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]

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.

[aestrix]

The bunnies are the most docile bunnies of all time. Also, fluffy. They are fluffy, too.

[inourhead]

Crystal will let Holly try cubing a bunny.

[aestrix]

Holly then has one bunny cube. It's fluffy, cube shaped, and has little tiny ears. It is still alive, as far as one can tell.

The cube may be placed. Maybe it'll put the bunny down unharmed? It'd be a good way to transport bunnies.

[inourhead]

Holly places the bunny cube in the bunny pen.

[aestrix]

That is not a bunny. Or, it is not a bunny anymore.

It's horrifying. It's - part of it is inside out, it's like a bunny was forced into being cube-shaped, its ribs are showing and it's still breathing and making a pathetic little sad sound and shuddering. It's still alive. There's a leg, sticking out from what looks like the bunny's head, it spasms uselessly. Another sad sound, an unnatural twitch, fluffy bunny ears that should not be there -

[inourhead]

Yeep. Axe time. If that doesn't cube it again they can have this one for dinner.

[aestrix]

It does not cube it again. Instead, it kills it. The bunny-cube explodes into various chunks of twisted and broken and stretched bunny.

[inourhead]

Well, that's... going to be sort of challenging to have for dinner. And it has yucked the interior of the bunny pen, and their outfit. Blech.

[aestrix]

Well, such are the dangers of experimenting on live animals with foreign magic and then taking an axe to them when it turned them into a twisted mockery of a bunny whose every waking second was agony. A yucked outfit.

[inourhead]

Anyway. Holly collects the meatier bunny chunks, and goes looking for a slime, because apparently those are useful for starting fires, unless she very much misunderstands. She has her wooden sword handy in case she actually needs it.

[aestrix]

There is a slightly squished spherical green thing over there! It moves by hopping. Hop. Hop. Hop. It looks sort of like it's made of gelatin. It's likely the slime.

[inourhead]

Does it hop alarmingly fast or anything?

[aestrix]

It does not hop alarmingly fast. It's actually pretty predictable, it sort of scrunches up before hopping. Scrunch scrunch, hop! Scrunch scrunch, hop!

[inourhead]

Right then.

She runs up to it while it's mid-scrunch and then stabs it firmly with her sword.

[aestrix]

It is stabbed! And knocked back a little. And now it is an angry slime! .... Scrunch scrunch scrunch, it's going to hop at you!

[inourhead]

She doesn't really want to touch it, so she sticks with the wooden sword method. Stab stab stab stab!

[aestrix]

Well, it's really not very smart. It dies.

It turns out that things explode when they die here. There it goes. Slime everywhere.

[inourhead]

Eugh! Euuuuugh.

Well, now she knows that it's not going to dissolve her skin or anything, right?

Is there... gel? In collectible Platonic solids?

[aestrix]

There is gel in collectible Platonic semi-solids! It is mostly solid, but also sort of squashy. There are also two copper coins.

[inourhead]

...Coins. The fuck?

She collects the coins and the gelationous Platonic solids and goes back to her house to see if she can make a torch or two.

[aestrix]

Yep! She can.

(The slime from the slime and the gore from the bunny cube slowly and unobtrusively fade away, like their clothes were never yucked in the first place.)

The torches are not actually hot, but they do look like they're on fire.

[inourhead]

The missing gore is nice.

The fact that apparently she can't cook their bunny chunks is less nice.

Well, she's recently pulled this trick.

She goes out to a tree she hasn't cubed yet. She touches it with her pinky finger, and holds a cubed but not Cubed piece of wood in her other hand, and moves all the tree's warmth into the tiny little chunk of wood, ready to toss it at a little heap of the other non-Cube cubes for kindling.

[aestrix]

That burns properly. And now there is fire!

[inourhead]

Yay. Ouch. She visits the bunny pen and puts the sting on her hands into a bunny, then collects her bunny chunks. She's got a skewer in her bag for just this sort of situation. Roast, bunny chunks, roast.