>>37722
>Ignore your feelings, investigate the room.
EMOTIONS ARE FOR THE WEAK

Desire to bang them.

>>37722
>The desire to feed.

>>37722
>>The desire to kill.
>>The desire to breed
>>The desire to conquer and dominate

>>37822
Second

>>37722
>>Ignore your feelings, investigate the room.
We noir now

>>37722
>>Ignore your feelings, investigate the room.

>>37805
>>37888
>>37942
Investigating the room!

>>37822
>>37880
Killing!

>>37814
Feeding!

As a note, completely random votes or things like "Bang them" or "breed" will be ignored outright. This is not the quest for you.

I'll be tallying votes at the end of every 15-20m or so.

Anyway, writing.

>>37722
>>The desire to go greet them.

>>37722
>>Ignore your feelings, investigate the room.

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>>37951
>As a note, completely random votes or things like "Bang them" or "breed" will be ignored outright. This is not the quest for you.
>Smutfags on suicide watch

>>37822
This

>>37822
Thirding

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>>38047
>>38029
You really think he's gonna just give you what you want?

>>38069
Do you even know what I want?

>>38090
A final solution to the Jewish question?

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>>38090
I know you want to get freaky.

The vaguely depressing part is that this is somewhat more in-between update banter than Riz's other quest usually gets.

>>38160
yeah but at what cost?

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>>38160
Truly, more anons should be willing to open their mouths and spew shitposts

>>38126
Eh, not yet if at all. More thinking about the instinctual reaction in general. We're in a place which seems familiar, we clearly seem to be bestial and the choices above are all very base instincts. Breeding is one too, and on it's own I can understand where you'd be coming from, but in this case that's not where I was trying to go.

Or at least, that's what I thought when reading it. Maybe reading quests at 7AM isn't the best thing to do

>>38202
>7AM
Yey! I'm 7AM too! 7AM buddies?

>>38202
You're moms not the best thing to do at 7 AM.

>>38126
>>38069
...Oh wow, I didn't even realize OP said the vote was over. Man, I am dumb.

>>38222
This 7AM buddy is going the fuck to sleep, I'm way too out of it.

You find your body wanting to leave to check on the foreign occupant of your ruins, but after several stubborn moments of resisting, it feels like that driving urge had finally passed. A feeling of unwarranted victory welled up inside of you as you asserted your own free will over your instincts. Was this the first time you had done? It certainly felt like a first.

That said however, you turned your attention back to the room you were in. The darkness around you concealed a room that seemed far too large for what it actually contained: Walls lined with imposing statues that would ever hold a grim vigil and stand guard over the room. Rows of carved stone held flowers that bloomed softly luminescent pedals, a dim glow that only barely provided enough light for you to see. Towards the back of the room stood a stone tablet, inscriptions barely visible beneath the soft flower based lighting, and worn to near unreadability through the ages.

You could barely make out the emblem of a coat of arms emblazoned upon the tablet above its faded text.

From the earth you came, and to its bosom you return.
Accept this child, your faithful servant...

The text becomes unreadable quickly, but you recognize that the stone tablet which had been used as an altar was, in fact, a graver marker.

What had you been doing down here...? More importantly, where was 'here'? Your eyes flickered towards the imposing statues in search of a clue, but found only their stone visage leering back down through the soft flowerlight.

What you did know, however, was that the ashen incense before the grave was still fresh enough to carry a scent. Someone else had been here recently...

Another pang in your gut caused your lips to peel back in a half-conscious snarl. There was something you were missing... A face you couldn't quite recall. Someone familiar, like these ruins. Your investigation finally pried open on of your stubbornly recalcitrant memories as you recalled their last visit here.

"The scavengers will probably come here, next. We've done all we can to keep the Hydra out of the burial grounds, but it doesn't seem like it will be much use after all."

You wince as the hazy words finally slipped back to mind. Scavengers... Were they trying to dig up the dead? At least now you had some idea of what that foreign presence had been.

>Go exploring the burial grounds
>Track down the scavenger
>Other? (write-in)

>>38315
>Go exploring the burial grounds

>>38315
>>Track down the scavenger
I'll trust my gut feeling on this one.

>>38315
>Track down the scavenger

>>38315
>>Track down the scavenger

>>38160
What's Riz's other quest?

>>38334
Exploring!

>>38342
>>38344
>>38432
Scavengers!

Writing!

>>38454
Valen, it's on hiatus until this coming weekend.

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>>38315
>>Track down the scavenger
hmm wonder what hydra's look like in this world, 3 headed snake or 3 snakes stuck on a lizards neck stump?

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>>38535

You scamper out of the softly illuminated burial room and into the darker halls, finding not even the soft light of those strange flowers to light your path. You put your trust into your body as you went though, navigating the pitch black corridors with a familiarity that spoke of having long known these rooms and walked these halls. Unerringly your steps traced an invisible map through the complex, even more so once you finally picked up on a scent that wasn't the stale and damp earthen air that seemed to hang in every passage. This was something much different, one that sent a pang through your gut as hunger made itself known.

There was blood nearby, and freshly spilled at that.

The coppery scent was a beacon in the dark, drawing you through the twisting corridors in what was conveniently a similar direction as the foreign presences you had caught ear of earlier. Whatever discussion they had been having at the time seemed to have passed, but as the scent of blood grew stronger, you realized that you could probably find them through scent alone if it came down to it.

Rounding the corner however, you found the source of that delectable smell; A body thrown against one of the corridor walls and crumpled to the ground. Cautious steps brought you forward, senses primed and tense as you felt for some kind of reaction...

Whoever it was, they were still breathing. It was faint and labored, but this was no corpse. Not yet, at any rate. You held your ground away from them, listening to their occasional breathy gasp and the sound of scuffed rocks as they tried to move themselves. The injured person didn't know you were here, which left you with plenty of time to decide on your course of action.

The scent of foreigners surrounded them, but also led further down the hall. Was this one of the scavengers that had supposed to have been coming? They didn't look like they were fit to scavenge anything but their own deathbed at this rate. The smell of blood coming from them was strong, and as their feeble attempts to move continued, you noticed that the scuffing of stone was being steadily mixed with something more akin to wet scraping.

You set your nose to work, advancing slowly in the wake of their struggled movement, and find the wet trail of blood staining the floor. You knew exactly where this trail led, and it didn't paint a hopeful picture for the person making it.

>You need a light...
>Too bad, you're hungry.
>You want answers.
>Other? (write-in)

>>38635
>>Too bad, you're hungry.

>>38635
>You want answers.
Eat the person if the answers aren't good.

>>38635
>You want answers.

>>38635
>You want answers.

>>38635
>You want answers.

>>38635
>You want answers.

>>38656
Hungry!

>>38662
>>38676
>>38699
>>38746
>>38756
Answers!

Writing.

So I think we are some sort of deity or guardian for this place

>>38801
I'm not sure there's enough information to say anything like that. Two tails, so MC isn't very old for a kitsune (if that's what they are). And foxes dig up graves and caches pretty often, I think.

