Depthsroot Chapter 8; The Bridge To The Dusk

After all of the events that happened in the Underground Village, Depthsroot, and Tsuki having come into contact with The Phantom, Tomon, and also the Friday The Thirteenth Fairy all at the same time, Tsuki herself was seen as a sort of Goddess now, who was favored directly by the actual God of the Veritas that everyone knew. So, where she would normally be seen as a regular person, because of his association and fixation with her, everyone else came to think of her with regard, as well.

However, even though she liked them fearing her, she did not like all of the attention. And beyond that, something about Friday settled upon her residually, and she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She knew what the 'Malfortuna' was, since Friday showed her, but when it came down to how to use it, Tsuki didn't know.

Trying to figure this out, she managed her way through the Dusk Sewery in order to maneuver about the outskirts of the Underground Village, and reached the clearing located under 'The Bridge' -- where the 'Old Colony' was. This was where the first, original Dusk Village was located before it became Dusk City. It was so close to the Depthsroot on the sublevels of the Veritas because of this fact, since the original Depths Village (whose ruins make up the Depthsroot) was fused with the original Reality Village to make the original Dusk Village, which these warehouses and industrial scraps were remnants of.

Steampunk as it all did feel and look, this clearing, though better than the underground village, still was underneath 'The Bridge', which had been a staple in the Veritas since it was only just 'The Dusk Village'. The Bridge didn't arc in a regular parabola, but sloped upward into the sky. It had always been that way. However now, since the Dusk was different, the Old Colony wasn't leveled the same way as previously, especially since the Dusk was also upside down now, hanging under the edge of a cliff. The subterranean nexus for the Dusk and Depthsroot was in the cliff wall as well as the surface below, so it was extensive, and the physics would still function with the Dusk being upside down underneath a cliff, since the cliff connects to the ground where it slopes.

All of that to say, looking up at the new Dusk City and how far it had come, as well as how much farther it could go made Tsuki feel like she needed to get there from the Old Colony as soon as possible.

Tsuki had been living in the Old Colony -- known only as 'Dilapidation' nowadays -- for a short while, and had made a home of it. There weren't too many people here, since most of them were people who got kicked out of the Dusk or Depthsroot, or lost during trying to get to or from either one. Very few of them lived there by choice, but those very select few that did made it bearable for everyone who wasn't there by choice. It was something like a hub, or a rest stop, where the hosts actually lived and cared for, whilst people stopped by and rested to recuperate for a time, then be back on their journeys. Or, they could live there, too. It was a more or less very friendly and welcoming, free and creative, anarchic environment.

And, the dealbreaker -- there were less people, who were much cooler, living in a scrapyard in a clearing, on the outside (not underground), with a view of the notorious 'Upside-Down City'.

Sometimes, she did think about Tomon, and some deep feelings... But for the most part, she just lived out her day-to-day life in her new location, getting more and more adjusted to the life in the Old Colony of the Dusk.

The part of Tsuki that gave her powers beyond that of a normal human -- The Friday The Thirteenth Fairy, which was bestowed unto her, making her Friday The Third -- manifested from out of her soul, taking on the form of Friday, in her form as Malfortuna, which was a hazy-electric-fiery purple spirit with glowing, hollow eyes. Friday assumed a form equivalent to Tsuki's state of being in the Third Restriction, and in regards to Tsuki, that was known as 'Malfortuna'.

Friday said to Tsuki, "Hey! You Have Barely Called Upon My Power Since You Got It From The Phantom's Mask... We Did A Whole Cute Little Thing And Everything..." Tsuki might not have realized totally what the 'Powers That Be' of the Veritas were doing for her, nor her importance to the Veritas, and more importantly to the one that loved her enough to bestow these great things unto her. But that's what Friday was there to assist with, so that it would be more clear when they met back up face to face. "... It's Good To Be Grounded And Capable Of Socializing With Normies, But... There Are Just As Many Supernatural, Fantastical Entities To Socialize With. Just As Many As There Are Normies."

