Between the great stone trees of the Feasting Forest, a subtle tapping could be heard. Tk tk tk tk. It came from a sun-dappled, hidden little grotto, and it was Chopstick Eyes, working with a hammer and chisel to gently carve away one of the last Forest Shrines. Above here, and beyond, crept a dense canopy. It was green and thick- could even be called lush, by the foolish or naive. But green as it was, this forest was not [i]lively,[/i] only quietly, insidiously, [i]alive.[/i] No leaf of Phystene dwelt here, no bright river of Shengshi, nor any of Ashalla’s lively algs. None of Azura’s birds sang, and what few insects crawled were shapeless, odd-legged black things with no eyes. The foliage warped and clawed its way around the great stone trees of Vakk, with roots in the air and gnarled trunks bending down over the earth as if dripping. It was difficult to tell where the roots of one tree ended and the branches of another began. So densely covered were the twisted stone trees with hefty, drooping creepers, that somehow they seemed more alive than anything else in this mockery of a forest. Tk tk tk, went the chisel on the stone. [hr] [i]Earlier.[/i] Chopstick reached into her purse and pulled out a little centipede, held it in her bare fingers. She’d found it crawling around the lower levels of the Bazaar before she’d left. Maybe it and its like could do some good here. She flicked it a few times, and it duplicated itself each time, each generation of duplicates acquiring more and more error and asymmetry. Then she set it on the ground. The land was yet young and the soil was yet unspread, though some odd fungi had blown over from the Kick’s southern neighbor and started chewing up the rock, which was handy. Chopstick had covered her bare feet with some boots and swapped her neat dress for overalls, and was filling in a ditch when she came upon the thing. It was brightly coloured, soft, and quite dead. Chopstick sampled it and found it to taste a little like snail, but not much, and mostly like Azura. She turned it around and around. It had a mouth, but only a little one. Hm. Chopstick lifted a finger and waited for a mote of ash to fall on it, which it did. There was a lot of ash around these days. Maybe that’s where all the stray souls had gone. She rubbed it into the skin of the Phase Mote, and began to work. [hr] [i]Later.[/i] The earth-worm had swum for hours through desiccating water and a strong current, and when it finally made landfall on the other side of the strait, it was exhausted. The land it left behind had been abruptly upheaved of late, forcing it to depart, but it was only a young worm, with little strength. This place seemed calmer. The earth-worm crawled on, trying to crack rock; but this rock had a bitter and desolate taste, much unlike the other place. Perhaps there were easier meals. It crept on, into the forest. A huge creature slid before it, and it stopped. Eyeless, limbless, but glowing with odd motes, the giant slug-beast didn’t notice the worm at all. It waved its tentacles and slithered on, along with a kind of trail. The worm waited until it had gone, though that seemed quite unnecessary, then continued in the opposite direction. It smelled food. What’s this? Dead matter, but somehow different to the raw leaves. The worm did not recognize the fine pies, breads, and cakes that were before it, nor the stuffed duck, or the broth or the pork or anything else that lay on the shrine. But it recognized easy protein. Cooked meat was not so different from rotten meat, and it gorged itself, as scavengers do. The worm did not notice the Phase Beast returning on the trail. It did not smell it, it did not hear it. It did not feel the tentacles reaching around its body. But the Phase Beast saw it. The Phase Beast saw it very well. And the Phase Beast was hungry. [hr] Vakk had seemingly tuned out of reality as Choppy had done her work, almost in a trance yet very aware of what was happening immediately next to him. However, nothing happened next to him because life generally didn’t like him, or he just didn’t want to be bothered. Eventually, the Lord of Speech came out of his thoughts, violently shaking his head and flicking his tendrils around. He had yet to see what Choppy had done as he began to groggily speak, [color=9d8618]”Are you quite done yet? I grow bored of waiting for you to..”[/color] He finally took in what was going on around him. [color=9d8618]”... Finish.”