EVENT 011

[sticksandbonesmods]

LIFE HAS MANY DOORS, ED-BOY

A DOORWAY OF CONFUSION

The residents of Aldric’s Grove have been down in the dumps recently, haven’t they? Whose fault could that be? Is it the fault of Wolfwood, who started the catastrophic bonfire? The Forest, who took over the body of Elsword and set him to the slaughter? Perhaps it’s the fault of Vash, who disappeared and came back with a corpse, or Beat, who went berserker-mode on everybody. Maybe it’s Gnosis’ general mopey energy spreading like a plague, or the fact that Luca has had the bar closed up for so long, or Pure Vanilla’s forays into his past. Why are you all so depressed, wonders a spirit in the forest, a spirit who has watched you for a long time. Why are you all staying indoors and not talking to each other?

This spirit knows what to do to cheer everybody up. A fun little prank, an event that will spark joy and lead you to somewhere vast and unknowable. Yes… the spirit has been here before, always observing you, even if you don’t often see it. It is the same spirit who hosted that masquerade all the way back in October before diving feet-first into a sinkhole. It is… a walking skeleton by the name of Mr. Bone-Jangles, and he is casting a spell.

At midnight, the sound of rattling bones rings out across the Grove, alongside a chime that sounds like the bell that hangs over the General Store’s door, and then a distinctly warped sound like trying to listen to music underwater. Were you to look outside your windows, you’ll spot a skeleton dressed like a cashier dancing around the well and the two statues next to it, movin’ and groovin’ to the beat of his own drum. Should you try to get outside through a door or a window, however…

You’ll wind up somewhere else. Not where you expected that door to lead, certainly. Your bedroom door might take you to your bathroom, or to your neighbour’s room, or to Ydalir’s tent. Your window might have plopped you right into the church, or the clinic, or one of the many weight-lifting rooms in the rec center. Should you try to leave the new location you’ve found yourself in, you’ll be in a similar spot — these doors also don’t go where they’re supposed to. The doorways have been scrambled, but at least — once they’ve been walked through — their randomized location is permanently set. If the inn doors lead to the bar, they’ll continue to lead to the bar.

Should you manage, by some miracle, to make it outside? Mr. Bone-Jangles will simply wave his phalanges at you and disappear into a puff of smoke.

This enchantment, or perhaps “prank” will last for the month. Good luck, Aldric’s Grove! Merry April Fool’s Month!

SAVINGS, SAVINGS, SAVINGS!

One door in the Grove, and only one, will lead you to a completely new space. A space named Alpha Mart, designated by the golden sign. It is, for all intents and purposes, a fairly advanced (by Grove standards) grocery store, and it carries… products of the uncanny and unusual. Once you’re inside, you can’t leave via the door you came from — it’s up to you to find a different exit, because that entrance door will simply plop you back inside.

What kind of products are here, one might ask? Well, the produce section contains the, erm, expected yet unexpected fruits and veggies, which at times seem to be alive and have minds of their own; the carrots will stop mid-yoga session to run away from you, the beetroots will try to bite, the raspberries have tiny eyes, and the tomatoes act much like lemmings, throwing themselves off of the displays at your feet. Nets in a tall, warped basket near the produce section can be used to catch anything that moves, and once caught, they’ll rest like normal food items would in your cart or basket or hands or pockets. All of these are perfectly edible despite the moral implications!

Head on to aisle fifteen, where the snacks are, and you may be pleasantly surprised by the great savings (100% Off!) on blueberry-flavoured pretzel bites, 100% salt peanuts, fried sunflower petal chips, and cookies shaped like Moder’s head. The deli section is a delight of chocolate-flavoured cheeses and lunchmeats with your faces printed on them. Even though some displays clip out of reality, rest assured, you’ll be fine to walk through those spots. The hard-working staff of skeletons are working on cleaning it up. Speaking of cleaning up, do you need something to wash your sins away with? How about some Plausible Deniability?

The walk-in freezers nearby are pleasantly deep and chilly, and should you walk through them, you might find yourself spat out somewhere else. …still within the Alpha Mart, of course. You didn’t think you could leave through a twisting maze of soda bottles, did you? Come on.

