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Update 11 You move to cell G5: Buggy Bend. Music.  You bounce along the cobblestone road Eastward, chirping your echolocation with eager hope. Before long you hear a reply!   "Hey!!!" thinks the mint nelumoptera sitting in the river bend, beneath its fantastic array of ears, which have all piqued. "Hey hey hey! You're... a bat-faced vegetable too, aren't you!!!??" The nelumoptera is right! You, a CONVoptera, have many things in common with this creature, you realize as you exchange excited introductions. Xenobiologically speaking you share two traits, and are therefore close cousins! You both have a flared nose leaf, though yours is certainly larger and more vibrantly colored. You both have big ears but their ears, wow! And they have 6 of them! And you're both carnivorous plants which is awesome, you share lots of tips with each other on getting dead stuff into your mouth, a strong common interest. You seem willing to move around more than they do, they aren't a stationary plant but they do seem content to stay in the river mostly, eating bugs. Which you also love! And honestly, that river looks too fast for you, so they can have it. It is a lovely part of the forest too. You laugh together in a happy little psychic giggle-fest for a good long while about all your little differences, your flagella vs their flippers most notably, but also your many similarities as bat-faced vegetables. You share a meal of "zippies" as they call them; they are indeed delicious and filling. But you save room for some starlight together, them in the river and you on the shore, just two carnivorous plants feasting on photons and winged critters, a family dinner for two. You have a lovely time.  You are basking in big starlight on the river shore, but the river is too fast for you to follow it Northward. You'd need flippers like your cousin, but you're still glad to have your flagella. The cobblestone road continues to the East, and there's a clearing to the South with some pretty tall flowers to either side. Poplicot and Arec trees line the swift-flowing river and its sandy banks. Your cousin the nelumoptera is laughing with you about bugs again. Family and food is great and all, but once the feast is finished you should probably think about where to head to next. Thankfully, no rush! Poll 11.1: Hate to eat and run, but...
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Nov 27, 2020 00:51
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 23:20 |
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aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa that was so cute and good
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Nov 27, 2020 01:17
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why is there no "stay here forever" option we have found the greatest treasure there is...
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Nov 27, 2020 01:23
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Look tall flowers |
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Nov 27, 2020 01:32
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let's make sure we memorize where our cousin lives so we can come back to chill with them again!
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Nov 27, 2020 01:39
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what are tall flowers doing?
(͡๏̯๏ |
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Nov 27, 2020 05:46
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๏̯͡๏﴿
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The most  update
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Nov 27, 2020 07:32
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Rarity posted:The most biosterous posted:aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa that was so cute and good Ass-penny fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Nov 27, 2020
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Nov 27, 2020 08:14
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rear end-penny posted:Look tall flowers Warezd Quake posted:what are tall flowers doing? The tall flowers that line the clearing to the South are torrunculus, towering but delicate plants with blossoms that erupt from one another's centers like a teetering stack of cups. Or, really, the more accurate description would be, if you ever were to see a teetering stack of cups, you would think they looked like a torrunculus plant, considering the only fancy meal you ever remember attending was a minute ago and involved eating bugs out of your cousin's ears. There were no dishes or utensils to speak of. But, six of one half dozen of the other, really. The torrunculus flowers are beautiful regardless, even the one plant that's all crooked and looks like something big grabbed at it with clumsy claws. As a fellow vegetable you do notice something odd about the torrunculus flowers: they are overloaded with pollen. Their postures are unmistakable, almost lewd, desperately begging some passing creature to feast on the powdery treasure inside each blossom, the cheeky little tarts. And they all seem to be begging towards the same direction: due South. You try not to stare, but something freaky is up here, you'd bet your grass on it! 
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Nov 28, 2020 02:30
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I voted 
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Nov 28, 2020 07:27
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The polls are closed! Saying goodbye to your cousin after the feast is hard and takes several attempts, but eventually after many thanks and a careful hug from shore you mosey South through the torrunculus flowers, and into the clearing...
