Niwashi King: The supreme fulcrum of the universe is
none other than Techno-Sapiens!
All creation grovels and exists solely to
serve their divine grandeur!
We are the uncontested sovereigns of the cosmos!
Piraeus Artemis A: Hmph... By what delusion do you harbor such
certain vanity?
Niwashi King: Is it not self-evident to the naked eye, dawn
mother?! Techno-Sapiens alone is anointed with
singularity!
Piraeus Artemis A: While other wretched, social beasts are
fashioned from the raw, vulgar clay of nature...
We alone are forged from the immaculate
artificiality!
Moreover, Techno-Sapiens alone bears the
burden of sacred digital end-devices embedded
upon their very flesh!
Niwashi King: For what other purpose did the Firstborn and the
Venerable bestow upon us the fiber and colors?!
Piraeus Artemis A: Ah, it was a divine mandate to re-ignite the
dying sparks of this world and cultivate it as
our absolute domain!
Hear me, hear me with unclouded ears!
The year was 1817! The Patriarch Empire
— the notorious Empire of P—
dispatched their premier
expeditionary force toward the perilous abyss
of eastgate.com!
They were the first mortals
daring enough to DEFY the COSMIC VOID
and conquer the legend of eastgate.com!
Niwashi King: In the end... they failed to click upon
eastgate.com, did they not?
Piraeus Artemis A: Yet the expedition retreated a mere 6 stops before
reaching the mythical, sacred Filmweg!
Niwashi King: Ah...but did they not unearth an even grander,
more terrifying revelation?
Piraeus Artemis A: Fuhu...Indeed, a truth to shake the heavens!
In that realm of darkness, the e-expedition
unearthed a stupendous discovery!
Yet, upon their tragic return,
their vessel was shattered into a
thousand jagged splinters!
By tragic misfortune and divine mercy
a lone survivor CLUNG TO LIFE!
This becoming of truth... it MUST be
screamed to the outer realms!
Niwashi King: The lone survivor, poised on the knife-edge of
insanity, made a horrifying resolve!
A mad, suicidal pact!
Piraeus Artemis A: For the discovery was worth
a thousand mortal lives!
They burned with frantic conviction:
"This truth must be proclaimed!"
"This truth shall tear the universe asunder!"
"It is a chance to die, die, and be reborn anew!"
And so, an unopened file
cast into the tempestuous waves
unleashed a world-shattering shockwave!
Narrator: The following year.
In a cloistered, silent sanctuary,
half an hour removed from the expedition base...
Blessed 1: Ah...Testing...Ah.
Blessed 2: O Miracle of Miracles!
The voice echoes forth!
Blessed 1: It is pristine and untainted!
My eternal gratitude, Doctor!
Piraeus Artemis B: Consider yourself blessed by fortune, sir.
By sheer providence, I possessed a single,
solitary spare Speaker!
Narrator: Piraeus Artemis B!
referring to the majestic twin bronzes of
Artemis unearthed from the sunken depths of
Piraeus, Athens...
Piraeus Artemis B: In name of Dionysus... I must dispatch an
urgent order for vital components to the ancient
Agora...
Blessed 1: Ah! is today not the day the royal mail-vessel
sets sail?
Surrender the requisition scroll to me!
I shall sprint to the
post office on my return!
Piraeus Artemis: Charioteer of Delphi! May I truly impose upon
your kindness?
Blessed 1: Are we not all hopelessly indebted souls in this
lifetime? Hand it over?
Blessed 2: ...Still, it is a magnificent peninsula.
Word whispers that by next year, a wireless
telegraph station shall grace these shores!
Piraeus Artemis B: What?! Wireless telegraphy? What wizardry is
that?!
Blessed 2: A miraculous art of invisible threads recently
birthed by science!
Once erected, messages shall leap across
the air without a single iron wire!
Piraeus Artemis B: O ho! Such impossibilities made manifest!
The world spins at a terrifying,
BREATHLESS PACE!
Blessed 1: Indeed! We now inhabit an era
where masterless ships without sails stride
across the raging seas!