FUN 100% GUARANTEED OR YOUR SHELLS BACK!

cw in first image link: eyes, trypophobia

After making it through the freezer aisle and its twisting, cold maze of products, you’ll arrive at the, uh… um… the eyeball space! Anyway, let’s quickly move on from there.

Quite a ways out of the eyeball space, where the walls blink at you and follow your every move, is something of a playground indoors, featuring both your run-of-the-mill slides and waterslides where the water is dish soap and the swimming pool at the bottom is white chocolate. Try not to get any in your mouth; it doesn’t taste great! Inner tubes are provided by a skeleton staff member wearing a speedo, who also functions as a lifeguard should you drown in chocolate. Your grocery products can safely be set in a cubby nearby for “purchasing” later. Or you can use them between slide sessions. They are free, after all.

When you’re done with the slides, heading through a side door will lead you into a different section of the Alpha Mart, where the products continue to be bizarre and sometimes-sentient. Anything and everything you can imagine is here, unless it makes sense, in which case it’s completely absent from the store. At the tail end is the checkouts, where Mr. Bone-Jangles stands in his cashier uniform, miming a tired retail worker. He’ll send you through with your products after you pretend to pay him and will refuse actual attempts to pay, and then the exit door to the Alpha Mart will be revealed on the back wall. If you walk through it…

It spits you out in the middle of the Grove, and your silly “purchased” products are gone. If you want to go back in, you’re going to have to find the door again. The entrance should be in the same location it just was, at least.

…or maybe, after all of that, you need to wash the chocolate off and take a nap.

SPARK NOTES

CLICK TO EXPAND!

A DOORWAY OF CONFUSION

A skeleton has made the doorways stop working properly. Your doors and windows and other entryways now lead to random locations within the Grove. At least once they're locked in place, they don't change. Try not to walk in on your friends changing!

SAVINGS, SAVINGS, SAVINGS!

Welcome to Alpha Mart! There are sentient produce items and other weird products. You're going to be here a while, considering the way out is nowhere to be found. Enjoy shopping! Remember to eat the 100% Salt Peanuts while you're here!

FUN 100% GUARANTEED OR YOUR SHELLS BACK!

This isn't just a grocery store. It also contains slides, chocolate pools, and ten thousand other things that are vaguely horrifying and weird. The way out is through the checkouts. It's a shame that you can't take your products into the Grove with you.

OOC

Happy April Fool’s, Sticks & Bones! Casual modly reminder that we’re allowing you to make up whatever you want for this event due to the nonsense nature of it. Disclaimer: Neither of the mods have been to the Meow Wolf this event is based on. We’re sorry for inconsistencies but something something copyright free use don’t sue us thanks. OOC Plotting Lives Here if you'd like to plot out nonsense alongside actual plot-important things, or just see an update of the recent lore from last month. Have fun!

UPDATES

❖ None yet!

SUBMISSIONS

QUESTIONS
INVESTIGATIONS
PAST-LIFE PLOTTING

(CODE)

Comments

QUESTIONS

[sticksandbonesmods]

[sesa]

Me seeing "going through a window" as an option and suddenly having a terrible idea-

Mods, is it possible for a character to go through a door/window and come out of a window instead of a door, or is it just doors we should exit from? Asking for shenanigans reasons, obviously

INVESTIGATIONS

[sticksandbonesmods]

Please use the following form for investigations:

Character(s):
Location:
Action: What are they looking for? What are they doing?

<b>Character(s):</b> <b>Location:</b> <b>Action:</b>

[grimtalker]

Character(s): hunter
Location: around the grove
Action: your boy has his special feather™ gifted to him at his arrival. having learned it may be even MORE special than he imagined, he will be taking it around the grove proper to see if the warm, protective feeling it gives off is perhaps stronger or weaker in certain locations. specifically, he will be visiting the various guardian shrines and the goddess statues.

"MODS CAN YOU MAKE UP A WEIRD THING FOR ME?"

