Spectre watched from the Beyond as Risa exited the plane onto Shokushu island. At last! The miraculous prodigy was within its reach. For years it had contented itself with distant subtle machinations: opening a lock here, causing a wire to cross there, whispering in the ears of the right people. All to help guide and nurture her talent and, ultimately, lead her here. Here, where it was free to interact with her directly . . . but not yet. First to see how her abilities function under the islands inhibitors.

Deeper in the island, In the Dorm building, in the room that had been prepped for the new arrival, a bulge in space appeared. It grew more and more distorted, swelling like a pustule on the face of the universe. Finally, the anomaly burst in a shower of chaotic threads that quickly vanished. In their wake, a package settled onto one of the beds. It was a box about a foot on each side wrapped in blue satin and tied with a pink silk ribbon.

The attached label read, in a script that resembeled clockwork letters:
For Risa ~

Risa was quiet on her plane trip to Shokushu -- she didn't really know the girl she had been sitting next to, and the other student didn't seem at all interested in talking to her. In fact she kept giving Risa these odd little looks out of the corner of her eye at Risa, who was wearing one of her favorite outfits.

The leather waist cincher over the white silk blouse, short skirt, and leather boots were amongst her favorites. It was almost a relief to actually get off the plane and be able to walk towards the school. As she walked down the path towards the campus, she thought back to how she came to arrive here.

She had been surprised at the invitation when the headmistress had mentioned it to her -- but it sounded like a wonderful opportunity. She would miss her parents, but the fact that they supported this was not surprising. After all, they sent her away to boarding school to begin with -- just because she wrecked a prize clock her father was working on, and blew up her mother's computer all in the same day.

Like it was her fault that the computer short circuited when she tried to correct her mother's equations. How could her mother justify that equation after all -- as if the energy state of a quantum particle was a constant? EVERYONE knows that quantifying the particle changes its state, so that a pseudo-random real-time recalculation was required to properly exemplify the energy signature, which puts the entire field into a continual shifting equilibrium across multi-dimensional space.

How could her mother not see that?

And she needed those parts from her father's clock to make the computer simulate the system -- helping her mother like that was more important than his award winning timepiece, wasn't it?

How was it her fault that her mother's computer overheated when trying to balance out a chaos system like that?

Risa sighs again as she goes to the small dorm room she had been assigned, but her eyes brighten as she sees the brightly wrapped package on her bed. She drops her luggage as she runs over to examine it - unable to resist such a curiosity. It MUST be from her parents!! They had remembered she was leaving, even if they hadn't been able to meet her at the airport apparently!!

With frantic fingers, she undoes the ribbon, and carefully unwraps the bundle; eager to see what her family sent her.

The sight that greeted Risa's eager eyes was probably not one she expected. Inside the colorful package was a strange looking cube-like apparatus. Slightly smaller than the box it was in, it was a bizarre amalgamation of the old-fashioned and modern, with many mettallic gears and levers along the four vertical sides, but with a touchscreen like interface on the top and a triad of strange crystal spheres half protruding from the bottom. It ran a guantlet of colors from burnished steel for the gears to a candy-apple red plastic button beside the touchscreen.

Nothing else was in the package, and no lettering adorned the crazy mechanism. It was truly an enigma.

To say this was unexpected is to understate it a little.

Her parents have never really understood her fascination with steampunk and certainly never bought her puzzles or devices like this. Their idea of gifts were clothes, or music, or if she was very lucky, a gaming system. This was clearly none of those.

It was also unlike them not to include a note, letting her know how their work was going, or where they were traveling next.

She carefully lifts the device out of the box and puts it on her desk, examining the box more closely just to be sure she didn't miss the note or instructions that were included. But apparently there isn't anything. Maybe they forgot.. or dropped it.

It doesn't really matter, other than it means that she'll need to figure this out herself.

Risa turns back to the contraption, and examines it carefully, touching it very lightly, but not really pressing any of the levers or buttons. "Well, maybe it explains itself" she figures, given that it has a screen of some sort on it. It's not labelled, but the big red button by the screen certainly looks like an 'on switch'. So she presses it, and waits a few moments to see what happens.

