Outside 49: I don’t remember what it looks like either

[Earl of Purple]

Secluded Forest

Also it seems Kothar's homeworld is either North American o Asian. Europe doesn't get black bears.

"A white bear ate my aunt, a few years ago. Pulled her from the sea as she was breathing and ripped her apart and ate her. We tried to drive the bear off, but it was too hungry. Never went that far north again, we stayed south after that. We dwelt in the Mediterranean for a bit, other southern seas.."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Puns are for fools and jesters]

"I suspect it won't surprise you to hear that I think your whole self-indulgent worldbuilding is dumb. What you're doing is nothing better than indulging in "dumb fourthwallism", just masked behind a few props and tricks upon the stage." He shakes his head, disappointedly. "Pretending that there's some justification for your nature that would be considered, mmm, "acceptable" within this setting is utterly pointless in a world that needs no justification. Why care about what the other little pretend creatures think about you and why you are the way you are? They're irrelevant."

Irrelevance is rather subjective, but when has Affy ever let that inconvenience him?

But it depends what you mean by people, doesn't it?

Because it's not about entertaining the walking talking works of fiction, is it?

"It's about the ones out there, and making something for them to make their puppets dance their way through, hmm? What fun."

With a rather tired wave of his hand, he shoos away Zee's silly little world from getting too near him.

"And I'm sure you think it's cool and fun and all very well thought out, and I'm sure anyone you ask would say as much to you, but what do they really think, hmm? I can see what mine thinks. Would you like to know?"

[Rebonack]

[Yes That's Why I Wear This Jangly Hat]

"No they aren't," Avatar retorts, venom creeping into her voice. "They absolutely are not irrelevant and don't you dare say they are. If they were irrelevant then no one would be here enjoying their stories. This whole world would be nothing but a desiccated, neglected husk if they were irrelevant. Just another dusty crypt full of half-finished stories that no one will ever read again. The world's full of them. Forgotten archives that were once full of life and are now slowly rotting out of existence. But THIS place isn't one of those tombs. It's alive because these people are relevant."

She doesn't seem terribly concerned about her garden getting shooed. She DOES seem to be concerned about defending the importance of 'the irrelevant puppets' though.

"Of course it's for the authors. And for me, too. But it also makes a more robust world for the people to explore. They're the stars in all of this, after all. I sure care about them, Affy. I want to see them learn and grow and become better."

That last question earns an eye-roll from Zee. She gives a little huff and crosses her arms at it.

"I mean, sure, I guess? Some people love it and some people think it's dumb."

Or, y'know, terrifying.

If they live in the Nexus and are in the middle of experiencing it.

"Everyone has their opinions on stuff."

[Zefir]

Spider Cave

A young woman's photograph is on the driving license, with a bored expression. She's got dark skin, bleached blonde hair and dark green eyes. It might be out of date, however; the license is about three years out of date.

The staircase at the end of the corridor heads down, deeper into the gloom of this abandoned bunker. Whether it was a medical laboratory or a prison specialising in medical torture is hard to determine- so far, at least. At the bottom of the stairs, there's a trap. A tripwire across the bottom of the step, hidden in shadow. Stepping on the wire will activate a robot of a different, non-arachnid design. The robot has a domed head and stubby limbs covered in thick rubber. It is concealed in a booth under the stairs, just about visible from where the wire is set. An antennae on the robot's head will spin as it activates, the first sign of it powering up- if the wire is tripped.

If it isn't, and Karl and the skeletons avoid stepping on it, the robot remains motionless and deactivated, and the door at the bottom of the stairs can be opened, revealing a large office space with desks and filing cabinets, most of which have been pushed aside and cleared to make room for a crude robotics factory. There's nobody to be seen, just another giant spider- the largest yet; this one couldn't leave the room, it seems- lying on the floor, legs splayed. Somebody has been working on it recently; the plating covering its head has been removed, allowing a glimpse at the hydraulics and motors that power it- as well as the mass of circuits and chips that control its movement.

Dismal Swamp

Mr. Slash is also approaching. The bogeyman is of average height, wearing a battered old suit that seems a little too small, with fingerless gloves on his hands and a massive old coat hanging from shoulders to ankles. A battered grey fedora is pushed down on his head. His face, what little is visible between the upturned collar of the coat and the brim of the hat pulled low, is covered in scars, and his left eye is clearly made of glass. "An' I'm here, too. Swamps aren't me natural habitat, ye could say." As he speaks, Damon may get a glimpse into his mouth- despite appearing human, that's a major clue that the bogeyman isn't any more. Instead of teeth, pressed into his gums are shards of broken glass, glinting and sparkling in the light.