>>38837
There's a part where we woke up before scented ash and have nostalgia about this place which probably means we aren't intruder
But it could also mean we just got second tail and lived in this place for some time
There's also possibility we lost tails instead for some reason

>>38872
I think it's really too early to say as well, although if we have somehow happened to lose extra tails, that's interesting in and of itself.

You want answers more than the insistent pang in your stomach wants to be filled, and this person didn't look like they were in any shape to resist or cause trouble. No matter what they told you, it would be more than what you knew currently... And if the answers turned out to be useless, you could always eat them afterwards.

You take care to avoid the blood trail as you approach, slipping past them easily in the wide halls as you come to directly in their belabored path and tuck your twin tails around you comfortably. You had a few moments before the wounded person managed to claw their way towards you, so what did you want to ask them...?

A lot of things sprung to mind immediately, like... Who are they? Why are they here? Where is here? What is 'Hydra'? Where are the others? Part of you was admittedly curious as well about how they had gotten injured, but you wonder if someone has grievously wounded as this person would really be able to answer all of that. Even if they were able to, would they be willing...? Well, most important things first, then.

A variety of small yips and growls issue forth from your maw, causing your wounded guest to recoil quickly with a shout that echoed through the halls and hurt your ears. You realized only belatedly after they began to bemoan the rotten luck of having been left to a beast that you had made a slight error in your judgement. This was your first actual conversation, and you barked at them.

How embarrassing.

The inky black of the halls spared you having your humiliation seen as you spend a few moments listening to the increasingly upsetting curses and frantic struggles of your erstwhile dying guest, finally working your throat quietly around the newly learned syllables and giving it another shot.

"Why have you come here?" This time your voice came out clear, bringing a halt to the rising blather as you silently congratulated yourself on getting it right this time.

"Y'know exactly why we're here, you bleedin' Gardener." Only to have your good will spat back in your face with a strange accent and unexpectedly feminine alto. "Surprised you came back f'me. Wanted to make sure you finished the job?"

Gardener. There was another term you weren't familiar with, and the vitriol in which they spat it at you left your ears furling back. "If you won't answer, then I don't need you."

"We're lookin' for relics, dammit!"

...You feel like you should know that term.

"Explain."

"Explain... Explain what?" The injured... Woman(?) seemed incredulous, "The city will run out of power if we don't keep bringing in our Faith quota, Gardener." There was that term she spit again, "You may be happy living like an animal, but th'rest of us have standards!"

You had wanted answers, but all this conversation was giving you were more questions. At the very least, you could gather that whatever this 'Gardener' was had caused this person's injuries.

However, their exasperated state had done them no favors for their wounds. What defiance they were showing was purely bluster, and if the pungent stench was any indication, even that would be over soon. You doubted they would be open to a conversation as hostile as they currently were, which left you with few options.

"So you are scavengers?" You try to confirm, rolling the dissembled pieces of knowledged around in your head to try and find connections. "What does stealing things have to do with your faith?"

"My..." She verbally stumbles, seemingly at a loss for your questions, before a single harsh laugh wheezes out of her. "It's not 'my faith', idiot. Faith, the Capital F, we use it to fuel... uh... everything?" You get the feeling she was trying to be sarcastic, but it was informative all the same.

"How does one steal faith...?" You frown, feeling as if a vital detail was missing. Several seconds of silence later, your impatience begins to grow when your only answer amounts to a single, soft sigh. "If you won't answer-"

"Yeah, yeah, you don't need me." The injured woman shrugs off your frustrations, "I'm dying down here anyway, thanks t'you. Why the fuck do you think I care?" She had certainly lost far too much blood at this point.

>Eat her
>Leave her
>Offer a deal (What kind?)
>Other? (write-in)

>>38980
>>Eat her
Evidently we're more than just a fox with magic. I do wonder why we don't remember much, though.

>>38980
So we are probably some sort of old deity in deity filled world or some shit
But what's important is that these suckers are stealing our Faith!
>Eat her

>>38980
>Eat her
Well, I guess it's chow time.

>>38980
>Offer a deal
Help her out, either by finding medical supplies or bandaging her up, and she answers our questions

>>39018
This, and if she's not willing to take it, eat her. Make it clear to her that we are actually hungry.

>>38980
Rape her, skin her, tan her hide into a satchel to hold items, and then eat her.

>>39018
I will support this decision.

>>38980
>Offer a deal

Help in exchange for information

>>39030
Now why would a fox be interested in a satchel, Anon?

>>39018
Addendum, if we fail to save her, we can still eat her corpse

Why would we even try to help her?
She is obviously intruder to whatever place this is and is scavenging stuff that we either protect or belong to us
Also she obviously hates us

>>38980
>>Eat her

>>39061
Answers man. And we can still eat her after we get answers. Not like she's strong enough to stop us.

>>39061
>Why would we even try to help her?
Information.

Information is important.

>>38980
Deal for information against helping her. If she dies (and she probably will), we'll eat her. That way we can get our cake and eat it too.

>>39061
Why hould we even care about this place ot the stuff in it?

>>38991
>>38997
>>39003
>>39062
Eat!

>>39018
>>39022
>>39032
>>39035
>>39087
Deals!

Writing.

>>39088
Because we quite obviously live here
>>39068
>>39074
>>39087
Huh
I was sure there were other intruders but after rereading realized there isn't anymore of them

I'm calling it now, we're a fox.
Not a foxgirl, just a fox.

>>39125
Well, duh, shapeshifting comes later.

>>39125
I had the same though
Sadly OP pic is saying we are foxgirl

By the way OP artifacts on this picture are horrible

"Do you want to live?" The words tumble from your mouth quicker than your mind can process, as the pang in your stomach pulses insistently.

"Fuck off." She muttered tiredly, the rustling of clothes alerting you to the injured woman resting her body against the wall. "You did this to me, and now you want to start that shit? You think this is a game? If y'aren't going to finish the job, just le'me alone."

Your tails swish back and forth frustratedly. "I have been sleeping." You inform her flatly, "And have little idea what anything you've said means. I ask again: Do you want to live?"

"No one wants t'die." The woman hisses plaintively, "But you're not leaving me with much choice, now are you?"

"If you are willing to help me, then I could be convinced to repay the favor." You lower yourself to the floor as you let the woman mull over your offer. You could simply eat her, and if you actually can't help her, then you'll probably eat her anyway. It would be preferrable to die quickly than be forced to bleed out like she was... Though if she didn't make a choice soon, then the entire situation would be rendered moot.

"...Fine, I got nothin' to lose." She finally grumbles, "You help me back to camp and I'll play nice."

There were the terms of her deal, and you sit quietly in thought. You had no idea where this 'camp' of hers was... But, you get the feeling that you at least knew how to help her back to it.

