Realistic or Modern Project Anarchy [CLOSED]

[Daisie]

DICE THROW!

BackSet rolled a 2!
Sue... well...
In all honesty, Sue's having a little bit of trouble. The various hues of the world are starting to become overwhelming. The world is shifting around her... She's 75% sure that there's a unicorn drinking out of the other side of the lake... And she hasn't seen her reflection in quite a bit, so she's wondering if she may actually be a vampire. Then again, her fingers are still providing her with a tingling that's ever-so delightful.

Alright, back on track, Miss Donim. It occurs to her that she'd heard a voice earlier. You know... right before she disturbed an entire swarm of bees, but also right after she woke up without any knowledge of who she is, and then proceeded to smack face-first into the ground. Man, her face still hurt from that... But either way, there was a voice out there, somewhere. She tried to get a grip on reality just long enough to get a question out.

"Uh... The voice. Voices. There was a voice. A singular voice."

Good try. Care to give it another go, Sue?

"I heard a voice in the... trees. Do you know if anyone's around...?"

Attagirl.

The mushrooms look up at the bumbling idiot atop one of their own kind's head, giving their signature silent pause, surely filled with seething judgement. "... We do not know of any voice. We are new, and there is only us, and only you."

Sue wrinkles her nose at her saviours, thoroughly disappointed. "C'mon... You've gotta know something, right? You're a... friendly mushroom! Mushy giant friend!"

...

"Wow, this is bad."

KageYuuki rolled a 6!
Taking her mind off of the most-likely figments of her hallucinogenic trip, she figures maybe... some sort of distraction might be able to help. Now that the chaos has come to a halt, she actually has a chance to relax and try and find out more about herself. The feeling of being so unaware of who she was before this... it's disorienting, to say the least. Definitely not helped by the shroom trip. Her hand shuffles through her pockets again, beginning to pull things out. The first thing she makes contact with...

A large black pearl. She holds it up in the sunshine... The only thing she can see inside of this mysterious sphere is her own faint reflection, and even more blackness. It's about two inches in diameter, and has no other distinguishing features... Not even a scratch on its perfectly slick surface.

She transfers this back into her pocket as she picks out another object... A small leather canteen filled with some sort of liquid. Intrigued, Sue twists off the lid and pours out a little bit onto her hand - just looks like plain drinking water. No color, no odor.

Slipping the water pack back into her pocket, she digs in farther. The next item up is a paper, which is now absolutely soaked and falling apart, thanks to her little swimming trip. On it is.. well, what used to be an ink drawing of a man. Now the ink has run all down it, smudging everywhere. But from what Sue can make of it, it looks like the man had some sort of beard. Her nose wrinkles as she tries to delicately not destroy the fragile, wet paper. With caution, she lays it out on the mushroom head, in the glinting, warm sunlight.

Next up in the baggy pockets which she'll never fully get the water out of is... some sort of necklace. It looks like it's made of pearls of some sort... Large ones, about half the size of the black orb from before. There are dozens of them strung up on a long string, all a yellowish-brownish colour. She fiddles with a few of them on her finger and finds the substance they're made of is somewhat malleable... Not enough for it to easily slip off the string, but enough to be squished around slightly.

Curious, she gently tears one of the pearls from the necklace, inspecting it further with curiosity. Upon doing so... it's revealed that the material is some sort of dense cheese. Cheese snacks on a necklace. Who knew?

Confused but happy with her discoveries, she lays the cheese necklace around her neck and picks up the paper, coming back up to a standing position.

@Lunar rolled a 4!
She's... Oh no, what now?
She's preparing for something. Oh gosh, she's jumping around on the mushroom. Like an absolute child.
Sue has decided that she's had enough of trying to figure out her past. All work and no play is no life to live, and she does not want to be known as someone who's boring. Not that anyone would ever even think that.

The mushroom surprisingly doesn't seem to mind her jumping about on its head, and all of its friends simply watch her with a modicum of curiosity. Higher and higher she jumps, using the squishy, bouncy surface to her advantage.

"I'M GOIN' FOR IT, FELLAS!!"

