Gus & Willow Week day 1: Human realm
Getting a late start on this because I missed the first couple days, but I want to do all the prompts and I had a good idea for this one specifically. My plan is to just keep going one a day, but past the original end date.
Augustus tossed the Rubick's cube from one hand to the other, puzzling over the disordered rows of multicolored squares. "I just can't figure this one out" he said, glancing up at Willow. She was sat at her desk, absorbed in the recipe for an abomination she was struggling to understand. "The others all have so many possible purposes, but this? It defies all reason!"
Willow turned from her work with a half-hearted sigh. "Entertaining paperweight?" she offered, but Gus shook his head vigorously.
"I use that too often. This is something specific. I can feel it."
"Why is it so important?" she asked, struggling to suppress a chuckle.
"I guess?" Willow shrugged. "I mean, you've still never told me how the whole interest in the human world got started." Augustus's idle smile dropped a her words, as did the cube. Willow's expression shifted to one of concern as he suddenly turned serious. "Are... you okay? I'm sorry, if you didn't want me to ask-"
Again, Gus shook his head. Almost aggressively this time. "No, no... It's great to talk about, just-" His stony expression cracked, and he giggled at himself slightly. He let out a sigh, shoulders relaxing. "Honestly I'm surprised I haven't told you before. I guess I just got too caught up with artifacts."
"Well?" Willow asked, having turned her chair around, leaning forwards to give full attention. "Let's hear it."
"Right. It first started on a class trip to the knee, in elementary school." He said. "They told a story about eclipse lake, and the gates to other worlds that it was rumored to have."
"And you just couldn't let go?" Willow asked light-hearted.
"No!" Augustus exclaimed. "That's not it. It was interesting yeah, and I got on the ball to look into it more when I got home."
"And I found nothing. Just a few old ghost stories about the lake and some offhand mentions of something called a guy-rafe."
He nodded. "This was the part where I couldn't let go. A few more days of digging and I found a forum of people who called themselves "leak finders." They're the ones who told me about the human got me my first artifacts. A couple of them are in the HAS."
"I never heard about any of this!"
"It's because you never come to meetings! Anyways, it's a whole conspiracy theory. The emperor's coven has been going through bit by bit, destroying any information anyone can find on this place."
This time Willow made no effort to cover up her snort. "That can't be right."
"That's what I said!" Gus yelled, throwing his hands in the air. "But the more I looked the more it was the only thing that makes sense. I need to know why."
Willow nodded, quiet again.
"I need to know what it is about this place that's so dangerous they decided nobody can know about it. And the more I find- stories about humans, guy-rafes, people ending up in other worlds... The more I need to know what happened. Why they decided to cover it all up."
Willow was silent for a long moment, and the room grew still.
"I think I might come to the next meeting."