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Tom
~ D R E A M S ~
A WW FANFICTION
The citizens of Warriors Wish have been living in the new city for some time now,
and their little community has been thriving from it.The weather is always perfect. Resources are plentiful. People are friendly.
One day, seemingly out of nowhere, peculiar dreams begin to plague many of
the longer-standing Wishers. At first it is little more than a passing nuisance – but
before long, these dreams begin to turn very, very dangerous…
sign up form
click here
or link to your universal sign up form.
people
Scary |form| usuf
Dust LeCornflake | form | usuf
Lavender [the Smol] | form | usuf
Splashy Silve | form | usuf
Alexandra “Snow” Step | form |usuf
Tiny | form | usuf
Holly | form | usuf
Heat | form | usuf
Bladeh Mercury | form | usuf
Sorrel | form |usuf
Jilda | form | usuf
Lightning | form | usuf
Fireheart | form | usuf
Jinglepie | form | usuf
Addeh McLeaf | form | usuf
Altias G. Wolfpal | form | usuf
moss |form| usuf
Finch McLayne | form | usuf
Darkstar | form | usuf
Scartail | form | usuf
Russet Hunt | form |usuf
stuff so far
prologue
chappie one
chappie two
chappie three
chappie four
chappie five
chappie six
chappie seven
chappie eight
chappie nine
chappie ten
chappie eleven
chappie twelve
chappie thirteen
chappie fourteen
chappie fifteen
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Dustfeather
Preferred Name: Dust LeCornflake
Gender: Female
Personality: Dust is an odd mix of shy and confident. She's happy to ask strangers for directions, express opinions, and other such things; but at the same time, she constantly worries she's accidentally coming across as rude or unfriendly, and will overcompensate with politeness as a result, often saying “thank you” and “sorry” far too much. If she thinks someone is being unfair or unreasonable, however, she will generally tell them, gently if possible. She prefers to err on the side of common sense, which can be useful when analysing situations, but conversely, if something doesn't make sense to her, she will become stressed and uncomfortable.
In terms of interaction with others, Dust needs plenty of space to herself; she finds too much company at once can be tiring, and prefers to be either alone or with one or two other people. She is open and honest about most things, but distrustful of overly audacious or aggressive people. She has moderate views on most issues, but will very occasionally be ignited to passion if there's something she feels particularly strongly about.
Dust's main weakness is her lack of energy; she is prone to laziness and finds it very difficult to motivate herself to do things she doesn't want to do. She needs plenty of relaxation, away from stressful or overstimulating situations. However, she is very much appreciative of things that are pleasing to the senses, be it a particularly enjoyable meal, a nice-smelling perfume, or an intricate drawing.
Preferred weapon: Swiss Army Knife
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 182
Alignment: Lawful Good
If you had one wish, you would ask for… ..all the world's electricity, fuel, etc. to have no negative environmental impact so that people could live comfortably without contributing to global warming
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? I'd probably give myself a decent amount of intelligence, as being smart can sometimes negate the need for other qualities if you're able to sort out a situation using your wits. I'd probably give myself a few dexterity points too, as I'm a fairly small person and would probably be better at dodging attacks than withstanding them. It'd also be useful for utility type things like lock-picking, tying and untying ropes, etc.
Favourite colour: Plum
Favourite animals: Cats, penguins, and owlsI like this fanfic already, because the title is also the name of both a Cranberries song and a Van Halen song
Looking forward to reading it! -
lavender
Omg mysterious fanfic hype
Preferred Name: Lavender [the Smol]
Gender: Female
Personality: (copy paste from another app lol sorry) Kinda soft and bubbly, I just like to be liked ;0; I'm very expressive when I do talk but most of the time I'll just see a situation and be like “well that is a thing… but I shouldn't say anything”. My friends absolutely rue talking to me because most of the time I just relentlessly spout out the absolute worst puns. I am a pun friend. It's not a competition when I meet a fellow pun friend, just an invitation to make everyone in the entire room groan in unison which is the greatest feeling ever.
Tend to overreact to most all things ever. Sometimes I spend too much time thinking about the past. I'm really sensitive, too. I don't know how to stop that.
Appearance: [picture ref] short 5'2, average build/slightly curvy, wears a Circa Survive hoodie and hats in all seasons. Owner of many hats, she prefers a black beanie or the pictured newsboy cap and will fall asleep with all clothes on.
Preferred weapon: Boomerang/magic/ranged weapons (though a distaste for guns)
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 18
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
If you had one wish, you would ask for… a large lizard mount named Zepson
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? 6 to speed 4 to attack
Favourite colour: I should probably say Lavenderbut it's Aqua
Favourite animals: cats, geckos, birds, chinchillas -
Splashy
aww yeessss a Scary fic!
let's goooo
copy-pasting some from Dust'sPreferred Name: Splashy Silve
Gender: Female
Personality: Optimistic, hopelessly romantic, energetic on the outside. Wants the best for others but often will overlook own needs for that of others to the extreme sometimes. She's the girl who always pretends to be perfectly fine but usually isn't- prefers to keep uglier feelings and thoughts hidden from the world. Feels like she can't show those emotions to others because who people expect her to be, because others expect her to be fine- appears very open and trusting but often doesn't truly open up to people unless she knows them very well. INFJ and a Gemini if that helps.
Appearance: Average height with a small build. She's generally fairly tan and has slightly wavy/straight (Depends on the morning) black hair which she keeps cut to just below her shoulders. Clothing wise she's fairly girly, generally wearing blues, dresses out of laziness, skirts, and the like. She doesn't wear a lot of jewelry, usually keeping it to small earrings.
Preferred weapon: Chainsaw or a blade of some sort idk
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 12
Alignment: Good but where she lies on Lawful-Chaotic I'm not particularly sure.
If you had one wish, you would ask for…my future terrifying student loans to not be a thing plzTo be honest I'd probably be an indecisive mess and not know what to ask for. I'd have too many ideas going through my mind (a dance career, for the world to be powered cleanly,STUDENT LOANS, to fly, for discrimination and hate based on race, sexuality, gender, identity, etc. to end, peace, etc.)
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? I'd probably put five in speed, two in evasion or something like that (whatever helps dodge) and three in attack. Hit fast and well, be somewhat irritating to hit.
Favourite colour: Blue
Favourite animals: Cats, dragons, koalas, cute baby animals -
Snowstep
Ooh, this sounds cool. Definitely looking forward to this!
Preferred Name: Alexandra “Snow” Step.
Gender: Female.
Appearance: She's a bit short for her age (about 5'2″), fair-skinned, and slender in build. Her face is heart-shaped; she has a straight nose, high cheekbones, and dark brown eyes. Her dark brown hair is straight and falls to about her shoulders, though she usually keeps it tied back or braided. She tends to wear simple, comfortable clothing–jeans, T-shirts, and a pair of rather battered black high-top sneakers. She also tends to wear a rather ordinary green jacket.
Personality: She's a bit quiet at first glance–though not necessarily shy or unfriendly–and tends to think before she speaks. But there's more to her than meets the eye. Upon getting to know her, Snow reveals herself to be a loyal, warm-hearted person with a good sense of humor and a tendency to look on the bright side of a situation. Around those she knows and trusts, she can be far more talkative and rather affectionate (putting a hand on someone's shoulder, that kind of thing). However, she can be somewhat naive, may over-think things, tends to bottle up her problems, and may be a bit too hard on herself. I'm an INFP and a Taurus if that helps.
Preferred weapon: A longsword.
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 64.
Alignment: Lawful Good.
If you had one wish, you would ask for… To be able to heal folks by touching them.
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? Hmm… I'd put a couple into dexterity, a few into intelligence, a few into strength, and then a couple into charisma. Way I figure it, being dexterous can always come in handy. And putting 3 of those points into intelligence sure couldn't hurt, as there are bound to be times when you've got to use your noggin. Of course, having 3 points invested into strength can't hurt on the chance that I get into a scrap–knowing how to handle a weapon wouldn't do much good if you can't lift the darn thing or hit very hard. And as for those last 2 points put into charisma, where's the harm in talking your way of trouble if you can?
Favourite colour: Forest green.
Favourite animals: Dogs, otters, and horses. -
tinyfeather
Preferred Name: tiny
Gender: female
Personality: smart, sarcastic, short-tempered. Easily frustrated. Kind and a bleeding heart. Worries about everything. Anxious. Often cynical, but often not. Helpful. Swears a lot. Creative and open-minded. Sometimes surprisingly funny. very introverted and needs time to recover after interaction.
Appearance: short (little longer than chin-length) pink hair, green eyes, pretty pale. 5'7″ and not skinny. Has a septum ring and claw-like natural nails that she keeps painted. Usually wears lace, floral patterns, pink, dresses and skirts or skinny jeans. Believes that everything is better high-waisted. Rarely seen without winged eyeliner.
Preferred weapon: laser blaster do u kno me at all
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 369
Alignment: neutral good
If you had one wish, you would ask for… worldwide equality
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? ohhh i dunno how to answer this ): i don't play enough games
eta: bc scary made me i am trYING!!!
uh well i'd probably have no strength. this is true to life. probs some intelligence because *flips hair* duh, and dexterity?? and maybe some ~spirity~ stuff or whatever makes you more magical
Favourite colour: purple, light pink, mint
Favourite animals: cats, birds, deer, foxes -
Holly
Preferred Name: Holly
Gender: nonbinary (she/her)
Personality: quiet but comfortable and joking/sarcastic around people she knows. always has a book on her and will not hesitate to pull it out. has a twisted sense of humor – morbid things are actually sort of hilarious. curses a lot and is relentlessly passionate about, say, greek mythology and history and other things she likes. will literally talk about this for hours if you let her (don't let her). attempts to make puns. usually fails. throws herself into dangerous situations without much fear. very curious and tends to flounce off to anything that draws her attention without telling anyone. bad at making decisions. don't let her make decisions.
Appearance: short (let's say 5'0″) and around average build. has longish black hair dyed pink at the ends and brown eyes. wears a lot of jeans/leggings/shorts and large sweaters, though isn't averse to tank tops. always wears her trusty ol' converse hi-tops and carries around a backpack with various nerdy pins on it. like, marie antoinette and shakespeare kinda nerdy.
Preferred weapon: shortsword and a pistol/bow & arrow, whatever works best c:
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 312
Alignment: chaotic neutral
If you had one wish, you would ask for… the ability to freeze time so i could like … sleep and nothing would happen and i could avoid my responsibilities forever
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? UHHH what fantasy game?? i guess i'd spend a fair amount on intelligence. maybe a couple on luck. strength too.
Favourite colour: pink or green
Favourite animals: cats -
Arcade Heat
Preferred Name: Heat
Gender: Male
Personality: Heat is a fairly outgoing person, but is also a bit of a blueberry. He has a comment or an opinion on everything, and won't hesitate to let other people know how he really feels. He can be fairly dramatic at times, and often embellishes stories that he tells. He gets offended somewhat easily, and can hold grudges easily and for a long time. He can also get in verbal and physical arguments easily. He can be rather vain at times, and always takes pride in his appearance. He doesn't particularly like it when he has to sweat, as it “ruins his appearance”. Most of his boisterousness is just a facade, as he is insecure about himself and doesn't want to be alone. Faced with a tough situation, unless he can find an answer quickly, Heat usually throws himself into the action without looking at things. During the day, he usually has a coffee cup in his hand. When he goes out at night, he enjoys drinking, but usually doesn't have much of a tolerance. He really likes fighting/combat in general, and generally sees it as more of a game than anything else.
Appearance: Slim build, with a height about 5'10. He isn't overly muscular, but he isn't really skinny, either. He has medium length dirty blond hair with light blond highlights, which reaches about mid neck level. the bangs are usually swept to the left side of his face, barely covering his left eye at times. His face doesn't have many pronounced features, although he does have noticeable cheekbones. Other than the cheekbones, the rest of his face could be described as childlike. He typically wears dark wash or black jeans, a grey T-shirt, and a red and black plaid long sleeve button up, which he leaves unbuttoned. When it's colder, he wears a blue and grey knit hoodie. If it's really cold, he wears a black jacket and a blue scarf.
Preferred weapon: Sabre/Rapier and pistol
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 666
Alignment: Chaotic Good
If you had one wish, you would ask for… To be a faery/elf?
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? 4 on magic, 4 on strength, and then 2 on speed. Mage knight ftw.
Favourite colour: Black and Red
Favourite animals: Fox/Kitsune -
Tom
I'm useless during the week, lol. Will definitely do something for this on the weekend.
-
Tom
PROLOGUE
THE OLD CITY DREAM
[xquote]The old city was a pretty spooky place, these days.
There was very little light, and no warmth. None knew exactly where the old city was sealed off, but wherever it was, the sun couldn't be seen from any part of the city. Electricity supply would have been ended long ago, had it not been for the renewable energy machinations of mad scientists long ago. But even that was faltering; most of the old lights in buildings were scarcely flickering, and many had just gone bust with old age.
On any normal night, the only life was the robotic sentries of the Old City Police. The only sounds to be heard were the dull thud of their heavy footsteps, and the awkward vocals of their pre-programmed banter.
However, this night was no normal night. On this night, the old city had some company for the first time in a long, long time.
The Stranger walked hastily down the main street of the old city, the footsteps of the Police sentries nowhere to be heard. But despite the Stranger's proud and hasty movements, their steps made no sound. In fact, as they walked, their feet didn't quite connect with the pavement.
The Stranger was wearing a fairly cliche mysterious stranger outfit, but it clearly didn't befit them. Their steps were, while quick, somewhat clumsy and lopsided. A hood was pulled around their head, and fastened by a handful of colourful hair clips to a surprisingly cool plastic mask in the shape of a cat's face.
From the main street, the Stranger's path turned very abruptly into a tiny alley, which apparently led to the back of the city hall.
Only a few paces down this alley, there was a massive steel wall, spanning as high as the city hall itself and as wide as the alley. The Stranger noted that this had never been there back when the old city was well populated, and it appeared completely impregnable by any normal means. But that wasn't a deterrent. In fact, that was great. That meant they were on the right path.
After only a moment's hesitation, the Stranger walked straight into the metal barricade – and found themselves in another place. At first glance, the place the Stranger was now in was just the main street of the old city. However, after a few moments a few subtle differences became apparent. For example none of the buildings had names, or functioning front doors. Their windows were pitch black, and not just for lack of light. While the sound of the Police sentries had been pretty quiet before, they were absolutely gone now. Last but not least was the lighting. Although there was no discernible source of it, the other side of the main street was dully lit, as if by moonlight.
These differences did not cause the Stranger much concern, or indeed even to break their stride. The city hall was their target, and mere moments later they were in front of its colossal doors.
As the Stranger approached the doors, there was a click, and they slowly groaned open. A brilliant golden light emanated from inside, and the Stranger uttered a gasp.
The sudden burst of light had done it. They could feel their host's eyelids flutter, ever so slightly. This dream was coming to an end. They had to move quickly.
The world suddenly crashing down, the Stranger held a gloved hand over the eye holes on their mask, trying to keep the disruptive light from breaking through, taking quick steps into the golden light room. It was no good. With every step the light became more intense, and alarms started and the sentries were coming and the Stranger tore their hand away from their face and opened their eyes and with all their might focused on the object of their search and there, in the distance, they could see it so they leapt and stretched out their hand and they could feel something hard and metallic in their fing—
The host woke with a start, abruptly jumping into a sitting position, fighting back the urge to scream for no particular reason.
What a bizarre nightmare… they thought. Once the host's heartbeat had returned to normal, they lazily returned to laying down and rolled over to glance at their alarm clock. It was only 5.30, their shift didn't start for hours. The host rolled back over and allowed themselves to slowly doze off, paying no heed to the small metal object lying beside them.
[/xquote]
-
Splashy
Scary wrote:Electricity supply would have been ended long ago, had it not been for the renewable energy machinations of mad scientists long ago.
i see what you did thar
Scary wrote:a fairly cliche mysterious stranger outfit
amazingi am so intrigued by this prologue- who see the stranger and why are they invading people's dreams
i demand more -
tinyfeather
hello yes i would like more please thank you
-
Bladeh
Sorry that I'm a bit late!
Preferred Name: Bladeh Mercury
Gender: Female
Personality: Overall quiet and shy. She stutters, mixes up words in sentences, and does not make eye contact when talking to someone, preferring to look at the ground or the listener’s shoulder. She has a tendency to talk a lot about her interests for extended periods of time. She doesn’t realize that she’s doing it at first, but once she realizes, she apologizes for it. She usually needs things repeated many times to understand what the other person is talking about. Normally doesn’t let emotions show unless she is extremely emotional. Is sarcastic sometimes, especially when bothered. Worries easily. Doesn't trust people very easily and always demands proof to a claim. Has a hard time making decisions. She is very disorganized and as a result can be forgetful at times. Full of energy but hardly uses it, preferring to write or be on the computer. She doesn’t like to be bored and always tries to be entertained. She sometimes is caught drifting off in her imagination, which causes her to not to pay attention to her surroundings. Normally will bring a notebook to write in wherever she goes. When extremely excited, she will flap her hands. She will play around with her fingers (or a pen/pencil if available) when bored or stressed.
Appearance: Short (a little taller than 5 feet) and somewhat overweight. Has brown hair that goes halfway down the back and may sometimes be tied up in a loose ponytail. Has green eyes and wears black wire-framed glasses. Normally wears a black t-shirt, jeans, and black shoes and really doesn't stray from that. Does not wear makeup, dresses, or jewelry.
Preferred weapon: A gun or a knife
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 397
Alignment: I'm finding myself in both true neutral and neutral good, so I'm not exactly sure
If you had one wish, you would ask for… people being caring and more understanding of each other
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? I would probably use most on intelligence and luck and then have a couple for strength. I don't really play games, so I'm probably not doing this right.
Favourite colour: Blue
Favourite animals: Cats -
Dustfeather
Just realised “animals” is plural, so I added penguins and owls to my sign-up too
I'm intrigued by the mysterious stranger
Looking forward to more! -
Sorrel
i love it!
Preferred Name: Sorrel
Gender: female
Personality: infp capricorn. Good-hearted but weird. Really loving and loyal, but feels weird when it's returned. Is emotional and secretive, and while rly friendly, keeps people at arms-length.
Appearance: She's witchy. Long lavender hair, usually with dark lips and dark eyeliner. Average height, slim build. Likes black. Wears dresses or high-waisted stuff. always on point
Preferred weapon: Magic!!!
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 120
Alignment: Chaotic good
If you had one wish, you would ask for… I would ask for the success of the intersectional feminist movement
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? 5 on magic, 5 on intelligence
Favourite colour: Maroon
Favourite animals: -
Tom
CHAPPIE ONE
DUCKS…?
[xquote]Dust LeCornflake stood on the balcony of her small cottage, a short distance from the main cluster of the new city. She cradled a cup of tea in her hands, battling the same issue which had challenged her so regularly since they had moved to the new city.
It was a really nice day which made her want to wander in to city, catch up with some friends, have a lazy breakfast and then make up the rest of her day from there. At the same time, every single day in the new city was a really nice day, and she had to stop herself from procrastinating against writing the next instalment in her series of novels. Dust knew that by the time she finished her cup of tea she had to make a decision one way or the other.
She turned quickly and wandered back into her living room. Her eyes quickly flickered to the clock on the far wall of the room, failing to recognise what the time actually was, but remembering that she really ought to buy herself a new watch. That minor epiphany cemented the course of the rest of her day.
“Sorry career,” she mumbled reactively to the computer in the corner of her living room. It wasn't switched on so it didn't reply. Dust quickly finished off her tea and disposed of the cup in her dishwasher. She grabbed the purple cardigan hanging from the hat stand next to her door, throwing it around herself as she stepped out into the slightly cool, but sunny morning.
The area where Dust lived was slightly low-lying and surprisingly full of plant life, considering its proximity to the industrial city. There was a small cluster of houses, where those who preferred a bit more peace and quiet had chosen to make their home.
As far as Dust was convinced, there was nowhere better to live in the entire world. It only took about 15 minutes to walk northwest into the new city, although the path wound a fair bit, and if she took the other part of the path directly east, it only took half an hour to read the nearest beach.
Dust took the path towards the new city, following the path through a small park. She noticed that the little pond which was usually dried up was surprisingly inundated. She couldn't remember when it had last rained, but she didn't dwell on it for too long. The pond was absolutely full of ducks, which were much more worthy of her attention.
She stood by the pond for a little while, watching them. They were swimming in slow circles, occasionally uttering a monotonous 'quack', and periodically turning their heads slowly, glancing at her and then turning their attention back to swimming in slow circles.
It didn't take long before Dust was slightly unnerved by their behaviour. It wasn't unlike ducks to not really do anything, but these ducks were very specifically doing something. Their movements were slow and precise, and the longer she watched, she began to notice that there was at least one duck observing her at all times.
Acting cool, she forced a slightly awkward smile, then slowly turned and walked away briskly towards the new city. She had no idea what was going but there was at least one major duck enthusiast in the city who might be interested.
Once Dust had put a bit of distance between herself and the peculiar raft of ducks, she casually glanced over her shoulder.
Her eyes were met by the black, beady, bottomless gaze of a solitary mallard.
“Quack,” it spoke, just slightly slower than what one would expect from a duck. “Quack, quack.”
As strange as the situation was, Dust couldn't help but feel unnerved and threatened by the little bird. There was something about its stance and the tone of its quacks which just urged her to stop looking, turn around and go on her way.
The Wisher doubled her pace, taking a few shortcuts off the path. The city was close now, and she'd reach it in a few minutes' time. The malignant mallard glided along the path, following every wind with a discomforting confidence. In spite of its tiny size, the bird moved fast.
As Dust neared the new city, the duck hot on her heels, she saw the outline of a much more familiar person.
The girl was standing still, facing towards the city and away from dust. Short pink hair fell towards her shoulders, which held a floral blouse. There was no mistaking her. Dust allowed herself to run for a few moments to catch up.
“Tiny!” she called, not bothered what the duck thought. But the girl didn't respond, as if she hadn't heard Dust's cry. “Tiny?” Dust asked again, catching up to her friend and placing a hand on her shoulder.
Tiny turned around, but not the same way Dust had expected.
The bottom half of her face was the perfect image of a duck's beak. Her eyes, normally a bright green, we're very small, and black as night.
