Into the Torrentverse

>THE GATES

You look down, and see/feel your hands are pixelated and fuzzy... how strange. The scene around you can only be described as... surreal. Where on earth are you? Suddenly, a loud booming voice echoes through the room.

"Welcome, Fi- Oh, I mean uh, ahem, Welcome, visitors, to the TORRENTVERSE! I'm Toxikroker, the ultimate creator of this universe, and I have trapped you in a game of memory! Can you escape my carefully crafted rooms? Or stay here and wither away until ETERNITY?"

The voice seems... uncertain, as if surprised you're there.

>Examine the room

The group has become cubes! Their fingers are cuboid, their arms cylindrical and their joints all stiff! Looks like they've all turned into game avatars. 

One by one, the group splits up again to examine the mysterious and colourful objects within the room. Despite her flailing in panic, Nerida was drawn to the orb with star constellations on it. The orb was smooth and cool like glass. Caussander and Hedvige walks over to the orb with the fishes on it. It resembled Finch's wing markings. The two could hear whisperings coming from the orb. Vivian flew towards the cactus excitedly. The cactus makes a happy giggling sound and bounces up and down. Despite its cubic shape, it's rather flexible! Elaina "hmms" before heading over to the blue triangular pillar. The monument resembles a tall mountain by a beach. She could hear the sound of crashing waves and smell the salt of the ocean. The top of the monument appears to be loosely attached to the rest of it.

From the spot Cas was standing, they turned around to examine the pool and odd sculptures. It appears to be a rainbow bridge. Is this someone's fun idea of an abstract sculpture? Poking at the spherical attachments, Cas notices how bouncy and elastic they are. The sphere in the center looks like a magical fountain, dripping water into the pool below. Something gleams inside.

>Grab the shiny thing

The tidetouch guide peeks over Cas' shoulder. Her eyes spotting the shiny object within the pool gets her all excited but for some reason the water prevents her from grasping anything fully… d-darn these slippery cubic fingers! Nerida growls in frustration and goes over to check the dish-like object connected to the pool. To her utter frustration, she sees yet another shiny object lying in the pool. It also looks unreachable.

She screams in anger, god nothing is going her way! Nerida floats over to the lock to look at it, seeing if she could jiggle it open. The lock is circular and shiny. Funny enough there is no doorknob to go with it. It seems like Nerida would need a key to unlock the "door".

Elaina's curiosity got the better of her and she tried to move the the space-like orb into the dish. It didn't work though, the space orb was stuck onto the pillar. She did notice however, how every time she touched the orb, the orb would hum.

>Listen

This piqued Cas' curiosity and they floated to each pillar to listen to it. The whispering of the fish orb grows louder, and Cas can clearly discern 2 voices however, no one can make out exactly what is being said. The cactus giggles and bounces, but otherwise does nothing new. The space orb radiates calmness, but does not make much noise. 'Mel' on a whim takes out the photo of finch and torrent. She walks over to the finch orb with it but the orb continues to whisper. Nothing changes.

>Nudge the top

Hedvige hops off Cas' arms and hops over in front of the blue triangular pillar and tries to knock over the loose part of the monument but it didn't knock off. Perhaps spinning it would work better? Nonetheless, the group was at a loss.

A booming voice sounds out: I see you are struggling slightly with this. Well… I can say that there’s a specific order to everything, maybe something in the room can tell you about that. Has anything spoken to you yet?

With that, Cas kept on buggering the finch orb. While they were busy with their poking and talking, Hedvige hopped over to the little pyramid with orbs. A hoot, it catches Cas' attention and Cas walked over to Hedvige and the sculpture.

>Poke the sphere

Curiously, they poked the middle of three spheres. It refuses to budge, but it does emit a very low squeak once touched. It lights up as soon as they touched it. Cas poked another pyramid, the left one from the top two. Though it also didn't budge, it does emit a high-pitched squeak once touched. Hedvige hobbles over to nudge the left side of three pyramids and it made a very high-pitched noise. And then it clicked. The pyramids were musical notes! They poked all the pyramids to hear the sound it all made and from there, they played the musical scale, Do Re Mi Fa So !