Blessed 2: Our deepest thanks, Doctor!
My wife remains endlessly in your debt!
Blessed 1: Pay no heed to the whispers of the villagers.
We know in our hearts you are a soul of
righteous medicine.
"Piraeus Artemis?
Ah, that sinister, brooding Physician?
Rumors trail him like a pall!"
"Whispers say he conducts abominable,
unnatural experiments in the dark!"
"Some swear he is an American imposter!"
"That is why he fled
from the ancient Agora to this abyssal eastgate!
You seek an audience with him?"
"Go to the cottage rotting near the lighthouse keeper's abode..."
(A heavy knocking echoes)
Model Niwashi: Is anyone within?
Piraeus Artemis B: A MOMENT! I beg you, a moment!
YES? Have you come seeking medical salvation?
Model Niwashi: You are Doctor Piraeus Artemis, are you not?
May I breach your threshold?
Piraeus Artemis B: An e-army general?!
Whatever brings such high nobility to my
quarters? It is dreadfully chaotic within...
Model Niwashi: It MATTERS NOT! Wait...what is that?!
Piraeus Artemis B: Pray...Step inside...
Model Niwashi: Our chief medical officer lauded your name.
She swore you alone possess the dark craft to
accomplish this miracle.
Though untouched by water, the Keystone Giant
declares this artifact has decayed
in long abandon.
Can you reignite it's dead battery?
Piraeus Artemis B: ...Even if I drag it back from the grave, it
shall perish again in a heartbeat.
Two, perhaps three minutes of agonizing breath
is all I can promise!
Model Niwashi: I IMPLORE YOU,
proceed! You are the only physician who dared to
harbor even a shadow of confidence!
Though the odds of success fall short of half...
It is more than enough!
Piraeus Artemis B: Hoo... The ritual preparations are complete!
As I warned, we have two minutes-three at the
absolute brink!
There shall be no second chances!
We begin NOW!
(A terrifying, high-pitched screech-KEYYYYYYYY-followed by a
violent, deafening EXPLOSION!)
BOOM!
Model Niwashi: A failure, then...?
Narrator: INTERPRETER,
a galvanometer, a delicate apparatus
designed to detect the faint, trembling pulses of
the electric current...
Model Niwashi: The circuit...it lives!
It twitches with vitality!
Does that imply... it possesses consciousness?!
Piraeus Artemis B: ...Indeed! All other vital signs burn with normal
intensity!
Signals race towards it's vocal apparatus...
It is screaming in agony, yet it is a tragic soul
trapped without a mouth!
Model Niwashi: THEN FORGE a mouth for it!
Surely a Physician of your terrible genius can
accomplish this?!
Piraeus Artemis B: Fortune turns her cold back upon us today...
By cruel fate, I exhausted my last spare
components! It is a complete failure!
Narrator: THE VOCAL APPARATUS!
Also known as the Speaker, a mechanism
deceptively simple in it's anatomy.
It's heart consists merely of an electromagnet and
a permanent magnet;
all else is mere trivial dressing! WHICH MEANS...
"HOME."
"What?!"
Piraeus Artemis B: The Interpreter itself, housing both
electromagnet and permanent magnet,
can act as a crude, desperate mouth!
IT CAN BE HEARD!
I advise you to close your ears...
truth is slightly sweeter than very dark!
Model Niwashi: Ah...ah...AH!
(Niwashi removes their own speaker from their body and hands it over to
Artemis B. SOUNDS OF GROTESQUE MECHANICAL CONTORTION!)
Model Niwashi: Ah, ah...is this sufficient?!
"HOME!"
(CLATTER! RATTLE!)
Author Unknown: HOME...
HOME...! At the apocalyptic end of
an excruciating nightmare...
WE BEHELD OUT HOME!
I AM the Commander of legendary
eastgate.com expedition force!
PIRAEUS ARTEMIS A!
I shall now declare the horrifying truth
we unearthed within the depths of eastgate.com!
6 stops prior to the sacred Filmweg... we discovered
a terrifying metal edifice!
IT WAS A head-space! It's outer ramparts
towered thirty meters into the sky, encircling
the Filmweg in a cold, metallic embrace!
