Spelunky!

It was Orion's policy to not buy too much into rumors and speculation without hard evidence supporting them, for that was one of the fundamental concepts of science. Someone just saying that there was a literal underground part to the Underground borough of the city, and that it was filled with antique magical artifacts, did not make it so nor should it have warranted investigation. But experimentation was part of the scientific process, and one form of experimentation was exploration. Rumors had to have been started somewhere, from some grain of truth, so Orion skeptically set out to try and find this subterranean repository.

Doing what few others did, in his usual eccentric manner no less, Orion poured himself into research and questioning. Eventually, he found a possible lead and lo and behold, there was an entrance. It did not look like much and could have easily just been an abandoned subway or something, but he could still check it out. Surely even a subway in a magical district could be interesting on its own.

His SAGE glove provided plenty of light, shining from the palm, as Orion explored the underground Underground. The place seemed more like catacombs than a subway, and that was encouraging. It was old and musty in just the right way to mean possible magical artifacts.

That was when he heard the sound of voices(?). Throwing some of his caution to the wind, sure that it was not some kind of monster since no one mentioned any monsters within the city, Orion sought out the source from the many echoes it produced. A glimmer of light was confirmation that someone else was down there with him and he hurriedly ran toward it, lighted glove held high.

"HAIL! Who else might be down here?! Can I join you? Is that cool?"

"I'm here! Me! In this general area! This person here!"

Hearing a coherent response from the other individual made Orion feel confident in approaching. Whoever the other person, they could obviously understand him and reply back in a timely manner, so they were capable and intelligent person and not some monster. That is, unless it was some kind of highly elaborate luring mechanism developed by some super tricky monster. If that were the case, Orion would probably be even more interested to see it.

A brighter glow from down the tunnel signaled to Orion that the other person was approaching him as well, with some kind of light source in hand. He picked up the pace to meet whoever they were. The faster the two of them got together, the shorter they would have to spend wary and cautious.

"I'm getting closer! Closer still! Even closer! I'm here and--"

Orion stopped cold when he found the other party: a diminutive and odd looking creature. It took a moment, then he realized it was some kind of goblin or similar fantastical creature. His smile grew and he pointed his lit glove at her.

"And YOU are some kind of cool goblin thing! Are you for real? So cool."

"Oh cool! A real goblin deal!"

Orion crouched down to be more at her height.

"I'm Orion, and I heard rumors of some neat magical artifacts down here."

He waved his lit glove over and around her a bit more.

"What I didn't expect was to meet a neat magical creature! You are magical right? I mean, that light certainly looks magical."

All the while, Orion wore his standard goofy, curious smile. He was positively lit-up that he had met Cheeto, and saw evidence that she could conjure a spell or two if the glowing ball was any indicator. Better yet, she was sentient and coherent, so he could talk to her and learn from her, as well as study her. Or maybe she could explain the lantern that he only noticed after scanning her up and down with his eyes. His other hand quickly plucked up the brass lantern.

"Oooooooh~ So what's this? Is it magical? Is it yours?"

Orion turned the lantern over several times in his hands.

"Well, this is my first time down here. But YEAH. I suppose I am looking for treasure! And I already found two! You and this lantern! Oh, this is so cool..."

It was easy to tell from his expression that he was enthralled with the brass lantern AND Cheeto's presence. The way he was moving an acting was a little on the goofy side as he craned his head this way and that to try and peer at every crevice on the lantern, but his interest was no less genuine. All at once he fell down to his knees to put him at about Cheeto's height as he continued to inspect the lantern, and even brought it up to his nose for a few sniffs.

"So how would we..."

After he sniffed it, he began poking at it.

"... determine if this is..."

After the poking, he tried gingerly moving or turning parts of it.

"... a magical object?"

After trying to manipulate it, he gave one good lick.

"Hm. Maybe some kind of detect spell or something."

There was no telling if that old brass lantern had any taste, or if the stuff on it had any taste, because Orion showed now outward reaction to licking it. His expression did not change and he just kept going along with the inspection as if licking a possibly magical artifact was the most normal thing in the world to do. Though he turned a little pouty when Cheeto insinuated that the lantern might just be a lantern.

"Hmph. That would be no fun. It's a cool lantern.... But it would be super cool if it, like, summoned a familiar or made you invisible."

Placing the lantern on the ground, he focused on his SAGE glove and tapped out some unreadable instructions on the touch screen mounted on it. The light from his palm faded and transferred to the screen itself, providing a nice soft glow all around, which freed up his palm to emit some kind of scanning... laser over the lantern.

"Well, like I said, I was down here looking for magical things. And you're a magical thing. So that makes--"

He was cut short by a ninja smoke bomb, apparently. Momentarily stunned, but otherwise calm, Jacob waved the smoke away to see what made all the commotion. To his delight and surprise, it was another goblin.

"How delightful! Another goblin! Can YOU tell if this lantern is magical or not?"

Orion pushed the lantern in Dorito's direction.

"Oh, and your sister and I were just hangin' out in the underground. Exploring' and stuff. I called her a treasure."