The beach itself is nothing special, the cyclone in deeps waters is a bit worrying, and for some reason there is a house between the two. Since Neo isn't one of the rare people with enough aura control to walk on water, she 'liberates' a dory-canoe-like boat. She then breaks the nearby signposts to use as paddles.
As she sets out, Neo is sure to paddle away from the seagulls. A glare is sent at the large dead fish-thing they circle. This whole water adventure is making her nauseous already.
By her calculations it's going to be another few days of paddling. At least the cyclone does not appear to be moving.
(The large door with crossed swords may be something to check on if the world resets again.)
;;;
The cyclone never moves. Her aura counteracts the brunt of the sun. Neo's grumpy self is glad she isn't sweating, because wouldn't that just be the icing on top of this ridiculous experience?
Her hair is starting to frizz.
I hate this place, Neo doesn't stop paddling.
;;;
Stupid, colourless, wall.
Neo breaks through the water with a gasp for breath. She clings to the boat, angrily kicking at the thing blocking her path just to swim back and kick it again.
Not again, Neo resigns herself to floating along the wall, looking for cracks. Not. Again.
The only consolation is that if Roman is here, he can't be having any more luck than her.
No way is she staying in Clock Town if this place does reset again. She'll 'look' for him next time. Maybe even write 'Neo was here' just to leave some breadcrumbs.
This place is stupid.
After three days, Neo is sitting calmly in her boat, flipping middle fingers at a falling moon that isn't looking.
"Tsk," Neo rolls her eyes h̕͠e͡͝r̸̡͟ ̧f̷͠͠i͜n͢g̵͡e̕r̷͜s ҉̷̛cl̷͠ȩ̸̨n̛c͘hin̕g҉ ҉́͠ar̸͞͡ơ̶uņ̸̶d͏̴̢ ̷́͞t̷h̷e̷ ú̵mb͘͞͝r̸e̛l͝l҉̡̛a͞͠ ̶́h̸͞a͢n͞d̷l̶é͢ and keeps it up ǵ̷͟o̶͢͠ńģs͘ ̨̧s͝o̵ù̵͟ńd̕ as before her the w̯̠͉͉̙̝͟o̸̭͍̪̥̼̬̮ͅr̘͉͙͓͘l͝҉͏̳̞͎̝̺̣̫̞d̡͏̤͓͍̮̹̖͠.̸̸͔̱͓
̷̢͏͚͕I̱̻͇͕̹̠s̢̧̘͕̯̕.҉̥̦͟
̴̨̬̗͉͎͙̯Ḍ̵̞͉̩͖̞͍̪e̖̰͕̬̰̼̞͔s̢̞̰͈t̶͉͘r̶̵͓̭ͅo̶̘̳̦͈̤̙̺̕ͅy͖͔̻͔̼̫̳̩͙e̬͉̱͓͕͘d͏̯̲͇͍̫͔.͈͚̪̟̭̪͖͙
;;;
The gong sounds.
And the screaming stops.
Neo takes a few quick breathes. When nothing else happens, she peeks an eye open-
Not. Again.
Neo drops, gracefully making a crater. Her frown turns into a grin.
Morning of the First Day: 78 Hours Remaining
When the residents of Clock Town begin waking up a few hours later, they are met with vandalism they can't read in every nook and cranny.
(It says: 'Roman
Come find me at the beach
Neo')
;;;
Dead fish-thing is still there, attracting seagulls.
Another fish-thing was almost dead when she went attack-first, questions-later. After swimming out of reach of her umbrella, it explains what it is doing here. Making sure the pirates beyond the massive door don't come through.
Neo smiles.
Compared to the last few days, it's easy climbing over the rockface and dropping into the boat of a pirate. Before the alarm can sound, she dispatches the person.
This place becomes perfect to release her murderous tenancies. They even have a few competent fighters, but the dual swords fighting style is the same for each person. How disappointing.
Neo also contemplates the incest or cloning that must have gone on to get all these pirate women looking the same. The positive side is that she blends in spectacularly with her semblance. Whenever they try to outnumber her, Neo sneaks away under the disguise of looking exactly like the rest of them.
Exploring leads to overhearing a particular conversation about stolen eggs. It is interrupted when one of the pirate women start pleading to their leader – Aveil – to teach the intruder a lesson. Neo drops her illusion, umbrella knocking against the broken bars of a window. The three pirate women look up in sync.
Neo waves and winks.
"Get her!"
It's easy to find a way down. There are horrified gasps as Neo spears a pirate with the end of her umbrella. She draws it out just as quick, foot going on the downed person. The waiting game draws out, with the leader holding a hand out to stop her pirate crew.
"…What do you want?" Aveil begins slowly. Neo bares her teeth in a smile. "Is it the eggs?"
Neo has no need for treasure. She shakes her head.
"Something else," Aveil guesses. She draws her swords. "I can't let you live after you've attacked so many of my people."
Neo twirls her umbrella up and open. You mad, cutie clone?
"Alright, ladies!" Aveil roars. "Get her!"
But Neo's learned their aura is stupidly weak. Aveil may be the strongest, but not even her power measures up to a trainee huntress. Unlike before, Neo doesn't toy around.
Ignoring the carnage, Neo opens the nearby treasure chest. The device almost looks like some sort of grappling hook. A press of the button, and the woman squeaks when it activates. It seems kind-of useless.
The tank over by the wall has some small fish and a large egg. Neo tilts her head, not really understanding why this would be important. Poachers, maybe?
She's getting tired. There has got to be a bed around here somewhere.