Spider Cave

Karl and his skeletons are experienced aventures and on top the skeletons have no problem seeing in the dark or even dim light as clear as day. So they note to Karl that it exists. When they pass, Karl only wonders why this was there. Looking at the medical devises and stuff he found this dungeon was at a much higher technological level then were you use strings for traps. maybe this is some kind of fast made trap? Or the people who now live here aren't that highly educated to perform tasks the same level as it has been here? That may be something to think of later.

When they finally open the door and see the corpse of the spider they stop. Karl tries to eye the situation in there. Something was here recently and worked on the metal spiders.He's not sure if there is another exit, but for safty they should be more sneaky. He points the skeletons to slowly sneak inside and surrund the spider while he looks for any other evidence of a person working here.

[bc56]

"That is sad news. I sorry for your loss." Kothar really looks sorry, but he continues leading the way until he reaches a tumbledown stone building. "I want you to tell me about this place. What can you learn." There's not much of a building left; a few broken walls, a chimney, a staircase leading downward, half covered by bushes.

[Arkhosia]

Spoiler

Show

[Joining House]

"Oh my gods, girl! Ye're too much!" The other woman pipes out a cackle as she half-drags Blanche along, whether or not the cat needs that much support. Fidella just looks at Blanche while she stumbles over explaining, all the wisdom of the world held in her gaze. She flushes warmly at Blanche's earnestness - it's refreshing.

"Scared him off? No. But I think he wouldn't mind bedding you himself and was too polite to say. And there were still his troublesome assumptions." Fidella tuts. She's speaking a bit too freely as well. "Swing. Both ways. Hmm. That's a quaint way of putting it." The older lady seems genuinely amused.

"Well listen, love, we can take you to bed if you like," Fidella begins, to the noisome amusement of their companion. Whether she means 'take her to go rest at Vots' place' or... the other thing isn't quite explained. "Or we could take you to go see him. I happen to know he spends the small hours in quiet contemplation when he can find a peaceful spot for it. Vots-time. Mm."

"Takes a bath to wash the bad Forces off, so he says. Meditates a while," she adds.

"Goes back to sleep," the other woman corrects.

The Joining House

"It's not that weird, loads'a folks say it!" It's a little hard for her not to look a little flushed at this point, and all these things Fidella's saying are not helping in the slightest, particularly when she offers for the two of them to drag her away for the night. Especially when the other Frescot's kind of doing that already.

"I'd really like to stay with y'all but, er, maybe we could jus'... pay Vots a visit on our way? I- I'm really bad at this talkin' feelings kinda thing- hell, I only managed to ask my girlfriend out because it was during heat and - er, I guess maybe you two can help kinda squeeze the words outta me?" She's not really expecting anything to really happen if they do, just giving him a head's up for later on, really - so why bail on these gals entirely?

[Earl of Purple]

Secluded Forest

Hunter doesn't reply to Kothar, looking at the ruin. "It has a cave underneath, accessed by the stairs there. It was made of stone, and it has... One of those things, oh. Um, a hole in the wall, where a fire goes, with a tunnel up for the murky air to leave through. It might have been like Trog's, they have one of those. An inn. But, um, it might not too. I've not been inside many dry buildings, and the ones my pod used when we were visiting other people didn't have them. I don't think it was very tall." Hunter was a nomadic triton, and his pod did not use buildings much at all. And Trog's is the only building he's entered since he left the sea.

Spider Cave

There does not appear to be another exit- this looks to be the last of the rooms in this bunker. There's tools and wires lying on the floor, as well as bits of tubing, pistons, several car batteries and some other bits of rubbish that don't look original to the office space. What was a waste paper basket has been turned into a campfire, and there's some old metal cans that formerly held food. Some empty plastic bottles, and two that are full of water. Several smaller spiders are also lying on the floor; one looks very realistic, except the head has split open and there's wires inside; another is the crudest robot yet, with no shell disguising the bare metal and wires of its construction. An animate spider is lurking under the desk, staring at all that goes on with the camera mounted to its head.

