Solaire’s main lobby hasn't changed since the last time Violet's been in. Rebecca is sitting at the receptionist desk watching some movie on the TV on the wall. She sees Violet come inside and waves to her. "Hey, how can I help ya?" She's got a white floral dress on, her usual garb. Her mood seems to have brightened since the last time anyone's spoken to her.
Violet walks up to desk, looking to Rebecca, “I’m here to see Flora. She wishes to see me.”
Rebecca turns to her computer and types something in, "ah right, I got you. She's waiting for you. After your meeting, I wanna talk to you. We made some progress on the Flesh Pile murders." A light blue panel brightens up on the floor.
“Oh? Will do. I’ll make sure to stop back on by. Thank you Rebecca.” Violet steps onto the light blue panel. Rebecca presses a button on the console and Violet disappears.
[ERROR. GLITCH INTERCEPTED. LOADING NULL VOID. GOOD LUCK VIOLET.]
Area theme - ejXA_L_y-7g [ᏁᏬᏝᏝ ᏉᎧᎥᎴ]
Violet appears in a dark void with what seems like white stars floating. Violet is able to move about.
“I have a hunch this is not the office…” Violet walks around, curious about this place
It's black and nearly impossible to see anything. The blue panel has disappeared entirely. Atmosphere in this room is normal, as is the gravity. Considering the hard floors underneath Violet's feet, it's likely she's still somewhere on Earth. She hears some weird music somewhere in this room. It sounds rather off and glitchy.
Violet starts looking for where the music might be coming from, following the sounds Following the sounds, she also hears a soft giggle mixed in. It sounds unfamiliar to her. Somewhere in the distance, however, a beacon of light can be seen. It appears to be pointed towards the floor. She walks towards the beacon and now footsteps are combined with the music.
Violet walks towards the beacon “Have you tried flipping it upward?”
The being responds with, "and trip flat on my face? No way." This voice is an high pitched and familiarly feminine, though their tone suggests something's wrong with them. It’s almost glitchy in a way.
“Um… what if you gave the beacon to me? I could flip it upward.” Violet suggests to it.
The being gets closer and a feeling of something being terribly off about them is felt. The being points the beacon directly at Violet attempting to blind them. Violet’s heart races, though it seems this effect is not of her own will. Violet attempts to move out of the way of the blinding light, moving forward herself to grab and take the light from the being.
Violet is easily able to dodge the Blinding Magic and the light is grabbed. "Aww you're no fun Violet Lavender Naomi! I thought you wanted to figure out what I am!"
“By blinding me? No thank you.” Violet points the light up towards the dark sky
Violet is unable to point it all the way up. Instead, it stops right at the being. This being has no discernable features on its face aside from square shaped glitches for its eyes, nose, and mouth. Its hair seems to be a distorted brunette in a way and long enough to reach the floor. This being has a height around 5 feet. Violet passes out on the spot and feels the touch of someone poking her on the shoulder.
Flora's office is somehow even more flowery than Rebecca's office. Lots of tall plants surround the medium sized room and makes it feel less like an office and more of a greenhouse. A brunette haired woman looks down at the passed out woman with the robotic arm. She taps her on the shoulder trying to wake her up. "Ma'am? Are you okay?"
Violet jolts up a bit, sitting up as she looks around to the plant fills room and the brunette women, a bit off putted by her looking like the women she saw in the… dream? Whatever it might have been “Huh? Um yes I think I’m ok.”
Flora looks concerned a bit, "did I do something wrong?" Plants aren't the only thing in this room. There are a few computers in the room displaying various kinds of data, plus what seems like sewing supplies in one of the corners. A frosted glass door separates this room from another. Also windows near the ceiling bring in some natural light. It's somewhat warm in here, almost like a greenhouse.
Violet stands, then steadies and composes herself “Hm? No you did nothing wrong. I think that teleporter needs someone to look at it…” Violet puts a hand out towards Flora, “Violet Naomi. Pleasure to meet you.”
