First for bad dreams.

Second for bad dreams

Third for bad dreams.

Coming up: some men just want to watch the world burn.

>>33825614

OH BOY HERE WE GO.

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>theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rhz3Hn2Z5Y

The woody THUNK! THUNK! THUNK! of your fire axe biting into the wooden base of the power pole echoes lonely and flat over the dead windmills and their dark, silent hill. The axe rises and falls with mechanical impetus, each blow sending chips of punky, rotting wood flying past your shoulder or stinging into your face.

“Are you going to talk to me?” Mado asks.

“About what?” you growl, winding up with the axe once more and burying it in the growing cut so violently that the hickory shaft nearly vibrates out of your hand. With a wet, sickening sound like bone cracking open to marrow, the rotting power pole gives way, crashing over with a sad, miserable sound. You stalk to the top of it and with one blow of your weapon part your prize – the end of the power cable leading to the wind turbine sub-station. A quick examination proves it'll fit the clamp receptacle on the transformer without problem.

“About what just happened to you back there,” Mado says. “You're not right, you – you can't keep -” Mado's voice seems to fail here.

>Talk to her.
>Challenge her – she certainly hasn't talked to YOU about any of that shit, has she?
>Demurr till later. You've a job to do, and that comes first.

Sorry for posting the first update 30 minutes late, I have some people here that need me to help them make instant mashed potatoes.

because that's so hard u guies

>>33826154
>Talk to her.
If only so we as the audience can maybe figure out what the hell that was. Why was a Haibane in the dreamworld? Seriously, I am so lost right now.

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>>33826190

All better now, I read the directions on the side of the box to them in plain english. Even gave them a digital timer.

>>33826154
>Challenge her – she certainly hasn't talked to YOU about any of that shit, has she?

>>33826258

Confirming that talking to Mado will shed a lot of light on that.

It's also what Stark himself is most reluctant to do; but Mado does know this place, this whole realm, better then he does. By quite a bit.

>>33826154
>>Talk to her.

>>33826154

>Talk to her.

Someone's gotta go first.

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You close your eyes wearily and let the axe fall to your feet in the dew-wet grass. In one hand you hold the power cable and the other, the heavy transformer. “Mado...” you say quietly. “I... I haven't asked you about anything I've seen in your head. I've not pressed it, at least.”

The silence from Mado's direction hardens into a palpable wall for several long moments that stretch uncomfortably between you.

“This isn't in either of our heads, Stark,” she says softly. “Even before... all this happened, with you, I suspected that not everything 'down here' came from my mind. Too many things that didn't fit. The priori – the needle headed people. That village of theirs in the Wasteland... and more of them, here and there. Like they... spread out, or something.” When she resumes, her tone has dropped to just above a whisper. “There's always been things down here that didn't quite fit, to me. My own... problems always feel familiar. Don't you get that feeling, too?”

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>>33826993

You think of every terror and trouble you've felt down here. The car door the girl the glass beating on it the water the draft the fires the the draft the smoke the puffing puffing just like the dragon, the way the axe felt in your hands as you stared it down and you knew, knew just where and how to hit it, to ventilate that fucker and bring it down-

A weak, rattling sigh escapes you. “Yeah,” you admit. “Yeah, they... they do. And that's the worst fucking part of them, like-”

“-something rising out of a swamp to pull you back under,” Madotsuki finishes for you. “And... they're bad, yeah, but you still know them, somehow. Its the other things down here that'll really stick with you... if you let them.”

You recall the screaming face-cubes hurtling through the sky, that horrific moment when you realized the sky itself was a false painting inside a dome too vast to contemplate; the sickening disorientation as the paradigm of your whole world lurched violently and senselessly as you fled for your life. Like looking at those annoying optical illusions with two different faces that can be seen two different ways; multiplied by infinity. “Yeah,” you say, your mouth dry. “I can see that.”

Mado's hand falls on your arm and squeezes it slightly. “Forget about whatever you heard back there. It's not from either of our psyches, its just... psychic roadkill. It doesn't mean anything-”

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>>33827028

“Are you stupid?” you snap, wrenching your arm out of her grasp and wheeling 'round to stare down at her. “Didn't you hear? Didn't you fucking HEAR?!” You clutch at your head, seizing a handfuls of hair and tugging at them till your scalp screams, something, anything to keep that voice from echoing around anymore. “Dreams. Dreams. Dreams. Dreams. Fucking DREAMS-”

“Stark!” Mado shouts. “I told you-”

“I heard,” your voice grates out between clenched, grinding teeth. “I dreamed, she said. I dreamed, and fell into the well. And in the dreams he found her. They found each other through dreams, Mado. Just like you and me.”

Mado falls silent at this, her eyes invisible in the shadows of the sad, silent night as she gazes up at you.

“But he fucked up, Mado,” you whisper. “You heard her. He fucked it up, and he didn't save anyone. He failed. He failed, and-” you let the unspoken conclusion hit the earth between you, wet and cold.

“Is that what you want?” Madotsuki says quietly, her tone inscrutable. “To save me?”

>I don't want to live knowing I left you down here to die.
>If I die down here, I don't want to die for nothing.
>I... I don't want you to become like that, that thing in the building. Anything but that.