A voice comes booming out of the spider, emitted by the speakers built into the robot's abdomen. "Leave us, necromancer! This bunker belongs to the Arachnartificer, and my robotic arachnid minions! Flee now and tell none of what you saw here, or I shall be forced to take the ultimate sanction to protect my technological secrets and arachnid mastery!" If Karl or any of the skeletons are listening closely enough, the same words and voice are spoken, much softer, by somebody hiding in one of the filing cabinets speaking into a microphone to project their voice.

[bc56]

"Very good. What supplies you gather here? Search." The ruined building has many places where items, useful or otherwise, might be found. Amidst the overgrown tumbledown stones, all manner of things might be found. And who knows what's down the stairs?

[5a Violista]

June wakes up in a crater again. Wearing, once again, the same clothes as last time: a brown long-sleeve shirt with a couple buttons, long shiny gray athletic pants, coral ankle socks, and black tennis shoes. And a pink and black ring on his ring finger. Red hair. Looks very androgynous; the only reason you'd think he's a guy is because of the clothes.

. . .

Something's different, though.
Well, obviously something's different: it's night now. He thought for sure he went to sleep in town - Black Dragon Den. So...why is he out here in the middle of nowhere again? Did that last day even happen?
No, something else feels different, too: he checks himself. No, nothing broken, nothing bleeding, nothing...oh. There it is. Found it.
Doesn't matter now. Still the same person.

Okay.
First thing first, find your way back to the city. And then afterwards, discover if the past day even happened, or why he's out here again, or. . .

. . .Right. He was looking at the Riftline stops and paths earlier. If things are the same, then there should be a train stop only half an hour this way. Good way to test this out, to see if his memories match. That's a good first step to figuring out if his memories even happened.

So, June starts walking where he thinks the station is.

It's late at night, but half an hour he gets to the [Riftline Station].
...
Okay, new problem: he hasn't got a Riftline pass or any money or anything.

[Deathkeeper]

[Mirror of Hevar]

Nim nods.
"Okay. Ssso what? I jussst go up and talk?" he asks. Seems like an easy enough job.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Riftline Station]

A small, dimly-lit travel plaza surrounds the empty wooden boarding platform, set with a card scanner and some sheltered benches where one might wait in the rain. On one side of the platform is a ticket counter with closed shutters and a sign indicating that the attendant will return in the morning. On the other side are a unisex restroom and a pair of vending machines. The machine's humming soda refrigerator competes with invisible frogs and crickets to get June's attention.

Though the station seems to be closed, June doesn't need to sit deliberating for that long before a bright flash of light and a rough digital approximation of a train whistle announces the arrival of a single monorail car. It appears seemingly out of nowhere as it slides up to the platform, then opens its sliding doors to release its lonely occupant with a hydraulic hiss.

"...shouldn't have to... ff... can't they just... ugh, I guess..."

The mumbling creature is an exceedingly pale woman wearing baggy black jeans, a red buttoned shirt and a baseball cap with a vaguely-intimidating logo. She pulls a hard wheeled suitcase behind her and stops suddenly when she notices June, staring at him like a deer into headlights.

[5a Violista]

[Riftline Station]

Sadly, both the vending machine and the wildlife have to compete with the song stuck in June's head. He's tapping out one the melody on his elbow - his arms are folded - and his foot is tapping along with the drums.

He, of course, stayed there because he'd really rather not walk all the way over to a city (or wander around until he finds a town) this late at night. Much better to just wait until morning.

He stares back at the monorail and its woman. Takes him a moment to realize what just happened. A flash of light, a weird sound, the sudden appearance of the car.

"U-um!" he exclaims, taking a step forward. "Hey! Um! What's up with that train? Where are you going? Can I come with?"
Honestly, going with some random person is much better than just...standing around with no idea what's going on. Like, sure, he has questions about the train and everything. But he's also even more curious about why he's in the middle of nowhere again, and risking going with a random person has a much higher chance of that getting answered than dying of boredom would have.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Riftline Station]

"Oh no, it's talking to me. What do I do?" This seems to be the kind of person who does her own narrating. "I can't stay to chat. I shouldn't even be making eye contact. I have to set everything up and do the attunement and get home before morning, and I have to do it all on foot."

...she makes eye contact again anyway. It's a bit eerie, though - like she's not quite talking to June, but looking through his eyes to talk to someone immediately behind him. "Except it asked to come with. If it's not busy, maybe it can help? It is a bit of a walk from here, though."