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Nov 29, 2020 17:41
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Nov 30, 2020 07:32
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Update 12 You move to cell G6: Royal Riverside. Music.   You explore South through the torrunculus-lined clearing in the poplicots and Arecs, and come to a grassy area by a river. The flowers here are even more pollen-encrusted, some so badly they're beginning to droop, which to a fellow vegetable is fascinating, if a little squicky. But you tolerate prurience well, walking through the collection of sex organs caked in their own emissions, merely giggling to yourself here and there. Then, at the edge of the clearing where the grass meets the sandbank, you spot something new. At the South end of the clearing a large stack of light-blue papery lumps is nestled into the sandy grass. You recognize it as some kind of nest, mostly due to the many smaller light-blue flying creatures hovering around it gently, landing occasionally and crawling in and out of the mound. You're still full from feasting with your cousin to the North, so these particular flying crawly things aren't all that appetizing looking. Yet. Once you've looked around you can return through the clearing to the North, or follow the sandbank East, but the river and trees block the way South and West respectively. Poll 12.1: Rivers, roads, and rude roots!
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Nov 30, 2020 19:48
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Let's inspect the nest and the flying creatures. |
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Nov 30, 2020 21:42
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Barking Gecko posted:Let's inspect the nest and the flying creatures.
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Nov 30, 2020 22:01
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Barking Gecko posted:Let's inspect the nest and the flying creatures. solid plan
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Nov 30, 2020 23:59
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Hopefully we can do this without being killed. |
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Dec 1, 2020 01:04
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Barking Gecko posted:Let's inspect the nest and the flying creatures. Barking Gecko posted:Hopefully we can do this without being killed. You carefully approach the nest, and are fascinated by what you see. It's a colony of Sky Mogoogers, a cat-faced gelatinous hive-entity that builds stalagmite-like nests out of layers of their own body-slime, and raises broods of hundreds to thousands inside. The individual mogoogers aren't much to look at, just membranous bubbles of sky-blue goo with a couple pointy little ears and slit-pupil eyes drifting around their surface as they float, and long whiskers that look perfect for pollinating, in your provegetable opinion.  Though no one individual mogooger reacts very strongly to you approaching, their thoughts address you en masse, a cyclonic chorus of drippy little purrs and hisses thinking more-or-less in unison. "Stop!" the collective thoughts insist, and you comply cautiously. "Stay back, plant! We don't care how much pollen you have, no work until we get our monarchy back! We're not joking around!" Although the ins and outs of labor negotiation are beyond you as a bat-faced vegetable with jump-rope legs, you are at least empathetic enough to inquire what happened to their "monarchy". The mogoogers drift around each other thoughtfully, focusing their collective attention with some difficulty. "Disappeared! They were supposed to be scouting new spots for hives, but that was ages ago and nobody ever came back. We're lost without the royals! You briefly want to tell the mogooger drones that they don't need any royals to order them around, that they in fact can work toward their own interests and be free of such a regressive system and its draconian concentration of power in such a small percentage of society. But, watching two wall-eyed bubbles bounce off each other mid-air, pop, and wriggle their deflated membranes back into the slimy skin of the nest you realize maybe these critters really do need their leaders. Who are you to judge? You smartly keep your thoughts in the not-psychic lobe of your vegetable brain and let the flitting whisker-bubbles continue. "If we go out pollinating without the countess, the duchess and the baroness, we'll get lost and die for sure!" thinks the hive-mind, but before you can respond the hive-mind does it for you. "But if we don't go pollinate we'll starve!" "Yeah we know, we can stop reminding us, okay?" "Sorry, us. We're just nervous, is all" "Can we not do this in front of company, please?" "Oh shut up, there's nobody here to embarrass" "We're here!" "Yeah, and who are we???" "Our mama, that's who!" The hive mind buzzes at itself in little argumentative fits for a while. You mention that you'll keep a look out for the missing mogooger matriarchs, but the nest seems preoccupied. You give them some space.
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Dec 1, 2020 04:58
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ask them which way their royals went?
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Dec 1, 2020 05:06
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The magoogers are pretty funny! |
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Dec 1, 2020 05:10
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Stoner Sloth posted:ask them which way their royals went? "We don't know, exactly" the mogoogers reply after a brief huddle. "But they're supposed to be out looking for forest glades like this one, clearings in the wooded region, away from roads, preferably with flowers nearby. Assuming they're actually doing their jobs, that's the sort of place they'll be." "That's assuming a lot." "SSHHH!!" a conglomeration of multiple voices shush the snide retort. "Now is neither the time nor the place!" The hive returns to drippy bickering. You make a mental note to keep a lookout for forest glades and flower patches from now on.
