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magic cactus
Aug 3, 2019

We lied. We are not at war. There is no enemy. This is a rescue operation.
In flash and trope me i have too much money to do it myself :homebrew:

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magic cactus
Aug 3, 2019

We lied. We are not at war. There is no enemy. This is a rescue operation.
In flash and hellrule pls also :toxx: because I need to atone for my two week straight failure streak.

magic cactus
Aug 3, 2019

We lied. We are not at war. There is no enemy. This is a rescue operation.
Groundhogs, Reconsidered

573 words

It is 6:07 A.M, and Silias Marigold is reading. She doesn't remember the title of the work in question, a slim blue volume with yellowed pages and a frayed spine. The words on the page are describing a village. Her eyes glaze over. In between the line-by-line scans to establish textual integrity, she notices a typo. Eʌǝɹʎʇɥıng. She frowns. Given the nature of the source text, the printing should be clean. She reads it again. A voice calls out from somewhere.

“Hi!”

Startled, she turns around. The voice in question belongs to a little girl. She smiles brightly at Silias, revealing gaps where her baby teeth have fallen out. Her white dress is touching the muddy floor, but she either doesn't notice or doesn't care.


her white dress is touching the muddy floor.

Silias looks around. The reading room with its endless shelves of books is gone. She is standing in a forest, early morning light seeps sleepily through the canopy. She does a reality check, keeping in mind the containment rituals. Everything is normal.


"So I'm not dreaming." She says. The girl laughs


"No silly! You're here with me."


"Where is here in that case?" Silias says, fighting the rising tide of panic clawing its way up her throat. The concept immersion readers should have prevented her from going this deep into the text. She doesn't hear any alarms.


[¡]She doesn't hear any alarms[/i].

Something is wrong. Per her place in the source text, she should be in the middle of a village, but the descriptions don't match. She checks her conceptual manifold. Operating as intended. The girl walks up and takes her hand. The warmth of skin on skin feeds back through her.

"Wanna collect some leaves?"


She feels herself becoming fainter. Whatever this is, she can no longer fight it. Her thoughts turn to Maria. Does she know she's gone? Is she trying to pull her out of the place she's in? She looks down at the little girl tugging gently at her hands. "C'mon. It'll be an adventure!" The girl looks up at her with eyes that seem too old for her face, and Silias struggles to look away. They walk off deeper into the forest, the faint swish of leaves playing them a coda.

***

Her thoughts turn to Maria

It is 10:07AM and Maria Sepulvedas is reading. The book is red and thick, Silias's name on the spine in faded gold letters. Her eyelids are heavy, and two empty pots of coffee sit next to her. She focuses on Silias. The way she laughs, the way she chews her hair, the way her eyes flash with mischief. The description must be true to be real. A hand on her shoulder, too heavy to be Silias's. She turns to find a lexicomancer staring up at her with its myriad of eyes.

"It's been four hours. She's gone."

Maria shakes her head, turning back to her book, not reading now, just hoping. The words on the page swim in front of her as tears run quietly down her face. A flash of something in her mind's eye. A little girl in a white dress, walking through a forest. The girl turns to face her, looking at her with Silias's face and impossibly old eyes. She smiles. As Maria moves to close the book, she pauses. Something is stuck between the pages.

A single red leaf, the color of sunset.

magic cactus
Aug 3, 2019

We lied. We are not at war. There is no enemy. This is a rescue operation.
In and flash.

magic cactus
Aug 3, 2019

We lied. We are not at war. There is no enemy. This is a rescue operation.
seems like as good a time as any to throw my hat back in the ring. IN wikihow me pls.

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