[5a Violista]

[Riftline Station]

June blinks.
Okay.

Getting that weird feeling, he turns his head to glance over his shoulder. Jeez, that would be incredibly creepy if there was someone right behind him.
"Y-yeah," he says, a little creeped out. Talking makes that feeling die down, however, so he continues talking: "Yeah, I can help. Literally have nothing else to do for several hours."

He nods to confirm that there really is nothing for him to do. "Just lead the way, I'll follow."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Riftline Station]

“Good! I appreciate it very much.” Something in her gaze makes it feel like the most sincere very much in the history of space and time. ”Come. We are going this way, over the hills, to the bogs.”

She pulls her suitcase across the platform and down the steps - *click click click click CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK* - and continues to lead the way through the trail in the grass that June had come from.

“It can call me Wanessa, she or her. Does it have a name? Pronouns? I do pronouns now.”

[5a Violista]

[Riftline Station]

It's not every day that you get sincere very muches.

...
Great.
Wanessa just got another song stuck in June's head. Luckily, he's adept at having two songs running through his head at the same time. It took a lot of practice to get this good at having songs stuck in his head.

He follows off the platform. What is in that direction, anyway? June didn't see anything in particular as he came this way, so it must be farther. Or maybe a slight detour, since he didn't really look around and so doesn't know if he did pass a bog or not.

"Nice to meet you." This situation is still a little weird, though. "It ha-" wait, he accidentally started to talk like Wanessa, a little. "I-I mean, I go by June. And I don't really care..."
Hold on. If his memories of yesterday(?) did happen, then this is the perfect opportunity to practice as a woman. To get used to it. Here's someone who he hasn't met, who he probably won't see again, and he's not even sure if yesterday was real or if right now is just an incredibly realistic dream. On the off chance that yesterday did, in fact, happen, he's going to want to get used to it anyway. So, to that end, he says, "-so, feel free to use she and her also." Much better than 'it', to be honest.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Riftline Station] -> [♪ Over the Hills and to the Bogs]

"June. It is good to meet her."

She continues muttering to herself about the route she needs to take. Eventually, it involves climbing a particularly steep hill, from which June can see the crater where she originally woke up. As the pair descends, they lose sight of it and of the tree-fenced cornfields and ditches that constituted June's original path. Her shoes soak in moist earth, and the tall grass starts to give way to reeds and hanging peat moss as they proceed into the woods.

The sound of frogs and loons intensifies. Willows and pines block out some of the moonlight, rendering it hard for a human to see. June can just barely make out a pool of green algae up ahead.

"Stop!" Wanessa closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and feels a nearby cattail with her free hand. "Ha! We're lucky. This is the first swamp we've come to, and it's not taken." She leans her suitcase against a tree and pops it open to reveal a series of wooden rods with red crystals set into them, plus some other assorted tools - chalk, bowls, some kind of old radio. "My annoying job remains ever inscrutable," she says as she picks up the rods and hands an armful to June. "Here. She can place these in the ground at the edge of the marsh, ten meters apart. The goal is to encircle one swamp."

[5a Violista]

[♪ Over the Hills and to the Bogs]

June mentally berates herself for not saying she preferred the pronouns 'me' and 'I'. Sure, that would have made understanding Wanessa really difficult, but the hilarity of it would have brought levity to cancel out the feeling of 'oh no why did I agree to follow some random person out into the middle of nowhere in the middle of night'.

She keeps her eyes out to make a mental map of where they are, where they're going, and which directions would be best to run - just in case. Honestly, though, the sound of frogs and being in a dark place like this does bring back some memories. Including a memory of where her shoe got stuck in mud and she had to pull out her foot first and then the shoe afterwards.
Oh, wait. That happened right now, too.

When instructed,
June stops.

"Yeah, that is rather lucky," June agrees, not really understanding what it means to have a swamp 'taken' or why that's important. It just means they don't have to go any farther.

She takes the armful of rods. "We'll have enough, right?" she asks, mentally translating ten meters. Three quarters of a meter is about one pace, right? So that means...about thirteen paces. Maybe a little more. In this soft ground, thirteen paces might actually be closer to fifteen actual steps. But, anyway, she nods. "Yeah, I can do that."

