MIDNASTER 2025/02/05(Wed)03:01 No. 1103307 ID: 4591f8
File 173875331457.png - (21.20KB , 526x534 , 21.png )

Right, your own SSN... if there's anything you can find tonight, it's that.

[METAVEIA: SPACEBEND]
From the ground, an etherial red blob rises, and, from its center, a plane of passage is bored through space, to your familiar secret room. Light from the house floods into the small room through the doorway. Only you can access this space.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/05(Wed)03:01 No. 1103308 ID: 4591f8
File 173875331715.png - (11.49KB , 526x534 , 22.png )

This is your Inventory. It is bound--that guy...? You'll get to that in a second.--It is bound to your soul; only you can open or close the entrance. This is a reserved pocket of space, completely separated from the primary plane. You use this to keep your secrets safe. Mostly personal documents, but you also keep some artifacts and trinkets you acquire at the Shadow Market, especially things too dangerous to keep around the house. You make sure all of your stuff is neutralized and inert before you keep it here.

Immediately, you see: that guy, which you'll get to in a second, your file cabinet where you keep your files, though you use some as drawers for smaller trinkets, a few extra large spell scrolls for extra large spells, and your bookcase of Forbidden Knowledge, where you keep such junk as the Book of Evil and Sexy Magic.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/05(Wed)03:02 No. 1103309 ID: 4591f8
File 173875332398.png - (7.34KB , 526x534 , 23.png )

Anyways, that guy. What the fuck. You don't know what that is. You've never seen that before. You do not know why it is here. It doesn't remotely resemble anything you've stowed here. All it's doing is prancing around in place. It's kinda getting closer to you, slowly and steadily?

> "H-hello?"
No answer. ▒▇▄ ▁▄▄ ▕█▋▋ ▃█▄

In total honesty: you don't want this here. Besides your sensitive information, there's a lot of potentially volatile stuff locked up in here.

You have a few initial options:
A) [VEIACURIA: GLEAM]--Identify with magic
C) Ignore it; continue with business.
B) [METACURIA: TELEPATHY]--Read mind with magic
D) [METAMAGNA: BULLET] Kill it.

A) learn a thing
Or
E) let it out of the pocket domain and than yeet it into your neighbor’s yard like an unwanted dog turd

>>1103309
B. It's trying to communicate, so that should allow communication. You also won't have to cast identify when you can just ask it what it is.

Wait, what happens to your inventory if you die?

E) Write a letter stating that the entity is trespassing but you're willing to work something out if it wants to work as your personal blue-collar worker.

B) Waddayawant?

Some sorta abstract space critter? pocket dimensions have the weirdest problems
well, Actual Murder seems a bit... Intense for this.
I am going the guess the static was an attempt at communication, So B: Mind Read

Agree, mind read. He’s just a little guy! No need for murder!

UNIDENTIFIED FUCKING THING
KILL IT NOW

A

Diplomacy is first on the list. B is a potential tool, but it's probably nest not to open your mind to a stranger with powers you didn't think were possible.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/06(Thu)06:48 No. 1103377 ID: 4591f8
File 173885331960.png - (6.83KB , 526x534 , 24.png )

You make an attempt to communicate towards the abstract space critter.

[METACURIA: TELEPATHY]
▐▔█▂▊▋▘, ▀▒▇▘ ▁▄▄.
You use the spell, but something strange happens.
▘▎▔░ ▏░█▙▄▃ ▒▀▋▕█▅█▂ ▓▀▗▄▒.
The spell is behaving as if there is nothing there at all. Not even a wall.
▁▄ ▖▀░▘ ▓▇▄ ▉▔▃▆▄▌▄▍▓.
It's like a swing and a miss. It's like smoke and mirrors. It's like a magical sink.
Occam's razor; the most plausible explanation is that whatever this is absorbs any immaterial magic you throw at it. It's clicking and clacking on the ground, so material magic would probably do something against it. Or you could grab it and throw it outside. Y'know, you've got business to do and the thought crosses your mind.
▓▇▄ ▁▄▄ ▖█▋▋ ▃█▄

MIDNASTER 2025/02/06(Thu)06:48 No. 1103378 ID: 4591f8
File 173885332493.png - (7.60KB , 526x534 , 25.png )

[VEIACURIA: GLEAM]
▒▎▋▒▓█▂▄: █ ▂▎▌▌▀▍▃ ▓▇▄ ▕▎█▃ ▓▎ ▆█▕▄ ▌▄ ▂▋▀░█▓▘[(00000EXPRESSION.CURIOSITY,-1),(-1,-1)][(0,-1),(1,0)]
When you cast the spell to identify it, you at least got some feedback? You can't explain it, but you get a light impression that it doesn't mean harm. Probably. What you got is barely above your absolute threshold of magical sensation.

