Total length: 80312 words / 343 minute read. (Mind you, that’s the +
Total length: 81317 words / 347 minute read. (Mind you, that’s the length of this entire page, including all the extra bits and bobs. Not just the story.)
-There have been 217 messages posted over 215 days since the first -post on July 13, 2022 for a daily post rate of 1.00.
+There have been 221 messages posted over 217 days since the first +post on July 13, 2022 for a daily post rate of 1.01.
This is the first installment of BASEMENT QUEST.
Jump to: 1 2
“What is it you seek from Dude 215R?” WHAT DO YOU DO “Greetings, Great One.” Inky bows, back parallel to the ground while
+they stand on the branch, now a humanoid child in a black uniform and
+matching bookbag hanging under one arm. The banana boat is nowhere in
+sight. Fuko follows her errant charge and the cloaked figure from a
+nearby branch. “This lowly one wonders if they may be permitted to seek the Great
+Spirit’s insight, whose wisdom endures before and beyond.” Inky begins,
+staring down the blurry reflection of silver boughs overhead on the
+polished toes of their black shoes. They notice idly they do not see
+themselves in the reflection. Straightening from the bow, they look up at the figure and hold out a
+plate of taiyaki. After a moment, the child asks haltingly, “There may
+come a day when this one will be asked to choose between the chance to
+protect many and that which they desire to protect most. Should this one
+choose equally? Will the choice matter if both paths eventually lead to
+destruction? Could destruction and salvation be two sides of the same
+coin?” You and the Dude are sitting in small upholstered chairs, across a
+small half table from each other. There is a large sticky bun on a white
+lacy doily on the table. Next to you is a small portal-sized window, and
+outside you can see green rolling hills and small copses of trees fly
+by. The other seats on the small train car are all empty. The two of you
+are alone. “I cannot give you advice,” the Dude says. “But I can offer you
+experience.” They raise a hand and hold a loosely closed fist out over the table.
+The walls of the train become fuzzy and blurry, then translucent, and
+finally transparent. They disappear and you have the sensation of
+rocketing through space at dizzying speeds. The track splits ahead you. To one side, bound to one track is that
+which you desire to protect most. Bound to the other are the many. “You can choose safely here. It’s just a dream, after all.” The Dude
+opens their fist. The Twenty-one Fiver coin rests in their palm. “Heads,
+you steer the train into the many, sparing that which you love most.
+Tails, the opposite. You spare the many, and sacrifice that which you
+hold dear.” They hold the coin out to you. The train barrels toward the fork. “But choose quickly, lest the
+choice be made for you.” Alex scrambles from the wreckage of his mech, or what remained from
+the gore portal he’d just experienced. The thought of what had occurred
+made him grimace, which was an unusual state of affairs for an octopus,
+that is until Alex realized he seemed to be back in his own body. “Sunset, or perhaps rise? It’s hard to tell. Pretty though.. could be
+prettier without the creepy knife dude.” Alex mutters to himself while
+he rummages through the destroyed cockpit of the mech. He makes quick
+work, detaches a side panel, pulls a couple of wires, and a compartment
+in the back opens revealing the smooth dark blue metal and wood grain of
+an ak74u sub machine gun. Amused Alex pulls the weapon from the
+compartment and notices a distinct lack of additional magazines, just
+the one large drum attached to the weapon with large red letters
+emblazoned on it [INFINITE AMMO]. “Neat.” Alex pulls himself from the wreck, and jumps down behind one of the
+fallen tentacles taking a firing position behind cover, ak74u aimed down
+range at the faceless figure. “I don’t know who you are, but I don’t trust anyone who approaches
+with a weapon. Let’s both stand down and talk this through! I’m not
+supposed to be here, and I reckon you don’t want me here either. I’d be
+happy to oblige and skidaddle if you’d be so kind as to point the way
+out!” Alex pauses waiting for a reply. The tall figure halts a short distance away. It raises a hand and
+waves. In greeting? Surrender? In a fluid motion it continues to lift
+the same hand and grabs a hold of its trunk, a little less than a foot
+from the tip. It squeezes its fist tightly and the tip begins to swell.
+It raises its other hand, and the knife, and starts to saw into the
+flesh of the trunk behind its fist. The blade cuts cleanly as though
+through a loaf of bread. There is no blood or gore. When the creature lowers its hand, you can see that the center of the
+trunk is a solid, bright pink fleshy material like a grapefruit, in the
+center of which are two pin-prick eyes and a wide thin gash of a
+mouth. It still holds the tip of its severed trunk in its hand, a thin stalk
+and a bulging cap looking for all the world like a large white button
+mushroom. Peering up from the stem of the mushroom, an identical pink
+face regards you stoically. Both faces speak at the exact same time, one high pitched and one a
+deep baritone. “Welcome, Dreamer, to Ousia, the Sea of Dreams. We are
+Kasutva.” Big Kasutva stoops down to set the small mushroom Kasutva down on the
+ground. If they’re both Kasutva, that is. If that’s the way their
+biology and sense of self actually works. Mushroom Kasutva wobbles side
+to side a little bit and waggles its stalk as it looks around. Big
+Kasutva places its knife back in its satchel and takes a few small steps
+closer to you. “We did not mean to offend you,” the two say, still perfectly in
+sync. “As for the way out, that depends only somewhat on your
+destination. Whatever the answer, we can assure you that it lies across
+the sea.” Large Kasutva gestures broadly toward the expanse of ocean.
+Small Kasutva lacks any limbs and cannot gesture, but smiles softly at
+you. “But tell us what it is you seek. Perhaps we can be of help.” WHAT DO YOU DO I don’t know what I’m going to put here, but I didn’t want this
document to just abruptly end. So here you go: a kind farewell and a
diff --git a/www/rss.xml b/www/rss.xml
index a800f8c..cf823ff 100644
--- a/www/rss.xml
+++ b/www/rss.xml
@@ -5,237 +5,6 @@
Alex the Octopus and Inky the Noogle stand on a tree branch
- as wide a street in the heart of the great white upside-down
- forest. A cry of anguish and anger echoes through the forest, and
- the branches below you sway and rustle as something rises up
- from the depths. You keep catching a glimpse of scarlet
- between the silvery white leaves. The large black ravens perched below you scream in
- agitation and fly up past you to the thicker branches up
- above, where they hop side to side and loudly scold and
- protest the disturbance. A single black feather the length of
- your hand settles to the ground at your feet, knocked loose
- during their flight. You finally see the fearsome beast crashing through the
- branches below you. Its crazed, yellow eyes as large and round
- as dinner plates, a great eight-legged rodent leaps from
- branch to branch as it swiftly ascends. It is a bloody,
- crimson red. Its long tufted ears lay flat against its
- elongated, grinning skull. Its ribbon-like tail twitches as it
- trails along behind it like a river of blood. It cries out
- again in anger, showing its overgrown incisors, and grinds and
- gnashes its back teeth. Its eyes bore into you with wild fury and blind madness as
- it climbs. “She’s not herself,” sighs the chipmunk, suddenly at your
- side once more. When you look down at the chipmunk, however,
- it has suddenly turned into a small featureless black turtle
- with a sticky sweet roll instead of a shell. Its smooth little
- head pokes timidly out of the roll. “The Red Squirrel,” laments the turtle. “She’s being ridden
- by a ghost. An angry ghost who isn’t from here. Somebody left
- the door open, and it blew in on the breeze.” The turtle’s
- voice trails off until its final words are barely a
- whisper. You can still feel two currents tugging at you and trying
- to pull you under. One inward toward your host’s deep, core
- memories. And the second pulling you outward toward the Sea of
- Dreams. You have but a moment before the Red Squirrel is upon
- you. WHAT DO YOU DO Alex takes inventory of himself, this dream world is
- definitely strange, but fortunately its decided to provide him
- with his impecable fashion, trench coat and all. Unfortunately
- the same can’t be said for his roguish good looks, as he’s
- found himself 6 arms heavier, and a bit more octopus-y than he
- remembers. Nontheless this doesn’t appear to be much of an impediment,
- and he promptly moves on with assessing the situation. “Acorns? No, I don’t think so. I’m afraid octopus’ are
- terrible at fetching acrons, and at any rate, I have a
- dreadfully important meeting across town.” turning to address
- Inky, “We need to make a break for it, what’d the witch tell
- you? Envision our goal or something? This is really a little
- outside of my realm of mechanical magic expertise..