Dust couldn't help but take a moment to admire that even though this version of Tiny was a duck, she had still taken the time to apply her usual winged eyeliner.
“Quack quack quack,” the malignant mallard said, casually waddling up to the duo. There was a strangely military sound to these quacks.
“Quack quack,” the Tiny duck said, pausing for a few moments. “Quack quack quack.” it finished in sheer monotone.
Dust's stomach suddenly knotted as she began to realise the severity of the situation. Dozens of duck people were emerging from nearby doorways. most of them had fairly human features – hair, clothes, some of them were even armed. Some of them were obviously less skilled at this. Their clothes looked awkward and fit poorly, some of them even still had wings and bald heads.
Dust turned back to the Tiny duck, not sure where to look. But as she turned back towards her, she was surprised to see her beak quickly receding back into her face, to be replaced with a very human nose and mouth. The Tiny duck smiled.
That's when Dust absolutely lost her composure. She turned away from them and went to run back out of the city, unsure of where to go but knowing that she had to get away.
“Dust!” a familiar, booming voice called out from somewhere. “Dust, wake up!!”
Dust turned to see where the voice came from, and found her face suddenly submerged in a pillow. She lay still for a few moments, letting the strangeness and fear of her dream settle in a bit. But her brain then decided it was time to remind her that this was a duck feather pillow.
She got out of bed very quickly, coming to realise that there was a sharp knocking at her front door.
“Dust? Hello? Wake up!” Tiny's voice. Actually Tiny. Definitely Tiny.
“Tiny? Hi! I had the strangest dream, and you–” Dust replied but she was cut off.
“I know!” Tiny called. “Get dressed and come outside quickly, something really weird is going on. We have to get to the city right now.”
[/xquote]
-
Dustfeather
!! Loved this chapter
I'm definitely that indecisive in real life xDVery intrigued as to the significance of the duck people
-
Splashy
but what do the ducks mean??
plz explain scary
are you trying to take over with an army of duck people -
Tom
what do you mean? surely it was just a dream… just a crazy, crazy nightmare…..
what even are ducks. there are no ducks. nothin' sus here.
-
tinyfeather
“Dust couldn't help but take a moment to admire that even though this version of Tiny was a duck, she had still taken the time to apply her usual winged eyeliner.”
this is the most accurate thing i've ever read
this chapter was beautiful -
Jilda
Preferred Name: Jilda
Gender: Female
Personality: Puts up a very strong, out going front. Is nice and doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings though sometimes may unintentionally say things that rub the wrong way with others. Really talkative and loud and out there, however is actually super sensitive and can over think things a lot and when too much is bottled up, she'll have a crying episode meltdown.
Appearance: 5'4″ in height, around 124 lbs, pretty in shape. Light skin, dark, dark dirty blonde hair and dark green eyes. A pretty roundish nose. Typically has a bold or nice nude lip color going on.
Preferred weapon: anything involving makeup, like laser lipsticks. C'mon that'd be so much fun.
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 727
Alignment: Neutral Neutral
If you had one wish, you would ask for… that I'll get to live a long happy fulfilling life
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? Most for speed, some for intelligence and like ONE for strengthtbh dont even know what im talking about
Favourite colour: green!
Favourite animals: dolphins -
Lightning
I totally didn't get asked to do this.
Alright, here's my universal form thing but idk why it doesn't go to the right link…
And then the other things not in that form!
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 25
If you had one wish, you would ask for…: Erm. I want to fly.
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them?: Mainly on offensive stats and then one on speed lmao
Favourite animals: Owls -
fireheart
*slides in like three weeks late* hello friends i am here (if i'm too late then uh. sorry bout that)
i've got the universal sign-up filled out, and here's the stuff that wasn't in the universal form!
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 243
If you had one wish, you would ask for…: $10k dollars transferred to my bank account each month for the rest of my life, uh
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them?: 7 on intelligence with 3 on luck
Favourite animals: Any and all reptiles, also sharks and cats and dogs! birds are also excellent -
Tom
thanks fireheart ^^ accepted for sure, i'll start the clumsy process of adding you to the first page from my phone.
eta: chapter two up, i swear things will start making more sense next chapter, welp
also attack of the formatting errors, i'll work on annihilating these on the bus to work. -
Tom
CHAPPIE TWO
CITY MEETING
[xquote]The new city's city hall was actually busier than it ever had been. People from all parts of the new city and the outskirts had accumulated in the space of about half an hour. The main hall of the building had a number of pews laid out, the raised platform at the far end acting as a stage. This setup had been used before for musical performances and acting, but not yet for any formal meetings.
Splashy Silve wasn't sure exactly why all of this was going on, but she was pretty sure she could take a guess. She had a pretty creepy dream last night. Normally this wouldn't be of much interest to anyone, except maybe her close friends if her lack of sleep worsened her coffee dependency for a couple of days. But there were two things about it which really got under her skin.
In this dream, there was someone or something trying to get into her apartment. A sharp knocking at the door, nobody in the hallway. A dull thud on her external window, creepily enough, but nobody outside. Dream-Splashy had been lucid enough to figure that sooner or later, this situation would get worse. At that point, it would be better if she was extremely alert. Unfortunately, to reach the fancy coffee machine she would need to leave her room and walk down the hall which may result in sudden death. So she had decided to settle for an instant coffee, and had started boiling her kettle.
“Splaaashyyyy…” a thin, raspy voice had croaked from outside her door. Only a moment had passed, before it happened again. “Splaaaaaaaashyyyyyyyy…“
“Hey, what's up?” Splashy had called back. Sure it was creepy, but she wasn't going to let it get her down. She had already began to suspect that this was just a dream. If she stayed calm, she was confident she could kick the butt of whatever this thing was.
PING! Her kettle had said. She had loaded a heaped teaspoon of coffee into a mug, then eyed the container of sugar next to her. After little extra consideration, she had also added a heaped teaspoon of sugar, then went about completing the coffee.
Splashy had sat back in her lounge, and taken a slow sip of the beverage. That is when the first thing had hit her. The taste was absolutely sensational. It had carried all of the usual pleasures of the first coffee of the day. But this was the first time she had ever had the sense of taste in a dream. She had dreamed of wandering through fields made of cream puffs many times – but never, ever had the pleasure of tasting one of the tiny pastries.
Anyway, the rest of the dream hadn't been all that interesting. The intruder had blown her front door open, Splashy had reached for the massive blade hidden behind her couch, and nothing super exciting from there.
But, the second thing that had bothered Splashy was outside of the dream. She had been sitting towards the middle of the room, slowly sipping through a thermos of coffee and keeping her ear to the ground. By the sounds of the general murmured conversation around the room, she would guess that about half of the citizens of the city had all had fairly vivid scary dreams on the same night. She had even overheard at least two people who had nearly the same dream she had.
There was a creaking noise, signalling that the massive doors at the rear of the hall were being opened. Most people there would have missed it while absorbed in their own conversations, but Splashy was very tuned in to this sort of thing. She turned to watch the new entries to the room.
Tiny and Dust were the first ones to enter, holding the door open for two or three other Wishers who Splashy recognised as being from the outskirts, near where Dust lived. She would have waved, but she knew there was no way they would have seen her where she was sitting. Dust and the others from the outskirts quietly seated themselves towards the rear of the hall, on one of the many pew-like benches throughout the hall.
Tiny whispered something in Dust's ear. Dust nodded quickly, then turned to relay the message to the others from the suburbs. Tiny herself quickly disappeared into a doorway close to the doors, which Splashy knew led up behind the stage. Splashy turned back to watching the stage, casually eavesdropping. She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, and quickly plucked it out to check what the deal was.
It was from Scary, a semi-retired mad scientist from the old city. He had tried opening a couple of staple-themed cafes over the last few months, but unfortunately there just weren't that many people who were keen on staple-related furniture (admittedly, the chairs had been ridiculously uncomfortable). After the last failure, he had opened up a strange antique shop which didn't really tend to stock anything that Splashy could foresee anyone buying. He had basically disappeared from the public eye for at least two weeks now.
Meet me behind the stage after this. It read, simply. Splashy wasn't sure what to think. The lack of personification suggested that it was probably a group message, but she couldn't figure out why it had been sent out. Could it have some connection to the dreams, or to today's meeting?
As Splashy returned the phone to her pocket, the noise level in the room suddenly dropped tremendously. Her eyes immediately returned to the stage, where four members of the city were now approaching the small lectern, front and centre on the stage.
Tiny led the group, still looking a bit flustered. She couldn't be blamed, she would have had to run really quickly to reach the stage in such good time. Behind her were Lavender, Jilda and Lightning, all three of them smiling and looking really proud of themselves. Now this, Splashy couldn't decipher. Though everybody in the small group did get along well, it appeared to be a group of four completely random Wishers. She couldn't put her finger on why they would be addressing everyone together.
“Good morning, fellow Wishers,” Tiny opened, looking uncomfortable with her role. “We wanted to bring you all here today to make a very exciting announcement.” She turned and signalled for the others to approach the lectern instead, making a very speedy retreat to stand behind them.
Lightning glanced at Jilda, who glanced at Lavender. Lavender in turn glanced back at Lightning, who paused for a moment, before glancing back at Lavender. They both turned to Jilda, who looked for a moment like she wasn't sure where to look, but shrugged and stepped up to the microphone on the lectern.
“Hello everyone, I hope you've had a great morning!” Jilda started, with a slightly uncertain, but generally charismatic tone. “So, no doubt everyone here has heard about the new TV series that's going to be launched next week?”
There was a general murmur of agreement around the crowd. It was going to be a Warriors Wish sensation, for sure. When they had all moved to the new city, Hawkfrost, their old arch-nemesis, had made a desperate attempt to take over the city. However, the then-mad scientists of the city had stood up to him, kicked his butt, and shipped him off to a tiny island in the middle of the ocean.
A group of brave Wishers had travelled out to the aptly-named “Hawkfrost Island”, and made a documentary about his day-to-day island life from the safest distance possible. Despite the fact that he had clearly gone stark raving mad in his isolation, apparently he had some kind of bizarre schedule going on. At the same time every single morning, he would have breakfast. Not much more had been said, but it sounded pretty interesting.
“Basically, we've decided that we can't force you good people to wait another week for it. So the start date has been moved a bit ahead of schedule, to…” Jilda wasn't wearing a watch, but she glanced at her wrist for dramatic effect, trailing off in her sentence. The whole room was in dead silence as she pretended to check the time. After what seemed like forever, she raised her head again. “Two hours from now.”
There was a general excited buzz around the hall as everyone discussed the news. Splashy took a long sip of her coffee, partly because she was worried it would get cold and partly because coffee is great.
“The RB cafe is getting ready for a pre-launch party right now,” Lightning announced, taking the lectern. “Free drinks for the next half hour, get over there right away!” Everyone leaped straight out of their seats, not bothering to wait for any form of debrief, making a beeline for the doors leading back to the main street.
Lavender took the mic to add a final statement. “Hawk this way! It'll be a really chill time!” Unfortunately, the pun was lost in space. Watching everyone walk away, she added “Well that was hawkward.”
“Really? We really have to have the puns?” Lightning groaned.
“Thanks for the help,” Tiny cut in, re-approaching the trio, turning off the mic and lowering her voice. Splashy was still among the crowd, but unfortunately the rest of their conversation was out of earshot. She noticed there were still a few people around the place, mostly checking their phones. Splashy figured she would bide her time until most of the people there had left, then just make for the rooms behind the stage.
On the stage, Tiny was talking to the rest of the Hawkfrost Show last-minute-hype team. “I had no idea how I was going to keep everyone's attention off those creepy dreams.” She admitted.
“It's fine,” Jilda said, speaking for the three of them. “Luckily, editing the series is way ahead of schedule. Do we get to find out what this is all about?”
“Sorry, I'm not really sure either. I was just asked if I could help get everyone distracted for the time being. As soon as I know more I'll let you know.” Tiny made a very quick escape for a door on the side of the hall, leading away from the stage and the main room. “I'll see you later!”
Once she had left, the others turned to each other, slightly bemused.
“Should we head for the RB?” Lightning asked to get some conversation going.
“Oh, definitely,” Lavender replied instantly. “I have a whole host of Hawkfrost puns ready to go.”
[/xquote] -
Splashy
what are they up to tiny wat r u doing
what are they doing
explain -
tinyfeather
i am so ready for more… :0 that dream would creep me out so bad
AND [member=50]Splashy[/member] IDK WHAT I'M DOIN
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Dustfeather
HF reality show should be a real thing :'D
Brilliant chapter! I love your writing style
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Lightning
The fact that I'm the one asking Lav if the puns are needed really shows something about me omg a+++
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lavender
*evil laughter* the puns are absolutely necessary
xDI'm loving this~
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Jilda
I love this omg
the puns the PUNS
I really am wondering what Tiny and the rest are up to though :0
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Jingle
Ohh, v interesting so far, can I sigh up pls?
My universal form is on the thread (idk how to link it though??) So the applicable parts here are just copy/pasted from there
Preferred Name: Jingle
Gender: Female
Personality: Super friendly, though often times awkward around people she doesn’t know very well. Almost always cheerful perky. She has a very big heart and always wants to help people, even if she can’t.
Appearance: Chin-length wavy hair with an ombre color. Medium height, medium build with wide hips. She has a round nose and eyebrows that can’t be tamed. Winged eyeliner is a staple.
Preferred weapon: sword of some kind
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 113
Alignment: Probably Neutral Good?
If you had one wish, you would ask for… Hmm… To be sure that I'm going to be able to support myself after college lmao
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? I'd distribute them as evenly as possible, with any extra points to offensive skills
Favourite colour: Green
Favourite animals: Hmm… Dogs(esp Greyhounds), cats, giraffes, fennec foxes, lizards… -
Tom
Awesome thanks Jinglepie ^.^ I'm still asleep rn but accepted! I'll add you to the first post when I wake up
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Lightning
*evil laughter* the puns are absolutely necessary
xDI'm loving this~
No, the puns are not necessary. >
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Tom
*evil laughter* the puns are absolutely necessary
xDI'm loving this~
No, the puns are not necessary. >
c'mon guys, don't start a pun civil war. there's enough of a mandarin-storm coming
i've got the next one written out but it's terrible. xD lots of exposition this chapter so i'll need to chop it up to make it readable.
eta is probably like thurs/fri
-
Tom
CHAPPIE THREE
THE SECRET MEETING
[xquote]Bladeh Mercury was a little bit surprised when she had first received the text. She remembered long, long ago when she had been caught up in a few of the same crazy adventures as Scary had. But she had been living a much more reclusive life since she had moved to the new city — and Scary himself had been even more reclusive again. Bladeh was sure she hadn't seen him for at least a month now.
The reason he had summoned the small group was yet to be revealed. Bladeh was sitting around the same table as Splashy, Dust and Tiny. There were two empty chairs. One was being used by Scary, who had just rushed off to get something. The other… they weren't sure yet.
“At least Scary left us some drinks,” Tiny mumbled, taking a quick drink of her hot chocolate. Originally she had been relieved to sit down at last, but it had been over half an hour since the meeting in the city hall had finished.
Dust mmm'd her agreement, half way through a sip of Earl Grey tea. Scary had insisted it was the best Earl Grey ever produced. In fact, it was allegedly so good that it had been banned in six countries. While Dust conceded that the tea was really good, she would never admit to secretly suspecting that Scary didn't get out enough.
“What do you think this is all about?” Bladeh asked, watching herself playing with a pen she had in her pocket. Scary hadn't told them anything before he ran off.
“Welllll,” Tiny hopped in, slowly taking her phone out of her pocket. “At 3 this morning, I had a text from Scary saying: “You just had a bad dream. Call me when you wake up.” I woke up at 5.30 from a nightmare to that text, so–“
The door to the room suddenly opened, clearly with much more flourish than the opener had intended. Heat wandered into the room, being uncharacteristically cautious about re-closing the door very slowly. Aware that everyone had turned to watch his entrance, he did his best to strut past them all to the other side of the room. Arriving at a vacant chair, he allowed himself to drop into the chair perfunctorily.
“Hi Heat!” Splashy opened, after a few moments.
“I love the RB. Free drinks are amazing,” Heat sighed, leaning back into his chair. “Please don't talk to me for a few moments.”
“So, yeah…” Tiny slipped back into the conversation, her train of thought suddenly back on the tracks. “I spoke to Scary this morning and he told me that apparently a whole bunch of people were going to have really weird dreams all of a sudden last night. He told me to create some distraction for most of the city, so that he could assemble a few people who he knows are good at dealing with really strange stuff.”
Bladeh raised an eyebrow. “Why did he text you first?” She asked, then after a moment, “and how did Lightning, Jilda and Lavender get involved?”
“Jilda was the first person I saw this morning.” Tiny replied. “I walked down the road from my place and she was sitting out the front of this little breakfast place eating a mango. She stopped me because I looked a bit flustered, so I told her that I needed a huge distraction to get the whole city's attention. Luckily, she's ended up doing a lot of the media stuff for this Hawkfrost reality show. So it kinda went from there. As for why Scary texted me first? SkyClan pride, of course.” Tiny continued to mutter under her breath, something about how he had no idea what SkyClan pride was, and something about not helping with something.
Disregarding the last bit, Bladeh was pretty satisfied with Tiny's explanation. She casually drew a notebook from her pocket and wrote down a few things. Something told her that this was going to get pretty confusing pretty quickly, and she wanted to make sure she didn't forget anything.
“Sooo… Question of the day.” Splashy volunteered once everyone has had quietened down again. “What's up with the dreams? I had a really creepy one last night too.”
“Me too,” Dust put in.
“Same,” Bladeh confirmed.
“Weird dreams? Yep, right here,” Heat added, re-joining the conversation.
“Maybe I can answer that,” another male voice cut in, as Scary re-appeared in the doorway, a trolley in tow. The trolley had a white sheet hung over it to obscure the contents. It was clearly for show. “Welcome Heat, hi again everyone else,”
He made to wheel the trolley past the small group of Wishers to the other end of the table, where there was more room. Unfortunately for him, he had to pass Splashy, who was suddenly taken by a tremendous urge to do something sneaky. She yanked the white sheet upwards heavily as Scary walked past her, revealing the device inside.
“Aww,” Scary said, making a sad face at Splashy before he went on. She just grinned as a response. “Aw,” he added, the trolley and its strange content finally reaching the other end of the room.
The device he picked up from the trolley was in a jagged cylindrical shape, a little taller than a waste paper bin. A few different sheets of assorted metal had been awkwardly attached to the basic shape, totally obscuring whatever may have been inside the metal cylinder. To make its aesthetic problems even better, it had been crudely and hurriedly painted purple. He placed it on the table between the Wishers, causing them all to instinctively draw back.
“What the grapefruit is that?” Heat asked before anyone else had a chance to react.
“This,” Scary began, pausing for dramatic effect as he removed what appeared to be a lid from the top of it. He withdrew half a dozen sets of small, cheap earphones before continuing, “Is the Dream Machine Mk. 2.”
“One vote for the stupidest name ever,” Tiny muttered.
“Hey! I didn't come up with it!” Scary objected. “The original Dream Machine was a project the mad scientists were working on a while ago in the old city. Its history is a little convoluted, but we ended up trying to make a machine which could influence people's dreams. Like a lucid dreaming machine.” He paused, furrowing his eyebrows. “But we never really finished it, and I have no idea where the prototype went. Anyway, this is a really quick remake based on an old blueprint I had lying around.”
At this point, Bladeh realised what the purpose of the text was. She was immensely curious, but not really sure how to feel about what was going on.
“In theory, the Dream Machine Mk. 2 should force someone to have a dream,” Scary explained, trailing off and scratching his head absently.
“In theory meaning it hasn't been tested… at all?” Dust interjected, realising half way through that she already knew the answer.
“I'm like, at least 80% sure it works. Probably.” Scary said, nodding confidently. Dust would have argued further, but she couldn't help but remember the old days. There had been a time when Scary was the only mad scientist in the city. He may be a little bit too mad, but by the same token, she could hardly disrespect his mad science skills.
“This is going to be a bit of an info dump.” Scary apologised, reaching into a deep pocket of the jacket he was wearing. He withdraw what appeared to be a crystal about the size of a baseball. “This is what we called a Stabiliser.” He held it out for all to see. The small object had an impossible number of clear, reflective faces. Bladeh leaned forward in her seat to glance at it, mesmerised by how pretty it was.
“I can't remember how we managed to make these things, it was a really long time ago and it's an alloy from another dimension. If you take one of these things into a dream and leave it there, it changes the nature of the dreams a bit. Most dreams, you'll forget as soon as you wake up. But if you manage to drop one of these in there, you should be able to get back into it if you try hard enough.”
For a moment, Bladeh could see her face in the little object with better clarity than any mirror she had ever seen. She stared deeper into it, unable to understand how it could possibly be so beautiful. Bladeh's eyes remained locked on it for some time, resisting the urge to blink.
But when she did blink, the image changed rapidly. She could see a man's figure, standing against a dark backdrop. Some suburban area at night. There was a streetlamp a few metres behind him, but no visible light in front of him, causing him to cast a long shadow. He was wearing a hoodie with the hood drawn, his head hanging downwards slightly to obscure his face. Bladeh could feel her heartbeat start to accelerate, but she found herself naturally curious, and leaned in further, trying to see just a bit more of this man.
Suddenly he looked up, with eyes as red as blood.
The stranger took a slow, deliberate step towards Bladeh. She wanted to run but she couldn't move, she couldn't stop staring–
“Bladeh,” Scary called, quickly shoving the Stabiliser back into his pocket. “I was just about to say, don't look at it for too long. You start to see things from places nobody should ever have to go. Also, I would not recommend using mysterious artefacts made out of alien alloy as reflective surfaces for fixing your hair. You know who you are.”
Everyone slowly turned to glance at Heat. He reactively smiled, pointing at Tiny. Tiny shook her head with a deadpan expression.
“I don't have enough time to explain the whole situation, and I'm sorry.” Scary said, “But there should be about five dreams out there which have had Stabilisers put in them. I have no idea why, but last night, suddenly nearly the entire population of the new city visited at least one of these dreams. We need to try and work out what's causing these dreams to return. I know that this is really vague and confusing, and we're short for time, and none of you have any reason to trust me.”
