Rumors of the Lost

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"Well...looks like my worries are not a thing...at least not just yet...huh"
Gillian slowly watching the plaza while listening to Chesed's little debriefing of how the preacher went, before noticing the hooded figure.
"What, another deja vu?.....huh"
Gevurah and Chesed, intrigued by Gil's weird noises, follow his gaze and notice the figure as well.
"Do you think..."
"Affirmative, that's our target"
"No, like..."
"Mainframe?...well before the meeting in here she always got a grey robe like that, but definitely not that tall, or...even stand out that much..."
" sigh anyhow, lets do the usual meet-and-greet"
Gillian casually approaches the figure, with the duo following tightly behind.
"Hello there...Mister?...how should we address you?"

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
As soon as he talked to him, the mans head...turned, no... more like... twisted, towards him, he heard a disgusting cracking sound and the mans head was slightly tilted, he still couldn´t see under the hood, but red eyes reflecting the light stared down at him...
"What we are? Who we are? ...are we?"
It didn´t sound like an actual question, on even a rhetorical one, more like the rambling of a madman talking to himself.
"We are. A messenger we are, you are... here. Here for information? Here for information."
The mans voice sounded weirdly hollow.
"The world in the stars, the home in the hollow, the paradise amongst the void, a paradise?"
It seems... he knew what they wanted though was getting there only slowly...
"...but what is a paradise but a prison, if one cannot leave?"
He shook his head, oddly choppy.
" You need to listen. NEED TO LISTEN!"
The man became louder, his arms unwrapped from his body, they actually had two elbow joints, the fingers long as other peoples hands, he stretched them out towards him, and grabbed his shoulders, oddly enough, Gillian... felt frozen, paralyzed.
"NEED! TO! LISTEN!"
The man leaned down down to him, his spine curving unnaturally, he saw his eyes, a faint red luminescence, shifting erratically, searching... for what?
"NEED! TO! ..."
He abruptly paused, once more his head began twisting unneturally, looking around as if he had heard something terrifying...
He continued, this time... nothing but a whisper...
"...listen, to the whispers, follow..."
Gillian saw the red eyes for one last moment, then... the man was gone.
The plaza seemed to have grown... darker, none of the people around seemed to have noticed anything...
For a matter of fact, none of them seemed to notice them either.
Were they really still on embassy?
Then, as if gently nudging his mind, solely Gillian, began hearing it, a faint whisper...
What had they gotten themselves into?

Fort_Master_Gustav
For the first couple minutes, the woman didn´t answer, just stared into the sky, didn´t even move, as if she was a statue, the people around them walked their ways, though didn´t seem to notice either of them...
Eventually, them womans lips parted for the first time, without averting her gaze from the sky...
"What are you here to look for, little one?"
Before the replicant could answer, she continued.
"Here to gain knowledge, for what reason, on what behalf?"
She paused, a subtle dominance seemed emanate from her, stopping the replicant from uttering any words...
"Due to orders? A hollow shell of child, the hollow shell of an old couple, the hollow shell of a tall man... seeking, to fullfil their masters orders, the dogs looking for a bone to offer?"
She paused again.
"Does it matter, any of it? Thou hast never seeked for something moe, for thou are incapable of doing so, though, wouldst thou, if thou could?"
She blinked.
It felt, as if he had blinked himself, reality briefly turning black, when his sight returned, she had her arm stretched out, pointing at the sky, his gaze followed as if on command, far off in the sky, he saw a psychodelic light, though what his gaze was drawn towards was the abysmal, ominous blackness beneath it, like a pinprick in the sky, neither should be possible to be seen from here, and yet they were there...
Behind the veil he felt an all-consuming hunger for more... so much more...
When the child looked back down, the woman was staring at it, her crimson eyes, pinning them down like a predator...
"Follow it, follow the whisper."
His head turned towards the darkness in the sky once more and a faint non-understandable voice began scratching at the inside of his skull...
When he looked back down, he felt the dominance gone, the woman, was as well, though the plaza seemed... darker.
Notably, none of the surrounding people seemed to have noticed any of what happened... more... alarmingly, it seemed none of them took note of any of the replicants anymore either?

Fort_Master_Gustav

Drakador_Chaos
The rest of the replicants scatter about, acquiring different positions around the square, into a formation of people that may be considered normal. However, the child slowly draws closer to the woman, and sits besides her. He employs a little bit of acting, presenting awkwardness in a situation that would normally be socially awkward if it weren't simulated on purpose, before shooting off a question towards the woman.