"You will answer my questions, then?" You scuff your paws against the ground as you stand, confirming one last time that she'd uphold her end of the bargain. You felt it in your soul before the words formed in your mouth, like rigid chains that sprang forward to constrict you. "So be it then,-" You took a step forward, muscles tensed as you crouched before her and your tails splayed wide. "-I promise to lend my aid against your death."

You leaped towards her, feeling your form beginning to shift as you sunk head first into her heavily wrapped chest and began to curl yourself into a tightly wound ball in order to fit yourself properly inside. The outrageous shouting of your newly promise-bound ally serving to partially dislodge you from your new host - Her body - Until you managed to catch-hold of her presence and constrict it within your tails.

When your eyes opened, it was from a far different perspective. The corridor was far darker, and your nose much less keen... You could distantly feel the damage done to the body, and you realized with some awe the extent of the injuries that had been inflicted.

'What the hell is going on?!'

Her ever grating voice practically screamed through your head as you leaned forward and forced the near butchered body to stand. Achilles tendons had been severed, her arms and thighs were soaked in blood, and a peculiar knife was still lodged firmly into her back, and... Lung?

You ripped the knife out absently-

'Whoa-hey, put that back in! What the fuck are you doing?!'

-And then shoved it back in just as absently at her request. Why she wanted a knife left in her was beyond you, but it's not like this was your body. "Where is your camp?" You direct the question towards the mental approximation of where you had shunted her soul off to as you tried to take stock of your body and its new balance.

Two legs was a novelty. It seemed like just staying upright would be a balancing act... And movement wasn't steady, so much as falling in a general direction repeatedly, and at various speeds. At the very least you still had your tails-

'Why the FUCK do I have tails? What the hell are you? What did you do to me?!'

Though you seemed to be lacking anything else. "Your camp?" You remind the woman whose body you had just forcibly possessed, finding that having pushed yourself to stand was starting to do Very Bad Things to you. Even moving with these slashed tendons was taking dedicated effort from both your tails and your hand along the wall to keep you from crumpling.

'Fuck me, of course they chose the one goddamn place with nature spirits still in it. No wonder this place had so much goddamn Faith...' Her complaints rambled, some of its content proving interesting to you, but the chains you felt strapped around your own soul were constricting with every second you didn't actively try to uphold your end of the promise, and finally you were able to needle out the directions from the woman you were bound to at least try and save.

>Ask something while you walk (what?)
>Experiment with 'your' body on the way.
>Just hurry towards the camp to get these chains off of you.
>Other? (write-in)

>>39286
>>Ask something while you walk (what?)
How do you take the Faith to power your "everything?" What do you weaken to do so?

>>39286
>Other? (write-in)
Tell her to drop her current job and do something else for rest of her life
Like worshiping us or jumping into volcano

>>39301
I vote for this.

>>39286
>Just hurry towards the camp to get these chains off of you.
We'll get our answers when we'll have her safe. Probably not sound if we can't heal her.

Fuck, that was cool. Gotta head off for now, have fun, I'll read the rest when I get home. Don't kill us, homies.

>>39308
Also, I like your style of story telling. Great work, Riz.

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>>39156
They really are. I was in a bit of a hurry, and left the image way too large.

How does it look smaller, after some touch ups?

>>39317
Plants still look kinda strange but I don't think you can do much about this without starting over so whatever
Also why did you remove breasts?

>>39327
I've still got the photoshop files and such on hand for modifications since I knew it'd be a rush job, though the plants are meant to look a little odd. I'll look them over and see about adjusting their colors a bit if this ends up being a long term thing.

>>39286
>Just hurry towards the camp to get these chains off of you.

We *are* a fox, I knew it.

>>39327
There were breasts? I honestly can't see anything of the sort in the original pic.

>>39301
>>39308
Tell me about Faith!

>>39303
Worship us and/or volcanoes!

>>39310
>>39343
Chains suck, hurry to camp.

Writing.

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>>39351

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>>39398
Fuck wrong image

>>39400
Welp. Those are breasts alright.

>>39400
Oh.
Then Riz confirmed for having a thing for protagonist of indeterminate gender.

>>39427
Nothing wrong with that though. Always interesting to see how people perceive characters written like that.

>>39427
I thought Irue was pretty clearly female. Forcing a male into a marriage to disinherit them doesn't really work for traditional male-preferring inheritance. Then again, who knows how La'Fiel's inheritance laws are? (Riz, probably, but oh well)

>>39448
We also know Irue wears female clothing. But with Riz so insistently using gender-neutral pronouns for Irue, one can't help but become suspicious.

You pick up the pace and get moving as quickly as the injured body will allow, and then slightly faster than that as you feel the heat slowly beginning to falter. Your host honestly didn't have much time left before she died, and you were compelled almost painfully to do everything you could to prevent that. However, just moving wasn't something that required a great deal of attention once you had managed to get some experience with your new found mode of mobility: Lunging forward repeatedly without falling.

'You suck at this.'

Shut up, it's faster than crawling. You didn't want to hear a word of complaint out of someone whose entire method of mobility could be summed up as 'I wish I was a bird but my wings suck'.

'Arms. They're not wings, you idiot.'

You file that information away under 'inferior wings' as you continue your bloody lunging through the corridors. In the meantime though, what was all of this about needing faith earlier?

'Faith.' She repeat, and you become aware that you can actually sense the capitalized F in your current method of conversation. You have to wonder if this was a mutual capability. 'You're a goddamned Nature Spirit, so I guess you wouldn't know. Didn't even know you things could talk...'

That was another term you weren't familiar with.

'Alright, alright, one thing at a time, shit. I'm not a scientist alright, so I don't really get how a lot of this works, but sometime way back - Like, waaaay back - Some eggheads figured out how to use Faith as a power source. One thing led to another, we were running out of fossil fuels, and this Faith stuff had a lot of really cool uses. You know how that kind of stuff goes.'

You stay silent as you take a turn, and she mutters something to the effect of how you probably don't know how it goes, actually. 'Well, Faith comes from humans, and at first we were just gettin' it from ourselves, yeah? Just believe REALLY hard and the lights will come on, or something.'

You narrow your eyes as you listened to the haphazardly recounted story. You don't really understand why they felt the need to harness faith- 'Faith.' -Or even how they managed it, but it became the primary resource for society very quickly... Until they realized that it wasn't the miracle they had believed it to be.

'Turns out, y'can only believe so much. We swapped to Faith because we were running out of fossil fuels, and it was killing the planet or somethin'. Ask a Gardener if you ever run into one of those rambling fucks, I don't know... Thing is-'

You crest a set of stairs, finally emerging from the burial grounds to greet the cool night air, a wet skyline of acidic rain that fell upon you with the thickness of sludge droplets. It didn't run off of you, so much as slide wetly across your exposed skin... And now you understand why this woman had been so heavily wrapped in clothes.

'Turns out Faith was killin' it, too.'