>>33827084
>I don't want to live knowing I left you down here to die.
We're a firefighter
Helping people is our job

>>33827084
>I don't want to live knowing I left you down here to die.

>>33827084
>>I don't want to live knowing I left you down here to die.
And we certainly aren't going to consider the option that we might die here. We're both getting out.

>>33827084
Is "all of the above" an option? Because really, those all apply. But if we're limited to just one, I'd go with
>I... I don't want you to become like that, that thing in the building. Anything but that.

She can't be allowed to become something like that. Something that only exists to suffer. It's not death that scares me here. Death would bring things to an end. But being trapped here, with the fear and pain never ending? No one deserves that. Least of all Mado.

>>33827084

>I... I don't want you to become like that, that thing in the building. Anything but that.

This feels closer to the truth, somehow.

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That sound that fucking sound toomtoom toomtoom redoubles in your head like a secondary heartbeat, racing faster and faster as the world begins to spin-”

“Stark!”

You catch yourself halfway down, landing on hands and knees, your breath coming in quick little gasps of panic. You focus on the air, forcing yourself to slow down.

“Mado,” you whisper in shame. “I'm sorry.”

“You're gonna be a lot sorrier if you don't get your shit together,” she says darkly.

You shake your head. “There's... there's already one girl down here, in my head. I don't think I could survive having another.” You shake your head, trying to dispel the dizziness, but it just intensifies. “I'm...”

You wish you were, but – you're not a hero. You're not a knight in shining armor, charging into the darkness with steel blade shining bright. You're just scared, and tormented, and terrified of how much worse things can get – and behind you, in the ruins of that building, you witnessed the shade that haunts another man's dreams; a shade that might well haunt yours, too.

Mado kneels by your side, and clamps a hand on your shoulder, pulling back till you yield and slump into a kneeling position, hands dangling at your sides and sweat pouring from your face. The gusting night breeze is feeble and cold on your face, the looming giants creaking and groaning in complaint.

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>>33828145

“Stark... that's from the real world. Up There. Life... life is the real trauma, Stark. Its full of doors you can't open and facts you can't change. Down here, things are different. This place is too concrete to be a deeper part of their psyche - whatever that was, back there, that was someone's memories of battles fought in the waking world.” She sighs, and squeezes your shoulder. “Did you see that girl with the wings, when you dropped her-”

“No, no I did I did I saw her curl up and ignite like a strip of birchbark thrust into a flame-”

“It could've been her dream,” Mado says softly. “She wants to be saved, but fears what'll come of it. Or the battle's still being fought, up there, and she's afraid. There's no way to tell, Stark. People like us... or... or her, we don't have dreams. We have nightmares.”

You take a deep, shaky breath and smell only wet grass and weak wind.

“Worry about the waking world,” Mado says. “Especially you. You said you were in trouble, up there?”

“... yeah,” you say softly, remembering the dark room, the vanishing ceiling – plummeting through the floor. The voices in the static that keep calling out to you, warning you. “I think I am.”

“Then lets stop wasting time,” Mado says. “We've both got things to do Up There, and we can't do them till we're finished Down here.”

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>>33828179

You stagger to your feet, the vertigo fading slowly. You look up at the silent giants, and see that the multicolored sky has faded to a brilliant, shimmering green hue, like the aurora proper, one that stretches down to meet the oddly sharp line of the distant horizon, like a gigantic, shielding dome.

You're finished here. You put away your fears and apprehensions, and affix your eyes on the dark rectangle ahead – the gates to the underworld, the Sewers.

You stride into them without fear, because this time, you're not going to be the fresh meat. You're going to be the barbecue.

As you cross the barrier between worlds, the cable in your hand and transformer in the other, only one thought, one question follows you into the darkness.

>Write-in

>>33828376
>>Write-in
What a man needs to do here to get a beer?

>>33828376
>Who's responsible for this?
Stark is going to put a stop to this. But first, he needs to find who put them here.

>>33828376
>What is Mado's place in all this?

>>33828376
>Why us?
Did something draw Stark and Mado (and Rakka?) into this place, or is it just a coincidence that the Origin is taking advantage of? Were we targetted? And if so, why?

>>33828376
What is that malevolent force trying to stop us? What is its motive?

>>33828376

>What does that...thing... want?

>>33828376
>What does that...thing... want?
This is one of the few pieces to the puzzle I feel like I'm missing.

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>>33828494
>>33828553
>>33828587
>>33828650
>>33828665
>>33828785
>>33828919

>come back from dinner
>anon fucking nails it

best readers ever

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>>33829020

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>>33828650
>theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uT1F2F0K9w

Why us?

The question spins 'round and 'round in your head as you enter The Sewers, the dripping wet and musty moldy dank assailing you. In the dark, alone in your thoughts, Mado's words rebound on you like your own echoing footsteps.

The memories of a battle fought in the waking world, she said. Found me in the dream, said the fallen angel. Then, and only then, did he SHOULDN'T HAVE come to her in the waking world, and fail his task.

The question settles on your shoulder like a leaden apron, slowing your steps. Why you and Mado? Why did you land in her dream, when you fell from consciousness?