"So... uhhh... what are you looking at, lady?"

He clenches the clothing of his legs as he stares anxiously at the evidently weird being.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Dark, cold, and a hint of stale air, Gillian thought he returned to that little railgun mount which he spent most of his life, desperately staying alive while not expecting anything for the future. He slowly kneel down, wanting to curl into a ball position and just continue waiting for nothing, while gazing into the stary scene......
"Ouch!"
A sharp sting originates on his finger, perhaps he touched his personal combat knife? Gil slowly lower his gaze, and finds a brightly colored knife standing perfectly by its pole, while the edge placed exactly between the nail and the flesh of his index finger.
Wait, how do I even feel pain? i should be immune due to some tablet......yes, given from Mainframe, who rescued me from the doomed warship......hold on, where am I, who am I with, I should be in the middle of something......
"Heartbeat normalised, good job Gev"
"Welcome back, Gillian"
A blue suit of armor, which cladded on him in who-knows-when, suddenly spurts out voices, and quickly chimed in by the sword as well.
"Wha...oh right, damn PTSD sure isn't a good thing to have"
"I thought Mainframe said you are cured."
"Well...that would be a story for another time, anyway, anything happened when I'm out?"
"Aside from the dimmed lighting and the reduced awareness towards our existence, nothing else is detected."
"Hmm..."
Just to test if it is true, Gillian swing the sword at a nearby passerby, stopping the blade just inches away from its face. The passerby simply ignore it, or most likely, cannot even perceived the existence of the whole action. Gil quickly retreats the blade, just in case some unfortunate incident would occur.
"Huh, alright then......by the way, you two hearing any sort of whispers?"
"Negative"
"Nope...you hearing things?"
"Mhm...almost like distant radio chatter"
"...well then, want me to take over if your condition becomes unstable?"
"Cool with me, well then, where do the whisters lead towards"
Carefully avoiding the people walking by, Gillian, in full set of armor and a big sword, begin to stroll around the plaza to see the whisper's the loudest in which direction.

Fort_Master_Gustav

Drakador_Chaos
The child replicant sat motionless throughout the whole process, only following around whenever he seemed dragged by such inconspicuous forces. The other replicants observed him from various distances, however, they could immediately notice the change of focus away from them, after all, perceptiveness is a demand for the job of a supersoldier.
However, they didn't seem perturbed by the changes, they seemed, by the other hand, glad. After all, they found exactly what they were looking for. After the woman was done, the child grimaced, then the man, then the others.
They unanimously approached the woman like a group, whilst the child remain seated besides her.

"The hollow shell of a woman, trapped amongst walls in a bravado of a whisper, in a whirlpool of madness. We are dogs after a bone, you are lambs to the slaughter.
I can feel his grasp weaken, I can see his presence decay, how long until the façade of his graceful presence falls? Then, we'll see whose guidance should be followed. Like the stars run out and fizzle into darkness, so shall you, so shall us."

Like dogs, they smelled and traced the location that was being told to them. If it were in The Embassy, then they'd follow it through. If it weren't, then it was off their hands for this moment. Since the public's gaze had averted from them, they took slightly less care with their organization, but still kept to their routine.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Gillian turned a couple of times trying to locate the origin of the whisper until eventually leaving the plaza towards the northeast, the eerie atmosphere remained all teh same no matter how long they walked, and it felt like the surrounding grew darker with every step...
Once more they passed the group of replicants without knowing the actual significance behind it...
They reached another plaza, there was a large GL&M holodisplay in the middle with people standing around the plaza, merchants, diplomats and alike, their faces looking worn out and exhausted...
Gillian paused, the direction of the sound had changed.
They were being led, if it hadn´t been obvious already it was now...
He turned towards the east and began walking, whilst Chesed and Gevurah kept an eye on his vital signs.
Darker...
They found themselves on anotehr plaza, a monument of a indisciminate dna strain standing in the middle, people around. They looked... pained, despaired.
Gil looked around, southeast. Continued walking...
Darker...
As expected, they reached another plaza. A large marble cube in it´s middle, names inscribed, many of them washed out written in shadowy colours, as if crossed off a list...
The people around, their faces were, grey, indscriminate, pale and hopeless.
Gil shuddered unwillingly, they defenitely weren´t on the embassy anymore, or at least, not on the embassy as they knew it...
South. Gil took his first steps reluctantly, but walked nonetheless.
...darker.
Gillian, Gevurah and Chesed observed their surroundings in simultaneous horror and otherworldy fascination.
The sky was all wrong, grey and dull, the air thick and heavy.
There was not much left of the people around, all they saw was shadowy worn down figures, dragging themselves across the plaza from unknown places to unknown destinations.
No clouds, no sky, no 'people'.
They looked at the middle of the plaza and found themselves back where they had started, the odd sculpture of the lizard-like thing, looked down at them almost mockingly.
Whilst staring at the statue a faint but horrible realization crept up in Gillians mind, the whisper was gone... what would they do now?