[sticksandbonesmods]

The answer is yes.

Drop us a line if you feel like you need something bizarre to work with in the Alpha Mart and we will craft a thought so strange that you'll wonder if we're high.

[lupusxylem]

A) Uninvited Guest | The Doors(tm)

[Perhaps unsurprising to most of the Grove's residents is the fact that Wolfwood has been conspicuously absent since his network post announcing his return. Sure, he's been...around some, but nowhere near as much as previously. He's only ever seen very occasionally at the Church or hanging around the river. He hasn't shown up at the Inn at all, much less any of the other buildings...and for the foreseeable future, he intended to keep it that way.

Well, Mr. Bone-Jangles has had other plans, and Wolfwood is damn lucky that he's been trying to get used to using crutches over a wheelchair when he's feeling up to it, because crippling depression isn't going to stop him from trying to stubbornly walk, even if he's not doing that so much as he is hobbling around. The Forest must be tickled pink to watch him struggle, now that he's one-legged.

Too bad that the law of silliness cares not for how Wolfwood is feeling, or how people feel about him, because the moment he steps through the door connecting the living space to he and Vash's shared bedroom-

He is in...your bedroom! Or your house! Inn room, perhaps? He isn't going to know until he sees someone else sitting (or standing) there, giving the distinct feeling that someone has broken into his home, and not the other way around. It's enough to make even Wolfwood nearly jump out of his skin.]

Christ-! What the-?

B) Alpha Mart | Alpha Mart (the silly prompt)

[Attempts to...actually leave whomever's premises he's barged into will eventually deposit Wolfwood unceremoniously into one Alpha Mart, a store that is going to become his own personal hell for the next...while.

He's found himself in an aisle that appears to be full of pet products. Pet doors you can affix to your own doors that let you in, but never let you back out. Invisible litter boxes that literally put the mess out of sight, out of mind, at least until you accidentally discover it again in the worst manner imaginable. Alpha Mart even has actual live animals for sale here that- upon Wolfwood passing them- realizes aren't exactly what he'd even be confident classifying as an animal. There are beta fish in cups that are just eyeballs floating around with little fins attached, and birds that make human screaming sounds when they chirp.

The Priest doesn't stop until he's come across a bin of tennis balls, seemingly normal in every way...until he picks one up and it splits down the middle and starts barking at him.

He clenches it in his fist, closing his eyes.]

Why.

C) The Eyeball Space | (The slightly angsty prompt because he has to have a little sprinkle of that)

[The moment Wolfwood manages to drag himself into a maze seemingly made up entirely of faces and eyes is when he's had enough.

He starts to find a nearby wall to lean against for a breather, only to realize it's looking at him in a way that makes him not want to leave the relative safety of the center of the floor. He's trying his damnest not to get overwhelmed, but it's hard not to feel like he's tripping massive balls just by being in here. The only solution for it is to keep walking forward, to try to find some way out of it-

Until he bumps into someone in the semi-gloom, causing him to quickly readjust himself so he doesn't pitch to the side and fall flat on his ass. He sucks in a frustrated breath through his teeth, nearly screaming at whoever it was, but...he manages to reign it in. The last thing anyone would want to do is help him in general right now, but less so if he rolls up yelling in their faces.]

Please, god, tell me you've seen a door around here.

D) Wildcard

[Hit me up on discord or my ooc plotting post if none of these prompts work thank u]

B

[soundsurfing]

'Cause God don't exist here, yo.

[ Unlike Wolfwood, Beat is having a BLAST with one of the tennis balls. He's been throwing it as hard as he can down the aisle, then ripping after it in Werewolf form. He's currently got his clenched in one hand and it's whimpering cause. Bro. Save it. Beat's voice turns teasing. ]

How long you been in, blood? You new meat, or you been wanderin' these halls for a while?

[ And he drops the gangster tone instantly, tail wagging. ]

Cause it ain't so bad, you seen the veggies in the steam bath?? They yell at you if you look too long like you peepin' or some shit, it's wild.