The Wishers around the table remained silent. The info dump was still catching up with them a bit, none of them knew what to say or think.
“On the other hand, I remember the good old days,” Scary said, his voice lightening a bit. “Back in the old city, where crazy stuff like this happened very other week. The reason I've asked all of you to come here, is because I know that I can trust you all and I know that we've seen and beat crazier stuff together. I don't want to have to put you into such an awkward position, and I'm sorry. But are you all with me?”
“Sure, why not!” Splashy replied immediately. “Scary's right. We've seen way crazier stuff than a bunch of scary dreams, and we've always pulled through fine.”
“Alright, I'm in.” Tiny added, sitting backwards with her arms crossed.
“If you're both in, I'll go.” Dust said, coming across much more confidently than she felt.
“I can't keep up with this but I'll tag along,” Heat admitted. Given his level of intoxication this seemed pretty fair.
Bladeh was twirling her pen between her fingers, trying to process everything that had been said. It didn't make sense and it didn't add up. But Scary had acknowledged that, and the others seemed fine with it. It wasn't in Bladeh's nature to trust instinctively, but she knew it was the right thing to do.
“I'm in,” She confirmed, finalising the group.
“Excellent,” Scary said, quickly moving to a small cupboard at the back of the room. “Now, some of these dreams can be seriously dangerous. One of the perks of owning an antiques shop is that you can come by some pretty rare pe-” he cleared his throat. “-items.” He finished, opening the cupboard door. A small pile of dangerous-looking junk tumbled out. “Arm yourselves and get ready to dream.”
* * *[xquote]Scary sat at the head of the table, as the small group of Wishers finally drifted off, random antiquated weapons resting in their laps. After a few moments, he allowed himself a deep sigh of relief, sinking back into his chair. He hated lying to friends. The fact that they'd been willing to bury all suspicions and trust him blindly made it even worse. But he knew that this group could pull though. He was doing the right thing.
[/xquote] -
Splashy
wow rude Scary y u gotta do this to us
what is your true purpose explain -
Tom
wow rude Scary y u gotta do this to us
what is your true purpose explaintbh this wasn't even gonna be a mystery fic
i just love how confused you aremuahahahahaha
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tinyfeather
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SCARYYYYY
but i loved this omg!! so accurate
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Arcade Heat
How did I get drunk that quickly
(That's pretty obvious lmao) -
Tom
low tolerance and free drinks for a whole half hour?
…. :') -
Jilda
yes I would definitely be eating a mango
in seriousness, this was a good chapter and really shed a bit of light to where this is all going. Can't wait for more!!
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Addeh
Hey dude this is great!
I hope signing up this late is ok – if not, that's fine too. I have a super sign up thing, your form is in the spoiler. Keep up the great work!!Preferred Name: Addeh McLeaf
Gender: Male
Personality: see super sign up
Appearance: ^
Preferred weapon: Pocket knife.
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 273
Alignment: Chaotic good
If you had one wish, you would ask for… Unlimited money.
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? Pour most into intelligence, none into strength, then evenly divide the rest.
Favourite colour: Purple.
Favourite animals: Cats, small dogs. -
Splashy
Hey dude this is great!
I hope signing up this late is ok – if not, that's fine too. I have a super sign up thing, your form is in the spoiler. Keep up the great work!!Preferred Name: Addeh McLeaf
Gender: Male
Personality: see super sign up
Appearance: ^
Preferred weapon: Pocket knife.
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 273
Alignment: Chaotic good
If you had one wish, you would ask for… Unlimited money.
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? Pour most into intelligence, none into strength, then evenly divide the rest.
Favourite colour: Purple.
Favourite animals: Cats, small dogs.adddedeeeeehhhhhhhhh hello!
welcome to v5(also shameless plug you should join mine too)
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lavender
*everyone slowly turns to look at heat*
I was laughing so hard omg
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Tom
accepted & added, addeh!
…too many 'a's getting dizzyi'm so glad you all enjoyed this chapter haha, it was so difficult to write and so like.. explainey
i'll get cracking on chapter 4 asap xD
(P.S. Splashy's shameless plug is 100% warranted, her fanfic is amazing)
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rowan
Hey I'd like to sign up !! my signup in the USUF thread is here
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 728!
If you had one wish, you would ask for… : The ability to shapeshift at will !!
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them?: Hmm… I think this would depend on the stat system tbh, but I'd place my points evenly with a slight emphasis on defense. -
Tom
thanks altias
accepted & added to the first post!!
new chapter to follow in the coming minutes….. -
Tom
CHAPPIE FOUR
THE HF SHOW HYPE PARTY
[xquote]The RB cafe was absolutely packed. The half an hour of free drinks and the hype for the Hawkfrost Show had really got people going. Nearly all of the small tables which normally covered most of the cafe were gone. The counter had been turned into a makeshift bar – as was customary most Friday and Saturday nights – and Wishers covered any space they possibly could, ready for the show to start.
There was loud music, loud banter and generally loud everything.
As a non-drinker and not much of a party animal, Holly had not seen this many people drunk, semi-drunk or desperately trying to get themselves to one of these states for a pretty long time. Glancing around the room quickly she could see that there were a few others who weren't drowning themselves in alcohol, who had withdrawn to the comfy lounges on the outside of the cafe.
Holly checked her watch, absently. It was only 11.30 am. The show wasn't due to start until midday. She couldn't believe there were so many people drinking so early. She sighed, picked up the book she had sat next to her and resigned herself to reading until the show actually started.
On the other side of the cafe, Lavender was finding herself in a very similar situation. When they had come over from the city hall, Jilda had roped her into helping to get the RB cafe's massive TV ready to broadcast the Hawkfrost Show. As it turned out, Lavender hadn't actually been needed. Jilda had disappeared into a room at the back of the cafe and told Lavender to enjoy the party. She secretly suspected that this was a political move, made to separate her and Lightning and delay the pun civil war a bit longer.
It was getting really loud in there. Too loud for Lavender to pun properly. That, if nothing else, was a sign that it was too loud.
Lavender got up and squeezed past a few Wishers who were also occupying the couches. Unfortunately she had been seated nearly opposite from the exit, so it was quite a long way to go.
On the way out, she noticed Holly, apparently off in her own world reading. For a moment Lavender was absolutely amazed anyone could read with so much noise going on. But then Holly looked up and waved.
“I'm going outside for a bit,” Lavender yelled, “Want to come?”
“Sure!” Holly yelled back, dog-earing her page, closing the book and following Lavender outside.
As soon as the two of them had escaped the cafe into the main street of the new city, Lavender breathed in deeply.
“If feels so good to breathe fresh air again,” she admitted. “I was just sitting at the back of the cafe for an hour and I think my ears will be ringing for a week.”
“Same for me,” Holly added, pausing for a moment. “I just read the same paragraph like three times. This is probably the most obnoxiously loud party I've been to in WW history.”
Lavender took a moment to absorb that comment, but found that Holly was totally right. Had they overdone it a bit trying to keep everyone entertained?
“Hello over there,” a familiar voice called out from down the street. Ramiel Lawrence, also known as Fireheart, and Alexandra Step, better known as Snow, were walking back towards the cafe. The former was waving as they approached.
“Hiya,” Holly replied, walking over to them. Lavender was slightly relieved she wouldn't have to attempt to explain the distraction of the party.
“It's pretty crazy in there, isn't it?” Snow asked as the four Wishers converged.
“It's really ridiculous, Lavender and I were just talking about that.” Holly replied right away.
Mandarin! Lavender realised she was sprung.
“Hey Lav, aren't you behind organising this party?” Fireheart quizzed. “Why is it so… well… noisy?”
Lavender's resolve to operate sneakily crumbled. She immediately knew she couldn't lie in this kind of situation.
“I don't know, I wasn't involved until pretty late in the piece.” Lavender confessed. “I was heading to the book store this morning and Tiny, Jilda and Lightning were going the other way. I tried to think of a pun to crack to bug Lightning, but I couldn't and it was really awkward. Then Tiny asked if I was busy and if not if I could help with a distraction, so I said I'd help, and here we are.” She finished. Fireheart Snow and Holly looked a bit confused, but luckily none of them looked upset or anything.
“That is kinda weird,” Snow commented after a little pause, her expression concerned. “What do we need a distraction from?”
“I don't know if it's related or not,” Fireheart chimed in, “But did you guys overhear some talk during that meeting earlier about how a whole heap of Wishers had really odd dreams last night?”
“I did,” Holly replied. “But what does that have to do with anything?”
All of a sudden, the penny dropped for Lavender. Tiny's vague comments earlier. Jilda and Lightning's lack of explanation, and suddenly leaving her to her own devices. They had to be connected. Maybe the dreams were the link that brought them all together.
She also remembered, at about 10.30 as the final round of free drinks was being served, she had seen Heat smash down one final shot of neat tequila, abandoning his glass on the bar and moving as quickly as he possibly could to the exit. The waiter who had served him had looked a tiny bit baffled for a moment, but then had shrugged and carried on with service. This wouldn't have bugged Lavender as much as it did, but he was the first one to leave the party, and had left only a few moments before Fireheart and Snow. Where was he now?
It was all connected. She was sure, without knowing how she was sure.
“Do any of you know where Heat went, like an hour ago?” She jumped back into the conversation.
Holly looked at her, apparently genuinely lost.
“I saw him leave, yeah.” She said. “I saw him leave to the main street, turn left, then hurry off. What does this have to do with anything?” She asked again, glancing between Lavender and Fireheart and Snow desperately.
Lavender turned left, to try and guess where he–
“The city hall,” she mumbled immediately. This was creepy. This was really creepy.
Tiny had stayed in the city hall. When Lavender had left with Jilda and Lightning, she had noticed that Splashy, Dust and Bladeh were still sitting around playing with their phones. Most of these guys were old friends. There was a pretty good chance that Heat had rushed off to join them.
“Please stop zoning out Lavender,” Holly begged. “This has got me really curious, can you try and explain what's going through your head?”
Lavender obliged Holly, filling her, Fireheart and Snow in on the conspiracy that seemed to be slowly forming around them.
“It makes sense to me.” Snow said, shortly after Lavender had finished. She had been a bit quiet during the conversation so far, quietly gathering facts and trying to work through the problem. “But we can talk about the weird detail of it later. We have to take action now. This Hawkfrost Show starts in a little over 5 minutes.”
“So do we go and try to work out what's happening at the city hall,” Fireheart mused, taking half a moment before continuing her question, “Or go inside and watch the show and pretend we have no idea that it's all a huge distraction?”
“I will actually go insane if I have to pretend that I didn't just hear all that massive conspiracy talk.” Holly admitted.
“Holly's right,” Snow added. “We really can't pretend that nothing is going on.”
Lavender and Fireheart were a little bit more nervous about making a decision. If something seriously was going on at the city hall, it was pretty serious. Even though the Wishers they suspected to be involved were all friends, they were also a dangerous group, seasoned in dealing with conflict. If the makeshift group of party-leavers were walking in on something they weren't meant to see, it could be really bad for them.
“I'll come too.” Fireheart and Lavender said in near-unison.
“Alright, it's settled then!” Snow confirmed for all of them, taking the lead on walking in the direction of the city hall.
It wasn't a great distance at all, but outside the RB, the city was totally quiet. The small group could hear their footsteps echo down the main street as they quietly stepped towards the city hall. Nobody really wanted to speak. It seemed like it would be bad luck to break the eerie silence.
After what seemed like forever, they reached the huge doors of the city hall. Snow tried one of them and found it readily swung open. Luckily nobody had been back to lock up.
The inside of the city hall still looked much the same as it had earlier that day. Pews were still laid out throughout the chamber, but they were all empty now.
“Hello?” Lavender called out. There was no reply.
“Let's try this,” Holly suggested, signalling to a door on the side wall of the hall. “It runs down behind the stage, into the main area of the city hall.”
“Smart thinking.” Fireheart nodded, opening the door for everyone else to go through first.
Behind the stage, there were a series of doors leading into various offices. Honestly most of them were unoccupied, but it made the place look really snazzy.
There was the quiet hum of a TV coming from behind the door of a small meeting room at the other end of the hallway. Taking the lead a bit, Snow point towards it. She placed one finger across her lips to make sure they all remained silent. Then, she stepped slowly and carefully towards the room, the rest of the group following her.
Snow pushed the door open slowly, glanced inside then muttered under her breath and turned away.
“This is just…” she said, struggling to finish the sentence.
Holly's curiosity finally got the better of her. She pushed the door the whole way open, not minding the noise it made.
“What in the name of StarClan is going on here?” She exclaimed. The door at the other end of the room burst open, to reveal Scary, who was looking alarmed and wielding what appeared to be a modified stapler.
“Why are you here?” He asked curtly. Then added, “Ohai by the way.”
Not seeing an easier way to get around it, Lavender quickly ran him through the theory that they had come to behind something weird going on in the city hall. Scary listened, nodding slowly, and eventually put the stapler on the desk beside him.
“You were totally right. Why am I so bad at covering my tracks?” He sighed.
“What's up with the sleeping people, Scary?” Snow asked. Her voice was calm and in control, but she was pretty freaked out. She couldn't work out exactly how to read the situation.
“There's not a lot of time left to explain.” Scary said, checking his watch. “They're infiltrating a small number of recurring multi-target dreams which have been hitting ww for the last couple of days. You guys probably had one yourself last night.”
“I knew it!” Fireheart jumped in. “Do you kn–“
“Sorry,” Scary interrupted. “I can explain a little bit later, but not a whole lot more. Most of what's happening rides on what these guys say when they wake up. Anyway, the Hawkfrost Show starts in a few moments. Would you all like to join me for it?”
Despite how creepy the whole situation was, it did sound nice to abandon their suspicions and just have fun with another Wisher. The four of them quickly agreed to join him watching it, and leave their questions until later.
* * *[xquote]Meanwhile, in the RB cafe, they had gone through the slow process of moving the TV into the cafe itself, against one of the walls, so that everyone could see it. The signal was clear. The surround sound was ready to go. They were on the Warriors Wish Broadcasting Commission (WWBC) channel.
The screen flickered to life. The screen was occupied by a Wisher they didn't recognise. He was standing on a boat with an island in the background, an excited smile on his face.
“Back when we all moved to the new city, Hawkfrost, the old enemy, made one last desperate attempt to take over our fair community once and for all.” The strange Wisher began. He had a very neutral accent, as though he was intentionally trying not to let one show. It was pretty strange, but very easy to listen to.
“Luckily for us, the mad scientists of the old city stood up to him. Using cunning and deception, they stopped his evil plans, and banished him to an island in the middle of the ocean.” He stepped out of the frame, allowing his hand to point behind him. “This island – Hawkfrost Island. Today we would like to show you a little bit of what this old horror gets up to these days.”
* * *[xquote]Somewhere else in the new city, another Wisher was tuning in to the WWBC on their own TV in their own apartment. They weren't really one for big crowds and loud noises. Besides, they needed to really focus once the show started.
The solitary Wisher took a sip of water, watching over the top of their glass as the last ad finished. Suddenly, the screen was taken up by the image of a Wisher they didn't recognise. In the background was what could only be Hawkfrost Island.
The Wisher was ready. The next hour reveal a lot…
[/xquote] -
Addeh
This was great! I want to know who the Wisher in the boat was like rly badly. And what his real accent is, aha.
I can't wait for the next one. Great work, dude. -
Jilda
This was a great chapter – answered some things, but not everything.
I really want to know who the unnamed wishers are! wow the suspense is real
-
tinyfeather
WHAT AM I DOING??? SO SNEAKY
This was really good!!
-
Splashy
dun dun DUNNNNNN
such sneaky
who is this lone wisher
such sneaky many wow -
Jingle
I'm digging this chapter Scary, you're keeping up a great amount of suspense, just enough to leave us wanting more
Why do I get the feeling the unnamed wisher at the end is moss -
Tom
I'm digging this chapter Scary, you're keeping up a great amount of suspense, just enough to leave us wanting more
Why do I get the feeling the unnamed wisher at the end is mosslmao i'll never tell but it totally isthanks for the nice comments everyone.
the fun will ramp up a bit in the next few chapters…edit: the pacing in the new chapter is so wonky I'm sorry;;; this was originally planned to be over a couple of chapters with some useless filler but I reshuffled things a bit because reasons.
-
Tom
CHAPPIE FIVE
THE FLOOD DREAM
[xquote]Heat woke up in the main street of the new city. As he slowly forced his eyes open he could see the sun floating directly overhead.
He suddenly felt as though that one last tequila had been a mistake. The barman had made it abundantly clear that he should refrain from drinking for a little while, but Heat hadn't wanted to listen. He remembered leaning over the counter, calling the man a hunty, and being rewarded with another drink and an exasperated sigh. The next thing he remembered, he had checked his watch, realised that there were no more free drinks and that he was meant to meet Scary behind the city hall stage half an hour ago.
His mind drifting back to the present, Heat began to slowly process the situation he was in. He was laying on his back in the street, in the middle of a huge puddle of water.
“Ew,” he exclaimed, leaping to his feet, balancing himself, and turning to glare at the puddle. But there was no puddle. The entire main street was a few centimeters underwater. He shook himself off a bit, trying to shake the water from his hair and clothes. Luckily the sun was out. He'd dry off eventually. The next step was making sure he'd still look okay.
“Hello there,” he heard from behind him and quickly spun around. Splashy and Bladeh were standing behind him. The latter waved politely.
“Hi,” Heat said, his throat dry and voice a bit crackly. “What is this?”
“We're in a dream.” Bladeh said, quietly. “I had the same one last night. I think.” She looked nervous. “We should see if there's anyone else here.”
“Great idea. Since its about midday let's start with the city h–” Splashy opened.
“RB.” Heat interrupted. “Definitely the RB.”
There was merit in this idea. The RB did great lunch service, and was nearly always busy in the middle of the day. Heat just hoped nobody would call him out on his true purposes – there was a huge mirror behind the bar there.
“Good plan,” Splashy agreed and started off. Heat noticed that her back was totally dry. That was just unfair.
He quickly turned back to the road where he had been lying. There was a large shiny sword submerged in the water. This item was Heat's selection from Scary's pile of dangerous antiques, and he felt as though he had chosen well. That said, he couldn't really remember what anyone else had chosen. He smiled and picked it up, glad that he had remembered it.
The RB was only a few buildings away so the three of them reached it pretty quickly. The lights were off, and they couldn't hear the faint echo of random babble which usually came from within.
Actually, the RB hardly closed at all. Most weeknights it closed up about midnight, and was open for breakfast at 5 the next morning. Most weekends it scarcely shut the doors at all. Seeing the doors closed and the lights off was a rare and unnerving sight, especially in the middle of the day.
“Hellooooo?” Heat called through the closed glass door. He put his face up to it, trying to see the inside of the cafe. There were no apparent signs of life. It was really dark.
He gave the door a quick pull and was pleased to find it opened right up. What was not so pleasing was the water. It had even found its way inside the cafe, floating on top of the linoleum floor.
He instinctively tried the light switch. Unsurprisingly nothing happened, so he left it as it was.
“There's nobody here,” Splashy pointed out. The only sound (other than their voices) was the faint scratching of Bladeh, still outside, writing in a notebook she was carrying.
“Maybe you can check the kitchen and the storage room.” Heat suggested, pointing in that direction. “I'll have a look around here and behind the bar.”
“Alright,” Splashy took a step forward, holding up two small daggers as she stepped through the cafe. She wasn't necessarily scared or anxious about exploring the rear rooms; unfortunately, she was wearing a blue dress which wasn't exactly utilitarian, and lacked any pockets.
Heat was quietly pretty grateful that Splashy was brave enough to check the back rooms. It seemed that the power was out completely, and the generator must have been used up. The only light in the cafe trickled in from outside.
Heat stepped behind the bar, staring into the long mirror which hung there. His hair still looked okay, but the lighting was just terrible so he couldn't see how much the water had messed it up. He let out a sigh of irritation and after laying his sword on the bench, started looking along the shelves of spirits instead.
“Heat, what are you doing?” Bladeh asked, more curious than confrontational. She had just entered the cafe. “Where did Splashy go?”
“Splashy is in the kitchen I think,” Heat said, glancing in the direction she had left. “And since it doesn't seem like there's anyone in this dream city, I will be taking their unwanted tequila.” He found the bottle at last and leaned up to grab it.
As he turned back to face Bladeh, Heat lost his balance for a moment. Holding the precious bottle away from himself, he used his other arm to brace his fall. Luckily, he landed on something reasonably soft and rolled into the water.
He groped at the soft thing he had fallen on, trying to get a grip so he could prop himself up. Suddenly, he realised that he recognised the shape and let out a startled cry.
“What's wrong?” Bladeh asked, sounding scared.
“Call Splashy back.” He said. “I just landed on a dead guy.”
* * *[xquote]A few minutes later, Splashy, Heat and Bladeh were standing around the corpse out the front of the RB cafe.
The corpse's skin was a bluey-purple shade and he was very bloated. Splashy had forced herself to help Bladeh and Heat carry the man outside, but she felt nauseous. She hated death at the best of times, but this guy's cold clammy skin suggested he'd had an especially foul one.
“He definitely drowned,” Bladeh confirmed, still writing in her notebook. Heat returned from the cafe – he had slipped back inside to wipe off his hands, and to reclaim his sword and tequila. Splashy guessed she'd return for her blades in a moment. While she had been exploring the back rooms of the cafe, she had come to realise that they weren't actually daggers, but extremely ebalorate and antiquated letter openers. That had killed a bit of her enthusiasm for using them in an actual combat situation.
For the first time, Splashy found herself checking on Heat's sword. Her heart sunk. The edge was totally blunt.
She stepped over and ran a finger down the side of the blade, causing an alarmed response from Heat.
“Careful, you'll cut yourself!” He exclaimed. Splashy held out the finger she had used to test the blade. It was totally unscathed.
“It's plastic,” Splashy sighed. “I've got letter openers and you have a plastic display sword.”
“That blueberry.” Heat seethed, looking at his sword in disbelief.
“We should probably try and work out what's happening with the body.” Bladeh suggested, meekly interrupting their conversation. Heat was ready to provide his opinions.
“True. It's pretty weird. He can't have drowned in this,” he kicked at the slight inundation around his feet. “So what did it?”
