Message
You wait until Masquerade is over, before you make your way to Club PLURality. The ballroom is only open for a limited time each year, after all, but the clubs are likely to stay open. You prepare clothing that will help you blend in with the inhabitants of Ziara&;s underbelly, before making your admittedly risky trip out of the &quot;bourgeois quarters&quot;.</p>
<p>After asking people who seem not to fit in the usual dress of the &quot;floating city&quot; for directions to Lower Ziara, something apparently only given in hushed tones and guarded whispers, you make your way to what appears to be a run-down garage, with a busted signage reading &quot;lub PLURality.&quot; It is dark by the time you reach Lower Ziara, but there is an eerie silence in this part of Atebus, even though it is bathed in neon lights and bright colours. It reminds you of the illumination of casinos, but not quite.</p>
<p>As you walk closer to the door of the establishment, you find an unpowered &quot;C&quot; neon sign close to the welcome mat. You also notice a &quot;Sorry, we&;re CLOSED!&quot; sign on the front door. However, a touch-screen terminal seems to have been activated on the door. It displays what seems to be a closed-circuit camera feed. Speakers underneath the screen play music and loud conversations from inside.</p>
<p>Buttons shaped like rewind, play, and pause buttons. There is a chat-like panel displaying a transcript of conversations audible through the speakers.</p>
<p>Just then, a man approaches the camera, and begins to speak.</p>
<p></p>
<p>&quot;Oh man, this is making me nervous. Is anyone watching out there? Bella had gone missing after she performed a few surgeries during the last few days of Masquerade. I was giving patient consultations. I should have kept an eye on her.&quot; His voice seems to crack, and his eyes are damp.</p>
<p>&quot;I would leave this club, but E isn&;t here, either. This is bad... this is very bad... I implore you, I beg you, please help me! We closed the club a few days ago to evade the notice of the individual we only know as &;Master&;. It seems he is an entity from another world, possibly the one where Bella and I come from. If not, he may have captured one of our kind and controlled it for himself. When I solved the last part of the anagram from an epiphany while a patient consulted me, these disappearances happened. I am desperate...&quot;</p>
<p>The display fades to static, when a scream can be heard from the speakers.</p>
<p>&quot;It is done,&quot; bellows a deep, guttural voice. It is only then that you catch sight of a bloodied hydrus necklace.

Well, this is creepy. You can either call an emergency line, and risk the ire of anyone who may spot you doing so, or leave the club as quickly as you can. Before you make up your mind, you feel a gentle tap against your shoulder.</p>
<p>&quot;Can you lend me a hand?&quot;</p>
<p></p>
<p><details>
<summary>&quot;Who are you?&quot;</summary>
You ask the stranger who they are. He could be a local or a visitor trying to blend in, just like you. His rainbow clothing is a bit too much, but no one probably minds.</p>
<p>&quot;We don&;t have time for that right now.&quot; He hands you an ornate key.</p>
<p>[[Choose between 2A (What&;s this for?) and 2B (I can&;t help you.)]]
</details>
<details>
<summary>&quot;Sure.&quot;</summary>
Why not? You tell the stranger that you&;re willing to help him out.</p>
<p>He gives you a dusty, albeit ornate key. &quot;Thanks. I owe you one.&quot;</p>
<p>[[Choose between 3A (Help him out) and 3B (How am I supposed to trust you?)]]
</details>
<details>
<summary>&quot;No, sorry.&quot;</summary>
You politely decline the stranger. Being strange to Lower Ziara, yourself, you never know if this is some modus operandi designed to involve you in some kind of crime.</p>
<p>The man pulls out a pistol and points it at you.</p>
<p>&quot;Do it, or I&;ll shoot!&quot; He immediately places the gun back in his pocket, presumably so that nobody else could see it.</p>
<p>[[Choose between 3A (Help him out) and 3B (How am I supposed to trust you?)]]
</details></p>
<p><details>
<summary>2A</summary>
You ask the stranger what the key is for. Of course it&;s supposed to open some door, but exactly what does he want you to do?</p>
<p>&quot;Get inside that club&;s backdoor with the key. You&;ll find two unconscious people inside. Help me load them into this van so I can bring them some place safe.&quot;</p>
<p>[[Choose between 3B (How am I supposed to trust you?) and 3C (Call emergency services.)]]