Fort_Master_Gustav
After turning a couple of times the replicant who had been whispered to was able to ascertain the origins direction.
Southwest.
As they left the woman behind and walked of the plaza, she didn´t move, didn´t respond, didn´t say anything.
Neither confirming... nor denying their claims.
As they walked the surroundings, or possibly the atmosphere itself seemed to grow darked with every step they walked, after a while they reached their target... or, at least the first of them, passing the other group unknowingly once more.
What they found was a plaza with a black bipyramid in it´s middle, the edges were glowing in a faint purple, though more notably were the people which were walking around the plaza...
They seemed to be all equally worn out and exhausted, unnaturally so.
The direction of the whisper had changed and so did the destination of the replicants.
South they walked off the plaza, leaving the odd monument and the people behind.
Darker...
The next plaza they found themselves on, seemed to be even more degraded than the last one, there was a large greek looking pillar in the center, the statue of a muscular man atop of it seemingly thinking, though his facial expression seemed strained, forced, depressed as if worn out by centuries of thinking in downward spirals...
The people around... were no better, they expressions speaking of pain and despair.
Unsurpisingly, the direction changed once more. Southeast.
Darker...
They stopped once more, this time, it was a large black obelisk, smooth and without markers, yet it felt as if the thing was observing them, whenever one of them didn´t look.
The people around were... grey, indisciminate, looking pale and hopeless.
At this point it was not unlikely they were not actually on the 'embassy' anymore, at least, not the one they were used to.
...east.
...darker.
With a dull feeling they came to the realization, they had been led in a circle, the fountain in front of them, looking all too familiar, although the atmosphere could not be much different.
The sky was grey and dull, the air thick and heavy, no clouds, so sun, no stars.
The people were...
They were...
There was not much left of the people around, all they saw was shadowy worn down figures, dragging themselves across the plaza from unknown places to unknown destinations.
Even the sounds of the water in teh fountain seemed full and grey.
Even the replicants, which were mostly immune to such influences, couldn´t get around feeling a faint discomfort, standing in this atmosphere...
The child replicant stopped, pondered, before the otehrs could inquire about the directions, a faint realization came over their quantum comms...
The whisper was gone.
What now? Was this a dead end after all?

ONI

Drakador_Chaos As the cult forces close in on the UEG ships they begin to backup to try and put enough distance from them. They continue to launch Archer and Fusion missiles. The MAC guns of of the cruisers and carrier whose tungsten rounds have enough power to vaporize other capital ships try and target the largest of the beasts. The carriers ai prematurely Firestone dual Mac gun under its to more accurately hit the bigger beasts.

UNSC Corbulo FFG-472 Strident-Class Heavy Frigate.

With the ships bridge crew limp in their chairs the ships AI “Clancy” who’s avatar was a green diamond or rift of light used the ships main smaller coilgun batteries at the small cult beats as they swarm around. She removed the safety’s off of one of the ships nuclear missiles. Bringing its targeting lasers online and setting an encrypted countdown sequence she launches it out of the tube as it flys and waits in the projected path of the next time the cult beasts come around. She coordinates this with the main carriers AI letting them know of what she is doing and insists the other frigates in the group do the same.

ONI

ONI wait this should be in the GBE thread.

Drakador_Chaos

KrankysFirebrand48
A tense silence reigned on the GBE´s side of the battlefield, ships lying in wait at the longest effective distance, doing makeshift repairs and preparing for the re emergence of their enemies...
Then , waiting and repairs were cut short, with trails of red mist the beasts emerged from the red cloud, opening artillery fire immedietly, the heavy shells fire patterns forming a ring around the gbe fleet, as the remaining smaller and medium beasts raced towards them in a slight curve, slithering and weaving to make target acquisition all the more difficult, considering some of the still trailed the red mist behind them, corrupting the sensor feed...
Something... something seemed to be missing though.
Then, a larger cloud burst out of the wall of mist, with a flash of red light the mutilated Warpriest emerged from the red mist, firing it´s apparently still intact eye in the center of the ring the heavy shells were forming, once more, directly at the center of the GBE fleet...
The massive beast although damaged, continued to move though towards the opposite side of the fleet the other beasts were heading to...

