B) the puffyest. Perfect for taking a nap on

C: Where else is more worth dreaming of, but Home?

A, school dreams are interesting! I wanna know what academy is like.

A, school dreams are interesting! I wanna know what academy is like.

A. let's see what that's about

Clouds, who knows what you can see in them.

B, be the clouds!

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104140 ID: 4591f8
File 174030403453.png - (9.18KB , 503x487 , 52.png )

Flying above the clouds.

Blue-purple sky.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104141 ID: 4591f8
File 174030403786.png - (8.88KB , 503x487 , 53.png )

Eclipse. A plume of smoke rises, like a flower.

The flower wilts.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104142 ID: 4591f8
File 174030404252.png - (10.48KB , 503x487 , 54.png )

Falling.

Poppy catches you.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104143 ID: 4591f8
File 174030404656.png - (9.81KB , 503x487 , 55.png )

Extra fuzzy, like a fuzzy pillow.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104144 ID: 4591f8
File 174030405088.png - (46.32KB , 503x487 , 56.png )

Jackson appears.

Jackson: Hey, Lune. Nice dream you got here. Very creative.
> "Oh, hey Jackson."

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104145 ID: 4591f8
File 174030405371.png - (16.30KB , 503x487 , 57.png )

Jackson: Alright, serious talk. So I was jacking it, Jackson-style, you know? And then I hear a noise from the box where I keep the voodoo dolls of you guys. Remember those?
> "No? Oh, wait. Yeah."
Jackson: Anyways, I look inside to see that Poppy's voodoo doll had scrunched itself.
> "Scrunched?"
Jackson: Yeah. By, like, rows and rows of flat teeth, it looks like.
> "OH FUCK."
Jackson: Or a really heavy ladder, or something. You should wake up and check on Poppy. Please.
> "W-what do I do to wake up?"

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104146 ID: 4591f8
File 174030405706.png - (15.43KB , 503x487 , 58.png )

Jackson: Hmmm...

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104147 ID: 4591f8
File 174030406154.png - (31.50KB , 503x487 , 59.png )

BANG.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104148 ID: 4591f8
File 174030406616.png - (14.68KB , 503x487 , 60.png )

You are Lune the Chicken. You have just received a premonition, or some kind of vision, from your ambivalently friend-with-benefits Jackson the Goat, and now you are awake against your preference. As you muster yourself to reality, you begin to process the dire degree of the situation.

Poppy isn't where you last saw her. The financial documents she were occupied with last now litter the floor. Phones are down.

> "Poppyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!"

You pace anxiously. "Rows and rows of teeth," you remember. Fuck, why did he have to say it like that? You feel like retching. You knew that dealing with magic was risky, but dammit... Everything was perfect, and suddenly, to nobody's fault, it's all gone? It can't be... It's not fair.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104149 ID: 4591f8
File 174030407278.png - (6.85KB , 503x487 , 61.png )

> "...H-hello?"
There's also this thing.

You have a few options:
A) Poke n prod n analyze (How?)
- You have not touched it yet. You don't remember keeping anything like this near the house, but you could have forgotten.
B) Ignore it (Then what?)
- You still don't know if Jackson's doll just Did That, and Poppy's fine. She could be outside.
C) Establish communication (How?)
- It's not responding to speech. You don't know if it even understands you.
D) Contain/restrain it (How?)
- Its "feet" are clicking and clacking around but it's not fast.

B. Ignore it, go find Poppy.

Contain it with a wastebasket, weighed down by chairs. You abstract bastard you, you shan't get away this time.

>>1104149
D: Grab its spiky head thing and drag it around behind you.

Hold it up by its top spine until you're eye to eye and demand it explain itself. It must know where Poppy is.

D) Poppy got killed by something in your territory. This strange thing has appeared in your territory. The proper course of action is to restrain the prime suspect until you can give them a fair trial and sentencing.
(Your 'fair' trial, of course)

Poke it, what's it made of anyways? Glass? Ivory? Deallocated signifiers?

Woah, woah, poke it with a pen first! What if it’s made of something that disintegrates matter?