The wide section of the sewer has come to life, new creatures with unblinking red eyes sailing down the center channel. Moans and echoes come drifting down the wide, concrete tunnel as unknown entities move in the black. Mado's watching your back, her eyes shifting about cautiously, her blade ready in a two-handed grip.

Why are the Torinigen trying to stop you? Why did the one in the Mall help?

You pull your odd-looking wrench from your belt and start scraping mold off the pipes and lines running down the wall till you find a yellow one – GAS. Tracing down its length with the wrench, you soon find the valve nearest the leak, not far from the mesh gate, and find your wrench fits the knob perfectly. With a single, sharp twist you close it tight. You don't want this tunnel filled with flammable fumes.

Not yet, anyways.

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>>33829927

You back up to the wall, lunge forward and clear the sludge-filled center channel with one mighty leap, your feet skidding and sliding on the wet, slime-covered surface opposite as you land. You throw yourself into the skid, lashing out with one foot and smashing in a maintenance door, almost invisible against the wall save for the way pipes and gas lines snake up and over it.

Who is the Driver to you, in the waking world? Why did he warn you about... about the Enemy who attacked you in the mall? If what Mado said was true... does it have a counterpart, Up There? Or is it a psychic entity entirely, a beast lurking in these dark voids between minds?

You stick your head in the door and find a tiny ladder leading up a narrow shaft. You scale it, taking the rungs two at at time as you head towards the pitch-black top.

Regarding what Mado said... you're in trouble up there, sure. But what does she need to do, Up There? Why does she need all the Effects?

Why are you sharing this seeming, this haunted dreaming?

What does she intend to do, up there?

What the FUCK is going on Up There?

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>>33829957

You find the end of the shaft with your skull as it bumps into something made of heavy iron. With one hand you reach up and heave violently, sending something clattering aside with a heavy metallic ring. Above you the gray light of a new world is revealed, the faint outline of buildings reaching to the dark sky visible – but you've no interest. You seize the sides of the ladder and slide to the base again.

You've got your first chimney.

Stalking along the concrete path, Mado shadowing you across the canal, you turn things over in your mind again and again, but you only manage to churn up your stomach. There just isn't enough information; and what little there is has been lost in the static of your shared Nightmare. There's only one thing you can be sure of, deep in your gut.
Something's happening, Up There. And it involves you both.

You find another door, this one labeled “ACCESS” in faded stenciled paint. The doorknob refuses you, and you just bounce off when flinging your shoulder into it. Drawing your crowbar from your belt, you apply the forked end and yank, the first hinge flying out to clatter and roll before dropping into the slime with a wet PLOP! The other hinges follow quickly, and with one sharp tug the heavy security door lands at your feet with a clatter that crashes and echoes down the tunnels.

Real life might be full of facts you can't change.

But at least you're pretty fucking good at opening doors.

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Inside the portal you discover a long staircase climbing up into what you presume is a building above, huge metal pipes climbing up the center shaft. You fly up the stairs three at a time, ascending five, six, seven stories. Shouldering open a trap-door at the top, you emerge into the shattered ruins of what once was a water tower, the jagged ends of the feed-pipes lying next to you. Around and below, buildings poke out of a gray, translucent mist, but you pay them no heed, simply applying your axe to the floor, ventilating the long, empty shaft below. You return to the stairs, descending at a dead run, leaping over five risers at a time till you reach the bottom, where you slash a huge, gaping hole in the feed pipes, your axeblade ringing and ripping the metal with horrible screeching reports.

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>>33830429

Crossing the canal again with another flying leap, you find Mado waiting. You trot past her, leaving her hustling to keep up. Returning to the “exit” you tuck the transformer under your elbow and wrap the heavy power line around one forearm, the stiff cable unwieldy and heavy. Madotsuki almost collides with you as you pass her heading the other direction, the metal cable scraping loudly as it reluctantly follows.

Afore long you've reached the pumping room, the cable yowling as you drag it around the corner of the doorway to the short concrete passage 'twixt tunnels. Locating the old, dead panel box, you rip it from the wall and fling it over your shoulder, the device shattering miserably as it slams into the concrete floor behind you. You rest the bottom of the transformer on the ruined ends of the panel boxes mounting bolts, still protruding from the wall, and jam the power cable into its receptacle, tightening the screws that apply the clamp with your fingers till you hear metal creak. You get busy hooking the smaller lines from the pump turbines to the transformer, twisting the thick wires with your fingers, ignoring the sting and bite of sharp copper as they gouge you.

From the long tunnel to your left, the old, narrow brick one, you hear a soft, furtive sound come a-drifting.

It almost sounds like a snicker.

>AFFIX BAYONETS
>Work First.
>other?

>>33830472
>Work First.
Get this done. But have Mado on the lookout with her most deadly effects at the ready.

>>33830472
>Work First

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This is still going? Goddammit missed so many threads and no interest to catch up and follow twittershit.

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>>33830472
Didn't read the posts, saw the option, had to vote.
>AFFIX BAYONETS

>>33830581
You should catch up, though. It got weird. And awesome.

