where the forest has teeth

For a brief time, the world seems brighter; the sun pokes through the clouds more, and the gloomy atmosphere of the constant overcast days lessens ever so slightly. The sky seems bigger, brighter… but, it is the end of autumn as we know it and with the change of leaves comes bitter frost. The change is practically overnight — one morning grants pretty frosted windows and pleasantly crunchy leaves underfoot, and the next the world is being softly blanketed in snow.

Heimr stands at the window of the General Store, and every time he sees someone not dressed for the weather, he immediately calls them in. No one leaves without a proper pair of winter shoes and a coat, and the more you try to decline, the more he adds. Hats. Scarves. Gloves. Snow pants. Just make it easy on the both of you. Although, if you do feel you need that for the weather, he’ll oblige … And at least everything is nice to look at alongside being high quality.

Those with the bone ring may hear childish giggling as they leave, see the flick of a fox tail out of the corner of their eyes — but Plum is content to stay in the shadows still.

Winter frost and the falling snow seem to spread everywhere — Callan’s lake already has ice forming a thin shell on top while Terho’s cabin is blanketed in white. The river water is crisp and clear as ever, but the cold is bone deep and the Guardian tires from it already. Even the beach seems washed over with the cold.

Winter is here, and the cutting chill already tells you one thing: this won’t be an easy one.

As the weather worsens, the forest and fog seem to open in sprawling paths. Some are inviting, a warm feeling in the air and even plant life poking through the snow still, an early spring! Some are alluring, wind beckoning and urging you forward. Come home, it says. Come home.

Even if you know it’s a bad idea, others might not — will you really let Mamika wander into the woods alone? Not that it’s truly her. The forest isn’t above tricks to get what it wants, and will lure you down these paths with illusions and mirages, the sounds of voices you know and love calling for you, for help, for anything and anyone — and maybe that is a trick, but can you really risk it?

Regardless, once you’re on the path, there’s no going back. It leads to a dead end and the fog closes around you. You’re trapped, alone in the woods, and all eyes are on you.

… But only for a few hours. After that, you’re free to go, unharmed and unscathed. It’s just that… are you really you? Your clothes are different. Your memories too. Maybe now you remember making a different choice at a major crossroad. Maybe you didn’t save them. Maybe you did. Maybe everything went wildly wrong, and maybe it actually went right. But you’re different now, despite remembering your life in the abandoned Grove and all the people here clearly.

As you wander back off the path into town, you know this is right. You’ve been trapped here for however long with the people here, and maybe you no longer love them like this, but you know them, know yourself, and know what’s happened.

You’re just from a different walk of life, now.

Grey, overcast skies. A touch of autumn rain. The smell of crisp apples and fallen leaves, and the crunch of grass underfoot. Pumpkins growing along the path and out of the walls of the buildings and on the rooves and wait what—

You’re not sure how you got here, but does it really matter? There’s something more urgent happening. As you stare at the pumpkin growing out of the wall by your head, something small and coin-shaped bonks you right on the noggin. As you look up, you’ll realise that the rain is gradually becoming less and less wet, and more and more… candy.

It’s raining candy. Wrapped candy, mind — the sky doesn’t want any food safety issues! No razor blades in the chocolate this year! — but candy nonetheless. Chocolate coins, taffy, sour candies, you name it, all coming down gradually before an absolute deluge of goodies pour down upon Aldric’s Grove. Some of them include wrapped bags of microwave popcorn and, yes, the occasional toothbrush. If you’re lucky, you might get clocked in the head with a mini pumpkin!

…don’t be lucky. Maybe get inside and wait for the trick-or-treat storm to pass, and make some friends while you’re at it. Surely the people who’ve been here for a bit can explain this one? Surely…?

At midnight the day after the candy storm ends, a distant rattlin’ sound can be heard. From the forest surrounding the Grove comes the clickety-clack of dry bones as what appears to be a small army of skeletons assembles. At the head of the phalanx is none other than everyone’s favourite friendly skeletal spirit, Mr. Bone-Jangles. If anyone happens to be up at this late hour, he’ll wave hello and greet you… by plucking one of those pumpkins off the wall or out of the ground, breaking it open by ramming his skull into it, and handing you one half.

It’s full of candy, just like the skies were. Has anyone cleaned up the candy sitting on the ground from last night’s storm…? This is too much! Just as someone tries to tell him that there’s too much sugar here, he breaks open a second pumpkin, which contains fully-baked pumpkin pie that uses the shell of the pumpkin as the crust. Sigh.

This will be your entire month. Mr. Bone-Jangles will hand you sugar-filled pumpkins if he thinks you’re getting too sad or uncomfortable at any point, and his skeletal entourage follow behind him, loudly playing off-key music like the worst marching band you’ve ever heard. You’re not entirely sure how skeletons can play the trumpet — they don’t have lungs! — but it doesn’t really matter. It’s happening. You must deal with it. He’s not taking “no” for an answer.

Cheer up! Stop being depressed! Try Not Thinking About It™!

