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.

MIDNASTER 2025/03/25(Tue)23:09 No. 1105414 ID: 4591f8
File 174296934885.png - (8.50KB , 479x457 , 62.png )

You try to communicate before you try to restrain it.

> "Helloooo...? Where's Poppy?"
▒▎▋▒▓█▂▄: -to philosophical extensions of the "Four Kingdoms" model, but no such-
> "What? Four Kingdoms? We're in the BONE FACTION, I think, if that's what you mean. I don't remember the names of the others."
▒▎▋▒▓█▂▄: -magine every 5th unit is food for the dogs. The geometric-

...

MIDNASTER 2025/03/25(Tue)23:09 No. 1105415 ID: 4591f8
File 174296935177.png - (13.94KB , 479x457 , 63.png )

After countless attempts at verbal, written, semantic, etc. communication, it seems to speak in words, but only to respond in fragments and non-sequitur phrases, none of which were helpful or meaningful to you. you have confined it to a cage of iron, reinforced by the magic of a council of mages,

MIDNASTER 2025/03/25(Tue)23:09 No. 1105416 ID: 4591f8
File 174296935492.png - (14.89KB , 479x457 , 64.png )

...which is to say you trapped it under an overturned wastebasket and a couple of Poppy's books.

You're not sure how this works or what's really possible when Poppy's magic is involved. Poppy shows you magic all the time but your memory has been spotty lately. Anything could happen. You don't know. You don't know what's going on. You don't know what "Scrunched" really means. Just looking at this thing sends inexplicable unnerving shivers up your spine.
You would call Jackson but Poppy would be the magical means and your phone would be the non-magical means, and neither are available to you right now.

MIDNASTER 2025/03/25(Tue)23:09 No. 1105417 ID: 4591f8
File 174296935732.png - (17.83KB , 479x457 , 65.png )

You don't believe it. It would be too sudden. It's simply not true. Poppy's strong! She wouldn't die doing something banal like TAXES. Maybe the voodoo doll just did that? Whatever happened, this thing was involved, somehow. You don't know how but it was.

It needs to pay.

IT NEEDS TO PAY.

▒▎▋▒▓█▂▄: -immortal? It dies." The intended joke was th-

Shed sledgehammer in hand, you muster all of your strength to lift its head above yours.

MIDNASTER 2025/03/25(Tue)23:09 No. 1105418 ID: 4591f8
File 174296936027.png - (16.78KB , 479x457 , 66.png )

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MIDNASTER 2025/03/25(Tue)23:09 No. 1105419 ID: 4591f8
File 174296936682.png - (9.88KB , 479x457 , 67.png )

POPPY: "Hey Lune."

Choose any, combine, or none:
AS POPPY:
A) "I died and saw Taxes itself."
B) "I am going to die in 24 hours. Conditionally."
AS LUNE:
C) Hug wife.
D) Finish swing; smash it.

BD

Super C, and then B

C: you can smash it in like, 3 minutes when your done hugging your wife
A: maybe *don't* start off by telling your wife who, given the situation, thinks you died (you did) that you are going to die, that'll fuck her up SO bad!

>>1105419
B, C.
Please don't kill Solstice, it's innocent! Also, I think it read a bunch of books and is trying to communicate using sentence fragments. I'm not sure what method it's using, maybe it's like metaphors? Or we need to pick out only the bits that are relevant?
It was asked "where's poppy", and it started talking about *extensions* of the Four Kingdoms model, and then when asked for clarification it said something that seemed to make no sense but included "5th", so I think it was trying to say Poppy was in the Fifth Kingdom.

Well, now that it can give any communication at all, we should be able to ask yes/no questions, surely. Even if it can't use consistently chosen fragments, it should be reasonably clear from the contents if it's meant to mean yes or no. At the very least, we can tell it to stay silent if the answer to a question is "no".

Open with B, proceed to C. Lune needs to be a part of our plan.

MIDNASTER 2025/03/27(Thu)00:21 No. 1105478 ID: 4591f8
File 174306011685.png - (16.83KB , 481x457 , 68.png )

> "POPPY!"