[/color] Vakk looked at what had filled the forest of stone that he had created, merely inspecting it for a few moments before impatiently going back to Chopstick Eyes. He did not like how she had done so much more than he had, it upset him so much that he physically could not show it if he could. This was a transgression that could not go unanswered. [color=9d8618]”You mock me with how much you managed to do as I… meditated.”[/color] [colour=wheat]”You snooze, you lose,”[/colour] Choppy shrugged, leaning on her shovel and watching the hapless earthworm dissolve in the translucent belly of the beast. Her flying-lantern shivered. She looked up and nudged Vakk playfully. [colour=wheat]”Maybe you should’ve taken the shovel, ey?”[/colour] He frowned. [color=9d8618]”Holding it is awkward,”[/color] Vakk complained, before he reached to pick up the shovel he had thrown aside. He looked at it, then hit the wrong end against the ground as he had before, clearly not having paid attention to how Choppy used it. He threw it away again, not wanting to hold the cursed object any longer. [color=9d8618]”I can make this place better.”[/color] [colour=wheat]”Oh?”[/colour] Chopstick let her head rest on the backs of her hands, which were leaning on the shovel. She raised an eyebrow, smirking. Vakk gave a light chuckle before he opened his mouth, seeming as if he were inhaling the air. His body relaxed and from from the small gaps between his teeth leaked a cloud before he exhaled, a thick fog spreading over Chopsticks and her creations. It was blinding, certainly, no mortal would be able to know where they were going. The fog blocked sight of the life Chopsticks had created, save for the translucent beings. He let out a laugh as the dense fog settled. Revenge had been exacted. [color=9d8618]”Much better.”[/color] Chopstick stared at the resultant gloom, took off her straw hat and scratched her head. She harumphed and walked off into the fog. For a few seconds, she may as well have been in another Sphere. [colour=wheat]”Well, this’ll get ‘em lost, alright,”[/colour] she said from about five meters away. She reappeared. The flying-lantern crooned. [colour=wheat]”But now they can’t see the shrines. I’ll have to… Hang on, I’m just gonna fix that real quick.”[/colour] Chopstick strolled over to her purse and rummaged, inserting first one arm, then the other, then several more, and then her whole torso into the accessory. [colour=wheat]”Uh, hang on… Ah gotcha.”[/colour] She retrieved a tall, wrought-iron lamp-post with a glass cage, and tk-tk’d to the flying-lantern, who approached. [colour=wheat]”Just hold still for a second… There we go.”[/colour] Chopstick lit a splint on the flying-lantern’s flame, then transferred it to the lamp-post. The post nodded to receive it. It blinked, the flame flickering momentarily, and looked around. It hopped out into the forest on stumpy little wrought-iron limbs, and was soon joined by several more of wood and stone; they vanished into the fog together. Vakk cocked his head, [color=9d8618]”Was the purpose not to get them lost, Chopstick Eyes? It seems you more want them to find that particular shrine.”[/color] [colour=wheat]”I mean, I guess.”[/colour] Chopstick scratched her head. [colour=wheat]”I… I guess I do.”[/colour] He snapped his jaw before he raised his head above the treeline, he saw it stretch on for a long way. Eventually, he figured that it was not worth the time to argue the point, after all, Chopstick did help him raise this continent not too long ago. Vakk lowered his head back down to her level before he continued speaking, [color=9d8618]”I suppose it is not too much of a problem. A minor detail such as this is fine for whatever purpose you need it to do.”[/color] [colour=wheat]”Yeah. Whatever purpose...”[/colour] Chopstick wasn’t scratching her head any more, but she still hadn’t looked up. [colour=wheat]”Whatever… I need it to do.”[/colour] She stared into the mist. [colour=wheat]”...Vakk,”[/colour] she said, very softly. [colour=wheat]“Why did we build this forest?”[/colour] The Lord of Speech thought to himself for a moment, an eerie silence coming over the two as the fog stood between them. After those few moments of silence, Vakk spoke, his tone being comforting, [color=9d8618][b]”We made this first because we wanted to. We wanted to do this together because we are friends, remember?”[/b][/color] a tendril reached forward to shift her view towards him. [colour=wheat]”...”