June, starting there, places a rod and starts to circle the marsh. Fifteen steps, place the next rod. Fifteen more steps, and so on. Since she can't really see all that well right now - her night vision hasn't completely adjusted and might not ever because of the occasional moonlight - she uses the feel of the ground to determine where the 'marsh' is. It's where the ground feels more waterlogged.

There's only the occasional spot where she almost falls in to deeper water.
Curse you, human eyes, making this so much harder than it needs to be.

June keeps on going until she runs out. Or meets up with Wanessa. Whichever happens first.

[Zefir]

Spider Cave

Karl is perplexed when he sees all this. He kinda gets the clue that someone is building artifical Spiders in here. The whole trash and supplies suggest they don t leave this room much. Thought he still would like to know what was up here befor thw spiders. Then the voice. Karls to distracted by the voice of the spider to hear the second one. A skeleton does here it and turns to the curtain, but then Karl orders them to be reasy and surround the voice. He slowly moves to th shadow the spider is in and says.

"That might be to late by now." He says. "I was send in by some people who saw your spiders. Also what is a necromancer? Maybe we can talk this one out?"

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Over the Hills and to the Bogs]

"Good, she's helping! But I need to tell her, she should not just close a circuit around this marsh. I think the border needs to go... let's see... to the edge of the woods there, and then down this deer trail." Wanessa picks some chalk out of her toolkit and draws a sigil on the tree she'd leaned it against. "I'll draw the activation circle here. It will turn on the nearest rod first so she can see better. Then she can see the trail by the eerie red glow. Each new rod will light up when it connects to the last."

Wanessa executes her plan, causing all of the rods placed thus far to light up as promised, right down to the prescribed eerieness.

"This should be a little better. More like a nice nature walk. Could she please bring the suitcase with her as she places the rods along the trail? I have to vanish into the night to speed this up, but will return to find her shortly." She meets June's eyes again with that weird stare of hers. "She is being very kind, out here so late like this. I should find a way to repay her once we're finished."

With that, she turns and vanishes. It happens so quickly that the visual effect might be hard to parse; for a second, she looks like she had water dumped over her head, then her body suddenly stretches and contorts as she plunges into the shadows.

Then, June is alone. Well, not quite alone. It's at this point that the mosquitoes start buzzing in her ears, having been attracted by the rustling reeds and the smell of living breath. Should she continue along the trail, she also spots a bullfrog the size of a Labrador retriever sitting right in her path.

[5a Violista]

[Over the Hills and to the Bogs]

While it sounds like Wanessa isn't speaking to June (only talking about June), she decides she should listen anyway. Woods, deer trail. Got it. Bring suitcase. She nods.

The benefit of eerie red glows is that it doesn't get rid of night vision. (The downside, of course, is that it's eerie.) Same as the way Wanessa disappeared: it's pretty eerie. June tries to not think about it.
Once Wanessa is gone, June looks behind herself again, just to check whether there is someone behind her or not. Best to just check. She grabs the suitcase, and then goes about using the rods.

But,
to be honest,
June isn't really sure whether it would be better to accept or turn down the 'way to repay her'.
On the one hand, accepting something in this eerie situation could go bad. But, on the other hand, turning down a gift could be perceived as rude. Plus, June knows from experience, that just because a situation seems creepy doesn't necessarily mean that it's bad. Creepy people can be nice all the time.

June, after a short while, realizes that she was holding her breath out of nervousness. She starts breathing normally again.
The mosquitoes actually are part of what makes her realize that she was doing it. Something feeling as normal as mosquitoes helps her be grounded in normality again.
She laughs a little, remembering lots of times going out camping with others. For some reason, mosquitoes usually thought everyone else tasted better than her. This isn't that different from just going out camping, but alone and somewhere that she doesn't know.

She goes down the trail.
She spots the huge bullfrog and freezes for a moment.
...
Right.
She doesn't have that knife that was given to her yesterday(?). She'd feel a lot more confident if she did have it, even if she's not sure she could easily stop a bullfrog that size.
"H-hey," she says to the bullfrog. "Out for a nice stroll, huh? You know, I've met another one as big as you." That's a lie. She once found a toad the size of a small cat, while cleaning out a natural spring that's been used for washing clothes. Nothing near the size of a lab.
Speaking to the bullfrog actually helps her, though: it's just a large frog. Not that dangerous. And it may just be this lighting, but doesn't look brightly colored either so it's probably not venomous or poisonous or whichever word you're supposed to use when touching them is dangerous.