>>33830472
>>Work First.
Let's get shit done.

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>>33830581

One of the readers/writers I respect the most isn't reading another word of this Quest until it actually finishes and he can go through it all in one sitting, at night, with a cold beer in his hand so he can properly appreciate the mindfucks.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Yume+Nikki+Quest%2C+Collective+Game%2C+Yume+Nikki

See you in a month or so!

>>33830564
Seconding this
Mado should be capable of dealing with whatever's thrown at her r-right?

>>33830638
But half the fun of the mindfucks is the anticipation. Having days or weeks between updates for it to stew in my mind makes the reveals all the more entertaining.

>>33830472
>Work First.
Tempted to bayonets, but we have priorities here.

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You turn and glance down the dark passage, the one where you stared down The Eye. The dark tunnel where, for a fleeting moment, you found your Center, and stood firm in it.

You turn away. You'll deal with that demon soon enough... right after you face yours.
Madotsuki crashes into you in the middle of the concrete passageway, bouncing off your front as you stride briskly into the wider tunnel again. She squeaks with alarm, but you keep on walking, your big wrench already out and ready in another hand. You find the gas line again, and afore long, another valve. You breach it with a quick, sharp tap of your axe, then fit the proper part of your odd wrench over the square-headed valve. A faint metallic rattling sound skitters over the floor, and you bite your cheek, hard, as you realize you're shaking.

You've ventilated the tunnel perfectly. And now you're about to prime the very thing you fear so much – the thing The Enemy keeps laying for you.

A trap.

Flames.

Death.

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>>33831424

The rattling intensifies as your hands fairly vibrate upon the metal pipe that forms the wrench's crude handle. You're about to flood this place with natural gas, every so many feet, a narrow breach poisoning the atmosphere juuust right, a fuel-air mixture that'll turn these stinking shit-tunnels into a live bomb wanting only for the faintest spark to set them alight – and you just ran a god-damned naked power cable over wet concrete all the way to a jury-rigged connection. If the wind bestirs even a mite in Windmill World, the place will alight.

Ignite.

An exposion, a blast-wave that will tear down the length of this tunnel like the barrel of a gun. Rapid fire spread; poisonous, billowing smoke bursting ahead, forming clouds of half-burnt fuel that'll go up like miniature bombs themselves.

Death.

Death.

“Stark?”

You nearly leap out of your skin as Mado appears by your elbow. She narrows her eyes at you, then looks down at the wrench on the pipe. “The hell is that, anyways?”

You stare at her for long moments, the charming pink sweater, long skirt and sensible Mary Janes contrasting so sharply with the hollow-eyed, suspicious eyes and the easy, practiced confidence evident in the way she carries the long, wicked blade that glitters bright in the gloom.

A choking sound claws up your throat and presses at your lips, and with a final, frenzied burst of madness, you heave yourself over the handle and collapse, the rusty, sharp scraping of the turning valve shivering chilly up your spine.

>>33831448
Jesus, Mado is an expert at freaking Stark out.

>>33831521
She's a creepy little girl, she can scare anyone. Why's she wondering what our wrench is, though? Or is it the pipe she's wondering about? I hope it is, otherwise this is one of the things she can see but we can't, which would be awful.

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Madotsuki follows you down the tunnel as you apply the crowbar to break the line free of the concrete wall at certain places, snapping it open without sharp blows that might scatter sparks. Valve after valve yields to the wrench as you pervert its purpose, sowing the seeds of destruction all along the path.

“What are those?” Mado asks.

“Gas lines,” you tell her. “I'm opening the valves only so much, and at all the right points – not too much, and not too little. In ten minutes, we'll be standing in a bomb.”

Madotsuki glances around warily, looking more nervous by the second. “I thought you wanted to start a fire?”

“We will,” you say with cold certainty. “Oh Christ, will we ever.”

“Why the doors?”

“Shafts, that lead to the surface. Chimneys. They let the heat out, to climb upwards, the more of them we have and the taller they are, the more pronounced the effect. I found a very tall one – it'll work.” Another gas line yields to the crowbar's hooked end with a creaking groan that terminates with a SNAP!

Mado crosses her arms, her kitchen knife's point bouncing slightly as she waggles it like a thinker might waggle a pencil. “That'll be enough? Just gas?”

“The fire triangle,” you tell her. “We've got everything we need, once you use that lightning thing you do. Or... or anything, really. Won't take much, not the way I've set it up.” Another valve shrieks and yields to the wrench.

“Don't you mean the tetrahedron?”

You glance askance at her. “Pardon?”

“The fire tetrahedron,” Mado replies. “They don't call it a triangle anymore.”

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>>33832159

Now you cross your arms and squint at her, annoyed. Apparently she did read those reference books you saw on her shelves. “For your information, its actually a pentahedron.”

Mado glowers at you. “Oh, really? List the elements.”

“A fire requires five things to sustain itself,” you tell her, raising a finger dramatically. “One: heat. Two: fuel. Three: oxygen. Four: chemical reaction. And Five-” you pause for effect - “The Chief. Remove any of these things, and the fire goes out, like magic.”

Madotsuki's frown seems to quaver a bit. “We don't have a Chief, though.”