</details>
<details>
<summary>2B</summary>
You decline the stranger. A foreigner to Lower Ziara, yourself, you never know if this is some modus operandi designed to involve you in some kind of crime.</p>
<p>The man pulls out a pistol and points it at you.</p>
<p>&quot;Do it, or I&;ll shoot!&quot; He immediately places the gun back in his pocket, presumably so that nobody else could see it.</p>
<p>[[Choose between 3A (Help him out) and 3B (How am I supposed to trust you?)]]
</details></p>
<p><details>
<summary>3A</summary>
You decide to help him out, even if you don&;t quite understand what he needs from you.</p>
<p>&quot;You see that key I gave you? Get inside that club&;s backdoor with it. You&;ll find two unconscious people inside. Help me load them into this van so I can bring them some place safe.&quot;</p>
<p>[[Choose between 3B (How am I supposed to trust you?) and 3C (Call emergency services.)]]
</details>
<details>
<summary>3B</summary>
You confront the stranger and ask him how you&;re supposed to trust him. There&;s something very sketchy about picking up not just one, but two unconscious people by breaking into a daft-looking club. Not to mention putting them in a private individual&;s van, instead of an ambulance or a police car.</p>
<p>&quot;It&;s true that you shouldn&;t trust people down here. You never know who&;s working with you or against you.&quot; He lets out a chuckle. &quot;Hey now, don&;t get your pants in a bunch. I&;ll drive them to the nearest hospital. You can go with me if you&;re not convinced.&quot;</p>
<p>[[Choose between 4A (Get inside the club) and 4B (Run away.)]
</details>
<details>
<summary>3C</summary>
Something is suspect about breaking into the backdoor of a sketchy-looking club just to get two unconscious people to load into a van. Deciding that it is the more prudent option, you call emergency services.</p>
<p>Before you are connected to the hotline, the stranger grabs your phone from you. You struggle to take your phone back from the stranger, when the loudspeaker button is accidentally pressed.</p>
<p>&quot;Ziaran Emergency Services, what&;s your concern?&quot;</p>
<p>Taking advantage of the loudspeaker, you yell, &quot;Someone is taking my phone from me outside Club PLURality.&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;Shut the **** up, *****,&quot; the stranger shouts. Losing his grip on the phone, he kicks you squarely on the stomach. You drop the key, which he takes from the ground before running away from your sight.</p>
<p>That is the last thing you see before everything fades into black.
</details></p>
<p><details>
<summary>4A</summary>
You hold on tightly to the key and enter the club through the backdoor. You notice a white van parked close by.</p>
<p>As expected, the key unlocks the door, and you find yourself in what appears to be a pantry. You look all around you -- in front, to the sides, and behind -- and check if the stranger is watching you, or if you can find the two unconscious people he was referring to.</p>
<p>Strewn underneath a rolling steel table are two people with their face down, their wrists and legs tied together. The stranger emerges behind you, and takes the taller and darker person out of the pantry. With hesitation, you take the unconscious girl, and load her into the back of the van, resting her against a long seat.</p>
<p>You notice that the van smells strange. You feel something strike against your back, pushing you to the ground of the van&;s rear compartment.</p>
<p>&quot;You really shouldn&;t trust people down here.&quot;</p>
<p>Those are the last things you hear before everything fades into black.
</details>
<details>
<summary>4B</summary>
You run from the stranger as quickly as you can muster, realising that he is a dangerous person. Quick on his feet, he catches up to you quickly, and strikes you with a dilapidated pipe.</p>
<p>That is the last thing you feel before everything fades into black.