Suddenly, the 5 pyramids all begin to sing in unison! It is a very cute tune. After they stop, Cas felt something clink in their pocket. Another gathercoin was found. Cas places it on top of Hedvige like a hat.

>Poke again

After the wonderful little tune by the pyramids, Cas returns to the Finch orb. They kept asking it questions and then accidentally poked it. As soon as contact is made with the orb, a voice rings out loudly in Cas’ head. It sounds suspiciously like Finch: ...And that first night, when we traced the constellations...

>To the star orb

Hedvige hops over to the starry orb and looks up at it until Cas pokes it next. The orb glistens a bit at being poked, but nothing else happens... perhaps another action Examining it closely, the starry orb gleams, and Hedvige can see an unfamiliar constellation among the stars - there are lines indicating the constellation, separating it from the other stars. Cas oddly wants to trace the constellation stars. Following the line along the constellation, the entire monument hums to life and begins to glow a bright blue for a brief moment, before quickly returning back to a neutral state. Hmm…

>Examine again

Hedvige nudges Cas along to check out the other items in the room. As they check the abstract orbs and the cactus by poking and trying to get it off, the sculptures attack back! Someone in the group has gotten -6 HP. Ouch! Hedvige scorns at the sculptures. Out of ideas, they got Cas' to move them to Finch's orb again and pokes it. Upon contact, they hear another message, sounding like Torrent this time. ...Remember on that first day on our honeymoon, you tried to dejuice a cactus by hugging it? That was a riot... 

>Hug the cactus

With a hoot, Cas takes Hedvige back to the cactus and places them on the pedestal. The owl pebbling snuggles up close to the cactus as if to hug it. The cactus sighs in defeat. Upon being hugged, one of the cactus arms turns on and releases water into the pool like a spout. The cactus glows bright green, and lights up, and the gentle voice of Finch sounds: I mean, it was worth a try right? Cacti are filled with water, just like Seekers I suppose!

Finally! Progress was made again! Once more, the group returns to Finch's orb and another message sounds. This time it's Torrent again. Good times... we even went mountain climbing the next day didn't we? My head was spinning! 

>Spin the top

Viv gets an idea. She floats towards the mountain monument and spins the top. It lights up a brilliant yellow! The sounds of waves crashing grows louder. However, it is momentary and the mountian soon returns to a neutral state... Toxicroker did mention a very specific order of things...

>In order now

Hedvige nudges at mel to trace the constellation on the starry orb, who does so. As Mel gingerly traces the constellation orb, and it lights up a bright blue. It remains alight! They can hear Torrent chucking... I've never really seen the stars before, Finch... these are... beautiful. Thanks for giving me this gift...

Viv then spinned the mountain again once given a thumbs up. It lights up a brilliant yellow once more! The sounds of waves crashing grows louder. The team can hear Torrent mutter fondly: Finch... I know this is exciting but could you stop looping around in the air? It's making my head spin! I'd like to keep my balance thank you very much...

With all three monuments glowing, something happens - all the water drains out of the pool.

>Gather items

Nerida quickly glides to the now empty basin and picked up a key! Cas, on the other hand, walked to the smaller pool just over the rainbow bridge. Inside, they found a gathercoin! They pocketed the coin though only realising now that the coin on Hedvige's head is missing. They placed the coin as a hat once more. Now equipped with the key, the group could move on forward, but instead, they were dawdling around, still poking about hoping to find secrets and such. The cactus seems to be annoyed by their constant presence said, in a shockingly gruff voice: Oi you lot! Get moving! I got things to do!

>Moving forward

The group listens to the cactus and walked to the door. Nerida unlocks it with the key. It turns with a click, and the "door" swings open, revealing a swirling pink portal. "Interesting," Zozo said telepathically. 

"Actions, please. Interesting? Interesting what? Interesting who? Seriously kids these days and their short answers. "ic" "kewl" "lol" "kbro" man" said Toxicroaker annoyedly, like the boomer that he is. "Well I should wait for my other teammates no?"

"Yes of course! Please do tell your good old game master if you're ready to move on! That rant was... unprofessional at best, apologies. In fact I am, also a sprightly young youth... not old at all..."

Cas puts a big doubt on that last sentence. With that, the group enters the portal and heads on to whatever room is waiting for them.