Friday seemed to be hinting at something about... How Tsuki only kept to regular people, despite all the fantastical shit and beings all around her. Her choice to be normal was frustrating, and Friday couldn't figure out if the girl was lazy, scared, or just didn't care enough. Whatever it was, Friday was going to fix it, because if she didn't... Well, that would make her lover have to intervene, and she really didn't want that. She could totally do this by herself, without his help this time. She just needed to convince this part of herself that she was being unreasonably plain. Was that difficult...?

... How unreasonable was Friday, really...? Not TOO bad, right...?

Some of the residents of the Old Colony were wandering about, picking up scrap metal to be refurbished or refashioned and repurposed in the Warehouses, or even collected and sold, if necessary. They were doing tedious drone work and chatting, more or less just cleaning up this scrap yard of boundless, countless discarded and lost things from when the villages were destroyed and fused together, which were not only never cleaned up, but taken with them during transitions, as if they had some intended use for all of this untouched, old stuff that they just never got around to.

Even if that was so, the regular Veritas Native Inhabitants -- which were known universally and collectively as 'Verities' -- that were living here were getting into them and storing, selling, or generally repurposing the stuff, whether the Tensei did anything or not. They obviously didn't care enough about it if there wasn't some mystical bullshit protecting it. Hell, maybe they left it there for the specific purpose of the Depthsroot Residents to use it, and for the Dusk Citizens to continue to use it as a Scrapyard. Who knows? All that mattered right now was that the Verities were making use of the materials and resources the Veritas so kindly left behind for them to get into.

They had many different talents and skills, and were general outcasts of society. Some were from before even the creation of the Dusk Village, who survived the destruction of the Depths, and the transition of the Dusk to the Veritas, and the remnant main city ruins into the current Depthsroot. They were the ones living in the outskirts that weren't reached.

Where all the debris went, obviously.

Anyway, this particular area had clearly been a refuge for a very long time, and not just anytime recently, but since a very, very, very, very long time ago. Plenty of people were from separate points in the Veritas' progression, from the days before the Dusk to the days before the destruction of the Lost World. They all gathered here in the 'Old Colony', away from the new people in the Depthsroot that were new refugees from other worlds, or the old Dusk Citizens that had been living in and progressing with the modernizations and gentrifications of the Dusk until it became the urban futuristic utopia that it was now.

Perhaps, because they held truths from many different times in the Veritas' history, and knew the true events of their own distinct times before they came here to 'Dilapidation' to live, this was what made them 'Verities'.

In the wreckage of olde, there was a Golem present that looked somewhat outdated or obsolete in some way. It also looked like it hadn't been activated for a very long time, however, it seemed also like it was placed where it was intentionally and not by accident nor by misadventure. Perhaps, this is where it belonged? It looked relatively simple enough -- a normal 'Clay' -Golem-, as is the most basic structure for the 'Mineral' -Construct-.

The Great Ape over the Monkey Business was off with the Godfather Orangutan that resided in the Dusk, just under The Bridge, where it resided as the 'Boss' of this 'Territory' of the Veritas and had 'Dominion' over it. The Godfather Orangutan was only out and about to inspect and speculate the merchandise... Figuratively speaking, the land and the peoples in it, which were the 'Old Colony' from the wreckage of the Depthsroot and the Dusk of Olde. They had much conference with each other, and as they conferred, they sought to extend just how much of what they conferenced was made possible between the Depthsroot and the Dusk.

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As the fighting went on and the Brown Rust Faction of the Veritas encroached with the Steampunk Lawless Ones and other such Mechanica or Rebellients, they would storm the Lawless Land and assimilate or conflict with the other Lawless Ones and Mechanica for control, freedom, activism, and even some rebellion or anarchy sometimes. They got wind of the Warehouses of the Dusk from one of the beings that was banished from there -- the Chort -- and were determined to reach the Depthsroot and Dusk and live in the Warehouses, because the Brown Rust Mechanica were accustomed.