(after the party pt 1)

Standing in the back, along the wall the band is performing by, is a handsome man studying the room with eyes as red as the sun.

And in the corner is a woman soaking up attention, letting no one ignore her as she waves everyone over with a fan. Her eyes catch yours, and she waves her fan towards you, too, as if to usher you over.

Since Dusk is fairly easy to summon, she goes to say hello, dress fluttering behind her.

The woman titters behind her fur-trimmed fan, smiling with her eyes as men and women alike fawn over her. Her ball gown's skirt is the largest here; it makes her look like a round-bottom doll that rights itself when pushed over. You can't even see her feet.

Her ashen hair brushes over her delicate brows as she turns to look at you, and solely you, Dusk. The blush painted over the scales of her face bring out a golden color, but she almost blushes all the more with your presence. "Oh, I was hoping you would come over..." She giggles behind her fan. "This is such a nice ball, isn't it? I've always wanted to attend one."

"Oh, I guess you're lucky then! Congrats! Nice to meetcha too!" Dusk smiles widely. "Woooow, your dress is so pretty and big, I bet it's fun to watch if you spin around~!"

The woman laughs, in a way that's pleasant yet odd to the ears. With a click she closes the fan and holds it up the fuzzy end to lightly touch the scratch on your cheek, Dusk. "Girl, I want to warn you... everything could turn so perfectly hectic in the blink of an eye."

Beneath this woman's makeup, what with the hella good highlights that nearly restructure her face, and past the styling of her hair and the change of her eye color (contacts, you realize, thanks to the halos around her irises,)

You recognize that this is none other than Ophelia Who Died.

Ophelia smiles. It's unclear if she realizes that you know this now, but she takes one step closer to you, encouraged all the more.

"I could kill you with the wink of an eye..."

Dusk's eyes widen into a different kind of expression, almost as if recalling something from very very far away, and she takes steps back, smiles gracing her face. "It's a very nice party so why would you? It's nice to meet you again though~! The dress is still very pretty!"

But her eyes have a different kind of fierceness all of a sudden, huh!

"Again, you say..." With her poisonous grin Ophelia bears her sharp fangs. A high-pitched giggle escapes her lips. "This dress is the only one I can fit into, I'm afraid, but I am so very glad you like it... Miss Dusk the Miserable."

And suddenly, a man who was conversing with Slot in the background raises his hands towards the ceiling that's been painted to look like the sky, and with a voice that booms across the room like a thunderstorm, he shouts:

"Everyone, attack!"

His hands glow, sending electric sparks bouncing across the ballroom, striking down half of the people. The band stops playing, their bodies and instruments dropping to the floor with heavy thuds.

after the locked door

As you push past the beaded curtain, you enter a bright space that takes a second for your eyes to adjust to.



You see, the mushroom trees are very loud and vibrant here. They look nice against the red sky, the weirdly yellow grass, and the widely smiling sun, don't they? There's a thick aroma in the air, too, something distinctly sweet,… oh, so distinctly sweet. Don't think too much about it, you need to keep your wits. You need to keep your wits, even though it's hard to help, after all, it smells really sweet.
…oh. Yeah, in the middle of the clearing here is a strange figure, standing behind a table.



No, something about this has Uncanny Valley written all over it. The eyes are glazed and the open mouth is unmoving, but it's standing and rocking back and forth, so it's very much alive. The body is a little shiny, too, and… is that an obvious seam running along his side?

His head bobs from side to side. His relaxed voice is muffled. "Heeeeyyyyy. Wanna take a look at my goodies? I also have some Good Stuff if you know what I mean~~~."

And behind him, a short distance away? A spiral staircase that leads nowhere.

Like this.



"Woah..." Juno is astounded by all this weird stuff! How cool! Is a little too distracted to pay attention to the weird person immediateky, just like the children.

"What kind of stuff do you have?" Slot has, an easy grin coming onto his face as he talks to the strange guy.

Clima -- by this point has probably crawled on a macho marshmallow man again -- puts his hands against his face to cover his mouth as he stares at the spiralling staircase. His shoulders shake, like maybe he's laughing, and his eyes are shining.

The mushroom man bounces on his heels, and opens his arms wide to gesture to the contents sitting atop the table he stands behind. Huh, you never noticed the stuff on top of the table. Or maybe you did. On it sits three large boxes.

"I have a Hammer, an Axe, and a Whip. Not just any ol hammer or axe or whip, they're VINTAGE. Talking about stuff before the labyrinth-y times. Oh, and I got some stuff that'll make you as high as a kite. Won't nothing get you down when you're on that" He ends that with a chuckle.

Dusk takes a peek at those seems as the others continue to talk to the mysterious mushroom man thing.

Slot walks up to the table and takes a closer look at the whip.

The whip box is small... hmm, perhaps whatever whip is in there is coiled? But, there's a sweet scent coming from the box, one that prickles your nose a bit. It's not like the thick aroma of the room. To put it frankly, it smells like something you've eaten before, perhaps, long ago...

"Could I take a closer look at the whip?" Slot asks.

In the meantime, Clima has climbed up onto the marshmallow man whose arms he's in right now to whisper something into his ear. The marshmallow man stops, nods, and then begins to trek towards the staircase. The mushroom bounces back and forth like an idle video game character, idly tapping his chin as he does. "Yeah, I s'pose. It'll knock your socks off, so be careful!"

If you were to open the box right now, he doesn't seem like he'd try to stop you at all.