B

[succiduous]

[At some point, his bedroom door at the lab led to the General Store which led to some random empty inn room whose bathroom door led to Wolfwood's living room (pet your dog while he was there btw) and then when he left out the window in a fit of frustration, he wound up going through like thirteen more doors and now they're here. It seems like the whole Grove is showing up in this place. Gnosis has spotted several people so far.

That fucking skeleton, he swears to God.

He is holding one of those cups of "betta fish" and trying to tell if the fins are glued on or if they're actually part of the animal. Hm.]

This doesn't seem to be one of the Forest's games, judging by how... relatively harmless everything is. I haven't heard the False God barking at us to play by some esoteric rules, and the skeletons being back tells me that we're probably not expected to do anything other than...

...shop?

A, and I'm sorry

[forwander]

[Welcome to Passenger and Sesa's bedroom. Sesa is not here right now, but Passenger sure is, and he is...

Well, he's not in a state of undress, but he's not exactly dressed either? It looks like, when Wolfwood comes in, that Passenger was attempting to get dressed.

He raises a brow. Thinks Wolfwood is here for the workshop, and not for their little studio apartment, and maybe it is sort of his fault that he's half dressed in the area they designated as a living room but also... knock? Maybe?]

Sesa is out at the moment. Can I assist you with anything?

[Completely fucking unbothered by yet another Trigun cast member seeing his tits.]

[grimtalker]

i. open

[anyone in the produce section might notice a teenager stare very intently at what appears to be a normal display of bananas. the whole nine yards, squinting, pinching his brow, rubbing his chin, "hm"ing thoughtfully.

when he finally picks up a bunch of the fruit to examine, the individual bananas open up, peels extending in various directions like some sort of octopus or squid. then they proceed to swarm him, and a little cardinal tries to swoop at some of them in an effort to get them away from the kid.

of course, they're harmless. they're just a bunch of peels, after all, but they are trying to attach themselves to his face and pull on his hair.]

H-hey! Get off me!


ii. closed to vash

[hunter is patrolling around some sort of whimsical toy section when he spots a familiar face and flags him down.]

Vash! [his tone is urgent, and his face quite concerned as he jogs up to the independent. titan, he hopes he read vash right the first time they met, and he's a decent guy.] Vash, we need your help!

[oleaeuropaea]

[Thankfully, Vash is very receptive to this poor kid's flustered attempts at getting his attention. One minute, he's ogling over some Shrimp Tips. The next, he's jumping up and turning to Hunter, all business.]

Sure thing. I've got your back. What do you need?

i.

[purevanillacookie]

[ Despite the events of the past days, Pure Vanilla feels oddly at home in this strange place. Especially around the fruits and vegetables, handling the ones that try to run with an ease that speaks of experience with fleeing produce.

Which means he's not unused to the occasional attack fruit, either.

Hearing the distress nearby, he turns his Staff from where he had been eying some funky broccolis to see what's going on, and oh's! to the child being banana'd.

Quickly he heads over, hooves and staff tapping, to begin plucking peels off the poor boy. ]

Oh dear, hold still, this shouldn't take long!

I

[winterfrosting]

Enough!

[here comes someone to the rescue. Thankfully not using his sword, but instead crackling electricity to try and spook the peels off. He's being careful not to shock the bird at least!]

[oleaeuropaea]

i. What You're Looking for Won't be Found Easily

[It’s the slam of a door that announces Vash’s presence to the world. It doesn’t matter where you are. Sittin’ on the toilet, in bed, about to take a shower. In one moment there’s a wooden crack and then silence follows. It doesn’t last terribly long before the creak of a door breaks the fragile peace that envelops the space.]

Oh man, how’d I break something this bad.

[Turning to look at your nearest door will net you one look at one floppy haired blond. He spots his guest? Visitor? Visited? And flashes a wide, if sheepish, grin.]

So. This isn’t what it looks like. I definitely didn’t do this. Probably.

[And with that, the door slams shut again. There’s a gap of five seconds, before it warily opens once more.]

Dammit!!



ii. It Grows Upon the Mountain, in a Sacred Place

[One way or another, Vash eventually figures out that the doors aren’t his doing. Imagine being able to create a gateway to another space. That’d be weird. Clearly he was ridiculous for thinking it was himself!