- unless..” Alex makes a gesture with his tentacles in the area and a
- terminal prompt appears before him. His tentacles work at
- blinding speed at the digital window, a quick bypass there, a
- root access escalation there. “Looks like this whole place runs on Linux, it’s an older
- kernel, about 2.6 or so, but it checks out. Easy to exploit as
- needed. Here I’m giving us sudo access, should we need
- it.” “Oh and squirrel, here’s your acorns” It takes Alectopus a couple tries, but he gets it. First he
- corrects ‘acron’ to ‘acorn’. Then he moves all the acorns to
- the chipmunk instead of to the squirrel. Hundreds of acorns appear at the chipmunk’s feet. It
- squeals in delight. In the distance, far below you, you hear the anguished yell
- of what can only be a Red Squirrel whose giant stash of acorns
- has just vanished. The chipmunk rubs its hands together gleefully and starts
- scooping up acorns by the armful and shoving them into its
- mouth by the dozen. “Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” it
- says around a mouthful of nuts. “Here…” It tosses you a large
- square silver coin with a round hole drilled in the center. On
- one side is the number twenty-one next to a picture of a
- curved, short-handled sickle. On the other side is the number
- five and a picture of a flail. “A Twenty-One Fiver! Sorry, you deserve more, but it’s all
- I have,” it apologizes as it scampers off, no doubt to hide
- its nuts. Hopefully somewhere more secure this time. If you hold the coin up to your eye and peer through the
- hole, you see the dreamscape before you as though looking
- through a cloudy film. All the same stuff is there, but it’s
- hazy and shadowy. Standing a fair distance from you on the branch, just out
- of hailing distance, is a tall figure cloaked in black robes.
- Dark shadows pool restlessly around its feet. Occasionally the
- shadows leap up and take the form of demons the like of which
- words cannot describe, before falling and returning to shadow
- once more. The figure wears a large spherical helmet of
- obsidian-like glass. You can see constant flashes of a rainbow
- of colors crackle and splinter along the inside of the helmet
- like lightning, but illuminating nothing within. You feel
- sickened at the sight, but at the edge of your mind you feels
- a tug, a familiarity. Something about this character is
- familiar to you, but you cannot place it. When you lower the coin, the figure and the dark landscape
- both disappear. When you raise it again, the distorted
- landscape reappears but the figure is gone. You notice a pair of large ravens watching you rather
- intently from the branches below. WHAT DO YOU DO Alex procures from a pocket of his trenchcoat a tiny vial.
- On the vial is a small strip of parchment which reads: He empties the vial into a glass of warm milk and hands it
- to bread. “Drink up friend, this’ll relax and soothe you. You’ll
- probably have the best night’s sleep you’ve ever had” Over the radio Alex provides a quick reminder to
- Marvelo. “7, remember, should you need to wake bread to get us out
- you can interrupt or cancel the sleep script, Ctrl + C should
- work for the disruption work. Or if you need to you can set
- sleepy=false, if it gets crazy and you need to modify the
- metavarbalic properties of the enchantment.” Turning to Inky, “Eight bells and all’s well, lets get this
- show on the road” Bread smiles and thanks you for the milk. They down the
- glass, smack their lips a few times, and wipe their mouth with
- the back of their hand. Their eyelids grow heavy and close,
- and they slump down on the cushions. They’re already asleep by
- the time their head hits the pillow. Inky nods once at Alex’s words and finishes off their own
- cuppa steeped with calea and thyme, and blended into osmanthus
- matcha. Lucida, Protege, Aware, Perfume. A meaningless
- mantra. They glance to their owlish accomplice (who, she will
- remind you, is well-trained and needs no sleeping aid, thank
- you very much, unlike her impish charge) and silently mouth
- the words “Dude 215R” with a wink. Then they settle for a nap,
- chin pillowed on their forearms, which are propped atop
- drawn-up knees. A walking stick rests on their lap. A herb
- bouquet of pink blooms becomes an owl cushion. Inky dreamforms of a cream noogle. Puko. And Fuko is, well,
- still Fuko. You light the Nyxmaer. The flame crackles and dances. It
- smokes darkly, and the scent it gives off is thick and
- heady. You breathe deeply of it and settle down to sleep. When you open your eyes you are standing on the branch of
- an enormous white tree. It’s as wide as a narrow street. Its
- leaves are silver blades that uncurl in the dappled light from
- below. One of the first things you notice is that gravity is
- reversed here. The branches below you reach down, grazing an
- endless sky. Small iridescent jellyfish medusae drift lazily
- far, far below, catching and reflecting the light. And the
- trunk thickens as it reaches up overhead, where its roots
- drill into the ceiling above. Because of dream logic, you know that in some way this tree
- represents Kelsun Peak, Bread’s home. And also because of
- dream logic, you know that the branches furthest away from you
- in some way represent the great dragon Lucin who lives deep in
- the mountain. And they are just as dangerous. They sway in the
- breeze and seem to be aware of you, and are for now satisfied
- at the distance you keep from them. There is a chipmunk sitting cross-legged before you on the
- branch. It looks curiously up at you and says, “The Red
- Squirrel stole my acorns! Are you going to get them back for
- me?” You can feel a metaphysical tug in your gut as your orient
- yourself to dreamspace like the needle of a compass. “Inward”
- you can feel a tug toward Bread’s deep unconscious. To their
- core memories. “Outward” you can feel a tug away from Bread
- toward the shores of the Sea of Dreams, where you may continue
- your journey through the Collective Unconsciousness to the
- pocket dimension of the Wandering Bazaar. You need not move
- physically to travel in either direction. It’s more a matter
- of choosing a destination, and letting the winds blow you in
- that direction. “My acorns!” insists the chipmunk, wringing its hands. “The
- Red Squirrel has taken them all! Are you going to help
- me?” WHAT DO YOU DO Once back in the Milk Bar, with the airship safely anchored
- to the roof of the building, Alex finds himself amongst the
- old belongings of his former uncle. sigh “Best get a request to HQ for this airship,
- maybe they’ll let us operate it for a bit, if not I suppose we
- have to impound it..” “There’s also the matter of this little hemogoblin..” Alex
- mutters to himself while said hemogoblin happily dances around
- the room, dripping little pools of blood hither and
- tither. “Hey little guy, lets go get an empanade. Inky says they’re
- divine.” Alex says as he scoops up the little goblin and
- gently carries him downstairs.” Striding into Enriques kitchen, and availing himself to the
- empanadas, ignoring an indignant Enrique’s protests that these
- were for paying customers until a small bag of coins is tossed
- careless over one shoulder. Alex stride through the kitchen
- and then out and away into the garden to enjoy their pilfered
- treats. “I suppose this is more interesting than being on the force
- at times” “Greetings, Great One.” Inky bows, back parallel to the
+ ground while they stand on the branch, now a humanoid child in
+ a black uniform and matching bookbag hanging under one arm.