Suddenly, she makes the most epic jump that she can muster... which, from an outsider's perspective, isn't that terribly impressive. But it's the spirit that counts, right? Attempting a flip - an absolute stunt to prove to the mushrooms that she is the most amazing person ever... She swerves off-course and off-balance. Her back ends up slamming down on the edge of the mushroom head, catapulting her out into the open air, with the water below her. What is impressive is how she manages a 11/10 perfect pancake flip, belly flopping full-force in to the harsh surface of the water.

...

Her head breaches the surface, sending splashes of water flying everywhere. "DID YOU GUYS JUST SEE THAT?! That was sooooo cooooool!" She screams out, thoroughly satisfied with her pitiful excuse for a backflip. Sounds like nothing can get our plucky hero down.

Mechking rolled a 2!
Looking down at her reflection in the water... she finally makes the discovery that she isn't, in fact, a vampire. This realization is world-shattering. Well... not as world-shattering as the realization that she still doesn't have a shred of an idea of who she is. She knows what she looks like now, though. Pale skin, short blonde hair, and...

She realizes that her glasses are floating in the water. When did she lose those? Probably awhile ago. Wading through the water, she glides over to the shape and plucks her broken glasses from the surface, replacing them back onto her head. They're still cracked down the right side, but... maybe that's just what gives them charm.

... Ah crap. She holds the torn paper in her hand, the various mushy pieces scattered through the lake...

She reasoned the flip was worth it.

But it brings up the question, yet again... who is she? Why did she just have some unknown man's face drawn on a piece of paper in her pocket...? Was her past self trying to remind her amnesiac self of something important?

Maybe... Maybe the water has all the answers. The Lake of Life held the answers to her bee issue... Maybe the water would restore her memories, too.

Letting go of the scrap of paper crumpled in her hand, she looks again down at her reflection... She cups her hands, entranced, and they fill steadily with cool water which sparkles like glitter to the eyes of our drugged-out friend... She brings her hands to her lips...

.....

The water dribbles out of her mouth as fast as it went in. Yep... That was... dirty lake water, for you. Sue is filled with disappointment... and so am I. Shame...

callisto rolled a 6!
Sue figures that maybe - just maybe - if these giant mushroom creatures aren't some giant hallucination-filled fever dream... Maybe they'd have more answers. She turns around, her eyes peering through her wet, cracked glasses, up at the behemoth blue (And red.... oooh, now they're yellow. Puuuurplllllle.....) beasts who now surround her, all waiting... expectantly.

"You don't know of any voices... you don't know of any gods or goddesses... What do you know of? Do you know me?"

... "We know of you."

Jubilation and hope fills Sue, from her toes to her fingertips. "Y-... You do? That's wonderful! I don't even know me! Who am I?"

"You are... great."

"... Oh! Well, shucks. Thank you!"

Another one of the giant toadstools then speaks, their voice near identical to the other one as the same blue glow emits from beneath its head. "You are great."

And yet another one repeats the same thing. And then the last ones, in sequence. All the same sentence. "You are great."

The smile on Sue's face shifts into a somewhat forced one as all the mushrooms appear to compliment her, and she gets the sinking feeling that the "You are great" comments aren't just to boost her already bursting-at-the-seems self-esteem. "I... don't understand."

"You are the final cog in the machine."

What now?
​

 

[KageYuuki]

Eat a cheese bead and think on what they just said.

 

[Mechking]

Ask them more about the machine, surely they have the answers

 

[BackSet]

Oh crap. Run, Sue, run! That is super ominous! I think these mushrooms might be the bad guys!

 

[callisto]

Take it very, very personally that they called you a "cog". You're not sure what a cog is, but it sounds very rude!

 

[Daisie]

DICE THROW!

KageYuuki rolled a 2!
Sue looks up at the towering giants with an intrigued look in her eye. What must this mean…?

Her hand wanders to the cheese bead necklace draped around her neck. She plucks one off and pops it into her mouth absentmindedly as she tries to think of an answer…

Well, evidently she’s pretty important, she decides. Is the man drawn on the piece of paper-

Oh, my. She’s choking. And coughing. And in turn, not thinking very well. Both her palms rest around her throat as she hacks up a lung, disgusting little cheese bits flying out everywhere, unpleasantly. With each cough, her bee stings throb, her swollen face complains, and her world explodes around her in a flurry of colours.

Now, I don’t know how she possibly could have failed at eating and thinking, but it appears she’s done so. Against all odds, Sue has found a way.

