lifeaftr | the halloween decorations are loose

Who: Héctor and Muffet
What: Searching C3 and D3
When: September 23rd-24th
Where: Nuidan
Warnings: None, currently!

Adventure! Excitement! Heroism!

None of that is happening here. Only a skeleton and a spider, following the fenceline north, for lack of anything else to follow. The poor fence really needs some TLC, doesn't it?

It's another pleasant day--Nuidan's so refreshing, compared to the last island. No apparent dangers, just miles and miles of peaceful countryside, which hasn't lost its charm yet for Héctor. The only thing one might complain about are those thorny bushes getting in the way, and he isn't.

Because they have nice, ripe-looking berries, and eventually he stops to pick a few, sticking his arm right in there. Nevermind the thorns, he hardly registers any scratches they might make on his bones.

All he tastes is disappointment when they fall right out the bottom of his jaw and into his shirt. Sputtering follows. "What the--hey! Hey! What's wrong with these??"

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[Muffet blinks, looking confusedly over at her companion.]

Is something wrong, dearie?

[The berries tasted just fine to her...]

[He's fishing the stupid things out of his shirt and squishing one between his fingers. It's nice and juicy and how dare it betray him!]

They're falling right through me!

[Except they're not, because he's able to hold them with no problems??]

[She frowns thoughtfully, trying to figure it out. He certainly hadn't seemed to have any trouble before- wait a moment.]

Are those berries the first thing you've eaten in this world that wasn't something I made?

[She has a suspicion.]

[He flicks the smashed one aside, fingers stained forever now. Oops.]

...Probably?

[And even that's a waste of food if you ask him.]

[She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose.]

Ah. Yes, I think I've figured out the problem.

[Muffet reaches out with one hand and deftly plucks a small pile of berries from the bushes, then reaches out with her power and focuses it down into the fruit. Normally, she'd prefer to do this more subtly and slowly, carefully intwining the magic and the food for the best flavor and richness, but this is pretty simple and sometimes you just need to work quickly. A moment later, she holds out the handful of berries to Hector.]

Try one now.

[What the problem is clicks for him when she holds those berries out, though it didn't look like she was doing anything. Oh no, he's made himself a big old inconvience. That he didn't mean to isn't much of a comfort.

He has to take them now, so he does with a bit of a nervous laugh.]

Hah, gracias. [And they disappear like they should when he eats them. Tada!] All you do is hold stuff and it's monster food?

[Hector, she swears, if you start trying to be self-sacrificing about this again... Everyone should be allowed to have some simple pleasures, even if they don't strictly need them.]

It's a bit more complicated than that. Essentially, I focus some of my magical energy and infuse it into the food, giving it magical properties as a result.

If I recall correctly, you said the dead don't seem to be able to eat the food of the living in your world, unless it's been left as an offering? I would guess that still holds true here, but magical food isn't subject to the same restrictions.

[Not if it takes effort. The unwanted nearly-forgotten rarely get such things. (And he doesn't want to annoy anyone, really.)]

Right, we get echos or memories or something, of all the offerings... magically. I don't know how it works, like I said. It has to be Día de Muertos and there has to be lots of petals around.

[Muffet restrains herself from making a face at the mention of petals. They've probably all had enough of flower symbolism for a while.]

So those berries didn't work because they were entirely untouched by magic. ...as much as anything can be if it's grown in a deity's personal domain, I suppose.

[Time to start walking again!]

That little perrito probably gets more out of growing things the normal way than creating them, so they're just... real berries.

It would make sense, yes.

[She matches his pace, trying not to rush him since she knows his leg has trouble. She still wishes he'd let her take a look at that, see if there's anything she can do...]

They're a very diligent worker, I must admit.

[No harm in asking, though he's not likely to ever stop walking on it. Things to do! Little girl to play with! Anyhow, it doesn't seem to slow him down that much.]

Doing real good for someone with no hands.

[Maybe she'll bring it up once they stop for the evening...]

They didn't seem to be terribly dependent on opposable thumbs- I handed them a fishing net and they used it perfectly well with their mouth, somehow. I suppose it's part of their power.

...Wouldn't it be easier to be a monkey or something?

[Yeah, that's what they need, adorable little monkey gods.]

[Muffet winces briefly, remembering the gorillas.]

The last ones we met weren't terribly friendly, I'm afraid...

[...Is there no safe topic? Not even Harv becoming a funny fuzzy monkey god?!]

There are unfriendly monkey gods around here?

Not gods. Nor around here anymore, I'm afraid.

[She looks a little sad, as she explains.]

Early in our stay here, when the first few of us arrived, we found a camp of large ape creatures while exploring. They were bright enough to make crude weaponry, but highly aggressive and apparently uninterested in communicating. They attempted to kill us, we fought back.

I'm not certain if any yet live...

[Yes, they fought in self-defense, but the death of any living being is still tragic.]

[People are brought to life, so... they must not have been people at all. Maybe she has no idea what a chimpanzee is. Who knows?]

You know, I really hate this place.

[Someone had to say it!!]

[She certainly hopes they weren't, but she wouldn't want to risk it...]

I find that it's rather pleasant for oh, say... five minutes at a time, and then inevitably there's something awful and ridiculous again.

[Can they just have one month where nothing horrible shows up?]

[How about one damn day where he isn't told something horrible? One conversation??? It's so tiring.]

At least Nuidan's nice. All we have to do is work for the dog.

[IT WOULD BE NICE.]

Quite. They've been very charming company, thus far. Would that the rest of this world were so reasonable.

And less... jungle, you know? More like this. More dogs, more farms.

[Less plagues! Less death! Less tripping over vines!]

The jungle itself isn't so much the issue as the rather aggressive wildlife, in my view- both flora and fauna.

[Or blurring the line of the two, in Ziziphus' case.]

Eh, you get one, you get the other. I think. Nothing's hungry enough to try and eat me yet.

[There's no meat on him! Fattening him up isn't going to work, Muffet.]

the halloween decorations are loose

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