She takes her hand and shakes it gently, "Jessica Solaire, though most just call me Flora. Welcome to my office and greenhouse. I love nature, it is so beautiful. And if I can help nature stay its course, then I want to."
“I love it! Nature is beautiful indeed. Seems like you take really good care of your plants.”
Flora shows Violet a soft smile, "well I appreciate that. I've been called the Green Thumb of Solaire Enterprises. It's part of how I got this ADMIN name of Flora. Roman Goddess of flowers, fertility of the land, and the coming of spring." Flora then goes to take a seat at her desk and pulls up some notes, "please take a seat. You said something over the phone that was really interesting to me."
Violet takes a seat across from her
"Right. So I spoke to Apollo recently about this. Would you be surprised you're the second person that I know of, other than me, that's experienced The World Glitch? It's something I've been trying to solve for years, but I cannot figure out how it works." Flora explains then takes a sip of her water.
"Oh? Who might be the second person?" Violet asks.
"Oh that's Apollo. Error is tricky. It only appears when it wants to, and there are very few ways to force it to. I've heard that those with Gifts are capable of interacting with it." Violet notices on Flora's left ear is some kind of a pendant. It's kind of like a feather or a leaf.
Violet messes with her own feather earring on her left ear, seeing that Flora has one as well "Indeed Error is... and when you mean by Gifts I assume the kind Creatures of Legend give?"
Flora nods and messes with the golden metal feather earring a bit, "Correct. Those who have gifts from any Creature of Legend can witness Error. It's almost like they're calling to us to try and solve their mystery. In a way, it's its own set of Mental Locks. 'Solve my puzzle, but until then, i'mma mess with you!'” Flora giggles, then asks, "Which then leads me to reason you have a Gift too correct?"
"Um... yes." Violet pulls out the Flamebearer feather necklace from her shirt, pulling it out to show Flora.
Flora grins. Her grey eyes look at the Flamebearer feather with interest, "Ah! The Flamebearer! It detects Magical Sources, like souls or where Magical Abilities were used. It also has the ability to revive those who die, but with heavy drawbacks." This is about as expressive as Flora's gotten so far.
Violet's Flamebearer feather reacts to a couple locations in the room. Specifically, a strong reaction to Flora's earring, and an even stronger reaction to the frosted glass door.
Violet pockets the feather again “What is your earring if you don’t mind me asking?”
"Oh this?" Flora unclips the earring and sets it on the table. On further examination, it appears to a golden metallic earring shaped like a leaf. "That is the gift I received long ago. One from code name COL Dash 28 - River Spirit. It allows me to see those who are also Gifted."
"How did you get the gift? If you don't mind me asking." Violet asks with interest.
Flora smiles, "Right of course. I was walking through the Outskirts just wanting to get away. There's a river out there, so I went to go relax and put my feet in when something attacked me. It was like a green muscular salamander human thing, and I knew instantly that its name was Cass the River's Guardian. Anyway, I was able to help it by untying this like rope thing from its leg. And as thanks, I was given two things: this leaf, of which I got gold plated to protect it. This was years ago, of course. And a direction. My Gift allows me to sense who also has gifts, and Cass requested I help protect the world and its Creatures of Legend!" Flora seems extremely passionate about this. It could even be mistaken as insanity with how much she overracts everything.
“Well that seems very kind of you. Well deserved.” Violet looks over to the frosted glass, pointing to it, “And what might that be? It seems to be have some aura to it.”
"That. Is a project I've been working on for years now." A grin spreads across her face. "Remember how I said I wanted to protect the Creatures of Legend? That in there is how I'm doing it."
“How so? If I may ask that is.”
A sign is on the door. "Solaire Research and Development Center"
An even wider grin creeps onto Flora's face, "Sure. It is our new prototype LUNA project, though we're no longer calling it the Hinata project due to our previous LEADER requesting her name taken off of it. We have dubbed it Solar Force!"
"I... I see." Violet readjusts in her seat "And back to the um topic at hand. What can you tell me about Error?"