Mechking rolled a 6!
With every inch of her body now sufficiently throbbing, and a good amount cheese probably in her lungs, Sue calms herself down, her head pounding with every heartbeat. She looks up through her cracked glasses at the mushrooms, who seem to know far more than she does.

“Wh-What do you mean, ‘cog in the machine’?” She asks, still bothered by the tiny bits of cheese that cling to the back of her throat. She digs her face into her sleeve and continues coughing.

The closest mushroom to Sue stares down at her, its pliable toadstool head tilted downwards at her small frame. The soft blue glow returns again, accompanying its speech.

”The world holds a powerful evil.”

”But yang cannot exist without yin. The world was in a balance… But now it teeters.”

”And you are the centerpiece, the final cog in the machine.”

”The one true decider of this world’s fate.

Cool, a philosophical shroom trip.

callisto rolled a 3!
Sue begins panicking. She looks into her reflection in the water, looking bewildered at this information. Among the swirling cacophony of questions that rush through her like a sea storm, one rings out above the others…!

“What’s a cog?”

Sue says this with an amount of offense, now suddenly putting her hands on her hips. “What, you think I’m just gonna take this from you? I don’t want to be a cog. You’re a cog, you… cog!”

… They don’t respond. Darn it! Why are they not taking offense?! She just called them a cog!

“I can be whatever I want to be, and it’s gonna be 1,000 times better than a freaking cog, you hear me?!”

“Screw… you!!”

She likes throwing the double bird, doesn’t she?

BackSet rolled a 1!
…

Now realizing that she’s just openly insulted the five creatures who are more than three times her size, she turns around and begins hurdling through the water towards the shore. Whatever these things are, they can’t be good. Not only did they just call her a cog, but she figures that their rescue definitely will come at a price, and she doesn’t want to find out what. There aren’t many things she knows about this world for certain, but what she does know is that strangers don’t just come out of nowhere to save your butt-

Suddenly, as she breaches the water and tears into the woods, a stranger blocks her path. She topples straight into them, sending the both of them crashing into the grassy ground, lined with tree roots.

“Help! Save me!” Sue shouts at the young man, now getting a quick glance at his face. She doesn’t spend much time studying this person, however, as she looks behind herself...

The mushrooms… They’re following her! Their footfalls splash through the water in her direction.

She tries to scramble up again to her feet, but her necklace yanks on her neck as it catches on a shrub, tangling into it thoroughly. She falls back down to the ground again, stuck.

Running is not Sue’s God-given talent, it’d seem.

Now what?
​

 

[BackSet]

All in all this has been a terrible day. The limit has been reached. Sue lies face down in the dirt and cries.

 

[Mechking]

Accept your fate as the only true nutral being in this world. Become the neutral. Embrace that you have become the shaper of destiny. Embrace ... the mushrooms. They are nice, they need another hug

 

[KageYuuki]

Oh wait! She remembers that pearl is the symbol of the goddess of night and dreams.

....Or was it the arch demon of nightmares?

One of them is bound to answer if she asks the pearl right?

Or the shrooms are fucking with her head again. Meh.

 

[callisto]

A person!!!!! Take his hand and RUN. Maybe he can aid you in your escape. Cheese necklace be damned.

 

[LennyTheMemeGod]

No, screw those vague, prophecy-beholding oversized fungi.

Ask the man if he has any experience in chopping up mushrooms for stew or something

 

[Daisie]

DICE THROW!
BackSet rolled a 2!
Today has been just awful. I mean… Sue isn’t 100% sure what her regular day consisted of, but she was pretty darn certain that this one stood out amongst the rest as the most terrible, no-good day that she’s ever had. This all seems to hit Miss Donim at once, the mushrooms splashing through the water behind her as she has a sudden crisis.

“Oh my-are you okay?!”

A young voice calls out, the same one that she had heard before, this time belonging to the stumbled-over man. “What’s-”

He looks over at the approaching, intimidating, and terrifying mushrooms, however, and realizes exactly what Sue is so afraid of.

Immediately upon realizing Sue’s situation, he begins panicking, and trying to untangle her necklace from the bush.

Meanwhile, Sue has completely given up on all things. Or at least, she’s trying to. Normally, she would have buried her face in the dirt, but every time she makes the attempt, her darn necklace catches around her throat and chokes her.

