hisapprentice | [Puzzle 018]

[Puzzle 018]

[For house 48]

[A typical day in this house begins with Luke up and about, making breakfast and tea. Whether Firo shows up to have any is up to him. School's back in session and he needs an earlier start, that's all. This morning is no different, Luke pulls on his sweater while walking into the kitchen, headed for the refrigerator. It's when he pulls open the door that everything gets weird - starting with the whole room losing its household vibe and becoming much more...archaeological.]

[Action]

[Incredulous adventures aside, Luke finds it difficult to adjust to the busier lifestyle that comes with school starting and warmer weather ending. It gets darker, colder, Luke grows lonelier. He's out and about in the autumn sun, off to his usual stop at the bakery (okay, okay, one of his three or four usual stops) when a brownish figure passes him going in the opposite direction.

Luke stops. Spinning left, he sees the figure retreating down the path the way he came, and though all logic tells him it can't be real, he takes off running after it.]

Professor! [Because there is no one else. It must be him.] Professor, wait! Just- hold on a minute, please!

[Luke did not realize a vision from the past could hurt so much. When Layton's back and top hat fade into a false mist and then nothingness, Luke has run himself all the way back across the village, nearer to the rec center. Out of breath and out of spirit, he sits down on a bench to stare at the dirt.

Today is awful.]

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[Firo doesn't mind waking up early; though he was never required to be at his casino all day, he liked to be there at the start of things. He has considerably less to wake up for in Luceti (especially now, with so many gone), but the faint noise in the kitchen has him awake and out of bed. Truthfully, he's been more than a little lonely these days and he wants to catch Luke before he goes off to school.

Sleepily slipping into his jacket, Firo enters the kitchen. And suddenly looks very awake when he notices the changes.]

What the hell happened to this place?

[It's taller somehow, broader, the ceiling supported by pillars with painted hieroglyphs and figures up and down their round surfaces. Luke is no longer holding the refrigerator; it's the lid of some kind of jar instead, which he drops almost instantly. Clatter clatter.

There's also a few-feet-wide drop between himself and Firo, there where the kitchen table used to be. Wide-eyed, Luke rounds on his housemate with his mouth open in shock.]

What did you do?

Hey, don't--

[He's about to scold Luke for dropping that jar and wasting food, but then he realizes it definitely isn't a pickle jar. Or probably anything that holds food. If it did, said food would probably hundreds of years old; the jar looks ancient!

Because he's so distracted by the sudden, probably impossible changes to their house, it takes a moment before Firo responds to Luke's accusation. He turns to face the kid, still too stunned to really look angry.]

Me? You think I could do somethin' like this?!

[He steps forward... and quickly stops when he realizes there isn't as much floor in front of him as he thought.]

[No. No he doesn't. Luke gets over his surprise almost as soon as Firo asks the question, and shakes his head.]

Um, sorry. If I didn't do it then you probably didn't do it either. But what happened to the house?

[There are pieces of ancient detritus in arguably the same places as the furniture in the kitchen should be, but the similarities end there. Luke shifts on his feet, looking around and above like he expects something to drop.]

[He looks around more, shrugging helplessly.]

I haven't got a goddamn clue.

[Firo tries not to curse a lot in front of the children, but all bets are off when he's this confused.]

Uh, are you okay over there? I'm not sure how... I suppose I could try to jump this thing, but...

[...He's not sure he'd make it. Still, Firo's achieved some pretty impressive physical feats before.]

Yeah, I'm fine. It just looks really familiar, that's all. The last time I was anywhere that looked like this-

[Maiza and the Professor were there. That gives Luke an idea, and he looks at the gap between them with an increasingly sly almost-grin.]

I can jump it. Or, er, I can get across. Just back up a little bit, all right?

You?

[He can't help but sound skeptical. And worried. Luke's never struck him as the most physical of people. ]

Are you sure you're gonna be okay? Might be better if I do it.

[He once scaled a giant organ robot mecha to rescue a locally famous opera singer.

He'll be fine.]

I'm not worried! [Okay, he is a little bit worried, he always performs better under pressure and this isn't exactly an emergency. But! He knows he can make it. He just has to think a bit first.

...And use some pseudo-ancient relics to rig up something to jump from that is higher and has juuuust a little give. Bit like an elevated trampoline. There's quite a noise while he assembles pieces.]

[If only Firo knew...

He does take a step back to oblige Luke and is surprised when the kid doesn't get going right away. He watches as ancient knick-knacks are piled on top of each other.]

What're you doin'..? Are you sure that's gonna work?

