castle_whims | TWO TALES END (Golden Ending)

Reunions and Meetings

It's a couple of hours since the end of the torment. The eternal game is over. A Little Brother, a little run ragged, runs around the Academy and the depot telling anyone who will listen that something is happening. The Queen, a friend of theirs, is visiting. She contacted the sheep while everyone was busy. They explain that she, along with a group of children, will be coming to the depot to meet everyone. She also can help get those who want to go elsewhere, get there. The Queen, it seems, found a way to open doors to other worlds and times. This could be helpful to get home as well as bringing old faces to the depot, if not Closetland itself.

It takes about an hour but eventually a golden door opens on the deck of the platform. A young girl in full petticoats dressed in blue stands before everyone. Even if her smile is nervous at the sight of so many new people she gives a quick curtsy. She shrinks back shyly as she speaks as a few other children come out of the door, too.

"I'm Queen Alice. The sheepies tried contacting my castle and told me what happened. I'm... very sorry about what must have happened. As my friends will tell you, you don't have to worry about the castle or her--uh, Nursery Rhyme--anymore. She's not a King anymore. I'm just a kid like everyone here, um. My friends helped me make this body so I'm sorry if it's a bit surprising. Um. I can help you get home if you'd like..."

Queen Alice goes onto explain that she can open doors to any world your character wants to go to. She can also gently pull other people through doors if needed. The sheep add that the teleporter to Closetland won't allow them to go there. The Academy is for students and staff only, after all!

The residents of the Castle seem nice enough, at least. Maybe now is the time for new friendships after shared two very long grueling experiences? Perhaps you just want to return to a safe place.

Two stories end quietly in the middle of a dark but calm ocean.

OOC

Welcome to the reunion post of Round One and Round Two. Players who played in either round only, please. You may play or NPC castmates of fellow characters if you'd like, though! Please no bringing in of Round Zero NPCs, please. They preferred not to come. If your character has no place to return to or ever needs a place to rest, Alice will offer them a room at her Castle provided they behave themselves. Powers are on there unless trouble arises. She's a bit sensitive after being drafted into being a murdergame accomplice, after all. We hope you enjoy yourselves and this will be the final post for round 2 of Castle Whimsical. Thank you, everyone!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[One of the last figures to emerge from the door behind Alice might be a bit of a surprise. The creature peeking shyly out from around her skirt looks at first glance like a medium-smallish white-and-black dog of some vaguely greyhound breed, but it doesn't take a hard look to realize that that's not quite right. For one thing, its neck is almost comically long. But more subtly, it's head and muzzle have a bit more of a uniform conical shape like a possum or a seal, and it has five toes on its front paws instead of four, and a half dozen other little incongruities that add up to a distinct impression that whatever this doglike creature is, it is not descended from an Earthly wolf.

And then another, very similar creature pokes its too-long neck out from the door. ... Then another. And another. And soon there are padding nervously out onto the platform fully eight of these weird critters, all with slightly different coat patterns but otherwise extremely similar.

At first they all bunch up haunch-to-haunch, all looking around curiously in a collective posture that suggests the creatures are not afraid, just kind of overwhelmed. Any stranger who walks toward the pack, however, will quite suddenly find at least half of their funny little heads turning to look at you with startling synchronicity. What do you do?]

[Later, after getting a bit more comfortable with these new kids, Amdi can be found walking around the crowd much more casually. He is a friendly lad who will strike up conversation with anyone, but he's especially keen to speak with other "unusual" children. Either way, his go-to conversation opener is:]

Hello! My name is Amdi! Are you from Earth?

[Uh, if you're not used to a group of eight alien dogs "speaking" by way of artificially generating a cheerful little boy voice that is originating nonspecifically from the entire pack while not one of them move their mouths in any way... that sure is a thing that's happening.]

[When the strange dogs approach the blue bat, the red blood slime, and the moving black bunny doll, they were conversing among themselves. The bat and the bunny turn to look at the weird dogs when addressed.

The heck...?

Um, no. My name is Adorabat. I come from Pure Heart Valley. This is Slimy and Simon Norwell.

[The bat points to the slime and the bunny, respectively.]

Hi Adorabat! Hi Slimy and Simon!

[Looks like the weird dogs aren't particularly shocked by either the weird slime or the alive bunny doll, but they do seem quite fascinated by all three of you. One keeps a curious set of eyes on the bunny and another two look intently at the slime, one even sticking a nose as close as seems polite to sniff at it a little. Of the other five there are always at least two or three looking at Adorabat while the others continue to casually scan the crowd on the platform, but it's not always the same ones from moment to moment.]