You stand bolted to the entrance of the burial grounds as you stare out into the first glimpse of the open world that you can properly remember, something inside of you writhing uncomfortably as you took in the greenish-black clouds obscurring the night sky and pelting the earth with its acrid payload. A sweet smell filtered into even your host's weak sense of smell and nearly made your stomach churn at the sickeningly saccharine aroma.

'Hey, stargaze later, I'm literally dying here! And keep the rain out of my wounds, shit's not good.'

You shake yourself loose of the inherent disgust welling up inside of you as you moved, listening to her directions on locating medkits amongst the small group of tents. How you were to go about applying it was a different story altogether...

'I'll do it, just give me back my body.' She muttered, and you could feel her shift within your constricted tails. You oblige after a moment, experimentally finding out how to actually leave the possessed Host. You poke your head out from her chest, paws pressed firmly against the injured woman's skin as you pry yourself free from her body and quickly duck under a nearby tentflap to avoid the falling sludge. It takes your previous host a couple more concerning moments before she jerks up with a heavy, gasping wheeze and her shaking hands scramble for the strange device you had been holding previously.

She does something with it, the hand held machine turning on as she takes the knife out of her back and quickly begins to hover the contraption over her wounds.

This woman should have been dead, and nothing short of a miracle was going to fix that...

...Which left you at a loss for the miracle she held in her hand, as she slowly seemed to relax and laid back against a nearby pack with a gargantuan sigh.

"You are well?"

"blood loss' a bitch." She muttered woozily, "But I'll live, thanks to you." You nod in acknowledgement at that, allowing a moment for the two of you to look each other over. It really was as if she hadn't been hurt at all, save for the ruin her clothes had been left in.

"...You're just a fox." She noted flatly, finally having finished her own inspection. "Yer really just a talkin' fox." You swish your twin tails pointedly, but feel the pang in your stomach slightly alleviate for some reason. "Weird ass Nature Spirits."

"How did you heal yourself?"

"Medkit." She drawled, holding up the strange hand-held thing from earlier, "Faith technology, remember? It's powerful stuff."

Well, regardless. You did your part, now for her to answer some of your questions.

>Where are the other scavengers?
>What is a 'Gardener'?
>You keep calling me a Nature Spirit.
>What's with this rain?
>Where is this?
>Other? (write-in)

>>39532
>Where are the other scavengers?
>What is a 'Gardener'?
>You keep calling me a Nature Spirit.
>What's with this rain?
>Where is this?
>How does faith destabilize the world?
>What exactly attacked you?
>Are there any other spirits similar to myself that have communicated with you?

>>39538
All of this plus:
>How exactly do you "gather Faith" and why here?
>What is a Hydra?

>>39538
Guess I'll just throw my support for 'every possible pertinent question'

>>39532
>Where are the other scavengers?
>What is a 'Gardener'?
>Where is this?
>How does faith destabilize the world?
>How do you gather Faith
Let's try to not overdo it
Also let's avoid asking stupid questions or ones that we have answers to like "Ever talked to other nature spirits" or "Who attacked you"

>>39552
Supporting

>>39538
>>39550
>>39551
E-Everything...

>>39552
>>39559
...Almost everything.

I'll uh... I'll see what I can do.

>>39583
You asked for it mate. We demand exposition.

>>39583
Haha, I could have warned you about this.

>>39600
Put some respeck on that post son.

"How do you gather Faith?" You settle down and try to tune out the loud plopping noises of the sludge-like rain falling upon the tent, and even more so the near overpoweringly tongue curling smell that you had picked up while in your host, but now assaulted your much sharper nose directly. "What do you mean it was killing the world?"

"Told you I ain't a scientist." She scowls, "You think I'd be out here getting knifed up by crazy Gardeners if I knew how this shit worked? I just move things."

"Then what were you moving here?" Your tails curl around you as if to ward off the memory of the filthy rain outside. You could see a solid sheen of muddy sludge building along the ground outside, and it makes you shudder.

"I'm a scavenger. Job's to go out and find holy sites and bring back relics an' artifacts an' stuff to the city. They extract the Faith there, an' we get paid for how much we found.

"...You say extract."

"Look, history's a long damn time. You Nature Spirits live long? Remember back when everyone was all superstitious 'bout some shit being mystical or having some special meaning?"

"I do not remember anything before today."

"Amnesia..? Wait, don't answer that. Not my problem how you weird shits work. Look, point is that we-" She motions to herself vaguely, "-Believed in a lot of stuff over the years. Waaay before we knew Faith was a power source. Entire cults would spring up believing this or that, and worshipping some fancy doohickey because they thought it would help them or save their soul when they kicked it, or somethin'. I don't think we even have souls, honestly."

"You do." you correct absently, stopping her rambling as she levels an awkward stare at you for several moments. "Please continue."

"....Right. Point is, all those generations of superstition and people believin' that shit? Lets us Make. Bank." She snaps her fingers lazily, "Decades and decades and hundreds of millions of people just throwing their Faith into normal, every day shit. We know now it sure as well wasn't doing them any favors, but that stuff stayed attached to whatever people believed in. Old relics, superstitious things, family relics and stuff? They're like batteries of Faith, and the eggheads back in the city can make use of that stuff."

"And then use it to cause things like this rain." You observe disappointedly. "I think I prefer the Faith left in their 'doohickeys' than this."

"Psh, I don't like it either, furball."
"Please do not call me that."
"You prefer Tails?"
"No."

She shrugs, "Suit yourself fuzzbitch. Anyway, told ya the Faith ain't doing anythin in those doohickeys, so o'course we wanna use it for something. This rain? Far as we can tell, not our fault."

"But you said-"

"I know what I said, and I'm tellin' ya, not our fault. We're not in the habit of tryin' to fuck things up for ourselves, you know? When it starts raining acid slugs, people start getting worried. Lotsa people smarter 'an me have run a bunch of tests or something, and we don't know what the fuck is going on, but it's not pollination for once."

You stare at her quietly as she repeats 'pollination' several times until the word finally morphs into 'pollution' and she seems pleased. "First of all, Faith ain't helping nothing grow, or anything. Hell, y'saw the medkit - We can use this shit to make plants grow and purify the rain. We do use it for that stuff, s'why we need so much of it."

You realize with a sinking resignation that further questions on this matter probably won't get you very satisfactory answers from this person. "What is a 'Nature Spirit'?"

"'Yer a Nature Spirit, mittens." You glance at your paws inadvertently, finding little reason to have been called mittens at all. This doesn't seem to matter to the woman. "Long time after we found Faith, we started figuring out how t'measure it, how t'look for it. We were gonna need more of it, and that meant people like me go gatherin'. Well... What we found, was you. Or weird shit like you, anyway."

"Like me?" Your ears perk up.

"Sorta. You're big 'ol balls of Faith, and that's about all I know. We get a pretty big bounty if we bring in shit like you."

You stare at each other for a very long, uncomfortable minute as what she said sinks in.

"I refuse your invitation."