A

Just tap it on the side near the top. That round part looks kind of like a face. Is it making any sounds?

C: Ink and Paper! you definitly have paper, but if you don't have a ink-well you will need to break things with ink in them...
Or you could be sane and give it a keyboard and computer to type something
IF not this... then A: Analyse, you have some tech laying around to see if it messes with it, and a fair bit of necromancy, which to be fair would also let you poke around for Poppy's soul so you should use it ANYWAY, but also throw some at This/That, at LEAST see if it HAS a soul or is like, some sorta dungeon creature

ah wait Luna and Kay are different people, Poppy being DEAD is a good reason to cantact Kay at approximetly ASS O CLOCK

C. Smile and wave hello! See what it does in response.

MIDNASTER 2025/03/25(Tue)23:09 No. 1105414 ID: 4591f8
File 174296934885.png - (8.50KB , 479x457 , 62.png )

You try to communicate before you try to restrain it.

> "Helloooo...? Where's Poppy?"
▒▎▋▒▓█▂▄: -to philosophical extensions of the "Four Kingdoms" model, but no such-
> "What? Four Kingdoms? We're in the BONE FACTION, I think, if that's what you mean. I don't remember the names of the others."
▒▎▋▒▓█▂▄: -magine every 5th unit is food for the dogs. The geometric-

...

MIDNASTER 2025/03/25(Tue)23:09 No. 1105415 ID: 4591f8
File 174296935177.png - (13.94KB , 479x457 , 63.png )

After countless attempts at verbal, written, semantic, etc. communication, it seems to speak in words, but only to respond in fragments and non-sequitur phrases, none of which were helpful or meaningful to you. you have confined it to a cage of iron, reinforced by the magic of a council of mages,

MIDNASTER 2025/03/25(Tue)23:09 No. 1105416 ID: 4591f8
File 174296935492.png - (14.89KB , 479x457 , 64.png )

...which is to say you trapped it under an overturned wastebasket and a couple of Poppy's books.

You're not sure how this works or what's really possible when Poppy's magic is involved. Poppy shows you magic all the time but your memory has been spotty lately. Anything could happen. You don't know. You don't know what's going on. You don't know what "Scrunched" really means. Just looking at this thing sends inexplicable unnerving shivers up your spine.
You would call Jackson but Poppy would be the magical means and your phone would be the non-magical means, and neither are available to you right now.

MIDNASTER 2025/03/25(Tue)23:09 No. 1105417 ID: 4591f8
File 174296935732.png - (17.83KB , 479x457 , 65.png )

You don't believe it. It would be too sudden. It's simply not true. Poppy's strong! She wouldn't die doing something banal like TAXES. Maybe the voodoo doll just did that? Whatever happened, this thing was involved, somehow. You don't know how but it was.

It needs to pay.

IT NEEDS TO PAY.

▒▎▋▒▓█▂▄: -immortal? It dies." The intended joke was th-

Shed sledgehammer in hand, you muster all of your strength to lift its head above yours.

MIDNASTER 2025/03/25(Tue)23:09 No. 1105418 ID: 4591f8
File 174296936027.png - (16.78KB , 479x457 , 66.png )

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MIDNASTER 2025/03/25(Tue)23:09 No. 1105419 ID: 4591f8
File 174296936682.png - (9.88KB , 479x457 , 67.png )

POPPY: "Hey Lune."

Choose any, combine, or none:
AS POPPY:
A) "I died and saw Taxes itself."
B) "I am going to die in 24 hours. Conditionally."
AS LUNE:
C) Hug wife.
D) Finish swing; smash it.

BD

Super C, and then B

C: you can smash it in like, 3 minutes when your done hugging your wife
A: maybe *don't* start off by telling your wife who, given the situation, thinks you died (you did) that you are going to die, that'll fuck her up SO bad!

