== > Follow the kernelsprite

What do you mean - wait, it's moving! What the heck is going on here?! You follow it through the meteors, your face burning, when you see it. Oh gog no.

INDYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

He can't be dead! You put your head in the fur of your lusus when suddenly the kernelsprite slams into it, glowing brightly.

Suddenly, Indy is hovering over your head... and he doesn't have legs. He's a... ghosty thingy?

Ooooookay then.

SPRITELOG

INDYSPRITE: RENA!

GA: W#@t?

INDYSPRITE: RENA!!! IT'S YOU!

GA: @ctu@lly !t'$ C@n!r@ you k!nd@ r@!$ed me from a w!ggler and $@ved me from be!ng culled bec@u$e - never mi!nd

INDYSPRITE: Our secret. ;) I know who you are. Anyways, we kind of need to get out of here NOW.

GA: Yeah ! not!ced the world'$ explod!ng

INDYSPRITE: OKAY CANIRA LET'S GO!

== > Canira: Enter.

You look up just in time to see a meteor swing by. You run for your cozy home, the only one you've ever known, as the meteor shoots toward you from overhead.

Your server, whoever they are...

They wouldn't let you die, would they?

Your few friends...

They wouldn't...

Suddenly, a greenish-yellow book flies overhead. It's the Cruxite artifact- of course you forgot. UGH WHY IS THIS SO HARD?!

The meteor hits and then... nothing.

You open your eyes. The tree is there. Your crappy books are still there. Everything is, remarkably, still there.

You decide to walk outside and HOLY MOTHER OF ARMADILLOS AND BARKBEASTS WHAT THE HECK?!

Outside is definitely NOT the place you live in. It is not a secluded forest at all, it is a large and terrifying city, complete with absolutely no one at all in it.

SPRITELOG

GA: W#ere... @re we?

INDYSPRITE: The Medium. This is our planet!

GA: W#@t... th!$ !$ @ w#ole pl@net?

INDYSPRITE: Yes, the Land of Death and Godly Edifices. For short, LoDaGE.

GA: W#@t'$ @ D@ge?

INDYSPRITE: Beats me well we have stuff to do you should probably troll someone who's allowed to give you answers

GA: Welp gue$$ I #@ve no c#o!ce

grandioseAdorability [GA] began trolling consequentialGravity [CG]

GA: !'m here w#@t now

GA: P$ do you know my $erver ! h@ven't trolled @nyone due to he@vy d!$tre$$

CG: ... xt^s me

GA: W#@@@@@@@t it i$?!

CG: yeah x^m sorry for not tellxng you earlxer I just... dxdn^t want you to thxnk X was the one xnvadxng your prxvacy and - Well, I fxgured you^d feel safer thxnkxng xt was the others

GA: W#@t? W#y?

CG: they^d never guess your real blood color - and xt xsn^t hot pxnk now xs xt

GA: P$$$$$$# next you'll s@y you're not @n oliveblood! !'m just hemononymous.

CG: lxsten, Indysprxte... he glows green. Your cruxxte artxfact xs green. You don^t even have a recuperacoon to keep away nxghtmares. Do you know what a recuperacoon xs?

GA: Ummm you sleep !n !t

CG: yes and all trolls have one. so why don^t you?

GA: U# none of your bus!ness, ! th!nk

CG: mmmmm

CG: well x won^t pry, yet

CG: but x do have a theory and my theorxes are usually correct

GA: rrrrg ple@se don't tell @nyone

CG: you can trust me. x won^t.

GA: ok, mov!ng on

GA: W#@t do ! do now?

CG: xt^s up to you, kxnda

CG: you can explore your new land or you can alchemxze defenses and practxcal stuff

GA: Defen$e$? For w#@t?

CG: xmps. annoyxng lxttle monster guys that wxll look and act sxmxlar to whatever you programmed your sprxte wxth.

CG: OH! x forgot!

CG: your txtle!

GA: My w#@t?

CG: everyone gets a txtle. x haven't gotten mxne because x haven^t entered yet.

GA: How do ! f!nd out m!ne?

CG: look xnsxde yourself! or somethxng, x don^t really know

GA: Ok, !t's worth a try, ! gue$$...

GA: ! th!nk !'m... the... M@!d of Hope!

GA: Wow, d!d th@t @ctu@lly m@ke $en$e!?

CG: x thxnk so

GA: You know @ll th!s stuff - ! bet you're a $eer of $ome $ort!

CG: x hope so, actually

CG: wow x made a pun there

CG: wxth hope hehe

CG: anyway, bye canxra.