You try to recall who would know about something like this. Besides Jackson, Kay comes to mind. She is the one who is most likely to know about this sort of thing. Part of the requirement of her profession is knowing the beastiary cover-to-cover. Kay's bookshelves are lined with thoroughly-read monster encyclopedias, alongside other... monster... literature--but you digress. She's certainly asleep by now. She is a very well-put-together individual and not the kind to forgive waking her up for something like this.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/06(Thu)06:48 No. 1103379 ID: 4591f8
File 173885332874.png - (9.63KB , 526x534 , 26.png )

In this uncertain situation, you wonder something you've never thought of before: what happens if you die inside of your pocket dimension? Normally, someone could cast a complex necromancy spell to bring you back. That's part of how dungeon crawling works. Practicing self-necromancy safely is part of the code, but you have a number of additional pacts that would make that trivial (and could save you in a pinch, should something go very very very wrong, even outside of a dungeon). If you Inventory's entrance is tied to your soul, then if you died here, you would disappear forever, and nobody will ever find the body.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/06(Thu)06:48 No. 1103380 ID: 4591f8
File 173885333096.png - (23.21KB , 526x534 , 27.png )

Your friends would be heartbroken. "Where did Poppy go?" "Last I saw her, she was doing her taxes!" "It must have been something else. Poppy's strong! She wouldn't die doing something banal like TAXES." You'd be MIA for weeks. Your disappearance would be an enigma. Lune would be inconsolable. Kay would fund the funeral. Jackson would say something insensitive about the situation and be banished from the group for a few weeks.

Options:
A) Rationalize.
B) Keep spiraling.
C) Chill tf out.
D) Neutralize the threat.

>>1103380
A: It's not doing anything, so it's probably not a threat. Quickly get what you came for, ashy bee, then get out of the pocket dimension.

Translation!

she bee vill die (I think it's using a different alphabet for the previous update)

quickly, ashy bee.
your prized salvific taxes
be wary the judgement
the bee will die

solstice: i command the void to give me clarity

(I did use quipqiup but it was a monoalphabetic cipher anyway, not too hard to solve)

First: Chill, why are you spiraling about a creature that A: isn't trying to harm you and B: you could dissasemble with your bare hands? do you sense Doom from somewhere?
Second: let's try to think this through: There is Unidentified Fucking Thing in your Soulspace. I would imagine that trying to keep something hostile, or entering whilest hostile, to be impossible, or close to it. Maybe this Thing doesn't much care for that: there is both the possibility that it can no more effect you than you it, so is "here" more in parallel to you, or it is a soul-related creature, and you need necromantic magics in order to interact.
That or you made it on accident and so it is, according to magic, able to be here, what magicks have you done recently, was the magic that messed with electromagnatism the kind that have side effects?
>>1103384
WELL, THANK GOD FOR NECROMANCY

C) I wonder if you can list this entity as a dependent.

D) Yeet the interloper from your inventory, grab the document you came here for, and get somewhere more solid. Like your warm bed.

Bee-lete it!

[1/11] MIDNASTER 2025/02/06(Thu)22:51 No. 1103406 ID: 4591f8
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...

[2/11] MIDNASTER 2025/02/06(Thu)22:51 No. 1103407 ID: 4591f8
File 173891111237.png - (11.83KB , 526x534 , 29.png )

Ok, calm down. You're getting all riled up over seeing a little pale shithead. Maybe it's just getting late. Maybe the stress of your taxes being late is getting to you. You should probably just get the thing done.

> "Hey, little guy. I'm just here to do my taxes. No biggie."
▒▎▋▒▓█▂▄: ▓▇▄ ▁▄▄ ▖█▋▋ ▃█▄
Still no reply. Whatever.

[3/11] MIDNASTER 2025/02/06(Thu)22:52 No. 1103408 ID: 4591f8
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You daintily remove the thing from the premises, just in case.

[4/11] MIDNASTER 2025/02/06(Thu)22:52 No. 1103409 ID: 4591f8
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You use your keys to open your file cabinet.