You grin and bow. “I graciously accept this promotion.”

It's a shitty joke in a shittier place, but the corner of Mado's mouth slides into a smirk anyways. “Are you sure gas will be enough?”

“It'll have to be,” you tell her. “Remember, this whole... everything runs on emotion, not logic, and honestly... what I'm doing right now scares the shit out of me. The only way I could make it worse is with a herd of pigs.”

Mado blinks. “Pigs,” she says in flat disbelief.

“Yeah. In a tight space like this? Pigs. Before they had explosives, people attacking castles used to collapse their sappers tunnels by herding pigs into them and burning them alive. Body fat burns incredibly well, and incredibly hot with little oxygen needed. The wooden supports would give way almost as fast as if they'd been blown up.”

“Pigs,” Mado says thickly. “Burning alive.” She looks around the tunnel, her arms uncrossing to fall at her sides, the tip of that wicked blade tapping idly against her thigh. “How'd they light it up?”

“Prepped the tunnel, like this,” you tell her. “Straw, soaked with pitch, on the floor. Threw a torch after it,” you say idly, happy to have something to talk about, to think about rather than the valve you're opening up, the new opportunity for a violent, scalding death you're preparing for yourself.

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>>33832201

“Stark,” Mado calls. The edge in her voice draws your eyes. She stares at you in the darkness, the meager light glinting off hard eyes. She's motionless now, the faint luminance of the sludge-filled canal lingering on the keen edge of her blade.

“You want fuel? I know just the place.”

>Any advantage we can get, I suppose.
>... what place? What place? I don't want to go any other places, no thanks, no more places!
>... what in the actual fuck, Mado? You can't mean...

>>33832254
>... what in the actual fuck, Mado? You can't mean...

>>33832254
>>... what in the actual fuck, Mado? You can't mean...
I guess we will use... THAT.

You know, THAT.

>>33832254
>Any advantage we can get, I suppose.

>>33832254
>... what place? What place? I don't want to go any other places, no thanks, no more places!
I'm lost again. Where would we get the fuel from? She seemed to have gotten the inspiration from our discussion about burning flesh. Where nearby has flesh for us to burn?

>>33832254

>Any advantage we can get, I suppose.

Burn it all.

>>33832254
>Any advantage we can get, I suppose.
I have no idea what's being referred to here.

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You reel as Mado's suggestion hits home. “You... you mean the-”

“The monsters,” she confirms in a low, rough voice. “From the Path.”

You shiver involuntarily, the memory a fresh bleeding wound in your mind. “You can't – we – there's no fucking reason to go back there. Ever.”

“I don't want to,” Mado says, a quaver rippling under her voice. “But we need the fuel. We can't take any chances. There's a lot of them in there.”

“But-”

“We'll pack them wall-to-wall in here, Stark. And then we'll burn them.” Her eyes gleam in the darkness with harsh certainty, her gaze hard and sure. “And they'll burn. If you're right about that sapper stuff, they'll burn really, really well.”

“... but-”

“Do you want to get out of here, or not?” she says quietly.

You try to swallow, but your mouth is dry. You settle for a nod.

“Then come along.”

You come.

>>33832800
On a related subject, what you want to be when you grow up Mado?

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Traversing the tunnel – the narrow, ancient brick tunnel from whence you came – proves uneventful, jump as you might at every little sp;ish and splash. Now its you hastening to keep up with Mado, who eats up the distance with quick, purposeful strides, back straight and eyes ahead. A dark shadow slides by under the slime to your left, but Mado doesn't slacken, and neither do you, simply striding ahead for the entrance that brought you here.

Afore long you've reached the wider, square area that you first entered upon finding the maze. With a little searching you espy the gentle, faint pulsing of red light that marks the pads in the teleport maze. You walk towards it, feeling ahead with your hands in the gloom -

- and unceremoniously stumble back into the Purple Block World. The once-unsettling realm of floating rectangles and confusing connections seems like a paradise now. At the very least, its somewhat well-lit.

Madotsuki glares across the purple bock at the pulsing pad that'll take you both back to the Footprint Path – a place filled with things you never, ever, ever wanted to see again. She takes a deep breath and expels it gustily.

“How the hell are we gonna do this?” you ask her. “Just... kill them, and drag them out?” You imagine trying to fight one of those things, your axe vanishing into the huge, toothed maw in its belly before the teeth come down and rip your arm clean from its socket, a nice pretty arc of blood-

“No,” Mado says. “That'd take forever. They're going to walk there on their own.” She takes another deep breath, her free hand balling into a white-knuckled fist. “I'm going to have to use something, Stark. Something I try not to.”

You take a step back from Mado – she's positively radiating ill intent in every taut line and quivering muscle. “What... what are you going to do?”

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>>33833422

She turns her head just enough to glance at you from the corner of one cold, piercing eye. “What matters is, what you do.”

You blink. “Me?”

She just keeps her stare askance on you, funneling that cold, killing intent through one eye like a narrow high-pressure nozzle. “This needs to be done. And any... reactions you might have, can damn well wait till we're done. Do you understand?”

You just blink at her, not understanding a goddamn thing.