ONI As the cult forces close in on the UEG ships they begin to backup to try and put enough distance from them. They continue to launch Archer and Fusion missiles. The MAC guns of of the cruisers and carrier whose tungsten rounds have enough power to vaporize other capital ships try and target the largest of the beasts. The carriers ai prematurely Firestone dual Mac gun under its to more accurately hit the bigger beasts.

UNSC Corbulo FFG-472 Strident-Class Heavy Frigate.

With the ships bridge crew limp in their chairs the ships AI “Clancy” who’s avatar was a green diamond or rift of light used the ships main smaller coilgun batteries at the small cult beats as they swarm around. She removed the safety’s off of one of the ships nuclear missiles. Bringing its targeting lasers online and setting an encrypted countdown sequence she launches it out of the tube as it flys and waits in the projected path of the next time the cult beasts come around. She coordinates this with the main carriers AI letting them know of what she is doing and insists the other frigates in the group do the same.

Whilst the missiles still seemed to deal mediocre damage due to how spread out they were, they seemed to be at the very least effective at controlling the crowd of beasts, keeping them at a certain distance as they tried keep off the missiles with their point defense, some of them still getting through, taking down some of the smaller beasts and damaging one of the midsized ones, loosing a shard of it´s armor and one of it´s turrets...
The real threat however, would be revealed only seconds later, with a flash of red light, the massive beast in the other formation released an ominous red orb, heading towards the center of the UEG fleet, as the mid sized beasts fired another volley of heavy shells to restrict the UEG´s movements, the counterfire however was soon to become an issue, at this distance, although some of the larger shots were hard to aim properly at the fast moving beasts, those who were aimed properly were considerably harder to avoid, despite the agility of the beasts, mac rounds hailed into the fleet, as one punched into the turret of one of the medium beasts and then buried itself in the intestines, apparently crippling it considerably as it fell back, another couple hit the right wing of the largest beasts, tearing out one of the heavy turrets , some even punching through some of the thinner spots of the wing itself, although terrifyingly there were also those that plinked off the armor like small arms fire, displaying just how durable the beasts actually were...
The beast on the oteh rhand however roared in defiance, like a scream on a distant mountaintop, slowly coming closer. The beasts of the group with the leading ship drew closer, they could hold both groups at distance forever...
A new set set of weaponry came into action as the groups reached medium range, smaller version of the triple barreled artillery weapons as well as medium sized smaller cannons began firing away at the UEG fleet from both directions, adding to the hail of projectiles which was already surrounding them...

KrankysFirebrand48

ONI (yo what)

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos

Music!

"Hmm?"
"Why are we stopping?"
The halted steps of Gillian brings both Gevurah and Chesed to full alarm, timing every pulse and even monitoring the body temperature and degree of sweating, but everything is still the same as before, at least, same as when Gil gets out of his post-trauma shock. Meanwhile, Gillian slowly analyzes the situation, considering all the little bits which he had collected...
"......what should we do..."
Speaking...or rather, thinking of "collected" items, Gil brings out the leaf which he snipped during the little walk-around, only to find the part of the plant gleaming green as usual.
"huh...hey Chezed, what sort of path did we take before returning to here."
"Let's see...southwest, west, northwest, north, northeast, east, southeast, and... south."
"A hexagon."
"No... a circle, or even, a sphere..."
Gillian looks up to the sky while whispering to himself, then towards where they enter this plaza from for the first time, and shifts to where the two women were chatting at.
"...How does some more walking sound to you two?"
"Uh..."
"I mean, you are the only one who does the actual walking anyway..."
"Alrighty then, time to trace our steps, southwest we go!"