</details>

Message
As soon as you open your eyes, you are blinded by a bright light overhead. The unmistakable odor of a cocktail of disinfectant agents permeates the air. Mixed with walls that are almost glaringly white, it evokes everything that people could dread from a hospital visit.</p>
<p><details>
<summary>Look to your left.</summary>

</details>
<details>
<summary>Look to your right.</summary>

</details></p>
<p>Maybe someone took all three of you to the hospital. Could it be the guy who rendered you unconscious earlier? That would be odd of him.</p>
<p>You hear faint knocking from the door. It is prudent to feign sleep at this point, even if it means you won&;t be able to see who your visitor is. As soon as you hear the door creak open, you shut your eyes and stay still.</p>
<p>&quot;You must be that Grace guy Master keeps talking about. I wonder what he wants from you.&quot; The guest&;s voice has a sweet tone to it, the kind of speech that can soothe and console a crying infant. A nurse, perhaps?</p>
<p>You hear footsteps move from your left, to your right. &quot;And you must be the girlfriend?&quot; You hear the woman giggle softly. &quot;You&;re kinda cute! But it seems like you&;re in the poorest shape...&quot; After a few beeps, which are probably coming from some kind of vital sign monitor you didn&;t notice, you hear footsteps once again. They seem to stop right in the middle.</p>
<p>&quot;You… who might you be? Master told me there were only 2 people. And by the way, I know you&;re no longer sleeping.&quot;</p>
<p><details>
<summary>Introduce yourself.</summary>
You&;ve been discovered. Since there&;s no point to keep pretending you&;re asleep, you introduce yourself.</p>
<p></p>
<p>&quot;I knew it!&quot; The mental image you made of the girl with high-pitched voice doesn&;t quite fit reality. The girl&;s pout turns into a cheeky smile. &quot;There&;s no need to pretend that you&;re asleep. You&;re safe here!&quot;</p>
<p></p>
<p>Were you hallucinating just now? You feel a throbbing sensation in your eyes, with your vision similarly pulsating. Something is beating above your abdomen. You&;re sure you can palpate something that feels like a cord connected to your navel, but you don&;t see anything.</p>
<p>&quot;There&;s nothing there… That must be the anaesthesia.&quot;</p>
<p>Your surroundings pulsate. You catch a quick glimpse of a neon-lit wall, superimposed over the sterile, white wall right in front of you. Looking at your abdomen, you clearly see a cord connected to your navel for a fraction of a second, before it disappears. You decide to yank it out yourself, finding it strange.</p>
<p></p>
<p>You seem to no longer be inside a hospital room. The neon-lit wall behind the girl has some blood splatters on them. You don&;t even want to look at your sides anymore. In your hand, you find something resembling a chip with a peripheral cable. Its tip appears to be bloodied. The sensation of something removed from your body is there, but you are otherwise numb to pain.
</details>
<details>
<summary>Don&;t budge.</summary>
If you stay still and maintain your current breathing pattern, maybe she&;ll second-guess herself. You keep your eyes shut.</p>
<p>&quot;You can&;t fool me!&quot;</p>
<p>You feel your blanket lifted from your body, and sense something yanked from above your abdomen. Your eyes forced open, you are greeted by…</p>
<p></p>
<p>You also seem to no longer be inside a hospital room. The neon-lit wall behind the girl has some blood splatters on them. You don&;t even want to look at your sides anymore. By your feet, you find something resembling a chip with a peripheral cable. Its tip appears to be bloodied. The sensation of something removed from your body is there, but you are otherwise numb to pain.
</details>

Message
You sit up, and decide to ask the Unliving girl some questions.
<details>
<summary>Where am I?</summary>
You ask your Unliving acquaintance where you are presently located. One thing is clear to you -- you&;re not in a hospital room, even if you are lying down in a hospital bed.</p>
<p>&quot;Since you can see everything for what it is right now, I&;ll let you in on this.&quot; The girl giggles. &quot;Welcome to the Subetan Anti-Alien Alliance Headquarters.&quot; She then gives you a questioning look. &quot;I&;m not sure why Master took you here. You don&;t look like an alien to me.&quot;
</details>
<details>
<summary>Who are you?</summary>
You ask your Unliving acquaintance who she is. You don&;t remember meeting her in the past.</p>
<p>&quot;I&;m Orin!&quot; The girl giggles, and throws her plush up in the air. She catches it, and squeezes it gently. &quot;Just a simple Unliving girl given a better life thanks to this great organisation. This is the Subetan Anti-Alien Alliance.&quot;
</details>
<details>
<summary>What do you want from me?</summary>
You ask your Unliving acquaintance what she could possibly want from you. It&;s not very likely that she&;s the one who needs something from you. Apart from her unsettling appearance, she looks rather harmless.</p>
<p>&quot;Eh, I don&;t know about that.&quot; She scratches her head. A lock of her hair falls to the ground. Orin frowns as she stares at the hair she had shed. &quot;Master doesn&;t really bother with normal, non-alien entities. You should be safe! But I don&;t know about your two friends here.&quot;
</details></p>
<p>&quot;It&;s a shame I can&;t bring you out without the Master&;s orders.&quot; Orin takes out a bottle containing a glowing orange butterfly from her pocket. &quot;Later, we&;re going to release these specially engineered butterflies. It&;ll be a spectacle. I&;ll try to take photos so you can see it!&quot;</p>
<p>You finally muster the courage to look at your sides. Your companions seem to look the same as they did earlier. They&;re also sleeping in the same hospital beds you&;re certain you saw when you woke up. You are also seated on a hospital bed, yourself.</p>
<p>&quot;Oh, I have to go.&quot; Orin&;s eye closes as she giggles, just for it to turn into a narrow slit as soon as she opens it again. She hisses at you. &quot;Don&;t try to do anything silly, especially any attempts to escape. I&;m warning you.&quot; She beams a grin at you before she happily skips to the door, leaving you with your two unconscious companions.</p>
<p><details>
<summary>Try to wake up the woman on your right.</summary>
The anaesthesia&;s effect must be waning, as you feel a slight burning sensation around your navel while standing up. You walk closer to the woman&;s bed and tap her shoulders. She is unresponsive, but she is still breathing.