Night of the First Day: 60 Hours Remaining
;;;
Either the remaining pirates are too scared, or they've all cleared out (or Neo killed them all), but her rest goes undisturbed.
If they remember her when time resets, it's not too much of a loss. If they don't remember, even better.
Neo awakens keenly aware of how much longer she has left.
Dawn of the Second Day: 48 Hours Remaining
Time to do some exploring.
;;;
According to the man who ogled her a bit too much when she walked in, the house on the water is a laboratory. The Zoras live in an underwater area on the side she hasn't explored. Also, not that Neo cares, there's been some problems fishing and some kerfuffle between the Zoras and the pirates.
She can't solve nature, and it's not like the pirates will cause any problems now.
Neo steals the same boat, same sign-paddles, and goes around the dead fish-thing. Honestly, why haven't the seagulls eaten it yet?
The woman easily drags the boat onto the dock before the floating house. She gives the weird statue a look, remembering a similar one in Clock Town and maybe the forest.
She quickly leaves the floating house – madhouse – when all it seems to be is a creepy old guy muttering about some eggs. There were some cute, teethy looking fish in the corner, but no reason to stick around and risk him noticing.
It takes an hour of searching, but Neo finds an aboveground entrance to the Zora's place. There is a fish lady who pays her no mind, so Neo ignores her as well.
Huh. Neo blinks at the groups of fish-things. Guess these are Zoras.
They all look like super-fish-Faunus. Gills, fins, and probably feel scaly. Somehow, they have a stage put together around waterfalls, which is way weirder. If it weren't for the incest-clone pirates, Neo would almost be wondering why so many ultra-Faunus would be fish.
Thoughts of an experimentation town grow. The human sighs. It would have been more believable if this were somewhere in Atlas. Then again, Atlas would have had these people doing free labor. Seriously though, why fish, of all the Faunus traits?
Well, time to figure out what's going on.
;;;
The drama.
Neo walks out before she starts murdering them. It'd be a lot more noticeable and these people haven't done anything wrong, like being killers and thieves. It's just, the drama. Zora-lady who ignored her may be the mother of the stolen eggs. A couple band members are fighting, and their guitarist hasn't shown in awhile, so they can't perform. Why would anyone want to get involved with that?
(It's not because Neo feels pity for the eggs left behind.
No.
No of course not.)
The human ends up walking into the room where she defeated the pirate's leader. If only they had not been interrupted by the news of a murderer on the loose, she could have learned more. After much digging around, Neo ends up with a large bottle and – very reluctantly – jumps into the tank of water to grab the egg.
Pulled back to dry land, Neo huffs and pokes at the bottle. Poachers indeed. There are other eggs in the building, but night is drawing near. Soon the third day will hit, all for this to be reset when the moon eventually falls.
Would it be worse to give this single egg back to the maybe-mother? Dump it with the scientist?
Why did she even get it?
"Hmm," Neo drops down, cradling the bottle to her chest. Let's make the most of the last day. Her umbrella drags threateningly as she walks through the halls. There has to be some clothing to try.
Neo hums to the egg all night.
;;;
Dawn of the Final Day: 24 Hours Remaining
What to do? Neo isn't panicking as she explores the pirate's hideout once again, umbrella in one hand and bottle in the other. Her heels click against stone, echoing in the silence. She hums to the egg, knowing even if the inhabitants remember it surely won't.
Honestly, this run-through felt like such a waste. At least she has some information out of it, but the chances of her coming back here after the next reset are slim.
One more chance for Roman to catch her at the beach. Will the others remember (do they come back after they're killed)?
Neo watches the stars with the bottle tucked against her side. Life isn't fair. She almost wishes she'd toyed with the pirate leader in the end.
The day ends, and the last six hours tick down. This close to the eventual fall, pressure is thick in the air.
Neo raises the bottle to her lips and whispers a lullaby.
She set it down and closes her eyes, h̷̴̡er̡͝ ̛̕f͏i̢̡n̢͞g̷͜er͜s͡͠ ̢̨̢cl̨e҉͝ņ͠c̸̀h ͏̕àr̶̶͟o͘͡҉ù̷͝n̶҉d́͞ ̶́͝t̀͞h̶̴͜e ́҉um͜b̨͜͝r͘͢e҉͟l̴l͏͜a̢҉̸ ҉͠͝h͞a̧n̶̕d̢ĺ͝͞e̛ pretending to sleep g͝o̶̕ń͘͜g̸s̛ ̛̛s̴o̷u̵͟n̨d̷̛ as the w͉̹̜̝͕̰͜o̷̦͓̪̜͍̥̜r̷̲͓̙͖l̨d̨̘̞̠̘͎.͕͠
̗͚̙̥I̤͔͍̲̬̩͙s.̤̲
̻͎D̖͇͚e̢̤͉̱̹͖͔s̙͈̞̰̘̻͘t̪͕̳̜̻͔ͅṛ̰̬̗̝o̻͕͖ye̲̞̞̫̬̰̺d̺̝̙.
;;;
6 Hours Remaining
Roman never comes.
Every pirate is alive. Not a one remembers her. They only have four of the seven eggs they poached tucked away in their hideout. Neo methodically goes through each room and takes all four, because she can.
It's been a long three days, but the woman is glad not to spend the end alone. At least the eggs will never remember, never ask for repeated favours.
Life sucks.
And then you-
;;;
Neo drops.
Morning of the First Day: 78 Hours Remaining
Time to start in the middle and work out.
A/N: Thanks for reading! A really big thank-you to Guest and RCT-5555 for reviewing! The support truly means a lot.
I hope everyone has a fantastic day. Thank you again for reading