Flora takes a deep breath to calm herself, seems she got too excited back there. "Codename COL dash zero zero Error is something I have very little information on. I've experienced its insanity many times, watching things freeze in mid air, or dreaming of being in a black void with strange music playing. Error, or The World Glitch as I've been calling it, is an enigma. It is both something that does not exist and something that makes up the very makeup of our world. It is something that seems to be deeply intertwined with reality itself. Or perhaps, its reality is ours? Maybe we're stuck in its rules and we're adapting to live. In a way, The World Glitch is a contradiction. It should not exist yet it does! It’s fascinating! I'll be honest, the few that I know of that encountered Error have all of the information so far. Seems it's impossible to research its existence and instead, you have to meet it to learn."
“Do you know of anything that triggers this so called meet and greet with Error?”
"Unfortunately no. It seems to be random, like a poor dice roll during a tabletop session." Flora seems disappointed, "I wish there was a way to guarantee a meeting with Error. I feel like it'd be highly useful. Plus, don't think of me weird for saying this, but it's chaotic glitchy style is really really cool. Scary as hell, but cool nonetheless. It seems to target the Gifted though."
“I guess. Weird but interesting… anything else you wish to bring up?”
Flora shrugs, "not that I can think of. I apologize I couldn't be more help. How did you even know to contact me?"
“Apollo mentioned you when I was talking to him and gave me your card.”
Flora visibly loses her cool on hearing Apollo's name. "That goddamn cre-- I mean he's so kind!" Her eyes shift, while she thinks something over. Then, she flatly responds, "Would you like to see what's behind our door?”
“Hm? Of course! I'm very interested.”
Flora takes a deep breath and gets up. She mutters while walking to the door. "Apollo, one of my greatest mistakes and someone who cursed me to know about these things. He doesn't know what he's put into motion." The door opens up.
[Now Loading - One Moment Please]
The door opens up to a large room with rows and rows of plushies of all kinds sitting on shelves. A sign above them shows "Solar Force Prototype" alongside with a creature of Legend's name. For example, some are Pietro, some are Flamebearer, another is Callisto, and so on and so forth. As Violet walks around, she'll notice there's a shelf for Error but nothing is on it.
"Welcome to the Solar Force. Solaire Enterprises' new LUNA project." Flora says proudly.
“Wow it's very impressive… where is the Error plushie?”
Flora looks back at Violet, but something is off about her. The shine and passion in her eyes is gone. Instead, a frown invades her face. Chills run down Violet's spine. "Error. Error is the only one I have no sample of. Every single one past that... every SINGLE one of the Solar Force! Are made with a portion of the creatures of legend. I knew," her voice growls with disgust, "Apollo would object. Apollo loves these things. I was instructed to create these to defend Solaire. But no. NO! Apollo divorced me. Said I had lost something."
Violet's flamebearer feather reacts to every single plushie. Their magical power is overwhelming. “Um… lost what exactly?”
Flora turns her head towards Violet, her eyes glow red, "my mind."
Violet backs up a bit, a bit scared of the shift of tone, “What made you possibly lose it?”
Flora does not respond at first, instead walking over to where the Error shelf is at. Notably, there are others missing as well, like Anan or Oloric, but out of the 5 shelves, 4 of them are filled. Flamebearer, Pietro, Callisto, Cass. "My passion. My wants to protect the Creatures of Legend, my desire to fight for what's right, and my goals to be known throughout Capital City as the one who broke through the Many Gods Above's limitations. All three of these do not work with one another. It is impossible to protect what's right while also pushing magical technology forward." Her voice is monotone and lacking any emotion. "I do not know if what i am doing is right anymore. But I am told to do this. My mind is no longer mine. I have lost my mind, and it belongs to those who control me."
Flora passes out for some unknown reason. Her breathing is light but weakened. The door is still open and Flora doesn't seem to be leaving this room any time soon. Seeing Flora unresponsive, Violet high tails it out of there, terrified of what she experienced.