Yes, my friends, she even fails at that. Bravo.

Mechking rolled a 1!
“Stop moving!” The man complains, shooting a glance over his shoulder sporadically to look at the approaching blue toadstools, who have now reached the shore of the lake.

Being thoroughly stuck in that bush, however, gives time for Sue to really think. What if these things aren’t trying to kill her…? What if they are really nice, like she originally reasoned? What if she really is the shaper of destiny…?

What if she really is… a cog?

… No, she still takes offense to that last bit. But all that other stuff could be true, right?

She tries to get up again, looking in the direction of the mushrooms, with her arms outstretched.

Unsurprisingly, she falls back down to the ground again. Except this time, she’s managed to tie the necklace tighter around her neck, choking herself.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, she also manages to uncover a small anthill. Great, now there are ants crawling up and down everywhere. As she kicks around, the tiny red fiends make it up into her pant legs...

“Are you... high?!”

Considering that she doesn’t know whether the one helping her said that, or the hundreds of tiny ants… It’s a distinct possibility.

KageYuuki rolled a 3!
The stranger, seeing that Sue is now having a hard time breathing thanks to her cheese bead necklace, grabs onto it roughly and tears it off the bush, breaking the string and sending a few pieces everywhere. He does make some sort of attempt to keep the food attached to the now-broken necklace, however, and holds onto it tightly.

Meanwhile, Sue is doing lord-knows what.

She lies on the forest floor, back now flat on the ground as she is free from the clutches of the cheese bead necklace. She’s managed to pull her black-as-night pearl out of her pocket and is staring at it, her pupils still highly dilated. She ignores the many angry bites coming from the ants down her legs.

“Tell me… your secrets…” She tells the pearl, desiring answers.

… Wait… Is that a whispering voice…? She can’t make out what it’s saying…

“HEY! Come on, we gotta do something!”

Sue’s rescuer shouts, breaking the quiet as he looks terrified. The mushrooms - yes, the ones that Sue was originally running away from - are but 10 feet away, and ever-steadily coming.

The voices cease coming from the pearl.

LennyTheMemeGod rolled a 2!
The man grabs onto Sue’s arm and helps her up to her feet, and Sue manages to finally get a good look of the stranger who is so desperately trying to save her.

He wears a large, lime green tunic that is far too saggy for his slender body. His bright and curly orange-red hair compliments his many, many freckles. He also wears a thin, brown pelt over his shoulders, and has an old cloth pack sashed over his shoulder. He bears a thick, sturdy-looking birch stick in his hand.

“Quick! Can you chop these guys down?! Turn them into stew!” Sue suddenly exclaims, putting her hands on his shoulders and staring into his brown eyes intently with her own, incredibly dilated ones - a sight arguably more intimidating than the giant, 10-foot-tall creatures approaching them slowly.

“Wh-I don’t think I can!”

“Well, TRY ANYWAY!”

“O-Okay!!”

The green-clad fellow concedes quickly to Sue’s desires. He hands her necklace back to her, changing his grip on his thick stick to hold it like one would hold an axe. With a panicked look in his eye, he raises the stick up into the air…

Suddenly, a zing sounds out, and the end of his branch brightens up with a green glow. Light bends and twists around it, shining a lime green shade and forming the shape of an axe head at the end of his stick.

He swings, the weight of his new axe becoming very real. The blade chops into the mushroom’s body!

… But considering how the mushroom stems are incredibly thick, that’s as far as it gets, caught inside the trunk-like body of the toadstool towering over him.

… Slowly, the young man looks up at the giant head of the mushroom, terror crawling down his spine. The light forming the axe head disappears into thin air, a fizzling noise spurting from it. The birch stick is now just a stick.

The poorly assaulted mushroom looks down at its attacker for a moment or two before its branchlike arm swings down at him.

It knocks roughly into the man, sending him flying a good 10 feet.

callisto rolled a 6!
Sue lets out a shriek as the newcomer is knocked across the forest onto the ground, soiling his lovely green tunic. Worriedly, Sue stumbles towards him, weaving recklessly between the towering mushrooms... Itching at the ants in her pants with one hand (She’d have to deal with those another time), she uses her other hand to check up on her rescuer, turning him over quickly.

He groans and puts a hand on his head, his fingers curling through his locks of vibrant red hair. “I-I’m alright,” he confirms.