+ The banana boat is nowhere in sight. Fuko follows her errant
+ charge and the cloaked figure from a nearby branch. “This lowly one wonders if they may be permitted to seek
+ the Great Spirit’s insight, whose wisdom endures before and
+ beyond.” Inky begins, staring down the blurry reflection of
+ silver boughs overhead on the polished toes of their black
+ shoes. They notice idly they do not see themselves in the
+ reflection. Straightening from the bow, they look up at the figure and
+ hold out a plate of taiyaki. After a moment, the child asks
+ haltingly, “There may come a day when this one will be asked
+ to choose between the chance to protect many and that which
+ they desire to protect most. Should this one choose equally?
+ Will the choice matter if both paths eventually lead to
+ destruction? Could destruction and salvation be two sides of
+ the same coin?” ~ You and the Dude are sitting in small upholstered chairs,
+ across a small half table from each other. There is a large
+ sticky bun on a white lacy doily on the table. Next to you is
+ a small portal-sized window, and outside you can see green
+ rolling hills and small copses of trees fly by. The other
+ seats on the small train car are all empty. The two of you are
+ alone. “I cannot give you advice,” the Dude says. “But I can offer
+ you experience.” They raise a hand and hold a loosely closed fist out over
+ the table. The walls of the train become fuzzy and blurry,
+ then translucent, and finally transparent. They disappear and
+ you have the sensation of rocketing through space at dizzying
+ speeds. The track splits ahead you. To one side, bound to one track
+ is that which you desire to protect most. Bound to the other
+ are the many. “You can choose safely here. It’s just a dream, after all.”
+ The Dude opens their fist. The Twenty-one Fiver coin rests in
+ their palm. “Heads, you steer the train into the many, sparing
+ that which you love most. Tails, the opposite. You spare the
+ many, and sacrifice that which you hold dear.” They hold the
+ coin out to you. The train barrels toward the fork. “But choose quickly,
+ lest the choice be made for you.” Inky stepped into the toques’ cabin below deck with a tray
- of turmeric ginger tea and lavender biscuits. After checking
- on Bread’s bandages and offering the toque reclined on the
- berth the last bag of mango croutons — or at least the last
- one for the next two hours — Inky perched on a wooden barrel
- across from where Confidence sat on a creaking old chair next
- to the bunk and spoke. “We’ll be landing in about an hour and
- getting Bread to a medical facility. You can stay with him
- while he heals and rest up.” They paused to take a long sip from their cup, as if the
- liquid was being used to summon their next words. “On behalf
- of myself and the party, I apologise for the … disruption, and
- for what had befallen the hotelier. As you may have already
- noticed, we’re a fair distance away from the Peak and will be
- arriving in Vay’Nullar soon. This airship was taken over from
- the cyberplasms in the course of getting the crystal out and
- the injured to a safe location, and her new captain could
- hardly fly it back straight into the pirates’ hands now. What we propose is this: you and Bread may take as long as
- you need to recover. We can arrange for lodgings and new posts
- in the city. One of our party runs a Milk Market that could
- certainly use some hired help, and a garden in the back that
- would benefit from more attention. Pay will be double your
- current salary at the hotel. Master Alex may also recruit you
- for other tasks. You don’t need to have an answer just yet —
- think on it for a bit while you rest and let us know.
- Afterwards, if you find that you still wish to return to
- Kelsun Peak, we will pay for travel.” Inky winked at Bread conspiratorially. “You may be
- interested to know there is a bakery on the Milk Market’s
- first floor. If you like the look of the place, perhaps we can
- convince the chef to take on an assistant.” ~ Tess watched her adviser from her position on one end of
- the plush chaise lounge in her office, who returned her stare
- impassively as they sat in the adjoining armchair to her
- right. The ornate coffee table before them had been laid out
- for tea, but the other cup remained untouched, which was in
- itself unusual. Ink rarely turned down tea when it was
- offered, which likely meant they were preoccupied with
- something they were unwilling to discuss. This had been
- happening more frequently since their plans to intercept the
- Ginnarak Crystals, which was a little concerning, but she knew
- it would be no use to question them directly. The missive she
- had received this time through Piskin’s people was brief,
- almost annoyingly so, but they had returned earlier than
- expected with the articles that production had requested,
- which had fortunately made up for lost time from the previous
- delays. With this in mind, she settled on a lighter note as she
- picked up her own teacup. “Salvia passed on the items to the
- production team. Thank you for picking them up from the
- Runesocesius. I would send my regular couriers but they are
- tied up with another event. One of them had to care for their
- sick child and couldn’t leave the city. As usual, time and
- discretion are of the essence.” When her adviser only nodded, she continued. “How is he? He
- probably insisted on bringing the manuscripts out for you
- himself. The man is cautious with valuables.” “Quite dead but managing, or so I heard.” Ink intoned
- drily. Tess caught on immediately. “Didn’t you meet with him? The
- message only mentioned the items had been obtained. Did
- something happen?” The imp shrugged. “We met, I delivered the letter and
- collected the items. We didn’t get a chance to talk.” The hotel was slowly but steadily attracting visitors
- again, especially after their last play had prominently
- featured the Runesocesius Library as a research partner in the
- programme credits, but Tess didn’t think the hotelier was so
- busy as to entrust this task to one of his underlings. The man
- was proud of the first editions the library had amassed, and
- the notebooks of Lucidieau that the playwright sought as a
- reference were no doubt counted among the treasures, even if
- only an expensive commissioned facsimile was permitted out of
- the library. Something had happened, she was sure, but decided
- not to press further for the moment. “And the other matter?” she asked. “Someone already knew the crystal was at the hotel and
- retained a crew of cyberplasmic pirates to storm the place.”
- Ink replied flatly. “And yes, your acquaintance is very much
- dead, shot by the crew leader in the scuffle. As the rumour
- rags have it, his ghost is now overseeing the building
- repairs.” Tess was about to admonish the imp gently for the tasteless
- jest when there was a knock at the door. At her response, the
- door opened and her secretary entered with a box of pastries
- and two sets of tableware, which she placed on the coffee
- table before leaving and closing the door behind her. Noticing Ink’s look of recognition, Tess smiled and
- ventured, “This is the second time is as many months you
- awarded that empanada place a glowing review in The Tiny
- Toaster. I can count the ratings higher than a 10 you’ve
- ever given on one hand — of course I had to try it. Why don’t
- you have some as well?” Ink blinked. “I didn’t write the latest review.” Tess shot them an accusing mock-glare as she lifted a puffy
- golden brown pastry onto a plate. “It has your inkprints all
- over it.” “I don’t know what you mean. Surely I’m allowed to treat a
- colleague to lunch, and they are free to express their
- satisfaction with a meal openly if they wish,” Ink replied
- smoothly. Tess rolled her eyes. “There’s a name for that. It’s called
- bribery.” Ink smiled faintly. “Just so. However, the selection speaks
- for itself.” “Oh, absolutely! These mini ambrose apple empanadas are
- wonderful. In fact,” Tess prodded the open end of the pastry
- with her fork, where a light yellow filling was visible, “they
- remind me a little of the very crispy tortelli
- someone made several years ago just for the opening
- reception of The Two Genteelkin of Virdantha.” “Any resemblance is coincidental. The chef is very
- capable.” Ink said evenly. Tess sighed and returned her plate to the table. “We’ve
- talked about this before, Ink. You don’t have to hole up in
- some poor scrub’s excuse for a kitchen in a closet. If you
- need more room downstairs then expand it. Just tell Salvia and
- she’ll take care of it.” Ink lowered their gaze to the teacups. “I appreciate the
- offer, but the answer is the same. There will be no rest until
- the crystals are secured.” Alex scrambles from the wreckage of his mech, or what
+ remained from the gore portal he’d just experienced. The
+ thought of what had occurred made him grimace, which was an
+ unusual state of affairs for an octopus, that is until Alex
+ realized he seemed to be back in his own body. “Sunset, or perhaps rise? It’s hard to tell. Pretty
+ though.. could be prettier without the creepy knife dude.”
