On both sides of the large navigation table, Captain Duncan of the Lost Homeland and the cursed doll Alice sat facing each other.
The atmosphere between the two people (although neither of them may be human) was not harmonious.
The puppet lady who called herself "Alice" still looked a little nervous. Although the ghost captain in front of her had promised her temporary safety, even a cursed puppet could not feel at ease in front of Duncan's face that was naturally intimidating +10.
She was sitting on the lid of her coffin maintaining a dignified demeanor, but her fingers, secretly clenched together and grasping the edge of her skirt, revealed her uneasiness.
Duncan remained silent for a while, observing the "lady" in front of him while thinking.
A puppet driven by an unknown power source, a "supernatural individual" who is obviously not made of flesh and blood but can speak, walk and even has a certain body temperature. If this happened in his hometown, it would be on Approaching Science - and at least three and a half episodes.
Duncan didn't know what kind of existence a puppet like Alice belonged to in this world, but in the past few days of getting along with Goat Head, he also learned some information indirectly. He knew that although there were "supernormal phenomena" in this world, various supernormal things were not ordinary things, and the puppet lady in front of him...
Duncan guessed that she must be some kind of special existence even in this strange and abnormal world.
His guess was not groundless—the mechanical ship that collided head-on with the Lost Homeland was very new and had a well-trained crew. He had seen with his own eyes that many sailors on the ship adhered to their respective posts despite being in great fear. There were also a large number of cabins and items inside the ship whose purpose was unclear. Many items were depicted with complex rune marks, and the style of those marks was very similar to the symbols on the surface of Alice's "coffin"...
In other words, the purpose of such a cutting-edge ship's voyage was most likely to escort... or "convoy" Alice, the cursed doll.
Duncan adjusted his posture in his seat and looked at Alice with a comfortable but serious expression - there was no doubt that there was an extraordinary "guest" on his ship.
But from another perspective, this doll lady doesn't seem to be a scary person, and she seems to be quite timid.
After all, she was so scared that her head dropped off before she even said anything when they first met.
"Excuse me..." Perhaps Duncan's long silence and gaze brought too much pressure, Alice finally couldn't help but speak, "And..."
"Where are you from?" Duncan finally withdrew his stressful gaze and asked in a calmer tone.
Alice was visibly stunned for a moment, as if she was trying to process the meaning of Duncan's question. After a few seconds, she tapped the ornate wooden box under her body with her fingers: "From here."
Duncan's expression froze for a moment: "..."
"Of course I know you were in this box before," he coughed twice, "but what I'm asking is where you came from - where, you know? Do you have a hometown? Or something that can be called a place of departure?"
Alice thought about it carefully again and shook her head calmly: "I can't remember."
"Can not remember?"
"How can a doll have a hometown?" Alice folded her hands on her legs and answered dignifiedly and seriously, "Most of my memories are of lying in the box. I was lying in it, being transported from one place to another. Occasionally, I could vaguely feel someone walking or guarding outside the box... Ah, I still remember some whispered conversations. Those people who were guarding outside my wooden box talked about something in a fearful and nervous tone..."
Duncan raised an eyebrow. "Talk about something? What do they talk about around you?"
"Just some boring stuff."
"But I'm curious." Duncan said seriously - he believed that those might really be just boring trivialities, but now he really needed to do everything he could to understand this world, even if it was just the noisy gossip of ordinary people in this world.
"... Well, the most common name I heard was Anomaly 099 - they seemed to use this to refer to me and my wooden box, but I don't like it very much. I have a name," Alice said as she recalled, "Besides that, I occasionally heard them talk about seals and curses, but most of my memories are vague. I would sleep when I was in the box, and I didn't really listen to the noise outside."
The puppet spoke slowly, and then suddenly seemed to remember something, adding: "But I still remember what I heard recently. It should be before I came to your ship. Those voices talking outside the wooden box frequently mentioned a place, the city-state of Plande. That seems to be their destination... It should be my destination as well?"
"Pland City-State?" Duncan looked introverted and silently memorized the name in his heart.
He finally learned something useful, although he didn't know when this useful information would come in handy.
Then he raised his head and looked at the doll lady in front of him again: "Besides that?"
"Besides that, I just slept most of the time, Captain," the doll lady said seriously, "When you are locked in a big box like a coffin, and there are constant drowsy whispers around you, what else can you do besides sleeping? Do sit-ups in the coffin?"
Duncan's mouth twitched.
She has a dignified manner and is an elegant beauty when her head is still there, but in fact, she can not only row her coffin lid and ride the wind and waves, but can also suddenly blurt out trash talk that can choke people to death.
He quickly formed a new image of Miss Alice in his mind.
But on the surface, he still maintained the image of the calm and majestic Captain Duncan. He just hummed without commenting and continued, "So, apart from being drowsy in the wooden box, you know nothing about the outside world. You can neither tell me how the world has changed today, nor tell me the specific location of any port or city-state."
"I'm afraid that's the case, Captain," the doll lady nodded seriously, and then she widened her eyes slightly as if she suddenly realized something, and stared at Duncan nervously, "So... are you planning to throw me off the ship again? Because I'm worthless?"
Before Duncan could say anything, he heard Alice continue, "Okay, I understand. This is your ship after all, but can you please not put shells in the box this time? Seriously... eight shells is a bit too much..."
It can be seen that this doll lady is not in a very good mood - but she doesn't dare to show it.
Duncan was also embarrassed. He was mainly embarrassed because when he stuffed the shells into the box, he didn't consider the fact that he would have to discuss the matter calmly with the person involved later. At that time, he only thought of Alice lying in the box as a cursed doll in a standard horror movie, and all the images that emerged in his mind were in this style... He never thought that this cursed doll didn't come out of the Grudge, but came out of the courtyard house
So all the preparations made in the early stage to fight against the terrible curse have now become embarrassment.
But Duncan was thick-skinned, and that stern and gloomy face was engraved on his face like a knife or an axe. As long as his nerve endings were not short-circuited, he could still hold on. So he ignored the embarrassment brought by the eight shells and shook his head calmly: "I haven't decided whether to throw you off the ship. After all, you always seem to have a way to get back on the ship. I'm just a little curious, why do you have to come back to the Lost Hometown again and again? It can be seen that you are actually afraid of me and this ship. In this case, why not stay away from this danger?"
"Is this ship called the Lost Homeland? Well, I am a little... afraid of you and your ship, but isn't the deep sea more dangerous than this?" Miss Doll stared quietly at the ghost captain in front of her. In her vision, behind this tall man was an endless dark void. The darkness overlapped with the real scene in the cabin, as if two worlds were forcibly superimposed. However, compared to this huge and suffocating shadow of nothingness, those things from the "deeper" part of the boundless sea made her, as Anomaly 099, feel more dangerous. "In this world, is there anything more terrifying than the deep sea?"
(Oh my god!)