“I don't know, but…” Bladeh trailed off, raising one hand and pointing away from the center of the city. Splashy followed her finger, and saw a gigantic wall around the city. Following the horizon, she saw it stretched the entire way around the city.
“Why did I not notice this earlier?” Splashy mused, her mouth slightly agape.
“It probably has something to do with the fact we're dreaming.” Heat said vaguely, his gaze also following the massive wall. “We should check that out though.”
“I know, but what do we do about the body?” Splashy asked, trying her best to resist the urge to look at it. She failed, and felt a new wave of nausea.
“We're gonna have to leave it here. We're in a dream anyway. Maybe it will like, disappear or something.” Heat said. Splashy was sure he was trying to be helpful but it didn't fill her with confidence.
It took Splashy, Bladeh and Heat about 10 minutes to exit the city via the main road. It was late afternoon now — Splashy noted that the flow of time was totally whacked out in this dream — and the city had taken on a cool air.
The city felt completely different from how it had before the discovery of the body in the RB cafe. There was a subtle breeze, despite the massive wall, and it carried a slightly salty smell. But despite the more pleasant conditions, there was just something inherently uncomfortable about the city. It felt like there was something watching.
“Hey, I can see Dust's house from here!” Heat called, waving his arm to the left. Sure enough, her house was sitting there down the path, along with the small cluster of houses around it. The lights seemed to be off, and they couldn't see any sign that she was home.
“I… really don't think we should go there.” Bladeh said anxiously. Splashy followed her point immediately, and her stomach did a somersault.
“Let's just get to the wall.” She said, following the path directly south through the park there.
It wasn't too bad a park, although a bit small and usually fairly void of animal life. Unfortunately the little pond there scarce ever fared well; even during rainy winters, it tended to dry up very quickly. Despite the fact that nearly everything in the city was underwater, the park still managed to look dry and sad. Splashy would have loved to see some cool animals like red pandas living there. But she did realise that was pretty unrealistic and suspected the park would just be mediocre forever.
The wall was basically on the other side of the park. It loomed way over them, and smelled like fish. Water slowly trickled down the front of it. Even the grassy area around them was slightly flooded.
“I think the ocean is behind this wall.” Heat commented profoundly.
“I wish I didn't think you were right.” Splashy sighed, collecting a little bit of water in her hand and tasting it. Salty. She let the rest of the water fall from her hand.
“How did that barkeeper drown though? There's only like a couple of inches of water at most.” Heat wondered, kicking at the water around their feet with the tip of his shoe. The tequila he had acquired from the RB was running very low.
“Maybe this place floods like… once a week or so?” Splashy wondered out loud. “I don't know, I'm kinda musing.”
“We could ask that person.” Bladeh jumped in, pointing at the hill behind them around the park.
“You're joking, right?” Splashy asked. A chill went up her spine. Bladeh shook her head, a serious look on her face. Splashy kept mumbling under her breath as she turned to face where Bladeh had pointed. “Oh that is not cool. I hate being creeped out.”
A stranger stood before them a few metres away, wearing long billowing black robes and a plastic mask in the shape of a cat's face. When the stranger noticed they were watching, it turned and disappeared into the park.
“Hey, come back!” Heat yelled, abandoning his tequila, holding his sword with two hands and chasing after the stranger. Splashy and Bladeh didn't hesitate much in following.
By the time they got to the city there was no sign of the stranger and Heat had disappeared somewhere. Splashy stopped to assess the situation, and wished once again that she was in more mobile clothes.
“We should probably try that street.” Bladeh suggested, pointing again. Splashy was inclined to trust her. Bladeh seemed to have really good instincts in this dream.
The street she had pointed to, however, wasn't much of a street. It was more of a short dingy alley which extended from the main street. Splashy and Bladeh slowly stepped into it either way, being as cautious as possible.
Splashy suddenly felt two hands wrap tightly around her throat from behind. She flinched and her grip on her letter openers faltered; they clattered uselessly to the ground. The alley was thrown into an immense darkness, and she couldn't see Bladeh anywhere. She kicked out backwards, trying to knock her assailant off her but to no avail – her kick didn't connect with anything.
The hands slowly gripped tighter. Splashy resulted to trying to pry them off with her own hands, but these hands were so strong and cold and… oddly slippery. She couldn't get a grip on them.
As suddenly as it had started, the grip disappeared. Splashy fell to the ground and quickly propped herself up, turning to face her assailant as she spluttered, catching her breath.
It was the cat faced stranger she had seen earlier. But the stranger looked startled. They were gripping their shoulder tightly and had recoiled from Bladeh, who was wielding one of Splashy's letter openers, coated in fresh blood.
Bladeh offered Splashy a hand up; she took it and stood slowly, brushing herself off. By the time she had regained her senses and looked around again, the cat faced stranger was gone and the lighting of the alley was back to normal. However, where the stranger had stood there was a tiny crystal-like object about the size of a baseball.
Its brilliance stood out, even though the alley wasn't particularly well lit. It was one of the Stabilisers Scary had spoken about.
But it wasn't quite right. When Splashy looked at it carefully, she could see a strange black substance coiling within the object. It looked poisoned — corrupted.
“Hey Bladeh, is something wr–” she turned to face the other Wisher, but found that she was suddenly alone.
Splashy blinked once, twice. Gradually, the dark alley and the corrupted Stabiliser were replaced with an image from another place. The room in the back of the city hall. The Dream Machine Mk. 2. Another Wisher she immediately recognised as Fireheart, shaking her and calling her name to wake her up.[/xquote]
-
tinyfeather
:00000
my idea strikes again
This was really good!! WHO IS CATFACE -
Tom
[member=9]tinyfeather[/member]
-
Jilda
cat…. face….
ohmy…
Nice chappie! so mysterious — I hope everyone else also wakes up… so the dream machine, it'll take people into the same dream?
-
Tom
Jilda wrote:cat…. face….
ohmy…
Nice chappie! so mysterious — I hope everyone else also wakes up… so the dream machine, it'll take people into the same dream?[member=73]Jilda[/member] – It was talked about a little bit in chapter 3, but
intentionallyrushedbecause reasons…The original dream machine was intended to be totally badass. You could basically use it to program how someone dreamed (lucid dream machine kinda thing
). But it seems it was lost somewhere in the history of the old city, welp. 
The Dream Machine Mk. 2 was put together quickly so it's not really that great. BUT it can force people to dream generally. As you mentioned, there's a handful of dreams which people keep entering against their own will. Also, when the Dream Machine Mk 2 is used, small groups up in the same dreams. They're both big parts of the plot and will be explained later. I swear to StarClan. xD
-
Arcade Heat
what do you mean you gave me a plastic sword what the hell
-
Jilda
Jilda wrote:cat…. face….
ohmy…
Nice chappie! so mysterious — I hope everyone else also wakes up… so the dream machine, it'll take people into the same dream?
[member=73]Jilda[/member] – It was talked about a little bit in chapter 3, but
intentionallyrushedbecause reasons…The original dream machine was intended to be totally badass. You could basically use it to program how someone dreamed (lucid dream machine kinda thing
). But it seems it was lost somewhere in the history of the old city, welp. The Dream Machine Mk. 2 was put together quickly so it's not really that great. BUT it can force people to dream generally. As you mentioned, there's a handful of dreams which people keep entering against their own will. Also, when the Dream Machine Mk 2 is used, small groups up in the same dreams. They're both big parts of the plot and will be explained later. I swear to StarClan. xD
I… sorta see lmaoWell you swore to StarClan so it must be true ¯_(ツ)_/¯ lol
-
Addeh
That was awesome. Poor dreamland bartender, tho. RIP.
#WhoIsCatface2015
-
Splashy
“Scary wrote:unfortunately, she was wearing a blue dress which wasn't exactly utilitarian, and lacked any pockets.
actually me most of the time. the struggle is so real.catface
who is catface
is anyone else awake
what is going on -
Tom
It's the middle of the day so most people are awake lol. I want to give Dust/Tiny a chappie in the dream they ended up in for continuity's sake after that there will be more on awake people
Cat Face is a stranger with the body of a cat and the face of a cat
-
tinyfeather
h e l l y e a h
-
lavender
Cat Face was my jams back in like ~2004 o/
-
Tom
CHAPPIE SIX
THE STALKER
[xquote]It was a pleasant, balmy evening wherever Tiny was. As soon as she had felt her eyes close in the 'real world', she had felt herself standing on the sidewalk on Fanworks Avenue, a relatively peaceful tree-lined street only a few blocks away from the main street.
The majestic halls of the WW Writing Association loomed before Tiny. She allowed herself a moment of nostalgia- in the old city, she had spent many long hours in this building, writing both works of fiction and accounts of the city's crazy history. The Writing Association had moved to a more humble locale, not far from the RB cafe, in the new city. Not so many people were into writing now.
That said, as well as being full of small apartments and townhouses, the avenue always had lots of nifty art projects going on. Tiny had seriously considered moving into a townhouse here, before settling on one a bit closer to the main street.
She turned away from the colossal locked up building, hoisting a large wooden crossbow. This had kind of been the best pick out of Scary's sharp junk heap. It was a bit heavy and nowhere near as cool as a laser blaster, but it would do. The only downside is that she only had three bolts for it. She hoped she wouldn't need thwm in a hurry.
Tiny glanced around herself at the numerous passers-by. She was a bit surprised to realise that she didn't recognise any of them. Everyone seemed to be coming and going very quickly, nobody was stopping to chat.
While it was a bit odd, Tiny forced herself to remember that she was in a dream. Things were bound to be pretty weird. She took a slow, deep breath and started walking towards the main street.
As Tiny started walking towards the main street, she couldn't help but notice a man off to her side. He was the only one who wasn't walking. He was starting completely still about fifty metres away, watching her. He was a little tall she supposed, with short medium brown hair and unremarkable features. She waved, to which he didn't respond, hurrying away from the stranger.
Tiny didn't feel nearly as uncomfortable as she thought she would in a situation like this. The weather was really nice, and there were people everywhere. She really couldn't imagine anything particularly negative happening.
Even so, she decided to see if any of her dreaming friends had ended up in the same place. The first place she decided to check was a tall, thin apartment building, diagonally behind the city hall. Luckily, both Splashy and Heat lived in the same building, only a few floors from each other.
It didn't take Tiny too long to reach their building. The door was open, so she let herself in, heading straight for the elevator. She pressed the up button and the elevator doors immediately opened.
Tiny stepped inside and the doors closed.
As soon as they clicked shut, some soothing elevator music started playing. Tiny pressed the button for level 6, and the elevator swiftly ascended.
Heat's apartment number wasn't easy to forget. He had apartment number 66. Next to it, he'd placed a sticker of the number 6 to make it spell out '666'. It was genius.
Tiny approached the apartment and rapped on the door. “Heeello?” She called out. There was no reply. She waited a few moments before knocking again, but still nothing.
She figured that meant Heat wasn't home, at the very least. Tiny returned to the elevator and pressed the down button – and then the display caught her eye.
The elevator was on the ground floor. 1… 2… 3… 4…
She hadn't seen anyone else in this apartment and for some reason that creeped her out a bit. She made a beeline for the door next to the elevator, leading to the stairs. She closes it quietly behind her and heard a “ping!” (and a very soft, lyrical “never gonna give”) as the doors opened. There were two loud footsteps as someone exited the elevator. The doors closed behind them.
Tiny held her breath. She could feel anxiety boiling up inside her. The person wasn't moving, just standing next to the elevator. The longest ten seconds of Tiny's life followed, until she finally heard retreating footsteps.
She wasn't keen on taking the stairs while lugging around a crossbow, but she realised she needed to move fast. Muttering in fruitful language, she quickly but quietly descended.
Tiny stopped at the first floor, only one storey above ground. Thanking StarClan that she had picked the sixth floor to start with and hadn't needed to climb five floors, she pushed the door open.
The floor was deserted, as the sixth had been when she first found it. She approached apartment 13, and knocked quietly but repeatedly on the door.
“Splashy?” She hissed. She wasn't sure why she felt the need to be quiet, but it just seemed appropriate. She continued to try, quietly but frantically, to get a response from Splashy's apartment – but it was to no avail.
Finally giving up, Tiny returned to the stairs and made the final flight to the ground floor. She left the building, noting gratefully that the elevator was still on the sixth floor.
The next step for Tiny was the city hall on the main street. It too was deadly quiet inside, despite the hustle and bustle of strangers on the street. Tiny made for the directory, on the same wall as the huge door. She turned it to 'B', and scoured the page for…… Bladeh Mercury. Tiny knew the address. It was just on the edge of city, before leaving. Conveniently, it would be on Tiny's way to Dust's house.
That would save a bit of time. Before heading our to Bladeh's and Dust's houses, she decided she would head via her own house and put some more comfortable walking shoes on. She also had a messenger bag which would be much more convenient than holding onto her crossbow bolts.
Backtracking past the apartment building and around the corner, Tiny began to head home. She kept half an eye out for the plain man, or anyone else who might look suspicious. But she didn't see anyone too funny looking, and couldn't see the plain man at all. Now that she tried to, she couldn't form a mental image of his face. He'd just been plain looking.
Tiny arrived at her own home – it was a little townhouse, slightly more modern than those on Fanworks Avenue, but still not without its charms. The sun was setting now, and the air was taking on a slightly cooler edge.
She quickly drew her keys from her pocket, unlocked the front door, and stepped inside, locking the door but leaving the keys in the lock. She finally allowed herself to let the crossbow down, stretching her arms.
Tiny went straight for the bathroom at the other end of the ground floor. She flicked on the light reflectively, making sure her make up was still in-tact. Luckily it was awesome.
Next she made for the main bedroom, a short distance back towards the front door. As she entered the room there was a short knock at the door.
“Hi, who is it?” Tiny called, then, “I'll be a minute.” She was kind of relieved to hear the knock. Perhaps one of the other dreamers had come looking for her? It would definitely save her the time of going looking for them.
There was no reply. Tiny changed her shoes quickly, a feeling half way between distress and annoyance boiling up.
“Bladeh? Dust?” She called. “Splashy?… Heat?”
Still no reply, but the knocking continued. This could really only be bad.
Tiny quietly made her way back to the hallway and picked up her crossbow, attempting to load one of the bolts into it. Tiny suddenly realised she had no idea how to use a crossbow. “Mandarin mandarin MANDARIN” Tiny cursed, fidgeting with the contraption. What kind of medieval idiot made crossbows so confusing?
Finally, she gave up and abandoned it where it lay, still holding onto her limited bolts just in case they came in handy.
Tiny had decided she wouldn't be using the front door where the stranger was. The knocking had stopped for the moment, but he was probably still there.
She crept through the house again, loathe to make any noise. For a moment she was tempted to go look for her cat for some company. But that wouldn't accomplish anything; she was in a dream anyway. She had to remember she was in a dream.
At last the back door was within her grip. Holding one of the crossbow bolts tightly, Tiny turned the lock on the handle and slowly turned it, letting the door cree–
He was there. She screamed fruitily and tried to turn to run but she was frozen.
The stranger stepped towards her, staring her down. Tiny couldn't move – it was as if she was bound to the spot.
Malice was inbuilt into this character. He had no facial expression but Tiny could just feel his ill will. He placed a rough hand on her shoulder, the other drawing back a large knife. In a moment of dreamlike absurd clarity Tiny realised something.
The stranger's face wasn't just expressionless. It was hardly even there. When she really focused on his appearance in person, she couldn't see any physical features to the man. Just blackness – a deep void that seemed to stretch on forever.
Time stood still as Tiny leaned towards him, drawn in by that blackness. There was an object. Distant at first, but getting closer – a crystal with innumerable sides – a Stabiliser – with a heavy, dark streak through it.
Tiny swung out and punched that stupid jerk straight in the face.
“Grapefruit!” He yelled, recoiling and falling to the floor.
Then she realised she had been woken up. She wasn't dreaming anymore, the stranger was gone and she'd just thumped someone in the face.[/xquote]
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tinyfeather
This was beautiful and as always so accurate for me
that guy sounds really creepy D; -
Addeh
Tiny swung out and punched that stupid jerk straight in the face.
This made me laugh
..until it turned out to be a real person. Poor Real Person, I bet Tiny hits hard :p
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Lightning
Tiny swung out and punched that stupid jerk straight in the face.
This made me laugh
..until it turned out to be a real person. Poor Real Person, I bet Tiny hits hard :p
This in a nutshell. I do wonder who Tiny clocked…. Scary, are you sure it wasn't yourself for not contributing to SkyClan's FK count? I mean what.
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tinyfeather
I am actually very weak and would probably cry about hurting my hand lmfao
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Tom
it's OK you had a soft target
*tear* -
Splashy
amazing
who are these creeps
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Tom
i thought the soothing elevator music might get a mention for the reference lol :'( [member=50]Splashy[/member] ?
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Wryfinch
Uh sorry, are signups still open? I'm getting kinda bored (again?!) so yeah, I'm signing up.
http://forum2.warriorswish.net/index.php?topic=246.msg7929#msg7929
Preferred Name: Finch McLayne (Finch)
Gender: Female
Personality: I'm usually quiet and withdrawn from everything around me, focusing completely on whatever is at hand, be it a computer screen or trying to stay unnoticed. (No, it doesn't work. I get noticed a lot.) When I do speak, you can bet that it will be painfully awkward (say, accidentally butting into someone else's conversation and being ignored), rambling, tactless, full of silent pauses, snarky, or cynically pedantic. Expect a lot of sorry's and nervous energy even if there's a relaxed atmosphere.
A lot of the time, I stay firmly in my own skin. I'm not one to daydream, roleplaying someone very different from my own personality is maddening, and faking interest in a thing I dislike… not going to happen, Sally.
I'll be honest here; though I enjoy the company of friends (or as I tend call them, acquaintances), I won't hesitate to save my own skin if it's a either-you-die-or-I-die situation. I'm almost irrationally cautious and refuse to enter situations that could end in disaster no matter how small that chance is. (I know how illogical my reasoning can be; I can't help it.)
From looking through the last three paragraphs, you can glean some more things about me. I'm theoretical, very inconsistent, have low self-esteem, tend to stay a safe distance from other people, don't know proper organization, and ramble quite a bit. This is why I like lists: they're simple and don't require you to stick traits in any particular order. It's particularly good because I leap from topic to topic like a flea. Well, that's all I got for now. Later.
Appearance: A short (5'1) underweight (105 lbs) girl with messy, slightly wavy shoulder-length black hair and dark brown eyes, constantly wearing a golden wire-framed pair of glasses. Not very pale, despite spending much of her time indoors. For some reason, her extremities always feel cold to the touch. She has a long, knotted scar slicing across her stomach and another on her right wrist, both from surgery. Most of the time, she wears pale baggy T-shirts or button-downs and a pair of dark trousers.
Preferred weapon: Stealth or a long-distance maiming weapon.
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 746.00
Alignment: Chaotic Good (got Chaotic Evil 1/3 of the time, take from that what you will)
If you had one wish, you would ask for… SOCIAL SKILLS. PLEASE GIVE ME SOCIAL SKILLS!
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? Depends. I'll assume it's a Str/Agi/Int/Dex/Sta format. I'd probably do 0Str/3Agi/4Int/2Dex/1Sta.
Favourite colour: Browns, oranges, and greys.
Favourite animals: Reptiles. -
Splashy
Aww scary I did I just forgot to mention it
did bring a smile to my face
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Addeh
[member=75]Scary[/member] I was reading the chapter at work and when I noticed the link I was like 'oh yea I'll listen to that when I get home' but then I read
She closes it quietly behind her and heard a “ping!” (and a very soft, lyrical “never gonna give”) as the doors opened.
and I was like
glad I didn't open that at work… everyone would know I got owned… -
Tom
Hahaha I'm glad you liked it!
[member=127]finchthewyrmling[/member] – accepted~!I'm actually writing chapter 9 atm lmao. How would people feel about a double chapter day….? *cringe*
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Addeh
I'm actually writing chapter 9 atm lmao. How would people feel about a double chapter day….? *cringe*
pls and thank u -
Wryfinch
I'm actually writing chapter 9 atm lmao. How would people feel about a double chapter day….? *cringe*
Yes. Just YES.
-
Tom
CHAPPIE SEVEN
INTRIGUE
[xquote]Knock, knock!
Altias suddenly snapped out of their own world. They had been super busy working on an art project assigned by the city. It was going to be a massive mural depicting the glory of the new city — it contained a combination of both scenic images from around the city, as well as a centrepiece about the struggle against HF. Altias had made the decision to use cats as the subjects, rather than people. So far, it was turning out really well.
The downside was that it was meant to be released to coincide with the start of the HF Show. Since that had suddenly been moved ahead of schedule by a couple of weeks and Altias hadn't even found someone to paint the mural, they were a bit peeved and extremely busy.
“Who's there?” They called, quickly switching their computer screen off and turning back towards the door. On the way out of the room they noticed it was nearly 9PM. Where had the day gone?
“Hey Altias, it's moss,” the other said. Altias immediately recognised the voice but couldn't fathom why moss was paying them a visit. Either way they opened the door and the other Wisher stepped into their apartment.
moss was carrying what appeared to be a fairly heavy gym bag. They promptly dropped if by the door, knealing down and taking a small writing pad and pen from it.
“Can I get you a drink of something?” Altias asked, trying to break the ice. They weren't uncomfortable with moss' company at all, they just needed to get back to work.
“Some water, please,” moss said, watching Altias as they went about getting the water.
“So, what brings you here this evening?” Altias asked cordially, withdrawing a jug of water from their fridge and filling a glass.
“I just wanted to have a chat to you about some stuff, if you don't mi– oh, thanks.” moss accepted the water, taking a slow drink.
Altias opened up a cream soda for themself.
“Did you catch the HF Show?” moss asked.
“No,” Altias' heart sank. They had only ever lived in the new city, and had really been looking forward to getting to know a piece of WW culture first hand. Normally their job as a freelance artist would allow them the flexibility of watching TV at their leisure, but the rush was just too much. Altias figured they would catch a recording if it later.
moss was still making notes in their notebook. Altias suddenly wondered if they were being interrogated. moss had many roles in the new city – keeper of records at the cityhall, often sitting on the committee which ran the RB cafe, and in a pinch, the city's detective. Altias was guessing this was one of those times.