+ Alex mutters to himself while he rummages through the
+ destroyed cockpit of the mech. He makes quick work, detaches a
+ side panel, pulls a couple of wires, and a compartment in the
+ back opens revealing the smooth dark blue metal and wood grain
+ of an ak74u sub machine gun. Amused Alex pulls the weapon from
+ the compartment and notices a distinct lack of additional
+ magazines, just the one large drum attached to the weapon with
+ large red letters emblazoned on it [INFINITE AMMO].
+ “Neat.” Alex pulls himself from the wreck, and jumps down behind
+ one of the fallen tentacles taking a firing position behind
+ cover, ak74u aimed down range at the faceless figure. “I don’t know who you are, but I don’t trust anyone who
+ approaches with a weapon. Let’s both stand down and talk this
+ through! I’m not supposed to be here, and I reckon you don’t
+ want me here either. I’d be happy to oblige and skidaddle if
+ you’d be so kind as to point the way out!” Alex pauses waiting
+ for a reply. Some time passes. The hemogoblin turns out to be a fine housemate and less of
- a problem than you thought it would be. Be it because its not
- in the excitement of battle onboard a pirate ship, or be it
- because it is maturing slightly, it seems in better control of
- its blood sacs. Barring a few small accidents, it doesn’t make
- much of a mess. It has found and claimed as its own a few
- unused blankets, and has made a little burrow nest in an out
- of the way corner behind the furniture. Bread makes a full recovery and in fact is doing better
- than ever before. The blood goblin stays by their side during
- the first hours and days and keeps them pumped full of clean,
- synthetic blood. Afterwards the toque is flushed a healthy
- pink and has new vigor. Enrique takes them under his tutelage.
- And Bread ends up making a fine baker’s apprentice. Dough
- seems to rise more and quicker after he kneads it. “The lad
- has solar hands,” Enrique boasts of his new protegee. Confidence becomes enthralled with the semi-sentient
- Wandering Bazaar. The thirteen story building moves with
- glacial speed up and down the streets, vendors and stalls and
- shoppers following in its wake. But then also it will
- disappear in the blink of an eye only to reappear in a totally
- different part of the area known as the Wandering Bazaar
- District. Each floor of the tall, narrow tower is occupied
- entirely by a single shop. But which shop it is seems to vary
- from day to day. One day the seventh level will be occupied by
- Fedik’s Butcher shop. And the next, Lario’s Bakery. It might
- be days or weeks before one can once again buy hotlinks from
- Fedik’s. Where the shops go when they’re not here is one of
- Basmentaria’s great mysteries. The toque studies the Bazaar’s movements and are able to
- predict its route with more and more accuracy. They become a
- highly sought out guide. Tourists and visitors trust them to
- take them to the very spot the Bazaar will appear that day.
- Residents appreciate the heads up and not getting trapped in
- their houses when the Bazaar wedges its way into their narrow
- residential streets, blocking their front doors. And owners of
- traditional, less ambulatory shops are able to plan ahead for
- the crowds that will appear on “Bazaar Day”. ~ Members of the Retrieval Team who sleep in Milk Market HQ
- start having dreams of the same mysterious figure. Of course
- at first nobody knows their dreams are shared by the others.
- Not until they become more frequent, more regular. By the time
- the figure has visited you every night for nearly a week,
- somebody speaks up and you realize the coincidence. The figure is clad in voluminous robes of deep purple.
- Long, straight, blonde hair falls around their shoulders.
- Their soft features are boyish and womanly. They wear a golden
- circlet on their head and a golden eye in the middle of their
- forehead. Their passive, neutral face betrays no emotion the
- entire time. The dream is always the same. They reach out to you with
- one hand and turn their palm up. And because of dream logic,
- in the palm of their hand you can hear the jingling of coins,
- mirthful laughter, and hushed stories told around a campfire.
- They curl their fingers into a loose first and the sounds
- stop. They spread their arms wide and in the folds of their
- robes you can see three siblings fighting, squabbling over a
- broken loom. Then you’re standing next to them, and the two of you watch
- three friends, Snake, Owl, and Dolphin. Owl tells Snake that
- he is tired of flying and hooting, and doesn’t want to be an
- owl any more, he wants to be flowers. And Snake laughs and
- tells him that he is Owl, and an owl he must remain. And she
- leaves him to go eat rodents and bake in the sun. So Owl tells
- Dolphin that he is tired of flying and hooting, and doesn’t
- want to be an owl any more, he wants to be flowers. Dolphin
- doesn’t want to help Owl, because if he is flowers, they won’t
- be able to be together any longer. But Dolphin finally agrees
- to help even though they don’t want to, because Dolphin loves
- Owl. With all their strength, they create a great waterspout
- that will turn Owl into flowers. But the waterspout is too
- strong, and Dolphin is too weak to control it. It sprays Owl
- but does not turn him into flowers. Owl’s wing is broken and
- he falls to the ground in a heap of feathers. The waterspout
- shakes a great boulder from the earth and traps Snake under
- it. And Dolphin sinks to the bottom of the sea. And then you wake up. ~ Later you find a letter in the common area of Milk Market
- HQ. It is not addressed to anybody. When you open it up, it
- reads: The tall figure halts a short distance away. It raises a
+ hand and waves. In greeting? Surrender? In a fluid motion it
+ continues to lift the same hand and grabs a hold of its trunk,
+ a little less than a foot from the tip. It squeezes its fist
+ tightly and the tip begins to swell. It raises its other hand,
+ and the knife, and starts to saw into the flesh of the trunk
+ behind its fist. The blade cuts cleanly as though through a
+ loaf of bread. There is no blood or gore. When the creature lowers its hand, you can see that the
+ center of the trunk is a solid, bright pink fleshy material
+ like a grapefruit, in the center of which are two pin-prick
+ eyes and a wide thin gash of a mouth. It still holds the tip of its severed trunk in its hand, a
+ thin stalk and a bulging cap looking for all the world like a
+ large white button mushroom. Peering up from the stem of the
+ mushroom, an identical pink face regards you stoically. Both faces speak at the exact same time, one high pitched
+ and one a deep baritone. “Welcome, Dreamer, to Ousia, the Sea
+ of Dreams. We are Kasutva.” Big Kasutva stoops down to set the small mushroom Kasutva
+ down on the ground. If they’re both Kasutva, that is. If
+ that’s the way their biology and sense of self actually works.