Anyway.

After venturing through the strange network of doors, Vash finds himself, predictably, within the heart of AlphaMart. Unfortunately, this weird mish-mash of aesthetics and batshit products is right up his alley. And so you can find him going through the aisles, showing off the products that he finds.

This one, for example!

Hey look! [He holds it out with his single arm.] Coping mechs! Get it because I’m a mech and … [He looks down at the empty space where his arm normally is. Instead, he finds only the tied off sleeve of his new shirt] You know. The joke isn’t as funny when I don’t look like a robot.]



iii. Once He's Gazed Upon Him, a Man is Forever Changed - Closed to livlaughlove

[Vash has been following Livio for a long time. He’s found a product that he’s very, very excited to use, and Livio’s the perfect target. Specifically… This thing. This thing he immediately took out of its packaging and is now lining up for the perfect shot!]

Hey Livio!

[He intends to hit square in the chest. Unfortunately, this goo hand is very new and very out of control. And so as Livio turns, the hand extends and. Well.

Slaps him right in the crotch.]



iv. Wildcard

[Hit me with anything, or DM me to brainstorm!]

ii

[lupusxylem]

[Vash that joke isn't so much funny as it is very sad.

Anyway, Wolfwood is here! Against his will, but he is here nonetheless. He's using his crutches for a blessing, meaning that he isn't getting stuck in doors trying to navigate this hellish grocery store.

And that, right there, basically tells him everything he needs to know. Not that he hasn't noticed the absence of Vash's arm, they just haven't talked about it yet.]

So how long were you plannin' on goin' without it?

[livlaughlove]

[either vash is not nearly as subtle as he thinks, or he isn't trying very hard. either way, livio is aware that he's being followed, but... to be honest, he doesn't really understand vash anyway, so he just ignores it. if the guy needs something from him, he'll ask eventually, right?

so he does! and so liv turns around to see what he needs, and then jumps and yipes not unlike angelina when a squirrel surprises her in the window. he's certainly not down for the count, but he does give vash a horrified look.]

What the hell was that?! [this is surprise, not anger. it's livio, after all.]

i // sorry to embarrass both of them but not really

[succiduous]

[Gnosis is, surprisingly, in his room for once. He's not working — he was working yesterday, but Enciodes made him go to bed — so sorry, the arm is going to be returned at a later date clearly.

He is also asleep. Enciodes is definitely with him. The door opening wakes him up...

...]

Good morning?

[Bird looks scrungled. Vash disappears and reappears and Gnosis somehow looks even more tired.]

...Vash. Disappearing and reappearing won't make me get out of bed any faster.

[In fact he is going to remain shirtless and in bed with his husband thank you.]

[unheiring]

i. At the Combination Pizza Hut

[Luca is most certainly… here. Mostly because he doesn’t have the choice not to be. He’ meant to walk into the store room, and now finds himself face to face with… Well, let’s be honest. He doesn’t know what he’s looking at. None of these products make sense. In fact, they make less sense than the usual not making sense. This isn’t just temporal displacement, this is batshit insanity.

But… might as well make the most of it. He’s collected a few items. Two of the last one, in fact. He holds the shirts particularly close to his chest. For some reason, when he looks at them, he smiles.

Of course, the second he sees someone looking at him. His face sours. And if they try to get close? He immediately holds up the former package and stares the intruder dead in the eyes.]

Consider this a reminder.

[Okay, dickhead.]

ii. And Taco Bell

[At some point, Luca finds himself in that strange playspace. Vast as it is, he knows he needs to investigate from every angle, les something take him by surprise.

Luca isn't, in fact, trying to go down the slide. He is very small you see, and needs every height advantage he can get. The slide gives him just that. The problem is that said slide is a bit slippery, and so as he pushes up onto the toes of his boots? He pitches forward and down into the waiting chocolate spray below.