“What time did you get to sleep last night, and did you dream?” moss continued.
“I was up until about 5AM working..” Altias admitted, stifling a yawn at the memory. “I didn't have any dreams, no. Why is that?”
moss made notes frantically.
“Just curious,” they said. “You must have slept through the city meeting, too. It's been a crazy day.”
“What happened?” Altias asked.
“Well there was this huge hype about a city meeting first thing this morning. Jingle called me and woke me up to tell me about it. The meeting was just to announce that the HF Show had been moved ahead. The RB shouted free drinks for half an hour and had a launch party, so most people headed over there. Apparently the party is still going on…” moss trailed off for a moment, plucked their phone from their pocket and checked something. “Yep. Apparently most of the city is unconscious or totally drunk.”
“Did you go to the RB?” Altias asked. They were glad they hadn't, it didn't sound like their scene at all.
“No, I watched it from home.” moss slipped their phone back into their pocket. “The HF Show has been on constant loop since the first showing and the next repeat starts in like a minute. Do you want to watch it?”
“Oh yeah, sounds great.” Altias switched their TV on, already tuned to the WWBC channel. They did have a lot of work to do, but they'd been at it since the phone call this morning had woken them up. They deserved the break, and it would be good to have moss' company for it.
moss and Altias sat in the two long sofas in Altias' living room, facing the TV. moss was propped up on the sofa, the show holding their absolute attention.
Altias sat in a more relaxed state, a little bit intrigued. They also noticed moss had left their heavy-looking gym bag near the door and wondered what might be in it. But they weren't nosy so they didn't ask.
The WWBC channel was set to a black background, with an old-fashioned white countdown. 10…. 9….. 8……. 7……… 6……….. 5…………..
The time between each number was slightly longer than the previous. It was really annoying. Altias held their breath a bit.
After 1, the black screen was replaced by a man Altias didn't recognise. He must have been in his late 20s or early 30s, with slightly long dark brown hair. He had somewhat intense facial features, and strong-looking arms and shoulders.
“Back when we all moved to the new city, Hawkfrost, the old enemy, made one last desperate attempt to take over our fair community once and for all.” The Wisher started. As Altias listened on, they began to recognise his voice – it sounded like a guy trying to put on a soothing English accent. It seemed a little bit off.
“Luckily for us, the mad scientists of the old city stood up to him. Using cunning and deception, they stopped his evil plans, and banished him to an island in the middle of the ocean.” The man continued. Altias turned to moss for no particular reason. They were leaning forward, their eyes darting around the screen rapidly. The notebook was open in their lap, pen at the ready.
“This island – Hawkfrost Island. Today we would like to show you a little bit of what this old horror gets up to these days.” The mystery Wisher continued. When Altias glanced back at the TV he was out of the frame, but his arm was visible, pointing towards the island. The camera zoomed into a tall man who was surprisingly pale considering he lived on an island in the middle of the ocean. The camera settled on an extreme close up of his face – somehow, he was still perfectly-shaven, and his eyes were the most piercing blue…
* * *[xquote]The RB was still way too noisy for reason. Thankfully the party had quietened down a little bit, but the music and general chatter was still much louder than the HF Show which was still playing in the background.
Jingle Pie had retired to one of the couches on the outside of the cafe, pretty exhausted from partying and mingling for so many hours. Nonetheless, her exhaustion wasn't showing all that much. Jingle was alternately watching the HF Show (or what little she could make out, between the people and the noise), browsing the net on her phone, and intermettently texting moss.
moss had understandably been very preoccupied with the HF Show. They were the best detective in city, and the moment this show had been announced, Jingle remembered moss saying they had a bad feeling about it.
Jingle knew she shouldn't, but she couldn't help but feel just a tiny bit sorry for HF. They had beaten him up and abandoned him on a deserted island for months. It was some kind of twisted miracle that he was still alive, and now to add insult to injury, they were going to his island and treating him like some kind of zoo animal.
At the same time, she objectively knew that HF had to be handled somehow. It had been months since their city had any kind of danger, and it honestly was probably due to him being gone.
Also, it seemed like HF liked his new life better than trying to take over the city. His sharp evil personality had really died down; he was quite humble and placid these days.
For some reason, the island was home to a number of cats. HF had befriended a little dark tabby kitten with amber eyes, who HF spoke to often and had affectionately named Daddy. One of the major focuses of the show had been about the complicated relationship between HF and Daddy.
While HF had developed a crazy ego an was a very self-driven man, Daddy was a very confident and ambitious cat. Sometimes HF even seemed content to live on the island forever, but Daddy would hear none of it… and that was another focus of the show.
Every now and then, HF would try to escape the island.
Not long into the first episode of the HF Show, which featured the crew's first week at HF Island, HF had started swimming out into the ocean. He was an incredibly confident swimmer. He would float around for a while, searching for turtles. When he found one, he would put in his best effort to escort it back to the beach and leave it on its back, unable to get back up. Daddy would sit there watching the turtles, a satisfied look on his kitten face.
By the end of the day he had accumulated several turtles, and decided to initiate the next step of his plan.
Using a makeshift rope he had tied together from plants, he had attempted to tie the turtles together to make a raft. He was totally unsuccessful in creating the raft, but he did manage to upset one turtle, who bit him really hard. When HF had recoiled, all of the turtles had ganged up on him, nipping until he was crying and begging for mercy. Satisfied, the turtles had gone back home.
A couple of days after this, he had climbed a tree (again, very expertly) and sat near the top, looking out for aircraft to flag down. Though the crew were unable to get a good angle on the top of the tree, needless to say he was unsuccessful.
A couple of crew members had gone on ground to assess the situation. HF had been screaming from the top of the tree that he was stuck. They remained out of sight, but it had taken the rest of the afternoon and most of the night for HF to finally crawl back down, with Daddy egging him on from below.
His diet was surprisingly okay for a guy in the middle of the ocean. The island had a small lake, which seemed to fill up disproportionately quickly with reasonably clear water. The climate was always slightly cool and mildly humid, which while unusual, also assisted with his water situation.
The island was also rich with coconut trees, which somehow coincided with the rich vegetation further inland. To top all of this off, fish regularly swam quite close to the beach, and HF was a brilliant fisherman, even without any tools. It was as if he was remembering how to fish from a past life.
Jingle was brought back to the present by a text message. Her phone was still in her hand, and she felt the vibration. She was a bit surprised that she had got so carried away thinking about HF's life that she had stopped looking at cute puppies.
The text was from moss.
moss: Hey, are you still at the rb? Is the hf show still on?
Jingle: Yeah, it just started again. I can't see it though.
moss: Oh okay… I was just watching and thinking about stuff. Let me know when things start getting quiet over there?
That piqued Jingle's interest. moss was a genius sleuth, and extremely well-organised. Did they need help with whatever was bugging them?
Jingle sent back a quick affirmative text. She didn't want to be short with moss but didn't want to keep them from the show either.
Curiosity had revitalised Jingle quite a lot. She got up to order another root beer, ready to stay up a while longer.[/xquote]
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rowan
i am hangin off the edge of my seat r/n
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Arcade Heat
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HF AND DADDY UM
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fireheart
“Daddy” omfg i'm screaming
also the turtles are the unsung mvp's rn, i love them so much
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lavender
“Sea turtles, mate”
ngl I thought about Pirates of the Caribbeanlookin great, scary~
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Wryfinch
OMG he calls the kitten “Daddy”!! I like this guy, even thought I have no clue whatsoever who he is or why he's here or what his significance is to this community. (Yes I'm such a newb. It's sorta funny.)
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Tom
You don't remember Hawkfrost from Warriors?
aww
Back in the newer days of WW he had a bad habit of kidnapping our leader/main admin he's generally just a super evil bad guy. lucky he's on an island in the middle of nowhere now lol.lavender wrote:“Sea turtles, mate” ngl I thought about Pirates of the Caribbean
lookin great, scary~
I should have said they were sea turtles. xDEdt; I don't think I've called him Hawkfrost once so far rofl. I'll work on that. HF = Hawkfrost.
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Wryfinch
You don't remember Hawkfrost from Warriors?
aww
Back in the newer days of WW he had a bad habit of kidnapping our leader/main admin he's generally just a super evil bad guy. lucky he's on an island in the middle of nowhere now lol.Edit; I don't think I've called him Hawkfrost once so far rofl. I'll work on that. HF = Hawkfrost.
Waaaiit, HAWKFROST? HF… Okay, how did I not make that connection? And blue eyes. Then again, a ton of characters had blue eyes, so it wasn't particularly significant.
He kidnapped the leader? Well, the leader's alive right? He must not have been very effective….
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Tom
Admittedly I was never super active in those events.. xD there are loads of other members around the place who would remember better. :')
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Lightning
“Sea turtles, mate”
ngl I thought about Pirates of the Caribbeanlookin great, scary~
All I can think of is the sea turtle from Finding Nemo…
Also these chapters get more and more cliffhanger-y and make me want more.
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lavender
Admittedly I was never super active in those events.. xD there are loads of other members around the place who would remember better. :')
so finch, HF was/is a character that frequently kidnapped Blizz (our first admin) for our sitewide games.
In order to get Blizz back the members had to solve all their complex serial-killer-esque cluesfor more info there's the Ww history thread that we're working on c:
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Addeh
awesome chapter Scary
He was totally unsuccessful in creating the raft, but he did manage to upset one turtle, who bit him really hard. When HF had recoiled, all of the turtles had ganged up on him, nipping until he was crying and begging for mercy. Satisfied, the turtles had gone back home.
This made me laugh quite a lot
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Tom
Posting on behalf of darkstar since he agreed to join in over Skype~
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 13
If you had one wish, you would ask for… Money
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? ok let's see… strength 7, perception 5, charisma 8, endurance 3, intelligence 8, agility 3 and luck 5Chapters 8 & 9 are ready to go. Judging by the poll I'm definitely going to post them both at once. Should be heavy, I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone thinks.
😀 -
Scar
Can I still join?
Here's my universal form, and this is the other stuff:Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 44
If you had one wish, you would ask for… all animal-abusers and sport hunters to evaporate
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? 5 intelligence, 3 agility, 2 strength
Favourite animals: literally cannot choose even a top tenSorry that I'm joining so late, I wanted to catch up on the story first. I love it so far!
also daddy -
Tom
CHAPPIE EIGHT
HONESTY
[xquote]Several hours before moss and Altias' meeting, in the city hall, the dreamers and other assembled Wishers sat around a table. A few random assorted chairs decorated the room.
Scary held a bag of ice against his face where Tiny had thumped him. She usually didn't hit so hard, but if he knew anything, he knew that she could be ridiculously strong when upset.
“How does it look?” He asked, withdrawing the bag of ice.
“Dude, wow,” Snow was the first to reply, looking genuinely concerned.
“The name 'Scary Nose' was well deserved.” Holly added.
Scary groaned and re-applied the ice bag, hoping it wasn't broken.
“I'm sorry,” Tiny mumbled. “I was trying to beat up this stranger in a dream I had.”
Dust picked up on it first. “Tell me about this stranger.” She said, paused for a moment, then added a 'please' for good measure.
Tiny told them all about her dream. It must have been thanks to the Dream Machine Mk. 2; she could remember every single detail perfectly. A fresh wave of fear crept through her as she recounted the stranger stalking her though Heat and Splashy's apartment building, and then following her home. As she told the story, she saw Dust was getting gradually more and more pale.
“The same thing happened to me..” she finally let out. “I went to visit this pond because of a dream I had last night. It was all clear, so I decided to check into city because it seemed so busy, and that guy you were talking about was on the outskirts, staring at me as I got closer. But when I turned to go home, he started following me. I ran, and he tried to break into my house…” she trailed off.
“You mentioned he had no face,” Lavender chimed in, looking equally pale. “How long were his arms?”
“Pretty long,” Tiny admitted.
“Did you see this symbol anywh–” Lavender reached for her phone for a moment then stopped. “I'm not going to draw that symbol.”
There was a brief pause.
“Mm…aybe,” Tiny replied for sake of continuing the conversation.
“It's the Slenderman. It's the grapefruiting Slenderman.” Lavender sunk slowly into her seat.
“Anyway,” Tiny continued, her fear slightly evaporated by the tangent. “Right at the end of my dream things got a little bit intense, and I looked straight at his face and I could see one of those things.” She turned to Scary.
“A Stabiliser?” He asked, voice slightly nasal. Tiny nodded.
“But it was kind of not right. It had a long black streak through it. Before I could have a good look though, you woke me up and… yeah.”
“Yeah.” He agreed, looking sulky.
“We saw something like that too!” Splashy leaped into the conversation. As soon as she had woken up, Splashy had made a beeline to one of the nearby cupboards which turned out to be a cream puff stash. The nomming had been relentless. “So we were in this copy of the new city but it wasn't reeeally the new city but it was really nice – but only to start with – so like… where was I?”
“How many cream puffs have you had today?” Fireheart asked her.
“Uh like… a thousand.” Splashy confessed.
“How many coffees?” Fireheart also asked.
“Six.” Splashy said without hesitation. “Bee arrrr bee.” She pronounced very carefully, suddenly rushing out of the room.
“Who can continue that story? Or maybe start again from the top?” Holly asked.
“Right.” Heat started, looking really tired. “We were in another version of this city, but it was totally underwater. Well not underwater, but pretty wet. Does my hair look okay?”
Scary turned to Bladeh, smiling and silently inviting her to take the floor. The shy Wisher shook her head and passed the notepad she had been jotting in to him.
“So we went to the RB to see if we could find any people.” Heat continued. “But there were all these bodies everywhere–“
“There was one dead guy.” Bladeh corrected quietly.
“Right, one dead guy. Anyway I went over to check him out and he woke up and grabbed me, and he was screaming about how he was going to take me back to the sea. So I was like 'never!' and stabbed him with my sword.” Heat continued.
“Is any of that true?” Fireheart couldn't help but ask.
“No–” Bladeh tried to say.
“Oh yeah, definitely. There was this massive wall, too, and it was like the ocean was behind it and it was stopping the entire city from drowning. But something was wrong because water was seeping in and because there were so many dead people.”
“Hi guys!” Splashy returned to the room, looking revitalised. “Where are we?”
“Heat was just telling us about that wall that stopped the city from flooding.” Snow offered very quickly.
“Oooh yeah it was massive. But water was getting in anyway because this guy was drowned. But that sad park near Dust's place was still so dry.” Splashy sighed wistfully. “Anyway while we were standing there Bladeh suddenly pointed behind us and there was this person thing wearing robes and a plastic cat mask and it was freeeakyyyyy.”
“Is any of that true?” Holly whispered to Bladeh, who was sitting next to her. Bladeh nodded grimly.
“So we followed them into the city and Heat ran off looking for them but they attacked me! Totally rude. And they were choking me and it was scary and then Bladeh stabbed them and they disappeared and we saw a Stabiliser exactly like the one Tiny described. It looked like it was sick.” Splashy finished. She had reseated herself, and was buzzing a tiny bit.
“I'm worried about these corrupted Stabilisers.” Scary admitted, sighing. “I don't know what it means, but a Stabiliser's job is to keep dreams in fragments of parallel universes. That way they can still be accessed, but they can't affect our world.”
“Wait what?” Lavender leaped up. “Affect our world?! What?”
Scary groaned.
“When we first moved to the new city, the mad scientists did some experiments around dreams. It turned out there were a few dreams which were common for everyone in the sample group. This was scary enough, but what really got us is when one day, one of the subjects woke up holding an object she had picked up in the dream.
“These dreams have had Stabilisers in them since not long after we moved to the new city. Since this weird corruption thing has happened, everyone has started reliving these dreams. And not just a sample of test subjects. Everyone.”
“Explain…” Tiny urged. Everyone else sat in terrified, awed silence.
“I don't know what will happen if the Stabilisers stop working. In the worst case scenario, these dreams will break down the barrier between their own world and ours.”
“Mandarin.” Most of the Wishers present said in unison.
“Now Dust,” Scary said, sounding both nasal and worried. “You mentioned a dream about the park out of city?”
“Y- yes,” She confirmed.
“Can you tell me about it in as much detail as possible?”
Dust recounted her dream the night before, the ducks with their strange behaviour, the malicious mallard, duck!Tiny, and how they had attempted to communicate. Scary seemed to shrink into his seat.
“I have to level with everyone.” He said, breathing in. “I've been an evil scientist all along.”
There was some reaction but not a whole lot. Within the context of the discussion, this wasn't a big reveal.
“One of my experiments during the early days of the new city was the perfect defence mechanism, blending the DNA of all of the most powerful creatures known to man.” He closed his eyes, taking a slow deep breath. “What we ended up with was the Mother Duck.”
“Slenderman and nursery rhymes. Everything about today sucks.” Lavender sighed.
“She is as big and tough as a tortoise. As quick as a cheetah. Has the regenerative powers of an unicorn. She also has a few other things like some giant squid, chameleon, snail…” he lowered his voice and added really quickly, “Maybe a bit of dragon and zombie king.”
“Scary, this is insane.” Heat said.
“That's what the other scientists said. When we put her in a live dream environment, she started eating people and rapidly spawning little ducks which acted a bit like her. They're super tough, quick and strong, and they can shapeshift. There is some good news, though: I never saw any signs of the Mother Duck being able to shapeshift.”
“Well, in that case…” Snow added, sarcastically. “Scary, this is insane.”
“Yeah, I know.” He sighed. “I think we will need the help of all of you to stop her and to keep the other dreams away from the real world.”
“I will not make a decision I will not make a decision I will not make a decision.” Holly chanted.
“Can I ask you all to come back here at dawn tomorrow? Give me the night to come up with a way to fix the Stabilisers, and to modify the Dream Machine Mk 2 so that all of us can use it at the same time.” Scary sat back, holding his bag of ice to his nose. He looked an odd combination of pitiful, terrified and hopeful.
“I'll come back.” Fireheart said, after a moment's pause. “May as well, the world's screwed if we don't help.”
“True, I'm in as long as I don't have to see that damn Slenderman dream.” Lavender joined in.
“There can't be anything creepier than the mandarin I saw today.” Tiny sighed. “I'll come back tomorrow.”
The rest of the group quickly followed suit, agreeing to come back at the crack of dawn tomorrow. The rest of the conversation was very short and uneventful; the group hastily disbanded to rest up before tomorrow.
* * *[xquote]The host stood in front of a mirror, the sleeve of their right shoulder rolled up so that they could check on the bandage around their arm.
They remembered everything that had happened earlier. Their attempt to execute Splashy in the alley. They remembered Bladeh plunging a damned letter opener into their arm.
For some reason the wound hadn't bled for this body, but the host remembered the excruciating pain they had felt as the cat faced stranger. They remembered dropping the Stabiliser as they fled – they remembered how it had felt, allowing the corruption to flow into the little crystal.
The Host knew who they were and what they had to do. They left the bathroom and entered their bedroom, kneeling before the safe in the corner. They unlocked it for the first time in memory, the passcode coming to them intuitively.
Inside the safe were three little objects. An ugly metallic alarm clock (which the Host withdrew now), and two corrupted Stabilisers… [/xquote]
-
Tom
CHAPPIE NINE
L ATE
[xquote]It was ridiculously late and the RB was finally ready to close its doors.
On a weeknight, 3.30am was a pretty good accomplishment. Especially considering that the party had been raging for well over half a day.
There was still a good assembly of Wishers in the closed cafe. Most of the regular staff had left as soon as their long long shifts had ended, so some of the patrons had offered to help tidy up after the party.
On the side of the cafe, another group sat. Jingle had been correct in her assumption that moss had been doing an independent assessment of the HF Show. moss had taken over one of the cafe's small tables and used it to lay out a series of notebook pages which illustrated their case.
Jingle herself and Altias, who had come with moss, were in attendance and ready to listen to moss' findings.
“To start with,” moss opened. “Who here actually knows someone who is part of the Hawkfrost Show cast and crew?”
“Only Jilda and Altias,” Jingle replied, slowly, thinking through the response. moss smiled.
“But neither of them were a part of the original crew. Jilda was hired in the last minute to work on marketing and stuff like that. I checked with her last week.” moss tapped one of the pages on the table, with 'Interview with Jilda' and a date from last week on it. Once again, their attention to detail was remarkable.
“And I wasn't even hired by the director or the WWBC.” Altias added. “The city itself hired me to make a mural, I've been liaising with city hall staff the whole time.”
“Which beings me to a similar point.” moss picked up a stack of notebook pages and flicked through them for dramatic effect. “I have asked 37 completely random Wishers this afternoon if they know who the main presenter of the Hawkfrost Show. Not one of them had any idea.”
“I don't know either.” Addeh added, wandering past their table. “Sorry for eavesdropping, sounds like a pretty interesting conversation.” Addeh was part of the rotational group of Wishers who looked after the operations of the RB. He wasn't keen on parties at all, and wasn't one for making major decisions. At the same time he was very reliable for helping with the running of the cafe as long as he wasn't forced out of his comfort zone.
“It's all good,” moss said, neatly placing the stack of pages back onto the table. They looked back up, Jingle and Altias still in attention. Addeh went back to helping with the cleanup.
“So, nobody knows who anybody in the cast is, and the main presenter of the show who is meant to embody the WW community's feelings about HF is some random guy none of us have ever met before.” moss summarised.
“That's true…” Altias said, thinking through the situation carefully. But moss wasn't done.
“I also have issues with the production of the show, as I hinted before.” moss continued. “Once again, all of the editing was done by this mystery crew. The WWBC has a whole host of Wishers who specialise in editing, and I wouldn't be surprised if not one of them was consulted.”
Jingle was actually the head editor for the WWBC. As well as working tireless hours on editing videos, she was also regularly consulted for projects which she didn't work on, just for general advice. She had been too busy lately to really think through it previously, but it really was suspicious that she hadn't been talked to about such a big production.
“You're totally right again.” Jingle confessed. Her phone was in her hand, and she was turning it slowly around her fingers.
“There's nothing else for it.” moss finished. “I have more questions than answers, and I don't like having more questions than answers. It's about 3.35 right now, so in about 3 hours' time I'm going to be heading to the WWBC's main studio and asking for some answers.”
“I'll come with you,” Altias said.