</details>
<details>
<summary>Gently nudge the man to your left.</summary>
You decide to try waking up the man to your left. He isn&;t hooked up to any monitors or intravenous lines, after all. You might have a better chance with him. Before you can lay a finger on him, he opens his eyes, raising one of his hands to his face, pressing his index finger against his lips. He brings his finger down and slowly mouths out something to you.</p>
<p>&quot;I was awake. Keep quiet.&quot;</p>
<p>You mouth out to him in return, &quot;Why?&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;Escape is risky. This place is guarded well.&quot;</p>
<p>You ask, &quot;Where are we?&quot;</p>
<p>The man looks for something in his bed. He pulls out shorts from underneath his blanket, digging for something in its pockets. He takes out a piece of paper and a pen, and begins to write. Midway through jotting something down, he shakes his pen. He barely manages to write again when he tries to get something from his pocket, again. He pulls out another pen and continues to write. As soon as he finishes, he passes the note to you.

</details></p>
<p><details>
<summary>Ask him what his plans are</summary>
You ask Grace about his plan.</p>
<p>He mouths out, &quot;Not something I can pull off alone. Do you think you can help me out?&quot;
</details>
<details>
<summary>Ask him how he&;s related to the woman</summary>
You ask Grace about the woman to your right. You heard something about her being his girlfriend.</p>
<p>He mouths out, &quot;She&;ll be my wife quite soon. Now keep quiet.&quot;
</details>

Grace looks at you, and puts his hands together. &quot;Okay, I think I can talk to you with a moderate voice now. This is going to sound like a fantastical tale.&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;Here&;s the thing. Bella and I are aliens. I&;m not just talking about having foreigner status, we&;re from an entire other planet. To you mortals, we might be close to what you call &;angels&; in our true forms. It&;s hard to believe, but we&;re the aliens that this Subeta Anti-Alien Alliance wants to exterminate.&quot; Grace then shrugs. &quot;Or so they claim. In reality, its leadership asks its members to report &;alien sightings&; so that they can abduct us and use us for their nefarious purposes. I didn&;t know about this until I got to Ziara.&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;The moon allows me to use more of my superhuman ability, if you can call it that, better than Subeta itself. Maybe it&;s because we&;re closer to where our old, destroyed planet was, this way. Somehow, they caught wind of what I&;m capable of doing, and they want to use it to spread their influence. We can&;t let a bunch of bigots run this world just like that.&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;Bella and I can escape, but we can&;t take you with us if we do it the easy way. It would be too dangerous for mortals to see our true forms.&quot; The serious expression on his face turns into a hope-filled smile. &quot;I have something in mind that will help us escape while in our human forms, so you can get out with us, and no one has to see Bella or I use any of our special abilities.&quot;</p>
<p>You hear a soft yawn to your right. Slowly, Grace stands up and walks to Bella&;s side. &quot;You&;re awake now?&quot;
&quot;Yes,&quot; she weakly says as she sits up. Grace locks her into an embrace. &quot;Where are we? What happened?&quot;
&quot;We&;re in the Alliance&;s new base.&quot; Stroking Bella&;s hair, he continues, &quot;I found your diary. Do you think you can send a message through it?&quot;
&quot;Really? It was missing for 3 months!&quot;
&quot;Shh, not too loud. Some friendly people are likely to wind up with your diary. Tell them to help us.&quot;
&quot;How do I do that, Grace?&quot;
&quot;Change the ink colour of some words you wrote on it. You can do that, right?&quot;
&quot;I&;ll try. Anything in particular I should tell them?&quot;
&quot;Tell them to go to the fire exit. I&;m confident they&;ll find their way from there… I can see it clearly.&quot;</p>
<p>Bella then rests her fingerpads against her temples, her facial expression indicating that she is in deep concentration. After a few moments she begins to shake, her arms visibly trembling.</p>
<p>&quot;You can stop now. Thank you, my agape.&quot;</p>
<p>Upon hearing this, Bella relaxes, and breathes deeply.