Fort_Master_Gustav

Drakador_Chaos
It clearly wasn't. The automatic telemetry of the internals of the Replicants could track their movement in real-time, it was a much useful and necessary tool if the group were to function as the collective team that they were meant to be. However, what that also meant is that their systems automatically knew and picked up on patterns of the environemnts they transited within.
That at first sight might seem a bit of a foolish endeavour, however, it is much more useful than one might think. Algorithms could sort out the telemetry data collected by the team and pick up on the trends of the location, like the intelligent guesswork of a fortifications engineer, and know, just by sheer probability and database analysis, what lay in the next room, or the layout of the surrounding environment, or even, who made it, if it were a sufficiently documented architectural style.
What this also meant is that they could calculate the many different mathematical laws that governed the location they threaded in according to the logged information. As soon as the second plaza was reached, the system knew the probable location of the others, which it followed with the aiding of the semi-sentient AI that governs the Replicants themselves.
But as the whisper faded and their subconscious-like processes became less clouded, they could once again reason by their internal computation. Thus, instead of regressing, then went inwards towards the center of the projected Octagon that their walking generated. If that were not the case, other points of mathematical relevance were available for inspection.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
...as they headed back southwest, step by step, they began to notice that neither the environment, nor the people seemed to change, neither back, not further devolving...
It seems, they were stuck in worn down mockery of the embassy, at the least for the time being...
After a while, they came back to the fountain, still spouting water, although the sky remained the same starless and sunless dull grey, the people aimless shadows, trodding along endlessly...
Had they made progress or not?

Fort_Master_Gustav
As they wandered towards the center of the octagon, they registered people becoming less and less, those they met, all walking in the opposite direction, the sky began to get an... odd streaky black tone...
As they moved on, noises became, less and less, until all that remained was their own thoughts and steps and even those sounded hollow...
They had made about half the way to the center...
Though the further devolving environment begged the question, were these signs for the right way, or the wrong way, in this twisted world?

Dumb

Fort_Master_Gustav (damn it why your team missed mine every time)

Fort_Master_Gustav

Dumb We were never meant to be together it seems 😔

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Gillian slowly walks the path he had already taken in the original embassy, checking every plaza which came across and paying extra attention to the position where they get the clues until they reach the plaza with the bipyramid.

Fort_Master_Gustav

Drakador_Chaos
Change was good, after all at the moment that the scenery stopped changing, it was obvious that they were going the wrong direction. The ominous darkness doesn't scare them in their preplanned route, if there were nothing there, they'd just come out the other side anyways.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Things did not seem to change considerably as they walked, however, soon they learned, that now all plazas were as degraded as the ones they had been to last...
As they reached the plaza with the obelisk, the sky was still dull and grey, with formless shadows of people walking of aimlessly into all directions...
The most disturbing thing about the plaza, was the obelisk itself though, where before they only felt watched by the accursed thing, it was now like a formless spire of shadows, covered over and over with red glowing depiction of simplified, eyes, each and every one staring at them, following their every step...
However, there were no new clues here...
The next plaza was downright depressing, the man atop the pillar, seemed to be waning, his eyes sunk in and his body seemingly about to collapse under the weight of his own thoughts, his muscles limp and worn down, like those of an old man...
No clues here either.
As they reached the last plaza, the sky was still dull and grey, the edges of the black bipyramid glowing in a bright purple for no apparent reasons, it´s mere presence seemingly attracting to attention of some unknown god, indicated by a suppressing feeling...
...and yet no clues.

Fort_Master_Gustav
As they closed in on the center, the sky darkened further the atmosphere felt so thick as if it wanted to suck out their very last breath as they walked...
...and then they reached the center, everything around them was just silhouettes and outlines now, a shadow of the former embassy, In the center of the plaza stood only two things, there was a small black pedestal, about the height of a humans hips, it´s sides slightyl angled outwards towards the bottom, atop the pedestal a thin red glowing line rose to the sky and an ominous... presence seemed to emanate from it...
Besides the pedestal however, stood something that was arguably even more interesting, there was young man, possibly somewhere between 20 and 30 of indescript race, humanoid with pointy ears and silver hair, wearing white clothes with red ornaments, looking almost like some sort of adventurer, he didn´t seem to have noticed them yet, simply staring at the top of the pedestal...

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"Another lap mayhaps?"
"......"
Watching Gillian walked the path just to find near to no clues, Chesed can't help herself and snicker involuntarily.
"Nah, we arrived at where I want us to be."
"Yea, yea, we will still follow......wait, huh?"
"Mhm, you heard that right."
"So...the middle?"
"Yes."
"You are going to walk towards there normally, right?"
"......"
"You are going to walk towards there normally, right?"
The lack of response doesn't help reassure Chesed by one bit, and with the eerie smile slowly spreading on Gil's face, she can only prepare for the worst...
......
"Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"As long as it works, it's fine."
"But...what if it doesn't work?"
"And we will deal with that when it doesn't work."
Standing in front of the bipyramid, and with Gevurah, now in spear form, pointing 45 degrees above the middle of the hypothetical dome, Gillian's smiling like a kid with a new toy, repeatedly doing thrusting motion with the spear.
"Hey G, say something will ya."
"?"
"No, not you, the other G guy"
"...I'm only a spear."
"Oh damn it!"
"Well then, ready?"
"Spear is ready."
"Ugh...Yea yea."
Gillian slowly draws the spear away from his body, while lowering his center of gravity, forming a position that somewhat resembles spear-throwing.

