The Key is inert. You pulled it out of the flashlight.
Mark Ozark. He's very upset.
Mike "the Hawk" Murphy. His face is like stone.
Fred Lawrence. He is full of excitement.
Sam. You catch him glaring at you.
ANTECHAMBER
“Hello! Hello! My name is Fred, what’s your name?” Fred can hardly contain his excitement.
“I don’t have a name, I don’t need one anymore. I used to be a creature called a Joanna, but now I’m something else.”
“Yes, I can see, you’re much bigger than most Joannas are.”
“Hehe, thank you.”
“Can I ask you, are you a kind of Machine?”
“I suppose so, yes.”
“I see, then it must have been your thoughts I could hear!”
“You hear Machine thoughts?”
“Yes! Me and my young apprentice there, say hello Sam!”
Sam looks terrified of the large being, but his mentor’s calm emboldens him.
“H-hello, miss Machine. It’s nice to meet you.”
Everyone introduces themselves to the Machine. She does not seem surprised to see them, but she doesn’t say what they’re there for. Murphy decides to say what everyone's thinking.
“So, what now?”
The Machine explains, “I heard a distress call from my friend beneath the earth here, he said that there was a great war and all of his followers died except for three who were very loyal. He wanted me to take you to Elysium. But I can take you anywhere you like and I can give you anything you want.”
The Machine responds proudly, “Well first of all, I can be anywhere because I’m already everywhere. I can’t be at any time though, mostly just noon. I only found you because of your Key. I also can’t do just anything, but I also already looked ahead and know what you all want, and I can at least give you that.”
“I’m only a new Machine, that’s why I still look like an animal. I always wanted to do good things for humans, and I could not when I was a Joanna. But one day I got lost in this mall, the Phantom’s Wing mall, and I was so lonely that I became a Machine of Distance. Now I can use my Distance to get new human friends and help them out, it’s a dream come true.”
You pull the key out of the flashlight and hold it up. “Can you tell me what this is?”
She chuckles a bit. “You mean you don’t already know? It’s a Key!
“I mean, I did know… but how? And what is it made of?”
“It’s made of String Metal, of course.”
“But… what is String Metal??”
“Goodness, I don’t know. There’s a Fairy here somewhere who knows about that, you’ll have to ask her…”