You lunge at the bee, dropping the sledge to the wooden floor.

BONK!

MIDNASTER 2025/03/27(Thu)00:22 No. 1105479 ID: 4591f8
File 174306012215.png - (10.37KB , 481x457 , 69.png )

Poppy squeezes you hard.
> "Ah! Ahh! Chicken bones! Chicken bones!
Poppy: Oh-. Sorry.
> "Don't apologize! *Sniff* You're back!
Poppy: About that... I--uh might die in 24 hours.
> "HUH"

MIDNASTER 2025/03/27(Thu)00:22 No. 1105480 ID: 4591f8
File 174306012530.png - (10.56KB , 481x457 , 70.png )

A slew of turbulent emotions toss and tug inside you. You feel sick.
> "Wait, h-hold on! Don't say that! Nononononononononono-nooooooo!!!"
Poppy: It's okay! It's okay! Don't worry, we can handle this!

MIDNASTER 2025/03/27(Thu)00:22 No. 1105481 ID: 4591f8
File 174306013063.png - (16.10KB , 481x457 , 71.png )

Your vision is blurry but you feel Poppy's chitinous caress.
Poppy: Oh, dear. You've got the scent of stress all over you, honey.
> "What's gonna happen?..."
Poppy: Well, I died and met Taxes itself. It was gracious enough to give me a second chance at life, but it involved tying my life force to my taxes, which are due tomorrow night.
She glances at the clock. 12:05 AM.
Poppy: Oh. Tonight. Yeah; 24 hours. What did you do while I was gone?

Choose or order:
A) Discuss the thingy. Four kingdoms or something? Does that have to do with BONE FACTION?
B) Discuss [Poppy:Inventory] status. Surely, nothing important was lost...
C) Discuss taxes completion. What happens when it's completed on time?
D) "Your clothes are gone." (observation/...suggestion(?))

honestly Poppy probably got the scent of dead to wash off
A, I would assume Lune would like to know whether or not to smash the thing, and Poppy would probably like to know about it communicating
B: I also assume Lune would like to know why her Poppy, her grey flower, Died, so lets see the bookshelf and whatever damages it caused, if it smashed the file cabinet of more than files you would very much so like to not be surprised with this
...and if we are thinking about it, C: is it really too much to assume that the pact wont screw you over? What is Line 2? important to know since that is what the pact is attached too

B, then D.

come to think of it, the clothes are under the bookshelf, they are hadly a part of your body/soul after all

>>1105481
B. Your taxes are the first priority, so let's make progress on that, or at least take stock of what progress is left.
Then A. Something killed you, and it wasn't this thing because you put it outside before you died, BUT it's obviously related somehow to what happened. If something's trying to stop you from completing your taxes, you should try to figure out what it is so you have a better chance of defending yourself.

If you can't currently do anything important, then we can see about some D.

B) Okay Poppy, let's not check hammerspace until you figure out how to die in there without sealing yourself. Let Lune do it.

A and C.

C, a, b.

Taxes come first, because they're how we stay alive and happy. The thingy is weird and must be related to all this, so important to figure that out as a piece of the puzzle. The inventory situation is also probably related, especially to the thingy, given that that's where it first appeared, so I'd expect that to come up as a matter of course.

D is an incidental observation, which can be made at any point, but there's no point in dwelling on it right now.

MIDNASTER 2025/04/21(Mon)00:49 No. 1106611 ID: 51fd23
File 174522174626.png - (10.07KB , 510x504 , 72.png )

Poppy neck-fluff smells like dust.

> "Well, I woke up because Jackson said you were 'scrunched' by 'rows and rows of flat teeth'."
Poppy: How would Jackson?-- nevermind.

Poppy tells you the details about the situation, how she died, what she saw, and how she came back. You have a couple questions.

> "Gee... I can't believe my wife met Taxes itself. Don't you keep a lot of important stuff in your inventory? Tell me it's not all gone."