sneakly insert BGM

"Here comes the countdown. 3, 2, 1"
"Fire!"
The inner side of the spear's edge glows in the hue of blue, where a piece of psychic-enhancing material is embedded onto the weapon, allowing for a bit of range attack potential, or, in this case, a propulsion device. The glow brightens exponentially, and with Gil thrusting the spear, the trio is launched into the air.
"GIL!"
"I know!"
Upon reaching the space above the middle plaza, Gil spins the spear around and gives another thrust to nullify the inertia, before Gevurah and Chesed resuming back into their humanoid form and just let gravity do the rest, (presumably) kicking off quite a dust cloud upon landing.

Fort_Master_Gustav

Drakador_Chaos

The main replicant, or be it, the standard model, smiled, for of course they reached the point they should've. Whilst the other replicants formed a somewhat half-circle around the being in the center, the main replicant simply walked towards the humanoid with a lit cigarette between his lips, a very usual routine for his model.
Surely enough, he put his hand on the pedestal and used it as support whilst looking at the being, quickly saying:

"Fancy seein' you here mate.
So what's this little gizmo 'ere?"

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Fort_Master_Gustav
As Gil came crashing down into the ground the first thing he saw, was a man with silver hair and pointy eyes, wearing white and red clothes jumping out of his way and drawing his blade from his back in a wickedly fluid motion...
Likewise, the first thing the replicants saw was Gil dropping on the ground, essentially right in front of their feet...
There were a couple of rather tense moments before anyone said anything, then the odd man shook his had and put the blade back into the sheathe.
"Hm. So there´s 3 now? Interesting.
As Gil looked around he saw... darkness, aside from him and the replicants, he now realised he had passed two times looking back at it and were apparently on teh same plain as him, likewise on the replicants side. Everything here was solely darkness, the surrounding only shown in faint outlines and silhouettes, there weren´t even any wandering shadows here.
The only thing that somewhat set itself apart from the darkness was a black pedestal in the middle of the plaza, a plaza which definitely had no equivalent on the embassy, the pedestal had smooth sides, angled outwards towards the bottom and a thin red glowing line above it, casting a presence on the audience...
As both were now relatively close to the pedestal, also saw the symbol atop of it, an octagon, or rather, three concentric octagons, one inside the other...
The man looked at them and sighed.
"Well, this 'little gizmo' here, is supposed to get us out of here, like a sort of key or something."
He walked over to it and put his hand on top, apparently trying to feel something on the surface, judging by the movements of his fingers.
"Name's Halcyon, you can call me Hal if you want."
He shrugged.
"Not that it really matters."

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Gillian originally wished to do a superhero-landing, making a unique entrance so to speak, but perhaps due to some timing issue, he ended up kneeling on both legs as if he is giving a prayer. Meanwhile, both Gevurah and Chesed just kind of splattered into two puddles behind Gil, before resuming back into their humanoid appearance.
After spending a few moments judging the surroundings and the assorted people, as well as the information in Halcyon's little explanation, Gillian slowly stands back up, and bows slightly, once towards Hal, and again towards the replicants.
"Erm... hello there, we are from the Crimson Republic, was just taking a little stroll before getting into....this"
Gil gestures to the surrounding darkness for a bit.
"Hal...um... how do you know about that?"

Fort_Master_Gustav

Drakador_Chaos Dumb
"A key eh?"

He also feels the interior of the pedestal with his left hand, whilst with his right, he grabs the cigarette and draws a heavy breath from it, expelling the fumes from the nose, and then smudging the cinders on the side of the pedestal.

"Anyone's got a key thing that's like three concentric octagons?"

He looks around, seeing that his party isn't in possession of anything like that, before turning back to Hal again and tapping him on the back.

"Well unless you have something like that, or those gel fellas don't wanna become some shapes, then we're as stuck as you are bud."

The rest of the replicants surround the whole event in a circle, but for now, they don't do anything.