"Ain't no invitation, frumples." She frowned, "I'm not gonna try an' force it, y'saved my life for whatever reason, but the rest of the squad won't care." You spend a moment to focus on the sounds of the camp, tentatively finding nothing more than the continued rain, before setting your head down with a tired sigh.

"So I suppose this place was once important to your ancestors." You notice her shrug, and you can't really blame her for not knowing the ancient history of the place, given you didn't even know what it was yourself and you had... Probably lived here? "Scanners picked up a small concentration of Faith out here, nothin' big. Big stuff tends to cause trouble... Lots of Gardeners, sometimes some fussy Nature Spirits. Little stuff is safe, usually just some musty old relics or antiques laying around. Some grampa's 'lucky pocketwatch'... Stuff."

"A Gardener is what attacked you, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. Crazy bastards." She scowled, "Fuckers left the city, caused a huge split a few decades ago. They were fussing about Faith being used irreverently, a bunch of their faction made up of people mad that science proved they believed in bullshit, mixed with a handful of those 'naturalist' bandwagoners who want to complain about a problem instead of fix it. Thought they could do better for themselves out here in the wild, living on the old holy grounds, where the ground is still fertile enough to grow things naturally."

"I take it you hold low opinions of them."

"I think they're dumb." She replies flatly, "But that's not really any of my business, Rumplestiltzkin. I live in the city, and if I don't do my job, I don't eat - And if my job don't get done, we don't have enough Faith, which means everybody doesn't eat. Between an entire city o'people and some innawoods, backwater, evangelical activists, I know exactly where I'm siding."

"..."

"Sides, a lot of 'em... Changed not long after Hydra started growing. If there are decent folk left among 'em, I pity the bastards."

Your ears twitch at the mention of that word in a place outside of your own memories. "What's a Hydra?"

"Plant." She replied with a snort. "You ever heard of kudzu? It's kind of like that, except black. And full of thorns. And carnivorous." She continues to add concerning descriptions as your stomach rolls. "Y'can smell it from here. Stuff's weird. the closer it gets to Faith, the less thorns it has; Starts blooming these pretty purple flowers, and they have a really strong smell to 'em."

Oh... So that was what that wretched smell was.

"Anyway, y'best get running, floppy. My squad's probably going to be out of those burial grounds soon, and I ain't saving you when they come back."

"I thought you said a Gardener attacked you." Your tails twitch as she nods in acknowledgement, "Then wouldn't it still be down there with your squad?"

"...Aw shit."

>You're going back under anyway, you'll go look for them.
>It's not really your problem, you'd rather her squad leave anyway.
>Time to go explore the surroundings.
>You're still hungry.
>Other? (write-in)

>>39768
>Time to go explore the surroundings.
>You're still hungry.

>You're going back under anyway, you'll go look for them.
be the hero

>>39768
>Go back and find scavengers
Let's just take back everything they took from here and eat the bodies
If they attack us once they realize we don't want to murder them that much we murder and eat them
Sounds good?

>>39768
>>It's not really your problem, you'd rather her squad leave anyway.

>>39768
>It's not really your problem, you'd rather her squad leave anyway.
>Time to go explore the surroundings.
>You're still hungry.
What do we even eat?

>>39804
Souls of these fools that decided to steal that what rightfully belongs to the world

>>39804
Meat.
But you're hungry in more ways than one.

>>39790
>>39804
Explore!

>>39804
>>39790
Hungry!

>>39791
>>39793
Find scavengers!

>>39803
>>39804
Not your problem!

...I want to be more surprised about this than I am. If no one breaks the tie in 5m, I'll roll.

>>39828
Tiebreaker
>Find scavengers

Writing.

File: tegaki.png (48 KB, 400x400)

48 KB PNG

We're gonna be the best fox.

You shake droplets of sludge from you as you stand, helpfully splattering the woman in the dislodged filth as thanks for her continued application of nicknames, and let your tails swish around experimentally. "I'm going back inside, I will look for them."

"...Y'sure about that?" The doubt she levels at you is far more than expected, and you almost feel indignant. "Not that I'm not thankful an' all, but why are you helpin' people that'll probably try an' chuck you in for money later?"

"If they become a problem, then I will deal with it then." You reply resignedly, taking your first step towards the tentflap as you start to mentally prepare yourself to go dashing through the rain of sludge. What you didn't quite expect, however, was the too-large coat that plopped down over you just before you left. It took you a quick and panicked few seconds to find an edge to poke your head out from under, glancing back at the sole other inhabitant with a questioning accusation.

"Y'didn't look like y'wanted to get rained on." She shrugged, "Keep the coat, though. S'no good for me, anymore."

She reached down to secure the scraps of the raggedy coat she had been wearing around you more effectively, resulting in a still much-too-large piece of cloathing being awkwardly attached like some manner of half-assed cape that draped across the ground on all sides.

She seemed pleased though, and you accepted the act of good will for what it was as your tails spread out to try and prop up the back-end of the capecoat and you dashed back out into the rain for the brief few seconds until you could reach the entrance of the Burial Grounds once more. The wet and muddy sound of the coat dragging along the staircase echoed through the halls, and for once you were actually thankful for the musty and stale air of the dark corridors around you; Anything was better than having to smell more Hydra.

Once you had found your way further into the twisting halls once more, you allowed your body to slip back into auto-pilot and put your nose to work. There had been four tents on the surface, and you knew one of them was already filled... Which left three others to be wandering around your ruins. Among those three, there was evidently a 'Gardener' stalking the squad with intent to kill.

While you held no love for the squad, and would quite honestly prefer them to leave, having their blood stain the Burial Grounds left a bitter taste in your mouth.

However, before long, that familiar coppery scent was once more filling your nostrils as you scraped along through the hallways briskly, dragging the coat behind you. You stop to focus more, tracking down its direction, and realize with a twisting sensation that buried within the odor of rent flesh was a hint of the same sickeningly sweet aroma that you had nearly lost your stomach over above ground.

>Follow the smell of blood
>Follow the Hydra's scent

>>39880
>>Follow the smell of blood

>>39880
>Follow the Hydra's scent
Tell that plague to get out of your land
We can eat bodies later

>Follow the Hydra's scent.
We might find the Gardener this way. And if we find the Gardener we might find the scavengers. Or what's left of them.

File: tegaki.png (110 KB, 400x400)

110 KB PNG

Not only does the Hydra drop its thorns and bloom in the presence of Faith, it also becomes poorly drawn.

>>39924
It also smells like hell apparently
I can't understand why would someone design it in such way
Unless it's used by aliens to cleanse worlds of life and to pinpoint locations of faith that they use to make drinks or something

>>39937
Bit too early on to be making accurate guesses I feel. But it could be a purely natural phenomenon. It flowers when it finds Faith so it needs Faith to pollinate and breed. It might just be a disastrous evolutionary result of a Faith-deprived world.

You glance down the hall that led towards the source of the blood you were smelling, but unlike before, you had a more pressing concern. You knew what that sickly sweet smell meant, and the last thing you wanted was for Hydra to have wormed its way into your ruins. With one last fleeting glance towards the direction of fresh blood, you realigned your priorities and took a break towards the stomach wrenching smell that wove its way through the halls.