“Great.” moss replied, picking up their notes. “Thanks for the help. To be honest, I think this is only just scratching the surface. Does anyone else think it's–“
The lights went out.
“Ahh!” Someone yelled, in sync with a loud metallic clang. “Sorry, hurt my foot.”
After a few more moments the lights came back on. There were a few moments of relief, before out of nowhere, the TV also switched on. The screen was black and all they could hear was a loud continuous blast of white noise.
“What the…?” Addeh asked out loud. He and Lightning had been moving it back to the room behind the cafe. He checked the back of the TV and then shot a baffled glance at Lightning, who shrugged.
“How is that still on?” Sorrel asked, appearing from the back room. She had attended the party right at the start, but had then gone home to watch the actual show. Later, in a fit of insomnia she had decided to come back and see what was going on. “The cord isn't that long…”
“It's, uh…” Addeh trailed off. He stared at the back of the TV before returning to the front, turning back to Sorrel. “It's not plugged in.”
At that stage everyone left in the cafe was watching. moss' mystery unraveling had been halted mid-thought.
Sorrel immediately approached the TV, casting her eyes over it. As well as being generally sensible and intelligent, Sorrel had once had a very good affinity with magic. Magic had long since faded from the city (much to most of the population's disappointment), but Sorrel in particular had clung to as much of it as possible.
“There's definitely something ominous about this TV,” she said, taking a slow circle of it. “I can't work out what's going on with it though.”
Suddenly, the screen burst to life. It was the Hawkfrost Show again. Normally the WWBC was just showing random videos and bad movies at this time. Despite the fact that the Hawkfrost Show had been going all day, it was meant to have stopped at 2am.
There was a loud click and the white noise stopped. After only a moment the black screen was taken up by a grey timer, with the number '10' in the middle of it. It wasn't the same timer as earlier though, the typeface was definitely different.
9… it clicked, after what felt like forever.
“What the grapefruit is going on?” Addeh whispered, watching at the same time as everyone else.
8… it clicked, just a tiny bit faster. 7……… 6…… 5…. 4..3..2-1-0
The screen was taken up by the same image they had all seen already, from the earlier versions of the HF Show. The Wisher with dark brown hair and strong arms and shoulders. But he looked younger, and his face wore a stern expression. The boat was closer to the island, and there was the sound of distant partying. The beach appeared to be covered in little fires which displayed flickering lights, human-shaped silhouettes dancing back and forth in front of them.
“We all remember the story of when we moved to the new city.” He began. His voice was different; he had taken on a slightly British accent. But it sounded forced, as though he had been listening to British people talk his whole life and then suddenly decided one day to sound like them.
“Hawkfrost, one of the more genius, but regrettably underappreciated members of our fair community, made a desperate attempt to install order into our chaotic society.” He continued. His voice was, while soothing, a tiny bit rough, a deep anger behind it. In the distance the island slowly approached.
“But this order wasn't for everyone – the mad scientists of the old city stood up and knocked him down, preferring chaos to reign in our new city as it did in the old one.” He paused for dramatic effect, his dark eyes locked onto the camera. He gave off the feeling that he was staring straight at the viewers.
Altias tilted their head. “This sounds wrong… Isn't HF meant to be a massive orange?”
“For sure,” Jilda confirmed. “This is definitely not a Wisher speaking. Actually who the hell is this guy?”
There was no reply. Of course, nobody was sure who the Wisher was, they had just known he was part of the crew.
“His hopes and dreams were dashed, and his brilliant ideas were abandoned. Left to be devoured by history.” The fury in his voice had turned from complete malice, to remorse. If his point of view had even a scrap of credibility, his speech would have been worth a bit of sympathy.
“But today, we need to change that. The citizens of Warriors Wish need to recognise their true master, the one who shaped our city into its perfect form.”
“What is he even talking about?” Lightning asked. “HF had nothing to do with building the city, except for when he tried to take it over.”
“Today, I ask you. My friends. The citizens of Warriors Wish. Look into your hearts, and recognise Hawkfrost as your true ruler.”
The ship had arrived at the island. The camera panned to the left, showing the entire crew of the Hawkfrost Show having a huge party. They were drinking drinks that shouldn't have existed on the island, eating exotic foods that HF hardly should have even heard of.
The people in the RB were dead silent as they watched the camera slowly move along the beach, panning slightly to display shots of the Wishers eating and drinking and being merry. It waded through them towards a solitary figure, wearing what appeared to be a snazzy charcoal suit.
The frame was slightly distorted as the suited man turned towards the camera. He was wearing a white shirt and a red tie beneath the dark jacket. There was a briefly-visible tear in the footage; once the vision returned to clarity, the party sounds instantly died. The crew of the HF Show were seen scattered around the beach behind the man, laying in very uncomfortable positions.
The man completed his slow dramatic turn towards the camera, a crooked, evil – but sane – grin on his face. There was another brief visual tear, after which the dead Wishers were suddenly standing behind him in rows, reanimated. The fires scattered around the beach reflected eerily off their still-dead faces.
“Hello, dearies,” said Hawkfrost, “Have you missed me?”
[/xquote] -
tinyfeather
I KNEW IT!!!!!!!
OMG THIS IS GETTING HECKA INTENSE OMG -
Scar
AHHHHHHHH AWESOME!
I still don't even have a clue as to who the kitty-mask guy (or girl?) is though and I want to know very very badly
-
Tom
thanks [member=185]Scartail[/member] C:
accepted btw. -
Arcade Heat
What in the world????? Plz keep writing it's getting hella good
-
fireheart
AAAAAAAAAAAAA omg this is awesome!! things are getting so intense ;__;
-
Addeh
YAAAS I WAS IN IT U FIX THAT TV ADDEH
anyway this was great. I'm excited to see how this will unfold
-
Wryfinch
Oh god this is EPIC. This is amazing stuff. Who makes this plotline again. (O rite Scary ^^)
Is it odd that I love the phrases “Hello, dearies.” and “Shut up, dear.”? They just sound so condescending and cocky that they boomerang back to greatness.
-
Russet Hunt
Preferred Name: Russet Hunt
Gender: Female
Personality: You know Mark from Fire Emblem? I'm Mark from Fire Emblem.
Appearance: Dark skin/hair/eyes, average height and wears clothes.
Preferred weapon: Improvised weapons
Pick a number from 1 to 1,000: 13
Alignment: To me.
If you had one wish, you would ask for… freedom
If you had 10 stat points in a fantasy game, how would you spend them? high dexterity, good strength and defense.
Favourite colour: red
Favourite animals: foxes -
Lightning
Oh lordy the return of Hawkfrost
Everyone run
-
Tom
CHAPPIE TEN
PROGRESS
[xquote]The Host had an early start.
In the wee hours of the morning, the city was practically deserted. At this stage, most Wishers would be asleep. Those who weren't would either be shut up in their homes working or browsing the net, or still at the RB socialising.
The host had no time for that. They had a higher purposes to fulfil and they needed to move fast.
They scurried through the streets of the city wearing jeans, a drawn hooded jumper and a scarf wrapped tightly around the lower half of their face, obscuring any identifiable features for anyone who wasn't standing right next to them.
Their path led them at last to Fanworks Avenue, and the old boarded up WW Writing Association building. The host tried the door first, but was not surprised to find that it didn't open.
They took a quick circle of the building, and found no conventional entrance which hadn't been boarded up. Sighing, they picked up a large rock off the ground and hurled it through one of the windows to the rear of the building.
No alarm went off. The host picked up another rock, using it to (relatively) carefully dislodge the remaining pieces of glass before hoisting themselves up through the window, turning carefully to land on their feet.
Fairly proud of their ninja moves, the host carefully stepped past the broken glass, finding that most of the interior doors were open.
Disappointingly, the building had fallen into a state of disrepair. Dust (not the Wisher) had already began to settle all through the place, and the electricity had been disconnected, making it dark and gloomy. The host remembered this place from many moons ago. It held fond memories for most Wishers.
“No time for nostalgia,” a wispy voice hissed from the depths of the host's conscience. They had come to recognise the voice as belonging to the cat faced stranger they dreamed of being. It was best not to mess with the voice, it had a very short fuse.
The host made for one of the storage rooms of the WW Writing Association building, hidden at the far end of the hallway. Once again, the door was conveniently open.
The room was lined with bookshelves, which were filled with dusty old tomes of history and fiction. In the middle of the room were a number of centrepieces; mostly small glass cabinets with relics from the old days. The host passed one, a glass cabinet containing a turnip and an ominous message:
EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!
DO NOT TOUCH!
(especially darksight)….and the other, a huge statue of Blizz, the original leader of WW and the former mayor of the old city. Sometime during the chaos, she had disappeared. Nobody knew where she went and why, or whether she would be back. But the statue had been erected by the Fanworks Avenue artists in her honour, and was a frequently-viewed masterpiece back when this building had been in use.
It was a huge shame that the statue had been left abandoned. The host wondered why nobody had come to claim it, but figured it was for the best, all things considered. They crouched down around the statue's plinth, slowly feeling around for– click!
The host pushed a hidden button, and a flap opened up, concealing a hidden department in the plinth.
They lay on their belly next to the statue, reaching fearlessly into the plinth until their fingers closed around the object they were after – a small awkward object about the size of a baseball.
“Well done,” the voice hissed. “Give it to me.”
The host withdrew the Stabiliser from the statue and stood again, holding the object in front of them. They braced themselves for the possession. It had happened so many times now, but the host was never quite ready.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop about twenty degrees, and the host felt their body go still, no longer responding to their commands.
Numb now to the unusual feeling, they watched as the shadow within them raised their other hand, cupping the Stabiliser gently. Moving to the shadow's will, the host body leaned slowly into the Stabiliser, whispering harshly in an ancient, forgotten language.
A burning sensation shot through the host's hands. While they couldn't control their body, the pain was very real. Long shadows grew out of their fingers, taking on lives of their own, coiling themselves around the Stabiliser. The host hated this feeling. It felt like having the skin on their fingers slowly torn off.
“Calm down,” the shadow snapped. “I need to focus.” The host put all of their energy into thinking positively and not reflecting on the pain. It would only be a few more moments… they had to do this, for the future…
After moments which felt like long minutes, the pain stopped and the host began to feel themselves regain control of their body. They didn't fall over this time. That was good.
“You did well…” that voice from another world croaked. The host stared blankly at the Stabiliser in their hand, the corruption now spreading within it. They smiled, shoving the little object into the pocket of their hoodie. That's right, they'd done damn well.
* * *[xquote]Scary was in the main street of the old city dream. He had earphones in, blasting some extremely dissonant music, a stapler in his shirt pocket, and both a blindfold and a reusable shopping bag clasped in one hand. He didn't look like someone you'd stop to chat to if you passed him on the street.
But he wasn't in the mood to stop and talk either. The Wisher knew exactly where he was going and he was on a mission to get there.
Scary turned into the alley which was meant to lead past the city hall, finding himself confronted with a metal barricade which he knew wasn't really there. He placed a hand on it gently, finding his fingers slipped straight through the surface.
“Excellent,” he whispered, stepping straight through the wall and into the hidden old city.
This version of this version of the old city was one of his proudest achievements. It was itself a tiny fragment of a parallel universe. The copies of the buildings around the city hall were merely painted on. They had no physical qualities besides their appearance. The only thing that actually existed here was a few square metres of pavement and the Vault.
Originally he had hoped to have massive trees surrounding the streets, perpetually shedding black leaves. Unfortunately there weren't many fans of the Slenderman mythos out there, and his idea was knocked back as creepy and a waste of money.
Scary passed through the section of the path which he knew was real, heading straight for the Vault. He reached into his pocket, turning the volume up on his phone until it was so loud it actually hurt his ears. He regretted choosing Igorrr for a moment, but knew it would be effective.
The city hall – or the Vault in this pseudo-reality – was a huge storage space for all the inventions which they couldn't facilitate or hadn't yet needed in the new city. Storing them in a fragment of the dream in which the old city was stored had simply been a stroke of insane, confusing genius.
As he approached the doors, he put on the blindfold, the doors creaking open in front of him. He knew that the alarm would be going, but he could not see its flashing lights through the blindfold and could not hear the alarms through the loud dissonant music. This gave him enough time to speak the password,
“I'm a little teapot.”
He waited a few seconds before removing the blindfold, pleased to find that the room had returned to a state of mellow lighting. He turned the music back down to nearly nothing, not daring to stop it completely. He had fallen to sleep listening to this, and he was pretty sure stopping it would trigger his consciousness in the real world, waking him.
The Vault was full of old treasures he would have loved to take home with him. But there was no time and he really needed just a few items. His first taget was a storage cabinet at the far end of the room, which was full of little shiny jars of various colours. All of them were very tightly sealed. He scooped about a dozen of them up, heaping them into the bag he was carrying.
Next, he turned to the centre of the room, looking for–
“Grapefruit.” He said. It wasn't there. He checked nearby surfaces and the lor around the small podium but it was nowhere to be found. “Grapefruit, grapefruit, grapefruit.”
“You should not be here.” A robotic voice said from the entrance to the Vault. Scary looked up, facing one of the robotic sentries of the old city. “Explain yourself.”
“I'm Scary, one of the people who made th–” Scary stopped himself. The robots should not know how to enter this part of the dream. Something was wrong here.
Holding his bag behind him, he drew the stapler from his pocket, using its propulsion system to fire off two staples. Both of them hit the robotic sentry straight in the chest. After only a moment's delay, the electric charge in the staples activated and the sentry dropped to its knees.
But Scary knew he wasn't a badass. He had to get out of the dream. He made sure he was holding onto his phone, the bag, the stapler and the blindfold. Then, he took out the earphones.
He could already hear the continuation of the music, from outside the tangible part of the dream. He roused in the real world, as his dream self turned back to the robotic sentry.
The sentry's face was melting off, emitting a nasty-looking steam. From behind the fake face, Scary could make out a plastic mask in the shape of a turtle.
“Hold on… You can't be here. No way.” He gasped. As the dream came to an end, he could slowly see a legion of masked strangers behind the turtle faced shadow; a beagle, a panda, a duck, a spider, the plastic animal face masks were endless.
Scary awoke at the table with the Dream Machine Mk. 2 on it, exhausted and terrified. He quickly took stock; blindfold and phone, check. Stapler, check. Bag of mysterious science jars, check.
And legion of villains, check. But it made no sense for so many of them to be here, in this realm. Scary told himself he must have been dreaming, and went to fetch another coffee.[/xquote]
-
tinyfeather
*gasp*
so suspenseful. WHAT IS HAPPEN -
Scar
Oooh, I love the whole possession-thing!
I also really want to know what the whole mask thing is about
It reminds me of a weird cult -
Addeh
That was great
The possession is spooky. Can't wait to see how this develops! -
Splashy
Scary wrote:The host passed one, a glass cabinet containing a turnip
i was legitimately banned temporarily by April Fools!Squirrel for dancing with radishes instead of turnips
WHAT HAPPEN WHY THE PLASTIC MASK MEN
also freaking HF go away
who is possessing people
y u do this possessing thing -
Tom
CHAPPIE ELEVEN
NEXT STAGE
[xquote]Dust wandered into the new city, cradling a mug of hot tea in her hands. The great thing she had found about living in a city full of friends, is that you could safely entrust your favourite mug to them and know that you would be able to retrieve it later.
The tea she was trying was the latest addition to the Earl Grey family, by the name of 'Mr. Grey'. Critics had called it unique, sexy and dangerous. Dust hadn't tried it before this morning, and while it was a bit of fun to drink, honestly, it was very overrated. The overall structure of the tea wasn't well thought-through, and the ingredients were terribly-written.
Dust habitually glanced towards the park which the ducks had inhabited in her dream the night before. The memory of the dream still haunted her… the army of ducks, the malevolent mallard, duck!Tiny's morphing duck/human hybrid face… Dust shook her head and walked faster.
It wasn't long before she was in the city proper – it was surprisingly dead. The RB Cafe was shut (which was very unusual, it should have been open for breakfast), and all of the Wishers who were usually up first thing in the morning were nowhere to be seen. It was still quite cold, so Dust held her cup of Mr. Grey against herself for warmth. Realising how wrong this was, she quickly tipped the remnants of Mr. Grey onto a nearby tree.
“Sorry!” She whispered to the tree, and decided to get a cup of tea from another cafe.
She was in luck – there was an eccentric little cafe on a corner just near the city hall, called 'The Fruitful Banterer'. Dust hadn't been in to try it yet, but she knew it was run by John Fruit from her Tea Appreciation Society.
“Good morning Dust,” he chimed as she came in. “Good to see you at last.” He immediately withdrew a small box of tea labelled 'Earl Grey', scooping three generous heaps into a small teapot and filling it from the urn. “No charge for a fellow tea lover.”
“Oh– thank you!” Dust said, gain a seat at one of the few tables there.
“Hey Dust, come sit with us.” a familiar voice called from the other side of the cafe. Dust looked up to see Scartail waving at her, sitting next to Finch, one of the younger citizens of the new city. “We both ended up at the RB at about the same time, but it was shut.” She added.
Dust did join them, grateful for the company. She hadn't caught up with Scartail for ages.
Finch was quietly eating a blood orange.
“Isn't it weird that the RB is shut?” Scartail asked. “And wow, how good was the Hawkfrost Show?”
“Yeah, it was pretty great.” Dust said. “I feel a bit sorry for Hawkfrost though. He seems kind of lonely out there.”
“He deserves it, honestly,” John Fruit added, quickly performing the sign of the Tea Appreciation Society, and then delivering a cup of tea to Dust. She took a light sip since it was hot, but it was made to perfection. “Can I get you some breakfast? We have a broad range of fruit; oranges, mandarin, grapefruit, watermelon… You want some watermelon?”
“N- no thanks.” Dust said quickly, not sure how to respond to this.
“Alright, suit yourself.” John returned behind the counter, eating mandarin. “It's strange, my number one customer hasn't been in yet this morning.”
“Oh really?” Scartail asked.
“Yeah. Normally Jilda is in here bright and early every morning for some mangos.” He said.
“I wonder where she is…” Dust pondered.
“Well, I wonder if it has to do with something I saw last night.” Scartail mused. “I couldn't sleep, so early this morning I went for a walk around the block and I saw this really strange-looking person walking around the back of the old WW Writers Association building.”
“That blood orange was amazing.” Finch sighed, wiping her fingers on a napkin. “My only complaint is that I can't think of anything to complain about.”
“That's great, Finch,” Dust said. “Scartail, I'm not sure what to think about the stranger you saw…” She checked her watch; she was meant to meet the others in a few minutes. “I would love to go and see what's happened but I need to go somewhere.”
“Where to?” Finch asked.
Figuring it couldn't do any harm, Dust gave Scartail and Finch a very quick run-down of the story and the dreams they had explored the day before. The other Wishers listened in awed silence.
Scartail slowly sat back in her chair, taking a long minute to process the story. Dust took the chance to cool her tea slightly, taking another sip. After what seemed like forever, she replied.
“What's up with this whole dream thing?” Finch wondered out loud, “I still haven't had one.”
“That is way more interesting than my creepy stranger,” she confessed. Dust laughed slightly, still mid-tea. “I'm not doing anything today, so I think I'll come with you.”
Dust nearly choked on her tea at the sudden turn in conversation.
“Oh, I'm not sure if… um…” she started, flustered.
“Don't worry about it!” Scartail plucked her bag off the ground, handing a few prey points to John Fruit. “Finch should totally come too.”
“Oh, okay,” Finch replied, also passing some PP to John.
As the three Wishers left the cafe and headed for the city hall, Dust could hear John mumbling behind her.
“All the people of this city talk about is fruit. Grapefruit this, and what is this mandarin, etc., etc. Why is it when push comes to shove nobody buys fruit?” He had sighed, and then started humming.
Dust felt bad, but she needed to go. She silently promised that she would explain it to him at the next Tea Appreciation Society meeting.
Scartail had taken the initiative of leading the group, her bag slung casually over her shoulder. Dust didn't see Scartail around the city much, and couldn't begin to guess what the bag might be for. The other Wisher had a habit of getting involved with a lot, but still staying outside of the public spotlight. She took on many acting roles for the WWBC; unfortunately, Dust didn't watch much television. It was also rumoured that she was involved in the council's plan to open an actual zoo close to the new city.
Finch, on the other hand, was a person who got out into the city quite a bit more. Although she had only been a part of the new city a short while, she was renowned for taking up part-time jobs, only to quit shortly afterwards.
It wasn't long before the three of them had reached the city hall, making for the room down the back where they had all met yesterday. Scary was sitting at the head of the table, cradling up a cup of coffee, his hair messier than usual and dark circles under his eyes.
“Heeello, ……. Scartail?” He said, surprised. “Hello Finch and Dust, too.”
“Morning Scary, it's been a while.” Scartail replied. “Dust told Finch and I about the situation over breakfast, so we've decided that we are both totally in.”
“Oh… That's good then.” Scary said distantly, checking his phone. “I sent a message to Addeh this morning because I get the feeling he'd enjoy this, but I haven't had a reply. Damn his shyness, hope he's okay.”
“He said something about working at the RB last night.” Splashy said, entering the room with her usual bounce, a thermos of coffee in one hand and a chainsaw in the other.
“Oh holy StarClan what's with the chainsaw?” Finch asked.
“You mean, you don't carry absurdly dangerous weapons around with you for no particular reason…?” Scartail asked. She withdraw a retractable bo staff from her bag, extending it to illustrate her point. “Most Wishers do. I kinda wish I knew why…” Scartail trailed off.
“Hiya,” Fireheart called out, entering the room not long after Splashy. She took a seat a distance from the door, then asked, “Has anyone heard from Darkstar in the last day or so?”
“No,” Scary admitted, “Though I don't talk to him much anyway. It was quite odd that he wasn't at the city meeting yesterday, either.”
“What, he wasn't?” Fireheart asked back.
“Well, I don't think so. I don't really see him much.” Scary said.
The small group sat around for some time, bouncing theories around about the strange goings-on the last few days. None of them had been at the RB that morning, so none of them were aware of Hawkfrost's return. Nonetheless, that was a cause for conversation along with Darkstar's apparent disappearance, the story of Scartail's mysterious stranger last night, the gradual decrease in the rarity of pepes (after Heat arrived), and innumerable other mysteries.