“Come on!”

Sue reaches out and takes his hand in hers, now helping him up to his feet. With a firm grip, she starts dashing off deeper into the thick woodland, practically hauling him along.

The five toadstool creatures stare at the two as they sprint off into the woods, before slowly following, definitely not keeping up the pace.

The two’s footfalls thump against the grassy ground, tearing between trees, roots, shrubs, and stones. The two duck and dodge skillfully between through the obstacles, the unnamed boy doing well to keep up with Sue as their hands remain intertwined.

“W-Wait!” He suddenly calls out, looking around them with an expression of recognition. He glances momentarily at a few of the landmarks, and up in the trees…

“This way! We can go to my home!” He points in a different direction.

What now?
​

 

[Mechking]

Follow him home. When we are there, summon whatever is inside the pearl

 

[LennyTheMemeGod]

Sue becomes suddenly aware of a voice that seems to be narrating her every action.

 

[KageYuuki]

She mourns the loss of her beloved necklace as she follows after him.

 

[BackSet]

As sue runs with the man, which she will do because it would be stupid not to, she pomders her highly contradictory actions and how her thoughts seem to be pulled six ways at once.

 

[Daisie]

DICE THROW!

BackSet rolled a 6!
Sue dashes through the underbrush in the forest alongside the stranger, oddly having a mighty amount of fun. She shoves the snapped cheese necklace into her pocket. On their way, however, a thought occurs to her…

Her actions, as a whole, just don’t seem to make sense, do they?

One moment, she seems to be doing… well, things that any normal person would do. But on the other hand, she tries to pull off miraculous things… Backflips, eating mushrooms off the ground, trying to grab bees from the air… Who really is she, anyway?

Not remembering who she once was is a big enough roadblock… But it seems like who she is now isn’t even consistent. She’s a little disturbed by it all, honestly… Did her abrupt and unpredictable actions in the past lead her to where she is now? Or is this spontaneousness just a brand new thing?

Maybe she has split personality disorder… Perhaps bipolar? She doesn’t feel like it… But what would a mental disorder even feel like? Sue has no clue.

… but perhaps...

LennyTheMemeGod rolled a 2!
It could be there’s something more to it all. Some force behind it… Or even multiple. As her feet find their way through the woods at a fast rate alongside the man she’d just met, she finds her mind wandering elsewhere.

Wait… If Sue closes her eyes for just a moment, she can hear something…

Is that… is that a voic

No it’s not. There’s no voice, Sue. Go back to what you were doing.[div class=caret][/div] [class=caret] animation-name: {post_id}caretBlink; animation-duration: .3s; animation-direction: alternate; animation-iteration-count: infinite; animation-timing-function: linear; display: inline-block; height: 1em; width: 3px; [/class] [animation=caretBlink] [keyframe=0] background-color: lime; [/keyframe] [keyframe=100] background-color: transparent; [/keyframe] [/animation]

Mechking rolled a 1!
The mystery man and Sue eventually stop running, the both of them becoming thin on breath. Suddenly, his lips break out into a grin, the sheer ridiculousness of it all starting to weigh down on him. After all, meeting a stranger at the Lake of Life who was being chased by five giant mushroom people is decidedly not something that happens every day.

“W-We’re almost there, it should be around here somewhere…” He proceeds, now spending the time to raise his head into the air, getting yet another careful view of their surroundings.

Sue isn’t exactly sure what they’re looking for, particularly, but she figures that staying close to her new rescuer is probably a good plan, as she has absolutely no clue where in this confusing world she is. “You live in the middle of the woods?”

“Well… Yeah. Turns out not a lot of people approve of magic, aha…!” He explains, fumbling with the birch stick in his hand as he tries to maintain a positive, plucky attitude. His eyes trace the trees with precision, clearly having done so many times before.

“Hah!” He shouts suddenly, his high energy and abrupt nature making Sue jump a little bit. “Come on!”

They energetically speedwalk (I mean, come on, who has the energy for running after that?) through a few more large plants and trees, heading straight up to yet another incredibly large oak tree, the trunk of it thick with countless years of growth. The various birds and wildlife take off around them as they enter into this new area.

He raises his little birch wand into the air, and on the very tip of it, a bright sphere of green light grows, the familiar zing from before chiming from it.

