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< TO PARTY: I prefer the natural high, myself, > she smiled then paused, < TO PARTY: What you mean like preparation H? Thought that s**t's topical. >

The distinction between soldier and pirate doesn't occur to Raze, authority was authority and she snapped to it naturally. "Aye, aye,cap'n!" She didn't do the marching thing, just a decent stride, < TO PARTY: You do these game-things often? > Aaaaaaah ******** what kind of shitty small talk is that?! Raze mentally groaned, up until they got to a fork in the path. "So, cap'n, left or right?"

Trisha looked down at the bluebell, how would she... she nibbled the small mushrooms and shrank. oh good! This would work out. she started to climb, forgetting something.

((try two))

Trisha walked left this time and found grass, delicious grass, grass so big that... she tried to chomp it. it didn't taste very good....

But she couldn't get around it... she needed to... grow? she headed back to the entrance to try again.

((Try three) She totally had this, she went left. and ate the big shroom.

She grew and grew and grew, this was awesome! She liked this a lot. Giant mouse/apasu coming through! *stomp stomp*

"Left," he decides at the fork.

< TO PARTY: Good to hear, > Dreadpirate replies as they begin down the left path. He's never had much respect for those who want to poison their bodies, especially when his life has depended on their judgment and reflexes. < TO PARTY: ... What? I'm talking about the mad doctor? >

Raising his eyebrows, he gives Raze a confused look. She's human, so she ought to know him. She's a Hunter, right?

... Right?

He's amused by the idea of himself as a gamer. He mostly only knows what was available during overseas deployments. < TO PARTY: Not for several years. And not religiously. There just wan't much choice of entertainment sometimes, so you played whatever game was around. > Sometimes that meant Call of Duty, sometimes it was Super Mario, and sometimes it was an MMO. He wouldn't call himself overly familiar, let alone an expert, but he wasn't completely lost by the idea of this gameworld.

A cluster of grass appears in the distance. As they move closer, it gets larger and larger until it looms over their heads.

"I guess we eat your mushroom," he says while staring up at the grass. Each blade is wider than he is, and even if he had Raze climb onto his shoulders, they still wouldn't be able to see over the top.

He takes a bite of the mushroom to grow large. There's half left for Raze to do the same and he drops it back into her hand as the world starts to shrink.

He came to a fork in the road and took it.

To be more precise, he came to a fork in the road and took the right path which almost assuredly turned out to be the wrong path; which, seeing as how everything was wrong with him, should not have come as a surprise.

He got to the end and realized, at long last, that he had actually done something right this time (the choirs were all singing hallelujah). attemptedmurder hastily stuffed the medium-sized mushroom in his mouth and clambered over the lily pads, feeling a great sense of relief.

Dreadpirate was stumped. He was 90% sure she wasn't a monster pretending to be human. Was he wrong about her? Or was it that normal humans could enter this strange dream-game as well? It then occurred to him that there was a third possibility - Raze might be in the pods this very minute, waiting to pass the initiation test.

"Huh," he says, forgetting to target it to the party. He corrects that as he continues, < TO PARTY: I'll explain later. If we meet after this game is over, it'll start making sense. >

She'll need to be healthy and active, to become a Hunter. So that's good to hear. It also meant that when Raze asks for a race, he takes her at her word and runs like all of Halloweentown is on his heels.

When he exits the grass, Dreadpirate slows and takes a look around. "Is that it?" he asks, pointing to a small opening. The lilypads mentioned in the quest prompt are also present. Both exit/entrance and lilypads are too small for them as they are now.

"Last one," he says, retrieving the mushroom to return to normal size from his inventory and offering Raze half. Once she takes it, he eats his portion and the world begins to grow. Now they could make it up there.