+ Mushroom Kasutva wobbles side to side a little bit and waggles
+ its stalk as it looks around. Big Kasutva places its knife
+ back in its satchel and takes a few small steps closer to
+ you. “We did not mean to offend you,” the two say, still
+ perfectly in sync. “As for the way out, that depends only
+ somewhat on your destination. Whatever the answer, we can
+ assure you that it lies across the sea.” Large Kasutva
+ gestures broadly toward the expanse of ocean. Small Kasutva
+ lacks any limbs and cannot gesture, but smiles softly at
+ you. “But tell us what it is you seek. Perhaps we can be of
+ help.” WHAT DO YOU DO Time is running out, Retrieval Team 43. Things are starting
- to draw to a close. We cannot delay our meeting any longer if
- we both are to achieve our goals. We have information that you
- are looking for. Meet us at the Harpoon Club next Selday. We
- will wear the sign. Alex procures from a pocket of his trenchcoat a tiny vial.
+ On the vial is a small strip of parchment which reads: He empties the vial into a glass of warm milk and hands it
+ to bread. “Drink up friend, this’ll relax and soothe you. You’ll
+ probably have the best night’s sleep you’ve ever had” Over the radio Alex provides a quick reminder to
+ Marvelo. “7, remember, should you need to wake bread to get us out
+ you can interrupt or cancel the sleep script, Ctrl + C should
+ work for the disruption work. Or if you need to you can set
+ sleepy=false, if it gets crazy and you need to modify the
+ metavarbalic properties of the enchantment.” Turning to Inky, “Eight bells and all’s well, lets get this
+ show on the road” The letter is signed with a white iris and golden
- apple. Anyone in Vay’Nullar would be able to tell you that the
- Harpoon Club is a game room and fine dining club, and one of
- the rotating tenants of the Wandering Bazaar. But Confidence
- would tell you, were you to ask them, that the club won’t be
- there next Selday. (When the Bazaar will appear at East and
- Lowland.) It is in fact not scheduled to appear until a week
- and a half after next Selday, on Third Tensday. (When the
- Bazaar will appear at Cathedral and Pine.) Bread smiles and thanks you for the milk. They down the
+ glass, smack their lips a few times, and wipe their mouth with
+ the back of their hand. Their eyelids grow heavy and close,
+ and they slump down on the cushions. They’re already asleep by
+ the time their head hits the pillow. Inky nods once at Alex’s words and finishes off their own
+ cuppa steeped with calea and thyme, and blended into osmanthus
+ matcha. Lucida, Protege, Aware, Perfume. A meaningless
+ mantra. They glance to their owlish accomplice (who, she will
+ remind you, is well-trained and needs no sleeping aid, thank
+ you very much, unlike her impish charge) and silently mouth
+ the words “Dude 215R” with a wink. Then they settle for a nap,
+ chin pillowed on their forearms, which are propped atop
+ drawn-up knees. A walking stick rests on their lap. A herb
+ bouquet of pink blooms becomes an owl cushion. Inky dreamforms of a cream noogle. Puko. And Fuko is, well,
+ still Fuko. You light the Nyxmaer. The flame crackles and dances. It
+ smokes darkly, and the scent it gives off is thick and
+ heady. You breathe deeply of it and settle down to sleep. When you open your eyes you are standing on the branch of
+ an enormous white tree. It’s as wide as a narrow street. Its
+ leaves are silver blades that uncurl in the dappled light from
+ below. One of the first things you notice is that gravity is
+ reversed here. The branches below you reach down, grazing an
+ endless sky. Small iridescent jellyfish medusae drift lazily
+ far, far below, catching and reflecting the light. And the
+ trunk thickens as it reaches up overhead, where its roots
+ drill into the ceiling above. Because of dream logic, you know that in some way this tree
+ represents Kelsun Peak, Bread’s home. And also because of
+ dream logic, you know that the branches furthest away from you
+ in some way represent the great dragon Lucin who lives deep in
+ the mountain. And they are just as dangerous. They sway in the
+ breeze and seem to be aware of you, and are for now satisfied
+ at the distance you keep from them. There is a chipmunk sitting cross-legged before you on the
+ branch. It looks curiously up at you and says, “The Red
+ Squirrel stole my acorns! Are you going to get them back for
+ me?” You can feel a metaphysical tug in your gut as your orient
+ yourself to dreamspace like the needle of a compass. “Inward”
+ you can feel a tug toward Bread’s deep unconscious. To their
+ core memories. “Outward” you can feel a tug away from Bread
+ toward the shores of the Sea of Dreams, where you may continue
+ your journey through the Collective Unconsciousness to the
+ pocket dimension of the Wandering Bazaar. You need not move
+ physically to travel in either direction. It’s more a matter
+ of choosing a destination, and letting the winds blow you in
+ that direction. “My acorns!” insists the chipmunk, wringing its hands. “The
+ Red Squirrel has taken them all! Are you going to help
+ me?” WHAT DO YOU DO Alex takes inventory of himself, this dream world is
+ definitely strange, but fortunately its decided to provide him
+ with his impecable fashion, trench coat and all. Unfortunately
+ the same can’t be said for his roguish good looks, as he’s
+ found himself 6 arms heavier, and a bit more octopus-y than he
+ remembers. Nontheless this doesn’t appear to be much of an impediment,
+ and he promptly moves on with assessing the situation. “Acorns? No, I don’t think so. I’m afraid octopus’ are
+ terrible at fetching acrons, and at any rate, I have a
+ dreadfully important meeting across town.” turning to address
+ Inky, “We need to make a break for it, what’d the witch tell
+ you? Envision our goal or something? This is really a little
+ outside of my realm of mechanical magic expertise..
+ unless..” Alex makes a gesture with his tentacles in the area and a
+ terminal prompt appears before him. His tentacles work at
+ blinding speed at the digital window, a quick bypass there, a
+ root access escalation there. “Looks like this whole place runs on Linux, it’s an older
+ kernel, about 2.6 or so, but it checks out. Easy to exploit as
+ needed. Here I’m giving us sudo access, should we need
+ it.” “Oh and squirrel, here’s your acorns” It takes Alectopus a couple tries, but he gets it. First he
+ corrects ‘acron’ to ‘acorn’. Then he moves all the acorns to
+ the chipmunk instead of to the squirrel. Hundreds of acorns appear at the chipmunk’s feet. It
+ squeals in delight. In the distance, far below you, you hear the anguished yell
+ of what can only be a Red Squirrel whose giant stash of acorns
+ has just vanished. The chipmunk rubs its hands together gleefully and starts
+ scooping up acorns by the armful and shoving them into its
+ mouth by the dozen. “Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” it
+ says around a mouthful of nuts. “Here…” It tosses you a large
+ square silver coin with a round hole drilled in the center. On
+ one side is the number twenty-one next to a picture of a
+ curved, short-handled sickle. On the other side is the number
+ five and a picture of a flail. “A Twenty-One Fiver! Sorry, you deserve more, but it’s all
+ I have,” it apologizes as it scampers off, no doubt to hide
+ its nuts. Hopefully somewhere more secure this time. If you hold the coin up to your eye and peer through the
+ hole, you see the dreamscape before you as though looking
+ through a cloudy film. All the same stuff is there, but it’s
+ hazy and shadowy. Standing a fair distance from you on the branch, just out
+ of hailing distance, is a tall figure cloaked in black robes.