Subsequently, a deeper chime rings out in response to it, emanating from within the tree’s leaves and trunk. Before Sue even has time to doubt waltzing into a stranger’s home, even more glorious green light fills the air! It bends and warps in a cube shape through the leaves of the aged oak, forming an object…

A wooden and utterly majestic treehouse materializes through the green swaths of light!

And just as quickly as the lime-coloured illumination came, it fades to nothing soon after, revealing only a large, cozy-looking abode tucked tightly between the ragged and spiraling branches.

A ladder of rope and wood planks drapes loosely from the open trapdoor built into the floor of the house.

“Come on, then!” The young and spry man says with enthusiasm, seeming delighted to have company. He leaps forth onto the ladder, causing it to swing to and fro. He doesn’t mind the movement, however, as he climbs expertly up into his treehouse home.

Sue stares up in astonishment at the house, fascinated by its ability to appear from nothing in front of her very own two eyes. She adjusts her cracked glasses as a smile uncontrollably breaks out across her face. While this stranger did mention that folks were usually hesitant towards the ways of magic, Sue feels quite the opposite. Immediately, she feels a connection to it.

Despite her throbbing, swelling bee stings… Despite the ant bites now forming all down her legs, despite her bruised face, and despite the dizzy feeling filling her eyes and brain, she still finds joy in this new place. She grabs onto the rope and hauls herself aboard it. Onwards and upwards.

Sue manages to heave herself through the wide-open trapdoor after some effort and maneuvering around her incredibly sore and swollen hands. You know… from when she tried to grab the live, agitated bees and shove them in her pockets. For a snack. Later.

Inside the nice little shelter, Sue finds herself surrounded by wooden walls and a ceiling thrown together with numerous planks. Although they’re all sturdily placed, it has a rustic feel that is pleasant to the senses. Even the smell of it is welcoming: Musty, but complimented by the both the scent of wood and the great outdoors.

Sunlight streams through one of the two unglazed windows, the bright light from outside indirectly illuminating the rest of the room. A sad, tiny bed sits in the corner, as well as a small cut log serving as a nightstand with a flask of water and an unlit lantern atop it.

Across the room on the other side is a small desk and dresser, accompanied by a stool. A quill and ink well, along with many books and scattered notes, lay dormant on its top.. There’s also a small cupboard by its side, and all the equipment needed to make homemade sheets of paper.

Various critters line the place. Different varieties of finches mingle with each other on the windowsills, a few mice take residence in the corners, and a single frog sits at the foot of the shoddy little bed, watching over it all calmly.

“Welcome!” The stranger stretches his arms out as he sits on his bed, showing off the entirety of his home.

But Sue isn’t focused on any of this. Why would Sue be focused on anything for more than a few seconds? This is Sue we’re talking about, remember? She’s gotten that black pearl out of her pocket again, and is staring at it like it owns her soul. Knowing her luck, it probably does.

“I need to know what’s inside this,” she announces, closing the trapdoor and taking a seat on top of it. “I get the feeling it’s really important… I think there’s something inside it.”

The man looks a little intimidated by Sue’s rather forceful fascination with this pearl. “Uh… Al-...right,” he mumbles as he crawls off his bed and onto the floor, by Sue’s side. He chuckles with a modicum of nervousness. “This is what I get for picking up random chicks in the middle of the woods, eh?”

Suddenly, Sue nabs the wand from their hand, setting the shining black orb down on the ground.

“Whatever you are…!”

“W-Wait!” The boy tries to call out before it’s too late.

“I RELEASE YOU FROM YOUR ORBY CAGE!”

She whips the wand vigorously towards the sphere on the ground, with enough energy to set a town ablaze.

The end of the stick glows a vibrant green again, the zing sounding out from it, though terribly distorted. Suddenly, hundreds and hundreds of green sparks fly out from the tip of the wand, like some sort of firecracker. The blast sends Sue flying back, and the pearl flying forward. POW!

She flings directly into the wall behind her, knocking the wind straight out of her chest. The impact sends tremors throughout the entire treehouse, shifting it in its very branches and setting it all off-kilter. Her face is covered in black ash, and the same can be said for the poor young wizard who just wants his wand back.

That went well.

KageYuuki rolled a 6!

“I-I was gonna say…” The red-haired one starts, his normally happy-go-lucky voice now being tainted by his patience running thin. “You shouldn’t use that if you don’t know how!”