Once they had all arrived, Scary reached into a bag and withdraw a small jar.
“Here is another gift from the mad scientists of the old city.” Scary began. “I retrieved them last night, and uh… It wasn't a pleasant experience.”
“Retrieved them from where?” Lavender asked, looking alarmed.
“The old city,” Scary admitted.
“The old city disappeared months ago.” Snow pointed out.
“I overheard some conversations in yesterday's meeting,” Splashy whispered. “Addeh and Sorrel both dreamed about visiting the old city that night. Like, a carbon copy. Robot police and all.”
“Does this mean that the old city is… in a dream?” Fireheart wondered.
“It's complicated.” Scary interrupted. “But yes, part of this will be entering the old city. It is currently within a dream, and there is a Stabiliser there which needs to be checked under all circumstances.”
“Wait, I'm confused,” Tiny joined in. “When exactly did we move to the new city?”
There was silence.
“I'm sorry to interrupt,” Scary said, interrupting anyway, “but we should probably get moving to make sure that the new city isn't destroyed as well. This little device,” He continued, tapping on the jar on the table. “Is a Foreign Element Nomming Jar — also known as a FEN Jar.”
“What does it do?” Holly asked.
“Noms foreign elements,” Scary said.
“Oh.” Holly added, after a brief pause.
“These jars should be able to neatly extract two elements from the Stabilisers, and contain them so that they can be transferred back to the real world. The first is the corruption which we've been seeing in them.” Scary quickly ran his hands through his hair, sighing. “The second is the substance which ties the Stabilisers to our world. We will have to abandon these dreams in order to save the real world.”
“That actually makes more sense than most of the other stuff you've said,” Heat pointed out. He had been pretty quiet this morning.
“I was hoping that Addeh could join us, so I have modified the Dream Machine Mk. 2 to seat 11 people, including myself.” Scary continued. “But since Scartail and Finch have joined us, I'll stay here for moral support. Now, based on your various
stat point distributionsattributes, I have determined who is best equipped to infiltrate which dreams.”“Scary, that involves counting past 10, which I know you can't do.” Tiny butted in.
“Aw, it'll be fine.” Scary stood up, and cleared his throat. “Firstly, to infiltrate the old city, I have selected Scartail, Lavender and Fireheart. For your quick wits, fighting abilities, and puns. Insane malfunctioning robot sentries hate puns.”
“Huh? Malfu–” Lavender tried to ask.
“Next, I would like Bladeh to return to the flood dream. Not much time has transpired, so the Stabiliser should be where it was left.” The mad scientist continued.
“Oh… Okay.” Bladeh said.
“In case it's been compromised, Tiny, please go with Bladeh.” Scary said.
“No creepy stalkers? I'm so in.” Tiny replied.
“Speaking of which,” Scary continued. “Heat, Snow and Finch, I want you guys to take on the dream Tiny and Dust explored yesterday.”
“How did you figure we were the best suited for that?” Finch asked, sceptically.
“I picked your names out of a hat. Moving right along.” Scary adopted an ominous tone. “Last but not least, I need three of the most violent, fearless and dangerous Wishers to travel into the most dangerous dream of them all. The home territory of the Mother Duck. The Duckpocalypse itself.”
“Dust, Holly and I?” Splashy asked. “How are any of us violent and dangerous?”
“I'm glad you all accept.” Scary replied, disregarding the valid question. “If nobody has any objections or requests, then please make sure that you are armed and ready. This starts in 5 minutes.”
[/xquote] -
tinyfeather
Why do I have the boringest job Scary
-
Wryfinch
Three points:
1. I'm completely in-character for all of my few lines, woo! I do enjoy oranges. (You might want to check my USUF though, it changes slightly every few days 'cause I'm obsessed with revisions….)
2. 'Mr. Grey'. Just 'yes!!' to the pun and 'noooo!!!' to the tea.
3. Your reasons for choosing the teams were… uh, sketchy? I dunno, I'm just wondering if somebody will get eaten by dream demons. O__O Please get us all out in one piece.. *crosses fingers* -
Scar
Awwwww Dust, why don't you want any watermelon? c;
Great chapter as always! I wonder what's in my bag… And I was so quick to involve myself… I seem very suspicious…
-
Splashy
fifty shades of earl grey
also yeeee my chainsaw!
you're going down ducks!
-
Addeh
We have a broad range of fruit; oranges, mandarin, grapefruit, watermelon… You want some watermelon?”
“N- no thanks.” Dust said quickly, not sure how to respond to this.
“All the people of this city talk about is fruit. Grapefruit this, and what is this mandarin, etc., etc. Why is it when push comes to shove nobody buys fruit?” He had sighed, and then started humming.
These made me laugh so hard
“Oh… That's good then.” Scary said distantly, checking his phone. “I sent a message to Addeh this morning because I get the feeling he'd enjoy this, but I haven't had a reply. Damn his shyness, hope he's okay.”
sounds just like me tbh I frequently do not reply to texts
this was an excellent chapter!!
-
Tom
Lol Scartail! I had way more fun writing that scene than I should have :#
And Tiny.. come on, since when has the most apparently-simple job been boring?
Thanks Finch, Splashy and Addeh for the nice comments.
Chapter 12 is underway. I'll try not to slack off on this fic until it's finished, lol. -
Tom
CHAPPIE TWELVE
GAMES
[xquote]A huge fish swam directly in front of Jilda. She watched it move past, still extremely weary. Last night's party had gone on far too long, and there was only a dull flicker of light from the sky above. She could only have slept for a couple of hours.
Jilda slowly blinked herself asleep, then raised her head to get up–bang! She found herself headbutting a solid object and fell back to the ground.
“Oww…” she groaned.
“Morning Jilda,” Addeh said, quietly. He was laying on his stomach, about a meter from where she had slept. Further investigation revealed that there were about half a dozen sleeping Wishers scattered around the room they were in.
“Oh hi Addeh, thanks for helping out last night.” Jilda replied.
“It's all good.” Addeh whispered back, “Uh, just so you know, we are in a tiny glass room at the bottom of the ocean.”
“Whaaaa–?!” Jilda's sleepiness instantly evaporated, her eyes widening. Sure enough, the solid object she had collided with was a very thick glass ceiling. The fish she had seen earlier was… a fish. In the ocean. She couldn't believe she hadn't registered that.
“Woah hey what's going on?” Lightning called out from somewhere else in the room, roused by Jilda's scream.
“Is everyone awake now?” moss called out.
“I think so,” Addeh raised his voice a little. “If anyone is still sleeping, please say so.”
There was no reply.
“Cool,” he said.
“So where are we and how did we get h–” Sorrel started the thought, then paused. “Hawkfrost. This has to be Hawkfrost.”
“I can't believe he's back,” Jingle sighed. “I really thought we were rid of him forever.”
“To be honest, it doesn't even surprise me.” Lightning pointed out. “A WW without Hawkfrost just doesn't seem right anymore. Plus, who banishes the most evil person they know to an island in the middle of the ocean, waits a while, then goes back and pokes him with a stick?”
“Yeah okay, good point.” Jilda turned her head around slowly, looking around. “Does anyone know how we can get out of this room? Or like, how we got here?”
“I remember being in the RB, and seeing that creepy alternate Hawkfrost Show. Then, I remember him turning to the camera and saying 'hello dearies, have you missed me?', and… after that the next thing I remember is being here.” Altias said, sounding nervous. “It's pretty dark in here.”
“Yeah, my memory is about the same.” Jingle said. “We have got to find a way out of the creepy glass room.”
As if on cue, seven glass panels directly above the Wishers flickered to life. Addeh sighed, carefully rolling back onto his back. Hawkfrost's grinning face was on each one of the screens.
“Hello again dearies, long time no speak.” He began. “I would like to cordially welcome you to my new home, the DSV (Deep Submergence Vehicle) 'Fox Trap'. As you would have noticed, you are currently at the bottom of the ocean.”
“Why would he name a boat 'fox trap'?” Lightning wondered out loud.
“Oh, that's easy,” Hawkfrost replied. “This boat is not just my new evil base of operations. It is also my phoenix pyre. It represents the fact that no matter how many times you knock me down, you will never keep me there. Especially not when you're fighting on my turf.”
“You can hear us?” Sorrel asked.
“Yes, there are microphones and screens installed all throughout the room you're in right now. I call this the observation deck.” Hawkfrost said.
“Hey Hawkfrost?” Sorrel continued.
“Yes?” Asked the cat.
“You suck.” She finished.
“Hear, hear,” The other Wishers said in quick succession.
Hawkfrost just sighed, his grin lowering a bit. “None of you understand what is going on here.” He sighed. “But it's fine. Soon you will. Do you remember our friend from the Hawkfrost Show?” The camera panned so that Hawkfrost was on the edge of the picture. The centre of the frame was now focused on a chair, facing away from the camera, towards what appeared to be an absolutely massive control panel.
The chair turned around, revealing the Wisher who has introduced the Hawkfrost Show.
“Good meow– I mean morning.” He said.
“Really?” Hawkfrost hissed.
“Sorry.” The man hissed back. The camera panned back to Hawkfrost.
Hawkfrost's smile returned, with a sardonic edge. “Some of you may also remember him by the name of Daddy.”
“You turned a cat into a person?” Altias asked out loud. “Hold on… Hawkfrost… Actually, this makes sense.”
“More importantly, you're letting a cat drive a gigantic underwater base submarine type thing? Who does that?” Lightning asked.
“Details, details, dearies,” Hawkfrost laughed lightly. “Well, clearly this type of group environment won't help me get any traction on the issues I had hoped to talk to you about. I'm going to need to arrange a time to visit you all more individually.”
There was a loud clunk!, and the floor of the glass room began descending.
“You are trapped underwater, as you may have noticed. I will give you all two hours to find me in the control room. If you fail, the facility will be flooded and you will all die.” Hawkfrost let out a wicked cackle. “Good luck.” The screen went dead.
“That explains why that guy seemed so fishy. He was always pretty awkward, and talked like he'd learned how to speak from a robot.” moss observed as they descended.
“Do you mean Da–” Jilda went to confirm. “I can't even say it. Can we all agree to call him Tigerstar?”
A chorus of 'yes'es went around.
After a minute or so, there was another clunk, and the ground shook slightly as the false ceiling they had been laying on connected with the floor of the base.
moss was the first one up. Their eyes darted around the room, taking in as much detail as possible. A series of symbols was painted on one wall; an 'x', a set of arrows facing both left and right, and then a bold tick. They decided to think more on this later, and focused on searching for something else.
“The ground is all bright,” Addeh pointed out. All of the assembled Wishers glanced down at once. On the ground where each of them stood was a figure-8 of light, formed of two circles which seemed to centre around their feet.
Altias raised one foot off the ground, and noticed that the circle of light under that foot had disappeared.
“I feel a puzzle coming on,” moss whispered. “This is good.”
There were three huge doors in the room, and a depressable button in the centre. After a bit of experimenting they found that the button could be depressed by having one person sitting on it. It didn't seem to matter who sat on it, only that they were in the sitting position.
In front of each door was four small red circles of light. When any of the wishers stood in one of the circles, they turned green.
“Hold on. This isn't a puzzle. It's just an elaborate way to split us all up.” moss said.
“I think there's still more we need to figure out first.” Sorrel pointed out. “How about the sign on the wall? Does that mean that the door to its left is bad news and the door to its right is good?”
“Or it could mean 'no direction is good',” Lightning added.
“Or it could mean that the cross is now, the arrows are us splitting up, and then the tick is after we split up.” Jingle said. “It's such a vague clue, it doesn't help much.”
“I'm still getting a good vibe from that right door. Better safe than sorry.” Addeh declared.
“How do we actually get the doors open?” Jilda asked.
“The first thing we should probably try is having someone stand on the button while two people stand in front of each door. Considering the number of people we have here and how much of a jerk Hawkfrost is that's probably it.” Lightning summed up.
“I think he's right,” moss conceded.
“I'm calling the right door if no one else is.” Sorrel said.
“Yeah, same.” Addeh and Sorrel both stood by the right door, the little red circles under their feet turning green. The door didn't open.
“In that case, I'll take the button.” Altias said, sitting down.
“Are you sure?” Sorrel asked. “We will definitely come back for you either way, but…”
“Yeah, it's fine.” Altias said, getting into a comfortable sitting position.
“Well then, I don't really mind so I'll take the left door.” moss said. Jingle quickly agreed, and the two of them stood in front of the left door.
“That leaves us with the mystery wild card door.” Lightning sighed, positioning himself in front of the door.
“Brilliant,” Jilda replied, standing next to him.
As the last light went green, there was a loud click. The doors opened, sideways, three dark passages displayed behind them.
* * *[xquote]Hawkfrost paced around the cage which held his captive, a mad grin still on his face.
“Who would have thought I could take out this city's order and one of my oldest foes in one move?” He mused.
“Yeah, well done.” The captive replied. “You're an all powerful god, just like you said you were. Great. Can I go home now?”
“Oh no, oh no. I can't let you go.” Hawkfrost suddenly stopped pacing, his deep cool eyes staring down his captive. “I need your answer now, Darkstar. Hand the city over to me and convince the other leaders to stand down. Refuse, and I will have no option but to take it by force.”
“Let me think about that.” Darkstar replied. “Either hand over the city–i.e. guaranteed win for you. Or, I let you try and take it over. Again. You get thwarted. Again. Then we pick up the pieces. Again.”
Hawkfrost frowned, scorned. “You are underestimating my advantage here.” He hissed.
“You are overestimating your own mousedung story. If you try spinning the same yarn you've spun to me to any other wishers, they would laugh you out.” Darkstar trailed off, an idea forming in his mind.
“You look like you're thinking of something, dearie.” Hawkfrost said, a playful lilt in his voice.
“How about a game of sorts?” Darkstar suggested.
“I like it.” Hawkfrost replied without a moment to consider. “Let's hear what you have to say.”[/xquote]
-
tinyfeather
I love it!!! I hope nobody picked a bad door…
-
Scar
Well, now almost everyone is in some sort of trouble… :c
Also LOL DADDY
-
fireheart
ahhh this is so cool!! awesome chapter scary!
-
Addeh
I love everything I say tbh. Love myself
This was great!! Wonder how we'll get out. Looking forward to more!!
-
Wryfinch
The suspense! Just what is that game they're playing now, hmm?
And call me narcissistic but I want to see what happens in my/Heat's/Snow's dream. Just to be sure we don't get knocked out on the bat, being chosen out of a hat and all without skill, hehee.
Oh, and TS/Daddy-turned-human. Just glorious. *applauding you*
-
Arcade Heat
ooh daddy… give that puzzle to me
-
Scar
ooh daddy… give that puzzle to me
Save it for the 18+ chat
-
Arcade Heat
no
-
Scar
WOW rude.
I hope Scary kills you off.
-
Tom
Omg the banter
Bahahaha -
Arcade Heat
if scary kills me off i better kill someone else off first tbh
-
Splashy
play nice children
also dun dun dun a tiggerstar has appeared oh noes
-
Tom
CHAPPIE THIRTEEN
FOR COVER
[xquote]Splashy, Dust and Holly found themselves 'waking' into their dream in the back room of the RB Cafe.
The power was out, and the room was deadly silent. The silhouettes of various props and pieces of equipment loomed over the wishers, in an almost threatening way.
“I haven't even seen a duck and I already want to go,” Splashy whispered.
“Come on, we don't need to worry.” Holly said, with a sudden burst of confidence. “These are literally inanimate objects, and ducks really aren't that scary. We can do it.”
“Drakes are definitely scary.” Dust admitted. “Besides, there's something about these shape-shifting human-sized ducks that I don't like much.”
“Alright, fine. This looks like the storage room of the RB, so how about we leave this place and do some scouting first?” Holly suggested.
“Ooh, sure.” Splashy said, her excitableness returning.
“Dust, you mentioned that there were lots of ducks around that pond just south of city. Let's check that out first.” Holly suggested.
“No,” Dust squeaked at the same time as Splashy yelled it. They looked at each other, and Splashy decided to continue.
“That's… a brave idea but I think we would do better to avoid the ducks as much as possible.” Splashy pointed out.
“Oh, yeah, true.” Holly backed down. “Maybe I'll leave making decisions to you two.”
“I think we should go further north, maybe as far as the northern gate of the city.” Splashy said. “It's basically a desert after that, so ducks wouldn't like that part of the city. It's also as far from the pond as possible.”
“Sounds good,” Dust said. “Does anyone know how to get out of this room, though?”
There were a few moments of silence.
“Uhhh…” Holly said, fumbling around in the dark, trying to locate a wall so that she could find a door. She tripped over something and mentioned the name of a few fruits as she picked herself up.
“I think I found the door.” Dust called from the other side of the room. “I hope this is a doorknob, and is the door made of.. wood?”
“Yeah, that sounds like it's it!” Holly confirmed, “You should totally open it!”
A few more moments of silence.
“Or… don't open it, if you want. That's cool too.” Holly added.
“It's locked, I'm sorry.” Dust lamented. There were a series of quiet clicks. “Sure enough, the lights aren't working either.” almost immediately, a pillar of sharp light cut through the room. Dust held a small battery-operated pocket torch in one hand, her Swiss army knife in the other.
“You come prepared! Awesome thinking, Dust.” Splashy commented.
“Oh, um… Thanks.” Dust said shyly. “I'm not sure what to do now though.. I can't pick locks, and I don't think there's another way in or out…”
“Maybe there is a key hidden somewhere in this room!” Holly said, turning around to observe the masses of junk cluttered throughout the storeroom. She stood still after some time, and shook her head. “I really hope the only key isn't hidden in this room.”
“I really miss having magic.” Splashy said. “Magic could have kicked this door's butt any day.”
“Yeah,” Dust agreed. The trio went back into silence for a while, seating themselves on the floor. Dust turned her light back off for some time to save power.
“It's kinda ironic,” Holly started, “that we're meant to be a team of unstoppable badasses who can stop the Duckpocalypse. But now that we're here, we have been stumped. By a wooden door.”
“To be fair, it's a pretty aggressive door.” Splashy replied.
“I wonder if we could like… kick it down.” Dust mused, uncharacteristically violently.
“Hold on. Yes.” Splashy hopped to her feet. “Dust, turn the light back on. I just had a totally brilliant idea and that door is going down.”
* * *[xquote]“That's a relief,” Dust admitted, stepping over the remains of their mighty foe, the wooden door of the RB Cafe's storage room. Once Splashy had come up with the idea of applying a chainsaw to a wooden door, the poor thing simply hadn't stood a chance. Unfortunately it was a messy job, probably a huge waste of fuel, and caused quite a lot of noise.
“It was pretty noisy though,” Holly observed. “We should probably ready ourselves. The ducks could come at any stage.”
“I'm pretty much ready.” Splashy said, revving her chainsaw a few more times for good measure.
“Don't do that!!!” Holly hissed. Splashy stopped. “But yeah, I have some blades on me as well. Dust, are you armed at all?”
Dust held up her Swiss army knife in one hand, and her torch in the other. “I'm not so good with violence.”
“Okay then…” Holly said. “Maybe you can like, scout out things that might be useful.”
“Sure,” Dust said.
“Are you ready to do this?!” Splashy whispered loudly.
“I was born ready,” Holly said at normal volume, loosening the sleeve of her jumper slightly. A small rod fell from her sleeve, which she caught in her hand, quickly removing one end, which proved to be a lid of sorts. Within the small canister was a long, thin concealed blade.
“That was cool,” Splashy commented, “Can you think of any ways I could hide a chainsaw inside my sleeve?”
“I have an idea but let's sleeve it for later.” Holly said.
Pacing quickly through the cafe area, Splashy, Dust and Holly soon reached the front door. Splashy took a moment to check the floor behind the bar on the side of the cafe. Just in case.
Holly pushed the door open first, still apparently fuelled by the same burst of bravery which had come out of nowhere. She stepped out into the street, her blade raised high…
…and nothing happened.
It was a calm day. There were no Wishers about, but there were no ducks either. It was still fairly early morning, but the sun was climbing into the sky. Splashy checked her watch, but didn't register the time, and went back to looking around.
“This is way too quiet.” Dust said, quietly.
“Maybe the ducks didn't hear us? Maybe they're like, deaf or nocturnal ducks so they could be sleeping. I don't know.” Splashy wondered.
“You could be right.” Holly said. She turned in one last small circle, as Splashy started to lead the group north, up past the city hall and the many small streets and alleys which led further into the city. The city hall was shut and boarded up. Dust casually glanced towards John Fruit's shop, and noticed that the sign read “The F—“. Something must have happened part way through the sign's creation in this world. Feeling slightly anxious, she decided to try not to think about it too much.
Past the city hall, there were about two more blocks before the trio reached the city Square of the new city. Once upon a time, the city Square had been home to the Random Babble proper — back when there were so many people, so often, that any regular cafe would have been filled to capacity in a heartbeat. The new city was a bit quieter, though, and the RB cafe more than suited their purposes. The square had been more or less abandoned in recent times, even though the city put a lot of effort into its maintenance.
In this dream, it had apparently been totally abandoned altogether. The water feature in the middle of the square wasn't running, and part of the statue in its centre had crumbled. But what was most disturbing was the area around the water fountain. It was completely overgrown with bushes.
“I don't know what to think about this,” Splashy said, raising her chainsaw, ready for danger. Dust positioned herself slightly closer to Splashy and Holly.
“Well, it is the morning.” Holly started. “And we are facing a bunch of bushes. We might be walking into an A.M.bush.” She stopped to think for a couple of seconds. “Sorry.”
“It's fine, but lay off the puns,” Dust said, “we don't have time to beat around the bush.”
“I have a really bad feeling about this,” Splashy said. The three of them had a moment of silence, as they crept towards the bushes, looking for some sign of movement. “Can we leaf the jokes alone?”
“Quack,” said a familiar voice.
“I don't get it, that's got nothing to do with bushes.” Splashy replied. Then the hairs on her neck stood up. All three of the dreaming Wishers stood up very slowly, and very straight, turning around to face the quacker.
Dust would have recognised her anywhere. It was the duck who, just the day before, she had seen adopt the face and features of Tiny.
“Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack!” duck!Tiny continued. Its human mask had improved; it no longer had creepy beady eyes and a beak. However, its face was impassive and cold. The look the former duck wore could not be attributed to any emotions; it was just vaguely human.