[/colour] His words wrapped around her mind, around her very existence. They invaded her mind, gently persuading her that Vakk was truly someone she could trust. [colour=wheat]”...Yeah. Because we’re friends.”[/colour] She looked down at the shovel, gripping it with two hands. [colour=wheat]”We made this place because we’re f͝r̀i̴en̨d̵s. And we wanted to. We wanted to...”[/colour] She looked up and watched the mutant phase motes patrolling the forest, delicately heaping their mouths with sacred meals. Nothing wholesome would ever grow here, and nothing good would ever thrive. It was a deeply cursed place, and it was good for one thing only. [colour=wheat]“Ki̸ll̛,”[/colour] she finished. [colour=wheat]”We wanted to ̷k͞i̕l̶l͘ ̡toge̕t̕h͜e̸r.”[/colour] Vakk’s caring smile turned sinister at her words, his head drew nearer, [color=9d8618]”Precisely.”[/color] The words settled in. Slowly slowly, Chopstick ordered her thoughts and regained her lucidity. She shook her head, as if to clear it, and Vakk’s spell disappeared beneath the surface like gold in mud. And then she stretched, yawning like a cat. [colour=wheat]”Mmmrrnnrnaaah! Well, that’s fine by me. Time to wrap this one up, eh?”[/colour] Confusion hit the inner soul of Vakk, who was unable to properly process what Chopstick Eyes has just done. Had she simply shaken herself out of his words? Or had his words not had enough power to them? He could not tell and it showed when he simply stated, [color=9d8618]”... What?”[/color] In reality, that word was supposed to be more internal than it was as the sheer force of Chopstick Eyes suddenly changing tone made Vakk unable to properly think of what to do or even say. [colour=wheat]”Aww, don’t be like that. It’s a beautiful day!”[/colour] Chopstick spun around the shovel and skipped off into the woods, accompanied swiftly by her lantern. [colour=wheat]”I’m gonna go snatch some cursed breakfast, so gawk or come with, up to you. Catchya~”[/colour] And she was gone. He stayed there, uncertain of what just happened, but he refused to question it as that would probably confuse him even more. Vakk sighed to himself before he spoke, knowing that she may not even hear him through the fog, [color=9d8618]”Goodbye, Chopstick Eyes.”[/color] [hider=Narrative summary] It’s way past my bedtime! Choppy constructs a forest on the new continent, under, over and around Vakk’s stone trees. It’s a deeply unnatural place with unnatural life, much like herself. It has very little biodiversity, but what lives there seems to do surprisingly well considering that they’re growing on the remains of Veradax. The forest is riddled with little shrines and pagodas that spontaneously conjure every kind of delicacy. This glut is reserved for gods and the local creatures, huge, slug-like spirits developed from Phase Motes. These Phase Beasts take little interest in outsiders, and just spend their days eating whatever the shrines provide and leaving the dishes clean for new food to appear. Phase Beasts don’t like to find their shrines empty, though. Strangers that gorge themselves on the sacred food find it more and more difficult to perceive the Phase Beasts, while Phase Beasts find it easier and easier to locate them. And then they get eaten. Vakk wakes up after some time has passed, surprised to find that Choppy has finished the Feasting Forest. Not to be outdone, again, he fills the place with a dense fog to be even more disorientating. Choppy thinks that this’ll mess up the visibility of the shrines, so she sets a few living lanterns loose in the forest to illuminate the banquet. No Might spent on that, they’re basically just Reverse Lanterns but terrestrial and with a colder attitude. Obviously, there’s no reason for Choppy to make something so explicitly lethal. As she realises this, she starts to break out of Vakk’s spell. Vakk briskly renews the enchantment, strengthening their bond. Choppy rationalises her actions by deciding that she actually loved needlessly killing things all along. Vakk has a long wtf moment at how easily and how happily she changes attitude. That’s all, folks! [/hider] [hider=Might summary] [b]Vakk Might[/b] -2 FP for creating the permanent fog in the Feasting Forest 0 MP, 9 FP Choppy housekeeping -4 for the Feasting Forest (+2 to Cuisine) -1 for Phase Beasts Chopstick Eyes 6 Might (Native) 7 Might (Age of Creation) Markets Kites (4/5) Knives (3/5) Lanterns (1/5) Cuisine (4/5) [/hider] [hider=Spiritual summary] [quote=Choppy]GO HARD OR GO HOME BABY[/quote] [quote=Vakk]Bitch[/quote] [/hider]