It goes exactly how one might expect. The only difference is that by the end, he has fallen flat on his face. Leave him here to sink into the chocolate slop, thanks.]

iii. Wildcard

[You know what to do. Hit me with anything, or DM me here or on Discord to plot something out.]

ii

[cryopathy]

Oh, that's rough.

[kiera witnessed that whole debacle, and just stood there observing. because of course she did.

by now, she's approached the pit of liquid chocolate to get a better look at luca's misery, but not close enough for luca to, say, reach her to pull her in as well.]

i.

[forwander]

A reminder... that you're intending to purchase these items? Very well.

[Passenger is immune to your death glares my friend.]

[sesa]

A) A doorway of confusion

[You know when it's a bad time for the doors and windows in the Grove to be scrambled? Right now, when Sesa is right in the middle of moving. Sure, he and Passenger finished most of the work already, but there's still a lot yet to be done in his opinion. He has to get his workshop up and running for...actual work, which means moving his projects from the lab over to the garage. Which ALSO means...

Sesa, with his arms full of various parts, bits, and bobs he'd been working on, starts to go through every door imaginable to try and find his workshop, starting from the lab proper.

Perhaps he ends up in your bedroom. Or the inn. Or the therapy building. Literally anywhere BUT where he wants to be, becoming increasingly frustrated with each subsequent failure. But each door leads to the same wrong location, so surely...

Surely, he wouldn't end up...falling from the highest window at the top of the rec center. Surely that wouldn't happen while he's carrying a bunch of heavy equipment!!

...except no, that's exactly what happens, and if anybody wants to hear Sesa scream like a girl, now is the time. He quite literally seems to fall from the ceiling, and it's only thanks to the swimming pool below to catch his fall that he doesn't break his neck on impact, or worse.

His equipment, which is not waterproof, will not be so lucky.]

B) Savings, Savings, Savings!

[Sesa never does make it to his workshop, unfortunately. Which is fine, it's not like that equipment was going anywhere any time soon. In fact, the best he can do is shove it into the corner of the pool area to dry out as best it can until all of the wackiness blows over.

Speaking of which...

Somewhere, in the deep bowels of Alpha Mart, there is a massive pile of things. Skiens of yarn, pool noodles, memory foam, packing peanuts, styrofoam cups and plates...anything soft and light all pushed together into a tower as large as one of the aisles. And coiled up at the very top of its treasure slumbers a beast that has somehow mistaken Sesa for one of its many noodly and/or soft treasures and now has him wrapped up in its coils.

As you come around the corner, Sesa hisses:]

T-tread lightly! This beast...it has already captured me, and it will not hesitate to do the same to you. Leave me, don't come any closer!

[The wyrm's tongue flickers out as it sleeps, bleleleleh-ing against Sesa's cheek. It's eyes appear to be massive googly eyes that wobble when it breathes, and it seems to be asleep despite the eyes being just. Wide open.

Staring, at you.]

C) Wildcard

[My ooc plotting post is here if none of these prompts work for you!]

B) i'm crying

[forwander]

[Elliot, who has been wandering around looking for his boyfriend all day... he has found the boyfriend! Boyfriend is safe. :)]

My, Sesa, I didn't realise you had such a large, cuddly friend.

[Standing some distance off... watching... not helping...]

[succiduous]

Network, a few days into the event

[The netbooks will have a gradual drawing appearing one morning on three of the pages. It seems to be a map, and it does indeed take up every possible space on those pages, so any discussion is going to need to be done on the others... it's a floorplan of each building with labels in different pen colours — names of building are written in Gnosis' scratchy Liberi scrawl in black, while doorways and windows are labelled A, B, C, et cetera, in varying colours of the rainbow. It is very reminiscent of ye olde Pokemon Victory Road guidebooks, y'all know the ones.

This, of course, is followed by a detailed explanation of how to get to each major area in the Grove underneath it. Door A leads to room A, where the doors here lead to D, G, and U... One has to go from C to F to Z to get to the clinic, for example.]

This is Gnosis. I've spent the last few days constructing a map of the Grove's new layout, labelled appropriately. Point A will lead to point A, et cetera, I believe all of you are intelligent enough to read a map. I've provided details on getting to each area above.