He crawls back over to Sue, who is still recovering from getting the wind knocked out of her. She tries to say something, but her voice can’t seem to come out quite yet. Before she can give herself any sort of defense, the man takes back his birch stick before she gets the chance to cause any other major catastrophes. “Seriously, are you okay?! Did you hit your head or something before I found you?”

Finally, Sue manages to get a word in for herself.

“... A few times…”

He simply stares at her for a few moments more, clearly trying to decide whether this is all even worth the effort or not. Eventually, he closes his eyes and sighs, clearly taking pity on our dim protagonist. “... Come on, then… Let’s maybe get you lying down somewhere safe. Where you can’t… Fall or anything.”

“Today’s just awful…” Sue abruptly starts, seeming distraught again as she stares at the pearl on the ground across the room. Her voice quivers as she begins another breakdown, the tears welling up in her eyes. “I… I woke up in the middle of the woods this morning, and I don’t remember anything. I don’t know who I am. All I have are the things in my pockets…”

She reaches down into her baggy pockets again, pulling out the first thing that her hand comes into contact with… which is sadly the pitiful, broken cheese string.

“... My cheese necklace…” She cries out in a whimper, not able to handle the truly dreadful loss.

A frown comes across the redhead, looking like he has a bit of sympathy for the girl. “I’m sorry… I had to break it to get you out of the bush. You were tangled up pretty good, back there. I might be able to fix it for you, as long as you... come with me without fuss to the bed so you can lie down?”

Sue’s lip quivers as she mourns over her cheese necklace, a single tear falling down. That necklace was basically the only good thing that happened to her today (Other than the person standing in front of her. And the sick flip. And… was the shroom trip she was on a good thing? That was debatable), and even that had been broken.

Nonetheless, the man wrapped his hand around Sue’s arm, readying himself to help her up. “I have some creams for welts on your arms. They're all enchanted - the creams, that is - so the swelling should go down real quick. I’m Wren, by the way.”

“Sue. Sue Donim. The one thing I do remember.”

With a quick pity-chuckle, “Wren” helps Sue up to her feet with a swift pull upwards, coming to his feet as well…

But as soon as the two come to a standing position, the entire house creaks and shifts. The floor beneath them sways as it teeters dangerously close to falling. Immediately, the two freeze… Any movement could set the whole thing crashing down. The treehouse sways a little bit, up and down like the most dangerous seesaw anyone’s been on.

Crap. Now what?
​

 

[Mechking]

Try to cast a repair spell on the treehouse to stabilize it

 

[KageYuuki]

Maaaaaaybe Wren should handle this one.

 

[callisto]

Find where your pearl went! It has yet to tell us its secrets!

you've pretty much broken about half of the objects you started off with. let's not lose another one!

 

[BackSet]

Let's let Wren handle this one. Get the pearl.

 

[Daisie]

DICE THROW!
Mechking rolled a 2!
“Okay…” Wren cautiously begins, his hands slightly raised as if carefully balancing himself would somehow affect the entire treehouse. “... I can fix this, if we just-”

Nope! Sue can’t have that! Sue feels bad for causing this stranger so much trouble, so she fiercely shoves her cheese bead necklace back into her pocket and decides to snatch that little birch stick out of Wren’s hand again, using the distraction to her advantage. Because magic went so well last time.

“S-Sue, wait-no, I-”

“MAKE THINGS RIGHT, MAGIC!” Sue suddenly shouts at the top of her lungs, raising the poor, abused wand into the air. With one fell swoop, she points it forward, an incredibly powerful light filling the entire treehouse.

And a flash then fills the forest that deeply disconcerts all the wildlife within a mile.

BOOM!

The treehouse jumps up into the air, getting at least a foot of height off the branches before slamming back down into the oak. All of the furniture becomes offset from the walls, every loose item being knocked over onto the ground. Ink is splattered all over the floor, papers float through the air, and books litter the corners.

Did it fix the problem?

No, no it did not.

A snap cracks from outside, and suddenly the house’s tilt gets a whole load worse. Both Sue and Wren are pulled towards the window as their entire environment shifts into an upward slope. It seems as if the bed and the desk are heavy enough to stay firmly planted on the ground, but many of the more lightweight objects begin sliding across the floor towards the two.