“Do. You. Understand,” she growls.

“Y-yes,” you stammer slightly. “Yeah. Sure. No reactions.”

“Good.” She slips her knife into her skirt pocket, the Effect shrinking visibly as its stowed. She rummages around a bit, and produces a headband, the curved length appearing like a trick sword as she draws it. Brushing her braids back over her shoulder, she slips it on and presses it firm to her skull.

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>>33833464

That's about when the ears appear.

You close your eyes, and count to three, and open them to find the cat-ears still, fluffy and fully-developed atop Madotsuki's head. A long, feline tail has sprouted from beneath her skirt, the tip twitching from side-to-side as it swishes along the floor, betraying sullen agitation. She turns her vicious, hard-eyed glare on you, its effect instantly and irrevocably ruined by the hilarious contrast with those angrily-cocked ears and twitching tail.

Even an angry cat is cute as hell.

“Not a single, fucking, word,” she hisses.

>We've just visited Larry's Loony Bin during Mindfuck Madness week and checked out with two full carts. Give her words. Give her lots of words. You've earned this.
>Stare. Just stare. What the, how, in, what, is I don't, even-
>Write-in?

>>33833464
We'll have to restrain our urge to squee. We'll have to restrain it hard. But Kitty Mado is so cute.

>>33833480
>"This is just like one of my japanese animes!"

>>33833480
>Write-in?
"I'm sorry, how does this help us? You've lost me, Mado."

>>33833480
>We've just visited Larry's Loony Bin during Mindfuck Madness week and checked out with two full carts. Give her words. Give her lots of words. You've earned this.

>>33833480
>We've just visited Larry's Loony Bin during Mindfuck Madness week and checked out with two full carts. Give her words. Give her lots of words. You've earned this.

>>33833480
>What are you gonna do with that? I understand that emotions rule here, but that does not mean you can give them a heart attack with weapons-grade cuteness.

>"I'm sorry, how does this help us? You've lost me, Mado."

>>33833480
>"I'm more of a dog person, actually."

>>33833480

You stare at the increasingly-adorable Angry Kitty Face of Madotsuki, knife-wielding psychopath and all-around bad news... and giggle.

Her expression clouds instantly, fury evident on her face – and the twitching of her cat ears simply sends you over the edge. You burst into helpless giggles, clamping a hand over your mouth to stifle them, but to no avail.

“Shut up,” she hisses. “This isn't funny. There's nothing funny about this!”

You shake your head, tears trickling from the corners of your eyes. Her scowling expression and smoldering brown eyes are the same Madotsuki who's been by your side all this time, but every emotion behind that mask of rage is clearly telegraphed by the ears and tail; the embarrassment, the irritation, even the sullen, smoldering suffering conveyed by the timing of those little tail-twitches, just like a cat glaring at a mocking sparrow in a tree. You reach out and drop a palm onto her head, rusting her hair affectionately. She draws back a foot, but you just step closer, robbing the blow of force, so she settles for stomping on your foot as hard as possible. You wince, but keep rubbing left-right-left, making those ridiculous ears wobble about.

“Mado,” you manage to giggle, “you're actually cute.”

>>33834218

“Fuck YOU!” she cries, jerking away from you and turning her back in a huff – but that only gives you a better view of her tail, which is curling up around her leg.

“So how does this help us?” you ask her. “Are you gonna lure in the monsters with your fem- er, feline wiles? Mrrrrooooooow?”

“YES,” she snarls harshly – and you begin giggling again, helplessly.

“WHAT'S SO FUNNY ABOUT THIS!?” she screeches, whirling on you, her hands curling into claws. “DOES ANY OF THIS SEEM FUNNY?”

You start, surprised by the vehemence in her voice... until you catch sight of her tail, arched and bushy. You turn away with a snort, and this time she lets you expel it from your system. You giggle, and giggle, and giggle till your stomach feels hollow and a faint feeling creeps over you, like the lightheaded relief after vomiting up something vile.

“Are you quite finished?” Mado asks with crisp disdain.

“Yeah,” you say quietly. “I'm finished.” You stand up straight, and turn towards the teleporter pad that leads to the Path – the dark place. A faint murmur escapes you as Mado's tail twitches again. She shoots a sharp look over her shoulder, but she finds you expression sullen and grave-faced – even if its a little too carefully composed. With a final, warning squint, she turns back to the teleport pad.

"I'm more of a dog person, anyway."

"Fuck *you,*" Mado hisses with heat, before seizing your wrist and dragging you through to the Footprint Path.

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>>33834241

You notice the temperature first – a chilly presence in the air, like fine mist settling on your skin. The surface underfoot is as disconcerting as ever; the slight squish, squish with each footfall, the strange slickness that doesn't quite send your foot flying outward.

When this nightmare was new to you, other things occupied your attention – but now you place the sensation.

Its like walking across someone's wet flesh.

In the darkness ahead, the Footprints are surfacing, big ones beside small. As they appear, slowly marching away into the void, their meager monochrome light illuminates the edges of shapes in the darkness – thin, gangly stalks, here, and the curved edges of sagging, bulging bellies there. A horrid, hollow roar tears through the void, and with it the scent of rotting flesh and stale blood bursts over you like a hospital's dumpster blowing its lid. Your body lights up with tremors as the adreneline hammers you, your axe up and ready -

- and into that darkness, Mado meows.

