling?
Eunectes	What... are you going to do? It sounds like the Durins' call for help that Tomimi got might be some kind of crisis their city is facing. It might be a Catastrophe... It might be war.
Gavial	The letter says "fire rained down from the sky and burned our quilts' and 'a giant mushroom sprouted from the ground and blocked the sunlight, preventing the plants from growing," but it's all too abstract. No matter what the problem is, we oughta be able to tackle it. I mean, Inam and Elysium are coming too.
Eunectes	Tackle it how?
Gavial	Didn't you just give me the answer? Check out my getup. I really mean it, Zumama. I haven't been this excited in a while.
Eunectes	So you mean you're using your fists again.
Gavial	Hah, the usual!
Eunectes	The usual, huh...
Gavial	Time waits for no one, Zumama. Don't you want to see with your own eyes what those guys from your tribe have done to the forest?
Eunectes	Hah... I guess so. Let's get going, then.
[Gavial and Eunectes heads out to prepare for their homecoming.]