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Dec 1, 2020 05:16
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ooh, this is a rad quest! also the magoogers are precious and we must defend them and help them
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Dec 1, 2020 05:30
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The polls are closed! You go East with confidence! You've never been so certain of anything before in all your short life!
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Dec 2, 2020 21:22
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Update 13 First things' first, you realize you have a lot going on suddenly, what with all these challenges and mysteries you feel compelled to solve. You take a moment to make a mental list of it all.  You move to cell H6: Old Peat's Shoal. Music.  You explore Eastward along the sandy river bank, until another bend in the rushing water prevents continuing any further.  The far side of the river widens into a shoal where many half-submerged rocks confuse the swirling water's path, and you can see multiple Mint Nelumopteras lurking there, eying clouds of zippies for their suppers. You squeak hello, and are welcomed enthusiastically by your water-bound cousins, in the inimitable bat-faced vegetable family style. "So you're our famous cousin, eh?" one of the nelumopteras chit-chats psychically with you. "Our kin up-river screeched us all about you!" another adds. You're flattered of course, but also distracted; you can't help but keep glancing at one of the nelumoptera in the shoal that is considerably larger and more ragged looking than those you've seen before. You eventually work up the courage to inquire after them. "Oh, you haven't met Old Peat yet, huh?" the other nelumopteras chuckle. "Peat's a legend! Probably the oldest thing on the river except for the river itself. Isn't that right old-timer?"  Old Peat shakes their very old head a little, which is more of a response than you've seen so far. Unlike the other nelumopteras they only have 5 ears, not counting the stub of one that appears to have been broken off long ago. The remaining ear-stalks are broad and heavy, drooping down into the waters, overgrown with lichens, grasses and fungi. You can now make out Peat's old scraggly face at the base of the giant ears, just above the surface of the river, cloudy-eyed and mumbling. "Eh!?!?!" the ancient nelumoptera thought-bursts in approximately your direction. "Who iddit? Who be vidditing Ol' Peat!?" "Umm, be a little careful if you would" ask the younger nelumopteras as you move to address the senior creature. "Old Peat gets tired real easy, so, try to keep it to one inquiry per visit, if you would?" You appreciate your cousins' concern for their elder, and consider your words carefully. It's not every day you get to ask a question of a living legend! Poll 13.1: What do you ask Old Peat about?
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Dec 4, 2020 06:32
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I'm thinking we should ask Old Peat about the magoogers. Something like "Hey you seent any o these blue globby magrooger shits round deese parts?' E: lol that doesn't seem to be an option. |
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Dec 4, 2020 06:44
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"old peat" is such a good name omg
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Dec 5, 2020 16:52
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The polls are closed! After some thought, you decide to ask Old Peat about the strange starry shard you saw offered as the prize for the foot race. There was just something so... collectible, about it.
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Dec 5, 2020 17:58
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Dec 5, 2020 21:28
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i look forward to learning 
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Dec 5, 2020 23:24
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Update 14 You are in cell H6: Old Peat's Shoal. Music. You describe the starry shard to Old Peat, who furrows their grassy brow and blows bubbles in the water with their nose. You wonder if you're doing the wondrous rock justice in your psychic description, but eventually the old nelumoptera's eyes flicker with recognition and, you dare think, excitement. They begin to weave a tale in their creaky, funky old-plant thoughts, and the younger bat-faced vegetables all turn to receive them. "Ol' Peat wadn't alwayd down here in a foredt, nope! When Ol' Peat wudda pod, our family lived up above a falld! Yup, all a way up on above a waterfalld, and we hadda work fer a dippied up above a falld, I tell ya." Old Peat holds court for a little while about how all the younger nelumopteras don't know how easy they have it now, how much slower the zippies are in the forest relative to "back then", but eventually they get sick of hearing it and nudge the conversation back to the point. You wait politely through all of it, just enjoying family time. "Anyhoo, when Ol' Peat wudda tumblin' over a waterfalld, my my wudda wonderful view. Ol' Peat daw a whole foredt unnernead, yed dey did. A whole big foredt, and dticking out offa top uvvit? A black tower, all dtarklin' like dtar-light!" The young nelumopteras in the shoals titter among themselves at Old Peat thought-projecting "dticking", but you're more on-task (and don't get the joke), so you're much more interested in the tower part. "Now Ol' Peat dunno if a tower dill dtand, maybe it dud. Maybe it dud not. Maybe it felled apart to pieded by now, could be. But back den it wud Wedt of a waterfalld, I know it! Wedt... padt a... padt a..." Old Peat suddenly seems very tired, as you had been duly warned, so you thank them as they drift off, and say your goodbyes to the rest of the family. As you go you hear the funny old vegetable mumble one last bit of their story: "Black tower... wedt of a waterfalld, padt a black pond... don't go... be caref...zzzzzz" You walk back the way you came, past the mogooger nest and the yearning torrunculus blossoms, all the way back to the cobblestone road, while you think about what Old Peat said. A whole tower of starry black material! What a thing! If it still exists, that is. But still, it's intriguing...   You are at cell G5: Buggy Bend. Music. You wave hello to your cousin in the river bend and consider your options. You could continue exploring Eastward on the road, or go back to the smoldering crater to the West, and explore North or South from there. You could return way out West to the banner, explore the dunes or enter another foot race. Or maybe that northern clearing in the woods on the way to the banner might be interesting. So many choices! Poll 14.1: How now, orange convoptera?