[5/11] MIDNASTER 2025/02/06(Thu)22:52 No. 1103410 ID: 4591f8
File 173891113672.png - (17.54KB , 526x534 , 32.png )

You use your keys to open your file cabinet.

Whoops! Wrong drawer. That's just some vials of bee pheromones you got off the Shadow Market. No use outside sexy times. You cover your antennae. You remember one of them makes you smell dead to bees. You'll never forget the time Lune tried that last week. You cried the whole day. You really did think she died. Maybe you're still mustering yourself in the aftershock of that.

[6/11] MIDNASTER 2025/02/06(Thu)22:52 No. 1103411 ID: 4591f8
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Rummaging... rummaging... A-ha! Here!

[7/11] MIDNASTER 2025/02/06(Thu)22:52 No. 1103412 ID: 4591f8
File 173891114846.png - (17.03KB , 526x534 , 34.png )

SSN ACQUIRED. FIELD COMPLETE (29/32). 3 REMAIN.
Confetti! Hooray! That wasn't so hard, was it? Less than ten minutes have passed since Lune came home; that's how quick it was.

[8/11] MIDNASTER 2025/02/06(Thu)22:52 No. 1103413 ID: 4591f8
File 173891115263.png - (16.26KB , 526x534 , 35.png )

You now have 3 more fields left to fill:
* Spouse SSN. Unknown location, definitely not where it's supposed to be. Just to be sure you didn't accidentally put it with your stuff, you cast a supplementary [MAGNACURIA: DOWSING].
* 12, your E-6 form. You just need to get it from your dungeon exploring associate. It's not that far of a flight.
* 17. That damned unknown variable. You have to meet with Jackson to figure out what to do.

From here, you have a few options:
A)

[/11] MIDNASTER 2025/02/06(Thu)22:52 No. 1103414 ID: 4591f8
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.

[10/11] MIDNASTER 2025/02/06(Thu)22:53 No. 1103415 ID: 4591f8
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Somewhere else, a portal snaps shut.

Somewhere else, papers rustle only slightly from the closing of a passage.

Somewhere else, a home mutely slumbers in ignorance.

[11/11] MIDNASTER 2025/02/06(Thu)22:53 No. 1103416 ID: 4591f8
File 173891118806.png - (9.11KB , 526x534 , 38.png )

One moment, you're in your Inventory, holding your documents. The next, you are somewhere unfamiliar. The only feature is a thick stygian fog.

A) Explore
B) Wait
C) Cry
D) Analyze

Analyze. You seem to be lying down on something.

D) Somewhere you've been before?

>>1103407
"solstice: the bee will die"
I guess its name was Solstice.

>>1103416
You should've anchored the bookcase to the wall! Or used a lighter set of shelves, like plastic or something.

Anyway.

A.

wow you died fucking instantly
D: Did the door close with you still inside? did It close it? is this what happens when you get trapped inside yourself?
...Did one of the Pheromones knock you out?

Well, one way or another, you are definitely going to cry about the verything that managed to happen in the last hour

Stop laying in the fog like a French girl, analyse what the vapor that makes up this fog is!

oh, you know where this is. C about it

Goddamit we are supposed to do our taxes not to GET SENT TO SUPERHELL (is this normal to witches?)

I’m gonna go with B on this one. We just chill for a bit. Maybe take in our surroundings for a bit of D? Mostly chill though

Wake up now or you die for real

C

We were just starting to make progress. This is too much. Everything keeps happening all at once.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/08(Sat)02:51 No. 1103462 ID: 4591f8
File 173901188708.png - (11.82KB , 526x534 , 39.png )

You feel at the ground. It's cold, and dusty. You're not a geologist, so you can't be completely sure what the gravel is made of, but it's light and coarse like pumice. You don't think you're under the effects of the pheromones; they've never induced hallucinations in your experience, though you can't be sure.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/08(Sat)02:51 No. 1103463 ID: 4591f8
File 173901189097.png - (10.42KB , 526x534 , 40.png )

[MAGNACURIA: ANALYZE] -> FAILED

None of your spells are working. In fact, the fabric of magic here seems to be absolutely stagnant. You haven't felt this mundane since before you learned magic.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/08(Sat)02:51 No. 1103464 ID: 4591f8
File 173901189822.png - (6.58KB , 526x534 , 41.png )

You feel lost. You feel lonely. You wonder if you had just seen the last of Lune.