CG: you^ll fxgure all thxs out, trust me

CG: alchemxzatxon xs pretty easy, x thxnk

CG: just mxx stuff together

CG: bye!

GA: Th@nks @g@!n, C!phre! Bye now!

grandioseAdorability [GA] gave up trolling consequentialGravity [CG]

Hmmmm... mixing stuff together. Sounds fun. You place one of your unburned stories, along with a sock on the one machine you haven't used. There's a small green flash, and sitting where the two objects have been is a furry sock with ears. You get it now! The alchemizer must've picked up on the canii in your story and combined them with the sock. Now you get a... casock? No, that sounds too McDonald's-y. You decide to call it a casockii and make another one. They're really warm and cozy, but it is certainly odd to be wearing the ears of your fictional characters on your feet!

You take a step and they bark.

Wow, that's new.

You decide to spend the rest of the day doing practical things.

== > Run all over the planet with your casockii.

BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK

THIS IS THE BEST USE OF YOUR TIME EVER

== > Do something more interesting.

Canira refuses to do anything even slightly more interesting. As a result, you are now the other guy.

== > Enter Name.

TACO CRUNCHER.

OH GOG NOT THE TACOS ANYTHING BUT THE TACOS YOU CRUEL AND UNUSUAL FORCE OF EVIL!

== > TRY AGAIN PLEASE.

Ciphre Opsida.

There we go. Was that too hard?

Your name is CIPHRE OPSIDA. You are blind in ONE EYE, over which you wear an INCREDIBLY CLASSY eyepatch. It is so classy obviously.

That said, you can see in a way not directly related to vision. Occasionally you will get flashes of... something. You don't know if it's the future or what, but it scares you, sometimes. Why, just this morning, you became so terrified you trembled in your respiteblock for half an hour. Oh wait, why are you blabbing this?! Never mind...

Where were you?

You have a number of interests, including CRYPTIC CODES. Your quirk used to be nearly unreadable, so Canira made you change it. Even though you keep your QUADRANTS OPEN because you are again, super classy, if you were gonna fill them she would make a GREAT MOIRAIL or something POSSIBLY FLUSHED.

You are a bit strange at times, sometimes losing your cool and calm demeanor and becoming this fiery HELLBEAST or just completely dorking off. You also have an odd interest in SPARKLY THINGS that you can never seem to shake off. You also MAY OR MAY NOT speak to yourself and are possibly the SLIGHTEST BIT LONELY...

Your trolltag is consequentialGravity and your statements are actually helpful, unlxke those of all of your frxends.

== > Go feed your lusus.

Ugh. Your lusus is literally just an oinkbeast, although a cute one. You don't know why you love him so much - you've even nicknamed him Waddles... because he waddles.

Sometimes you feel like you're just caring for someone else's lusus.

Sometimes, to be honest, you feel like you're just waiting to live someone else's life entirely.

Yeah Waddles is totally fine right there. You should probably do something else.

== > Wait for your server player.

That could take a while considering you probably have some idiot not doing anything for you (wow really thank you so much meteors) but if Persus's astral observations were right, it should be in hemospectrum order... placing Canira above or below you. Well Persus is a huge idiot so yeah that's probably not true. You decide to read your journal. It belonged to your ancestor, The Author, and is one of three. You only own the third one - the other two are elsewhere on Alternia or possibly somewhere beyond.

You begin to read, slightly bored. Codes, blah, forests, gobblewonkers, blah blah.

The BARKTROLL is a creature well revered in myth, half barkbeast, half troll, extremely hot and part of many terrible movies, such as In Which A Young Troll Is Bitten By a Barkbeast of Uncertain Origin and Becomes a Creature Of Sunlight and Falls Into Spades With A Lowblooded Demon Hunter, etc. What many do not know is that a BARKTROLL is actually a real creature that -

... was that a thump? Oh gog, it's time. Well, you better get to work already, but first, who's your server exactly?

Wait, someone's trolling you.

CANIRAAAA

== > Answer Canira.

Never mind, that's not Canira, so it must be... your server player.

You are absolutely dying of excitement. Not.

anarchistCreatures [AC] began trolling consequentialGravity [CG]

AC: I'm trying t(o) get y(o)u int(o) the game

AC: I'm n(o)t fully sure h(o)w it w(o)rks

CG: have you downloaded the game yet?

AC: Yes and I'm l(o)(o)king at y(o)our bl(o)ck right n(o)w.

CG: try movxng somethxng.

CG: oh waxt there^s the machxnery so you must^ve gotten somethxng rxght.

AC: Yes, I think I got th'em all. But n(o) need t(o) s(o)und s(o) surprised. Anyway, h(o)w many machines are there?