[Firo usually just makes do with hope and a running start. Then again, any resulting injuries from that strategy don't matter so much to him.]

I've got to be sure. [A true gentleman has confidence in his abilities.

Luke climbs up, now a few feet elevated from the ground...and takes a running start at what is essentially a large springboard. Aaaaand jump!

He makes a tiny squeak on the landing, when he misjudges the height of the ground and has to do a very messy bumpy roll.]

[Filled with trepidation, Firo watches as Luke runs, jumps... and rolls, safe. He offers Luke a hand to help him up.]

...Huh, it actually worked.

[He can't hide the relief in his smile, though the expression soon fades as he looks around the room. It's all just as foreign as before.

With no other brain in the room, he looks to the kid.]

So, uh, what do we do now? How the hell do we get this place back to normal?

Of course it worked! [And he couldn't have done it without some critical thinking and a little bit of dramatic luck.] I don't do things like that halfway.

[Luke brushes some very real cobwebs from one arm and frowns.] If it's a shift or something, I don't think we can do anything but wait until it's over.

Just wait? So we're stuck here.

[He sighs grumpily and looks around again, hand on his hip. Predictably, his cursory search doesn't turn up anything new.]

What is this place supposed to be? And what's with all the junk?

Hmm. [Luke has his chin firmly in hand, surveying the room again.] This looks a lot like that pyramid. A long time ago, Professor Layton and Maiza and I went into one here looking for a treasure. All the stones and paintings here are really similar.

[Which! Is not necessarily a good thing. Luke looks at Firo with a half-baked smile.]

So there are probably traps and puzzles all about.

[Firo's slowly nodding along to the explanation. Until that smile.

Oh.

No.

Puzzles.

...He may have actually paled a bit at that. They're screwed, aren't they?]

...You've gotta be kiddin' me.

Why would I joke about something like this? We've got to either wait it out or find a way out. I don't know what else we might find down here. Mummies and things.

Like those bandaged things in the movies?

[He looks faintly amused.]

C'mon, Luke, those aren't real. If puzzles are really all we gotta deal with, let's start lookin' for a way out!

Of course they're real! Well, mostly not in London, but the mummies of ancient Egypt are certainly as real as we are!

[Luke knows Firo is not to be deterred so he'll just hope they don't run into any mummies.]

Just watch where you step so you don't set anything off.

[~~If they run into mummies, that'll just serve him right for never opening a history book.~~]

What?

[Egypt is probably made up too, gosh, Luke. Faced with such silliness and ignorance, Firo can only shake his head and focus on what else is going on.]

What exactly am I supposed to be lookin' for? Trip wires? Bombs?

[Bombs?

Firo has such questionable reactions to everything. Luke knows someone who'd get along well with him.]

Actually, there might be wires or something like that. Last time, when we opened a door, a rolling rock started chasing us. I did a lot of climbing, too. But I hope nothing's going to explode. In the usual stories, it's more like...hm, like bits of the floor that fall away when you step on them, or taking the wrong path and the wall produces spikes.

[Fortunately the shift recall didn't see fit to give them area-appropriate costume this time.]

Spikes?

[Partly out of irritation and partly out of the fact that Luke seems to know what's up, Firo asks:]

How the hell are we supposed to tell when that stuff's gonna happen?

[Ooh, did that scare Firo? Luke adjusts his hat with an air of certainty.]

Some of that stuff sounds like it's only in books, but the boulder really happened to us. It seemed more like the kind of thing you find in books the whole time, actually.

[Luke wishes for a torch and one does not appear, of course. They'll just have to walk carefully. The space is larger than their kitchen by far.]

I guess we just have to listen and keep our eyes open.

[Firo's doomed.]

Great. So we're stuck in some stupid story.

[He sighs and reaches into his jacket to check that his knife is still there. Of course it is.]

You can't think of any signs or somethin' for all a' this? I can watch for it if I know what I'm lookin' for.

[Firo's surprisingly observant for someone who's so stupid. He figures that if he can read if someone's cheating during poker, he might be able to keep an eye out for traps.]

[Luke straightens, turning to look at Firo in momentary surprise.

No, he meant something else, of course. Then he asks a question and Luke is back to observing their surroundings.]

Anything that looks suspiciously different from the space around it, probably. I suppose we could just stand right here until it wears off...

[Firo tries to follow Luke's gaze, eyes peeled for anything sketchy. Of course, pretty much this whole place looks sketchy to a guy who doesn't regularly explore ruins or nonfiction books.

He shakes his head, not even considering Luke's rather logical offer.]

C'mon, you don't really wanna do that, do ya? It could take forever!

[Not that he has anywhere to go.]

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