You've died before, once, in a safe environment, but that stuff requires a lot of set up to create a proverbial "save point," so that Kay could revive you without needing to recover your body. You hear tales of other witches who find thrill in mortal odds, but that's simply not your thing. In fact, it was such an unpleasant experience for you, you never killed a monster or enemy since.

You don't recall any sort of transitional period like this.

After you died the first time, Kay extended her studies on necromantic arts, just for you, and helped you through signing a bunch of pacts, the sum of which should allow you to be resurrected without consequence if your body is found.

Alas.

Your soul wanders the fog, hoping you'll find something. The world here is featureless and monotonous. The whole of you wishes that this is some hallucination or some limited in-between realm. You hold this hope close to your heart as you fly around.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/08(Sat)02:51 No. 1103465 ID: 4591f8
File 173901190706.png - (11.15KB , 526x534 , 42.png )

After nearly an hour of cainite meandering, you hear a deep, raspy, androgynous voice.

???: MISSUS EAST. I HADN'T EXPECTED TO SEE YOU SO SOON.
> "...Death?"
???: A RELATIVE.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/08(Sat)02:52 No. 1103466 ID: 4591f8
File 173901192231.png - (15.98KB , 526x534 , 43.png )

The figure steps through the foggy veil.

TAXES.
TAXES: APOLOGIES FOR THE WAIT.

A few thoughts run through your mind. You could choose a few to act on, consider the order, or suggest something else:
A) "What was that thing in my Inventory?"
B) "Where is this? Are you real?"
C) "What happened? Am I dead?"
D) "I'm not done with my form. Surely you could help me with 17."

Ask him for help with entry 17, something tells me he might know a thing or two about taxes

>>1103466
D. Also A.

A) "Because I think it murdered me. Can you move my corpse so I can be resurrected by my wife? I can't finish the taxes if I'm permanently dead."

D

C, A, D, preferably in that order. B is silly to ask. Real is relative. Though, asking where this is is actually a good question thinking about it.

>>1103469
This. But also D

D: Sinse you have somehow managed it, you might as well ask the inevitability of life how the Taxes gets done
But Also A: what even was that glitch creature

...Is this why the BONE FACTION has grueling taxes? The name already implicates a connection to Death so it makes sense their relative is here too

D

No one would know better.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/09(Sun)02:42 No. 1103526 ID: 4591f8
File 173909772988.png - (9.25KB , 532x520 , 44.png )

TAXES: YOU HAVE DIED, MISSUS EAST. I WILL BE HANDLING YOUR CHECKPOINT TO THE AFTERLIFE. ACCORDING TO YOUR DEATH CERTIFICATE, YOU WERE "CRUSHED BY [YOUR] OWN BOOKCASE." USUAL ENOUGH. HOWEVER, YOUR LOCATION IS LISTED AS "POPPY." ISN'T THAT STRANGE?

That already answers one question you had. It's hard to find your name being your location of death as funny as it should be given the circumstance. You straighten your back as you engage in conversation with Taxes itself.

> "Taxes, may I ask a few questions first?"
TAXES: ?

MIDNASTER 2025/02/09(Sun)02:42 No. 1103527 ID: 4591f8
File 173909773412.png - (12.14KB , 532x520 , 45.png )

1. Field number 17

> "What was field 17 on the tax return form? It was blank when I had it."
TAXES: DOES THIS MATTER? YOU ARE DEAD.
> "Well, I'd like to know, now that I'm here."
TAXES: IT SEEMS ABSURD OF ME TO LEAVE A FORMAL CRITEREON DEVOID OF DIRECTION.
Taxes manifests the tax form and scans it eyelessly. It cocks its head.
TAXES: THIS DOES SEEM TO BE THE CASE. I BELIEVE THIS TO BE THE ONTOLOGICAL TAMPERING OF SOME EXTERNAL FORCE. THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME KNOW. I WILL HAVE THIS RECTIFIED.
> "Thank you. Rectified? How?"
TAXES: BY SUNRISE I WILL UPDATE THE FORM.
> "Would this effect the form I already have filled?"
TAXES: NAY. THAT WOULD BE TAINTED BY YOUR HAND, WERE IT NOT ALREADY LOST. THE UNTOUCHED PAGES WOULD BE ALTERED UNANIMOUSLY.

