Abyss of the Elevator

*Slam. Slam. Slam.*

Amygea’s attention was arrested by the noise of some complex metal door. A white-haired gridmask, dressed in some sort of white work suit, was messing with the door in front of the new elevator shaft. Having been wandering almost aimlessly around the thirteenth floor of the Isles-Quint Building, she jumped at the opportunity to insert herself into the situation, regardless of how mundane it may be.

"Hello there."

The white-haired gridmask turned their head, revealing a face pale even by Amygea’s standard. They bore a curious, yet somewhat welcoming expression. "Ah, hello... Miss Moriam?" Their tone of voice implied a question, but Amygea couldn’t be sure what the question was.

"Yes?" She tried to match the ambiguous uncertain tone.

"Do you see this?" they asked, gesturing to the elevator door they were messing with, as if they found it so unbelievable they needed to reconfirm its existence with a reliable third party. Amygea looked; the sliding door had crossing parts and breaks in the metal parts with light from inside the shaft peeking through, perhaps to show off when the elevator would be near.

Though, it wouldn’t be near anytime soon, since it hadn’t been built yet. Amygea nodded in response.

"What is this?" Again, Amygea wasn’t sure what the question was.

"Um, what exactly do you mean?"

"Why does this door lead to a hole in the building? Do you know?" It was a strange question, but asked with such genuine earnestness that Amygea didn’t hesitate for a second.

"I believe that’s the elevator shaft," she stated in a tone which belied a sense of satisfaction. She could recall having a similar conversation with Baxter almost a month ago, regarding the odd construction. Despite Baxter’s enthusiasm for the concept of an indoor elevator, she hadn’t paid it much mind at the time-- elevators weren’t that exciting to her, after all-- but still for the sake of this random person she was willing to rack her brain for every detail that escaped Baxter’s mouth that day.

"Elevator... shaft..." They raised a white eyebrow and repeated the words, either as if it was some life-changing revelation, or as if they didn’t understand what it meant in the slightest.

"For the elevator they’re building," Amygea clarified. "One of Baxter’s new projects, I believe."

"Yes, yes, I see." The mention of Baxter seemed to have cleared up a lot in their mind. Baxter was notorious for eccentric and ambitious projects, and an indoor elevator perfectly fit his style. Amygea was about to chalk up the conversation as practically done at this point. "What’s an elevator?"

Amygea took a momentary pause. Even if she had been expecting the question, it was a bit awkward to answer. Elevators are the sort of thing best explained by example, though they couldn’t exactly ride an elevator that didn’t exist. It took her a moment to think up a chain of explanation that would’ve made sense regardless of context.

"Well, an elevator..." she stammered for a bit before finding direction. ""Elevator," it comes from the word "elevate," which means "to raise." So, an elevator is a sort of machine that raises you up."

They looked absolutely enthralled by the prospect. "It goes up, all on its own?"

"With cables and tracks, yes," she clarified. "It also goes down, of course."

"It goes down, too?"

"Yes."

"Why is it only called an elevator, then, if it both raises and lowers?"

An odd question to ask, Amygea thought. "I suppose... going up is a little more impressive than going down."

"Yes, well, going down, right, right..." The pale gridmask mumbled, looking down the elevator shaft.

Amygea smiled. "I know, I know," Amygea tried to speak in a reassuring tone, "it probably comes across as terrifying--" ("definitely," they interrupted) "--a giant machine that moves around like that. It’s not all that scary once you’ve been on it a few times. And this will be very helpful for all the monsters here that don’t have legs to walk up the stairs with. Or, anyone who can’t use their legs," she quickly added. "Or even anyone carrying a lot."

"You say all that as if you’ve used an elevator many times before." They had something resembling a blank expression.

"I have, yes."

"Didn’t you say it was something new?"

"Baxter’s version is," Amygea clarified. "Elevators have been common in mines for some time now, but, it’s indoor elevators, that’s the one that’s all new."

"In mines?" Now they had an expression that resembled relief. "Right. You’ve been there?"

"Yes, well," Amygea cleared her throat. "I’ve gone to the mines near Oktov for--" she smiled out of the corner of her mouth "--many reasons. Lots of materials there I could use, or someone else could use, and it’s a very unique place, underground."

"Underground..." They looked back down the elevator shaft. "Is the underground like the elevator shaft?"

"It is fairly dark, yes." It was different in a number of ways, though. But, Amygea once again felt the conversation would be winding down now, so she didn’t bother dragging on.

"Of course. That reminds me, where is the elevator?"

"Um..." Amygea was caught off guard a bit. "It’s not been built yet, last I heard."

They frowned. "That’s strange, isn’t it?"

"I-is it, now?"

"They made the elevator shaft before making the elevator."

Amygea quickly tried to think of a response. Something about the statement was strange to her. "... of course they did. Where else would they put the elevator?"

"You’re right, I guess..." They didn’t sound completely satisfied with that answer, for some reason. "But it’s sort of confusing, isn’t it? Which came first, the elevator, or the elevator shaft?"

Amygea chuckled, assuming it was some sort of joke. A bit of silence from the pale gridmask made her reconsider. She started working out in her head any way to make the conversation end in a respectful manner.

"Well, it certainly sounds like the elevator is very interesting to you."

"Yes, yes... it’s something I think about a lot." Even though they were facing away, Amygea could tell their face was lighting up. "Going up, and going down, in some machine..." They turned their head to look down. "... and, when I look down into the shaft... I just get a weird feeling. Nowhere else looks like this, right?"

Amygea took a quick glance down the shaft. "Nowhere else that I’ve seen."

"So, it’s a really unique experience to be here. This is something you can’t experience anywhere else."

Amygea exhaled through her nose as a sign of amusement. "I suppose you’re right about that." She cleared her throat quietly. "I must be going, though. I think I have a meeting with Mr. Isles soon." Amygea twirled her wrist around, as if to confirm her own statement.

"Well, thank you for your time, Miss Moriam." They smiled a pure, joyous, fulfilled smile. It was such an infectious smile. Amygea smiled back.

The white-haired gridmask opened the elevator door and walked straight through, falling down the shaft. Amygea flinched, her expression changing faster than it ever had before. It took her almost a second to process what had happened, she walked over to the elevator door and looked down. But she couldn’t see or hear anything in the depths of the darkness.

The next day, the elevator finished construction and was opened for use.

It ran even better than expected.