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Dec 6, 2020 20:17
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we should see if we can get a nice thank-you gift for old peat sometime! i say we go east but i don't actually have any real reason for picking it 
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Dec 7, 2020 00:47
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i love an old timers story
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Dec 7, 2020 03:25
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The polls are closed! Wanderlust compels you Eastward along the cobblestone road, with confidence!
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Dec 8, 2020 17:19
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go east, young bat-faced vegetable
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Dec 9, 2020 04:47
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biosterous posted:go east, young bat-faced vegetable
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Dec 9, 2020 05:41
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Maybe they're a vegetable-bodied bat
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Dec 9, 2020 10:49
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Rarity posted:Maybe they're a vegetable-bodied bat despite all my rage, im still just a vegetable-bodied bat in a cage
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Dec 9, 2020 12:05
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Update 15 You move to cell H5: Carpentry Crossing. Music.  You exchange cool nods with your cousin and follow the cobblestone road further East along the river with a confident bounce in your step. Your swagger is short-lived however, as the road leads straight to a hideous arch!  At first you hardly believe what you're seeing. A hodgepodge of mutilated plant corpses straddles the entire width of the river, curved precisely against its own weight in a cruel mockery of life. You manage to emit the weakest of echolocation chirps in your shock at the sight of this thing, but the feedback only confirms your fears. Dead wood, from end to end, from multiple trees. Not even from just one KIND of tree! A massacre turned into a monument, bodies split and bent, dead limbs curled, stripped and stained. You feel you'll be sick if you gaze much longer at it, but all the visible grains and knot-holes in the hideous arch's blasted surface are so grotesque as to be mesmerizing. The violence inherent in this thing! Why!? Monstrous beings must have twisted together this necropolis on the river as a war trophy, or a warning of some kind. Only as you begin to back away, your vegetable heart pounding, do you notice the pole and slats pinned together, just like the grisly totem you saw in the woods to the West. Fallen logs and stray twigs are one thing, but this... this is just wrong, you can feel it. The otherworldly chill of fetishistic wood-violence engulfs this place. You are compelled to flee back West again. You return to cell G5: Buggy Bend. Music.  It takes you some time to calm down again. Your cousin the Mint Nelumoptera nods knowingly from its rock in the river, but is solemnly silent. You can tell it has seen the same horrors you have. These woods are not as friendly as you had once naively thought. You can return West to the Crater and then explore North or South from there. You could also go further West, to the pond or the banner. You could enter another foot-race! Or, you could go chat with Old Peat. Whatever you decide, as a vegetable-bodied creature, you hope you never see anything as awful as that arch ever again as long as you live. Poll 15.1: Nest, West, West, West, West, or West?:
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Dec 9, 2020 19:24
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I love our bat faced vegetable homie but I also kinda wish we could cross the bridge. Next character I guess. |
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Dec 10, 2020 01:07
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 23:20 |
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The polls are closed! After a great deal of thought you decide to put as much distance between you and this river as possible, for now. You start running West, and just keep your eyes forward.
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Dec 13, 2020 20:50
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