If the god of Taxes didn't know, there is no way in Bone Hell that you would find out on your own. Even though it did not tell you, you feel as though you just made immense progress on the matter.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/09(Sun)02:42 No. 1103528 ID: 4591f8
File 173909773730.png - (9.55KB , 532x520 , 46.png )

2. What was that thing?

> "When I-- hold on, can we get chairs, please?"

Two pillars of stone rise from the ground.

> "Thank you. When I opened my Inventory dimension, there was a strange creature. It was made of simple rigid geometric shapes. It resisted all of my identification magic as if I wasn't doing a thing."
TAXES: I PRESUME IT IS THE NATURAL DISLOYALTY OF THE MORTAL SENSES.
> "You're saying I made it up?"
TAXES: I SAY TELL YOUR PITEOUS HEART THERE'S NO HARM DONE.

You can tell that it's withholding information. You could press harder but you want to get your other questions in. You have priorities. Most importantly...

MIDNASTER 2025/02/09(Sun)02:42 No. 1103529 ID: 4591f8
File 173909774265.png - (10.63KB , 532x520 , 47.png )

3. Move my corpse, please.

> "Could you move my corpse out of my Inventory so that I could be resurrected? I have the Curian, Mutian and Magnan necromantic pacts. Please."
TAXES: I DO HATE TO SEE SUCH A PATHETIC DEATH UPON A TALENTED WITCH IN HER PRIME. I HOPE YOU'LL AGREE. I'M FAMILIAR WITH THESE PACTS; THIS IS MY DUTY. WITH THESE PACTS, IN YOUR STATE, I MAY BRING YOU BACK WHERE THE THRESHOLD STOOD. AS TAXES, I CAN ALSO RETURN YOUR DOCUMENTS TO YOU IN THE PARTIAL STATE THAT YOU LEFT THEM. I WILL WARN YOU, HOWEVER, THAT, ALTHOUGH YOU WILL BE SOUND AND USUAL OF LOGICAL MIND AND BODY, YOU WILL LACK A FEELING SOUL. THERE WILL BE NO PLEASURE. NO PAIN. NO HATE. NO LOVE. YOUR PRECIOUS WIFE WILL AWAKEN TO A DIFFERENT PERSON THAN THE LIVELY ONE SHE LOVED.

That's not life. That's a special hell. That's a special terrible hell to make you as miserable as possible. That last sentence--it digs into your heart like a thousand nails. You don't want this! You don't want any of this!

MIDNASTER 2025/02/09(Sun)02:42 No. 1103530 ID: 4591f8
File 173909774593.png - (16.99KB , 532x520 , 48.png )

TAXES: MAY I ADD--YOU HAD SHOWN ME AN ERROR IN MY CREATION, AND I DOUBT YOUR UNIQUENESS IN YOUR PLIGHT. I AM WILLING TO RETURN THE FAVOR, MOVE THESE OLD BONES AND PULL SOME STRINGS FOR YOU.

You lean forward.

TAXES: I COULD... EXPAND THE DEFINITION OF LINE 2 TO ENCOMPASS YOUR EMOTIONAL SOUL, AND, THEREBY, TRANSFER YOUR VEIAN LIFEFORCE ALONGSIDE YOUR TAX FORMS, RESTORING YOU TO EMOTIONAL WHOLENESS. UNDERSTAND I CANNOT GIVE THIS GRACE TO EVERYBODY. SINCE THIS PACT IS BOUND TO YOUR TAX STATUS, THE TERMS OF THIS PACT ARE SIMPLE: YOU MUST TURN IN YOUR TAXES ON TIME.

Taxes' words fill you with waves of intermingling relief and stress. On one hand, you have been given the divine grace of Taxes to continue your life. On the other hand, its condition will make tomorrow the most important day of your entire life.

You can handle it.

You may choose multiple and their order, or suggest your own action:
A) Press for information on the Thing. (What do you ask?)
B) Press for information on "ontological tampering" (What do you ask?)
C) Thank profusely.
D) Plead for an extension.

>>1103530
A. Say that it wasn't a hallucination because you had a premonition of your own death after talking to it. It's like it was trying to warn you, but you couldn't hear it directly? Also, you didn't mishandle your bookcase, which means something pushed it onto you. That means something is trying to stop you from doing your taxes, something related to the thing you saw. So, ask... who could have killed you?

Hmm, I wonder if Poppy will hear this:
Its name was ▒▎▋▒▓█▂▄. That means "Solstice".