+ Dark shadows pool restlessly around its feet. Occasionally the
+ shadows leap up and take the form of demons the like of which
+ words cannot describe, before falling and returning to shadow
+ once more. The figure wears a large spherical helmet of
+ obsidian-like glass. You can see constant flashes of a rainbow
+ of colors crackle and splinter along the inside of the helmet
+ like lightning, but illuminating nothing within. You feel
+ sickened at the sight, but at the edge of your mind you feels
+ a tug, a familiarity. Something about this character is
+ familiar to you, but you cannot place it. When you lower the coin, the figure and the dark landscape
+ both disappear. When you raise it again, the distorted
+ landscape reappears but the figure is gone. You notice a pair of large ravens watching you rather
+ intently from the branches below. WHAT DO YOU DO Alex the Octopus and Inky the Noogle stand on a tree branch
+ as wide a street in the heart of the great white upside-down
+ forest. A cry of anguish and anger echoes through the forest, and
+ the branches below you sway and rustle as something rises up
+ from the depths. You keep catching a glimpse of scarlet
+ between the silvery white leaves. The large black ravens perched below you scream in
+ agitation and fly up past you to the thicker branches up
+ above, where they hop side to side and loudly scold and
+ protest the disturbance. A single black feather the length of
+ your hand settles to the ground at your feet, knocked loose
+ during their flight. You finally see the fearsome beast crashing through the
+ branches below you. Its crazed, yellow eyes as large and round
+ as dinner plates, a great eight-legged rodent leaps from
+ branch to branch as it swiftly ascends. It is a bloody,
+ crimson red. Its long tufted ears lay flat against its
+ elongated, grinning skull. Its ribbon-like tail twitches as it
+ trails along behind it like a river of blood. It cries out
+ again in anger, showing its overgrown incisors, and grinds and
+ gnashes its back teeth. Its eyes bore into you with wild fury and blind madness as
+ it climbs. “She’s not herself,” sighs the chipmunk, suddenly at your
+ side once more. When you look down at the chipmunk, however,
+ it has suddenly turned into a small featureless black turtle
+ with a sticky sweet roll instead of a shell. Its smooth little
+ head pokes timidly out of the roll. “The Red Squirrel,” laments the turtle. “She’s being ridden
+ by a ghost. An angry ghost who isn’t from here. Somebody left
+ the door open, and it blew in on the breeze.” The turtle’s
+ voice trails off until its final words are barely a
+ whisper. You can still feel two currents tugging at you and trying
+ to pull you under. One inward toward your host’s deep, core
+ memories. And the second pulling you outward toward the Sea of
+ Dreams. You have but a moment before the Red Squirrel is upon
+ you. WHAT DO YOU DO Once back in the Milk Bar, with the airship safely anchored
+ to the roof of the building, Alex finds himself amongst the
+ old belongings of his former uncle. sigh “Best get a request to HQ for this airship,
+ maybe they’ll let us operate it for a bit, if not I suppose we
+ have to impound it..” “There’s also the matter of this little hemogoblin..” Alex
+ mutters to himself while said hemogoblin happily dances around
+ the room, dripping little pools of blood hither and
+ tither. “Hey little guy, lets go get an empanade. Inky says they’re
+ divine.” Alex says as he scoops up the little goblin and
+ gently carries him downstairs.” Striding into Enriques kitchen, and availing himself to the
+ empanadas, ignoring an indignant Enrique’s protests that these
+ were for paying customers until a small bag of coins is tossed
+ careless over one shoulder. Alex stride through the kitchen
+ and then out and away into the garden to enjoy their pilfered
+ treats. “I suppose this is more interesting than being on the force
+ at times” ~ Inky stepped into the toques’ cabin below deck with a tray
+ of turmeric ginger tea and lavender biscuits. After checking
+ on Bread’s bandages and offering the toque reclined on the
+ berth the last bag of mango croutons — or at least the last
+ one for the next two hours — Inky perched on a wooden barrel
+ across from where Confidence sat on a creaking old chair next
+ to the bunk and spoke. “We’ll be landing in about an hour and
+ getting Bread to a medical facility. You can stay with him
+ while he heals and rest up.” They paused to take a long sip from their cup, as if the
+ liquid was being used to summon their next words. “On behalf
+ of myself and the party, I apologise for the … disruption, and
+ for what had befallen the hotelier. As you may have already
+ noticed, we’re a fair distance away from the Peak and will be
+ arriving in Vay’Nullar soon. This airship was taken over from
+ the cyberplasms in the course of getting the crystal out and
+ the injured to a safe location, and her new captain could
+ hardly fly it back straight into the pirates’ hands now. What we propose is this: you and Bread may take as long as
+ you need to recover. We can arrange for lodgings and new posts
+ in the city. One of our party runs a Milk Market that could
+ certainly use some hired help, and a garden in the back that
+ would benefit from more attention. Pay will be double your
+ current salary at the hotel. Master Alex may also recruit you
+ for other tasks. You don’t need to have an answer just yet —
+ think on it for a bit while you rest and let us know.
+ Afterwards, if you find that you still wish to return to
+ Kelsun Peak, we will pay for travel.” Inky winked at Bread conspiratorially. “You may be
+ interested to know there is a bakery on the Milk Market’s
+ first floor. If you like the look of the place, perhaps we can
+ convince the chef to take on an assistant.” ~ Tess watched her adviser from her position on one end of
+ the plush chaise lounge in her office, who returned her stare
+ impassively as they sat in the adjoining armchair to her
+ right. The ornate coffee table before them had been laid out
+ for tea, but the other cup remained untouched, which was in
+ itself unusual. Ink rarely turned down tea when it was
+ offered, which likely meant they were preoccupied with
+ something they were unwilling to discuss. This had been
+ happening more frequently since their plans to intercept the
+ Ginnarak Crystals, which was a little concerning, but she knew
+ it would be no use to question them directly. The missive she
+ had received this time through Piskin’s people was brief,
+ almost annoyingly so, but they had returned earlier than
+ expected with the articles that production had requested,
+ which had fortunately made up for lost time from the previous
+ delays. With this in mind, she settled on a lighter note as she
+ picked up her own teacup. “Salvia passed on the items to the
+ production team. Thank you for picking them up from the
+ Runesocesius. I would send my regular couriers but they are
+ tied up with another event. One of them had to care for their
+ sick child and couldn’t leave the city. As usual, time and
+ discretion are of the essence.” When her adviser only nodded, she continued. “How is he? He
+ probably insisted on bringing the manuscripts out for you
+ himself. The man is cautious with valuables.” “Quite dead but managing, or so I heard.” Ink intoned
+ drily. Tess caught on immediately. “Didn’t you meet with him? The
+ message only mentioned the items had been obtained. Did
+ something happen?” The imp shrugged. “We met, I delivered the letter and
+ collected the items. We didn’t get a chance to talk.” The hotel was slowly but steadily attracting visitors
+ again, especially after their last play had prominently
+ featured the Runesocesius Library as a research partner in the
+ programme credits, but Tess didn’t think the hotelier was so
+ busy as to entrust this task to one of his underlings. The man
+ was proud of the first editions the library had amassed, and
+ the notebooks of Lucidieau that the playwright sought as a
+ reference were no doubt counted among the treasures, even if
+ only an expensive commissioned facsimile was permitted out of
+ the library. Something had happened, she was sure, but decided
+ not to press further for the moment. “And the other matter?” she asked. “Someone already knew the crystal was at the hotel and
+ retained a crew of cyberplasmic pirates to storm the place.”