The sinking feeling in your gut continued to worsen as the distance between you and the origin of the scent began to close, until it wasn't necessary to navigate purely by your nose any longer. Flashes of light and a clash of steel began to reverberate through the halls, leading you closer to conflict with every illuminating step. Two voices cried out to each other, orders and ideas being barked between them between the staccato pelting of some kind of weapon.

It was only when you arrived at the top of the staircase descending into the melee did you become able to confirm the two people on the floor below as being dressed in a similar manner to the woman you had saved earlier.

This moment, you realized a moment later as one of those men was physically thrown out of sight by face you felt like you should have recognized, was also the first time you had truly seen the Hydra. A large violet flower bloomed from their back, with black, tendril-like vines of varying thickness winding its way out from their mesh of clothes. In the brief and chaotic flashes of light, you could barely make out the way the vines beneath the sickly flower petal had seemingly grown out from underneath the skin of its host - A parasitic creature, its presence integrating with the body in such a manner that it looked as if a single pore had simply been stretched to such a degree that an entire plant could ooze its glossy black appendage from within.

You found yourself hesitating at the top of the stairs, watching reluctantly at the fight which dragged out below between the Hydra infected man whose face scratched at your memories, and the two members of the scavenging squad as they unloaded bolt after bolt of some manner of projectile near futilely into its body.

You wondered if this was a fight they could hope to win, tails bristling as a bolt was tore away a chunk of the right arm's skin, only to reveal more of the glossy black vine beneath.

Whether the scavengers could this fight or not, the way they fumbled with to reload their weapons, and the wounds you had found on the woman earlier painted a very certain picture of their chances of losing.

>Help the scavengers
>Let the fight play out, handle the survivors
>Help the nostalgic hydra-infected
>Try to interject and stop the fighting
>Other? (write-in)

>>39973
Do we feel some emotion thanks to the smell or sight of Hydra?

>>39983
You recognize its host vaguely. Otherwise, the smell just makes you nauseated.

>>39973
>Let the fight play out, handle the survivors

>>40001
Writing.

File: Fox inna coat.png (38 KB, 198x198)

38 KB PNG

Have a shitty image of a fox in a coat

>>40052
It's a very pretty fox!

You settled back, ears folding flat as the fight raged on the floor below. You weren't terribly confident in handling those strange weapons, or in trying to engage the oddly familiar Hydra-Infected that was seemingly shrugging them off. You had told the woman you'd look for her squad, not that you would help them... And you had found them, in the end.

You kept your eyes open for each moment of the ensuing fight, if it could be called such. This had been your decision, a weight and responsibility that settled on your shoulders as you made sure to engrave every last instance of the two squad member's lives to memory as their ammunition finally ran thin, and the Hydra-Infected managed to push its way through their hastily drawn blades in order to rip large portions of flesh away from the scavenger's body with each swipe.

In short order, the combat finally came to an end, the room painted in spilled and splattered arrays of blood, and the sickeningly sweet smell of the blooming Hydra flower upon the infected's back. Closing your eyes in finality, you willed your limbs free of the bolts of hesitation which had paralysed them in place as you watched half of the woman's squad be murdered before your eyes and finally stepped forward to enter the field.

Though your steps were silent, the dragging of the coat on your back gave you away within moments, drawing the infected's attention to you in a single tense moment. In the relative darkness, you met their eyes beneath the overhanging petal of the invasive Hydra flower, and felt a stirring in your memories as the rictus features of their face struggled to shift expressions. Dark veins ran thick spiderwebs beneath their skin, holding their muscles in place even as the eyes themselves seemed to soften.

It took a single step towards you, uncorrupted hand reaching out as it knelt. "Oh..." Your tails bristled at the gentle, choked voice that warbled free as it struggled to speak. "I hoped you wouldn't leave that room..." You came to a stop several feet away from them, choosing to sit and observe the confusingly familiar person. "...Where did you get that coat?" It smiled painfully at your refusal to approach, hand falling limply to its side as it remained kneeling.

It was something that felt familiar. Too much of this felt familiar to you. Had this infected known you? ...No, even their voice was familiar, they had definitely known you. You remember them speaking of the coming scavengers.

"I'm sorry. You'll need to fend for yourself after today." It sighed, eyes drooping towards the ground at its feet as the Hydra-Infected rose to leave.

>Let them go.
>Ask who they are.
>Attack while their back is turned.
>Try to possess them.
>Check on the squad members.
>Other? (Write-in)

>>40084
>Ask who they are.

>Ask who they are

>>40084
>>Ask who they are.

>>40087
>>40103
>>40122
Writing.

"Who are you?" Your voice stops them cold, eliciting a rigid turn as they finally bring themselves to look at you once more, disbelief written clear across their face. "...You spoke." The muttered, once calm movements speeding up frantically as they scrambled across the room towards you - A pursuit you were willing to abandon your coatcape in order to prevent as you used it as a distraction to slip out of the Infected's grasp and maintain the distance between you. You bare your teeth warningly, twin tails bristling as they unfurl behind you. Aggression sparks something inside of you, a roiling sensation that caused the pang of hunger in your gut to deepen even as you drew out what felt like the dregs of a long empty reservoir.

Two small balls of ethereal flame wavered to life upon the tips of your two tails, pitiful balls of ghastly flame that shed the darkness around you into a pale white corona. They offered no heat, even as the luminous tongues weakly licked at the air, but these were every part a fang as the ones bared between your jaws.

However, your hunger was ravenous. Simply creating them left you weak in the knees. It was a hunger which ran beyond physical, and it was only your stubborn insistence to stay standing which kept you up now. "Who are you?"

"...Ah. Ha... Haha..." The infected stopped its pursuit, the pale light revealing the mixed pride and despair etched into their face. "Two tails... It finally happened. You ascended."

Your flames flickered dangerously as the Hydra wrapped around the infected's body began to shift, countless buds erupting from its black vines and slowly beginning to blossom as the hunger within you began to physically hurt. "What beautiful fox fire..." It wheezed painfully beneath the blossoming flowers that forced themselves from beneath their skin, a resemblance of something that was now more vine than human, and even then, more flower than vine. Their blood ran freely amongst the violet petals, staining them crimson and masking the sickly sweet smell of their blooms with a more pungent odor. "To think... I'd get to see it in the end."

"Get th' FUCK back!"

Your moment was ruined as something small clattered onto the floor next to the kneeling Hydra-Infected. You had the briefest moment in your pale white light to look at the tiny device, perhaps enough to fit in one's hand, before it erupted into a flame far more vicious than the ones adorning your tail; Setting the lower floor awash in a sea of crimson and orange.

You recoiled at the explosion, a thin shimmer of pale flames expanding in front of you as the tiny flametongues upon your tails erupted reflexively to try and protect yourself. It was a futile effort, one that lasted on briefly before being broken apart and devoured by the explosive fire as you were thrown back against the wall with a bone-rattling force.