C) but also, it sounds like we still need to fill in 17 even though it isn't supposed to be there? Can he tell us what it is, or is this task impossible from the start?

I don’t think Taxes know what The Thing was either. If it was supposed to be there, he would have said “IT IS BEYOND YOUR COMPREHENSION” or something like that. “YOU IMAGINED IT” implies that this could be a serious problem.

That.. sounds like you are missing a pact entirely: if you have a pact for everything but your "Veian" lifeforce... but that's assuming it was ever possible
A/B: I don't think your getting any direct information on these... but you can ask: Why, why was The Thing there? At you? Why the Tampering? was it anything you did?
Will there be other things trying to stop you doing the taxes?
And C, thank him deeply, he had no need to do this. For the god of taxes to be bending the rules, even if in response to other rules being bent by- someone else, can't be emotionally easy, even if it literally is as the god of taxes.

B

I think that if there's some supernatural entity messing with our tax forms, and our continued existence as ourself depends on filing our tax forms properly, we should know what we're up against. If the Thing is an agent of this force, then we should learn about it, in turn.

(Also C, this is a terrific boon for the spirit of Taxes to grant personally. Many of His terrestrial representatives would not be so kind.)

MIDNASTER 2025/02/21(Fri)01:27 No. 1104080 ID: 4591f8
File 174013007004.png - (7.32KB , 532x520 , 49.png )

> "Thank you. That is terrific. Sounds like I missed a pact entirely. Is it alright if I ask for a couple more clarifications?"
TAXES: PERHAPS.
> "You mentioned something tampering with the taxes? What's that all about? How would that not get caught? ...Was it something I did? Why was that thing in my inventory? Also, if it wasn't the thingy, then what could have killed me?"
TAXES: THUS, ALL IT SAYS ON YOUR CERTIFICATE: A BOOKSHELF HAD TOPPLED UPON YOU AND YOUR CARAPACE CRUMPLED UNDER THE WEIGHT OF DOZENS OF TOMES.
> "I figured- but what could have knocked the shelf over?"
TAXES: IT MUST HAVE BEEN WEIGHED DOWN BY THE UNCOUNTABLE PAGES YOU OWN.
> "It was pretty stable. I doubt it."
TAXES: OTHERWISE, IT WAS AN INSTANCE OF CHAOTIC MAGIC, THEN. THOUGH, THAT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE, BECAUSE THAT IS PROHIBITED.
> "If... uh... hypothetically, I DID own chaotic magic stuff... I would scan everything for chaotic magic, then put it somewhere else, away from my sensitive information. I would never store anything in there if I don't know exactly what it does and how."
TAXES: PERHAPS YOU COULD TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK?
> "It might have been one of those 'thingies' that knocked it over."
TAXES: I PROMISE THAT YOU DESCRIBED THAT WHICH NEVER EXISTED. I REFUSE TO ENTERTAIN THAT WHICH DOES NOT EXIST.
> "Okay, then. If hypothetically, such a thing DID exist, what would I be up against?"
TAXES: ALAS, THIS IS SOMETHING I MAY DIVULGE NOT TO MORTALS. IF YOU WANT FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE MATTER, I BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVE A COLLEAGUE OF A DEMONIC SPIRITUAL NATURE.

You keep a mental note of this. You're suspecting a serious problem and definitely going to bring this up in the mortal world.

> "Are there any other developments or obstacles I should know about?"
TAXES: I AM LESS INTIMATE WITH THE TRIBULATIONS OF THE MORTAL PLANE THAN MY OWN.
(All you hear is "figure it out yourself")
> "...Is that an obstacle I should know about?"
TAXES: BONE HELL IF I KNOW.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/21(Fri)01:27 No. 1104081 ID: 4591f8
File 174013007339.png - (12.58KB , 532x520 , 50.png )

> "If the empty line 17 is deprecated on my version of the form, how am I supposed to complete it?"
TAXES: LINE 17--YES. YOU CAN RETRIEVE A REVISED LEAFLET AT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY. SIGN OUR PACT HERE. SEE YOU SOON.
Taxes extends its bony hands to you, presenting the contract.
> "Thank you so much. I'll do my best."

MIDNASTER 2025/02/21(Fri)01:27 No. 1104082 ID: 4591f8
File 174013007701.png - (4.43KB , 496x489 , 51.png )

[MEANWHILE, A LITTLE BIT AGO]

YOU ARE NOW LUNE.

