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 Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 10:26 am
The steam from the pool had been clear, warm but clean, only carrying the faintest hint of distant sulfur in its wake. It was natural, familiar, reassuring.
Abruptly, that changed.
The color seemed different, and the smell was suddenly -- well, wrong. Those more daring kimeti in the world might recognize it as a most peculiar mushroom that sprouted flatly from particularly fertile soil. The effects of this mushroom were strange: one bite and swallow and the world turned wrong, visions capturing the eater, transforming the world from the swamp they knew to one they didn't.
Some believed these effects to be messages from the MotherFather. Some warned their children never to go near the mushroom, warned of evil that would overtake them.
Whichever the kimeti in this room were, they would soon be taken over by hallucinations, by visions, seeing things that weren't there dancing in the mist...
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Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 11:06 am
 Just as he was asking about Joke, the snake came slithering up. Instead of heading towards Solemn, it wound its way up the leg of another kimeti. His forked tongue flicking against the back of the leg as he went to put himself on their back. Solemn looked around the cave, something seemed to have changed. Being close to the pool, he got a very distinct smell. Slowly he started to sway to an unknown beat, colors swirled around in front of him as he started to giggle. In the back of his mind, he figured this was Mischief's doing, but that was just a flitting thought. Through the mist and steam, he saw a glimpse of purple and pink. His eyes grew wide as a memory of a doe that color came to him and Solemn thought it was the doe. He moved towards the Legendary, dancing as he had that night and wondering if 'she' would remember him. 
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Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 5:23 pm
 “Oh that’s such a shame…” Sing sighed regretfully, watching as the Kimeti took off after her Jolly. “I was looking forward to helping out.” She glanced down at Kisses and Cuddles. Well, maybe it was for the best. Cuddles was of course delighted that daddy wanted to play and she continued to wriggle, roll and mock growl without the slightest sense of good hunting dog behavior. “Where is Sunshine?” Sing asked after watching them for a moment, having realized there was a puppy missing. She glanced up, opened her mouth to speak again… and paused. The Acha blinked and sniffed. Something was different. “Rouge...?” She turned her head and took in a deep breath, unwittingly taking more of the strange new mist into her lungs. Her head swum. Something was very wrong. “Rouge! Cuddles!” She called out in dismay. Next time she blinked the ground had turned to sand. A long sinuous form shifted beneath the floor, heading towards her.
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 4:22 am
Even as the first tendril of that sinister odour unfurled from the pool, Kisses had snapped into crisis mode, standing over his daughter, fangs bared, A deep growl was building in his throat, and he let loose a small volley of savage barks - but there was no scaring an enemy that drifted through the very air.
"What what now?" Rouge reared, planting her hooves firmly as she landed, ready for a fight. That was when the smell hit her. The scent was unfamiliar, but the way the world started to swim was not. "'Cause?" she ventured, suspicious - if that cocky blowhard and his cacti...but no, the scent was completely unfamiliar, so it can't've...couldn't...
...a soothing red had descended across her vision, pulsing in time to her heartbeat. She couldn't help but smile, taking a few steps to follow the vivid glowing lines of an abstract animal flowing across the room - oh, she had to remember to paint that! "Don't worry," she called out, absently, as Sing's anxious cry rang out somewhere near her, caught, echoed, folded itself across the cavern roof, "t'ain't real, can't hurt you...well, if you don't fall into the spring or summat."
At the lip of the cave, Sunshine had long sprung to her paws in alarm at the changing smell. Strange things were happening in there! The little dog's first instinct was to run away, but - her father and sister and mistress were in there! After all, she was a (relatively) well-trained Good Girl and her duty was to assist, but - IT SMELT REALLY STRANGE AND SHE DID NOT WANT TO GO IN THERE. Backing three paces up where the chill wind blowing in from the entrance was rather more clear, she compromised by launching into an unending alerting howl.
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:50 pm
Just as the water came spraying from her lips, the colors changed. Magpie was oblivious to the smell, but not the effects.
Everything around her darkened in the mist, and through that darkness things started to... sparkle. It was as if she were in the most amazing, wonderful place in the world! There were jewels and gems, strangely twisted gems, and gatherings of nector. Everything was a treasure, but they moved and folded in on themselves.
And. She. Had. To. Have. Them. All.
The first one was brilliantly pink with just a hint of gold. It was a smooth, polished horn. As Magpie walked toward this shiny, she saw something else. This one was the color of newborn leaves, and it was a caramelized fern - oh, those were rare! And yet another materialized - a golden branch! What were the odds that she would come in to someone else's treasure cache and could get some wonderful prizes for herself?
With a determined air, she went after the caramelized fern.
She stalked it like a cheetah, paused, and POUNCED just as it swished by in a breeze she could not feel but only saw.
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 2:44 pm
Ask and you shall receive.
A jet surprised him. Dumbstruck, the world slowed down. It was her. Brown swirly doe with eyes shining with avarice. He made to follow her slinking, disappearing form but new weight announced itself in the form of an orange snake. Well, la de da, there really was an orange snake after all. Would wonders never cease? Looking back, the fact that it took him an inordinately long time to turn his neck should have tipped him off that all was not right in this supposedly harmless cave.