"Me, too. Just going for a nice stroll, Mr. Frog." Fifteen steps, put another one in. "Was expecting to find a deer here, not you." Yup. Speaking aloud definitely helps drive away the eeriness.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Over the Hills and to the Bogs]

Mr. Frog makes a low gurgling noise and takes a step back as June approaches, conveniently revealing the path. When June stops to place a rod across the path from him, though...

"mmmmmmoooOOOOOOOOOOOOO-"

The frog puffs up its chest and throat in a manner appropriately goofy and menacing, then suddenly deflates.

"mmmmmmoooOOOOOOOOOOOOO-"

It does it again. It really does sound like an angry cow.

Mr. Frog adjusts its posture to face June directly, then takes reaches one slimy step forward. June can instinctively tell that she has only a split second to take initiative before the frog does... whatever it's going to do.

[5a Violista]

[Over the Hills and to the Bogs]

What even does June have to protect herself? she wonders. And can she avoid laughing at its cow noises?
And what if it jumps on her? First, the lighting finally reveals that it looks slimy - which is disgusting - and it's probably as heavy as a dog too. Ever had a dog jump at your face? Or - what if it tries to get her with its tongue? "Take it easy: I know we both don't want to do this."

A suitcase. Probably best to not get this covered in slime.
Rods.
Her feet.
...
That's about it. Her hands are full with the suitcase and rods, so she can't pick up a rock or whatever.

June shifts the rods over to under her right arm - the same arm that's holding the suitcase.
Her right foot steps back - up and away from the depressed trail, onto grass - and turns perpendicular. She also bends her knees a little.
And then her left hand grabs one of the rods from the stack she's holding, holding it like it's some kind of sword. Or bat. Or something.

Sadly, doing all that took slightly more than a split second.

[Murkus]

[The Joining House --> Innnawoods]

"Pay him a visit on the way? Are you sure...?" Fidella looks at Blanche somewhat seriously... as seriously as she can manage when she's this inebriated.

"He's just gonna get jeal-ous~" The other Frescot lady sing-songs. She leans into Blanche. "We're all eager to squeeze ya, but wouldn't it be better if we wenta' see him in the mornin?"

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Yes That's Why I Wear This Jangly Hat]

"No they aren't," Avatar retorts, venom creeping into her voice. "They absolutely are not irrelevant and don't you dare say they are. If they were irrelevant then no one would be here enjoying their stories. This whole world would be nothing but a desiccated, neglected husk if they were irrelevant. Just another dusty crypt full of half-finished stories that no one will ever read again. The world's full of them. Forgotten archives that were once full of life and are now slowly rotting out of existence. But THIS place isn't one of those tombs. It's alive because these people are relevant."

She doesn't seem terribly concerned about her garden getting shooed. She DOES seem to be concerned about defending the importance of 'the irrelevant puppets' though.

"Of course it's for the authors. And for me, too. But it also makes a more robust world for the people to explore. They're the stars in all of this, after all. I sure care about them, Affy. I want to see them learn and grow and become better."

That last question earns an eye-roll from Zee. She gives a little huff and crosses her arms at it.

"I mean, sure, I guess? Some people love it and some people think it's dumb."

Or, y'know, terrifying.

If they live in the Nexus and are in the middle of experiencing it.

"Everyone has their opinions on stuff."

[How nice that you find joy and purpose in the pointless]

"Why Zee. You say that as if this world hasn't died before. Surely with how aware you are, you're aware of all the problems, the conflict, the, mmm, difficulties of the past? Of how fragile our little world is?"

Just look at what we're doing to the world around us, hmm? Hardly the most stable place if this can happen to it, is it?

"Works of fiction don't grow and learn, not while they're stuck in their little bubbles anyway. Any "development" is nothing more than a choice made at the whim of a puppeteer. Lives are made and discarded as people see fit, and only the, mmm, interesting ones get to stay around. For as long as their puppeteer holds interest in them." Affy chuckles, his voice dripping with disdain. "You dare suggest this world is full of life, that it isn't a desiccated husk? This is nothing more than an oasis in a desert of abandoned characters and abandoned characters."

Affy reaches back and makes a motion akin to drawing a curtain, pulling back the "reality" they've made around them. Beneath lies darkness, and the countless forms of forgotten and abandoned characters and locations sitting in deadtime forevermore. Maybe Zee will see a few familiar faces down there, from days gone by...

