Chapter 4: The UFO Society, Again

After putting some distance between Mette's house and yourselves, Kajsa takes her leave from the group. "Be careful, all of you," she tells the group before she and Sabine take off towards her house. Once there, Kajsa hugs Sabine tight for a long moment. "Please let me know you're safe when you can," she says. "And good luck." She kisses Sabine before heading towards the house door. As she opens it, a cat that Sabine has never seen before runs out and circles Kajsa's legs, rubbing against them. Kajsa bends down to pet it as if there was nothing remotely strange about this unknown animal suddenly coming out of her house.

Mikael, Stina, Henry and Kristina arrive at The Strip to find it... for lack of a better word, redecorated. The interesting displays in the window are gone, replaced by simple cardboard stands holding some comic books. The painted lettering announcing the comic book store's name above the door looks different, but not as if recently repainted - not that there would have been time for it since their last visit. Instead, it looks old, the paint already fading and crumbling off in parts.

She slows down, a little spooked by the impossible change. "Are you seeing this, guys? The place is... different. I mean, we were hungover when we first visited, true... But not THAT hungover."

"Uh, yeah," Mikael says, "This is wrong. Really wrong." He looks to Kristina, "It's just like the song on the setlist, and the other things. It's like reality is being overwritten." Mikael hesitantly moves to the door and gently pushes it open, expecting to see Ing-Marie replaced with someone much different than the last time they'd seen the proprietor of this shop.

"Huh… so far it’s just been things, right? Besides… well, besides the cat. I suppose that could be a thing, depending on how attached you were to it. he began to get tripped up before he’d even finished his thought.

"But no people… yet. Right? No one has been overwritten…" finger quotes "… have they?"

Those of you at the comic book store find Ing-Marie inside, unchanged apparently. She's even sitting on the counter again, like the last time you saw her, though this time, she's not scribbling in a comic book but reading through something that looks like a file folder. When she sees you enter, she smiles and says: "Oh, you're back, hi! Did you manage to speak to Mette?"

"I will." She agrees to Kajsa's request of keeping in touch and returns her girl's kisses, before watching her to the door of the house.

Sabine does a double take upon seeing the affectionate cat bound out of the open front door, like it has always been there. 'We've got get this sorted out...and soon.' She thinks to herself. 'Before we get overwritten too.'

With a last glance, as Kajsa and the cat enter the house and close the door, Sabine mounts her motorbike once more and kick starts the engine, ready to go meet the others at the comic store.

Before any of you even get the chance to reply, you hear the sound of a motorbike outside and, through the display window, see Sabine arriving, now without Kajsa. She secures her bike and then joins you inside, noticing all the same changes that the rest of you did.

"We did, but no thanks to her parents… or their dog. But we managed to sneak in."

Henry huffs as if the thing had been some Herculean effort.

"She barely spoke…" he says, kind of absently. Sadly…

"Yeah. They weren't the luckiest in the parent lottery, poor Mette and Lisa..." she sighs. Then she adds, "but we brought back that device of yours... Hey, who's got the gizmo?" she asks the others.

"Oh yeah, sorry!" Henry says, fishing out the device and passing it across!

"Does it… look as you remember it?"

Had it changed too?…

"That's it," Ing-Marie replies excitedly, taking the device from Henry and taking out the memory disc from it. "I should be able to figure out with this where they went the night that they all disappeared. But it might take some time."

Sabine enters, eyes wide, and instantly makes eye contact with each of her friends. Her expression says it all, 'WTF!' She moves in to join them and looks at the device, as Henry hands it over to Ing-Marie. "I didn't catch all of it, since Mette was kind of whispering to Mikael, but she mentioned something about CLOVERS and VESSELS. Does that mean anything to you, Ing-Marie. Is it some kind of code? What were the exact words she said, Mikael?"

Henry gives the object a suspicious side eye as he wonders how exactly it’s determined what will and won’t change appearance.

"Yeah," Mikael says, "Their parents were terrible. I honestly wish they had a better option that living in that hell-hole." He shakes his head and watches as Inge-Marie takes the device, his eyes still glancing around to take in the odd changes to the interior of the comic-book shop.

He nods as Sabine joins them, catching her glance and shrugs with a grimace, fully acknowledging her 'WTF' and silently raising her a 'I have no f'ing idea'.

At her question, he speaks up. "Yeah she said something like: 'one leaf, two leaf, three leaf clover, she is the traveler.' Um...'we are her vessel'. Then she said 'Hephaestum'." He watches Inge-Marie's face, looking for any sign of recognition.

Ing-Marie thinks for a moment. "Clover," she says. "That could refer to the Clovers Facility up north. Maybe that's where they went to watch UFOs? I'll know more tomorrow, when I've analyzed the data from the photon deductor." She pauses again before adding: "And Hephaestus is the name of some Greek God, isn't it? The god of smiths, I think. I've never heard of the name being bent into Hephaesteum before, though. That sounds almost more like a place than a person."

"Clovers facility..." she repeats, trying to memorize the name.
"How far up North is that?" she asks, as an afterthought. "Would a bunch of kids like Mette be able to get there by themselves?"