MIDNASTER 2025/04/21(Mon)00:49 No. 1106612 ID: 51fd23
File 174522175065.png - (13.81KB , 434x451 , 73.png )

Poppy tries to create a portal. The red film crackles and pops, but it stabilizes into a doorway. Beyond the doorway, a wooden shelf lay upon a mess of books... soaked with bee haemolymph. A chill runs down your spine.
Poppy: Oh, thank FUCK. I was afraid I lost my Inventory... Lune?
> "Sorry, I... forgot about that. You. On the floor. Dead."
You quietly hold back a wretch.
> "What do we have in there anyways?"
Poppy: Wedding photos, sensitive stuff... the pheromones...
> "Pheromones?..."

Poppy: Remember that time you put on the dead-bee smell? And I was the one sobbing?
> "Oh... I guess you got me back, then."
Poppy: Hahaha... sigh. I have my docs in my hand, as per my deal with Taxes, so there's really no use digging through there until I need to get shit together and clean up.
The portal claps shut.

MIDNASTER 2025/04/21(Mon)00:49 No. 1106613 ID: 51fd23
File 174522175258.png - (12.56KB , 434x451 , 74.png )

You both glance over at the creature.
> "Is this the thing that killed you? It keeps saying words n sentences that don't make sense."
▒▎▋▒▓█▂▄: ▔▏▄░ ▅▔▍. ▒▎▌▄ ▒▀▘ ▓▇▄ ▅█▅▓▇ ▊█▍▆▃▎▌ ▖▀▒ ▂░▄▀▓▄▃ ▒▏▄▂█▅█
> "See? Do you know what that means?"
Poppy: This poor creature might have been the one to tip the shelf that killed me. Also, I've had worse luck getting it to make any noise at all.
> "You can't hear it?"
Poppy: Ok, I hear the clickety-clack, but that's it.
> "It's talking right now! I swear I'm not crazy. It's got this airy, wispy voice. Earlier it was saying something something, four kingdoms? Some other junk. Maybe it has to do with BONE FACTION?"

MIDNASTER 2025/04/21(Mon)00:49 No. 1106614 ID: 51fd23
File 174522175560.png - (13.51KB , 510x504 , 75.png )

Poppy: Oh, you mean like the four kingdoms of magic? Do you think it's a Mutian spirit? I mean, unexplainable nonsense tends to be the Mutian thing.
> "Mhm. mhm."
Poppy: The only thing is that Mutia tends to be the kingdom of wind and weather. I don't really get wind and weather vibes from it.
> "Okay, okay."
Poppy: I heard that Mutian spirits tend to be plants, anyways? And soapstone is considered the opposite of that. Maybe it's a multi-domain spirit? There's a first for everything. Its lack of physical interaction points to it being Curian? And--ohhh.... i htingk... the shock is wearing off....

MIDNASTER 2025/04/21(Mon)00:49 No. 1106615 ID: 51fd23
File 174522175859.png - (11.59KB , 510x504 , 76.png )

> "I... (yawn)... still want to do something about it. We can't just leave it under there, can we? We have things to do!"
Poppy: Well, we can't report it to Paranormal because we've got an alien maid sleeping in our room that we KNOW they're after. Hmmm...

Get it over with:
A) Reason to adopt it
B) Reason to release it
C) Reason to report it
D) Reason to destroy it

Reason to destroy it, tit for tat and whatnot. If it doesn’t like it, go file a complaint with the department of death and taxes.

boy o boy
Reasonably this is something you should sleep on, BUT
You can interpret IT as A: trying to help you, badly. B: just *is* and is the kind of weird thing that causes weird to heppen if destroyed, which you do NOT need more of. C: Does talking to your demon friend count? Either way it is ALSO something you should do before a FINAL decision. D: wack fuck
Personally, however, I would go B, do to having reasons AGAINST the others. A: Don't adopt something you know nothing about. C: again you should TRY to figure out what it is first. D: you can't prove it was trying to do, or DID do, anything, other than maybe give a premonition of eminent demise. Sadly, Poppy might just be that clumsy, not like the bookshelf could be easily bolted down in a soulspace.