+ Ink replied flatly. “And yes, your acquaintance is very much
+ dead, shot by the crew leader in the scuffle. As the rumour
+ rags have it, his ghost is now overseeing the building
+ repairs.” Tess was about to admonish the imp gently for the tasteless
+ jest when there was a knock at the door. At her response, the
+ door opened and her secretary entered with a box of pastries
+ and two sets of tableware, which she placed on the coffee
+ table before leaving and closing the door behind her. Noticing Ink’s look of recognition, Tess smiled and
+ ventured, “This is the second time is as many months you
+ awarded that empanada place a glowing review in The Tiny
+ Toaster. I can count the ratings higher than a 10 you’ve
+ ever given on one hand — of course I had to try it. Why don’t
+ you have some as well?” Ink blinked. “I didn’t write the latest review.” Tess shot them an accusing mock-glare as she lifted a puffy
+ golden brown pastry onto a plate. “It has your inkprints all
+ over it.” “I don’t know what you mean. Surely I’m allowed to treat a
+ colleague to lunch, and they are free to express their
+ satisfaction with a meal openly if they wish,” Ink replied
+ smoothly. Tess rolled her eyes. “There’s a name for that. It’s called
+ bribery.” Ink smiled faintly. “Just so. However, the selection speaks
+ for itself.” “Oh, absolutely! These mini ambrose apple empanadas are
+ wonderful. In fact,” Tess prodded the open end of the pastry
+ with her fork, where a light yellow filling was visible, “they
+ remind me a little of the very crispy tortelli
+ someone made several years ago just for the opening
+ reception of The Two Genteelkin of Virdantha.” “Any resemblance is coincidental. The chef is very
+ capable.” Ink said evenly. Tess sighed and returned her plate to the table. “We’ve
+ talked about this before, Ink. You don’t have to hole up in
+ some poor scrub’s excuse for a kitchen in a closet. If you
+ need more room downstairs then expand it. Just tell Salvia and
+ she’ll take care of it.” Ink lowered their gaze to the teacups. “I appreciate the
+ offer, but the answer is the same. There will be no rest until
+ the crystals are secured.” Some time passes. The hemogoblin turns out to be a fine housemate and less of
+ a problem than you thought it would be. Be it because its not
+ in the excitement of battle onboard a pirate ship, or be it
+ because it is maturing slightly, it seems in better control of
+ its blood sacs. Barring a few small accidents, it doesn’t make
+ much of a mess. It has found and claimed as its own a few
+ unused blankets, and has made a little burrow nest in an out
+ of the way corner behind the furniture. Bread makes a full recovery and in fact is doing better
+ than ever before. The blood goblin stays by their side during
+ the first hours and days and keeps them pumped full of clean,
+ synthetic blood. Afterwards the toque is flushed a healthy
+ pink and has new vigor. Enrique takes them under his tutelage.
+ And Bread ends up making a fine baker’s apprentice. Dough
+ seems to rise more and quicker after he kneads it. “The lad
+ has solar hands,” Enrique boasts of his new protegee. Confidence becomes enthralled with the semi-sentient
+ Wandering Bazaar. The thirteen story building moves with
+ glacial speed up and down the streets, vendors and stalls and
+ shoppers following in its wake. But then also it will
+ disappear in the blink of an eye only to reappear in a totally
+ different part of the area known as the Wandering Bazaar
+ District. Each floor of the tall, narrow tower is occupied
+ entirely by a single shop. But which shop it is seems to vary
+ from day to day. One day the seventh level will be occupied by
+ Fedik’s Butcher shop. And the next, Lario’s Bakery. It might
+ be days or weeks before one can once again buy hotlinks from
+ Fedik’s. Where the shops go when they’re not here is one of
+ Basmentaria’s great mysteries. The toque studies the Bazaar’s movements and are able to
+ predict its route with more and more accuracy. They become a
+ highly sought out guide. Tourists and visitors trust them to
+ take them to the very spot the Bazaar will appear that day.
+ Residents appreciate the heads up and not getting trapped in
+ their houses when the Bazaar wedges its way into their narrow
+ residential streets, blocking their front doors. And owners of
+ traditional, less ambulatory shops are able to plan ahead for
+ the crowds that will appear on “Bazaar Day”. ~ Members of the Retrieval Team who sleep in Milk Market HQ
+ start having dreams of the same mysterious figure. Of course
+ at first nobody knows their dreams are shared by the others.
+ Not until they become more frequent, more regular. By the time
+ the figure has visited you every night for nearly a week,
+ somebody speaks up and you realize the coincidence. The figure is clad in voluminous robes of deep purple.
+ Long, straight, blonde hair falls around their shoulders.
+ Their soft features are boyish and womanly. They wear a golden
+ circlet on their head and a golden eye in the middle of their
+ forehead. Their passive, neutral face betrays no emotion the
+ entire time. The dream is always the same. They reach out to you with
+ one hand and turn their palm up. And because of dream logic,
+ in the palm of their hand you can hear the jingling of coins,
+ mirthful laughter, and hushed stories told around a campfire.
+ They curl their fingers into a loose first and the sounds
+ stop. They spread their arms wide and in the folds of their
+ robes you can see three siblings fighting, squabbling over a
+ broken loom. Then you’re standing next to them, and the two of you watch
+ three friends, Snake, Owl, and Dolphin. Owl tells Snake that
+ he is tired of flying and hooting, and doesn’t want to be an
+ owl any more, he wants to be flowers. And Snake laughs and
+ tells him that he is Owl, and an owl he must remain. And she
+ leaves him to go eat rodents and bake in the sun. So Owl tells
+ Dolphin that he is tired of flying and hooting, and doesn’t
+ want to be an owl any more, he wants to be flowers. Dolphin
+ doesn’t want to help Owl, because if he is flowers, they won’t
+ be able to be together any longer. But Dolphin finally agrees
+ to help even though they don’t want to, because Dolphin loves
+ Owl. With all their strength, they create a great waterspout
+ that will turn Owl into flowers. But the waterspout is too
+ strong, and Dolphin is too weak to control it. It sprays Owl
+ but does not turn him into flowers. Owl’s wing is broken and
+ he falls to the ground in a heap of feathers. The waterspout
+ shakes a great boulder from the earth and traps Snake under
+ it. And Dolphin sinks to the bottom of the sea. And then you wake up. ~ Later you find a letter in the common area of Milk Market
+ HQ. It is not addressed to anybody. When you open it up, it
+ reads: Time is running out, Retrieval Team 43. Things are starting
+ to draw to a close. We cannot delay our meeting any longer if
+ we both are to achieve our goals. We have information that you
+ are looking for. Meet us at the Harpoon Club next Selday. We
+ will wear the sign. The letter is signed with a white iris and golden
+ apple. Anyone in Vay’Nullar would be able to tell you that the
+ Harpoon Club is a game room and fine dining club, and one of
+ the rotating tenants of the Wandering Bazaar. But Confidence
+ would tell you, were you to ask them, that the club won’t be
+ there next Selday. (When the Bazaar will appear at East and
+ Lowland.) It is in fact not scheduled to appear until a week
+ and a half after next Selday, on Third Tensday. (When the
+ Bazaar will appear at Cathedral and Pine.) WHAT DO YOU DO00063
+
+
+
+
+Afterword
-
-
- find /* -name '*acron*' -exec mv /home/squirrel { } \
-
-
- #!/bin/ash
-sleepy=true
-
-sleep() {
- while sleepy; do
- sleep(10)
- done
-}
-
-trap sleep INT EXIT
-
- 00063
-
-
- <- OP 2817 * LOC MB-A
--> OP 25120 * LOC ESPER
-
-CLEARANCE: INFORMATIONAL
-REQUEST ENCLOSED.