<details>
<summary>...What.</summary>
You give Grace a dumbfounded look. What was that all about?</p>
<p>&quot;I was hoping I didn&;t have to say this, but my main ability has something to do with seeing possibilities and scenarios.&quot; Grace lets out a nervous laugh. &quot;In many of the scenarios I can see, a friend got hold of Bella&;s diary, which someone left in a bar. If a scenario where they read its contents will occur, hopefully they&;ll notice our distress call.&quot;
</details>
<details>
<summary>So what do I do now?</summary>
You pay their earlier conversation no mind, and ask Grace what you&;re supposed to do now. He pulls out another piece of paper from his shorts, and starts to draw a few lines on it. He hands you the piece of paper when he finishes.</p>
<p></p>
<p>&quot;I didn&;t know you could form maps from your vision, Grace,&quot; you hear Bella say with a sense of wonder.
&quot;I had to do my own investigations while both of you were asleep. It was risky, and a guard almost noticed me.&quot; Grace gathers you and Bella to come closer to him, as he points to different points at the paper, and explains his plan. &quot;We&;re in that weirdly shaped room I labeled &;US&;. We&;ll enter the bathroom and knock down the fake wall blocking a hallway that directly leads to the backroom of a control room. It&;s mostly empty since it&;s just a conduit, but there are some guard uniforms there. You can change into one of those, while I&;ll see if there might be some other clothes Bella and I could change to in there. From there, we enter a door to a winding hallway leading to a security office. That&;s the trickier part. You have to convince them that you&;re a new guard and that you need to bring us, the new hostages, to Brandon&;s office. That&;s where we&;re headed, and I&;ve marked it with a star.&quot;
&quot;Why do we have to go all the way to the office and run through that checkpoint? I thought you were hatching an escape plan. It&;s going to be way too obvious to everyone that we escaped if we go to his office. Why don&;t we leave through that place you marked as a fire exit?&quot;
&quot;We&;re going to be in bigger trouble that way. Some people could be in the exit for a smoke, and we&;re going to look very suspect with these hospital gowns. Besides, we just can&;t pass through the control room like that!&quot;
&quot;But what&;s the point of going to Brandon&;s office? What if he&;s going to detain us for much longer, in a place where we can&;t just escape?&quot;
&quot;In most of these possibilities… I&;m confident that Brandon is on our side. He&;ll bail us out. We just need to get to him, to convince him to stop allowing that &;Master&; to control him with fear.&quot;
&quot;Give me some paper. I&;ll fix your map.&quot;</p>
<p>Holding Grace&;s original map with her left thumb and index finger, Bella copies it into another piece of paper.</p>
<p></p>
<p>&quot;That&;s… almost exactly the same as my map, Bella.&quot;
&quot;There&;s a difference!&quot;
&quot;No, apart from your handwriting, nothing else has changed.&quot;</p>
<p>Bella then digs for something in one of Grace&;s pockets, pulling out a red marker. She encircles the control room in her &quot;map&quot;.</p>
<p></p>
<p>&quot;We&;ll take a shortcut. We go through the bathroom, change our clothes in the backroom, enter the control room, and disable as many cameras as we can after we handle whoever is monitoring the video feeds. Then we can leave through the fire exit and leave the building quickly.&quot;
&quot;Are you sure we can handle the guard in the control room? What if he&;s armed? It&;s not like you have a gun or anything on you, Bella.&quot;
&quot;I&;m sure I do, it&;s right here.&quot; Bella starts to palpate for something under her hospital gown. &quot;What? No. If you still have your shorts, why was I stripped nearly naked?&quot;
Grace shakes his head. &quot;It&;s that Unliving nurse. She probably took all our important stuff.&quot;
Bella then turns to you. &quot;Can you help us decide? Where do you think we should go now? I don&;t want to argue with Grace here.&quot;
</details>