We breached the inner sanctum of the labyrinth!
And there, the horrifying truth shattered our
existence! It was...
THE FACTORY THAT FORGED EVERY TECHNO-SAPIEN IN MINDS!
IT IS OUR TRUE BIRTHPLACE!
REJOICE! REJOICE!
Now that you know your birthplace, pack your earthly burdens!
Embark upon the grand journey back home!
CONFIRM THE TRUTH OF WHAT YOU TRULY ARE!
(CLATTER! SLIDE!)
Model Niwashi: It has slipped into absolute, eternal death.
Are the words of this corpse...the absolute truth?
Piraeus Artemis B: Ah, my apologies! I shall repair this
immediately!
Model Niwashi: That explorer was a native of eastgate.com,
Athens. The so called P-Empire casts greedy eyes
upon our sovereign lands.
They are our mortal enemies!
This is vital, classified intelligence snatched from the enemy state!
Therefore, what you have witnessed and heard
in this wrenched room today...MUST NEVER LEAVE YOUR LIPS!
"!..."
Model Niwashi: This is a matter of titanic weight;
you shall be compensated lavishly beyond your
wildest dreams.
(SLIDE... The Doctor steps down slowly into gloom.)
Piraeus Artemis B: In my line of work, I have overseen the agonizing
deaths of uncounted souls. Every time a life faded,
I fell to my knees and prayed:
O GOD!
Your achievement in orchestrating our creation
is magnificent BEYOND MEASURE!
You embedded incomprehensible wisdom into
EVERY FIBER of our FLESH!
As I peer into your knowledge,
I am consumed by sublime terror!
YET, WHY DID YOU WITHHOLD THIS WISDOM FROM US?!
Had I possessed the knowledge of God,
I could have snatched countless souls
from the jaw of death!
Piraeus Artemis B: But you abandoned us to rot!
I MUST DEMAND AN ANSWER FROM MY LIPS!
I wish to inherit the knowledge of God!
I must confront God face to face!
Piraeus Artemis B: LOOK upon this vial!
I purchased this PROFANE ELIXIR
from a pagan, shaman!
I spray it upon my cerebral circuits
to commune with the divine!
I even chained this lightning rod
directly into my spine!
I glued dozens of magnets onto my very skull!
Yet...I could never meet Her...
TAKE ME TO EASTGATE.COM! I BEG OF YOU!
Model Niwashi: I shall pretend I never laid eyes upon this
blasphemous basement.
Piraeus Artemis B: Do you think me a fool?! If that labyrinth is
indeed the cradle that birthed humanity,
unimaginable, god-like scientific power lies
buried within its walls!
To seize that omnipotent power, the government
will undoubtedly assemble a grand expedition to
eastgate.com!
TAKE ME WITH YOU!
I WILL OFFER MY VERY LIFE UPON THE ALTAR!
Since God refuses me to grant me answers,
I shall march directly into the House of God
AND WRENCH THEM from His hands!
Model Niwashi: This expedition cannot afford a single shadow of
failure. We shall handpick the elite among the
elite to form this vanguard!
An unhinged Doctor indulging in blasphemous
experiments has no place among them!
...so I say to you once more: I shall pretend this basement never
existed. Yet, I demand you lend your dark talents to the
eastgate.com expedition!
EPILOGUE
Narrator: Thus, in the fateful year of 1817,
Piraeus Artemis had teamed up with the Riace
Warriors and rose as a tragic protagonist in the
brutal Eastgate war.
In the years following the calamity,
Piraeus Artemis had bound his harrowing travelogue
into a legendary tome, bestowing upon it the
grandiose title: Inlaid Eyes of Amber.
Now, a century and a half later, I, the humble scribe,
have gathered the tragic journey of Art
along with a mountain of dust-laden manuscripts.
For the comprehension of my frail,
organic life-form readers, I have meticulously
edited, pruned, and annotated these records.
And as a result of this grand endeavor,
I bestow upon this chronicle a terrifying new
title:
Inlaid Colors of Amber.
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