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>>33834764

The sound winds its way through your ears and down your spine, a pleasant, warm thing, enticing and sweet. You look away from the shifting shapes lining the Path to stare at her. Madotsuki's eyes are glowing a furious, baleful blood-red in the darkness. You can't see her face, or her features – just the faint outline of those attentive, sharp ears and her patiently-swishing tail. She meows again, the sweet call echoing into the darkness, and now you hear the slick, squishing sound of those beasts, those horrible, awful abortions stumbling through the dark – and towards you.

Another long, enticing mrrrrrooooow echoes into the darkness, the saccharine sweetness of her voice belied by Mado's unblinking red eyes, staring, waiting.

Out in the darkness you hear them coming, the slithering sounds redoubling into something alarming, like a tidal wave of snakes. You tug at Mado's shoulder. “Come on, they're coming, come on!”

Those soulless red eyes bore into you, unblinking and pitiless. She meows again, mournful and sweet and utterly insincere. The abortions cry back from the darkness, their roars echoing and mingling into one hoarse blast of lusting hate.

“Is it funny now?” Mado asks softly as they close in.

>NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
>Escape Two: Mindfuck Boogaloo. Pick her up and fucking RUN.
>Other?

>>33834806
>>NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
>>Escape Two: Mindfuck Boogaloo. Pick her up and fucking RUN.

>>33834806
>MAYBE. Pick her up and fucking RUN.

>>33834806
>NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

JESUS CHRIST WHY

>>33834806
>Other?
"A little, yeah."

>>33834806
>Escape Two: Mindfuck Boogaloo. Pick her up and fucking RUN.

>>33834806
>"Meow yes. Abortions no."
>Escape Two: Mindfuck Boogaloo. Pick her up and fucking RUN.

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>theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS40cWIkXm0&feature=player_detailpage#t=197

With the bellowing, screaming horrors closing in about you, there's only one thing to do. You reach out to seize Madotsuki -

- and leap away with a shout as hot lines of agony light up your face.

“Not yet,” Mado hisses.

The roars redouble, the stench seeming to spike with every bellow. The reek of rotting flesh and clotted blood overwhelms you, nearly driving you to your knees. You lunge for Mado again and scream as sharp claws slice down your arm.

“NOT YEEEET!” she yowls.

The slick sounds of clumsy feet sliding on the treacherous black surface now surrounds you, a slimy sibilance that saturates the air itself. “MADO!” you screech in terror, dancing a little from foot-to-foot as every nerve and fiber of your being screams at you to

“NOW!”

RUN! You snatch for her but she's already gone, tailtip whispering through your grasp as she bolts with inhuman speed. You sprint after her, the flipflip slishslosh of the beasts hot on your heels. The teleport pad is glowing ahead and you spring for it with all your might -

- the world explodes into baffling sound as the roar sounds behind you, the fetid stench battering you as your hair's rustled by the pure force of exhalation and you dive, sliding along that slick squishy surface for the teleport pad, reaching out as the feet of twisted aborted abominations close in -

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>>33835246

You slide over the pad and onto the Block. Mado's clawed hand seizes the back of your jacket and yanks, succeeding only in speeding your terrified scrabble across the block towards the next pad. You reach for it – then look up, apprehensive. She's watching the way you came, the long kitchen knife ready in both hands.

“MADO!” you scream.

“WAIT!” she cries. “WAIT!”

You spring to your feet and turn in time to see the GAPING WIDE TOOTHLINED MAW SCREAMING RAGING ROARING RUSHING AT YOU -

- your own roar rips out, raw and wild as you bat Mado aside in passing, the axe thrumming as it cleaves the bone at the shoulder, twisting in your slick palms as you ride the momentum around and through a loop 'round your head and DOWN into the gangly knee, the beast sliding helplessly through the next teleporter. You and Mado leap as one for that pad as two more creatures burst into existence behind you. The dim purple Block World -

- vanishes into darkness as you land in The Sewers and a razor-lined maw clamps down on your LEG YOUR FUCKING LEG ITS IN ITS MOUTH ITS CHEWING YOUR FUCKING LEG -

The axeblade rings on concrete as you whale away, slashing and slicing like a madman in the pitch dark until something soft and yielding crashes into your midsection, bowling you over. You roll away from it, screaming and scratching and smacking at it with the side of your axe till the screams penetrate your brain

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>>33835781

“-ARK STARK STARK ITS ME IT'S ME-”

The horrific stench of death floods the chamber as somethings all the things oh jesus christ help me slop and plop into existence, growling and horrible. You find your feet and lunge right into a wall before Mado's sharp-tipped fingers seize your wrist and dig in.