Were all three of you stuck at the evil school?

Yeah, we were... Simon came out of the machine and I had to use belief magic to make him come alive, and Slimy was one of the monsters trapped and she almost tried to eat some of us cuz she was super hungry at the time.

[Bat pets for the blood slime.]

'n then, I met her weeks later when she wasn't hungry anymore. She told me her old friend left her, so WE became friends.

[Simon glares suspiciously.]

Y'all related to those delightful children dopes?

Edited 2022-10-04 04:57 (UTC)

Oh, cool! We used that kind of magic to help Alice too!

[At Simon's question, a couple of Amdi show their (small, uniform, and very un-doglike) teeth for a quick moment and a couple more stick their noses haughtily up into the air.]

Ew, no, I'm nothing like them! Nigel told me all about those kids, they're not even a real Pack they're just a bunch of whole minds that that Father person mushed together somehow because he's evil!

Hmph. The jerkbutt's in a cell and you should be, too, if you-

SIMON, BE NICE!

[Simon flinches when Adorabat yells at her and just shuts up and grumpfaces.]

...So you did!? Ya gotta tell me what happened during the battle!

['Ah, finally, another dog!'

Those are Dylan's first thoughts when he sees the first head poke out. Sure, maybe it's a little weird looking, but hey, mixed breeds exist! It's rude to judge for that sort of thing!

But...then another head pops out. Then another. And another. And...

There's eight other dogs. And they all just seemed...off? Like they were a collective instead of a bunch of separate dogs.

Maybe...maybe they're all nervous siblings? He'd know what that's like. Plus, a good number of his own siblings did clump together a lot. It wasn't too out there.

So, despite the smaller concerns, Dylan approaches the eight dogs with a bit of confidence, happy to have a conversation with even a small bit of normalcy-

And then they all look at him at the exact same time.]

...uh...

[He raises a paw and gives a small wave.]

Hi?

[The "dogs" actually perk up excitedly as soon as they spot Dylan, and after a quick active scan of the crowd the remaining members of the eightsome all turn to look at him too, some heads low and held out to the sides and some stretched absurdly up into the air, as though to look at him from every angle. I'm sure that's not unnerving at all! :D]

Oh, hi! Oh my gosh, are you an Earth dog?? I didn't know Earth dogs could talk!!

[...okay...not normal dog. Neck stretching is not normal. The fact that he's hearing only one voice while none of their mouths are moving is not normal. That said voice is referring to him as an Earth dog is not normal.]

Uh...yeah. I am. And we can.

[All of it combined, he can only come up with one conclusion.]

Are...are you an alien?

[A couple of thoughtful little head tilts, followed by a synchronized bob of several other heads.]

Um, I guess if I ever came to your planet, then yeah! But, if you think about it, if you came to my planet, wouldn't you be the alien?

[Oh btw Dylan, you know those annoying "dog whistles" humans invented that they can't hear but you can? Yeah, these guys are making faint little spurts of that noise all the time.]

[He does indeed notice that noise, and it's enough to make him scratch at his ears before the voice speaks again. And when it does, he completely freezes at the answer.]

I...I guess that's true, but...

[He's shaking a little bit again as he speaks now.]

That still means...

YOU'RE AN ALIEN FROM ANOTHER PLANET-FROM SPACE!!

[The Dalmatian has now zipped right in front of the foremost not-dog, the biggest, goofiest smile on his muzzle as he looks the non-canine up and down.]

Are you from a society where everyone is telepathic?! Are you speaking for everyone or is this a collective personality situation!? Have you managed space travel yet or are you still working on it!?! Do you have an equivalent to humans on your planet or is it just your species?!? What's society like in general on your planet!?!?

TELL ME EVERYTHING!

[He is. In Heaven.]

[C..............asually staying the hell out of this.]

[ Okay. Hunter is far past being weirded out by being able to speak dog.

This is not what is happening. This is a small pack of weird looking noodle dogs talking to him with their disembodied voice. What. ]

Er... Yeah, I'm Hunter. [ He smiles, trying not to look too weirded out. ] So, who are the rest of your buddies here?

[ He has no idea which one is Amdi, but that's what's happening here, right? A whole family of dog things running around as a group? He can't tell which one just spoke up. ]

Edited 2022-10-04 22:49 (UTC)

TWO TALES END (Golden Ending)

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More comfortable

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First Impressions

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Omg I almost forgot about mindsound, rip Dylan

1/2

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more... comfortable