CG: 3, x thxnk, the cruxtruder, the totem lathe, and the alchemxter.

AC: S(o) are y(o)u excited t(o) play?

CG: x^m not sure yet. maybe. x don^t really know what xt^s goxng to be lxke.

AC: (O)h. :D I'm a little scared too. (O)f the meteors that is... you think everyone will be okay?

CG: no one^s dxed yet, but if xrxsen does x^m not complaxnxng

AC: Be nice.

AC: I f(o)r (o)ne d(o)n't want any(o)ne t(o) die.

CG: me nexther

CG: x was only jokxng sorta

CG: all thxs xs pretty nerve-wrackxng

CG: x just feel lxke makxng the sxllxest plan ever to break out

CG: whxch xs rxdxculous of course

CG: xm not trapped

AC: ...

AC: (o)k then.

anarchistCreatures [AC] gave up trolling consequentialGravity [CG]

== > Get to work.

Ninfia begins deploying the objects necessary to begin the game while you flip through your journal some more. She first deploys the Cruxtruder- oh gog, wait not there!

NINFIA!

You facepalm upon the realization she literally just deployed that thing over the door to your respiteblock. Good thing you were in the living room and there's nothing terribly of value in there.

You shake your fist at the sky in lieu of making some ruder gestures.

== > Open Cruxtruder with journal.

Gog these commands are so stupid sometimes you swear what that someone up there is just pulling your horns. Asshat.

You decide to open it with a stuffed deer you got as a gift from Canira. She's one for creepy things, so she made its lips curled into a smile and - wait the kernelsprite's emerging.

No. Oh nonononono. You wish you could go back in time to fix just one mistake.

The kernelsprite is now prototyped with the deer carcass. Thank you ever so much, Canira.

ARGH. Well now you have a Deersprite... and you've got your totem lathe. It is a useless green cylinder, but soon, it will be conveniently made into a Cruxite artifact. Hopefully.

First, you need to punch some cards or otherwise get codes. You decide to simply get the codes from something in your sylladex.

Your fetch modus is a journal, which sorts the items of its own accord. You have no say in the matter. The journal just is.

You go through it and quickly find an object of no use whatsoever. Well, you're pretty sure that a model pine tree is never going to serve any use. You have no idea why it was in the back of the book, where you store your important items.

You look at the back, which has a code on it - "B1773RYN".

Ninfia has already deployed the totem lathe and the alchemiter. On the other hand, the cruxtrudeer no, cruxtruder, is now counting down. It would appear you have ten minutes and twenty five seconds.

Well, no rush now.

== > Alchemize some items while the totem lathe does totem-y things.

The totem lathe continues to do aforementioned totem-y things while you decide to start alchemizing. Unfortunately, you do not have a terrible amount of things to alchemize, being an oliveblood.

You decide to alchemize a Magic Eight Ball with a staff for kicks and get... apparently, just a staff with a Magic Eight Ball on it. Huh. This is... kind of lame actually. Plus it costs an unreasonable amount of 'grist', which is apparently like money in this game.

Oh well.

You next decide to alchemize the model pine tree with a random bandana. At least, you think it's a bandana. You don't actually know what a bandana is, so you can't be sure.

That would make... A hat!

Hmmmm. A hat with a pine tree on it. Now you're talking. You will never take off said hat. Ever.

You also alchemize a whole bunch of gaudy sweaters with your lamp and some curtains. This. Is. AMAZING! They're so sparkly!

Wait, you are never actually going to wear these, are you.

Well you would.

But Ninfia is watching.

Ok, it's time to cease these shenanigans and talk to deersprite.

SPRITELOG:

DEERSPRITE: Sniff

DEERSPRITE: Sniff sniff sniff

CXPHRE: can... can you talk?

DEERSPRITE: yes

CXPHRE: well... uh.

CXPHRE (what do you actually say to a floating deer!!?)

CXPHRE: so what^s the deal wxth thxs game then

DEERSPRITE: That's up to you to find out!

DEERSPRITE: I'm just an omniscient being! This quest is up to you!

CXPHRE: wow thank you so very much for that then. Should x just... get on wxth xxt?

DEERSPRITE: Why yes you should ;)

That was a waste of your time. You realize immediately there are a hundred million things that you could have prototyped it with to produce better results. Just think about it - if you had prototyped it with the journal.

Would it become... The Author?! You shudder to think of the power of your ancestor.

In fact, from the journal, you've learned about all your friend's ancestors. All except one... Canira, again.

Ah, the story your ancestors created together! It all started years and years ago, when a young empress used unthinkable power to attempt to summon a horrorterror...