Staring deadset into the offending snake’s eyes, the saccharine earthy scent made its purchase and reality chose that moment to shift.
It was a glorious affair.
The snake’s svelte triangular head ballooned up until it stared down at Fiend, the distance in height staggering. He was gravity’s prisoner, rooted while the snake taunted him from up high on a smoky branch. He could hear twin heartbeats; his was decidedly green and the snake, vibrant fuchsia. He closed his eyes and shuddered, color and sound riding the lightning of his blood stream. The wall of air around them pulsed in fantastically colorful resonance. Faster, harder, the beats riled up his senses; he paused down to look at his heart checking to see if it still inprisoned by bones. His bones betrayed his body. First the ribs lazily disengaged from his spine, swaying into the mist to their own rhythm. Faster this time, the spine broke off one by one in pairs with such delight. And when it came time for his shoulder scales, the largest of his upper frame, they winked into non-existence with nary a swan song farewell.
Bereft, he shook his body, pink hair descending to envelop him like lush petals. He coiled his red tail tighter around the thigh, tail splayed out like a second heart. The music kept on playing. Mist curled and churned around him and the other kimeti, each lost in their private whorl. Light darted in to and fro. False sunlight, they reached for him from all angles, not even his underbelly was safe. Sinking to the ungiving ground, he closed his eyes and willed them away. But these would be not be denied. Like stubborn octopus that refused to die, the tendrils painted the inside of his eyelids with vortexes not unlike the undersides of mushrooms. He retreated deeper inside himself, seeking solace. Just be Fiend. Gotta get back to basics to make sense of things. A seamless transition left an eaglehound in his wake. He howled and succumbed to the visions.
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Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 3:38 pm
Meanwhile Sing was locked to the spot; watching a creature that could not really be there slide towards her. Her ears twitched, only just catching Rouge’s words. Not real, it wasn’t real, it couldn’t hurt her. She stood firm as the sand beast shifting closer, one eye peeking up from the ground to glare balefully at her. Her tail swished – a caramelised fern? As Sing faced down her vision, something pounced from behind. The Acha felt a grab on her tail and panicked, throwing herself forward only to loose her footing and tumble over to the hard ground. Not sand? Sand would not feel this way. Poor Cuddles was not sure what to do. When Sing’s initial cry had gone out she had proceeded to press her belly against the ground and start up a long, continuous whine. Kisses standing above her in attack mode was only slightly reassuring. There was no enemy. Where was the enemy? Her gaze was focused intently upon Sing You Home and when Magpie pounced for her darling owner, she perceived it as a show of aggression. Enemy! There it was! Sliding out from under Kisses, she charged forward with a serious of loud angry yaps.
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Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 5:15 pm
Oh! This was a feisty treasure. Occasionally they did act a bit more active than others, right? Of course, the ones that were harder to snag were just that much sweeter for victory.
The fern rolled away, a bit odd, but it could happen. The fern got away, a shame. But now a headache was coming. There seemed to be a chorus building, it was low, and coming from the back of her head. If she didn't know any better, it sounded like an eaglehound, along with possible two younger eaglehounds with higher, shorter howls.
What was that?
But she couldn't get distracted, she wanted that fern!
Magpie searched the mist, where did it go?
There!
Just as Magpie tried again, the doe saw something she'd never imagined.... a chocolate, smaller furred eaglehound bounded into her view. The headache got worse, but her resolve changed. She must have this treat! Not to eat, oh no - but to protect and hide.
"Pretty!" was her battle cry as Magpie jumped away from the fern and to the pooch. "You want to come with me, yes you do!" So, she always talked to her treasures - but who didn't?
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Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:48 am
Solemn swayed and danced hoping to intrigue the doe again. The night of dancing, the stars above and the wind blowing, he was back there again. He flicked his tail towards the doe, attempting to twine his tail with hers as they walked under the night sky.
Joke had just entered and was content on the back of the kimeti. He could tell it wasn't the one he matched in color, but that was a good thing. Or so he thought. The steam seeped into his skin, making him itchy. He moved along the back spines of the buck, slithering left and right between them. He licked along the fur, before he got close, the scene shifted. He was in the sand. The warm glorious sand! His body contracted as he curled up, soaking up the warmth.
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Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 2:08 pm
Small, fluffy and non-threatening, Fiend adjusted to his new form’s eye level. He heard the other barks and issued out his own warning growl. He wasn’t familiar with this pack. He looked around, his sharp eyes trying to pierce the veil of smoke to no avail. Disoriented still, he noticed how amazingly soft the ground of the cave was. He dug his paws in a little deeper and was surprisd when he came in contact with an orange, slightly coiled branch. It was super smooth. Instinctively sensing danger at the foreign room and visions, the insidious fear that laced the air, and the barking strangers, Fiend scooped up the “branch” and headed toward the entrance. There were just too many variables for it to be safe and he had a new treasure.
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