“Why?!” Wren yells out, his voice cracking under the pressure as he forcefully pries his birch stick back from Sue’s fingers, preventing any further disasters of colossal nature.

KageYuuki and callisto rolled a 4!
BackSet rolled a 5!
“I-I’m sorry, I thought-” Sue reaches her arms out and wraps them around the poor man who’s slowly grown to become her victim.

“Don’t grab my wand again! It doesn’t matter what you thought!” Wren shouts helplessly, his hazel eyes wide with panic as he attempts to think up some sort of miracle solution to this impossible scenario.

“Well, I’m still sorry!” She cries out, desperate for help as the environment’s angle jerks down even farther as a result of a variety of Wren’s possessions hitting the lowest corner. The flask of water, the lantern, the messied ink well and quill, even Sue’s black pearl comes rolling back to her from across the room. As it bumps into her foot, Sue slowly lets go of Wren’s foresty tunic, squatting down to pick it back up.

“Sue, that dumb pearl isn’t gonna save us!” Wren snaps at her again, subsequently getting an idea. “... I think I might be able to, though…! Sue, hold onto me!”

As soon as our short-haired female friend gets the order, she’s quick to comply, shooting straight back up to her feet and throwing her arms around the brown animal pelt that envelops Wren’s shoulders, the ever-black orb wedged tightly in her fist.

With his trusty magic device back in his grasp, Wren takes a deep, shaky breath inwards before raising both his hands in the air. That green, magical glow shines out through the treehouse, this time in a gentler fashion that’s less offensive to the senses. As it does so, Sue feels a soft, warm feeling curl around her skin.

As she looks down at herself and Wren, she discovers a film of glowing green light encasing her entire body. This coating also hugs half of the house’s contents, all of which on their side of the room. Only moments later, the warm feeling blossoming through the atmosphere also turns into a weightless one… Sue’s arms only wrap tighter around her magic friend as her feet lift off the ground, everything that’s glowing green gently floating into the air.

For a few comforting seconds, everything feels airy and blissful… But that ends when Sue suddenly gets an awful feeling shooting through her chest like an arrow. Shadows suddenly whirr around her in confusing shapes. “I-Is that supposed to happen?!” She whimpers, the flurry of bolting silhouettes around her creating a dizzying effect. Every single one of them has eyes. And teeth. Gnashing, rotten teeth.

Her head cranes back over towards Wren for support, but to her horror, his face has been completely blacked out, only two white pinpricks to be seen where his eyes should be, staring ever into her.

Sue lets go of Wren, free-floating into the endless abyss now surrounding her. Her hands scurry to cover her face and head as she lets out a shriek in fear. Through the loud and long scream, though, she hears Wren’s voice again, faintly.

“Sue?! SUE! Answer me!”

…
Sue’s eyes pry themselves open, and it seems like the darkness dancing around her has vanished completely. Her sense of balance is thrown upside-down as she finds her back safely on top of a soft surface. She lays on Wren’s bed, the young wizard kneeling on the floor by its side. All of the heavy furniture has moved to one side of the room, balancing out the treehouse for the time being - it no longer seems to be too terribly tilted. Of course, the leaning isn’t great.. But it’s better. Safe for now.

“Sue…!” Wren repeats, an alarmed look marking his face.

“What happened…?” Sue pleads with a tremor in her voice, fear in her heart as her gaze traces the room in bewilderment.

“You just started looking around at nothing, screaming and flailing around like you were gonna get eaten by something…!”

Sue spends a moment or two rubbing her eyelids, trying to make sure it was really him she was speaking to. Sure enough, Wren is still there, staring worriedly toward her. “... Oh my gosh…” She stutters, a realization hitting her that probably should have hit her long ago. “... Eating mushrooms off the forest floor is bad… isn’t it?”

What now?
​

 

[Mechking]

Ask Wren about how magic works and why it is forbidden. Then give him the pearl, he probably knows how to handle it

 

[BackSet]

Okay, okay, before you say anything else that might screw you up, breathe. Just breathe deeply, in, out, in, out. Think of something that makes you happy, and no Blue Mushrooms on Forest Floors are not a thing you can think of. Just do these things and try to calm down.

 

[KageYuuki]

Ask if you can remake the sketch that was in your pocket. Before you forget the image.