"And stay dead!" That woman's voice crowed from somewhere in the distance, your vision swimming as you struggled to find your feet under you once more. "Hey Sparky, you okay down there?!"

The Hydra-Infected still knelt where they had before, their body consumed in flames as they quietly burned. There was no reaction from them, not from the blast, nor from the flames which licked at the shrivelling petals, nor the blackening skin which was slowly curling away.

You could still faintly smell the sickly blossoms as they burned away, but it was the smell of incense which filled your nose the most as you watched them burn.

"I am well." answer eventually, turning to see the broadly smirking woman as she slowly edged her way down the stairs with her hands full of things similar to the one she had just thrown. "...Though I find your actions unnecessary."

"Hey, you can make peace with the Gardener all you want, I had a score to settle."

"...I suppose I cannot fault you for avenging your friends."

"Wha?"

"Your squad. I could not prevent it from killing them."

"Oh nah, fuck those guys. This was for me, Sparky. That fucking thing nearly killed me, so I had to return the favor." She slipped one of the many little handheld explosives in her hand out of her fingers, fingering around with something upon it. "But I ain't taking no chances, we best get out of here soon."

"I believe it is dead." You object, only to receive a flat stare from the abrasive woman. "Yeah, and it thought th'same thing 'bout me, didn't it?"

"..." You couldn't actually fault this reasoning, but it still seemed excessive.

>Why are you here?
>Was throwing the explosive at me really necessary?
>I object to your use of explosives in my ruins.
>Offer to finish the job yourself.
>Other? (Write-in)

>>40186
>Whats "ascended" mean in relation to nature spirits?
also stand ready if the infected is playing possum.

>>40186
>I object to your use of explosives in my ruins.
If she does it anyway we should stop her permanently
If she doesn't take the stuff they took back and tell her to go away

>>40186
>I object to your use of explosives in my ruins.
You could ruin it.

>>40186
>>I object to your use of explosives in my ruins
>I hunger, would you mind if your team's corpses served as food? Because otherwise they will be eaten by the vine.

>>40186
>I object to your use of explosives in my ruins.
>You can do it outside if you really want.

>>40203
>>40205
>>40211
>>40214
No explosions, please.

>>40214
Unless it's outside.

>>40211
I am hungry still.

>>40198
What does it mean to have ascended?

Writing.

"I object to your use of explosions in my ruins." You side eye the remaining explosives in her hands warily, an action she shrugs off with a roll of her eyes. "What, worried I'll ruin them?" You stare at her blankly, watching in increasing discomfort as the shiteating grin on her face continues to grow in size. "See, it's funny because they're already ruins." You sneeze, head shaking violently as a ploof of ash is pushed up. "And if they broke more, they'd be ruined." But the woman was still talking, even as she had thankfully put the actual explosives away and began to follow you across the room, "One of the words is a place and the other is a describe-y thing."

Her squad was definitely dead. Seems like, unlike the bombastic woman behind you, the Hydra-Infected hadn't taken any chances with them... Or perhaps it had simply been too far gone when it faced them. You feel like you were forgetting something relevant in regards to this, but the detail seemed to elude you as you reached for it. Your memories in general didn't seem terribly reliable, a fact that threatened to seed a deeply seated terror of the things you might end up Forgetting in the future.

"So when I use them together it's ironic because of their similar-"

"What does it mean to have ascended?" You interrupt her finally, setting back on your haunches as your twin tails twist around you uncomfortably.

"Hell should I know?" Her answer was depressingly expected. "That kind of mystic mumbo-jumbo is shit you'd have to ask a Gardener about."

"I was." You sigh, "And then you exploded into the conversation."

You stare at her flatly.

"It is funny because you stopped the conversation by throwing an explosive at me."
"I am aware."

You sigh, letting your head hang briefly as you offered a genuine prayer for the dead squad members, and your own silent respects to the familiar Hydra-Infected.

From the earth you came, and to its bosom you return.
Accept this child, your faithful servant...

"..."
"..."
"You're really praying for them?" the woman knelt down beside you, one hand irreverently scratching the base of your neck as you stared at the roasted corpses of her former squad. "You don't have to go that far, they were assholes."

You didn't respond immediately, feeling her nails scrape through your fur and against your skin, and the slight tremor in her fingers.

"They'd have really tried to kill you. For the money, I mean. It wouldn't have been personal." You didn't particularly like being touched. "Y'know. Nothin' Personal, kit." In fact you were rather averse to it. "...See... It's funny, because you're a fox... and kits..." But you allow it. Partly because the meaningless and inane chatter of the woman behind you was an ongoing noise to mask the way her voice shook from time to time. Partly because the slight change of pressure against your back as she tried to regulate her petting casually told an entirely different story.

Partly because with those things in mind, you found it difficult to tell her that you had finished your prayer minutes ago, and had been considering eating them because you were still hungry.

The two of you stayed down there for longer than you would have expected. By the time you had made it back to the surface alongside the now much quieter woman, the rumbling thunder and storm of sludge had seemingly long since cleared. Far above you, the sun shown down through emerald green leaves that were regrettably covered in the self-same black sludge which also coated the ground.

It was muggy in the early morning air, as the acrid stench of drying sludge began to fill the air and you resolved that the rest of your life was liable to be spent smelling things you found repulsive.

"Did you and your team discover any Faith during your time in my ruins?" You plodded through the drying sludge with tails held high to avoid any more than necessary being exposed to your fur. "If so, I would like you return them to me before you leave."

The woman scowled, one head frustratedly ruffling her own hair as she came to a stop in the middle of the camp.

"I'm getting recompense for this shit." She grunted after a while, "My whole team died, even if I go back empty handed, corporate is gonna be coughing up dough by the bag."

"Then you do not need the Faith you located here." You want to sit down, but that would require placing your haunches in the sludge. "You will agree to return them, then?"

"For what good it'll do." She groused finally, "Look, I'm gonna level with ya' Sparky, more of us are gonna be coming back this way. They're not gonna let Faith go over a few scavengers getting into it with a Gardener. Even if I give you the stuff we found, what are y'going to do with it?"

>Protect it.
>Destroy it.
>Consume it.
>Other? (Write-in)

>>40335
>Consume it.

>a deeply seated terror of the things you might end up Forgetting in the future.

Riz. Riz. It's not nice to remind people of things like that.

>>40340
>Consume it.
Or the people coming here, but we need to eat something soon.

>>40349
I don't get it
>>40340
>Protect it.

You guys do realize that humans made the whole mess by consuming faith right?

>>40340
>Protect it.

>>40364
Humans yeah, but we're an ascended nature spirit. And we need to eat something, so if you prefer we eat the humans that arrive, be my guest.

>>40354
It's a thing from Valen Quest.
Maybe it will be a thing here as well.

>>40349
>>40353
Consume!

>>40354
>>40365
Protect!

