Chapter 1: Past Present and Future

Taryn rolls survival, and adds a Boost for having the right gear and another one for being very familiar with the terrain type, what with having lived in these caves for almost all his life.

Edit: keeping the extra advantage for possible follow-up chacks.

Ian takes the weighty, metal object in his hands. It tingles his sense, not his Force ones, but his gut instincts. He frowns down at the cube, turning it over in his hands, his feelings display showcase a mixture of regret and anxiety about the future. Beneath that is a rigid, harsh sort of control coupled with his usual sense of humor. Looking up he regardless Master Selak stoically and nods before immediately turning to Alyx and saying cryptically, while holding the cube out, "You'll know what this is when'the time comes. Let me know."

"This place sure brings up memories, yeah?" Avi half-giggles embarrassedly, trying to gauge Taryn's reaction in a quick glance, her stare finally resting on the mushrooms that stand guarding her crystal. It's... There. Somewhere.

She lets a breath she didn't know was holding out as she finally is about to face her trial. The warmness of the cave is familiar, pressuring. Absentmindedly, she looks at Taryn again, and when she realizes what's happening she can't help but chuckle shily as her star falls on the floor. Her cute expression quickly dissolves into a worried frown, however.

"I hope Master Selak will turn out okay if Ian's vision is really to worry. But... We talked a lot, during our trial. And not about our trial." Not sure what to say next, she closes her eyes and starts to concentrate on it again. The threads of the force, the possibilities, and variations. But she's really not in a perfect state of mind whenever she's around Taryn. The threads keep slipping through her fingers no matter what. Well, whatever! If fate won't come to her, she will bring it to her. She aggressively pulls one into her direction. Finally, with it in hand, she reads it.

She sees the mushrooms. The centermost of the field. But those are... Different. They feel... Heavier, trickier. Feisty? Arduous. Unreal. She sees herself. And spores. She's talking to nothing.

Hm.

She clicks her tongue as she opens her eyes, a decisive frown on her faces as she approaches the mushrooms. "Hey, T, feel free to keep going. I... Should probably do this alone.".

Independently of what Taryn does, Avi will proceed to look around, with the hopes of finding something that may help her journey into the field: Be it a load of head-sized rocks she can use to step on the mushrooms, or even a way into the center that is not necessarily full of the poisonous fungi. There is, however, no lighter path of mushrooms. She is lucky enough to find two big rocks, though. Big enough for her to carry and throw them, big enough for her to be able to stand on them easily, and square-ish enough for her not to slip on in. She dries them as best as she can, looking at the center of the field... And sighs. This is going to take a while.

She will then proceed to let go the first rock on the field and step on it. She will step into the second, do the same thing, step into the second, grab the first, and rinse and repeat. Never actually throwing the rock off, just to make sure she doesn't have to accidentally leap between them. Especially because she'd be rockless.

Alyx rolls her eyes. "By the Force, I'm not your pack-animal," she mutters, then sighs and goes to take the cube. "Fine, but you risk me never giving it back to you!" she threatens, but her curiosity takes over, and her gaze drops to the item as she frowns at it thoughtfully. "What is it, anyway?" she wonders out loud, walking just behind Ian into the caverns.

Alyx looks at the cube and sighs, unable to figure out what the symbols mean. "I think this is a data cube," she tells Ian. "But the port doesn't look familiar. Maybe it's an antique?" She shrugs. "Seriously, you should take this, Master gave it to you for a reason." She walks faster to try and match Ian's longer stride, and waves the cube at him. "Take it!"