Not everything can go smoothly, though. Not that one would call Mr. Bone-Jangles and his marching band of goobers smooth, but at least they aren’t an active threat to you. The same night he appears, so do others. Your “Other” — a doppelganger who looks just like you, thinks like you, acts like you, has powers like you do (or don’t). They know you. They want to be you.

The Others don’t make their appearance too obvious. They hide in the shadows, waiting for the opportune time to strike. Some might even wait until you’re talking to someone else to appear and cry out that’s not me! I’m right here! in an attempt to frame you. In almost every way, they’re the perfect “you” — especially should they get the drop on you and slash your throat, or gut you like a cod, or push you into the well where you’ll fall for an eternity before drowning all alone. Your Other will replace you seamlessly and, perhaps, they might turn their attention to your friends and loved ones next.

Yet, there’s always something “off” about them, no matter how perfect a replica. Perhaps your Other is more temperamental. Perhaps they don’t speak as well, or they speak far more intelligently than you ever did, or they’ve forgotten basic facts about their life. Perhaps your Other forgot that their dear friend’s birthday is coming up here soon. Or perhaps…

…the knife they brandish in broad daylight is a dead giveaway?

If you don’t kill your Other first, they will certainly kill you. The Others aren’t too concerned about any corpses hanging out in broad daylight, easily discovered by the masses where they can try to investigate if it’s “you” or “them”. Their job is to kill you; the method and clean-up really don’t matter, and since they’re the only ones left, they can claim easily that you were the doppelganger all along.

Where does your spirit go when you die to an Other? Deep within the forest lies a mansion made of creaky old wood and worn-down stone, one which no one outside can currently get into. The spirits of those who died are trapped here, left to haunt these halls. It is, ostensibly, a normal-if-decrepit home inside. There are living rooms, there’s a foyer, there are plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms, there’s a humungous kitchen — and as you float through the home, sometimes, a sense of mischief overtakes you. You really want to throw that table at someone. You really want to jump out at someone and frighten the daylights out of them. It’s dark in here, and there are plenty of places to hide.

Sadly for your prankster’s heart, the living — no matter how hard they try, and you sure can hear them trying — have been unable to break in, and they won’t be able to. Yet, standing just outside the iron-wrought fence, a stalwart figure of chaos and bad ideas, holding a greatsword with both skeletal hands… stands Mr. Bone-Jangles.

It seems like a way inside might unveil itself after all.

Today, progress has been made in the Grove. The sun shines brightly on the cleaned-up remains of what used to be the “Burned Town”, now lovingly just called “north” for lack of a better term. At night, a small handful of stars finally shine in skies that have been empty for millennia, and birds sing loudly throughout, overjoyed now that they’ve felt the stirring of the long-dead Sky Guardian. All is peaceful. All is right with the world.

…and then there’s the sound of familiar, watery laughter from the Lake Guardian himself, having returned to the Grove for whatever reason he could possibly have, standing by the well and performing a jaunty dance on his scrawny legs. He spins around the well once, twice… and then the skies darken and the clouds swell, and suddenly it’s raining buckets, soaking you and everyone else to the bone immediately.

“It’s a gift for freeing me!!” Callan shouts joyously, unaware of the fact that gifts are usually nice things and not biblical floods. “Enjoy it!!”

Well, it seems like this will be the rest of your month. The rains don’t abate at all, but they do come with one gift that actually seems worthwhile: Any plant that stays out in the rain for long enough will suddenly spring out of the earth at gargantuan size. Enjoy your giant crops — they’re still edible! — and your flowers the size of pillows, everyone.

If staying out in the rain isn’t exactly your thing (who could blame you, really?), you might consider heading back inside and spending some nights in. It’s been a while since everyone had a break without being exposed to water for way too long, and what better way to spend a night than curled up in bed in a nest of blankets?

As you drift off to sleep to the serene sounds of the river flooding, there’s a sudden loud bang, like someone slammed a door. You open your eyes and don’t see a thing… so back to bed you go, only to hear it again. This time, as you lurch out of bed and desperately try to figure out who the hell is slamming doors this late, you’ll see your door opening and slamming itself. Opening again, and slamming. Soon after, the windows follow, and as you rub your eyes, your bed suddenly bucks and throws you to the floor.

Cool. Phenomenal. What just happened?

Perhaps you go to the inn couch to try sleeping there, but alas, the old couch has had enough of you and will summarily flip you back onto the floor, losing its cushions in the process. If you turn your anger toward the furniture, it will — strangely — attack you right back, chasing you down on bizarrely-animated legs that furniture simply should not have. The coffee table might bite, or the cabinets might start flinging cups at you.

If you are patient, however, and if you clean the furniture off — wash the pillows, scrub that mustard stain out of the cushions, sew up a hole your dog chewed into the mattress — it will stop throwing a tantrum. Finally, you can use furniture for its intended purpose.

A bit of raw chaos in Aldric’s Grove is not uncommon; perhaps furniture unionizing and non-stop downpours are the least of your concerns in quite some time. After all, you’re not trapped anywhere. You aren’t underwater, you aren’t playing in some twisted life-or-death game, no one is making the passage of time here any worse than usual…

Of course, if chaos is preferable to true horror, you can always have more of it. On your bedside table or under your pillow, you’ll find a drawstring bag containing a small handful of polished gemstones. As you hold them in your palm or between your fingers and inspect them under the light, you’ll feel something within you stirring.