It's a tie again. I'll wait for a break for 5m, then roll.

>>40373
It's already here, though?

>>40340
>Remain silent. You're not sure yourself.

>>40340
>>Consume it.

Writing.

>>40373
>Valen Quest
Is it good?

>>40405
It's crazy good.

>>40405
Well I like it. It's definitely well written if noting else.
It stops me from sleeping though so not good for you're health

>>40426
>>40436
Well, i'll give it a try then.

"Consume it." You answer after a moment's hesitation. You considered protecting it, but if what she had said was true then you'd just be painting a target on yourself and everything else in the Burial Grounds. Even if someone did come, your preference would be to drive them away... It was a losing battle, no matter how you looked at it. "This is where I was born. I want to protect it... And it seems the best way for me to do that would be to remove any reason for more of your people to come deface it."

"That's some pretty haughty talk, considerin' yer jus' gonna do the same thing with the Faith that we were." the woman looked at you doubtfully, "Well, I guess it's technically yer inheritance or somethin'. None of my business what you do with the shit."

"My reasons for consuming it are different." You disagree calmly, "The value in those 'doohickeys' as you put it... From what you have told me, it is the Faith itself. The items are meaningless, beyond the thoughts and feelings those before embued them with."

"Aaaan' yer gonna eat them."

"They are just a part of my home as the structure itself." Your tails wag lazily through the air as the two of you walked. "I cannot hope to take the materials themselves, but I can still carry the sentiments left behind within me."

"Whatever." The woman shrugs off your attempts to explain, having evidently already seemed to accept whatever your answer was. "We tossed any of the stuff we excavated in the rover's storage for easy transport. Didn't find a whole lot, though; Some weird rods, a couple urns of ashes. I think Rex found some kind of shiny ball in the lowest level of the Burial Grounds."

...Your ears perk up reflexively.

"It was probably the biggest haul in the whole place; Hauled it out of some statue's mouth. Got that fucking Gardener on our case, though. Who knows what the fuck it was doing down there, though."

"Is that all you found?"
"Yeah, think so."

The two of you came to a halt not long after the forest surrounding your ruins gave way to a long and winding strip of asphalt. The scent of the Hydra enough to cause your nose to scrunch in distaste as you looked out in uncomfortable horror at the way the black vines were encroaching forward onto the forest behind a vanguard of blooming violet petals.

"...Is Hydra always like this?"

"Hm? Yeah. It's pretty light out here." She answered distractedly, glancing up and down the winding strip with a scowl. She was so dismissive of it... This was 'light'? It covered the ground like a thorny carpet!

"How does it... Get worse?" Your tails bristle at the near endless sea of glossy black vines which seemed to wrap around and lazily strangle the the life from the local plants between its thorns.

"Y'can still see the trees, at least." She snapped, "Dammit, This was the right way, wasn't it? Where the fuck..."

You glanced aside uneasily, catching a coppery scent as the woman began to curse in a creative fashion over getting lost. It didn't take long to locate the traces of blood staining the thorny vines, and one that stamped itself into the edge of the asphalt before seemingly vanishing.

"Did you meet your fourth squad member on your way down last night?" You call her worriedly, the woman's stomping stride breaking as she wandered back towards you. "No. I thought you said the assholes all died to the Hydra-Infected?"

"I presumed they were, given my experience with you." You admitted, pointing out the stains upon the road. "But I did not check."

"I'm killing every goddamn thing I meet twice from now on." the woman's violent pledge solidified the budding worry as you both looked down the winding asphalt strip. "Piece of shit couldn't have gone too far, it just rained last night. Road's too fucked for driving until this crap clears."

You watch her begin to stomp away, down the long road, waves of heat radiating up as the heady mixture of baking sludge and Hydra blossoms threatened to capsize what little miserable appetite still gnawed stubbornly at your gut.

"Get yer ass in gear, Sparky!"

Your tail twitches as she stopped several lengths down the road, her diminuitive form turning to yell at you in the distance. "I ain't givin' shit back if you aren't comin' with me get back at that bastard for abandoning me out here!"

"...Perhaps he believed you were dead." You muttered to yourself tiredly, taking your first step onto the rough and uncomfortable sludge-covered-asphalt.

"You say something?!"

"I am coming!"

You were born last night, and this was your life now. Walking down a sludge covered road in the hot sun, surrounded by repulsive smelling abominations as you listened to some woman rave angrily.

And you were still hungry.

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http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=FoxFire

And we are archived.

I'll lurk the thread for a bit to answer some questions, if I can.

Apologies to all anons who participated in FoxFire but died at their keyboards wondering when QM would finally stop.

To those who did not make it to the end, we will never forget your sacrifice.

https://twitter.com/Riz_QM Here's the twitter thing if people feel like looking for new FoxFire sessions in the future. I don't really have a schedule for it right now, since it was an impromptu thing.

Hope everyone had fun!

>>40629
Thanks for running!

>>40629
How long until we will have to choose between saving the girl and eating the orb?
Why have you removed the breasts?
Why has the world decided to use such inefficient manner of killing humans off?

>>40629
Thanks for the run!

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>>40629
Yay! You're back!
What do you think of /qst/ by the way? Are you gonna run the next one here or...?

>>40629
Thanks for running!

Will there be a continuation?
When will Valen continue?

>>40658
>Saving girl or eating the orb
Orb is not for eating, and she can generally handle herself. I try to write competent supporting cast, because I abhor the idea of escort missions.

>Why has the world decided to use such inefficient manner of killing humans off?
The world has nothing to do with it, really. Humans did this to themselves... Though the reason is something of a domino effect, which may be explored later.

>>40667
I've come to mentally refer to you as LuviAnon. I hope this is acceptable.

/qst/ is pretty convenient. I love the bolding and italics, and I think I used them in places they weren't necessary just because I really wanted to try them out. I will definitely be running all future sessions of FoxFire here.

>>40671
>Will there be a continuation?
Yes, most likely. I'll need to figure out how I'll work it into my schedule, since my primary quest is coming back off Hiatus as of this weekend.
So there's your other answer. I'll see you this saturday!

>>40685
>I've come to mentally refer to you as LuviAnon. I hope this is acceptable.
I can now die happy. Anyway, thanks for running. Need to sleep now.

>>40685
Thanks for running Riz, Just finished Valen Quest's archive a bit ago. Really hope I can be helpful for when you run the next arc! I could have saved Shadowrue...

>>40824
I look forward to having you, anon! Also I hoped you enjoyed the read.

I feel a bit more confident in Valen than I do FoxFire. This quest is a bit of an experiment for me, and I'm still trying to find a balance in the narrative that I'm comfortable with.

>>40849
Well, whatever it is you're balancing with, you've done a pretty good job so far in my opinion.

So what are the chances that she will sell us out at first opportunity?

>>41106
first opportunity is probably unlikely. We did save her and it seems she tried helping us as well. Now if the prize was substantially more because we are a rarity from the sounds of it...