>>1105419
B, C.
Please don't kill Solstice, it's innocent! Also, I think it read a bunch of books and is trying to communicate using sentence fragments. I'm not sure what method it's using, maybe it's like metaphors? Or we need to pick out only the bits that are relevant?
It was asked "where's poppy", and it started talking about *extensions* of the Four Kingdoms model, and then when asked for clarification it said something that seemed to make no sense but included "5th", so I think it was trying to say Poppy was in the Fifth Kingdom.

Well, now that it can give any communication at all, we should be able to ask yes/no questions, surely. Even if it can't use consistently chosen fragments, it should be reasonably clear from the contents if it's meant to mean yes or no. At the very least, we can tell it to stay silent if the answer to a question is "no".

Open with B, proceed to C. Lune needs to be a part of our plan.

MIDNASTER 2025/03/27(Thu)00:21 No. 1105478 ID: 4591f8
File 174306011685.png - (16.83KB , 481x457 , 68.png )

> "POPPY!"

You lunge at the bee, dropping the sledge to the wooden floor.

BONK!

MIDNASTER 2025/03/27(Thu)00:22 No. 1105479 ID: 4591f8
File 174306012215.png - (10.37KB , 481x457 , 69.png )

Poppy squeezes you hard.
> "Ah! Ahh! Chicken bones! Chicken bones!
Poppy: Oh-. Sorry.
> "Don't apologize! *Sniff* You're back!
Poppy: About that... I--uh might die in 24 hours.
> "HUH"

MIDNASTER 2025/03/27(Thu)00:22 No. 1105480 ID: 4591f8
File 174306012530.png - (10.56KB , 481x457 , 70.png )

A slew of turbulent emotions toss and tug inside you. You feel sick.
> "Wait, h-hold on! Don't say that! Nononononononononono-nooooooo!!!"
Poppy: It's okay! It's okay! Don't worry, we can handle this!

MIDNASTER 2025/03/27(Thu)00:22 No. 1105481 ID: 4591f8
File 174306013063.png - (16.10KB , 481x457 , 71.png )

Your vision is blurry but you feel Poppy's chitinous caress.
Poppy: Oh, dear. You've got the scent of stress all over you, honey.
> "What's gonna happen?..."
Poppy: Well, I died and met Taxes itself. It was gracious enough to give me a second chance at life, but it involved tying my life force to my taxes, which are due tomorrow night.
She glances at the clock. 12:05 AM.
Poppy: Oh. Tonight. Yeah; 24 hours. What did you do while I was gone?

Choose or order:
A) Discuss the thingy. Four kingdoms or something? Does that have to do with BONE FACTION?
B) Discuss [Poppy:Inventory] status. Surely, nothing important was lost...
C) Discuss taxes completion. What happens when it's completed on time?
D) "Your clothes are gone." (observation/...suggestion(?))

honestly Poppy probably got the scent of dead to wash off
A, I would assume Lune would like to know whether or not to smash the thing, and Poppy would probably like to know about it communicating
B: I also assume Lune would like to know why her Poppy, her grey flower, Died, so lets see the bookshelf and whatever damages it caused, if it smashed the file cabinet of more than files you would very much so like to not be surprised with this
...and if we are thinking about it, C: is it really too much to assume that the pact wont screw you over? What is Line 2? important to know since that is what the pact is attached too

B, then D.

come to think of it, the clothes are under the bookshelf, they are hadly a part of your body/soul after all

>>1105481
B. Your taxes are the first priority, so let's make progress on that, or at least take stock of what progress is left.
Then A. Something killed you, and it wasn't this thing because you put it outside before you died, BUT it's obviously related somehow to what happened. If something's trying to stop you from completing your taxes, you should try to figure out what it is so you have a better chance of defending yourself.

If you can't currently do anything important, then we can see about some D.

B) Okay Poppy, let's not check hammerspace until you figure out how to die in there without sealing yourself. Let Lune do it.

A and C.

C, a, b.

Taxes come first, because they're how we stay alive and happy. The thingy is weird and must be related to all this, so important to figure that out as a piece of the puzzle. The inventory situation is also probably related, especially to the thingy, given that that's where it first appeared, so I'd expect that to come up as a matter of course.

D is an incidental observation, which can be made at any point, but there's no point in dwelling on it right now.