Like clockwork, doors around the square swung open. About twenty duck-people stepped or waddled out of the doors. Some had webbed feet, some toes; some had human faces, some bills; some still had wings and obviously struggled to dress themselves. Some of them were so convincing, (notwithstanding the emotionless faces) that they could have passed for corporate lawyers.
“DIE, DUCKS!” Splashy yelled. She revved her chainsaw and charged towards two of the ducks who had emerged from one of the doorways, swinging wildly at them. One of the ducks looked startled and began to run in circles, quacking. The other had mastered opposable thumbs, and retaliated to Splashy's swing with a large two-handed sword.
“We are so grapefruited,” Holly sighed, readying herself for combat. She sheathed her sword for one moment, carefully drawing out a hidden blade which was concealed within the sleeve of her other hand. Lacking in the battle-cry department, she charged silently towards a duck on the other side of the square.
Splashy was locked in combat with the other duck-woman. She was ridiculously strong, considering that she couldn't realistically be used to her form. Every time Splashy felt as though she may be gaining slightly, the duck-woman would pull of some sneaky manoeuver, suddenly freeing herself from the combat and preparing for another lunge Splashy wasn't expecting.
But the Wisher knew she couldn't keep fighting this duck forever. Slowly, but surely, other duck people were closing in on them. In the corner of her eye Splashy could see Holly fighting off duck-person assailants of her own; Dust, so far, had successfully managed to hide from the combat.
“Quack!” The duck-warrior declared, raising her blade and swinging it down with both hands, in a quick, sudden motion.
Splashy leaped to the side, just avoiding tripping on her dress. She cursed herself for wearing a dress into extremely dangerous combat situations again.
She swung the chainsaw around towards the duck's exposed side, expecting to score a hit, but her opponent was too quick for that. The duck had already recomposed herself, tidily parrying the chainsaw with her own sword.
“Quack quack quack.” The duck said, banteringly. She continued to let out a series of short quack-like noises which sounded awfully like laughter.
“Oh yeah? Well you're a duck, and stupid too!” Splashy replied, proud with herself. The duck tilted its head for a moment, looking slightly more confused than ducks usually do.
Then, Splashy's comment was explained — by taking such a substantial step to her left, Splashy had forced the warrior-duck to follow her. What the warrior-duck had clearly missed, is that her terrified friend was still running around in circles. The warrior-duck had stepped directly into her trajectory, and collision was imminent.
The duck-warrior noticed, in the last moment, and tried to step out of the way. But Splashy was ready. She swung the chainsaw again, revving all the while, preparing for ultimate hammy gory duck death.
The chainsaw tore through the duck warrior like a knife through butter, but it was a clean wound. No blood was drawn, but after a mere heartbeat, the top half of the duck fell clean off the bottom half, falling to the ground.
“Oh that's disgusting,” Splashy said, “I am so sorry, duck. I hope you're not evil in the next life.”
She turned to face the additional on-coming ducks, bringing her chainsaw back in front of her.
“Splashy! Holly!” Dust's voice interrupted. Splashy turned to the direction it was coming from; the far corner of the square. There was an open shop door, and a lady inside who Splashy didn't recognise. “Come over here! In here!” Dust yelled.
Splashy legged it, leaving the other ducks lurching towards her slowly. Holly delivered a clean killing blow to the throat of one of the ducks who had tried to creep up on her, pushing its body away as she rain to join Dust.
“QUACK! QUACK!” duck!Tiny screamed. If she had mastered emotions, she would have been furious. She reached her belt and pulled out a small gun. She flicked a switch, and a bright red light began to glow from within it.
Dust was lucky enough to catch it before Splashy and Holly arrived.
“That duck Tiny has a laser blaster!” She yelled.
Holly turned at the last moment, as a laser-powered duck feather flew towards her. She threw herself to the side, narrowly avoiding a dangerous collision with the feather.
As duck!Tiny was recharging her laser blaster, Splashy and Holly managed to reach the front. They both quickly ran through the door, followed immediately by Dust and the other lady. Once inside, their new companion slammed the door open, and grabbed the 'OPEN' sign on the window, turning it around to say 'CLOSED'.
“Hiya,” She said. She was of average height, with somewhat dark colouring. Dust had a strange feeling she'd met this lady before. “I'm Russet. Russet Hunt.”[/xquote]
-
Addeh
Awesome! I don't know if I'd have the guts to kill duck people that kinda looked like people I knew, aha. Cool fight scenes. Can't wait for more!!
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Scar
Ooh, that was awesome! The fight scene was great
Is Russet Hunt a reference to something? I'm guessing it is but if so then I have no idea what to…
-
Addeh
Ooh, that was awesome! The fight scene was great
Is Russet Hunt a reference to something? I'm guessing it is but if so then I have no idea what to…
yeah this person
ALSO [member=185]Scartail[/member] where did u get the shadowclan thing in your sig
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Scar
Ooh, that was awesome! The fight scene was great
Is Russet Hunt a reference to something? I'm guessing it is but if so then I have no idea what to…
yeah this person
ALSO [member=185]Scartail[/member] where did u get the shadowclan thing in your sig
Ohhhhh right, I remember seeing that now. I'm dumb.
It was made by Altias, you can get it here. They're great
-
Wryfinch
Geez, was this chapter intense! Duck!Tiny, *shudder*. Hmm, Russet Hunt… wonder if it's a trap. Hopefully and probably not, but you never know.
-
tinyfeather
Duck me is just as much of a badass as regular me :0
-
Splashy
Scary wrote:“Oh yeah? Well you're a duck, and stupid too!”
#warriorscatshavebestburnsawesome chapter per usual
die ducks die -
Tom
I've defeated the flu!!! Party!!
Since I'm back to health I'll try and post some more
Like right now….. -
Tom
CHAPPIE FOURTEEN
MAKING A SPLASH
[xquote]“Grapefruit.” Tiny said. “Damn it all to the Place of No Stars.” She and Bladeh Mercury were standing on the main street of the new city, in the flood dream.
“It's only us here,” Bladeh reasoned, shyly.
“That's not the problem here,” Tiny mourned. “I can't cope under these conditions. I'll be useless.”
Bladeh didn't reply, just narrowed her eyebrows slightly.
“My eyeliner is the source of my power,” Tiny explained. “Also my extreme intellect. And my general sassiness.” She had woken in a puddle in this version of the city. Unfortunately the water did no favours whatsoever for her makeup. “I'm going tho have to go home and fix this.”
“The Stabiliser will be right there,” Bladeh mumbled, pointing towards an alley shortly down the main street. It was the source if rhe brief, violent attack on Splashy by Cat Face. Bladeh was glad she had been able to intervene in time, driving the creepy shadow creature away.
“Alright. Fine.” Tiny sighed. “But if there are any complications. Any at all. I'm going straight home to fix my makeup.”
Bladeh accepted, but Tiny wasn't done yet.
“There are always complications in these things. Always.” She pointed out, and then crossed her arms.
“Okay, let's go.” Bladeh said, making for the alley. Tiny hmphed and followed her.
The alley was dark as anything. None of the city lights shone there, and the sun was yet to finish rising. The city was quite dark and gloomy generally.
“I don't think it's here.” Bladeh said, biting her lip. “You were right.”
“Hold on,” Tiny withdrew a phone from her pocket, turning the camera flash on as a makeshift torch. Sure enough, the alley was pretty much empty. The only thing that was there now was a couple of inches of water, flowing from the other direction, flowing back into the main street. “Nope. You're right. Nothing here.”
“Where could it be?” Bladeh asked aloud. However, Tiny had already left, heading in the direction of her house. Bladeh pondered following her for a moment but decided against it. Instead, she turned her attention towards following the path of the water flowing from the alley.
It seemed to discharge in a kind of circle from the mouth of the alley. Bladeh knew that the South-Western part of the city was slightly more elevated than the other parts. There was actually a slight slope going North through the city, which ended in the far-stretching desert at its end.
If the flowing water was what had moved the Stabiliser, Bladeh figured her best bet was following the main street North. So she did, not being particularly cautious about her surroundings considering how quiet the city was. She began humming 'Killer Queen' by Queen under her breath.
It was still a couple of blocks until the city square, the site of the old Random Babble. Bladeh began to feel kind of nervous and uncomfortable. She turned to look for Tiny, but she was nowhere to be seen. She really had been in a huge hurry to fix her makeup.
Thop!
The noise came from nowhere. It was a difficult noise to source, but an easy sound to recognise. It sounded like the noise which was made when you dropped a heavy object into water.
Bladeh stopped whistling and swallowed slowly, turning in a slow circle. There was still nobody anywhere near her. Where could the noise have come from? She reached to her belt, drawing her pistol from its holster. Just to be safe. Another few moments went by with no more excitement. Just as Bladeh was starting to think she had imagined the noise–
Thop-thop!
Two of the noises, in rapid succession. Almost overlapping each other. One from the East, one from the West. Bladeh spun in a quick circle, the safety off and her finger on the trigger.
There was a low croaking sound, similar to someone playing one of those wooden percussion frogs. It was unmistakable this time. It came from the direction of the city hall.
Figuring the creepy noises could potentially be a clue, and having run out of other options, Bladeh decided to abandon all common sense for a moment and investigate the source of the croaking.
Bladeh ascended the half dozen steps leading up to the city hall, grateful that at least it wouldn't be flooded. She levelled the firearm in her main hand; as she reached the door, she used her second hand to slowly turn the table. The croaking had stopped, and everything was silent again. Carefully, Bladeh pushed the door to the city hall open.
These doors had never creaked in the real world. But when Bladeh gave them a push, they groaned like some kind of unearthly creature. She had to stop pushing them after a moment to breathe slowly and regain her nerves. Luckily, she still couldn't hear anything – the ominous splashing noises earlier, and the frog-like moan, had both stopped.
Feeling a little comforted by the silence, Bladeh resumed pushing the door open, ignoring the awful sound.
The inside of the city hall was as dark as anything. Bladeh slowly stepped inside, leaving the large door ajar. She held her gun up at shoulder level again, making a mental note to buy some kind of light sometime soon.
She made her way to the wall which contained the array of light switches – there were a dozen in all, each of which controlling a different aspect of the hall's lighting. Bladeh tried every single one of them, from top to bottom. No luck. The power must be out.
She continued around the wall to the door which was located there, leading to the back of the city hall. There would be some kind of utility closet there, which would have some kind of light.
Before she could quite reach the handle, she heard that croaking sound again, slowly getting louder and louder. But it wasn't quite as far away this time. It sounded as though it was coming from the same room Bladeh was standing in now.
Gripping her gun tightly, safety off and finger on the trigger, Bladeh considered her options. She could listen to her gut instinct and run as fast as she could out of the city hall, not caring what the creepy sound was and without any source of light. Alternatively, she could start shooting randomly into the middle of the room for no reason, risking injury and property damage and probably accomplishing nothing. The other option was pressing on deeper into the city hall, hoping to find a light and work out what was going on.
Bladeh swallowed, knowing that the third option was the best choice. She took another step and reached out for the door handle, her fingers slowly enclosing around the cold metal. She turned it until there was a tiny click, signalling that the door would now open–
–and then another set of cold, hard fingers closed in around hers. Suddenly option two seemed extremely appealing.
Bladeh fired off her pistol, several times, in the direction the fingers had reached from. They remained tight around her fingers for a few moments, but the gutteral croak had suddenly stopped. Then, as if late to register being shot, the fingers' grip relented. There was a solid thud as they finally let go of her altogether.
Reloading, Bladeh made her way back towards the front door. Whatever those fingers had belonged to, it had been cold and made creepy noises, and she didn't want to know any more about it. Bladeh decided she would find Tiny, then the two of them could find the Stabiliser and get out of there. Reaching the door, the Wisher gave it a solid shove, not wasting time in escaping the city hall and whatever was inside it.
There was someone standing in the middle of the street outside the hall. Bladeh closed the door behind herself, re-holstering her pistol for a moment.
“Hi?” She called out quietly. The stranger had long, black hair and was wearing long white clothes. They had an apparently-fe male shape, and looked as though they had just stepped out of the shower, clothes and all.
The stranger emitted a low groaning noise, which quickly picked up pace and pitch. Bladeh's stomach did a somersault as the stranger slowly turned around, making clumsy splashing noises as their feet landed in the water around them.
The stranger's eyes were a brilliant blue, and her skin was as white as egg shells. Bladeh drew her gun again, cautious of how many bullets she had left.
“Can you speak?” She asked the stranger, “Other than creepy croaking noises?”
The stranger replied by way of creepy croaking noise.
“Okay… Walking away now.” Bladeh said, slowly, facing the stranger continuously, but turning around so that she was backing up towards the city square.
As soon as she put a foot in the water, the stranger's croaking stopped.
“Come with us,” a raspy voice escaped her lips. “Come back to the sea.”
“This can't be happening,” Bladeh whispered. She thought back to the recap session the group had yesterday in the back room of the city hall; Heat had spun a stupid story about water zombies who had grabbed him and tried to drag him back to the ocean. It was ridiculous, but could peoples' thoughts be influencing the nature of these dreams?
“No thanks.” Bladeh replied, still slowly backing up. “I like the land.”
The stranger lurched forwards, moving through the water with surprising grace considering her awkward movements. Bladeh gasped and turned to run, when suddenly the stranger's head burst open like an (actual) watermelon.
“Crooaaaakkkkk,” she said, dropping into the water.
Tiny stood, several metres behind where the water zombie had been, laser blaster in hand and eyeliner in tact.
“Miss me?” She asked. [/xquote]
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Splashy
Oh no not water zombies!
Great chapter as always Scary
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Scar
Oooh the water zombies are super creepy.
Awesome job!
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Wryfinch
Go Tiny! Your eyeliner is grapefruiting epic!
Keep up the awesomeness Scary~
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Addeh
An awesome chapter!! The water zombies are super freaky. Keep up the great work
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tinyfeather
i'm so badass tbh
i love it i want moar -
Tom
CHAPPIE FIFTEEN
THE PAST
[xquote]“This feels so familiar,” Fireheart whispered. She, Lavender and Scartail stood in the main street of the old city. It was eerily silent, and dark as always, but there was a sense of familiarity in the streets. The new city had done a fantastic job of recreating everything, but there was just a certain level of charm which could never quite be recaptured.
“It's hard to believe we've only been in the new city for a few months.” Scartail confessed. She began walking down the street towards the Advice & Life Cafe, the site that would one day house the RB Cafe. Its doors were closed and locked, but that didn't stop Scartail from peering in through the glass.
“Anyone still pouring their heart out?” Lavender asked, trying to keep things light.
“It's too dark to really see anything, but somehow I doubt it,” Scartail replied. “It has such an empty feeling to it, now.”
Fireheart and Lavender joined her in peering through the door. Sure enough, it was even darker inside than they had imagined. There was no chance of seeing anything in there.
“I wonder if anything is going on at the RB Square?” Fireheart wondered out loud.
“We should check it out,” Lavender said, “I mean, we don't have any other leads to start off with.”
“That's true. We'll have to be careful though. Aren't the robot police still meant to be active?” Scartail pointed out.
“I hate those guys.” Lavender muttered. “Who programmed them to arrest people for punning in public? It's totally unfair.”
“That's true.” Fireheart said, crossing her arms. “We might have the freedom of pun in the new city, but back here it could still trigger the robot police. We're going to have to be really careful not to pun excessively.”
Lavender visibly cringed. “I will try not to get us all killed.” She vowed.
The trio began the walk towards the city square, where the Random Babble used to be hosted. Back in the days of its popularity, it had been the site of so many of Ww's more popular shops and events. Really, the small area had been the life of the city.
Approaching now, they could see Tiny's old cafe on the left. The sign, reading “The Tiny Feather”, was still in tact but in all other ways the cafe looked run down. The coffee machine was on the floor. The glass cabinets which had once sported some of the finest delicacies in the city were now empty and full of dust (not the Wisher).
As Fireheart entered the square, she was taken by a sudden dizzy spell.
“Guys,” she said, meekly. “I don't feel so good.”
“What's up, Fireheart?” Scartail asked, sounding concerned. “Fireheart?” She called again, but her voice was so distant. It was void of all emotion, like a phrase read out by a computer. “Fiiiireheeeeaaaaarrrrrrtttttt….” she could hear the distant remnants of sound, from somewhere far away.
Fireheart was in the square of the old city, alone, filled with fear. The lights were on in the cafes around her, and the sun was in the sky. She felt puffed, as if she'd been running for ages.
The Wisher stopped to catch her breath, taking a seat at one of the tables outside of Tiny's cafe. What was going on? Where had everyone gone? Fireheart was distantly aware that she didn't exist in this time, that it was a flashback caused by visiting the old city in the present. But there was something about the real world that felt disconnected and far away. She didn't know why she was suddenly in this version of the old city of her memory, but she knew that she was definitely in it. It was becoming her present.
Little frames of memories were floating through her mind, like deja vu. Hawkfrost grinning. People running. Strangers and old friends wearing creepy masks, wielding supernatural powers. A terrible high pitched noise and a golden barrier surrounding the city. The robot police coming, Hawkfrost laughing, the mad scientists fighting…
“Grapefruit!” Fireheart exclaimed, closing her eyes and running her fingers through her hair. The sheer feeling of these memories rushing through her mind was excruciating. If she could just put them in some logical order, or find the event that linked them, she knew the pain would subside. But she was drawing blanks. What was this memory, and where was it coming from?
Fireheart picked herself up out of the seat, the pain in her head mellowing out a bit. She took a few slow breaths, glancing around her. She was only sure of one thing; her purpose. She had to reach the old fort on the north side of city; the base of the mad scientists.
Putting other thoughts aside, she broke into a fast walk, making for the other side of the square. She could see the mad scientists' fort ahead; impregnable. No windows, effectively a cube of indestructible metal. Once she reached that front door, she would be safe.
BANG!
A wooden door skidded along the ground, laying to rest by Fireheart's feet. She turned to its source, the book shop she had spent so many hours browsing. In the doorway stood a Wisher, a man of average height, wearing some kind of mask.
Fireheart had met him before. She knew him, back in the old city. But the fog in her mind was back; she couldn't place his name or what they had in common or how they'd met. Nothing.
“Hello there,” she called out, cordially. The strange man stood there, staring at her. Fireheart felt the tightness in her chest return, similar to how she had felt moments before. It didn't make sense. She'd just been walking.
The boy still didn't respond. Just stood and stared.
Unnerved, Fireheart turned and resumed her progress towards the mad scientists' lair, this time in a jog. She forced herself to ignore the tightness in her chest.
She couldn't. It was too hard to breathe. Taking as much care as possible, Fireheart let herself fall to her knees, overcome by pain and weakness, trying to force herself to breathe.
Clop…clop…. Fireheart could hear slow, deliberate footsteps approaching from behind her. The masked boy from outside the bookshop. She carefully turned around, forcing herself to gulp down shallow breaths.
As the boy approached Fireheart found breathing harder and harder. She could see his mask clearly now; a comical little blue smiling squid. Despite her situation, Fireheart still felt a bit scared and condescended by the mask.
She held her hand up to her mouth and coughed. The exertion caused a severe dizzy spell, and for a moment Fireheart couldn't focus. She coughed again, and could feel water rising up the back of her throat.
Fireheart lifted her head again, her vision lagging from the effects of oxygen deprivation. The boy's face had lost its blue appearance; the face she was looking at was suddenly white, with blonde hair, and he was calling Fireheart's name. Slowly focusing, Fireheart realised she was now looking at Lavender again.
“Fireheart? What's going on?” She asked, her voice deeply concerned.
Fireheart opened her mouth to reply, and found that the drowning feeling had left her completely. She took a deep breath, coughing a couple of times for good measure.
“Th… there was…” she trailed off, unsure of how exactly to explain it. Fireheart suddenly realised she was still kneeling down on the ground, and took the chance to pick herself up before continuing. “I felt like I was back in the old city, before we moved. I feel like… I remember a little of what happened. But it was so confusing. I'm not sure how to piece it all together.”
Lavender looked back at her blankly. Scartail, standing beside her, had tilted her head slightly.
“There was this guy there, wearing this little… cartoony squid mask.” Fireheart continued.
“Wearing a weird animal mask?” Scartail asked, instantly. “Like… a plastic mask?”
“Yeah, exactly.” Fireheart replied. Scartail didn't reply, but looked ponderous.
“Anyway, he started walking towards me and I couldn't breathe. My lungs were filling up with water.” Fireheart paused again. “But I guess that never happened. So really it just…felt like I was drowning. He came from the bookstore.” Fireheart pointed; Lavender and Scartail's gazes followed hers to the shop. A few more moments of silence passed.
“I'm sorry this makes no sense.” Fireheart added. “Still trying to come to grips with what happened.”
“It's all good,” Lavender said. “Actually, I'm feeling a little uncomfortable around the old city.”
“Why's that?” Scartail asked.
“Wellll,” Lavender replied, collecting her thoughts. “It's just that there are so many gaps in my memory of this place. I remember the old days of hanging out here, and I remember living in the new city. But I can't remember leaving here, or moving, or anything like that.”
“It doesn't seem like anyone remembers the move.” Scartail commented.
“Right. But when Fireheart was telling her story, I felt something at the back of my mind. Like nostalgia, kind of?” Lavender stopped, not sure what else to say.
“Same,” Fireheart said, “When I was back in the old city it felt like I could remember bits and pieces of what was going on. But I just can't tie it together. I can't remember what was happening.”
There was a slow creaking, as the book shop door was pushed open from within. Lavender and Scartail turned to each other, startled, then both turned to Fireheart who shrugged.
“Who else is here?” Lavender hissed.
“Not the masked guy,” Fireheart whispered. “Please not the masked guy.”
But the figure who approached them was not the masked stranger of Fireheart's eerie memory. Nor was it any kind of human Wisher. It's face was a poor imitation of a middle aged man. It wore a navy blue police uniform, and it's voice was a false, robotic imitation of a southern drawl.
“Tresspassers detected,” It said. “Prepare to be prosecuted, blueberries.” [/xquote]
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Scar
Really great chapter Scary!
I think I know too much
Am I a spy -
rowan
Really great chapter Scary!
I think I know too much
Am I a spyspytail
Also good chapter!!! *clapping*
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