“COME ON!” She yanks you insistently, and you follow. You go running at full-tilt into the darkness, every second imagining the sharp, brittle CRACK! of your skull popping like a melon upon meeting a concrete wall, but more terrified of another razored maw savaging both legs while you scream and scream and scream unable to do a fucking thing but -

- scream hoarsely as your foot slips into the sludge of the canal in the narrow tunnel. Mado yanks on your wrist and helps drag you out, your balance thrown so far forward that you must sprint or fall and you can't you won't you mustn't fall because the horrific hoarse roars of the belly-beasts are sounding behind you, little ripples and waves in the sludge announcing them as they they must they must be charging up the canal itself, heedless of the liquid. The awful cacophony of alien voices goes echoing and rebounding up the tunnel till you can't tell if they come from afore or behind. You can only run for your miserable life, trying to place each foot precisely before the other, praying to anyone who will listen that Mado knows where she's going.

>>33835805

Light flares ahead, a sickly yellow halo around the silhouette of a cat-eared person in the darkness ahead. You pursue it as it slips between two hulking pump-housings and into another concrete tunnel. Its the wide one, the prepped one, the combustion chamber – and with a wet, nasty sound you hear the first of the fuel crashing through the concrete tunnel behind. You bolt after Mado's rapidly-vanishing tail, the wet floor treacherous underfoot. Glancing over your shoulder, you see THEM, razored maws open and eager as they close in on you, some of them seeming to run ATOP the water of course they can just like the surface in THERE it was wet it was water they live in water they like water they're walking on water they're going to catch you THEY'RE GOING TO FUCKING CATCH YOU!

>SET IT OFF NOW
>SLOW THEM DOWN SOMEHOW

>>33835956
>SLOW THEM DOWN SOMEHOW
or
>Find a way to speed up

>>33835956
>SLOW THEM DOWN SOMEHOW
Got to get out of here before we light it off. The smokejumper patch protects us from some fires, but not all of them.

Also, why are we doing this, again? I know we need the stack fire to produce an updraft to run the wind turbines to produce power. But what was it we're powering? Pumps, I think? What are we pumping?

>>33836058

Pumping water to the hydrant in the Face Carpet Plaza, which provides you a way to douse the trap laid at the end of this maze, and thus move forward.

>>33836298
That's right, now I remember. So we're setting one part of the dreamworld on fire to douse another part of it. Which actually makes sense, under dream logic, so I guess I'm onboard.

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“ALMOST THERE!” Madotsuki screams, and ahead you espy the webwork of the mesh gate. Mado slips through it like a ghost but as you approach it you reach out and catch the metal post that frames the gate, whipping your crowbar out of your belt. You slam the gate violently and ram the crowbar through the mesh of fence and gate both, a final hard yank twisting the metal and setting the bar firmly. You leap away as the first monster smashes into it, huge, gaping mouth already chewing and biting at the fence, and the entire thing rattles and sags and begins to fall as a horde, a wave of them smash into it.

You run, the walls and ceiling and everything streaking into a long, dark smear as you bolt for the exit. The dark rectangle of the Exit looms before you, and just as you're diving through it, a long, tortured screech of metal sound as the mesh gate is knocked flat...

… the ragged wire scraping against the concrete wall.

Ignition.

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>>33836471

The blastwave hits you from behind, flinging you through the dark portal -

and crashing head-first into dew-wet grass and turf, tumbling ass-over-teakettle down the hillside as the explosion vents itself over your head. You flop and crash bonelessly, sliding over the damp grass with an inconspicuous squeaking sound till your skull contacts the base of a windmill with a THUD! You look down, past your feet to see the concrete entrance glowing white-hot, a tongue of flame eight feet long blasting from it. The jet subsides into a throbbing, hungry roar as the concrete begins to blacken and crumble. Two asymmetrical, glowing holes appear above the entrance as chunks of the ceiling and the slope above them give way, glowing rebar drooping to form the jagged teeth of the dragon's mouth. There's no screaming, no bellowing, no stench – just the pure white-hot fury of a fire, a man-killing fire perfectly laid and wonderfully executed.

As the fire rages into its full fury, a slight draft stirs your hair – and above you, the windmill creaks, groans, and begins to stir.

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>>33836661

THAT'S A WRAP FOR TONIGHT, and I sure hope this was up to snuff because it kind of felt bad, to me.

If it did, then be cheered, for next thread we venture into The White Desert.

>>33836702
Oh shit. That's not going to end well for Stark's sanity. Is it going to be the regular White Desert or the one Uboa sends you to? Either way it's going to be bad, but in very different ways.

As for tonight's, it was fine. Don't worry too much about it. Went a bit slower than I would have liked, but we got some useful exposition and I'm overall happy with it.

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>>33836796
>. Is it going to be the regular White Desert or the one Uboa sends you to?

YES.

As for pacing, I agree completely. Thankfully the Two Weeks Of Hellacious Work Scheduling From Hell are now finished, so I can buckle down on all the pre-planning I've done and resume my usual velocity of PCP Sanic.

>>33836843
Fuck me, those things are disgusting. Good job faggot, you managed to make them suitable revolting and terrible.

Dat realisation we were going to burn those fucks, the Path is made of wet flesh and Cat Mado is scary tho. Good job. I haven't been this disgusted by a quest since either the time you did the sewers or we were stuck in the Corrector Hive in Joker.

>>33836702
Bretty good faggot. Thanks for running.