Hopefully this is helpful.

wildcard???

[I don't feel like doing a real toplevel have this, goodbye]

[mooninthewater]

Oh, wow, Gnosis! You know, you didn't have to tackle such a huge project on your own. I would've been more than happy to help...! Are you okay? Have you eaten?

[soundsurfing]

1.

[ Beat knows enough about the back rooms to realize when he's in one when he finally lands in the Alpha Mart but honestly, this is nicer than the games cause there's edible food and no scraggly wire monsters chasing his ass.

And there's a ton of amusing things.

Like the Sticky Hand "of God", which you may end up the end of, as he throws it with all his might from somewhere in the mart and plaps aggressively to cling to whoever it touches, with little fractal fingers on it's fingers. ]

2.

[ Or you might catch him holding a can of Whoop Ass: Guaranteed Ass Whoopin' or your money never returned because it's free! He's staring intently at it, and lifts his eyes to catch yours.

He grins. ]

I can't believe Ima actually open a can of whoop ass, yo.

[ He pops the top and instantly disappears into an accurate 2D representation of a good ol' cartoon fight cloud, complete with fists and feet coming out occasionally. He can be heard yelping inside and when the cloud dissipates, he can be found laying dead on the floor, looking bewildered.

He is also now sporting a comical black eye. He whispers the softest: ]

What the fuck....?

2

[leggierissimo]

[ When Beat comes to, Joshua will be standing nearby, a can of what appears to be soda in his hand. An unusual sight, considering he isn't big on sodas, but the fact that the can is labeled Gender Fluid probably has something to do with his sudden change of heart.

He takes a sip, looking down at Beat for a moment. Silent, studying the cartoonishly apt black eye. ]

Well, the packaging certainly didn't lie, did it.

[ siiiiiiiip ]

[purevanillacookie]

When Life Comes Knocking

[ Doors leading to other places wasn't on Pure Vanilla's list of things he'd have to try and deal with, but here they are. Or, actually, there he is; running into an item in your home/inn room/place of business, blind as a bat because he doesn't walk around his own house with his staff, thank you. Maybe you're investigating the thud and bleat from a wall being ran into. Sorry if he broke anything.

At least he'll freeze after, hands out, still as a fainted goat. ]

...Hello...?

[ Help. ]

Shop Smart, Shop Alpha Mart

[ At least by the time he winds up in the Mart, he's gotten back to his place long enough to grab his staff. He's wandering aimlessly through the aisles, studying ridiculous labeled things with a small smile on his face. He has a small basket in his arm, steadily filling up with things. He seems enamored with the fruits and vegetables the most, and there is a tiny party going on between all of them in the basket as they socialize. The tomatoes have opened something and quite a few vegetables are currently in the process of pickling.

If he runs into you, he will beam and offer some fried sunflower petals. ]

They are quite delicious!

Wildcard

[ Hit me with other things if you got an idea! If you find him beyond the freezers, good luck getting him to linger, he doesn't like these places much at all. The Eye Room he bolts through practically, his expression pinched and panicked. The Pool Room he studies thoughtfully, keeping wide because wool and heavy liquids don't mix. But he will get closer if anyone needs help if they find themselves in the chocolate and slowly sinking.

And finally he can be found in the middle of the grove when he gets spat out after the checkout, looking disappointed at his empty arms. He really liked his sunflower petal chips... ]

shop smort

[cryopathy]

[kiera has been taking their sweet time, similarly enjoying the nonsensical whimsy of this place. in fact, when they run into pv, their basket holds an open carton of eggs... or rather, it would, if said eggs hadn't escaped their container on their chick legs sticking out of cracks in the bottom. a couple of them even have wings poking out the sides and one has made the fur ruff around kiera's shoulders into its own little nest.

she gives a wave in greeting and accepts his offer. she knows she can trust his taste (save the mistake of pickle splits) and it certainly doesn't disappoint this time.]

Oh, they are nice and light! Thank you, Pure Vanilla. [and upon eyeing the veggies' little pickling party with a grin...] You've been having fun, I take it?