Dusk asks, "Are you wearing a costume, mister?"

The staircase truly looks like it ascends into... the sky! Nope, it can't possibly lead anywhere. And yet, there's nowhere else to go from this strange room, is there? It doesn't hurt to try climbing up to the top, right? Since there's no point in it anyway. That's what Clima thinks anyway.

The mushroom man looks(???) at Dusk. "Costume? No way. No way, this isn't a costume, this is who I am! And I don't mean that one way, I mean that another. I mean that this skin is mine now. Peeling it off... mannnn, you could dump my organs everywhere."

Well, with that, Slot decides to open the box for the whip. Dude, it's jar of Miracle Whip...!



Slot closes the box and walks away................

GM: wow

Mushroom man looks over you, tilting his head dramatically. "Hey, what's the problem? Don't you like whipping miracles on things?"

"No, not particularly." Slot stares.

"What a bummer. I need to make a sale here, I have kids at home to raise and feed." He says this dispassionately. "What about the other things!" He's a businessman at heart, I guess. That's probably what his tie is for. "I have a hammer and an axe! You guys look like you need those!"

"Hmm, we'll see about that" Slot says, disarming smile on his face. "Can I look closer at those too?"

"Fiiiiiiiiiine," he whines. Like this is a huge problem. Like this is a chore, like he isn't running a business. Jesus. Just like that, the tops of the boxes pop open...

The "Hammer" box contains a Walkman (big ol' headphones included) with a casette in it. This might not be familiar to any of you, except MAYBE Slot. However, the label's worn off, so it's hard to tell what's inside.



As for the "Axe" box...

are u surprised



The mushroom man looks on proudly, like THESE are his children. Oh, he looks a little less put off by doing things. "The music player's reeeeeal intense. Love me some Master Chief Hammer. Really gets me goin'. And that axe smells really good, trust me. And, hey, you didn't give that ol' miracle whip a chance! That tastes good and rejuvantes you in ways you'd never expect."

"..." Okay, now Slot is tempted by the hammer. "You know, I think I might take that Hammer." Slot says, his smile softening as he glances down at it. It's... nostalgic, even with his mind slightly floating now. But the floating he's feeling is better than the heaviness from the hangover. And plus now he has something old like him.

"It'll cost you 1 Gold, and buddy, buddy? Buddy, you buy it and I'll give you some of this homegrown stuff as a free bonus."


Dusk makes her way to to the mushroom man, getting all close, wheeeeeee. "It's yours now? Did you borrow it?"

He stays where he is, not put off by having his personal bubble invaded. Wow, he smells really rubbery up close though.

"It's mine, and I don't borrow anything. If I find it, it's mine."

Dusk plays with the seam a little...."Can I pull a little of it...I won't take it all off..."

"... He.... hey!" Clima speaks, a little more loudly than normal, with a tone of urgency in his voice, "The stairs.. there's a floor upstairs..!"

The mushroom man jerks his head towards Dusk.

"Don't.
You.
Think about it."

With his unchanging expression, it's still hard to take it seriously...

"But I'm thinking about it. Just a little bit. It's more exciting than the other boring stuff." Dusk keeps playing with the seem.

Walnut -- startles out of her daze, suddenly. Goodness knows where her mind wandered off to this time, chances are she'd write it off as a Spiritual Experience (as opposed to her nearly falling asleep in the middle of the labyrinth), but there's the noise, and the light, and her gaze focuses on the boxes only to notice --

The enemy. A jar of... well, no, that isn't it. But it looks sort of like it, doesn't it? She stumbles backwards, tripping back onto the earth.

"Hold on," Slot says to the mushroom man before sliding over to Dusk. "Do you think you can talk him into giving us stuff for free?"

The mushroom man """gives Dusk a look""" which involves staring at her for a second, then waves Slot off. He silently hopes that she's distracted. This is stressing him out, but thank goodness for his funky suit.

...but whoa, what just happened to that nun? He stares at Walnut for a long while—or what seems like a long while—before speaking up.

"Yoooooo, you seein' visions? I see those sometimes, too, hey, what're you seein'?"

Dusk looks at the mushroom man, reaching for his hand, "Can we have that for a discount? Like for nothing? Since I'm not allowed to pull the string."

The mushroom man turns back to Dusk. Man, this chicks'... weird. Why's she so touchy... "If you leave me be, I'll give you that thing for free. I think that reeeeally weird child with the head wings was calling for you guys, so take the thing and go."

I don't know you you irritate someone who's high and free and content with the world, but you did it. You done did it. At least it worked in your favor?

Juno is very confused about everything happening here, and, kind of concerned. "I think we should go too..."

It's not like Clima really cares about being called weird, but he's right here? Sir?

Walnut shakes her head. No, everything's fine. Nothing's wrong. She's not afraid of mayonaisse, she's just feeling a little floaty!

"Did you wanna come with us though? You could maybe sell more of your stuff along the way!" That will not be a problem.

The mushroom man tilts his head in regards to Walnut. She looks like she's seen a ghost, and that sounds cool as fuck?? But, lady with the crown is talking again.

"That's not interesting, man. Your kingdom's probably poor, so I don't wanna."

"Well, how about we use some of that Good Stuff, if you wanna." Slot says as he takes the hammer.

Dusk then asks. "Then can I pull the string?"

"Shhh," Slot says to Dusk, grinning at the Mushroom man

"I mean, nevermind." Dusk faceplants into the ground and starts zzzzzz.