Scene 0336

*"Mathilda and Johann crashed onto the remnants of the chairs at the kitchen table in a room that now more closely resembled a Jackson Pollock painting than a liveable kitchen, exhausted by the team’s days’ work. ‘The Merge’ as it was starting to be commonly called was starting to leave a visible mark on the world around them, changing the atomic structures of anything unfortunate enough to be standing in its path forcing many to flee their homes in fear. Almost as if on cue Marcel walked in with their dinner for the evening, a collection of canned meals they’d manage to find a few days before at another abandoned home. The pair politefully smiled as they baulked at the reminder of their new reality without the love-filled home-cooked meals made by their parents, another disheartening reminder of the lives they’ll all possibly never get back. “I guess it’s better than starving to death!’ Marcel jokingly exclaimed feeling the sudden waft of sadness that was eroding the positive mood from their success earlier that day. He always knew what to do when we start thinking too much about our families. Mathilda gratefully responds “No thank you Marcel, we’d probably be long gone without you by now. Don’t worry, we’ll find some better things for you to cook with tomorrow. The only thing that matters is that we’re together.” Johann nodded in agreement and in a convicted tone continued, “we’re fighting for something bigger here than canned beef, I’d eat this for the rest of my life if it meant bringing everyone back together.” They all sat eating their dinner with a sense of contentment as they began to realise the new family they were forming with each other, an unbreakable bond between the three of them that could give even the strongest forces in the Solverse a run for its money. Johann’s voice pierced the silence like a glass smashing after falling of a table, “We’ve been aimlessly looking for any signs or answers for the past two weeks and it hasn’t gotten us anywhere, we need to change our approach or do something different because at least my family’s safe in the Riemann Mountains but yours could be out there facing who knows what!” “Wow way to rub it in Johann, that’ll make us feel heaps better” Mathilda sarcastically interrupted. “No you don’t get what I’m saying” Johann quickly retorted, “maybe travelling settlement to settlement asking for any information we can find won’t work and we need to think of something else, something a bit more unorthodox.” Mathilda and Marcel considered and deeply thought on what Johan was proposing before Marcel responded, “I don’t know if you guys remember but back at home but we learnt about the Gods of the Solverse in those classes our parents made us do at The Shrine as kids, and if I remember correctly there were supposedly four portals that act as the bridge between our universe and the God’s universe beyond it. I’ve never been a religious guy or even really believed that those portals were out there, but we’re running out of ideas quick and anything that might help us find our families out there has to be worth a shot, right? We can’t just aimlessly wander around hoping we’ll spot them in the distance, we have to be more proactive if we’re going to find them.” Mathilda seemed hesitant but the three of them cautiously nodded in agreement, at first light they were setting off to seek answers at the closest Shrine they could find."*