"Yes. You are. Well if you don't want any dye, I'm going to get back to my experiments. Have a nice day!"

"You too!" He turns to their guides. "Nice guy."

"Want to see the inn, or skip straight to the Ancient Tech Lab?"

"Ancient Tech Lab."

Their guides walk them up the main street, past the inn, where it splits into a few different paths. One heads out toward terraced farmland, the other winds up the steel slope, lined with windmills. "You can just follow the signs from here. Sorry to abandon your tour, but... I really think we should just go home now."

"Of course, thank you for the help!"

"I mean, it's definitely not because we're scared of Director Purah! You know that, right? Yeah, uh, bye."

Off they go.

He keeps smiling until they are out of sight.

"They have freaking video game logic!"

"Any chance one of us is in a coma or something?"

"Well, yes. But not in a way that we can meaningfully address."

"Okay, well, maybe if we visit the lab we are going to get some sort of quest that will allow us to go back home."

Snort. "Good plan."

Off to the lab they go.

It's a decent hike, up a long slope. The land is pretty, as most of the rest of the land around here. A beautiful lake and then a high mountain range is to the left of the climb. Cliffs and the ocean are to the right.

Increasingly stringent signs appear along the way up.

"Hateno Ancient Tech Lab," with a pointing arrow.

Then, "Ancient Tech Lab Ahead. No soliciting."

"Hateno Ancient Tech Lab. Mind the lanterns - blue fire is dangerous!!!" (The lanterns are empty of flame.)

"Hateno Ancient Tech Lab. Enter at your own risk."

"Hateno Ancient Tech Lab. If the flame is BLUE - DO NOT TOUCH!!!"

The lab itself is a ramshackle-looking thing that appears to have been converted from a windmill. There is an impractically large telescope sticking out at an odd angle, and a furnace-like thing with some of the same markings as the Sheikah shrine out front, lying cold and empty.

"I wonder if this counts as steampunk?"

He shrugs and gives a quick check with the danger-o-meter.

Some danger, far removed. More like a power line you had better not touch than a monster that will jump out at them.

They knock at the door.

An elf in a white robe-thing, wearing glasses, answers it after a few moments. "Visitors? Interesting. That's rare. Greetings, I'm Symin." The room beyond is crammed full of books and notes on every available wall and table.

"I'm Aaron and this is my brother Temple. We come from a very distant land that is very different from Hyrule."

"I see. And you came to the lab to learn about the Sheikah, or perhaps to find a way home? Not that I can help you with the second thing..."

"A bit of both exactly? In the off chance you'd go. 'Oh, I heard the legend of a secret gate to other worlds' or something to that effect."

"Well... No. Dragons and gods must live somewhere, but I've never heard of any way for mortals to cross worlds."

"Where we are from there is a way to make portals to and from a world called Elsewhere and we likely came here through a similar mechanism."

"I see... I could have a look through our archives, but the only similar phenomenon I recall off the top of my head is temporal stasis. There's enough evidence that the Sheikah were capable of that."