4 kingdoms of magic, but if babbled of a "5th kingdom"... if it is a spirit at all, it is of a magic not elemental, how odd... maybe you SHOULD adopt it, if only long enough to show to your friend to figure out what it is. When you know what it is, you can decide again what to do

>>1106613
That says:
"solstice: uper fun. some say the fifth kingdom was created specifi"
The fifth kingdom was *created*? Also, it's most likely quoting books. Do an internet search, find the books it's taking those quotes from. That'll give you more context and expand your knowledge to include whatever the fifth kingdom is.
...doing a google search myself, it might be the "four kingdoms model" of biology. The fifth kingdoms model adds fungi. Solstice doesn't look much like a fungus, but I guess that could just be another way of saying it's a form of life completely unlike our own?

A: it showed itself before Poppy died; if it was going to kill her it wouldn't have done that. Also it's *trying* to talk to us, and didn't leave when Poppy was killed. Also, whatever killed Poppy did so by pushing the bookcase over, which means it was still inside the pocket dimension when she died, which means it could not have exited-- the portal immediately closed! Yet, Solstice is here; this creature is the one that Poppy put outside her portal. Thus, it is innocent, and was trying to warn her.
Also you should probably ask Jackson about it tomorrow. Or, everyone you know, really. At some point if you think it necessary you could move it to a different location where you can report it without attracting attention to your maid.

A) This entity is connected to you, somehow. You can tell Taxes about it later.

A) adopt, imprison, in any case you need to keep this thing close until you get some answers. If you hand it off to someone else they might not share your urgency to figure it out.

I think it's going to stay with us regardless of what we choose... We need to show Taxes!

A, and store it somewhere safe.
Does it need food to live? No? Good!

A, I think you're stuck with this thing for now anyhow. We prove it's real to Taxes later when we get the chance.

MIDNASTER 2025/05/25(Sun)19:56 No. 1108627 ID: 51fd23
File 174822816777.png - (6.72KB , 359x347 , 78.png )

You are... kind of... getting...

MIDNASTER 2025/05/25(Sun)19:56 No. 1108628 ID: 51fd23
File 174822817095.png - (8.93KB , 359x347 , 79.png )

tired of it!

MIDNASTER 2025/05/25(Sun)19:56 No. 1108629 ID: 51fd23
File 174822817342.png - (3.15KB , 359x347 , 80.png )

SLAM...

MIDNASTER 2025/05/25(Sun)19:56 No. 1108630 ID: 51fd23
File 174822817660.png - (7.72KB , 359x347 , 81.png )

You decided to keep it where it was, for the time being. Didn't seem like it was going anywhere. Something weird might happen if you destroy it. You should keep it around in case it starts making sense.

MIDNASTER 2025/05/25(Sun)19:56 No. 1108631 ID: 51fd23
File 174822817985.png - (7.76KB , 359x347 , 82.png )

[T-23:50:00 UNTIL DEADLINE]

Your bed has never felt less comfortable. Every second palpitates with dread.

Poppy: (You probably shouldn't slam the door. Dustin and Psyth are sleeping.)

The lull of sleep feels deceptive. The warded outer walls of the house no longer bare the safety they once did. Your feathers jitter with anxiety. You glance at Poppy's wide-eyed face and you can tell she feels the same.

MIDNASTER 2025/05/25(Sun)19:58 No. 1108634 ID: 51fd23
File 174822830723.png - (4.58KB , 359x347 , 83.png )

Poppy: (There is no way I am relaxing.)

Choose:
A) Comfort with rationality
B) Comfort with empathy
C) Comfort with confidence
D) Comfort physically

Comfort physically. You are here and you exist, and that is a good sign.

>>1108628
What's that book?

>>1108634
give her the D

Sex now sleep soon

>>1108637
thats the right attitude

WELL, this is a fun choice
Neither Confidence nor rationality are things that are here
You could try Empathy, but that seems like it would summon the Stress Spiral on the two of you
D: physicallity, Hug eachother, maybe cry a bit, maybe physically anchor in more Intense ways

B) Comfort with empathy