A few seconds after the red button is pushed, something whirs and clatters to life inside the apparatus. The energetic sounds quickly fade to a nearly silent hum as the screen blinks to life. Yet far from providing any insight into the function of the box, the screen merely shows a black blinking arrow in the upper right hand corner. The arrow points to the right, toward the edge of the screen and the right side of the box.

Risa waits for the device to 'boot up' - although the blinking cursor in the corner is a little odd.

Cursor... page turn.. pointer... direction. Risa starts with a smile and stares at the box. It must be one of those games or toys where you have to turn knobs or press buttons in an order indicated by the device! It's not like any of those toys that she's ever seen, but perhaps her parents acquired a prototype for her.

Those types of pattern games have never been her best thing, but they do know she likes contraptions and devices like that.

So having determined what this device must be, she looks at the side of the box where the arrow is pointing, finds a large silver switch just below the edge of the box - and flips it up.

As soon as the switch is flipped into the 'up' position, it sends a tingle through Risa's fingers. A moment later, the blinking cursor is replaced by an icon of a hand. Another blinking arrow appears on the left side of the screen, pointing left.

Convinced she has now figured out what this device is supposed to be, she look onto the left side of the box and notices the cursor is now pointing to a gear-like wheel sticking half out of the box.

Going on her belief that this is a "follow the pattern" toy, she starts by flipping the lever back to the down position, and then uses her thumb to try and turn the gear wheel downwards.

Flipping the silver lever back down caused the device to make a rather rude sounding blatt noise. Any manipulation of the gear after that caused another blatt to sound, On closer inspection, the screen had reset to its original configuration of a blinking arrow pointing right.

Risa frowns a little at the obvious "error" noise it makes when she tries to operate it.

Ok - so it's not a 'pattern' game like she thought... so what is it?

For now at least, she decides to just follow the directions. She can always take it apart later to try and figure it out if she doesn't learn anything this way.

So she flips the switch back up, and when the second arrow appears, she will again manipulate the gear wheel.

Again, a tingle flows through Risa's fingers as she flips the switch back up. Again, a hand icon replaces the blinking arrow and another arrow appears on the other side of the screen.

This time, the gear also produces a tingle in the hand manipulating it, and its arrow is also replaced by a hand icon, but this icon continues to blink. Also, a slight change in the object's center of gravity reveals that the crystal spheres on the bottom have extended slightly.

Risa is still curious about this device, and doesn't really notice the tingle other than to think that the device is poorly made and has some leakage from the batteries or something.

Figuring the blinking hand means she needs to keep going -- she'll keep turning the wheel, until the spheres are fully extended, and see if that has any effect on the screen.

If not, she'll try turning the wheel back the other way.

The tingle does not continue as the wheel is turned, but the crystals slowly extend. Soon, they are revealed to be some sort of castors mounted on the end of three spindly 'legs.' They continue to extend and spread out, forming a stable tripod on which the device can be stood.

Though the crystal castors are ovbiously meant to roll in any direction, they do not move easily to the touch and the object stays stationary when set upon them. Once the tripod is fully extended, two things happen at approximately the same time: A small probe pops out of the front of the device and an icon of a foot begins to blink on the screen above its location.

Risa really studies the contraption now that the casters and probe is extended. "What are you?" she asks, not really expecting an answer as she turns the device around and moves it across the desk on the casters - trying to figure it out.

And now a blinking FOOT cursor? She's never seen a FOOT cursor before.

Is she supposed to operate the thing now with her feet? To what purpose?

She examines the probe more closely - trying to determine what it's purpose is. Is it meant to be used like a pedal.. like some kind of pump or the pedals of a musical instrument? Does it look like it's meant to rub against her soles, like an abrasive to clean them, or have some kind of brush or needle? Is she supposed to be barefoot to operate it?

She looks for any clues she can find before making a decision on what to do next.

On closer inspection, the probe proves to be detachable, connected to the main device by a fine cord that would extend from its housing. It appears to be a standard electrical-type instrument like those used to measure current in an electronic circuit. About the size of a small screwdriver, it consists of a short metal cylinder extending from a thin plastic handle. The metallic piece tapers to a fairly blunt tip near the end, while the cord issues from the other end of the plastic handle.

Along the sides of the device are many protrutions and indentations due to its somewhat cobbled-together and semi-clockwork nature, but no obvious clues as to what to do next - Except for the foot icon blinking patiently on the screen.