You are in a transient point of consciousness, between the waking world and the dream.

Dream of where?:
A) Academy
B) Clouds
C) Home
D) Trail

Trail. It's about the journey, not the destination.

B

It's always nice to dream of flying.

B) the puffyest. Perfect for taking a nap on

C: Where else is more worth dreaming of, but Home?

A, school dreams are interesting! I wanna know what academy is like.

A, school dreams are interesting! I wanna know what academy is like.

A. let's see what that's about

Clouds, who knows what you can see in them.

B, be the clouds!

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104140 ID: 4591f8
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Flying above the clouds.

Blue-purple sky.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104141 ID: 4591f8
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Eclipse. A plume of smoke rises, like a flower.

The flower wilts.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104142 ID: 4591f8
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Falling.

Poppy catches you.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104143 ID: 4591f8
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Extra fuzzy, like a fuzzy pillow.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104144 ID: 4591f8
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Jackson appears.

Jackson: Hey, Lune. Nice dream you got here. Very creative.
> "Oh, hey Jackson."

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104145 ID: 4591f8
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Jackson: Alright, serious talk. So I was jacking it, Jackson-style, you know? And then I hear a noise from the box where I keep the voodoo dolls of you guys. Remember those?
> "No? Oh, wait. Yeah."
Jackson: Anyways, I look inside to see that Poppy's voodoo doll had scrunched itself.
> "Scrunched?"
Jackson: Yeah. By, like, rows and rows of flat teeth, it looks like.
> "OH FUCK."
Jackson: Or a really heavy ladder, or something. You should wake up and check on Poppy. Please.
> "W-what do I do to wake up?"

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104146 ID: 4591f8
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Jackson: Hmmm...

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104147 ID: 4591f8
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BANG.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104148 ID: 4591f8
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You are Lune the Chicken. You have just received a premonition, or some kind of vision, from your ambivalently friend-with-benefits Jackson the Goat, and now you are awake against your preference. As you muster yourself to reality, you begin to process the dire degree of the situation.

Poppy isn't where you last saw her. The financial documents she were occupied with last now litter the floor. Phones are down.

> "Poppyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!"

You pace anxiously. "Rows and rows of teeth," you remember. Fuck, why did he have to say it like that? You feel like retching. You knew that dealing with magic was risky, but dammit... Everything was perfect, and suddenly, to nobody's fault, it's all gone? It can't be... It's not fair.

MIDNASTER 2025/02/23(Sun)01:47 No. 1104149 ID: 4591f8
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> "...H-hello?"
There's also this thing.

You have a few options:
A) Poke n prod n analyze (How?)
- You have not touched it yet. You don't remember keeping anything like this near the house, but you could have forgotten.
B) Ignore it (Then what?)
- You still don't know if Jackson's doll just Did That, and Poppy's fine. She could be outside.
C) Establish communication (How?)
- It's not responding to speech. You don't know if it even understands you.
D) Contain/restrain it (How?)
- Its "feet" are clicking and clacking around but it's not fast.

B. Ignore it, go find Poppy.

Contain it with a wastebasket, weighed down by chairs. You abstract bastard you, you shan't get away this time.

>>1104149
D: Grab its spiky head thing and drag it around behind you.

Hold it up by its top spine until you're eye to eye and demand it explain itself. It must know where Poppy is.

D) Poppy got killed by something in your territory. This strange thing has appeared in your territory. The proper course of action is to restrain the prime suspect until you can give them a fair trial and sentencing.
(Your 'fair' trial, of course)

Poke it, what's it made of anyways? Glass? Ivory? Deallocated signifiers?

Woah, woah, poke it with a pen first! What if it’s made of something that disintegrates matter?

A

Just tap it on the side near the top. That round part looks kind of like a face. Is it making any sounds?

C: Ink and Paper! you definitly have paper, but if you don't have a ink-well you will need to break things with ink in them...
Or you could be sane and give it a keyboard and computer to type something
IF not this... then A: Analyse, you have some tech laying around to see if it messes with it, and a fair bit of necromancy, which to be fair would also let you poke around for Poppy's soul so you should use it ANYWAY, but also throw some at This/That, at LEAST see if it HAS a soul or is like, some sorta dungeon creature

ah wait Luna and Kay are different people, Poppy being DEAD is a good reason to cantact Kay at approximetly ASS O CLOCK

C. Smile and wave hello! See what it does in response.