Any time (feel free to agree a date between yourselves): lighthouse keeper Zenobius is in one of his better moods, when he asks John and Kaneki to help him bring well water for domestic use. Ostensibly, the tower has a level of infrastructure that suggestssuperior knowledge of plumbing and desalination — enough of one that should make it it unnecessary to collect well water. Even so, Zenobius sources drinking water from the wells on a daily basis.
He directs the duo to a western well, thick and vastly-rimmed, which he says is never typically slated for domestic use. He supplies both young men with generous buckets. As they’re shown how to operate the well, John and Kaneki might notice... something amiss when they gaze deeply in the water. They appear normal in their reflection, but their friend Zenobius looks increasingly younger by some ten years, his hair less greyed and more voluminous. His entire reflected appearance better groomed, except for the blood that stains his grey uniform, the signs of shallow wounding on his body and uniform and the clear distress on his face. The Zenobius of the reflection seems frightened, barely catching his breath, before a tall man appears beside him — dressed in white, with eyes pale enough to be white. In the reflection, this man tips Zenobius over — just as Kaneki and John feel hands pushing them hard into the well.
Was it Zenobius? A being of another name? Hard to say, though certainly no one waits by the well, nor does any man answer, should they look up or call out.
They fall around 8 metres and land in shallow water that goes up to a height of about 1 metre. Curiously, they suffer no shock or bruising from their hard landing. To their luck, they can find small, slim bars of metal and makeshift pieces of wood awkwardly pinned into the well wall — just sturdy enough to serve as steps or holds, and allow the two up. The ‘ladder’ was clearly not built in and was attached by an amateur.
Clumsy, short — animal or human nail — scratches line the lower part of the well. Three successive dates seem to have been scratched into the wall.
The second fixture of the well, located around 1.5m from ground on one of the walls, is a small lateral gated opening, not unlike the mouth of a sewer. The water level does not reach it, and the rusted bars could yield before a show of strength or fire, a chainsaw... Alternatively, beside the opening, you can find a carving in the wall in the shape of a downturned oval, with a single screw-like pillar in its middle. Looking around the engraving, Kaneki and John can also find a loose piece of wall brick in the shape of a sun, with a convenient hole at its centre. Removing that piece and setting it in the oval engraving — to complete the now-familiar shape of the eye with a sun for a pupil that seems to haunt Ellethia — will prompt the gate to open without the need for physical force. Needless to say, both gentlemen can fit through the opening.
If Kaneki and John listen closely, they can hear a young girl’s voice singing eerily from whatever enclosure the gateway leads to. She does not answer but intermittently stops singing, if they call out to her.
Do John and Kaneki enter the gated well opening?
Note: if Kaneki and John leave the well, they will find Zenobius in the midst of one of his fits of amnesia and bleary-eyed confusion, By now, he has seemingly forgotten both who the young men are, or that he has visitors at all. If they return to this well, they find it covered by a wooden lid, with Zenobius insisting they never take water from it. The well remains accessible, despite his protests.
JOHN AND KANEKI
He directs the duo to a western well, thick and vastly-rimmed, which he says is never typically slated for domestic use. He supplies both young men with generous buckets. As they’re shown how to operate the well, John and Kaneki might notice... something amiss when they gaze deeply in the water. They appear normal in their reflection, but their friend Zenobius looks increasingly younger by some ten years, his hair less greyed and more voluminous. His entire reflected appearance better groomed, except for the blood that stains his grey uniform, the signs of shallow wounding on his body and uniform and the clear distress on his face. The Zenobius of the reflection seems frightened, barely catching his breath, before a tall man appears beside him — dressed in white, with eyes pale enough to be white. In the reflection, this man tips Zenobius over — just as Kaneki and John feel hands pushing them hard into the well.
Was it Zenobius? A being of another name? Hard to say, though certainly no one waits by the well, nor does any man answer, should they look up or call out.
They fall around 8 metres and land in shallow water that goes up to a height of about 1 metre. Curiously, they suffer no shock or bruising from their hard landing. To their luck, they can find small, slim bars of metal and makeshift pieces of wood awkwardly pinned into the well wall — just sturdy enough to serve as steps or holds, and allow the two up. The ‘ladder’ was clearly not built in and was attached by an amateur.
Clumsy, short — animal or human nail — scratches line the lower part of the well. Three successive dates seem to have been scratched into the wall.
The second fixture of the well, located around 1.5m from ground on one of the walls, is a small lateral gated opening, not unlike the mouth of a sewer. The water level does not reach it, and the rusted bars could yield before a show of strength
or fire, a chainsaw...Alternatively, beside the opening, you can find a carving in the wall in the shape of a downturned oval, with a single screw-like pillar in its middle. Looking around the engraving, Kaneki and John can also find a loose piece of wall brick in the shape of a sun, with a convenient hole at its centre. Removing that piece and setting it in the oval engraving — to complete the now-familiar shape of the eye with a sun for a pupil that seems to haunt Ellethia — will prompt the gate to open without the need for physical force. Needless to say, both gentlemen can fit through the opening.If Kaneki and John listen closely, they can hear a young girl’s voice singing eerily from whatever enclosure the gateway leads to. She does not answer but intermittently stops singing, if they call out to her.
Note: if Kaneki and John leave the well, they will find Zenobius in the midst of one of his fits of amnesia and bleary-eyed confusion, By now, he has seemingly forgotten both who the young men are, or that he has visitors at all. If they return to this well, they find it covered by a wooden lid, with Zenobius insisting they never take water from it. The well remains accessible, despite his protests.