-
-REQUESTING PERMISSION TO IMPOUND OR OPERATE.
-ONE CYBERPLASM AIRSHIP "The Rusty Maiden"
- <- OP 2817 * LOC MB-A
--> OP 41154 * LOC ESPER
-
-CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET
-REQUEST ENCLOSED
-PACKET ENCLOSED
-
-REQUESTING ANALYSIS
-ONE GDB @gdb-readout.dat
-TWO BLOOD @blood-soaked-handkerchief
-NOTE GDB INDICATES SOME ANOMALY
-
-
-
-
+ #!/bin/ash
+sleepy=true
+
+sleep() {
+ while sleepy; do
+ sleep(10)
+ done
+}
+
+trap sleep INT EXIT
+
+
+
+
+ find /* -name '*acron*' -exec mv /home/squirrel { } \
+
+
+ <- OP 2817 * LOC MB-A
+-> OP 25120 * LOC ESPER
+
+CLEARANCE: INFORMATIONAL
+REQUEST ENCLOSED.
+
+REQUESTING PERMISSION TO IMPOUND OR OPERATE.
+ONE CYBERPLASM AIRSHIP "The Rusty Maiden"
+ <- OP 2817 * LOC MB-A
+-> OP 41154 * LOC ESPER
+
+CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET
+REQUEST ENCLOSED
+PACKET ENCLOSED
+
+REQUESTING ANALYSIS
+ONE GDB @gdb-readout.dat
+TWO BLOOD @blood-soaked-handkerchief
+NOTE GDB INDICATES SOME ANOMALY
+
+
+
+
Total length: 80312 words / 343 minute read. (Mind you, that’s the +
Total length: 81317 words / 347 minute read. (Mind you, that’s the length of this entire page, including all the extra bits and bobs. Not just the story.)
-There have been 217 messages posted over 215 days since the first -post on July 13, 2022 for a daily post rate of 1.00.
+There have been 221 messages posted over 217 days since the first +post on July 13, 2022 for a daily post rate of 1.01.
This is the first installment of BASEMENT QUEST.
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“What is it you seek from Dude 215R?” WHAT DO YOU DO “Greetings, Great One.” Inky bows, back parallel to the ground while
+they stand on the branch, now a humanoid child in a black uniform and
+matching bookbag hanging under one arm. The banana boat is nowhere in
+sight. Fuko follows her errant charge and the cloaked figure from a
+nearby branch. “This lowly one wonders if they may be permitted to seek the Great
+Spirit’s insight, whose wisdom endures before and beyond.” Inky begins,
+staring down the blurry reflection of silver boughs overhead on the
+polished toes of their black shoes. They notice idly they do not see
+themselves in the reflection. Straightening from the bow, they look up at the figure and hold out a
+plate of taiyaki. After a moment, the child asks haltingly, “There may
+come a day when this one will be asked to choose between the chance to
+protect many and that which they desire to protect most. Should this one
+choose equally? Will the choice matter if both paths eventually lead to
+destruction? Could destruction and salvation be two sides of the same
+coin?” You and the Dude are sitting in small upholstered chairs, across a
+small half table from each other. There is a large sticky bun on a white
+lacy doily on the table. Next to you is a small portal-sized window, and
+outside you can see green rolling hills and small copses of trees fly
+by. The other seats on the small train car are all empty. The two of you
+are alone. “I cannot give you advice,” the Dude says. “But I can offer you
+experience.” They raise a hand and hold a loosely closed fist out over the table.
+The walls of the train become fuzzy and blurry, then translucent, and
+finally transparent. They disappear and you have the sensation of
+rocketing through space at dizzying speeds. The track splits ahead you. To one side, bound to one track is that
+which you desire to protect most. Bound to the other are the many. “You can choose safely here. It’s just a dream, after all.” The Dude
+opens their fist. The Twenty-one Fiver coin rests in their palm. “Heads,
+you steer the train into the many, sparing that which you love most.
+Tails, the opposite. You spare the many, and sacrifice that which you
+hold dear.” They hold the coin out to you. The train barrels toward the fork. “But choose quickly, lest the
+choice be made for you.” Alex scrambles from the wreckage of his mech, or what remained from
+the gore portal he’d just experienced. The thought of what had occurred
+made him grimace, which was an unusual state of affairs for an octopus,
+that is until Alex realized he seemed to be back in his own body. “Sunset, or perhaps rise? It’s hard to tell. Pretty though.. could be
+prettier without the creepy knife dude.” Alex mutters to himself while
+he rummages through the destroyed cockpit of the mech. He makes quick
+work, detaches a side panel, pulls a couple of wires, and a compartment
+in the back opens revealing the smooth dark blue metal and wood grain of
+an ak74u sub machine gun. Amused Alex pulls the weapon from the
+compartment and notices a distinct lack of additional magazines, just
+the one large drum attached to the weapon with large red letters
+emblazoned on it [INFINITE AMMO]. “Neat.” Alex pulls himself from the wreck, and jumps down behind one of the
+fallen tentacles taking a firing position behind cover, ak74u aimed down
+range at the faceless figure. “I don’t know who you are, but I don’t trust anyone who approaches
+with a weapon. Let’s both stand down and talk this through! I’m not
+supposed to be here, and I reckon you don’t want me here either. I’d be
+happy to oblige and skidaddle if you’d be so kind as to point the way
+out!” Alex pauses waiting for a reply. The tall figure halts a short distance away. It raises a hand and
+waves. In greeting? Surrender? In a fluid motion it continues to lift
+the same hand and grabs a hold of its trunk, a little less than a foot
+from the tip. It squeezes its fist tightly and the tip begins to swell.
+It raises its other hand, and the knife, and starts to saw into the
+flesh of the trunk behind its fist. The blade cuts cleanly as though
+through a loaf of bread. There is no blood or gore. When the creature lowers its hand, you can see that the center of the
+trunk is a solid, bright pink fleshy material like a grapefruit, in the
+center of which are two pin-prick eyes and a wide thin gash of a
+mouth. It still holds the tip of its severed trunk in its hand, a thin stalk
+and a bulging cap looking for all the world like a large white button
+mushroom. Peering up from the stem of the mushroom, an identical pink
+face regards you stoically. Both faces speak at the exact same time, one high pitched and one a
+deep baritone. “Welcome, Dreamer, to Ousia, the Sea of Dreams. We are
+Kasutva.” Big Kasutva stoops down to set the small mushroom Kasutva down on the
+ground. If they’re both Kasutva, that is. If that’s the way their
+biology and sense of self actually works. Mushroom Kasutva wobbles side
+to side a little bit and waggles its stalk as it looks around. Big
+Kasutva places its knife back in its satchel and takes a few small steps
+closer to you. “We did not mean to offend you,” the two say, still perfectly in
+sync. “As for the way out, that depends only somewhat on your
+destination. Whatever the answer, we can assure you that it lies across
+the sea.” Large Kasutva gestures broadly toward the expanse of ocean.
+Small Kasutva lacks any limbs and cannot gesture, but smiles softly at
+you. “But tell us what it is you seek. Perhaps we can be of help.” WHAT DO YOU DO00063
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+Spoilers