See them, Zee? See the familiar streets of the Town? See the hordes of dead and abandoned, little figments of imagination that I can reconjure at will from my puppeteer's memories? That's the fate of all of us. OF COURSE THIS IS ALL IRRELEVANT, BECAUSE ONE DAY WE'LL SIMPLY BE DISCARDED LIKE THE REST AND FADE TO BECOME NOTHING MORE THAN DISTANT RECOLLECTIONS IN THE MIND OF AN UNCARING PERSON.

"This world is laughable. There's nothing robust about it. Whatever people say goes, and nothing matters. And this is how I can say in confidence that my puppeteer finds it all rather silly too. He's lost interest before. He'll do it again. And you, for all your crafting wonderful worlds and stories, you think it'll ever be more than a forgotten thought in his and anyone else's minds? Of course not!"

[Recaiden]

"I guess I do." There are some things Spilaio believes. Of course, Prada could probably alter her so she believes other things, and she wouldn't even notice. "Yes, I can work with the water. What do you want me to do?"

Nim nods.
"Okay. Ssso what? I jussst go up and talk?" he asks. Seems like an easy enough job.

"Precsissely." Prada hisses to Nim. "Delay them as much as you can."

For Spilaio, he suggests "Ssend the water down to flood that nothingnessss. Shape the water with all the detail and emotion you can."

"Go!"
And then he races off down the hillside towards the appraoching edge of the world.

[bc56]

Spilaio reaches out with her magic, feeling the springs beneath the hostel, calling them up to her. They're unfamiliar to her, and resist her touch at first, but then they come. She sends them in a torrent down the hill towards the nothing. But the emotional investment is not there. She might not have enough motivation to succeed here.

[Deathkeeper]

[Mirror of Hevar]

Nim playfully pokes Spiliao on the forehead.
"Good luck. If we make it through thiss, I owe you dinner at a niccce placcce." he teases, and slithers out to confront these nothing-believers.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Over the Hills and to the Bogs]

June quickly becomes acquainted with how slimy the frog really is. It's actually not that bad! Up close, she gets the sense that its feet and belly are pretty slimy, but the top of its head is more leathery and bumpy as it rams through her arm into her chest. Whether she drops the rod or sprains her wrist holding it is a decision for her spinal cord. Either way, it serves as a blunt reminder that she still has breasts, just in case she had managed to get her mind off of the subject.

As she's knocked over (knocked to the ground, possibly into the water or mud, maybe into a tree or something depending on how she positioned herself) the frog's momentum sends it tumbling behind her into the reeds. June can hear it shuffle to its feet back there. In fact, it's about as disoriented as she is, so she has time to get her bearings and do something.

[5a Violista]

[Over the Hills and to the Bogs]

June had, in fact, managed to get that off her mind until now. They're small enough that she didn't really need a bra, so it was easy to forget, but...
...All at once, June gets slime on her stomach and shoulders and a few other places as it passes through her. She gets a friction burn from its leathery top on her neck (luckily, her long sleeves prevent any more friction burn on her arm). Her wrist sprains - but it's not that bad - she's played sports and done fencing matches with a sprained ankle, so she grits through the pain and trusts her adrenaline will take care of it for her.

And she gets knocked down: after all, it was twice as heavy as she was expecting. (The space behind her was clear of tree out of habit from fencing and stick-fighting.) Thanks to her stance, she doesn't get completely knocked down - just down to a knee, with her hip in the mud, and water pouring into her shoe. She manages to not drop anything, so that's good.
The worst part is that this is the only clothes she has on her, and now she's going to have to find some sort of non-swampy pool or lake to wash them.

June stabs her palm with her right hand's nails to get through the sprained wrist pain, and grunts as she gets back on her feet. She turns around and decides she needs to go on the offensive.
To be honest, she really would prefer to not kill it (it's just a wild animal that's too small to eat her, it didn't do anything wrong), and she still needs to put these rods in the ground - so she obviously can't run - which means her only option left is to scare it off. So, June steps towards where she can hear it, and goes for an angled stomp. If she hits it, great: she might make it regret going after her, and she might knock it back over. If she misses, at least she'll cause a large splash and be too close to it for it to gain any significant momentum. At the same time, she shouts, "Just go away already!" (figuring that most animals are scared of loud noises, too.)