Perhaps you’re holding rose quartz, the gemstone that symbolizes unconditional love, and you suddenly feel empty and loveless. Perhaps it’s amethyst, the gemstone attributed to calm emotions, and yet you’re feeling the most anxious you’ve ever felt in your entire life. Whatever the gem may be, its meaning is now inverted, and you get to suffer the effects of it.

Luckily, this curse — a gift from, who else, the Fallen Sun — can be broken quite easily. Simply clutch the gemstone in your palm and perform an act that embodies its true meaning, and everything will be back to normal. You’ll be holding a mundane rock to do whatever you want with, including throw it into the forest in hopes that it hits the Fallen Sun in his big, stupid head.

When the rains stop at the month’s end, the clear skies yet again show the stars, and it’s a beautiful sight to behold. It’s no galaxy, even with every light in the Grove off so you can see them all — but it’s special nonetheless, especially to those who have been here under an empty sky for so long. The moon itself feels like it casts joy down upon everyone, and a sense of overwhelming peace settles like a blanket over the entire settlement.

Should you visit Ydalir or Heimr at all, they will both encourage you to spend a night camping out, providing you blankets to lie out in the grass with. While it isn’t much, Ydalir has pulled an old telescope from her mirror for those of you who want to nerd out a bit. Snacks, tea, and hot chocolate will be provided to anyone staying out for the night, too. For better or for worse, you’re all here together, so why not bask in a moment of peace?

You open your eyes, and with a jolt, find yourself within the clearing of a miniscule town surrounded by trees and thick, black fog. Despite the ominous backdrop, nature seems to be thriving — it’s a pleasantly chill spring day, as far as anyone can tell, and everything is vibrant and blooming… even some of the animals. At some point, a friendly old dog with red fur approaches, carrying a basket in his jaws. Inside are blackberries and apples other fruits. Did he find this himself? Or did someone give them to him to bring to new arrivals? Regardless, he very clearly hopes that you’ll share.

A giant golden brown turtle sits by a tent, napping in the sunlight. Two statues sit in the courtyard by an old well — a haloed woman marked as the Goddess of the Sun, Beiwe, and a gentle woman looking adoringly at her counterpart, marked as the Goddess of the Moon, Ourania. If you pay your respects, the air feels gentle and warm in the day, and like a fresh cool breeze at night.

As you explore more, perhaps the bloomed animals will approach — a mossy squirrel, or a frog who happens to also be a lilypad. It’s charming, almost. Whimsical and kind.

Shame that the wall of fog looms ever on, watching. Waiting.

cw: hallucinations, compulsions, near-death experiences

For a while, spring seems gentle, almost. Peaceful. The previous month may have been full of jokes, but things are actually safe. Of course, that can’t last forever. Every night, a purple, shimmering mist floods the town. It does not breach the doors and windows, even if left open, but looking at it is… enticing.

Should you give in, the mist is cool and gentle, swaying around you like smoke. The longer you stay in, the more your eyes feel blissfully heavy. Soon, you find yourself surrounded by loved ones, in a place that brings you joy — a childhood home, a vacation spot, some place warm and safe and dear to your heart. Everyone is playing and having so much fun. Join them! Join them!

Of course, by the time you do jump into the fun, you’ll find yourself awakened with a start, just about to fall into danger. Perhaps you climbed a tree and were about to leap to the ground from too high up. Or maybe you stuck your head in the river and your lungs were about to empty. Regardless, the happy dream shatters with imminent danger, and perhaps you’d better hope that someone else is nearby to help you. … Especially since with each night you give in, the more enticing the mist is the next night.

At some point, the mist is forcibly dissipated and instead the moon shines brightly, almost like a spotlight. Investigation will reveal an absurdly large capybara that seems more like a vehicle than an animal, even with the jasmine flowers hanging off of it, siting down with the ‘door’ accessible to anyone willing to climb in.

“Come with me, and I will bring you to a night of festivities.” is all that it says when asked. And it knows that you will — you’re all curious as kittens, after all. Once the last person takes a fuzzy seat within the capybara, it slowly stands up and begins walking through the woods, and for the first time, everything seems peaceful. Normal, even. Why, there’s not even a monster or misshapen, grabby tree! Just a moonlit forest, and fireflies in the distance.

Eventually it brings you to a small but beautiful cabin, crouching down to let everyone out again. Outside is a layer of marble surrounded by pillars decorated with sheer fabrics and an abundance of lilies and calendula, jasmine and marigolds, hydrangeas and gladiolus. A buffet table has also been spread out, and within the cabin are changing rooms with a multitude of ornate gowns and suits, alongside sitting rooms and other potential necessities — though you get the feeling that you should still be on your best behavior here.

Gentle music plays from an unknown source. The capybara is resting, until it’s time to leave come sunrise. For one night, everything is at peace. You may as well enjoy it, and dance to your heart’s content.

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!

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.

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.