what in the longdark spitting-pit is that

[inourhead]

This was a bad idea this was a bad idea this was a bad idea.

Holly runs as fast as she can but the demon's faster. She has no idea where Lightning's gotten to; maybe he found a tree to climb. She on the other hand has been diverted into a treeless hill and she's careening down a slope, trying very hard not to trip.

And the demon's gaining on her.

She's never seen anything like it and neither has Crystal; maybe Book knows what it is but Book's asleep. It's mostly mouth - it looks like a cross between a floorlength mirror of a mouth and a snake to propel the mouth along.

And Holly's not fast enough.

The mouth catches her.





But it doesn't hurt.

Where are we?

----


with Minus (kappa)

with Mark (kappa)

with Max (Benedict)

in Terraria (kappa)

with Emma (Marri)

with Erin (Rockeye)

Comments

[inourhead]

"You should be kept on, like, a leash. I'm telling your cohabitor to put a leash on before he falls asleep in the future," says Holly, and she picks up the axe and takes a swing at a tree.

[aestrix]

Chop, chop, chop -

That is not what a tree does when it is cut down. It does not disintegrate into cubes that rain down around her. Except this one is. There is a shower of tiny wooden cubes, some of them bumping into each other and disappearing before they hit the ground.

There isn't even a stump. Just tiny scattered cubes, and grass that looks like a tree wasn't even there in the first place.

[inourhead]

What.

Do I think like I know???

But - but WHAT?

We're still in the demon this is a demon belly oh sunswallowing pit -

We are both still in our head and we can breathe and there's rabbits, okay, the - the guy had his soul partly eaten but we're still fine -

For now!

Holly stares at the cubes.

"What," she says aloud, in the unlikely event that the partially-eaten soul can help her.

[aestrix]

"You can build a shelter by placing wood or other blocks in the world," says the assumed partially-eaten soul.

[inourhead]

Holly reaches for the cubes, shivering.

[aestrix]

The cubes, upon coming in contact with each other, get pulled together and become a single object. There is a something, polite and present in Holly and Crystal's mind informing them that they can place eight blocks of wood within a certain radius. You just have to pick where the blocks go, and then you can put them there. As long as it's in the radius, of course.

[inourhead]

Holly separates out one block, and then touches a standing tree and tries to put cubeness into the tree.

[aestrix]

The tree turns into cubes. The cube in her hand... Is an ordinary cube of wood. No 'you may place a block of wood' feeling. Just - tiny cube of wood. In some sense, it's wasted now.

[inourhead]

Experimentally, she puts down the non-cube cube and hits it with her axe.

[aestrix]

It's sort of hard to hit it, it's barely an inch in length, but with careful aim...

Yep. Cube, one of the magic ones.

[inourhead]

Okay. So the axe can cube-ify trees. And so can she, although then she has to re-cubeify the wood if she wants it to be cubed again.

Holly goes around cubing trees until she thinks she has enough to make a couple of houses, because while two people might live in one, three would mean rooming with Mr. Mangled Soul Jeff, and that is not happening.

[aestrix]

Mr. Mangled Soul Jeff has nothing to add to this. He does wander around, aimlessly. He runs into a tree.

[inourhead]

Holly is so tempted to turn him into cubes. Crystal won't let her.

Holly assembles the cubes into structures.

[aestrix]

Goodness! Structures! Made out of cubes!

"In order for a room to be considered a home, it needs to have a door, chair, table, and a light source," says Mr. Mangled Soul Jeff.

[inourhead]

"How do I make those?"

[aestrix]

"Once you have a wooden sword, you might try to gather some gel from the slimes. Combine wood and gel to make a torch!"

[inourhead]

"Slimes?"

[aestrix]

"There are many monsters that roam the land. Most at night, but some, like slimes, are out and about during the day."

[inourhead]

"Is the only way to kill slimes with a wooden sword?"

[aestrix]

"There are lots of different kinds of weapons. A wooden sword is often considered the most basic."

[inourhead]

"Can I kill a slime with my axe or will that just turn it into slime cubes?"

[aestrix]

"There are lots of different kinds of weapons," says Jeff.

[inourhead]

"You sure are unhelpful."

Holly cubes some more trees. Troportation is faster if she doesn't insist on recovering all the decubed cubes. She clears an area of forest and makes one of those workbenches.

[aestrix]

It is a workbench!

The crafting portion that has neatly set up residence in their head expands. Sort of like the cubes, but more geared towards 'you can make this!' Wooden tools, a door, a chair, a table, fences, a sign, a fishing pole, platforms. All very tidy.

[inourhead]

She's so glad she doesn't have to actually use the axe every time she wants to cube a tree. She cubes some more trees. She makes household objects and outfits the houses. She makes a wooden sword. She fences in a bunny pen and starts catching bunnies.